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TREAM EXPRESSED IN TERMS OF RAiNfACL See also:Mob .98 96 90 92 9b 88 86 84 82 80 78 76 74 72 70 68 68 84 O J4 48 82 so 48 46 40 42 98 80 4 of cumulative flow (f and c respectively, in the one See also:year See also:diagram) which does not increase the aggregate cumulative See also:supply between those points, or cause the See also:line of cumulative supply from the See also:reservoir to cut the line of cumulative flow into it. From diagrams constructed upon these principles, the See also:general diagram (fig. 4) has been produced. To illustrate its use, assume the See also:case of a mean rainfall of 50 in., figured in the tight-See also:hand See also:column at the end of a curved line, and of 14 in. of evaporation and absorption by vegetation as stated in the See also:note on the diagram. The See also:ordinate to any point upon this curved line then represents on the See also:left-hand See also:scale the maximum continuous yield per See also:day for each See also:acre of drainage See also:area, from a reservoir whose capacity is equal to the corresponding See also:abscissa. As an example, assume that we can conveniently construct a reservoir to contain, in addition to bottom See also:water not to be used, 200,000 gallons for each acre of the See also:watershed above the point of interception by the proposed See also:dam. We find on the left-hand scale of yield that the height of the ordinate See also:drawn to the 50-See also:inch mean See also:rain-fall See also:curve from 200,000 on the capacity scale, is 1457 gallons per day per acre; and the straight radial line, which cuts the point of inter-See also:section of the curved line and the co-ordinates, tells us that this reservoir will equalize the flow of the two driest consecutive years. Similarly, if we wish to equalize the flow of the three driest consecutive years we See also:change the co-ordinates to the radial line figured 3, and thus find that the available capacity of the reservoir must be 276,000 gallons per acre, and that in See also:consideration of the additional expense of such a reservoir we shall increase the daily yield to 1612 gallons per acre. In the same manner it will be found that by means of a reservoir having an available capacity of only I18,000 gallons per acre of the watershed, we may with the same rainfall and evaporation secure a daily supply of 1085 gallons per acre. In this case the left-hand radial line passes through the point at which the co-ordinates meet, showing that the reservoir will just equalize the flow of the driest year. Similarly, the yield from any given reservoir, or the capacity required for any yield, corresponding with any mean rainfall from 30 to See also:loo in., and with the flow over any See also:period, from the driest year to the six or more consecutive driest years, may be determined from the diagram. It is instructive to note the ratio of increase of reservoir capacity and yield respectively for any given rainfall. Thus, assuming a mean rainfall of 6o in. during 5o years, subject to evaporation and absorption equal to 14 in. throughout the dry period under consideration, we find from the diagram the following quantities (in gallons per acre of drainage area) and corresponding ratios: `et, Capacity of Reservoir. Yield of Reservoir. •,, v. ~ y~ N ~ O T •p '•' v -e a. a s a O 8 u d V .T a v o., 8 ?Al Q a 0 a y.CI u a E II °> c = °° s~ e .~ e N C O O ~;, ,g-.5 ._ C5 , (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) 1 162,000 100 0 1475 100 0 2 256,000 158.o 58.o 1922 130.3 30.3 3 352,000 217.3 37.5 2108 142.9 9.7 4 416,000 256.8 18.2 2220 150.5 5.3 5 466,000 287.7 12.0 2294 155.5 3.3 6 504,000 31I.I 8. 1 2350 159.3 2.4 On comparing columns 3 and 6 or 4 and 7 it appears that so See also:great is the increase required in the See also:size of a reservoir in relation to its in-creased yield, that only in the most favourable places for reservoir construction, or under the most pressing need, can it be See also:worth while to go beyond the capacity necessary to render See also:uniform the flow of the two or three driest consecutive years. It must be clearly understood that the diagram fig. 4 does not relieve the reader from any exercise of See also:judgment, except as regards the See also:net capacity of reservoirs when the necessary data hve been obtained. It is merely a geometrical determination of the cdkditions necessarily consequent in See also:England, See also:Scotland and See also:Wales, upon a given mean rainfall over many years, upon evaporation and absorption in particular years (both of which he must See also:judge or determine for himself), and upon certain limiting See also:variations of the rainfall, already stated to be the result of numerous records maintained in Great See also:Britain for more than 5o years. It must also be remembered that the See also:total capacity of reservoir must be greater than its net available capacity, in See also:order that in the driest seasons See also:fish See also:life may be See also:main-tamed and no foul water may be drawn off. Applied to most parts of See also:Ireland and some parts of Great Britain, the diagram will give results rather unduly on the safe See also:side, as the extreme See also:annual variations of rainfall are less than in most parts of Great Britain. Throughout See also:Europe