Lot 204D email save

LATROBE, Benjamin Henry. An Answer to the Joint C

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[Philadelphia: 1799]. 7, [1] pp. [including terminal blank], 8vo (220 x 140 mm). Unbound, as issued, text uncut. Housed in a morocco-backed folding case. Condition: leaves separated, toned overall, minor chips and tears at edges. latrobe's plan for philadelphia's first water works. Arriving in Philadelphia in 1798, noted architect and engineer Benjamin Henry Latrobe (1764-1820) first received a commission to construct the Bank of Pennsylvania. Pleased with the Greek revival style he selected for that building, Latrobe next was given the task of designing a system to bring clean water to the growing city -- a significant concern considering the yellow fever epidemics plaguing the city. At the time, pumps throughout the city brought up ground water for drinking. However, without sewers to remove waste, most houses had privies which emptied into the ground, thus contaminating the water. Latrobe's system, first suggested in a published letter to John Miller (Evans 35715) and detailed in this pamphlet, called for two steam engine pumps, with the primary one located at Centre Square, to bring fresh water from the Schuylkill and distribute it throughout the city in a system of wooden pipes. The public, however, was skeptical of such a system which had never before been attempted in the United States. Furthermore, the general public distrusted steam engines, fearing them to be hazardous and subject to explosions. Latrobe, however, proceeded with his plan and constructed the system, which was used successfully until replaced by Frederick Graff's Fairmount Water Works in 1819. Latrobe's plan "revolutionized thinking about the possibilites for a water supply" (Stapleton, The Engineering Drawings of Benjamin Henry Latrobe). Evans 36086; Rink 2732.

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