The extent to which the loss of head is allowed to go before filters are cleaned differs widely in the different works, some of the newer works limiting it sharply because it is believed that low bacterial efficiency results when the pressure is too great, although the frequency of cleaning and consequently the cost of operation are thereby increased.

At Darlington, England, I believe as a result of the German theories, the loss of head is limited to about 18 inches by a masonry weir built within the last few years. At Berlin, both at Tegel and Müggel, the limit is 24 inches, while at the new Hamburg works 28 inches are allowed. At Stralau in 1893 an effort was made to not exceed a limit of 40 inches, but previously heads up to 60 inches were used, which corresponds with the 56 inches used at Altona; and, in the other old works, while exact information is not easily obtained because of imperfect records, I am convinced that heads of 60 or even 80 inches are not uncommon. At the Lawrence Experiment Station heads of 70 inches have generally been used, although some filters have been limited to 36 and 24 inches.

In 1866 Kirkwood became convinced that the loss of head should not go much above 30 inches, first, because high heads would, by bringing extra weight upon the sand, make it too compact, and, second, because when the pressure became too great the sediment layer on the surface of the sand, in which most of the loss of head occurs, would no longer be able to support the weight and, becoming broken, would allow the water to pour through the comparatively large resulting openings at greatly increased rates and with reduced efficiency.

In regard to the first point, a straight, even pressure many times that of the water on the filter is incapable of compressing the sand. It is much more the effect of the boots of the workmen when scraping that makes the sand compact. I have found sand in natural banks at Lawrence 70 or 80 feet below the surface, where it had been subjected to corresponding pressure for thousands of years, to be quite as porous as when packed in water in experimental filters in the usual way.

The second reason mentioned, or, as I may call it, the breaking-through theory, is very generally if not universally accepted by German engineers, and this is the reason for the low limit commonly adopted by them.

A careful study of the results at Lawrence fails to show the slightest deterioration of the effluents up to the limit used, 72 inches. Thus in 1892, taking only the results of the continuous filters of full height (Nos. 33A, 34A, 36A, and 37), we find that for the three days before scraping, when the head was nearly 72 inches, the average number of bacteria in the effluents was 31 per cc., while for the three days after scraping, with very low heads, the number was 47. The corresponding numbers of B. prodigiosus[17] were 1.1 and 2.7. This shows better work with the highest heads, but is open to the objection that the period just after scraping, owing to the disturbance of the surface, is commonly supposed to be a period of low efficiency.

To avoid this criticism in calculating the corresponding results for 1893, the numbers of the bacteria for the intermediate days which could not have been influenced either by scraping or by excessive head are put side by side with the others. Taking these results as before for continuous filters 72 inches high, and excluding those with extremely fine sands and a filter which was only in operation a short time toward the end of the year, we obtain the following results:

These figures show a very slight increase of the water bacteria in the effluent as the head approaches the limit, but no such increase as might be expected from a breaking through of the sediment layer, and the B. prodigiosus which is believed to better indicate the removal of the bacteria of the original water, actually shows a decrease, the last day being the best day of the whole period.

The Lawrence results, then, uniformly and clearly point to a conclusion directly opposite to the commonly accepted view, and I have thus been led to examine somewhat closely the grounds upon which the breaking-through theory rests.

The two works which have perhaps contributed most to the theories of filtration are the Stralau and Altona works. After examining the available records of these works, I am quite convinced that at these places there has been, at times at least, decreased efficiency with high heads. For the Stralau works this is well shown by Piefke’s plates in the Zeitschrift für Hygiene, 1894, after page 188. In both of these works, however, the apparatus (or lack of apparatus) for regulating the rate is that shown by Fig. 5, page 49, and the rate of filtration is thus dependent upon the rate of consumption and the height of water in the reservoir. At the Stralau works, at the time covered by the above-mentioned diagrams, the daily quantity of water filtered was 27 times the capacity of the reservoir, and the rate of filtration must consequently have adapted itself to the hourly consumptions. The data which formed the basis of Kirkwood’s conclusions are not given in detail, but it is quite safe to assume that they were obtained from filters regulated as those at Altona and Stralau are regulated, and what is said in regard to the latter will apply equally to his results.

Piefke[18] shows that among the separate filters at Stralau, all connected with the same pure-water reservoir, those connected through the shorter pipes gave poorer effluents than the more remote filters, and he attributes the difference to the frictional resistance of the connecting pipes, which helped to prevent excessive rates in the filters farthest away when the water in the reservoir became low, and thus the fluctuations in the rates in these filters were less than in those close to the reservoir. He does not, however, notice, in speaking of the filters in which the decreased efficiencies with high heads were specially marked, that they follow in nearly the same order, and that of the four open filters mentioned three were near the reservoir and only one was separated by a comparatively long pipe, indicating that the deterioration with high heads was only noticeable, or at least was much more conspicuous, in those filters where the rates fluctuated most violently.