the annual variations follow nearly the same See also:law as in Great Britain, but in some parts the See also:distribution of rainfall in a single year is often more trying. The droughts are longer, and the rain, when it falls, especially along the Mediterranean See also:coast, is often concentrated into shorter periods. Moreover, it often falls upon See also:sun-heated rocks, thus increasing the evaporation for the See also:time; but gaugings made by the writer in the See also:northern See also:Apennines indicate that this loss is more than compensated by the greater rapidity of the fall and of the consequent flow. In such regions, therefore, for reservoirs equalizing the flow of 2 or more years, the capacity necessary does not materially differ from that required in Great Britain. As the tropics are approached, even in See also:mountain districts, the irregularities become greater, and occasion-ally the See also:rainy See also:season is entirely absent for a single year, though the mean rainfall is considerable. We have hitherto dealt only with the collection and storage of that portion of the rainfall which flows over the See also:surface of nearly impermeable areas. Upon such areas the springs loss by percolation into the ground, not retrieved in and the See also:form of springs above the point of interception shallow may be neglected, and the only loss to the stream See also:wells. is that already considered of re-evaporation into the See also:air and of absorption by vegetation. But the crust of the See also:earth varies from almost See also:complete impermeability to almost complete See also:permeability. Among the sedimentary rocks we have, for example, in the See also:clay slates of the See also:Silurian formations, rocks no less cracked and fissured than others, but generally quite impermeable by See also:reason of the See also:joints being packed with the very See also:fine clay resulting from the rubbing of See also:slate upon slate in the earth movements to which the cracks are due. In the New Iced See also:Sandstone, the See also:Greensand and the upper See also:Chalk, we find the opposite extremes; while the igneous rocks are for the most See also:part only permeable in virtue of the"-open fissures they contain. Wherever, below the surface, there are pores or open fissures, water derived from rainfall is (except in the rare cases of displacement by See also:gas) found at levels above the See also:sea determined by the resistance of solids to its passage towards some neighbouring sea, See also:lake or watercourse. Any such level is commonly known as the level of saturation. The positions of springs are deter-See also:mined by permeable depressions in the surface of the ground below the general level of saturation, and frequently also by the holding up of that level locally by comparatively impermeable strata, sometimes combined with a See also:fault or a synclinal See also:fold of the strata, forming the more permeable portion into an under-ground See also:basin or channel lying within comparatively impermeable boundaries. At the See also:lower lips or at the most permeable parts of these basins or channels such rainfall as does not flow over the surface, or is not evaporated or absorbed by vegetation, and does not, while still below ground reach the level of the sea, issues as springs, and is the cause of the continued flow of See also:rivers and streams during prolonged droughts. The See also:average See also:volume in dry See also:weather, of such flow, generally reduced to terms of the fraction of a cubic See also:foot per second, per thousand acres of the contributing area, is commonly known in water See also:engineering as the " dry weather flow " and its volume at the end of the dry season as the " extreme dry weather flow." Perennial springs of large volume rarely occur in Great Britain at a sufficient height to afford supplies by See also:gravitation; but from the limestones of See also:Italy and many 'other parts of the See also:world very considerable volumes issue Weep WeNs. far above the sea-level, and are thus available, without pumping, for the supply of distant towns. On a small scale, however, springs are fairly distributed over the See also:United See also:Kingdom, for there are no formations, except perhaps blown See also:sand, which do not vary greatly in their resistance to the percolation of water, and therefore tend to produce overflow from underground at some points above the valley levels. But even the rural populations have generally found surface springs insufficiently See also:constant for their use and have adopted the obvious remedy of sinking wells. Hence, throughout the world we find the shallow well still very See also:common in rural districts. The shallow well, however, rarely supplies enough water for more than a few houses,- and being commonly situated near to those houses the water is often seriously polluted. Deep wells owe their See also:comparative See also:immunity from pollution to the circumstances that the larger quantity of water yielded renders it worth while to See also:pump that water and convey it by pipes from comparatively unpolluted areas; and that any impurities in the water must have passed through a considerable See also:depth, and by far the larger part of them through a great length of filtering material, and must have taken