REPORT 
OF THE 
SPECIAL COMMITTEE 
TO WHOM WAS REFERRED 
THE 
€ommun(cat(on from the Skater eommtsstoners, 
A REPORT OF THE 
Croton Jlqueduct Committee, 
AND 
△ST ©WaER!©^ ©3 ^3R2 ©©^srsaa 
IN RELATION TO THE POWERS AND DUTIES OF THE 
WATER COMMISSIONERS: 
TOGETHER WITH ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS. 
SRTANT AND BOGGS, PRINTERS. DOCUMENT No. 32. 
BOARD OF ALDERMEN, 
DECEMBER 22, X840, 
The Special Committee, to ichomwas referred the Commu- 
nication from the Water Commissioners, a report of the 
Croton Aqueduct Committee, and an opinion of the 
Counsel, in relation to the porvers and duties of the Wa- 
ter Commissioners, fyc. fy'c., presented a report thereon, 
which, was laid on the table and directed to be printed 
for the use of the members. 
SAMUEL J. WILLIS, Clerk. 
The Special Committee, to whom were referred the several 
communications of the Water Commissioners, together with 
a report of the Croton Aqueduct Committee, and an opinion 
of the Counsel of the Corporation thereunto annexed, in re- 
ference to the powers and duties of the Water Commis- 
sion rs and the Croton Aqueduct Committee, in relation to 
the distribution of the Croton water in the City of New 
York, do Doc. No. 32.] 
396 
REPORT: 
That your Committee have examined the above docu- 
ments, and have given to the Water Commissioners every 
opportunity to make out the charges, which they had 
brought against the ordinance of the Corporation, and the 
course of the Croton Aqueduct Committee-and after a pa- 
tient hearing of many hours, the Water Commissioners were 
constrained to acknowledge that the whole matter had been 
so far explained to their satisfaction, that (to use the lan- 
guage of the Chairman of their Board,) the whole subject 
41 resolved itself into a mere question of law, whether the 
power to distribute the Croton water was entirely with them, 
or whether the Corporation have the right to carry on the 
work of laying down the pipes for the distribution of the 
water," as they have done from the commencement of the 
work to the present time, which is about twelve years. 
In reference to this right, it will be proper to quote the 
opinion of the late Board of Water Commissioners ; who 
in their report of the 2d of January last, to the Common 
Council, say that 
" We have now arrived, in our brief description, at the 
termination of the work ; so far, at least, as the supervision 
of the Commissioners is concerned. That part of it which 
relates to the distribution of the water through the streets of 
the City, is the proper province of the Corporation, and will 
be performed under their special supervision. 
[Signed] "STEPHEN ALLEN, 
" WM. W. FOX, 
" THOMAS T. W OODRUFF, 
"CHARLES DUSENBURY, 
"SAUL ALLEY, 
" Water Commissioners." 
This opinion, so apparently conclusive in itself, will re- 
ceive additional confirmation from the letter of Stephen 397 
[Doc. No. 32. 
Allen, late Chairman of the Board of Water Commissioners, 
hereunto annexed : 
December 21st, 1840. 
Peter Cooper, Esq. 
Dear Sir:-Your letter of the 17th was received on 
Saturday, but a press of other business has prevented my 
answering it until now. 
You say, the present Water Commissioners claim the 
right of laying the water pipes through the streets of the city, 
and the Special Committee of the Common Council deem it 
desirable to obtain from you the practical views entertained 
by the late Board of Commissioners, in relation to the extent 
of their powers in the'respect above referred to. 
I have never had but one opinion on the subject, so far as 
the former Water Commissioners were concerned, and that 
is, that we had no authority to carry the water further than 
the Distributing Reservoir at Murray's Hill; and I think, I 
may with confidence say, that this was the unanimous opin- 
ion of my colleagues in the commission. 
The plan which we proposed to the Common Council, 
and which was adopted by them, and by the electors through 
the ballot box, was to take the water from the Croton River 
and carry it to a distributing reservoir at Murray's Hill, be- 
tween the Fifth and Sixth avenues, and Thirty-eighth and 
Fortieth streets ; and all the estimates of the engineers who 
were employed on the work, were based on the termination 
of the work at that location. This idea you will find run- 
ning through all our reports, as well that of 1833 (see Doc. 
36 of that year) as by our final report and plan of 1835, 
(see Doc. 44 of 1835.) In an appendix to this report, we 
have subjoined an estimate, prepared by U. Wenman, Esq., 
then Water Purveyor, of the cost of completing the piping 
of the whole City, south of Twenty-third street; and in or- 
der that the total expense of the work might be seen, we 
added Mr. Wenman's estimate to that of the engineers- Doc. No. 32] 
398 
how fallacious these estimates have proved, however, you 
have seen. The fact of our adding this estimate has been 
used as an argument, that the laying of the pipes entered in- 
to our plan, but this is afar-fetched and incorrect conclusion. 
The plan, as 1 have before stated, and the estimates found- 
ed on it, was to bring the water to Murray's Hill and no fur- 
ther. 
In our semi-annual report of the 4th of January, 1838, 
Doc. 55, page 379, there may be found an estimate of the 
total cost of the work, excepting the pipes for conducting 
the water through the streets, which we had never consider- 
ed as a portion of the work we were appointed to perform. 
Also, see our Report of January 6th, 1840, Document 42, 
page 447, where we refer to the aforesaid estimate, and state 
the additional cost of crossing Harlaem River by a high 
bridge, &c. We then proceed, at page 450, to give a brief 
descript on of the whole line of aqueduct; and, in closing, 
at page 462, observe, " We have now arrived, in our brief 
description, at the termination of the work ; so far, at east, 
as the supervision of the Commissioners is concerned. That 
part which relates to the distribution through the streets of 
the city is the proper province of the Corporation, and will 
be performed under their special supervision." There sure- 
ly can be no stronger evidence afforded than the foregoing 
extract, to show what was the opinion of the late Commis- 
sioners on this subject. I beg leave, also, to refer you to a 
paper from the Commissioners, dated 22d February, 1836, 
Document 71, which further shows, that all our estimates 
were based upon the termination of our work being at Mur- 
ray's Hid. 
The Common Council never claimed the application of 
the money raised under the Act of May, 1834, or any sub- 
sequent Act, to the laying of pipes through the streets, until 
1838, when a section was introduced at the tail of the Tax 
Law, authorizing the Common Council to defray, out of 
the fund called the Water Stock, all expenses heretofore in- 399 
[Doc. No. 32. 
curved, and hereafter to be incurred, by the Corporation, in 
procuring and laying water pipes in and for the City of New 
York. Here, the right of the Corporation to purchase and 
lay the pipes in the city, is broadly established; but, upon 
what principle, or law, the present Water Commissioners 
found their claim to the right, I am uninformed. 
It cannot be, as I think, upon the Act of May, 1834, or 
April, 1840. The 5th section of the Act of 1840, declares 
that the money to be raised by this Act shall be applied and 
expended according to the provisions of the Act of May, 
1834. Now the provisions of that Act authorize a plan, to 
carry which into effect, the money raised and to be raised 
was to be expended; and, as that plan terminated at Mur- 
ray's Hill, then it follows that the expenditures of the Water 
Commissioners can only be applied to the fulfilment of that 
plan, and by the Corporation, under the 3d section of the 
Act of March, 1838, to laying of the pipes through the 
streets of the city. 
The 5th section of the Act of April, 1840, however, ap- 
pears to give a controlling negative to any expenditure, 
whether for the aqueduct, or for distributing the water 
through the city, to the Water Commissioners and Comp- 
troller of this City. I am unable to see the motive for this 
provision-a provision which may lead to a suspension of 
the works, if either the Commissioners, on the one hand, or 
the Comptroller, on the other, should choose to exercise the 
power conferred, in opposition to each other's views. This 
I should be very sorry to see, and hope will never occcur. 
Very respectfully yours, 
STEPHEN ALLEN. 
New York, December 22,1840. 
P. Cooper, Esq.- 
I have read the answer of 8. Allen to your note of the Doc. No. 32.] 
400 
17th instant, and fully concur with his opinion that the 
duties of the former Board of Water Commissioners ceased 
when the work was completed to the Distributing Reservoir 
on Murray's Hill. 
Respectfully, 
WILLIAM W. FOX. 
Extract from a letter from Saul Alley, Esq., dated 
December 22, 1840. 
Alderman Cooper- 
Sir-I agree entirely with Mr. Allen as respects the pow- 
ers of the late Water Commissioners in the laying of pipes 
below the Distributing Reservoir. 
SAUL ALLEY. 
Your Committee cannot for a moment suppose that the 
Corporation ever intended (by instructing the Water Com- 
missioners to proceed and bring in a close aqueduct of ma- 
sonry, a supply of water to the Distributing Reservoir at Mur- 
ray's Hill,) to entail on the city a board of five Commission- 
ers at an expense of five thousand seven hundred dollars per 
year, besides a corps of engineers, which the Water Commis- 
sioners are now paying, in connection with their own sala- 
ries, the enormous sum of about fifty-seven thousand dollars 
per year; and this expense still continues notwithstanding 
the work has been all put under contract for a considerable 
time, and completed to Harlaem River, excepting one section; 
leaving little to be done except to see that the work is faith- 
fully executed according to contract. 
Some of the former Water Commissioners have offered to 
give their personal attention to what remains to be done, free 
of cost to the city. 401 
[Doc. No. 32. 
In such a situation, it is not a matter of astonishment that 
the Water Commissioners should look about for reasons to 
show, as they say in their communication " that in future the 
opinions of this Board and their engineers might all be ap- 
plied to this important branch of the water works." 
It is much to be regretted that the Water Commissioners 
should have undertaken to establish their claim to the entire 
control and management of the distribution of the Croton 
water in this city, by making charges against the Croton 
Aqueduct Committee, and the ordinance of the Common 
Council. This course has made it necessary for the Com- 
mittee to show, as will appear, that these charges are as un- 
founded as they are ungenerous and uncalled for. 
The Water Commissioners have, to say the least, been un- 
fortunate in the plan they have adopted, to show the strength 
and sincerity of their desire to promote the public interest. 
They continued to approve all the bills of the former Com- 
mittee of the Common Council who had charge of the lay- 
ing of water pipes in this city, notwithstanding, as they say, 
that they knew the work was being done in a slow, careless 
and expensive manner; and notwithstanding the accounts 
were kept, in every respect, in an irregular and defective 
manner. But when the present Aqueduct Committee com- 
menced their task of organizing the new department all this 
was changed. A map was made out by the engineers of the 
present Water Commissioners, and with their sanction; this 
map was approved by the Common Council, and adopted as 
a guide to the new department, in laying down the water 
pipes throughout the city. The accounts were kept in due 
form; and the vouchers presented to the Water Commission- 
ers were all made out, for the first time, as such papers should 
be. And after this important change, whereby the only de- 
fects which had existed, when the accounts of this depart- 
ment received the approbation of the Commissioners, were 
remedied; then, for the first time, do the Commissioners 
withhold their approval. Doc. No. 32.] 
402 
Your Committee are constrained to say, that there are no 
considerations of public interest which afford any foundation 
for the Water Commissioners to urge, and with so much 
perseverance as they do, that the laying of the distributing 
pipes shall now, for the first time, (when the legitimate part 
of their duties is drawing to a close,) be transferred to them. 
There are certainly no considerations that should have in- 
duced them to make grave and serious charges against a de- 
partment which were calculated to mislead the public mind, 
and which they have been entirely unable to sustain by the 
facts. 
Your Committee, in answer to the charges of the Water 
Commissioners, that the Aqueduct Department had withheld 
information called for by them, have ascertained that, soon 
after the reception of their note to the Aqueduct Commis- 
sioner, the Chairman of the Aqueduct Committee called on 
the President of the Water Commissioners, and made such 
verbal explanations, in relation to inquiries made by him, as 
was believed by the Chairman of the Aqueduct Committee 
to have been satisfactory; promising, at the same time, that 
a full and detailed account (from the commencement) of all 
the operations of the department would be completed and 
submitted as soon as it could be arranged for that purpose. 
It is considered by your Committee unkind in the Water 
Commissioners not to have given the necessary time to the 
Aqueduct Department to furnish the information they re- 
quired ; particularly so, since they themselves have found 
it convenient to withhold their semi-annual report from the 
Common Council for many months since the same has been 
due by the requirements of the law under which they act. 
The subject referred to the consideration of your Commit- 
tee seems to resolve itself into two questions : 
First. Is it expedient for the Corporation to continue, un- 
der their own direction, the laying down of the pipes through- 
out the streets of the city, for the distribution of the water 403 
[Doc. No. 32. 
from the reservoir at Murray's Hill, for the use of the inha- 
bitants of the city ? 
Second. Is it lawful for the Corporation to proceed with 
such work, and to charge the expense thereof to the water 
fund. 
In view of the question of expediency, the Water Com- 
missioners, in their annexed communication, have made 
many charges against the mode of laying the distributing 
pipes under the direction of the Croton Aqueduct Committee, 
and also against the economy of their expenditures. 
These charges were urged for the purpose of showing that 
the work can be better and more economically done by the 
Water Commissioners than under the direction of the Croton 
Aqueduct Department of the Corporation, as now organized. 
The objections of the Water Commissioners are worthy of 
consideration, and accordingly have been fully examined by 
this Committee. These complaints were answered by the 
Report of the Croton Aqueduct Committee of October 12th, 
1840. At this time, however, a fuller notice of them may be 
useful. 
A general charge of the Water Commissioners is, that for 
materials and labor too high prices were paid by the Depart- 
ment- 
1st. For lead, five cents per pound. 
It is proper to state, in connection with this, that an office 
for the Aqueduct Department is now finished. The Aque- 
duct Commissioner will now, therefore, be able to purchase 
lead by the cargo, and store it on the premises. Hitherto, 
having no storehouse, he has been obliged to purchase lead 
in small quantities for daily use, and has paid a fraction of 
a cent more than large quantities could be purchased for. 
2d. For repaving the streets, twenty-five cents per square 
yard. 
This price includes all expense for supplying paving 
stones, and sand when necessary, and for removing all sur- 
plus and unsound earth. No evidence has been produced Doc. No. 32.] 
