3-008-997 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Inundation in the Fens: the syphon dam of the middle-level drain, 1862. 'The employment of the syphon is quite a novel feature in the history of drainage. Should the experiment now devised by Mr. Appold, the ingenious inventor of the centrifugal-pump, and carried out by the Messrs. Leather, under the engineering supervision of Mr. Hawkshaw, prove a success in marsh land, there are many reasons for supposing that the method of dealing with drainage-water in tidal channels not required for navigation will be more generally adopted...It occurred...to Mr. Appold that, if he could fix a number of great syphons astride the dam, he could form an effectual substitute, which would not only cost much less than the sluices but be finished in time to relieve the farmers of their water before the winter rains set in...The Engraving [shows] how these syphons are made to fit over the dam, which is 20ft. in height...The time approaches for the completion of this work, and for its trial too, and Mr. Appold regards the event of the winter rainfall and of ice-floe with equanimity...t is expected that with a 6-ft. head thirty million gallons of drainage-water may be discharged to the seaside in one hour'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.