so See also:long a time to reach the well that their organic See also:character has disappeared. The See also:principal water-bearing formations, utilized in Great Britain by means of deep wells, are the Chalk and the New Red Sandstone. The Upper and See also:Middle Chalk are permeable almost through their See also:mass. They hold water like a sponge, but part with it under pressure to fissures by which they are intersected, and, in the case of the Upper Chalk, to ducts following beds of flints. A well sunk in these formations without striking any fissure or water-bearing See also:flint See also:bed, receives water only at a very slow See also:rate; but if, on the other hand, it strikes one or more of the natural water-ways, the quantity of water capable of being drawn from it will be greatly increased. It is a notable peculiarity of the Upper and Middle Chalk formations that below their See also:present valleys the underground water passes more freely than elsewhere. This is explained by the fact that the Chalk fissures are almost invariably rounded and enlarged by the erosion of carbonic See also:acid carried from the surface by the water passing through them. These fissures take the See also:place of the streams in an impermeable area, and those beneath the valleys must obviously be called upon to See also:discharge more water from the surface, and thus be brought in contact with more carbonic acid, than similar fissures elsewhere. Hence the best position for a well in the Chalk is generally that over which, if the strata were impermeable, the largest quantity of surface water would flow. The Lower Chalk formation is for the most part impermeable, though it contains many ruptures and dislocations or smashes, in the interstices of which large bodies of water, received from the Upper and Middle Chalk, may be naturally stored, or which may merely form passages for water derived from the Upper Chalk. Thus despite the impermeability of its mass large springs are occasionally found to issue from the Lower Chalk. A striking example is that known as Lydden Spout, under See also: Imagine for a moment that the sand grains were by any means rendered immobile without change in the permeability of their interspaces; we could then dispense with the See also:iron or See also:brickwork lining of the well; but as there would still be no cracks or fissures to extend the area of percolating water exposed to the open well, the yield would be very small. Obviously, it must be very much smaller when the lining necessary to hold up loose sand is used. Uncemented brickwork, or perforated ironwork, arethe usual materials employed for lining the well and holding up the sand, and the quantity of water drawn is kept , below the comparatively small quantity necessary to produce a velocity, through the joints or orifices, capable of disturbing the sand. The rate of increase of velocity towards any isolated See also:aperture through which water passes into the side of a well sunk in a deep bed of sand is, in the neighbourhood of that aperture, inversely proportional to the square of the distance therefrom. Thus, the velocity across a little hemisphere of sand only z in. See also:radius covering a r-in. orifice in the lining is more than r000 times the mean velocity of the same water approaching the orifice radially when 16 in. therefrom. This See also:illustration gives some See also:idea of the enormous increase of yield of such a well, if, by any means, we can get rid of the frictional sand, even from Artificial within the 16 in. radius. We cannot do this, but yIncrease.ld or happily the grains in a sand formation differ very ie widely in See also:diameter, and if, from the interstices between the larger grains in the neighbourhood of an orifice, we can remove the finer grains, the resistance to flow of water is at once enormously reduced. This was for the first time successfully done in a well, constructed by the See also:Biggleswade Water See also:Board in 1902, and now supplying water over a large area of See also:North See also:Bedfordshire. This well, to ft. diameter, was sunk through about no ft. of surface See also:soil, glacial See also:drift and impermeable See also:gault clay and thence passed for a further depth of 70 ft. into the Lower Greensand formation, the outcrop of which, emerging on the See also:south-eastern See also:shore of the See also:Wash, passes south-westwards, and in Bedfordshire attains a thickness exceeding 250 ft. The formation is probably more or less permeable throughout; it consists largely of loose sand and takes the general south-easterly See also:dip of See also:British strata. The Biggleswade well was sunk by processes better known in connexion with the sinking of mine shafts and See also:foundations of See also:bridges across the deep sands or gravels of bays, estuaries and great rivers. Its full capacity has not been ascertained; it much exceeds the present pumping See also:power, and is probably greater than that of any other single well unassisted by adits or boreholes. This result is mainly due to the reduction of frictional resistance to the passage of water through the sand in the immediate 4 neighbourhood of the well, by washing out the finer particles of sand and leaving only the coarser particles. For this purpose the lower 45 ft. of the See also:cast-iron cylinders forming the