404 
before this Committee showing that similar work has ever 
been done for less money ; and, in the opinion of the Street 
Commissioner, this charge is not unreasonable, as per his 
certificate. 
3d. Labor at an average of one dollar and twenty-five 
cents per day. 
No such average is to be found in the bills of the Croton 
Aqueduct Department. The Water Commissioners, when 
requested, in presence of this Committee, to establish their 
assertion, acknowledged their inability to do so. The ave- 
rage price of labor, as shown by the bills, is one dollar and 
eight cents to one dollar and nine cents per day, including 
foremen. 
4th. Twelve inch stopcocks ninety dollars and forty-eight 
cents each. The Water Commissioners further say that 
those stopcocks are not of the best kind. The annexed 
figures will explain the new stopcocks objected to by the 
Water Commissioners, and the old pattern formerly used. 
Old j^atfefA. 
New jpatle^n^ [Doc. No. 32. 
405 
And the properties of the two kinds are here given in parallel 
columns. 
OLD PATTERN. 
The screw S is exposed outside of the 
enclosed part, and subject to rust, and to 
get clogged with dirt. 
The valve V, or cover, when shut, as 
in the figure, is strongly wedged in be- 
tween the two faces, ff ff. 
When it is necessary to open it, the 
valve is often found to stick in its place, 
and if force is applied, frequently breaks 
in some part. An instance may now be 
seen in the Sixth avenue, where the old 
pattern has to be taken up, having broken 
and become useless. 
The sand and sediment of the water 
settle into the space O, fill it up and 
prevent the valve from falling down to 
its place. Sand once in the space, can- 
not be removed without taking up the 
stopcock. 
The old pattern is continually a source 
of trouble and expense, from its getting 
out of order. Several, in different parts 
of the city, at this moment, require to 
be taken out and be replaced by a better 
article. 
NEW PATTERN. 
The screw S is inside of the enclosed 
part, immersed in fresh water, and hence 
not liable to rust. 
The valve V is firmly brought Op 
against the face ff, by means of the 
wedge W, acted on by the screw S. 
The wedge W is always easily started 
by the screw, and then the valve being 
loose is raised without difficulty. 
The space 0 is so open that the cur- 
rent of water will always keep it clear. 
The new pattern has always been 
found to work effectually; some hun- 
dreds are in use, and but two or three 
repairs, and those not costing above $4 
or $5 each, have been necessary. 
Mr. Robertson, the maker of the new kind, began to fur- 
nish them some eighteen months since, at a price below what 
the Corporation then paid for the old kind. A contract has 
recently been made with him, by which they are now sup- 
plied for much less than the price named by the Water Com- 
missioners, in their remonstrance, as the price of those they 
preferred. 
The Water Commissioners stated to this Committee that a 
manufacturer of Philadelphia had offered to furnish the old 
kind for seventy dollars, which is ten dollars less than the 
offer they received before, and which they mention in their 
remonstrance. This lowest price is exactly what is paid to Doc. No. 32.] 
406 
Mr. Robertson, under the new contract; and this price was 
fixed without knowledge of, or reference to, any proposals 
made to the Water Commissioners by the Philadelphia manu- 
facturer. 
The use of the old pattern of stopcocks, in this city, has 
been attended with a constant train of vexations, and this 
Committee has heard, that Mr. Wenman, when Water Pur- 
veyor, had his share of them. That gentleman was obliged 
to repair, if not to take out altogether, a stopcock, in Broad- 
way, near the City Hotel, in 1834. The tightness of those 
he used may be pretty well ascertained by the following 
facts. In 1835, in shutting off the water, to attach a new 
line of pipes, at the corner of the Bowery and Grand street, 
Mr. Wenman's workmen were obliged to close all the stop- 
cocks in the Bowery, from Grand street to the Reservoir in 
Thirteenth street. And all these failing to stop the water, 
they were obliged to shut off the head of water at the Reser- 
voir itself! On that occasion, the trench, in which his men 
were at work, was overflowed, and a fire engine was employ- 
ed to pump the water out of it. From two to three days (one 
of them a Sunday !) were employed in freeing the trench 
and stopping the water by those most defective stopcocks. 
We farther learn, that Mr. Wenman was so dissatisfied 
with the old pattern, that he set himself to work to invent a 
substitute for it; and, about two years since, he prepared 
elaborate drawings of his improved stopcock, which, he then 
said, he had introduced into certain water works in Canada, 
with great success. These facts are given as we learn 
them; if contradicted our witnesses are at hand. 
In 1837, under Mr. Henshaw's supervision, seven of the 
old pattern were broken and taken up in this city during one 
season. 
Three stopcocks, of the old kind, were put down, in suc- 
cession, in Broad street, near Beaver, in the space of four 
days. The last of the three is still there; the other two 
were broken within twenty-four hours after they were put 
down. This was in January, 1837. 407 
[Doc. No. 32. 
Five stopcocks, of the old pattern, have been successively- 
put down, broken, and then taken up, in one place, within 
six years. That place is at the corner of Hudson and 
Anthony streets. The sixth stopcock was of the new pat- 
tern, and is now in use. 
One of the old kind, that could never be used, is now in 
Broadway, opposite the Astor House. 
Old stopcocks have been repaired, within the last year, in 
the following places :-■ 
Essex street, near Rivington Gallows plate broken. 
Broadway, corner Sixth street.... do. do. do. 
Walker street, near Allen Valve broken. 
Hudson street, corner of Anthony do. do. 
Hudson, corner of Chambers.... do. do. 
Sixth avenue, near Ninth street.. do. do. 
Thirteenth street, near Broadway do. do. 
Division street, near Market do. do. 
Canal street, near Greene Gallows plate broken. 
Delancey street, near Allen do. do. do. 
Making ten stopcocks of the old kind given out in a single 
season. 
So much for the strength and durability of these articles. 
Now for a specimen of their efficiency. 
Mr. Small, a foreman in the employ of the Corporation, 
wished, in November last, to stop off the water to join a line 
of new pipes to the old ones, at the corner of Hester and 
Essex streets. Five stopcocks, if perfect, would have shut 
off the water in every direction, and accordingly five were 
closed. The water still flowed. Nine more were then closed 
outside of and beyond the former; the water still poured in. 
Eight more were then closed outside of these last; the water 
still flowed in. At last, the head of water was shutoff at the 
Reservoir, and this was successful. Thus twenty-three stop- 
cocks of the old kind had to be used to shut off the water at 
one point. 
With the new pattern, Mr. Small reports that he has had Doc. No. 32."] 
408 
no trouble. In one instance only, has he had to close an 
extra stopcock outside of one of this kind. 
Mr. James Kiernan, another foreman, who has been em- 
ployed in the work for eight years past, reports that he has 
known only a single instance where an extra stopcock had 
to be closed beyond one of the new ones. 
In the opinion lately given by Mr. Jervis and Mr. Allen, 
they make no definite objection to the new pattern, but con- 
fine themselves to the following conclusions :- 
1. That the old kind were the simplest. 
2. That they were always tight. 
3. That they were durable and without defect. 
That they are the simplest is obvious, but that of itself 
proves nothing. 
That the old kind were always tight and were durable, 
and without defects, may be true in Philadelphia, but in New 
York the exact reverse has been the fact, so far as the Cor- 
poration has tried them. Whatever losses may result to the 
city in the progress of this work by not adopting 11 all the 
opinions of their Board and their Engineers," one thing is 
certain, we have lost nothing by not adopting the kind of 
stopcocks recommended by them. 
The Water Commissioners farther alleged before the Com- 
mittee, that the expense per mile, now paid for laying down, 
exceeds the estimates which the Water Commissioners have 
formed. 
The practical knowledge possessed by those gentlemen 
does not appear to be sufficient to guarantee the accuracy of 
their estimates. Even Engineers'of eminence are prone to 
estimate too low, and the Corporation has found this to be 
the case with this very work. The enormous disparity be- 
tween the four or five millions of the Engineers' estimates, 
and the twelve or thirteen millions which we now see it will 
cost, makes it unnecessary to dwell particularly upon the es- 
timates offered by those gentlemen at this time. 
Another general charge of the Water Commissioners is 409 
[Doe. No. 32 
that under the present organization, the work is done in vio- 
lation of correct principles of construction. 
1st. " That the line of pipes lately laid down in Second 
street, consists of six-inch pipes, from the East River to Allen 
street, then from Allen street to the Bowery twelve-inch pipes, 
and then from the Bowery to Broadway again six-inch pipes 
are laid. It is said that the neighborhood being surprised 
asked the reason of this expensive and irregular mode of do- 
ing the work, and were answered that they had used up all 
the six-inch pipes on hand."-See Doc. No. 70, page 258. 
The following figure shows the line of pipes as described 
by the Water Commissioners : 
Broadway 
Second St. 
'Eart [ R. 
Dau>erj/ 
JHlenSt. 
The Water Commissioners in the presence of this Com- 
mittee, were informed that there was not a single foot of six- 
inch pipe in Second street, from one end to the other, and 
were invited to produce evidence of their statement, if they 
had any. 
They accordingly introduced an old and very respectable 
citizen, who was shown in our presence the following plan 
of the line as it really is. 
AvenuaU. 
Jr 
1 
Second Si. Doc. No. 32.] 
410 
He did not question the accuracy of this drawing, nor at- 
tempt to sustain the statements of the Water Commissioners, 
as exhibited in the previous drawing : but he said he thought 
a twelve-inch line in Second street, or a six-inch line in 
Allen street was wrong; having always understood the cor- 
rect plan to be twelve-inch pipes in the streets running North 
and South, and six-inch pipes in those running East and 
West! 
Nothing farther was offered as proof, justification or apo- 
logy for making this gross misrepresentation of the facts of 
the case by the Commissioners. 
2nd. That in Walker street (erroneously printed Water 
street, in Document No. 70, page 258) corner of Broadway, 
a water pipe was laid about two feet only below the surface, 
thereby exposing it to be frozen in winter. They farther 
state that, a gas pipe was in the way of placing it at its pro- 
per depth, that they, the Water Commissioners, have power 
to remove the gas pipe, and would probably have done so 
had the work been under their direction. 
Instead of a gas pipe it proves to be a Manhattan water 
pipe; and we are of the opinion that as the Manhattan water 
pipe has lain in that spot for several years without freez- 
ing, so may the Croton water pipe remain equally without 
freezing, as it lies upon and in contact with the Manhat- 
tan pipe. 411 
[Doc. No. 32. 
The following drawing shows the plan and section of the 
work. The newly laid down pipes objected to by the Wa- 
er Commissioners are deeply shaded. 
Bine of pavement 
Section 
Plan 
1/Valker street 
Broadway 
The branch Bb was laid some years ago, when the pipes 
in Broadway were laid. On laying the Walker street line, 
the present season, it was of course connected with the west 
end W of the branch. On the east end E of the branch, the 
connection might be made by passing either over or under 
the Manhattan pipe Mm. As the crooked piece cc then on 
hand, admitted of passing over, but was not oblique enough 
to pass under, the pipe was carried above the Manhattan pipe. 
To carry it below it would have been necessary to wait for 
new patterns and castings to be made, and to keep this part 
of Broadway almost impassable for a week or two at least. 
The pipe is placed more than three feet below the surface, 
instead of two, as complained of. 
3d. The Chairman of the Board of Water Commissioners, 
Samuel Stevens, Esq., in his remarks before this Committee, 
at its first meeting, stated as another instance of incompe- Doc. No. 32. J 
412 
tency, that in Rutgers street, near the corner of Cherry street, 
a six-inch stopcock had recently been inserted in a twelve- 
inch line of pipe. He declared that such a piece of work 
was manifestly wrong, for ifa twelve-inch pipe was necessary 
to give a due supply of water, then assuredly a six-inch stop- 
cock would not allow that supply to pass through it. 
The following figure will show the work as described by 
the Chairman of the Water Commissioners : 
He further stated that the workmen had completed this 
piece of work; and were on the point of covering it up and 
leaving it, when some person coming along remonstrated 
against its impropriety ; and that merely in consequence of 
this interference of a passer by, was this stupid blunder cor- 
rected. 
The accuracy of the Chairman's statement being called in 
question, he produced as a witness Mr. Commissioner Ring 
who said that the subject of complaint was not a stopcock 
but a branch, and that it was not a branch laid d.oion, but 
a branch taken up under the present organization! The 
following figure will explain Mr. Commissioner Ring's ac- 
count of the affair: 
St. 
Rutyers St. 
Clittry [Doc. No. 32. 
413 
On laying the new line of twelve-inch pipes down Rut- 
gers street, to afford an immediate supply of water to Cherry 
street, which, in case of fire would be much needed, the offi- 
cer in charge of the work came to the six-inch branch b, in 
Cherry street. This branch had been laid by a former Wa- 
ter Purveyor, without intending to introduce a pipe through 
Rutgers street, large enough to supply Cherry street. This 
old six-inch branch was taken out and a twelve-inch branch 
put in its place, to match the pipe in Rutgers street, thus : 
These facts, so different from those stated by the Chairman 
of the Water Commissioners, were, in his opinion, equally 
conclusive as proving incompetency somewhere. In what 
quarter the incompetency lies we leave to the Common Coun- 
cil to judge. 
4th. " That of the thirty-five miles of pipe laid down, no 
one knows whether they are laid in the middle or on the 
sides of streets, nor where the branches or stopcocks are 
placed, nor the size of the pipes ; and that it cannot with cer- 
tainty be told even in what streets the pipes are laid."-Doc. 
No. 70, page 251. 
All those pipes, though ultimately to form a part of the 
Croton Aqueduct, were in the mean time to be used in ex- 
tinguishing fires : and if nothing else existed to mark in what Doc. No. 32.] 
414 
streets they were laid, the hydrants, placed along the lines 
near every cross street, would point them out without the 
possibility of mistake. Any fireman knows this ; and yet the 
Board of Water Commissioners, professing a superior know- 
ledge and capacity for this subject, gravely assures us that 
none can tell with certainty in what streets the pipes supply- 
ing those hydrants are placed ! 
This Committee has examined several district maps exe- 
cuted by the Aqueduct Commissioner, representing on a large 
scale, the size and exact position of the pipes already laid, as 
well as of' the branches and stopcocks; the distances from 
the sidewalks and cross streets being given in feet and in- 
ches ! Every pipe, stopcock and hydrant in the city, is thus 
minutely recorded in the Aqueduct Office. 
