A Visit To The Waterworks (1956)

[Music] suppose the water all over town was suddenly cut off would certainly be Mighty uncomfortable for many of [Music] us what's more we'd have a real problem in getting Safe Water her to drink but except in emergencies we do have water to drink and to use as we [Music] [Applause] [Music] need all the water for our daily needs comes from a Waterworks let's go along on a visit to the Waterworks and see what goes on Mr Burke the superintendent likes to have visitors come to his plant his plant gets its water from a lake and that's where our visit starts we're lucky we have this big lake to supply our water we' run long pipes way out into the lake what about towns that are not a lake well every town was make use of the best water supply available some towns dig deep Wells these very deep Wells are called Arian Wells some towns get their water from Rivers another towns Dam up streams to collect water this is called a reservoir sometimes the reservoirs are many miles from the town big pipes called aqueducts carry the water to the town no matter how a town gets its water supply the water has to go through the Waterworks before it's fit to drink is all that water in the building no you're standing for a lot of it it's in tanks underground 6 million gallons of it you want to see it yeah oh come on let's go many Waterworks have their tanks above ground but this plant has found it more convenient to store the water underground all right here we are now let's wait till I open this up for you there we are there are different kinds of storage tanks here to learn more about them let's go inside to the laboratory which is one of the most important parts of the Waterworks here's a picture chart of what we do here first we bring the lake water into the Waterworks and here in the Waterworks we make the water fit to drink then we pump the Safe Water out into the city why can't we drink the water from the lake well lake water is full of germs and dirt that might make you sick now this is water taken right from the lake and this is water that we've treated you see the difference Jim this is Mr Franklin from our laboratory he tests the water every few hours to see if there's any germs or impurities Jim would you tell him something about your work surely every day we take samples of the raw water and the drinking water and add it to these tubes which contain a broth the germs live on if there are any germs in the water water this broth becomes cloudy here are samples of water I tested yesterday as you can see the lake water is very cloudy but the drinking water is perfectly clear thank you Jim we keep taking samples of water every 2 hours to make sure that it's safe in the Waterworks we do three kinds of things first we add different kinds of chemicals and mix them up in the water to kill the germs and help take out the dirt and second we let some of the dirt settle down to the bottom and third we take out any dirt that's left by running the water through a filter what's a filter but I'll show you one in a little while but first come along with me and we'll take this picture with us let's go see what's happening out in the plant the first thing the plant does to the raw water as the is called before it has been treated is to add chemicals in exactly the right amounts by these automatic machines which are called chemical feeders this white powder is alum it helps settle out dirt and other materials that may be floating in the water see how the machine spits the powder into the water Jeff wants to know if chemicals don't make the water taste funny but Mr Brook shows them this machine that puts in activated charcoal a chemical that actually makes the water taste better in a room above the chemical theaters a worker refills the machines with bags of chemicals he wears a mask to keep from breathing the dust these chemicals go into so much water that there's only a tiny bit in each gallon each feeder has a horn and a red light as a danger signal this signal means that the feeder needs adjusted this yellow liquid inside the glass is chlorine which is carefully fed into the water through this machine Mr Burke explains that chlorine killed whatever germs may be in the water but Lucille doesn't see any water she wants to know where it is Mr Burke explains the building is standing over big water tanks right under the floor big paddle wheels keep turning in some of the tanks called mixing tanks they stir the chemicals into the water after the chemicals have been stirred up in the mixing tanks the water goes to other tanks called settling tanks there the Alum has a chance to settle out some of the dirt then the water goes to the filtering tanks and that's one of the most interesting sites in the Waterworks Mr Burke explains that in this plant the filtering tanks are in a separate building called the filtering plant each filtering tank has been built in a special way if you could see underneath the water you'd find layers of sand and gravel the water slowly drips through and the sand and gravel catch the dirt and other material so that the water comes out past these tile blocks crystal clear and that's the answer to Bob's question about filters the filters are kept clean by washing them does that sound odd well this is how it's done first the tank is opened so that all the water already in it is slowly drained out then clean water is forced up through the bottom of the filter it takes up to the surface the material that's been caught in the filter this is washed back into the Lake where it came from this is the way the filters are made clean to use again this cleaning is called a backwash can you tell why the last job that the Waterworks does in the plant is to pump the Clean safe water out to the town huge electric pumps do this workers the plant have many gauges to let them know just how much water is going out big gasoline Motors can take over if an electric motor should break [Applause] down as the water is pumped out to the town some of it goes to a high tower for storage the water goes to the Tower and to other places where it is needed through large underground pipes called Mains from these Mains the water goes in small underground pipes to houses and to all the places where water is [Music] used some of it will be used by the fire department and goes to fire hydrants all through the town many businesses have a special need for water and couldn't do their work without [Music] it how does this business use water and this big street sweeper gets its water from the fire hydrants but however water is used in this town it is all clean and safe because it comes from the Water Works thanks for showing us around thank you goodbye byebye [Music] GE I'm thirsty well let's get some water right from the water [Applause] workor H up [Applause] [Music]