well was provided with about 66o small orifices lined with See also:gun-See also:metal tubes or rings, each armed with numerous thicknesses of See also:copper See also:wire See also:gauze, and temporarily closed with screwed plugs. On the removal of any plug, this wire gauze prevented the sand from flowing with the water into the well; but while the finer particles of sand remained in the neighbourhood of the orifice, the flow of water 'through the contracted area was very small. To remove this obstruction the water was pumped out while the plugs kept the orifices closed. A flexible See also:pipe, brought down from a See also:steam See also:boiler above, was then connected with any opened orifice. This pipe was provided, See also:close to the orifice, with a three-way See also:cock, by means of which the steam might be first discharged into the sand, and the current between the cock and the well then suddenly reversed and diverted into the well. The effect of thus alternately forcing high-pressure steam among the sand, and of discharging high-pressure water contained in the sand into the well, is to break up any cohesion of the sand, and to allow all the finer particles in the neighbourhood of the orifice to See also:rush out with the water through the wire gauze into the well. This See also:process, in effect, leaves each orifice surrounded by a hemisphere of coarse sand across which the water flows with comparative freedom from a larger hemisphere where the corresponding velocity is very slow, and where the presence of finer and more obstructive particles is therefore unimportant. Many orifices through which water at first only dribbled were thus caused to discharge water with great force, and entirely See also:free from sand, against the opposite side of the well, while the general result was to increase the inflow of water many times, and to entirely prevent the intrusion of sand. Where, however, a See also:firm See also:rock of any See also:kind is encountered, the yield of a well (under a given See also:head of water) can only be increased by enlargement of the main well in depth or diameter, or by boreholes or adits. No See also:rule as, to the See also:adoption of any one of these courses can be laid down, nor is it possible, without examination of each particular case, to decide whether it is better to See also:attempt to increase the yield of the well or to construct an additional well some distance away. By lowering the head of water in any well which draws its supply from porous rock, the yield is always temporarily increased. Every well has its own particular level of water while steady pumping at a given rate is going on, and if that level is lowered by harder pumping; it may take months, or even years, for the water in the interstices of the rock to accommodate itself to the new conditions; but the permanent yield after such lowering will always be less than the quantity capable of being pumped shortly after the change. We have hitherto supposed the pumps for drawing the water to have been placed in the well at such a level as to be accessible, while the suction pipe only is below water. Pumps, however, Pumps to may be (and have been) placed deep down in boreholes, boreholes. so that water may be pumped from much greater depths. By this means the head of pressure in the boreholes tending to hold the water back in the rock is reduced, and the supply consequently increased; but when the cost of See also:maintenance is included, the increased supply from the adoption of this method rarely justifies expectations. When the water has been drawn down by pumping to a lower level its passage through the sandstone or chalk in the neighbourhood of the borehole is further resisted by the smaller length of borehole below the water; and there are many instances in which repeated lowering and increased pumping, both from wells and boreholes, have had the result of reducing the water available, after a few years, nearly to the See also:original quantity. One other method—the Air-utr. use of the so-called " air-lift " —should be mentioned. This ingenious See also:device originated in See also:America. The object attained by the air-lift is precisely the same as that attained by putting a pump some distance down a borehole; but instead of the head being reduced by means of the pump, it is reduced by mixing the water with air. A pipe is passed down the borehole to the desired depth, and connected with air-compressors at the surface. The compressors being set to See also:work, the air is caused to issue from the lower end of the pipe and to mix in fine bubbles with the rising column of water, sometimes several See also:hundred feet in height. The See also:weight of the column of water, or rather of water and air mixed, is thus greatly reduced. The method will therefore always increase the yield for the time, and it may do so permanently, though to a very much smaller extent than at first; but its See also:economy must always be less than that of See also:direct pumping. In considering the principles of well supplies it is important to See also:bear the following facts in mind. The crust of the earth, so far as it is permeable and above the sea-level, receives from rainfall its supply of fresh water. That supply, so far as it is not evaporated or absorbed by vegetation, passes away by the streams or rivers, or