Besides the pipes already laid, the pipes to be laid here- 
after were also drawn on the same maps ; those maps were 
exhibited to this Committee in presence of the Water Com- 
missioners and their Chief Engineer ; and no objection was 
offered to any part of them by those gentlemen as being in 
violation of correct principles. 
This fact is significant: had the work previously done 
been involved in such obscurity as the Water Commission- 
ers assert; or were there so entire a want of system in the 
present arrangement of the distributing pipes, surely those 
gentlemen could have pointed it out with the maps before 
them. They did not, however, venture a single remark by 
way of criticism or censure. 
Another subject touched upon by the Water Commission- 
ers, and one of great importance, is, the relative merits of 
blast furnace iron and remelted iron for water pipes. Those 
gentlemen advocate the use of the latter iron exclusively. 
They say, " we perceive the Corporation Aqueduct Com- 
missioner is advertising for proposals to furnish pipes cast 
directly from the ore or from remelted iron. The pipes 
which our predecessors contracted for, they stipulated should 
be cast from pig iron, remelted; and our engineers have 415 
[Doc. No. 32. 
expressed very decided opinions that such are the only pipes 
that ought to be used in the work, especially for the large 
mains."-Doc. No. 70, page 259. 
When water pipes are made at the " smelting" or " blast" 
furnaces, they are cast at the first melting of the ore ; but, 
when pipes are made at a distance from the mines of ore, for 
instance in this city, then the founder procures pig iron from 
blast furnaces, (for all pig iron is blast furnace iron,) brings 
the pig iron to this city, and melts it over in what is called a 
" cupola" furnace. From the iron thus 11 remelted," he casts 
his pipes. 
A competition arises between these two classes of manu- 
facturers-not a competition of cheapness, for, in this, the 
advantage is evidently all on the side of the blast furnaces. 
Producing their castings at once from the ore, they can evi- 
dently undersell the cupola founders, who are obliged to 
come to them for a supply of iron. Thus a quantity of cast- 
ings, which a blast furnace could produce for one hundred 
dollars, would cost one hundred and twenty dollars to one 
hundred and forty dollars at a cupola furnace. 
Notwithstanding this enormous difference of cost, proprie- 
tors of cupola furnaces have managed to create a belief that 
it is better to deal with them for the thousands on thousands 
of tons of water pipes that will be wanted for this city. 
Among other things, they say that their pipes, being cast 
in a peculiar kind of mould, are of more uniform thickness 
than the other pipes. This might prove something, if it were 
true that blast furnace iron could not be poured into the 
same kind of mould ! 
They farther assert that cupola iron is more even in its 
texture, more free from dross, and therefore more fit for cast- 
ings, where great strength is necessary. 
We are of the opinion that no kind of castings requires 
greater strength than cannon. At this moment the United 
States Government is procuring cannon from the blast fur- 
naces of Sweden ; those furnaces supply immense quantities Doc. No. 32.] 
416 
of ordnance to the Governments of Europe-Russia, France, 
and Prussia, among the number. 
The United States' Agent, a high officer of the Ordnance 
Department, and formerly proprietor of a cupola cannon 
foundry at Pittsburg, states, in a letter read before this Com- 
mittee, that the blast furnace cannon in question stand unri- 
valled by any others for strength. It is well known to foun- 
ders, that, by repeated melting, strong cast iron can be made 
so weak and brittle as to be good for nothing. There is no 
reason to suppose the first remelting in the cupola furnace to 
be less injurious to the quality of the iron than any subse- 
quent one. 
Messrs. Richards, of Philadelphia, and Ellicott, of Balti- 
more, offer to test the blast furnace pipes, made by them, 
against any cupola pipes whatever. Each of those houses 
has pipes now in the Aqueduct yard, ready for such trial. 
The cheapness and strength of blast furnace iron being 
established, the only question remaining is, have they, at 
such furnaces, the machinery and patterns necessary for 
casting the large mains for the aqueduct? 
No such furnace has hitherto had them ; neither did any 
cupola furnace in this country have them two years ago ; and 
only one has such machinery now. 
Should any blast furnace become prepared to cast the large 
mains, and give evidence of its ability to produce an article 
of the first quality, at a cheaper rate than elsewhere procura- 
ble, surely such furnace should be employed. 
If the Aqueduct Commissioner's advertisement, objected to 
by the Water Commissioners, holds out any idea beyond this, 
your Committee cannot understand it. 
The water pipes necessary for the whole work of distribu- 
tion in this city would cost, at the cupola foundries, one mil- 
lion of dollars, at least. The blast furnaces could furnish 
them for twenty per cent, or two hundred thousand dollars 
less, at the least calculation. When the Water Commission- 
ers produce their economical estimates, they leave out all 417 
[Doc. No. 32. 
consideratioris of the principal item of cost, to wit: the iron 
water pipes, and the fifty-seven thousand dollars, the yearly 
salary of themselves and their corps of Engineers. 
We will here add that the estimates they have produced 
before us are made without properly specifying what work is 
to be done for a given sum of money. No mention is made 
of any of the appendages of the pipes; nothing said about 
hydrants, stopcocks, or branches. The easiest and the most 
difficult digging, sand and rock, plain or intricate work, all 
OO 07 7 1 7 
stand alike in their estimate. And thus they say they can 
do, for one dollar, what costs at present one dollar and eighty- 
five cents. If they can really do so, our recent advertisement 
to contractors is open for their proposals. 
It thus appears, that all the complaints of the Water Com- 
missioners have been proved to be entirely unfounded ; and 
it is very evident, from many of the plans which the Water 
Commissioners have proposed, as the proper rule of action, 
that if they had had the charge of laying the distributing 
pipes, it would have cost the city a much larger sum of mo- 
ney than that already incurred, before the work could have 
been made to answer the requisite purpose. 
Your Committee are of opinion, that the reasons which 
induced the appointment of Commissioners by the Governor 
and Senate, for the procuring a supply of water from the 
Croton River^ and depositing the same in a Distributing Re- 
servoir, do not apply to the superintendence of laying the 
distributing pipes. The Corporation could not with any 
convenience supervise the Croton Works in Westchester 
county. 
Their proceedings in the taking of private property for the 
necessary purposes of the aqueduct, would have been view- 
ed with great jealousy. And, in fact, it would have been 
impossible, with any degree of facility, to have progressed 
with the work in a foreign county, unless through the in- 
strumentality of a disinterested Board of Commissioners ; 
and while the construction of the aqueduct through a large Doc. No. 32.] 
418 
extent of country, requiring the erection of high embank- 
ments, archways and bridges, and deep tunnelling, and call- 
ing for the highest exercise of skill and science, might require 
the instrumentality of the most intelligent and experienced 
engineers, the mere laying of distributing pipes, involving 
only a practical knowledge of mechanics, requires no such 
paraphernalia of office, nor extravagant expenditure of sala- 
ries. Such work can be as well superintended by one head 
of a department, as of five Commissioners; and can be as 
well done under the immediate direction of the Corporation 
as any other of their Executive duties. 
As to the question of legal authority, your Committee have 
been favored with a full discussion of its merits, and have 
also had read to them the opinion of a learned counsel, in 
support of the views of the Water Commissioners. 
After all the examination which has been given to the sub- 
ject, the opinion of the Counsel of the Corporation stands 
confirmed in the estimation of your Committee, not only as 
an official document, but from the reasons it sets forth. 
The following are the conclusions of your Committee, af- 
ter a review of the whole argument. 
In the first place, there is not a single provision of any 
one of the acts of the Legislature which, so far as the prose- 
cution of the work upon the Croton Aqueduct is concerned, 
makes the Water Commissioners, in any degree, independent 
of the Corporation ; nor is there even a single provision, 
which expressly confers upon them the right to regulate, and 
control any part of the work. On the contrary, the language 
of the law is, that after the measure shall have been finally 
approved, " it shall be lawful for the Common Council to in- 
struct the Commissioners to proceed in the work." The 
Commissioners do not, then, derive their authority to do the 
work from the Legislature ; they receive their instructions 
directly from the Common Council, and with the Common 
Council it was discretionary to give or withhold such in- 419 
[Doc. No. 32. 
structions. " It shall be lawful for the Common Council 
to instruct, fyc" is the language of the law. 
And was it intended that the Corporation should only in 
the first instance, exercise the right to determine whether the 
work should be prosecuted; and that, after determination 
was once exercised, they should then lose all further control 
over the subject. If such had been the intention, why was 
it left optional with the Corporation to raise the funds, with- 
out which, the work could not progress, at such times and 
in such amounts as they might think fit? Your Committee 
cannot refrain from the remark, that there is something like 
arrogation, on the part of the Water Commissioners, in as- 
suming, in their own language, that the laws " have made 
them the Corporation, so far as this great undertaking was 
concerned." The idea is as extraordinary as it is unwar- 
ranted. 
But, it is said that the powers claimed by the Water Com- 
missioners are derived from the provision that the moneys 
raised from the Water Fund 11 are to be applied and expend- 
ed to, and for the purpose of supplying the city with pure 
and wholesome water, according to the plan as adopted and 
ratified, by and under the direction of the Commissioners" 
Now, in order to derive the power to lay distributing pipes 
from this authority to apply and expend the money, two 
things are requisite. 
First. The application and expenditure of the cost of the 
work, must necessarily imply a direction of the work itself. 
Second. The plan in the prosecution of which the money 
was to be expended, must embrace the laying of the distri- 
buting pipes, and the money must have been authorized to 
be raised for that purpose. 
As to the first proposition, that the application and expen- 
diture of the money involves the right to control the work, 
it is very easy to perceive that the Corporation might employ 
the workmen and regulate their compensation, and deter- 
mine the whole mode of operation, so long as it should be lloc. No. 32.] 
420 
consistent with the adopted plan; and yet, if the disburse- 
ment of the funds be left to the Commissioners, their whole 
duty of applying and expending the money will be per- 
formed. 
Your Committee do not urge that the performance of 
other duties by the Commissioners was not contemplated by 
the Legislature. They only insist that, after the adoption of 
the plan by the Commissioners for procuring the supply of 
water, the Commissioners were to become the agents of the 
Corporation, so far as the prosecution of the work was con- 
cerned ; and, like all other agents, subject to the instructions 
of their principals, and not with liberty to act independent of 
them. 
Your Committee have been referred to the opinions of 
Messrs. Butler and Tallmadge, said to have been taken with 
reference to the right of the Corporation to instruct the Wa- 
ter Commissioners with reference to the bridge over the 
Harlaem River. There is not one word in the opinion of 
those gentlemen on any such subject. It barely relates to 
the right of the owners of property on the Harlaem River to 
prevent the erection of a bridge, and has no single reference 
to the power of the Corporation to control the execution of 
the work consistent with the adopted plan. 
The Corporation have in no instance chosen to interfere 
with the Water Commissioners in the execution of their part 
of the work, and it is not to be believed that, for any light 
cause, they would have done so. But the doctrine is mons- 
trous, that a Board of Commissioners should have been ap- 
pointed by State authority, and with the consent of the 
Corporation itself, to act in defiance of its wishes in the exe- 
cution of a work, which, when completed, was to be its own 
property ! 
The plan of the work was required to be submitted to, and 
approved by the Common Council, and become final and 
conclusive only after it had been approved by them. 
In this doctrine of the Water Commissioners and of those 421 
[Doc. No. 32. 
who sustain their views, the representative principle is un- 
dervalued and overlooked. The City Government is but a 
personification of the people themselves, whose money was 
expended in the Croton Aqueduct. To place them and their 
representatives in a secondary position with reference to a 
work of their own projection, and of which they alone had 
assumed the responsibility, involving millions of their money, 
and beyond the power of calculation in its consequences to 
the health and safety of the city, is assuming for prerogative 
more than can be yielded by a spirit of just independence. 
And yet all this is claimed, not by any positive enactment 
of law, but by a forced and pretended construction ; for we 
say again, that there is not a single provision which gives to 
the Water Commissioners any kind of right to direct the 
work upon the Croton Aqueduct, except what they may de- 
rive under the clause that "it shall be lawful for the Cor- 
poration to direct the Commissioners to proceed with the 
work." 
The next question is-Does the plan, according to which 
the city was to be supplied, and for which purpose the mo- 
ney was to be expended, embrace the laying of the distribut- 
ing pipes ; and was the Water Fund originally applicable to 
such part of the work ? 
The plan was first to be adopted by the Water Commis- 
sioners, next to be approved by the Common Council, and 
lastly to be ratified by the People. 
In the precise language of the Act, this was to be a plan 
"for procuring a supply of water." 
That was the most difficult question, requiring patient re- 
search, and deliberate and strong judgment; and such was 
attained by the appointment of five Commissioners, upon 
whose responsibility for so great and untried an undertaking, 
the people were satisfied to rest; but who ever thought of 
requiring five men, aided by a corps of Engineers, to sit in 
judgment upon the laying of distributing pipes ? When the 
water should be brought within distributing distance, and Doc. No. 32.] 
422 
safely deposited in reservoirs, the grand object of procuring 
the supply was accomplished. By the application of a hy- 
drant and the turning of a stopcock all the remaining duties 
would be achieved. 
From the first, the Water Commissioners show, that so far 
as their own official duties were concerned, they considered 
themselves confined, in their estimates, to the expense of pro- 
curing the supply of water, and conducting it into a reser- 
voir, convenient for distribution. In their report, under the 
Act of 1833, they say, " That as there is a proposition al- 
ready pending before the Common Council, to purchase the 
twenty-five miles of pipes of the Manhattan Company; and, 
as the Corporation have already laid ten and a-half miles of 
pipes, they have not deemed it necessary to enter into a cal- 
culation of the cost of the pipes that may be required to dis- 
tribute the water in the different parts of the city." The es- 
timates which have been made are for bringing the water to 
the Distributing Reservoir. 
In the second report of the Commissioners, under the Act 
of 1834, they speak of their line terminating at a smooth ele- 
vation, at Thirty-eighth street, well adapted for a Distribu- 
ting Reservoir; and they make their estimates apply to an 
aqueduct that will deliver the whole of the water of the Cro- 
ton, if required, at the Distributing Reservoir. 
