1. posterid:371227
  2. Photo: Loading Treated Water Pipe (1935)

Re: Photo: Loading Treated Water Pipe (1935)

Schuyler Larrabee
 

Not very long ago, probably in the 2000s, Boston dug up some rifle-drilled wooden pipes in the downtown area.  They had been made from trees.

 

And as a side note ,one of my colleagues while I was working for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts had a souvenir from a project where the original buried piping was being replaced.  It was a small-bore (about an inch or so) water pipe that had been cast in a long clamshell form, with the concrete poured in around a greased pole, later removed from the end of the form before the concrete was completely cured

 

Schuyler

 

From: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io <main@RealSTMFC.groups.io> On Behalf Of mopacfirst
Sent: Wednesday, December 23, 2020 8:43 PM
To: main@RealSTMFC.groups.io
Subject: Re: [RealSTMFC] Photo: Loading Treated Water Pipe (1935)

 

If anyone on this list is a member of AWWA (American Water Works Association) or can find the AWWA Journal in a library, there might be a history of water distribution.  AWWA was founded in 1881 so they were around for this.  I'm not sure there ever was an AWWA standard for wooden stave pipe, at least I can't come up with one.

I suspect it was a regional thing.  In the east, home to the NEWWA (Northeastern Water Works Association), cast iron pipe would have been favored, while the west and northwest would have leaned toward the wooden stave pipe, while the areas in between could have leaned toward one or the other on the basis of transportation costs by way of railroad flatcar.

There were probably essentially no new installations of stave pipe after World War II.

Ron Merrick, piping engineer

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