sinks into the ground. If the strata were uniformly porous the water would See also:lie in the rock at different depths below the surface according to the previous quantity and distribution of the rainfall. It would slowly, but constantly, percolate downwards and towards the sea, and would See also:ooze out at or below the sea-level, rarely regaining the earth's surface earlier except in deep valleys. Precisely the same thing happens in the actual crust of the earth, except that, in the formations usually met with, the strata are so irregularly permeable that no such uniform percolation occurs, and most of the water, instead of oozing out near the sea-level, meets with obstructions which cause it to issue, sometimes below the sea-level and sometimes above- it, in the form of concentrated springs. After prolonged and heavy rainfall the upper boundary of the sub-soil water is, except in high ground, nearly coincident with the surface. After prolonged droughts it still retains more or less the same figure as the surface, but at lower depths and always with less pronounced See also:differences of level.
Sedimentary rocks, formed below the sea or See also:salt lagoons, must originally have 'contained salt water in their interstices.
On the upheaval of such rocks above the sea-level, fresh water from rainfall began to flow over their exposed surfaces, and,
so far as the strata were permeable, to lie in their saline
interstices upon the salt water. The weight of the water
original salt water above the sea-level, and of the fresh below water so superimposed upon it, caused an overflow ground. towards the sea. A See also: Subject to the rock being porous this process would be continued until the greater column of the lighter fresh water balanced the smaller head of sea water. It would conceivably take but a small fraction of the period that has in most cases elapsed since such upheavals occurred for the salt water to be thus displaced by fresh water, and for the condition to be attained as regards saturation with fresh water, in which with few exceptions we now find the porous portions of the earth's crust wherever the rainfall exceeds the evaporation. There are cases, however, as in the valley of the See also:Jordan, where the ground is actually below the sea-level, and where, as the total evaporation is equal to or exceeds the rainfall, the lake surfaces also are below the sea-level. Thus, if there is any percolation between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, it must be towards the latter. There are cases also where sedimentary rocks, formed below the sea or salt lagoons, are almost impermeable: thus the salt deposited in parts of the Upper Keuper of the New Red Sandstone, is protected by the red marls of the formation, and has never been washed out. It is now worked as an important See also:industry in See also:Cheshire. Perhaps the rnost instructive cases of nearly uniform percolation in nature are those which occur in some islands or peninsulas formed wholly of sea sand. Here water is maintained above the sea-level by the annual rainfall, and may welts is sand. be drawn off by wells or borings. On such an See also:island, in the centre of which a borehole is put down, brackish water may be reached far below the sea-level; the salt Water forming a saucer, as it were, in which the fresh water lies. Such a salt-water saucer of fresh water is maintained full to overflowing by the rainfall, and owing to the frictional resistance of the sand and to capillary action and the fact that a given column of fresh water is balanced by a shorter column of sea water, the fresh water never sinks to the mean sea-level unless artificially abstracted. Although such uniformly permeable sand is rarely met with in great masses, it is useful to consider in greater detail so See also:simple a case. Let the irregular thick line in fig. 5 be the section of a circular island a mile and a See also:quarter in diameter, of uniformly permeable sand. 'Dwr*waZ See also:sale r8torrs Iwaoitbsllnal soalo DitaneterdisLwd i#MT' snaraee arc„ , yr eats& 1 '',samwaar u sand. ader' The mean sea-level is shown by the See also:horizontal line aa, dotted where it passes through the See also:land, and the natural mean level of saturation bb, above the sea-level, by a curved dot and dash line. The water, contained in the interstices of the sand above the mean sea-level, would (except in so far as a film, coating the sand particles, is held up by capillary attraction) gradually sink to the sea-level if there were no rainfall. The resistance to its passage through the sand is, how-ever, sufficiently great to prevent this from occurring while percola• tion of annual rainfall takes place. Hence we may suppose that a condition has been attained in which the denser salt water below and around the saucer CC (greatly exaggerated in vertical scale) balances the less dense, but deeper fresh water within it. Next suppose a well to be sunk in the middle of the island, and a certain quantity of water to be drawn therefrom daily. For small supplies such a well may be perfectly successful; but however small the quantity drawn, it must obviously have the effect of diminishing the volume of fresh water, which contributes to the maintenance of the level of saturation above the sea-level; and with further pumping the fresh water would be so far drawn