Why should they have extended their estimates farther? 
The object was to ascertain the expense to be incurred by 
the new project. They found that the laying of distributing 
pipes, had been, already, for some time in the course of pro- 
secution, and that the expense would be incurred, without 
respect to the Croton Aqueduct. It had no more to do, there- 
fore, with the question submitted to the Water Commission- 
ers, than the expense of lighting the city lamps. And, why 
should the Water Commissioners form a plan for the laying 
of distributing pipes ! 
The plan for that purpose was already formed, and partly 
executed. It needed neither the intervention of Commis- 423 
[Doc. No. 32. 
sioners or of Engineers. It could be temporarily used for 
the extinguishment of fires, and yet was capable of being ap- 
plied to the distribution of the Croton River. It had nothing 
to do with the plan for procuring a supply of water. 
Accordingly, the Water Commissioners directed the whole 
of their energies, and brought all the skill of their engineers 
to bear upon the great plan of procuring the supply of wa- 
ter. Months were expended upon surveying routes, forming 
plans, and calculating expenses ; but they all commenced 
with the dam on the Croton, and ended with the Distribu- 
ting Reservoir at Murray's Hill. Not one hour of labor was 
devoted, either by Engineers or Commissioners, to discover 
any new plan of pipe laying. 
In making their report, when they speak of the plan which 
they adopt, they head it thus :-■ 
11 Plan of Introducing the Water." 
They then proceed, 
11 The Commissioners propose that a dam of sufficient ele- 
vation be erected near the mouth of the Croton River, and 
from thence the water to be conducted in a close stone aque- 
duct to Harlaem River. The river to be crossed by inverted 
syphons of wrought iron pipe of eight feet in diameter, form- 
ed in the manner that steam boilers are. From the south 
side of the river a line of stone aqueduct will again com- 
mence and proceed across Manhattan Valley to the Distri- 
buting Reservoir at Murray's Hill" and there ends the 
plan. 
To plain understandings, your Committee deem this to be 
conclusive of the question ; and that if there be any meaning 
in terms, the Water Commissioners are restricted to the ap- 
plication and expenditure of all the moneys, over which they 
have the control, within the limits between the dam near the 
mouth of the Croton River, and the Distributing Reservoir 
at Murray's Hill. Doc. No. 32.] 
424 
But it is said that the Commissioners added to their report 
a statement of Mr. Wenman, the then Water Purveyor, of 
the distributing pipes. It was very natural for the Water 
Commissioners to furnish this statement, but neither they 
nor their Engineers made any personal examination of any 
plan for the laying of distributing pipes, nor did they adopt 
or sanction any such plan. 
After the Water Commissioners had agreed upon the adop- 
tion of a plan for procuring the supply of water, the duty 
then devolved upon the Common Council to consider such 
plan, and in case of its being approved by them, to submit to 
the people the question of raising the money necessary to 
construct the work. They did approve of the plan and in 
as unambiguous terms, us those used by the Water Commis- 
sioners. They expressly exclude from their views the lay- 
ing of the distributing pipes, as having nothing to do with the 
plan referred for their consideration, and to be submitted to 
the people. 
They say that the laying of distributing pipes has been, 
for a long time, a part of the settled policy of the city. The 
expense, as it accrued, has been year after year included in 
the tax, and levied upon the citizens, and it would continue 
to be incurred and to be levied, if the Croton Aqueduct 
should never be constructed. 
The Common Council were therefore right in saying that 
" the estimated cost of bringing the river to Murray's Hill 
might be taken as the true amount affecting the question." 
And this was the only view of the subject considered, or ap- 
proved by the Common Council, and the only one submitted 
to, and passed upon by the people. Pursuant to these ap- 
provals, t: the Water Stock of the City of New York" has been 
created, and the proceeds of that stock were manifestly in- 
tended solely to apply to the procuring of the supply of wa- 
ter, by the construction of the work down to and including 
the Distributing Reservoir. It is the decided opinion of your 
Committee, that the fund could not have been diverted from 425 
[Doc. No. 32. 
such object without an express Legislative enactment. Such 
has been the construction of the law by every Common Coun- 
cil, since the first Act of 1834. The expenses of the City 
Government became vastly augmented, and amid all the 
changes of party, each being anxious to keep down, at least, 
the show of extravagance, yet no Common Council has been 
willing to charge the expenses of the distributing pipes to 
the water fund, until expressly authorized so to do by law. 
The Board of Water Commissioners, of which Stephen 
Allen was the President, may be supposed to have been well 
acquainted with the original design, and true construction 
of their powers, as they were in office when the plan was 
formed and adopted, and while all the foundations were laid 
for its complete execution. In their semi-annual report of 
December, 1838, after going through with a statement of their 
contracts, beginning at the Croton River and ending with 
the Distributing Reservoir at Murray's Hill, they say, 11 this 
completes the contracts of the whole line of work under the 
superintendence of the Commissioners." It has been left for 
the new Board of Water Commissioners to discover upon the 
eve of the completion of their legitimate duties, that a long 
line of distributing pipes still awaited their fatherly protec- 
tion. 
Your Committee have given to the whole subject a patient 
examination, and they deem it to be manifest that the claim 
of the Water Commissioners to lay the distributing pipes un- 
der the law which appointed them, is without the shadow of 
foundation. 
It is argued by the learned counsel whose opinion is relied 
upon by the Water Commissioners, that the distributing 
pipes form a part, and an essential part, of the plan of sup- 
plying the city with water, and that it would be absurd to 
speak of introducing water for the use of the inhabitants 
without them. 
All this is very true; but it is aside from the true ques- 
tion. When we speak generally of introducing water for the Doc. No. 32.] 
426 
use of the inhabitants of the city, we undoubtedly have re- 
ference to its available use. But people are often in the 
habit of doing one thing at a time, and they often create (for 
the purpose of greater facility) a division of labor. One part 
was referred to the Water Commissioners ; and because the 
other part, that for distributing the water, had for years been 
in the course of successful progress, the Legislature made no 
provision on that subject ; nor is there any room for the re- 
mark that the supply of water might as well be left in the 
Croton, as in the Distributing Reservoir. 
The Corporation of the City have shown some interest in 
preventing so direful a result by having already laid, in anti- 
cipation, about sixty miles of distributing pipes, and by pre- 
paring a complete plan of distribution to be ready as soon as 
the water shall be introduced into the Distributing Reser- 
voir. 
We now come to the Act of March 24, 1838, which ex- 
pressly confers upon the Corporation the right to defray out 
of the water fund all expenses, theretofore incurred, and there- 
after to be incurred by them in procuring and laying distri- 
buting pipes. 
The only remark which your Committee deem it neces- 
sary to make upon this law, is to adopt the language which 
the Water Commissioners have themselves furnished in vin- 
dication of their own claim. 
" It took the control of a large part of the Water Fund out 
of the hands of the Commissioners, where all former laws 
had placed it, and put it in a body of men, who, in the opin- 
ion of one of their Committee, should not be entrusted with 
it." 
The force of this language is not weakened by the unne- 
cessary misquotation from the report to which it referred. 
After this express admission of the effect of the law of 
1838, your Committee cannot understand how the conclu- 
sion of the opinion can be justified or made consistent-*- 
" That the Act of March 24, 1838, allowing the Corporation 427 
[Doc. No. 32. 
to charge the Water Fund with the expense of laying water 
pipes, does not in any manner limit or narrow the power of 
the Commissioners and that " it was and is their duty to 
distribute the water throughout the city." 
It is admitted that the Act of 1838 confers the right claim- 
ed by the Corporation ; but it is insisted that the Water Com- 
missioners have a concurrent right. 
Your Committee have endeavored to show that the pre- 
vious laws did not give to the Water Commissioners the 
power for which they contend, and they urge that it is a most 
extravagant and forced conclusion to suppose that the Legis- 
lature should have intended that two distinct and independ- 
ent bodies should exist, each with power to lay their own set 
of distributing pipes, and thus create a double charge upon 
the Water Fund. It is presuming too much upon human 
credulity to suppose that such was the intention. 
The Act of 1838, in definitively settling the question, as to 
the right claimed by the Corporation, has pressed so hard 
upon the Water Commissioners, and upon those by whom 
their views are sustained, that they have reverted to a criti- 
cism of the term " Water Pipes" as used in the law, which 
your Committee cannot appreciate. They say that the wa- 
ter pipes which the Corporation were thereby authorized to 
charge to the Water Fund, were only pipes for the extin- 
guishment of fires, and not the pipes for the distribution of 
the Croton water. The difficulty about this proposition, for 
the purpose of letting in the Water Commissioners is, that it 
is too ingenious. It seeks to refine away the principle by a 
mere change of names. 
It makes the Legislature the violators of their own laws, 
by diverting the water from its legitimate object. It excludes 
pipes for the extinguishment of fires from being the distribu- 
ters of water ; introduces a new principle of economy, by 
requiring as many sets of pipes as there are uses to which 
the water is to be applied. It supposes that the Corporation 
would be guilty of the extravagance of laying down a set of Doc. No. 32.] 
428 
pipes for the extinguishment of fires, that will cost three mil- 
lions of dollars, and yet not be even intended for the distri- 
bution of the Croton water ; and it farther supposes that the 
Legislature would sanction such a profligate waste of public 
money, by expressly appropriating the Water Fund to a 
useless purpose as connected with the distribution of the 
water. 
This argument cannot be intended for serious considera- 
tion. 
Your Committee can only refer it back to those who make 
charges of " absurdities" and of efforts to misapprehend and 
misrepresent. 
It is urged, on behalf of the Water Commissioners, that 
they alone are vested with authority to use the streets of the 
City for the purpose of introducing the supply of water, and 
that no such power belongs to the Corporation. 
This argument is but a continuation of the error of the 
Water Commissioners, in supposing themselves to be inde- 
pendent of the Corporation. 
By turning to the Act of the Legislature, it will be found 
that this very power is given to the Water Commissioners to 
be exercised " in behalf of the Mayor, Aidermen and Com- 
monalty of the City of New York." But, besides, this pow- 
er is, in express terms, given to all other persons, acting un- 
der the authority of the Mayor, Aidermen and Commonalty. 
The idea is a new one, that the Commissioners should be en- 
abled to do an act in behalf of the Corporation, which the 
Corporation themselves could not do. And moreover, so far 
as the Water Commissioners are concerned, their powers are 
limited to the "purpose of introducing water into the city." 
If the Corporation, for the necessities of the citizens them- 
selves, have no right to use the streets to introduce a supply 
of pure and wholesome water, then have they no such right 
for the extinguishment of fires ; and this great city would 
be left destitute of the ordinary means of self-preservation. 
But the wants of our city have been more carefully provided [Doc. No. 32. 
429 
for. Its ancient charter provides that the Common Council 
shall have full power to establish, appoint, order and direct 
the making and laying out all water courses, not already 
made or laid out; and also the altering, amending, and re- 
pairing all such water courses heretofore made, or hereafter 
to be made in and throughout the city of New York. 
If such a use of any of the public streets of the city could 
be supposed to work an injury to private right, it would fur- 
nish no exemption to the Water Commissioners. 
With reference to the precise point of controversy, the act 
of 1838, (giving to the Corporation the right to charge the 
expense of laying the distributing pipes,) recognizes the right 
of the Corporation to lay the distributing pipes, as clearly as 
if it had expressly granted the right itself. 
It is in fact, an express adoption of the acts of the Corpo- 
ration in laying the distributing pipes, which they had al- 
ready done, and an express permission to the Corporation to 
continue the laying of them. 
It is an old doctrine of law, as well as of common sense, 
that all powers, that are necessary to carry into execution 
an express power, are implied, and incident to the grant of 
the main power. 
The Act of April 27,1840, provides that no part of the fund 
for completing the Croton Aqueduct and distributing the 
water throughout the City, (thereby recognizing the change 
made by the Act of 1838) should be diverted from such ob- 
ject. And the more effectually to carry out such intent, it 
provides that no item of expenditure to be made by the Cor- 
poration, and not approved by the Water Commissioners and 
Comptroller of the City, shall be charged to the debit of the 
Water Fund. 
The question remains-Does this Act give to the Water 
Commissioners the right to interfere, for the purpose of pre- 
venting the fund expressly denominated by the same Act, to 
be " for distributing the water throughout the city," from Doc. No. 32.] 
430 
being diverted from its object, by refusing to allow an item 
of expenditure for the very distributing pipes themselves. 
The law of 1838 stands unyepealed, and this very Act of 
1840 refers to the Water Fund as appropriated since the for- 
mer Act, to the distributing the water throughout the City; 
can then the Water Commissioners in the face of these pro- 
visions, prevent items of expenditure for the laying of distribut- 
ing pipes from being charged to the Water Fund? We say 
they cannot, any more than the Comptroller of the City can 
prevent items of expenditure for the distributing reservoir 
being charged to the same fund. 
Your Committee have no hesitation in saying, that such 
a course to be pursued by the Water Commissioners, if it 
could be effectual, would violate the whole spirit and intent 
of the law. 
But the Water Commissioners must go one step farther. 
After exhausting all the effects of ingenuity to discover some 
ground upon which to rest their claim, and failing in the at- 
tempt, they must claim that by the power of their supposed 
veto, they can constrain the Corporation to yield to their de- 
mands of being substituted, as not only the arbiters, but the 
sole actors of the work. 
The Municipal Government of the City of New York can 
be driven to no such compromise. They may regret to be 
made parties to controversy; but they deem the present 
claim of the Water Commissioners to be a bold and presump- 
tuous experiment, and feel bound to give to it an earnest and 
honest opposition. 
Respectfully submitted. 
PETER COOPER, 
WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN, 
SAMUEL NICHOLS. DOCUMENTS 
Relating to the Controversy between the 
Common Council and the Water 
Commissioners, 
The Croton Aqueduct Committee beg leave respect- 
fully to 
REPORT: 
That, in the discharge of the duties made to devolve upon 
them by the ordinance of the Common Council, constituting 
three members of each Board a Joint Special Committee, and 
making it their duty to t: organize a Department, to be called 
the Croton Aqueduct Department," for the purpose of keep- 
ing a regular account of all expenditures growing out of, or 
connected therewith, and for making all contracts in relation 
to the said Department, and for conducting the water pipes, 
purchasing materials, and distributing the water in this city, 
do report as follows : 
That they have organized the Department, and have, since 
the commencement of their charge, made the several purchases 
of water pipes, and have laid them in the different streets, as 
set forth in the statement hereto annexed. This statement 
will show all the water pipes that have been purchased, and 
the other items of expense that have been incurred in carry- 
ing on the operations of this Department. 