It requires no elaborate calculation to show that of two filters connected with the same pure-water reservoir, as shown by Fig. 5, with only simple gates on the connecting pipes, one of them clean and throttled by a nearly closed gate, so that the normal pressure behind the gate is above the highest level of water in the reservoir, and the other clogged so that the normal pressure of the water in the drain is considerably below the highest level of the water in the reservoir, the latter will suffer much the more severe shocks with fluctuating water-levels; and the fact being admitted that fluctuating levels are unfavorable, we must go farther and conclude that the detrimental action will increase with increasing loss of head. I am inclined to think that this theory is adequate to explain the Stralau and Altona results without resource to the breaking-through theory.

While the above does not at all prove the breaking-through theory to be false, it explains the results upon which it rests in another way, and can hardly fail to throw so much doubt upon it as to make us refuse to allow its application to those works where a regular rate of filtration is maintained regardless of variations in the consumption, until proof is furnished that it is applicable to them.

I have been totally unable to find satisfactory European results in regard to this point. The English works can furnish nothing, both on account of the lack of regulating appliances and because the monthly bacterial examinations are inadequate for a discussion of hourly or daily changes. The results from the older Continental works are also excluded for one or the other, or more often for both, of the above reasons. The Hamburg, Tegel, and Müggel results, so far as they go, show no deterioration with increased heads, but the heads are limited to 24 or 28 inches by the construction of the filters, and the results thus entirely fail to show what would be obtained with heads more than twice as high.

I am thus forced to conclude that there is no adequate evidence of inferior efficiency with high heads in filters where the rates are independent of the water-level in the pure-water reservoir, the only results directly to the point—the Lawrence results mentioned above—indicating that the full efficiency is maintained with heads reaching at least 72 inches.

The principal reason for desiring to allow a considerable loss of head is an economical one; the period will then be lengthened, while the frequency of scraping and the volume of sand to be washed and replaced will be correspondingly reduced. There may be other advantages in long periods, such as less trouble with scraping and better work in cold winter weather, but the cost is the most important consideration.

It is the prevalent idea among the German engineers that the loss of head after reaching 24 to 30 inches would increase very rapidly, so that the quantity of water filtered, in case a much higher head was allowed, would not be materially increased. No careful investigations, however, have been made, and indeed they are hardly possible with existing arrangements, as in the older filters the loss of head fluctuates with varying rates of filtration in such a way that only results of very doubtful value can be obtained, and in the newer works the loss of head is too closely limited, and the curves which can be drawn by extrapolation are evidently no safe indications of what would actually happen if the process was carried farther.

On the other hand, I was told by the attendant at Darlington, England, that since the building of the weir a few years ago, which now limits the loss of head to about 18 inches instead of the 5 feet or more formerly used, the quantity of sand to be removed has been three times as great as formerly. No records are kept, and this can only be given as the general impression of the man who superintends the work.

At Lawrence the average quantities of water filtered between scrapings with sand of an effective size of 0.20 mm. have been as follows:

These results indicate a great increase in the quantity of water filtered between scrapings with increasing heads, the figures being nearly proportional to the maximum heads used in the respective cases. It is, of course, quite possible that the results would differ in different places with the character of the raw water and of the filtering material.

The depth of sand to be removed by scraping at one time is, within limits, practically independent of the quantity of dirt which it has accumulated, and any lengthening of the period means a corresponding reduction in the quantity of sand to be removed, washed and replaced and consequently an important reduction in the operating cost, as well as a reduction in the area of filters out of use while being cleaned, and so, in the capital cost.

Among the minor objections to an increased loss of head are the greater head against which the water must be pumped, and the possible increased difficulty of filling filters with filtered water from below after scraping, but these would hardly have much weight against the economy indicated by the Lawrence experiments for the higher heads.

High heads will also drive an increased quantity of water through any cracks or passages in the filter. Such leaks have at last been found to be the cause of the inferior work of the covered filters at Stralau, the water going down unfiltered in certain corners, especially at high heads; but with careful construction there should be no cracks, and with the aid of bacteriology to find the possible leaks this ought not to be a valid objection.

In conclusion: the trend of opinion is strongly in favor of limiting the loss of head to about 24 to 30 inches as was suggested by Kirkwood, but I am forced to conclude that there is reason to believe that equally good results can be obtained with lower operating expenses by allowing higher heads to be used, at least in the case of filters with modern regulating appliances, and, I would suggest that filters should be built so as not to exclude the use of moderately high heads, and that the limit to be permanently used should be determined by actual tests of efficiency and length of period with various losses of head after starting the works.