upon that the mean level of saturation would sink, first to a curved figure—a See also:cone of depression—such as that represented by the new level of saturation dd, and later to the figure represented by the lines ee, in which the level of saturation has everywhere been drawn below the mean sea-level. Before this See also:stage the converse process begins, the reduced column of fresh water is no longer capable of balancing the sea water in the sand, inflow occurs at c and e, resulting finally in the well water becoming saline. The figure, in this case of uniform If, therefore, a reservoir so formed survives the first few years percolation, assumed by the water in the neighbourhood of a deep without serious leakage, it is not likely, in the See also:absence of artificial well is a surface of revolution, and, however irregular the percolation disturbance, to succumb owing to leakage at a later period. and the consequent shape of the figure, it is commonly, but somewhat Hence, as the survival of the fittest, there are See also:man artificial incorrectly, called the " cone of depression. " It cannot have straight, Y or approximately straight, sides in any vertical See also:plane, but in nature I See also:waters, with See also:low dams consisting exclusively of earth—and is an exceedingly irregular figure drawn about curves—not unlike sometimes very sandy earth--satisfactorily performing their those in fig. 5. In this case, as in that of a level plane of uniformly porous sand, the vertical section of the figure is tangential to the vertical well and to the natural level of the subsoil water. The importance of this illustration is to be found elsewhere than in islands, or peninsulas, or in uniformly porous sand. Where the strata are not uniformly porous, they may resist the passage of water from the direction of the sea or they may assist it; and See also:round the whole coast of England, in the Magnesian See also:limestone to the north-See also:east, in the Chalk and Greensand to the east and south, and in the New Red Sandstone to the See also:west, the number of wells which have been abandoned as See also:sources of potable supply, owing to the percolation of sea water, is very great. Perhaps the first important cases occurred in the earlier part of the 19th See also:century on the See also:Lancashire shore of the See also:Mersey See also:estuary, where, one after another, deep wells in the New Red Sandstone had to be abandoned for most purposes. On the opposite side, in the Cheshire See also:peninsula, the total quantity of water drawn has been much less, but even here serious warnings have been received. In 1895 the single well then supplying See also:Eastbourne was almost suddenly rendered unfit for use, and few years pass without some similar occurrence of a more or less serious kind. The remarkable suddenness with which such changes are brought about is not to be wondered at when the true cause is considered. The action of sandstone in filtering salt waters was investigated in 1878 by Dr See also:Isaac See also:Roberts, F.R.S., who showed that when salt water was allowed to percolate blocks of sandstone, the effluent was at first nearly fresh, the salt being filtered out and crystallized for the most part near the surface of See also:ingress to the sandstone. As the process continued the salt-saturated layer, incapable of further effective filtration, See also:grew in thickness downwards, until in the process of time it filled the whole mass of sandstone. But before this was accomplished the filtration of the effluent became defective, and brackish water was received, which rapidly increased nearly to the saltness of the inflow. Into such blocks, charged with salt crystals and thoroughly dried, fresh water was then passed, and precisely the converse process took place. A thickness of only 12 in. of Bunter sandstone proved at first to be capable of removing more than 8o% of the chlorides from sea water; but, after the slow passage of only o•6 See also:gallon through 1 cub. ft. of stone, the proportion removed See also:fell to 8.51 %. The general See also:lesson to be learned from these facts is, that if the purity of the water of any well not far removed from the sea is to be maintained, that water must not be pumped down much below the sea-level. In See also:short, the quantity of water drawn must in no case be allowed to exceed the quantity capable of being supplied to the well through the See also:medium of the surrounding soil and rock, by rain falling upon the surface of the land. If it exceeds this, the stock of fresh water held in the interstices of the rock, and capable of flowing towards the well, must disappear; and the deficit between the supply and demand can only be made up by water filtering from the sea and reaching the well at first quite free from salt, but sooner or later in a condition unfit for use. clay can never become dry, plasticity and ductility are, for reasons to be explained below, the first consideration, and there the See also:pro-portion of grit should be lower. The resistance of clay to percolation by water depends chiefly upon the See also:density of the clay, while that density is rapidly reduced if the clay is permitted to absorb water. Thus, if dry clay is prevented from expanding, and one side be subjected to water pressure while the other side is held up by a