It will appear, that there has been laid, from the 10th day 
of August to the 29th day of September, 2,522 pipes, mea- 
suring three and seven-eighths miles in extent, at a cost of 
nearly of 45 cents per running foot; which includes all the 
cost of digging, laying, leading the joints, filling in, and re- 
paving the streets. Doc. No. 32.] 
432 
CROTON AQUEDUCT DEPARTMENT. 
Return of Pipes laid by this Department, from August 
10 to September 29, inclusive. 
In 
From 
To 
No. of 12-inch. 
No. of 6-inch. 
Length in feet 
of 12 inches. 
Length in feet 
of 6 inches. 
Sullivan .... 
Houston... 
Amity .... 
133 
1120 
Front 
Maiden lane 
Whitehall . 
281 
2250 
Beach, Walker 
Greenwich 
Orange ... 
411 
3290 
Allen &, 1st av. 
Grand .. .. 
Second.... 
323 
2625 
Second 
Avenue A 
Bowery.... 
258 
2060 
Bond 
Bowery ... 
Broadway . 
152 
1216 
Frankfort .. . 
Chatham .. 
Pearl 
175 
1400 
Gold 
Frankfort.. 
Beekman .. 
74 
570 
Franklin .... 
Greenwich 
Broadway . 
252 
2015 
White 
W. B'dway 
Elm 
180 
1505 
Warren 
Greenwich 
Broadway . 
174 
1390 
Murray 
Greenwich 
Church ... 
109 
875 
1 
302, 
1720 
6470 
13846 
6470 
20316ft 
Abstract of Pay Lists, from August 10 to September 29, 
inclusive. 
Pay of men in public yard, employed in the ser- 
vice of this department $ 387 00 
Pay of men in the aqueduct yard do. do. ... 261 62 
Pay for taking up old and defective work 340 38 
Pay for laying down new pipes 4,124 75 
Sum total of pay lists $5,113 75 433 
[Doc. No. 32. 
Lead furnished this department, from August 
10th to September 2d, 1840, 22,868 lbs., at 5 
cents $1,143 40 
From September 2 to 29, 23,374 lbs., at 5| cents 1,340 57 
Do. do. 728 lbs. yarn, at 12| 
cents 95 58 
Shovels, files, wrench, &c 23 35 
Castings-consisting of Hydrants and Stopcocks, manu- 
factured for this Department. 
18 hydrants, at $25 $ 450 00 
30 12-inch stop cocks, at $70 2,100 00 
54 6-inch stop cocks, at $40 2,160 00 
Repairing old hydrants 10 50 
$4,720 50 
Of the above, there have been used, from August 10 to 
September 29, 7 hydrants, 16 12-inch stopcocks, 43 6-inch 
stopcocks ; the remainder is now on hand. And $2,950 50 
of the above amount has been paid by this department. 
The castings for the above articles have been purchased 
and paid for by this department, amounting to 31,128 lbs., 
at 4 cents per lb., $1,245 12. 
The carting of the new pipes has been as follows : 
From August 10 to September 24, 1,478 loads, at 
50 cents per load $739 00 
From September 24 to September 29, 211 loads, at 
37| cents per load 79 12 
* $818 12 
The carting of the old pipes and castings, &c., has 
amounted to 503 loads, price varying from 25 to 
50 cents, according to the distance, amounting to $131 75 
There have been 45 loads of wood brought for 
melting the lead, at $1 75 78 75 
Carting the same, at 25 cents per load 11 25 
$90 00 Doc. No. 32.] 
434 
There have been from August 10 to September 29,'1840, 
11,212 square yards of paving done for this department, 
which includes the old work done after taking up the old 
and decayed pipes, and after the laying down of the new 
pipes; which, at 25 cents per square yard, amounts to 
$2,803 00. 
The repairing of sewers from August 10 to September 
29, has amounted to $49 34, which amount has been paid by 
this department. 
PRICES PAID FOR PIPES. 
Manufacturer, 
12 in. pipes 
Priee per foot. 
Weight. 
James P. Allaire 
....$1 75 
D. C. Wood 
.... 1 60 
760 
Ward, Stillman & Co. .. 
.... 1 90 
580 ) dry sand 
J. Cummings 
.... 1 90 
610 $ castings. 
6-In. pipes. 
James W. Brick 
85 
290 
J. Colwell 
72 8-10 
320 
C. White 
80 
D. C. Wood 
72 8-10 
A. M. Jones 
72 S-10 
5 
Ellicott and Brother .... 
.... 80 8-10 
James W. Brick 
(Contracted for before I entered this office.) 
PETER COOPER, 
SAMUEL NICHOLS, 
WM. CHAMBERLAIN. 435 
[Doc. No. 32. 
OPINION OF THE COUNSEL OF THE 
CORPORATION. 
The Chairman of the Croton Aqueduct Committee has 
submitted for my examination the following question :- 
What are the relative rights and duties of the Corporation 
and the Water Commissioners, as to the laying of pipes, &c. 
south of the Distributing Reservoir at Murray's Hill? 
In considering the appropriate duties of the Water Com- 
missioners, in connection with those of the Corporation, the 
first question which naturally suggests itself, seems to be- 
Who are the Principals, and who the Agents, in this great 
•scheme of supplying the City of New York with water? 
The Corporation of the City, in 1831, proposed to exe- 
cute this work. In 1832 they applied to the Legislature for 
a law to confer upon them the necessary power for supplying 
the city with water. This application was opposed and de- 
feated upon the ground that the feasibility of the project 
did not satisfactorily appear. The Corporation then pro- 
cured examinations, plans, and estimates to be made by the 
most experienced engineers of the country. The result of 
their labors left no doubt of the practicability of the work; 
but the different engineers did not agree, either as to the 
fittest plan to be adopted, or as to the probable cost of the 
work, so that the Corporation was left without, being able to 
settle upon any particular plan of operations. Under these 
circumstances, it was supposed that a second application to 
the Legislature would be equally fruitless. 
It was therefore proposed to have a board .of com- 
petent and disinterested Commissioners, appointed by the 
authority of the State itself, who should be invested with 
power to examine the plans which had already been pre- Doc. No. 32.] 
436 
pared, to cause surveys to be made, to have the water tested, 
to estimate the probable expense, and to make a report to the 
Common Council and to the Legislature of the result: and it 
was farther proposed to follow up the report of such Com- 
missioners, with an application for a law to confer upon the 
Corporation the necessary powers. 
A law was passed February 26, 1833, for the appointment 
of such Commissioners, and to invest them with the powers 
above referred to. The Commissioners reported to the Le- 
gislature at the session of 1834, and thereupon " an Act to 
provide for supplying the City of New York with pure 
and wholesome water," was passed May 2, 1834, upon the 
application of the Common Council. 
Under this Act, the Water Commissioners exercise their 
offices. By the provisions of this law they are required 
" 1st. To examine and consider all matters relative to 
supplying the City of New York with a sufficient quantity 
of pure and wholesome water; to adopt such plan as will be 
most advantageous for securing such supply, and to report a 
full statement and description of the plan adopted by them. 
u 2d. To ascertain, as near as may be, what amount of 
money may be necessary to carry the same into effect. 
" 3d. To report an estimate of the probable amount of 
revenue that will accrue to the city, upon the completion of 
the work, and the reasons and calculations upon which 
their estimate may be founded ; such report to be made and 
presented to the Common Council of this City, on or before 
the first day of January, 1836." 
So far, it is perceived that the only object of appointing 
the Water Commissioners was to decide upon the conflicting 
reports of the Engineers, to adopt the best plan, and to esti- 
mate the probable expense, and, in fine, to form a Board of 
Umpirage, whose decision could be relied upon by the pub- 
lic, as forming the most correct conclusion from all the 
varied sources of information, and from which it might be 
determined whether the proposal to supply the city with wa- 437 
[Doc. No. 32. 
ter was practicable, and such as should be carried into effect. 
The plan adopted by the Commissioners was to be reported 
to the Common Council, and only in case of approval by 
them, was to be submitted to the electors of the city. 
If a majority of the electors should be in favor of the mea- 
sure, then it should be lawful for the Common Council to 
instruct the Commissioners to proceed in the work, and it 
should farther be lawful for the Common Council to raise by 
loan, from time to time, and in such amounts as they 
might think fit, a sum not exceeding two millions five hun- 
dred thousand dollars. 
The Act farther provides that upon the confirmation of 
the proceedings for taking the lands required for the work, 
the Corporation shall become seized of the lands in fee. 
The Commissioners, according to the terms of the law, act 
" in behalf of the Corporation^ in the exercise of various 
powers therein mentioned. In the sixteenth section of the 
Act, which imposes penalties for injuries committed, the 
work, materials and property are expressly referred to as be- 
ing erected and used by the Corporation ; and unless the 
work is considered as done by the Corporation, or by the 
Commissioners, acting under the authority of the Corpora- 
tion, the whole section is entirely nugatory. The Corpora- 
tion are required to erect and sustain fences along the line of 
the work. The Corporation shall erect and sustain conve- 
nient passes across or under the aqueduct, &c. The Water 
Commissioners shall semi annually, or at any time, if re- 
quired by the Common Council, report to the Corporation 
a general exhibition of the state of the work, including a 
full detail of the amount expended, and of the progress made 
in furtherance of the contemplated object. 
In view of these provisions, and from the whole tenor and 
spirit of the various Acts of the Legislature, it would seem 
to be apparent that the Corporation of the City, who origina- 
ted this greatest scheme of modern days, and who, in its exe- 
cution, has assumed the highest responsibilities which be- Doc. No. 32 ] 
438 
long to them, are to be considered the Founders, the Patrons, 
and the Proprietors of the work, and that by them and 
through their means and instrumentality the project is now 
being accomplished. The Water Commissioners have been 
performing a most useful part. They have bestowed great 
talents and industry upon the work, and have faithfully su- 
perintended the disbursement of the money. But without 
any disparagement of their labors, the Corporation of the 
City are the principals, and the Commissioners are only the 
agents in the work. 
The Commissioners have derived their authority to pro- 
ceed with the work from the instructions of the Common 
Council. It is my opinion that the Common Council have 
the ri<jht to withdraw those instructions, and that thence- 
forth the powers of the Commissioners to proceed farther 
with the work would cease. The Commissioners cannot be 
considered as having any vested rights in the matter. 
Under the eleventh section of the Act of 1834, the amount 
to be raised thereby was to be expended for the purpose of 
supplying the City of New York with pure and wholesome 
water, according to the plan adopted and ratified as afore- 
said, with such immaterial alterations as might be neces- 
sary, and by and under the direction of the Commissioners. 
The Commissioners claim that, as the moneys are to be 
expended by and under their direction, this extends to au- 
thorizing them to do the work of laying the pipes through 
the streets of the city south of the Distributing Reservoir. 
Independent of all other objections to such conclusion, the 
" plan for procuring the supply of water," which was adopt- 
ed by the Commissioners, and ratified by the Common Coun- 
cil and by the people, had no reference to any part of the 
work south of Murray's Hill ; and to the completing of this 
plan the expenditure of the moneys under the direction of the 
Commissioners was confined. 
The great object of employing the Engineers and Survey- 
ors was to ascertain the sources from which, and the means 439 
[Doc. No. 32. 
whereby, to procure a supply of water; and the appointment 
of Commissioners was for the same object. The procuring 
of the water, and the distributing of the water, formed two 
entirely distinct propositions. The one novel in its charac- 
ter, requiring great science in its research, and skill in its 
execution. The other an ordinary and accustomed business, 
requiring neither the aid of Engineers or of Commissioners, 
and for a long time connected with the settled policy of the 
city. As to the latter, the plan was already formed, and, in 
part, executed, before the Croton Aqueduct was thought of, 
the supply being from other sources, and for other purposes 
of consumption ; but not interfering with their appropriation 
to distributing the Croton water. The first Commissioners 
understood their duties as applicable only to procuring a 
supply of water, and as ended when that supply should be 
safely deposited in the Distributing Reservoir at Murray's 
Hill. They have not considered themselves as in any re- 
spect charged with the distribution of the water through the 
city. The surveys and estimates of the Engineers were all 
confined to the limits between the Croton River and the Dis- 
tributing Reservoir. In the first report of the Commission- 
ers, under the Act of 1833, they say, " The Commissioners 
having understood that a proposition of the Manhattan Com- 
pany, to dispose of their works to the Corporation, is now 
under the consideration of the Common Council, and ob- 
serving, by a printed circular from that Company, that they 
have twenty-five miles of pipes now laid down in this city; 
and having also been informed that the Corporation have 
about ten and a half miles of pipe extending in different di- 
rections from their reservoir on Thirteenth street, they have 
not deemed it necessary, under these circumstances, to enter 
into a calculation of the cost of the pipes that may be re- 
quired to distribute the water in the different parts of the city. 
The estimates which have been made are for bringing the 
water to the Distributing Reservoir." 
In their second report, under the Act of 1834, they speak Doc. No. 32.] 
440 
of the line terminating on a smooth elevation, between the 
Fifth and Sixth avenues, at Thirty-eighth street, a position 
well adapted for the location of a Distributing Reservoir; 
and they speak of the estimates as applying to an aqueduct 
that will deliver the whole of the water of the Croton, if 
required, at the Distributing Reservoir near Thirty-eighth 
street. 
The Commissioners do, indeed, append to their report an 
estimate of Mr. Wenman, the Water Purveyor of the city, for 
leading the water from the Distributing Reservoir through 
the streets of the city ; but they do not adopt his estimate, 
nor does it enter into the plan adopted and proposed by 
them. As to the extent of their plan this is their language: 
" The Commissioners propose that a dam, of sufficient ele- 
vation, be erected, near the mouth of the Croton River, and 
from thence, the water to be conducted, in a close stone 
aqueduct to Harlaem River. The river to be crqssed by in- 
verted syphons of wrought iron pipe of eight feet diameter, 
formed in the manner that steam boilers arc. From the south 
side of the river, a line of stone aqueduct will again com- 
mence, and proceed across Manhattan Valley to the Distri- 
buting Reservoir at Murray^s Hill." 
The Committee of the Common Council, to whom the 
communication of the Water Commissioners was referred, 
understood that the plan which they were to approve and 
submit to the people, was, the procuring of wTater from the 
Croton, and depositing it in the reservoir at Murray's Hill, 
ready for distribution. 
They say, " The Water* Commissioners report to the Com- 
mon Council the following opinions, as the result of their 
labors, namely : 
" That all the water of the Croton River may be taken 
from near its mouth, and brought to the City of New York, 
in an aqueduct, declining fifteen inches in the mile, and de- 
livered in a reservoir, on Murray's Hill, one hundred and 
fourteen feet ten inches above high tide water line-which is 441 
[Doc. No. 32. 
near seven feet higher than the roof of the highest building 
in the city. 
" That the water of the Croton is limpid and pure, and fit 
for use at the place where they propose it should be taken 
from the river ; that the whole river can be brought to Mur- 
ray's Hill, in a close aqueduct of masonry, at an expense of 
four millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, and 
there deposited in reservoirs, ready for distribution. 
" That the revenue which would accrue to the city, from 
very low charges for supplying the water, would overpay the 
interest on the cost of the work. 
" These form the great facts upon which the Common 
Council are now called upon to act, and in the first instance, 
to pronounce their judgment, whether the work shall, or 
shall not proceed." 
" The question remains, ought the Corporation of the City 
of New York to embark in this great work?" 
11 It is stated above, that the estimated expense of 
bringing the Croton to Murray's Hill, is about $4,250,000 
11 To this is to be added the estimated expense 
of laying the water pipes in the city to distri- 
bute the water 1,262,000 
Total expense $5,512,000 
" The work of laying the water pipes is now, and for some 
years has been, in the course of execution. It is a part of 
the settled policy of the city, as to its public improvements, 
and, as connected with its public wells, for the extinguish- 
ment of fires. The cost thereof may, therefore, with pro- 
priety, be deducted from the above amount; and, in consi- 
dering the question now under discussion, the estimated cost 
of bringing the river to Murray's Hill, may be taken as 
the amount affecting the question." Doc, No. 32.] 
442 
The resolution proposed by that report, and adopted by 
the Common Council, was as follows: 
11 Resolved, That the plan adopted by the Water Commis- 
sioners for the City of New York, for supplying the City of 
New York with a sufficient quantity of pure and wholesome 
water, for the use of its inhabitants, and described in their 
report made to the Board of Aidermen on the 16th day of 
February last, be, and the same hereby is approved." 
It seems perfectly clear, therefore, that the plan adopted 
by the Water Commissioners, and approved by the Common 
Council, had reference to the line of work from the Croton 
River to the Receiving Reservoir at Murray's Hill. 
The Commissioners, in their semi-annual report of De- 
cember, 1838, after going through with a statement of their 
contracts, beginning at the Croton River and ending with 
the Distributing Reservoir at Murray's Hill, say : " This com? 
pletes the contracts under the whole line of work under the 
superintendence of the Commissioners." 
The Act of 1834, therefore, gave no authority to the Water 
Commissioners to expend the money, thereby authorized to 
be raised, for any other purpose than in the prosecution of 
the work as far down as Murray's Hill; and as the Commis- 
sioners derive their claim to direct the work, by implication, 
from the authority to direct the expenditure of the moneys, 
all their powers must necessarily be limited to the line ter- 
minating at Murray's Hill. 
To show that the money authorized to be raised by the 
Act of 1834, could not be appropriated to the laying of dis- 
tributing pipes in the city, and that consequently the Water 
Commissioners, under the Act of 1834, had no direction 
over them, it became necessary, by the Act of March 24, 
1838, to provide as follows: "It shall be lawful for the 
Mayor, Aidermen and Commonalty of the City of New York, 443 
[Doc. No. 32. 
to defray, out of the public fund, called the 'Water Stock 
of the City of New York,' all expenses heretofore incur- 
red, and hereafter to be incurred, by the said Mayor, Ai- 
dermen and Commonalty, in procuring and laying water 
pipes in and for the said City of New York." 
This Act recognized that the water pipes through the city 
had been theretofore laid by the Corporation, and that they 
would be thereafter laid by them. 
The Corporation are to defray, out of the Water Fund, 
the expenses thereafter to be incurred by them in laying 
water pipes in the city. 
Here is no power given to the Water Commissioners. 
The Corporation are to be their own paymasters. The Com- 
missioners are to have no discretion in the matter. It is a 
peremptory and exclusive power to the Corporation, to con- 
tinue the laying of distributing pipes at the expense of the 
Water Fund. 
It is supposed, however, that the Act of April 27, 1840, 
gives to the Commissioners the power which they claim. 
By the 5th section of that Act it is provided that " no part 
of the fund created by this Act, or any other fund raised for 
the purpose of constructing or completing the Croton Aque- 
duct and the works connected therewith, and distributing 
the water throughout the city, shall be diverted from such 
object; and no item of expenditure hereafter to be made by 
the Corporation of the City of New York, and not approved 
by the Water Commissioners and Comptroller of said City, 
shall be charged by the Corporation of the said City to the 
debit of the said fund; but this provision shall not apply to 
the refunding of advances heretofore made by the said Cor- 
poration for or on account of the said aqueduct, or the water 
pipes connected therewith," • 
It cannot be contended that by this provision any power 
of direction over the work is given to the Commissioners 
And if the Commissioners mean to insist that the expendi- 
tures for the water pipes cannot be charged to the Water Doc. No. 32.] 
444 
Fund, unless they approve of such expenditures; and that 
they will not give their approval unless they are allowed to 
assume the direction of the work itself, it will be well so to 
understand them. But these Commissioners are gentlemen 
of high standing, and cannot be supposed to put forward 
such a claim. 
Let us examine, however, the just construction of this 
section, in the Act of 1840. What is intended by the " items 
of expenditure" to be approved by the Commissioners and 
Comptroller, before they can be charged against the Water 
Fund. 
The section commences, "no part of the fund created by 
this Act, or any other fund raised for the purpose of con- 
structing or completing the Croton Aqueduct, and the works 
connected therewith, and distributing the water throughout 
the city, shall be diverted from such object? This was the 
object to be guarded against. The remainder of the section 
was only to provide the means of carrying that object into 
execution. The Legislature had, themselves, already pro- 
vided that the cost of the water pipes should be charged to the 
Water Fund ; it could not have been their intention, there- 
fore, to give to the Commissioners or Comptroller the right 
to exclude these items of expenditure. That would not be 
necessary to guard the fund from being diverted from its le- 
gitimate object, because the Legislature had itself autho- 
rized such items of expenditure as against the fund. The 
provisions of the law of 1838, authorizing the Corporation 
to incur expenses for water pipes, and to defray such ex- 
penses out of the Water Fund, is not repealed. The Corpora- 
tion go on and incur such expenses ; have the Water Com- 
missioners the right to interpose their veto and prevent their 
being charged? such a construction is unnecessary to carry 
out the intent of the Legislature, which was merely to pre- 
vent the misappropriation of the Water Fund, and it is incon- 
sistent with the law of 1838. 
The provisions of the Act of 1840 must have a practical 445 
[Doc. No. 32. 
construction. The Corporation are authorized to make their 
contracts for water pipes, and they alone are so authorized. 
After the work has been done and the expenditure has ac- 
crued, the " items of expenditure" are presented to the Water 
Commissioners and Comptroller for their approval-and 
either of those officers choose to object. Do they object that 
the work itself is not properly chargeable to the Water 
Fund? They cannot do so, because that is already settled 
by law; and the Act of 1840 was not intended so blindly 
and so much, by hidden implication, to repeal the former 
Act. Do they object to the amount of the expenditure? 
That was not intended to be within their province. The 
Commissioners cannot control the terms of the contracts. 
The Corporation make the bargain, as they lawfully may ; 
and after the whole work is accomplished and the money 
paid, how vain it would be to allow the Water Commission- 
ers to determine that the Corporation had been cheated, and 
that the price was too high, and that consequently it should 
form no charge against the fund. 
If the Legislature had intended to vest any such right of 
so auditing the accounts of the Corporation, in the Water 
Commissioners, they could only, properly and effectually 
have conferred such power, by giving to the Water Commis- 
sioners the whole authority to make the contracts, and to do 
the work themselves. But they have not done so. The 
Commissioners, however, in the first place, construe the law 
to mean, that they shall have the right of supervising the 
contracts of the Corporation, and of determining their just 
economy, and because this involves the absurdity of exer- 
cising their control, after the whole mischief has been done, 
(for after the contract has been made it must be performed,) 
they claim to themselves the right of originating the con- 
tracts ; and thus, in the only effectual way, of striking at the 
root of the whole evil. This is a happy way of remedying 
the defects of a law. But the law clearly intended that the 
items alone were to be approved or disapproved by the Wa- Doc. No. 32.] 
446 
ter Commissioners and Comptroller, as determining the ques- 
tion whether the fund was being diverted from its legitimate 
object. The Corporation are most interested in preserving 
the economy of their expenditures. And the Legislature did 
not intend to do them the injustice of supposing that they 
needed overseers in that respect. 
The approval of the items of expenditures is to be a joint 
act, by the Water Commissioners and Comptroller. What- 
ever authority is to be derived from this clause, may be 
claimed by the Comptroller equally with the Commis- 
sioners. 
If the exercise of such a power of controlling the amounts 
of the expenditures on the part of the Commissioners, would 
be inconvenient and impracticable, how much more so would 
it be for the Comptroller to determine that the Water Com- 
missioners had agreed to pay too much for their deep cut- 
tings, their fillings, their mason work, &c. And the Com- 
missioners, perhaps would be, in no small degree, astonished 
to find some of their bills returned back upon themselves as 
not chargeable to the Water Fund, upon the ground of their 
supposed extravagance. And if this interpretation of the 
Commissioners be correct, the question might then be a se- 
rious one, whether the Commissioners had not involved 
themselves in liabilities which they had not anticipated. 
I am of opinion that the Water Commissioners have no 
right to make any contracts or to do any work south of the 
Distributing Reservoir, and that their approval of bills for 
the laying of distributing pipes, is unnecessary to their being 
charged to their Water Fund. 
Respectfully submitted. 
P. A. COWDREY. 447 
[Doc. No. 32. 
New York Water Commissioners' Office, 
October 1st, 1840. 
To his Honor the Mayor, and the Boards of Aldermen and 
Assistant Aldermen of the City of Next) Nork : 
The undersigned, the Board of Water Commissioners, 
have to acknowledge the receipt of an ordinance of the Cor- 
poration, approved by the Mayor on the 24th ult., relating 
to the duties of the Board of Water Commissioners, which, 
in their judgment, calls upon them to make this communi- 
cation to your honorable bodies. 
The laws constituting the Board of Water Commissioners 
emanated from the Common Council in 1833 and 4, and 
were petitioned for by your predecessors. The policy of 
these laws vested in this Board, at your instance, powers 
which, under common cases, would have belonged to the 
Corporation of the City ; they, in fact, made this commis- 
sion, the Corporation, so far as this great undertaking was 
concerned. 
It is unnecessary now to stop to inquire whether your pre- 
decessors under-estimated their successors and overrated the 
Board of Water Commissioners who might thereafter be 
found in power ; or whether they acted wisely in taking from 
their successors the control and exclusive management of the 
Croton Water Works, and placing the funds raised for that 
purpose in this Board ; and perhaps it was equally unwise 
in the people, at the ballot boxes, to have ratified the system 
which was proposed for the creation of a Board of Water 
Commissioners with exclusive powers, to construct this 
work, entirely independent of the Corporation. But so again 
the fact was ; and, by the statute, the Water Commissioners 
were exclusively empowered to agree with the owners of the 
land to be taken ; and they only, and the persons acting un- 
der their authority, were vested with the "right to use the Doc. No. 32.] 
448 
ground or soil under any street, highway, or road within this 
State, for the purpose of introducing water into the City of 
New York." And all the materials belonging to contractors, 
when brought upon the work, were exempted from execu- 
tion, even before payment of them or receipt of them by the 
Commissioners. 'And the Commissioners were directed to 
make contracts, and the State Laws directed that " the Com- 
mon Council shall make it the duty of the Comptroller to 
pay such drafts in every case where a deed, or other vouch- 
er, or a copy of a contract, had been filed in his, the Comp- 
troller's office." 
These unusual powers were conferred, not on the Corpo- 
ration, but on the Water Commissioners. 
By an Act of 1838 your honorable bodies were authorized 
to charge the expenses you had been put to in laying down 
the pipes for the extinguishment of fires, and for pipes which 
you mio^ht hereafter lay down. But, in 1840, the Legisla- 
ture called upon the Corporation for explanations as to cer- 
tain large items charged to the Water Fund; and although, 
after the explanations of the Corporation, they granted the 
loan of three millions for the purpose of supplying the City 
of New York with pure water, yet it was to be expended 
" according to the provisions of the Act thereby amended," 
which was the Act of 1834, and of course not according to 
the provisions of the Act of 1838, permitting the Corporation 
to take a part of these funds to expend in laying down pipes. 
And to make the meaning of the Legislature still more ex- 
plicit, the Act of 1840 directed that 11 no item of expenditure 
thereafter to be made by the Corporation of the City of New 
York, and not approved by the Water Commissioners," 
should be charged by the Corporation of the City of New 
York to the debit of this fund. And still farther, by an ex- 
ception, making their intention more explicit, it was enacted 
that this was not to apply to the refunding of the money the 
Corporation had already expended for water pipes. So the 
law stood shortly after the present Commissioners came into 449 
[Doc. No. 32. 
office. The Corporation were then engaged in laying down 
pipes ; the bills were presented to us ; and, it being the wind- 
ing up, as we supposed, of the old system, we approved 
them, and they were charged to the Water Fund. 