completely porous medium, the percolation will be exceedingly small; but if the pressure preventing the expansion is reduced the clay will swell, and the percolation will increase. On the restoration of the pressure, the density will be again increased by the reduction of the See also:river water whatever. Thus natural or artificial surfaces which are completely permeable to rainfall may become almost impermeable when protected by surface water from drought and See also:frost, and from earth-See also:worms, vegetation and artificial disturbance. The cause of this choking of the pores is precisely the same as that described below in the case of sand filters. But in order that the action may be complete the initial resistance to percolation of water at every part of the soil must be such that the See also:motion of the water through it shall be insufficient to disturb the water-See also:borne See also:mineral and organic particles lodged on the surface or in the interstices of the soil. DAMS Any well-made earthen See also:embankment of moderate height, and of such thickness and uniformity of See also:con- FIG. 6.—Section of Typical Low Earth Embankment in See also:Flat See also:Plain. struction as to ensure freedom from excessive percolation at any point, will in the course of time become almost impermeable to surface water See also:standing against it; and when permeable rocks are covered with many feet of soil, the leakage through such soil from standing water newly placed above it generally diminishes rapidly, and in process of time often ceases entirely. Even the beds of sluggish rivers flowing over porous strata generally become so impermeable that excavations made in their See also:neighbour-See also:hood, though freely collecting the subsoil water, receive no Earthen dams. functions with no visible leakage. But it is never advisable to rely upon this action, where, as in the case of a reservoir for water supply, large portions of naturally permeable bottom are liable to be uncovered and exposed to the weather. The most important dams are those which close the outlets of existing valleys, but a dam may be wholly below ground, and according to the commoner method of construction in Great Britain, wherever sufficiently impermeable tloa. rising ground is not met with at the intended boundary of a reservoir, a See also:trench is cut along such portion, and carried down to rock or such other formation as, in - the engineer's See also:opinion, forms a sufficiently impermeable See also:sheet beneath the whole surface to be covered with water. Into this trench so-called " paddled clay," that is, clay rendered plastic by kneading with water, is filled and thoroughly worked with See also:special tools, and trodden in layers. In this manner an underground compartment is formed, the bottom of which is natural, and the sides partly natural and partly artificial, both offering high resistance to the passage of water. Above ground, if the water level is to be higher than the natural boundary, the same puddle walls or cores are carried up to the required level, and are supported as they rise by embankments of earth on either side. Fig. 6 is a typical section of a low dam of this class, impounding water upon See also:gravel overlying impermeable clay. In such a structure the whole See also:attention as regards water-tightness should be concentrated upon the puddle See also:wall or core. When, as may happen in dry seasons, the puddle wall remains long above the water level, it parts with moisture and contracts. It is essential that this contraction shall not proceed to such an extent as may possibly produce cracking. Drying is retarded, and the contraction due to a given degree of drying is greatly reduced, by the presence of sand and small stones among the clay. Nearly all See also:clays, notably those from the Glacial deposits, naturally contain sand and stones, 40 to 50% by weight of which is not too much if uniformly distributed aril if the clay is otherwise See also:good. But in the lower parts of the trench, where the Overflow level water-filled interstices, and the percolation will be correspondingly the sand. Thus the permeable vein grows vertically rather than checked. Hence the extreme importance in high dams with clay horizontally, and ultimately assumes the form of a thin vertical cores of loading the clay well for some time before water pressure is sheet traversing the puddle wall, often diagonally in See also:plan, and having brought against it. If this is done, the largest possible quantity of a thickness which has varied in different cases from a few inches to a clay will be slowly but surely forced into any space, and, being pre- couple of feet or more, of almost clean sand rising to an observed vented from expanding, it will be unable subsequently to absorb height of 30 or 40 ft., and only arrested in its upward growth by the more water. The percolation will then be very small, and the See also:risk necessary lowering of the reservoir water to avoid serious danger. of disintegration will be reduced to a minimum. The embankments The See also:settlement of the plastic clay above the eroded portion soon on either side of the puddle wall are merely to support the puddle and produces a surface depression at the See also:top of the embankment over or to keep it moist above the ground level when the reservoir is low. They may be quite permeable, but to prevent undue settlement and distortion they must, like the puddle, be well consolidated. In order to prevent a tendency to slip, due to sudden and partial changes of saturation, the See also:outer embankment should always be permeable, and well drained at the See also:base except close to the puddle. The less permeable materials should be confined to the Inner parts of the embankments; this is especially important in the case of the inner embankment in order that, when the water level falls, they may remain moist without becoming liable to slip. The inner slope should be protected from the action of waves by so-called " hand-pitching," consisting of roughly-squared stonework, bedded upon a layer of broken stone to prevent See also:local disturbance of the embankment by action of the water between the joints of the larger stones. In mountain valleys, rock or shale, commonly the most impermeable materials met with in such positions, are sometimes not reached till considerable depths are attained. There are several cases in Great Britain where it has been necessary to carry down the puddle trench to about 200 ft. below the surface of the ground vertically above those parts. The highest dams of this class in the British islands impound water to a level of about See also:Ito ft. above the bottom of the valley. Such great See also:works have generally been well constructed, and there are many which after fifty years of use are perfectly See also:sound and water-tight, and afford no See also:evidence of deterioration. On the other hand, the partial or total failure of smaller dams of this description, to retain the reservoir water, has been much more common in the past than is generally supposed. Throughout Great Britain there are still many reservoirs, with earthen dams, which cannot safely be filled; and others which, after remaining for years in this condition, have been repaired. From such cases and their successful repair valuable experience of the causes of failure may be derived. Most of these causes are perfectly well under-stood by experienced See also:engineers, but instances of Erosloa by malconstruction of See also:recent date are still met with., A nearly over the leakage, and thus sometimes gives the first warning of leakage. few such cases will now be mentioned. The base of impending danger. It is not always possible to prevent any leakage a puddle trench is often found to have been placed whatever through the strata below the bottom or beyond the ends upon rock, perfectly sound in itself, but having joints which of the trench, but it is always possible to render such leakage entirely are not impermeable. The loss of water by' leakage through harmless to the work above it, and to carry the water by See also:relief-pipes such joints or fissures below the puddle wall may or may not to visible points at the lower toe of the dam. Wherever the base of a be a serious See also:matter in itself ; but if at any point there is sufficient puddle wall cannot be worked into a continuous bed of clay or shale, See also:movement of water across the base of the trench to produce the or tied into a groove cut in sound rock free from water-bearing slightest erosion of the clay above it, that movement almost in- fissures, the safest course is to base it on an artificial material at once variably increases. The finer particles of clay in the line of the See also:joint impermeable and incapable of erosion, interposed between the rock are washed away, while the sandy particles, which nearly all natural and the puddled clay. Water-tight See also:concrete is a suitable material clays contain, remain behind and form a constantly deepening for the purpose; it need not be made so thick as the puddle core, porous vein of sand See also:crossing the base of the puddle. Percolation and is therefore sometimes used with considerable See also:advantage in lieu of the puddle for the whole depth below ground. In fig. 7 a case is shown to be so treated. Obviously, the See also:unction between the puddle and the concrete might obr/7o,~ lwKL _ Lhave been made at any lower level. _ However well the work may be done, the lower part t 3' of a mass of puddled clay invariably settles into a :hY p j } s P denser mass when weighted with the clay Unequal above. If, therefore, one part is held up, settlement. by unyielding rock for example, while an adjoining part has no support but the clay beneath it, a fracture—not unlike a See also:geological fault--must result. Fig. 8 is a part See also:longitudinal section through the puddle wall of an earthen embankment. The puddle wall is crossed by a See also:pedestal of concrete carry- Jo o - ?_ •bX See also:InN the See also:brick discharge culvert. The puddle at a was originally held up by the flat head of this pedestal; not so the puddle at b, which under the superin- through this sand is thus added to the original leakage. Having I cumbent weight settled down and produced the fault bc, passed through the puddle core the leaking water sometimes rises to accompanied with a shearing or tangential See also:strain or, less probably, the surface of the ground, producing a visibly turbid See also:spring. As with actual fracture in the direction bd. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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