In May last, the Corporation appeared to be going on lay- 
ing down pipes under the former plan, which, as far as we 
were enabled to judge, was without system and at great 
expense. We asked a conference with the Joint Committee 
of the two Boards of the Common Council on this subject, 
which was acceded to ; and Mr. Jervis, the Chief Engineer 
of this Board, informed your Joint Committees that the work, 
as conducted by the Corporation, was going on in a puerile 
manner. Still there appeared no intention, on the part of 
the members of the Corporation, to let this subject go, where 
the laws of the State appeared to intend it should. 
The Corporation organized a new department and appoint- 
ed a new " Aqueduct Commissioner," and put this work un- 
der his direction. This Board, anxious only for the credit of 
the whole work, that these pipes should be laid down in a 
proper and economical manner, hoped that this new organi- 
zation might, although we doubted it, in future proceed in 
such manner that the opinions of this Board and their en- 
gineers might be all applied to this important branch of the 
Water Works. Our engineers accordingly went to Phila- 
delphia with a part of this commission and some of the Cor- 
poration Committee ; and, after procuring all the information 
in their power, our engineers made one general map for the 
laying of pipes throughout the city, and furnished the Com- 
mittee, on their application, with the same; informing them, 
at the same time, if our plan was to be carried into execution, 
that we would prepare sectional or district maps on so large 
a scale as to show where each pipe was to be placed in the 
street; which was considered by them an important feature 
in the plan, because, otherwise, a whole street might be re- 
quired to be dug up before discovering where a pipe laid. 
We presumed the plan Was adopted ; yet the important Doc. No. 32.] 
450 
sectional, or district maps, have never been asked for, nor 
made; and our Engineers inform us that pipes are not now 
in progress of being laid down agreeable to their general 
plan. The importance of such district plans must be obvi- 
ous, when it is even now said that, of the thirty-five miles of 
pipes laid down, no one knows whether they are laid in the 
middle or on the side of streets, nor where the branches or 
stopcocks are placed, nor the size of the pipes ; and that it 
cannot with certainty be told even in what streets the pipes 
are laid I 
The new " Aqueduct Commissioner" proceeds (as we per- 
ceive by the state of the streets,) with the work, and on the 
7th ult. five bills from his department were presented to this 
Board, through the Comptroller, for our approval, that they 
might be paid out of the Water Fund. On the presentation 
of these bills, it became necessary that we should have some 
means of judging with what economy and in what manner 
this work was progressing. 
The following letter was, without delay, addressed to the 
Aqueduct Commissioner, from whose department these ac- 
counts originated: 
"New York Water Commissioners' Oefice, 
"September 11, 1840. 
« To H A. Norris, Esq., Aqueduct Commissioner, corner 
Bowery and Stanton street. 
" SIR)-The Board of Water Commissioners beg leave to 
call on you, to know through what streets the pipes have 
been laid down, for which you render your bills from August 
19th to September 2d, and also the number and the size of 
pipes laid; also the quantity of lead used in making the 
joints of the same ; also as relates to the bill of paving, 
whether the whole of this bill, amounting to $903 25, is ap- 
plicable exclusively to the laying down of the pipes in your 451 
[Doc. No. 32. 
bill above referred to ; and if the three carting bills, amount- 
ing to $203 75, are wholly applicable to the carting of the 
above pipes. Also, if you will please send to this office one 
of the six-inch and one of the twelve-inch stopcocks which 
you are using. 
" Very respectfully, your ob't serv't, 
"SAMUEL STEVENS, 
" President." 
We think it will hardly be said, that the information re- 
quired by the preceding letter was irrelavent, or in the man- 
ner improperly requested; without it, we had no means to 
enable us to form any opinion as to the reasonableness of the 
bills presented for approval. 
No answer was ever returned to us in reply to that letter, 
nor have the pattern stopcocks been left with us. 
Had the Aqueduct Commissioner answered the letter, he 
might have explained to us how it was that the bill of Bun- 
ting & Co., for lead, amounting to $1360 80, furnished be- 
tween the 5th of August and the 2d of September, was 
charged at five cents per lb, when the dealers have since in- 
formed us that the average price for lead during August 
(when it was purchased,) was but $4 27 per 100 lb., at a 
credit of six and nine months, when five cents per lb. are paid 
on nearly a cash transaction. The last purchase of lead, by 
this Commissioner, was at four cents per lb., at six months 
credit. 
It might have been explained, too, how it was that Wan- 
dell's bill of repaving the streets, amountingto $903 25, was 
charged at the rate of twenty-five cents per yard, when the 
Street Commissioner estimated such work, to this Board, at 
about twelve and a half cents per yard. 
He might have explained how it was, that laying down a 
certain number of pipes (supposed by us, [for we had to guess 
at it,] to amount, in extent, to one mile,) should have cost 
$2112 43, when Mr. Jervis, our Engineer, estimated that it Doc. No. 32.] 
452 
would cost, by contract, $920 ; and how it was, that in a la- 
bor bill for laying down these pipes, amounting to $1209 18, 
the average price of the labor is $1 25 per day for each man. 
And so in the bill of T. & G. Rowe, for stopcock castings, 
amounting to $451, and the bill of James Robertson, for fitting 
up said stopcocks, amounting to $1080, they are charged at 
the rate of $97 48 for each twelve-inch stopcock. That is 
to say, the average cost of the nine sets is $27 48 each, and 
the price charged for fitting them up is $70 each ; making 
for each twelve-inch stopcock $97 48. Mr. Jervis, our Chief 
Engineer, informs us that he is offered the twelve-inch stop- 
cock, of the most approved construction, for $80, including 
fitting up, being $17 48 on each less than those charged in 
the bills presented for our approval; and, in addition to this, 
there is good reason to doubt if the stopcock the Corporation 
are now using, ought to be used at any price. Mr. Robert- 
son submitted apian to our predecessors and engineers during 
the time of our predecessors, and it was disapproved of by 
them. And although Mr. Robertson has changed the plan of 
his stopcock again, yet this alteration, or new plan, in the 
opinion of our engineers, makes it more objectionable than 
that which our predecessors discarded. Therefore it was 
that we asked that a set of each should be sent to this office, 
that they might undergo an examination. 
We have no answer to the explanations we asked of the 
officers of the Corporation, except we are to consider that 
we have an answer in the ordinance of your Honorable 
Bodies, referred to in this communication, against which it 
is our duty, in some particulars at least, to remonstrate. 
The first section directs the Comptroller to charge the 
Water Fund with our requisitions north of, and including 
the Distributing Reservoir at Forty second street, and to 
charge the requisitions of the Corporation Aqueduct Com- 
missioner, for ail the expenses south of the Distributing Re- 
servoir. And the fourth section is of like import. 
And you assume the right to limit this commission to the 453 
[Doc. No. 32. 
Distributing Reservoir at Murray's Hill; yet our predeces- 
sors, in presenting the Corporation, in 1835, with the origi- 
nal plans for this work, included a plan for laying down the 
mains, and the distributing pipes throughout the city, the 
estimated cost of which was $ 1,261,627; and these were 
the plans adopted by the State Law, and directed with such 
immaterial alterations as might be deemed necessary, to be 
carried into effect by the Water Commissioners. 
And although, in a late communication to the Corporation, 
this Board of Water Commissioners remarked, that it had 
been reported that the late Commissioners supposed their 
powers were limited, by the original law, to Fortieth street; 
yet this report, it appears, was not correct; for Mr. Allen, 
the late Chairman of our predecessors in office, called to say 
that we were in error in this respect; and that they had 
never supposed the powers of the Water Commissioners 
were limited to Fortieth street. If the Water Commission- 
ers were confined to the limit of Fortieth street, by the State 
Laws, then no provision was embraced by these most ample 
statutes of 1834 and 1835, for conducting water into the city 
11 for the use of the inhabitants," (which are the words of 
the law,) beyond Fortieth street. And we would respect- 
fully ask, if this Board are limited to Fortieth street, by the 
State Laws, how it was that the Corporation asked our pre- 
decessors, as early as 1836, to go on and lay down the dis- 
tributing pipes throughout the city? 
"The Croton water not being ready to be supplied, and 
the late Commissioners wanting all the money for the aque- 
duct that the State had voted, and the Corporation not then 
having funds to hand over to the Water Commissioners, ap- 
pear to have been the reasons for our predecessors not exe- 
cuting this work. 
The Corporation could not have wished our predecessors to 
have undertaken duties which they were not authorized, by 
the State Laws, to perform; or is it, that what was sufficiently Doc. No. 32.] 
454 
good law for our predecessors to proceed with, is no law 
for us ? 
An how is it that the Corporation never assumed they 
could carry on this work, or use these funds, until the clause 
was introduced into the Tax Bill of 1838, allowing payment 
for the pipes laid down ? If this commission, therefore, had 
not the power, under the State Laws, to lay down these 
pipes, then, certainly, nobody had it. 
Again ; all the authority that the Corporation claimed, is, 
to lay down the pipes. Who is to contract for, and see exe- 
cuted, the contracts for the hydrants, the connecting pipes 
with the dwellings? Who is to make the necessary waste 
weirs? Who is to make a reservoir, still lower down in the 
city, to give head in the compact part of it, or increase the 
heighth of that in Thirteenth street? Where are the funds 
to come from? What funds are to pay for the Manhattan 
Company's pipes, or any of their works? Can it be done, 
except by contract, made with this Board ? And cannot this 
Board take, by appraisal, their whole establishment, if needs 
be? We apprehend they can, although the means of pro- 
curing it by negotiation, (which we understand is sug- 
gested,) is far preferable. If our powers are limited to For- 
tieth street, we can furnish no facilities to carry out what 
might be your wishes in any of these respects. 
The third section of the Corporation Ordinance enacts, 
that no contract, hereafter made by the Water Commission- 
ers, shall be binding on the Common Connell until ratified 
by the Common Council. 
Now the Water Commissioners do not derive any of their 
powers to make contracts from your Honorable Bodies. And 
we say respectfully, that we shall continue to make contracts 
for the work, as heretofore made, and furnish, as the law of 
the State directs, your Comptroller with copies of the same; 
if our requisitions are not paid, as heretofore, that then we 
shall draw upon the Comptroller in favor of each individual 455 
[Doc. No. 32. 
contractor, as from time to time his money becomes due. It 
must be for the judicial tribunals of the country to decide, 
whether this Board is authorized to make such drafts,. and 
whether your Honorable Bodies are bound to pay them. 
We shall certainly regret, if the declaration on the part of 
the Common Council, through this ordinance, that " you 
will not pay our contracts, unless they are first ratified by 
the Common Council" prevents our contracting for the 
work, with the advantage that our predecessors, as well as 
ourselves, have heretofore enjoyed. 
We will most readily furnish, agreeably to the new ordi- 
nance, a monthly account of the contingent expenses, al- 
though our predecessors furnished only a semi-annual ac- 
count; and in all other respects, we will comply with the 
instructions of the Corporation, when they do not attempt to 
set at defiance the laws of the State, or to deprive us of powers 
vested in us by the Acts of the Legislature. 
In another section of the ordinance, the Corporation have 
been pleased to limit our draft for the contingent fund 
(which has always been a monthly draft) to $5,000. We 
last month drew $7,500, and expended $9,500. The ba- 
lance now on hand, of this fund, is $47 10, which is in 
bank, to the credit of the President of this Board of Water 
Commissioners' account, as the account sent the Comptroller 
will show. 
Although this fund is called 11 contingent," its name does 
not fully indicate its character; as, for instance, the monthly 
expense of laying down pipes between the reservoirs, and the 
pay rolls of the Engineer Department, (last month amount- 
ing to $4,674 03,) is paid out of this fund; and these 
amounts are included in this account, to save labor to the 
Comptroller; if not so introduced, we should have to draw 
an additional hundred requisitions for drafts to be issued by 
the Comptroller, signed by the Mayor and the Clerk of the 
Common Council. The Common Council have no law for 
limiting this draft, aad they certainly displayed no courtesy Doc. No. 32.] 
456 
in doing so, without asking us how much would be required 
for this contingent fund. In our opinion we shall require 
$7,500 for the current months, (being the same amount 
drawn for, for the last month,) and we have drawn for it: 
and we pray the Corporation to repeal their ordinance, and 
to direct the Comptroller to pay this draft. 
There are two or three subjects we take leave to advert to, 
which are independent of the ordinance, but which furnish 
additional reasons for the conclusion this Board has come to, 
in relation to the laying down of pipes. 
We learn that the line of pipes, lately laid down in Second 
street, consists of six-inch pipes, from the East River to 
Allen street-then, from Allen street to the Bowery, twelve- 
inch pipes are laid; and then from the Bowery, on towards 
Broadway, again, six-inch pipes are laid. It is said, the 
neighborhood being surprised, asked the reason of this ex- 
pensive and irregular mode of doing the work, and were 
answered that they had used up all the six-inch pipe on 
hand! 
Again, we are informed, that in laying down the pipes in 
Walker street, at the usual depth of from four to five feet, 
an obstruction of a gas pipe presented itself. The Corpora- 
tion could not remove it without becoming trespassers, they 
having consented to its being there laid. The pipes were 
accordingly laid within about two feet of the surface, when, in 
several instances, during the last winter, pipes have frozen 
and burst when under ground three and a-half feet. 
The Water Commissioners, under the Laws of the State 
have the right to remove, and could have removed the ob- 
structing pipe to some other suitable place, and probably 
would have done so. The difficulties arising in this case 
from want of legal authority on the part of the Corporation, 
in a severe winter, in the case of fire, might be serious be- 
yond calculation. 
And, in addition to the above reasons why this work 
should be done in this office, is the fact that the work is now 457 
[Doc. No. 32. 
doing by the Corporation by days' work, whereas we should 
do it by contract-although we admit, for the laying down 
of the very large pipes, the lead connections were, by our 
predecessors done by days' work, yet it was done at the in-4 
stance of the engineer, being then entirely a new kind of 
work, to enable them to judge what price, in future, con- 
tracts ought to be made at, for like work. 
We perceive the Corporation Aqueduct Commissioner is 
advertising for proposals for furnishing pipes cast " directly 
from the ore, or from remelted iron." The pipes which our 
predecessors contracted for, they stipulated should be cast 
from pig iron, remelted ; and our engineers have expressed 
very decided opinions, that such are the only pipes which 
ought to be used in the work, especially for the large mains. 
And, from the best information we are able to obtain, we are 
led to the conclusion, that pipes of such sizes as are required 
for the principal mains in the city have not only never been 
cast directly from the ore, but, if so east, would be entirely 
unfit to be used in situations where strength and durability 
are so important as in a work upon which thousands will be 
entirely dependant for a daily supply of the indispensable ar- 
ticle, water. 
By the advertisement, the foundries of the country will 
suppose, that the " blast furnace" pipes will probably be con- 
tracted for, and therefore, instead of proposing for the only 
kind of castings which should be used, they will, probably, 
propose only for the description of castings generally used for 
the smaller pipes : they not generally having the necessary 
apparatus for the kind of castings which are approved. 
Again ; the pipes of 36 inches diameter, which we are lay- 
ing down, are of only one inch thickness. The Corporation 
Aqueduct Commissioner advertises for pipes of an inch and 
a half, being fifty per cent, more weight and expense. If 
the Corporation Commissioner is right, and our description 
of pipe fail, then he will derive no advantage from his supe- Doc. No. 32.] 
458 
rlor pipe, for he will have no water. Would it not therefore? 
be right that our Engineers should conform to his judgment, 
or that the pipes he advertises for should have conformed to 
those approved and put down under the direction of this de- 
partment. 
The instances herein referred to, of want of skill and ta- 
lent somewhere, came accidentally to our knowledge : we 
should not have mentioned t am in this communication, un- 
less to do away an impression that we are disposed to make 
trouble unnecessarily to any body. We only act on the de- 
fensive, and in our own justification. 
Now there being nothing in the law, confining the Water 
Commissioners to Fortieth street on the Island, we have ad- 
vertised and contracted for, and it is our intention to proceed 
to excavate the Fifth avenue for the foundation of the large 
mains, most of which are thirty-six inches diameter, so as to 
Connect them with the pipes laid down for distribution. We 
have been led, in addition to the reasons given, the more to 
take this step, from a consideration that the work requires the 
science, judgment and experience of such engineers as the 
Corporation are paying for in this office. 
And under this state of things, we feel constrained to say, 
that we have for the reasons set forth in this communication, 
declined to approve the bills presented to us by the Corpora- 
tion Aqueduct Commissioner, for the distributing pipes now 
laying down ; and have directed them to be returned to the 
Comptroller. 
In conclusion, we have the less reluctance in adopting the 
views expressed, inasmuch as the Corporation are of course 
enabled to pay for the pipes they are laying down, out of 
any of the city funds under their control; and if our views 
are incorrect, the new Legislature shortly to be elected by 
the people, and who will soon thereafter convene, can remedy 
any errors we may have fallen into, and by special Act au- 
thorize the Corporation to repay themselves out of the Cro- 459 
[Doc. No. 32. 
ton Water Fund, at present supposed to be under our con- 
trol. 
All of which is respectfully submitted. 
SAMUEL STEVENS, 
JOHN D. WARD, 
Z. RING, 
SAMUEL R. CHILDS, 
B. BIRDSALL. 
EXTRACTS FROM DOCUMENT NO. 70. 
u The Chairman of the Croton Aqueduct Committee called 
on Mr. Ward, one of the Water Commissioners, and took him 
to the manufacturer of the stopcocks, where all the parts were 
examined separately, and it was believed by the Chairman of 
the Aqueduct Committee, that the preference of the new stop- 
cocks over the old kind was so clear and self-evident that it 
must be apparent to the most superficial observer, and par- 
ticularly so in the presence of the fact, that the old kind are 
constantly getting out of order, and making it necessary 
to break the pipes to which, they are connected, in order to 
get them out to be repaired; when the new kind can be re- 
paired, by simply unscrewing a cover, which opens a conve- 
nience, to get at all the internal arrangement which can be 
taken out and replaced, without difficulty or delay. 
There is now in use about one hundred of these stopcocks, 
and there has been but two or three trifling repairs necessary, 
in the two years that they have been in use, while, of the 
other kind there has been several thousands of dollars loss 
to the city in time, labor, and pipes broken, in order to get 
those out which were found to be useless. 
It is also found, in practice, that there is scarcely any of 
the old kind that will shut off the water so completely as to Doc. No. 32.1 
460 
Admit of connections being made to the pipes, without closing 
off a number, to effect that object. 
Soon after the reception of their note to the Aqueduct 
Commissioner, the Chairman of the Aqueduct Committee 
called on the President of the Water Commissioners, and 
made such verbal explanations in relation to inquiries made 
by him, as was believed by the Chairman of the Aqueduct 
Committee to have been satisfactory, promising, at the same 
time, that a full and detailed account (from the commence- 
ment) of all the operations of the department would be com- 
pleted and submitted, as soon as it could be arranged for that 
purpose. 
The bill of paving, at twenty-five cents the square yard, 
complained of by the Commissioners, includes not only the 
paving, but the furnishing of new sand, and also the carting 
away of all rubbish that is left after laying the pipes. 
This bill has been submitted to the Street Commissioner, 
who is of opinion that the charge is not unreasonable. 
The charges of five and five and a half cents per pound 
for lead, is ascertained to be a fraction more than was offered 
for it last week, by the whole cargo, by Mr. McCullough. 
As to the great expense, and want of system in laying 
down the pipes, alluded to by the Water Commissioners, 
both by the former Committees of the Common Council as 
well as the present, it does not become us to speak, as it is 
much easier to discover a mote in our brother's eye, than it 
is to find the beam in our own. 
It seems to have been thought by the Water Commission- 
ers, that we were proceeding with the work (to use their own 
language,) 11 in such a puerile manner," that it would appear 
from their communication, that they thought it singular that 
the Common Council should hesitate to turn over the whole 
subject to the guidance of their superior intelligence and dis- 
pretion. 
The Water Commissioners, to use their own language, 
say that " their Board, anxious only for the credit of the 461 
[Doc. No. 32. 
whole work, that the pipes should be laid down in a proper 
and economical manner, hoped that this new organization 
might, although they doubted it, in future proceed in such 
a manner, that the opinions of this Board and their engi- 
neers might be all applied to this important branch of the 
Water Works. 
They then state that two of their number proceeded, with 
two members of the Croton Aqueduct Committee, to Phila- 
delphia, to obtain information in relation to laying down the 
pipes for the supply of this city with water. 
Your Committee, on that occasion, had an equal opportu- 
nity with the gentlemen of the Water Commission to obtain 
information, although they may not have had the same capa- 
city to receive it. 
The Water Commissioners seem to think it strange that 
we are unwilling to take their advice, and give from twenty 
to thirty per cent, more for all the casting necessary to sup- 
ply this city with water than we can obtain them for, cast 
directly from the ore, notwithstanding they received assu- 
rance (in the presence of the Chairman of the Aqueduct 
Committee) from Mr. Graff, who has been the Superintend- 
ent of the Philadelphia Water Works for thirty years, who 
stated to them that nearly all of their pipes were cast by the 
blast furnace, directly from the ore ; and that when he has 
had them cast from the same ore, at the same furnace, both 
from the remelted iron, and directly from the ore, he had not 
been able to ascertain that one was better than the other, 
either by the proof or use of the same. 
The Chairman of the Aqueduct Committee has also shown 
to Mr. Ward an able communication, lately received from 
General Wade, who is an Agent sent out by the United States 
Government, to ascertain how iron can be cast to produce 
the greatest possible strength-who says it is ascertained, be- 
yond all controversy, that the iron is stronger, cast directly Doc. No. 32.] 
462 
from the ore, than it can ever be made by remelting the 
same. 
Still the Commissioners urge on us the propriety of hav- 
ing the pipes cast from remelted iron, notwithstanding it will 
cost from twenty to thirty per cent, more than to get them 
directly from the blast furnace. 
The communication says " they suppose that the blast fur- 
nace pipes will probably be contracted for, instead of remelt- 
ed iron, which they give as their opinion, are the only kind of 
castings that should be used," notwithstanding the additional 
cost to the city of between twenty and thirty per cent., and 
notwithstanding the experience of thirty years, in laying 
down pipes, has satisfied Mr. Graff, of Philadelphia, that the 
pipes cast directly from the ore, are as good as those cast 
from remelted iron. 
The Corporation have been paying to one of the Water 
Commissioners for castings for stopcocks, at the rate of eigh- 
ty-nine dollars and sixty cents per ton, when we can get them 
warranted of as good quality from the blast furnace for sixty 
dollars per ton. 
The instances of 11 want of skill and talent somewhere in 
this department, which have (as they say) accidentally come 
to their knowledge, seems to the Commissioners to be quite 
a sufficient reason why the Corporation should submit the 
whole affair to their superior wisdom and direction, and al- 
low them to purchase all the pipes of remelted iron." Now, 
although we do not mean to intimate a want of sincerity on 
his part, one of their own Commissioners is now an appli- 
cant to the Aqueduct Committee to furnish the large mains, 
for the supply of this city with water, and to whom the Cor- 
poration is now paying one dollar and ninety cents per foot 
for twelve inch pipes, that are actually one hundred and 
eighty pounds lighter than those we are purchasing from 
others for one dollar and sixty cents per foot. 463 
[Doc. No. 32. 
It is said by the Commissioners, that their last purchase of 
lead cost four cents per pound, when in the same communi- 
cation they acknowledge it to be less than the market price 
of that article. It is, therefore, fair to presume that it may 
have been of that kind of lead that is taken from Illinois to 
England, and remelted, incorporating with it a sufficient quan- 
tity of the dross of their lead to enable them to send it back 
to this market, and undersell pure lead. 
PETER COOPER, 
WILLIAM CHAMBERLAIN, 
SAMUEL NICHOLS. Doc. No. 32.] 
464 
Street Commissioner's Office, 
December 10th, 1840. 
Peter Cooper, Esq.., 
Chairman of Croton Aqueduct Committee: 
Dear Sir :-To avoid any misapprehension as to the im- 
port of statements macle by me to the Water Commissioners, 
in relation to the expense of repaving referred to in their 
communication to the Mayor, October 1st, 1840, I think pro- 
per to communicate to you briefly in writing, the conversa- 
tion had with them, and the circumstances under which my 
statements were made. 
I had occasion, in August last, to see Mr. Stevens at the 
office of the Water Commissioners, in relation to the expense 
of extending the pier at the foot of Beekman street, of which 
he was part owner ; on which occasion the Commissioners 
were desirous of ascertaining, from me, the cost of repaving. 
I informed them that the price per yard varied materially in 
different years ; that, in 1837, it was as high as sixty cents ; 
that price having been paid for repaving the Bowery, between 
Grand street and Chatham square; that, subsequently, the 
price was forty-five cents ; and that contracts had been made, 
during the present year, as low as eighteen cents per yard, 
for repaving Market slip, and also Eleventh street; the con- 
tractor to use such of the stone in the street as should be 
found suitable to form the new pavement, and supply the 
balance which should be requisite : the sand, or gravel, into 
which the pavement was to be bedded, to be an extra charge. 
I remarked that I had understood that the contracts were 
taken so low that no profit could be realized from them, and 
that the contractors took them at the rate named, to keep their 
men in employ, there being comparatively but little of this 
kind of work to do. 465 
[Doc. No. 32. 
I was asked in regard to the value of repaving over 
trenches, made in the streets for the purpose of laying water 
pipes; and I informed them that it would depend upon the 
character of the pavement in the streets through which the 
pipes might be required to be laid ; that, in former years, 
very small stones were used in the construction of pavements, 
which are now rejected, in paving or repaving streets, and 
stone of better quality substituted ; that if the repaving were 
to be done in the streets paved as first mentioned, gravel in 
most cases would be required to be furnished, and a consi- 
derable quantity of new paving stone, to supply the propor- 
tion which would be unfit for use, and that under these cir- 
cumstances it would be effected at greater expense than if 
done in a newly paved street, where a sufficiency of these 
materials already existed. In illustration of this statement, 
I remarked farther that I had understood from the Superin- 
tendent of the Rail Road Company, that he had contracted 
for repaving between the tracts in Centre street, where the 
pavement was new, for twelve and a half cents per yard. 
The contractors having no gravel or paving stone to furnish, 
and the carts of the Company being employed to remove the 
rubbish. 
Mr. Stevens remarked, that in paving over the pipes they 
never furnish any thing, but simply replace the old paving 
stones ; and I think I observed, that in such case, the paving 
might be done at from 12| to 18 cents per yard, for a large 
quantity. 
The above is about the sum and. substance of my conver- 
sation with them on this subject, as far as my memory serves 
me. The conversation was incidental, and took place pre- 
vious to the present controversy between the Commissioners 
and the Committee ; and without any knowledge, on my part, 
that any contract had been made by the Committee for the 
performance of the work in question. My impression was, 
that the Commissioners were about to make a general esti- 
mate of the expense of laying the pipes in the city, and my Doc. No. 32.] 
466 
statements were consequently made without bias towards 
either party. 
I have subsequently had conversations with members of 
the Croton Aqueduct Committee, from whom I learned that 
a contract had been made by the Committee with Mr. Wan- 
dell, to repave over the pipes, and that they had been in- 
formed by the Commissioners that they were paying too high 
a price ; in reference to which they desired information, and 
was informed by them that Mr. Wandell was required to fur- 
nish sand to pave on wherever there was a deficiency of 
that material, together with such new paving stone as might 
be required to make a good pavement, and to remove all the 
rubbish. Also, to pave up to the hydrants without additional 
charge. And I gave it as my opinion, that repaving done in 
that manner, if faithfully performed, was worth 25 cents per 
yard, the price paid by the Committee. The lowest price, 
as I have before stated, for which we have procured repaving 
to be done, after advertising for proposals, being 18 cents per 
square yard, the sand being an extra charge of 6 cents per 
load of 9 cubic feet, which would amount to about 25 
cents per yard; although the contractor, in this case, is 
obliged to wait until the money is collected on the assess- 
ment. 
The foregoing embraces all the circumstances which con- 
nect me in any manner with this subject. As to the merits 
of the work in question, I have made no examination, and 
possess no information whatever. 
I have the honor to be, 
Respectfully, your obedient servant, 
JOHN EWEN, 
Street Commissioner.