MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2020 – IN 1929 PLANS WERE MADE
Monday, September 14, 2020
Our 156th Edition
WARD’S ISLAND
SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS
FULLER AND Mc CLINTOCK
ENGINEERS
George Warren Fuller (December 21, 1868 – June 15, 1934) was a sanitary engineer who was also trained in bacteriology and chemistry. His career extended from 1890 to 1934 and he was responsible for important innovations in water and wastewater treatment. He designed and built the first modern water filtration plant, and he designed and built the first chlorination system that disinfected a U.S. drinking water supply. In addition, he performed groundbreaking engineering work on sewage treatment facilities in the U.S. He was President of both the American Water Works Association and the American Public Health Association, and he was recognized internationally as an expert civil and sanitary engineer.
CONTINUED BELOW
JUST UP THE RIVER
Ward’s Island WPCP plays a vital role in pollution control as part of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection (NYCDEP). The plant is the first to use conventional activated sludge for sewage treatment. The plant has undergone several upgrades such as masonry resurfacing and the installation of boiler and residual handling facilities and power supply systems since it started operating in 1937.
watertechnology.net
RENDERING FROM 1929 PLAN BY FULLER AND MC CLINTOCK
CURRENT VIEW AFTER MANY UPGRADES
GEORGE W. FULLER
Early life and education
George W. Fuller was born in Franklin, Massachusetts in 1868. After his primary and secondary education, he was accepted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at the age of 16. He deferred his attendance at MIT for one year (beginning 1886) due to the death of his father. At MIT, he studied under William T. Sedgwick and completed his bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1890. Sedgwick was able to send Fuller to Berlin, Germany to study under the chief engineer for the Berlin waterworks, Carl Piefke. During his stay in Berlin, Fuller studied bacteriology at the Hygiene Institute of the University of Berlin.
WIKIPEDIA
GEORGE W FULLER
Continued…
Career
After returning from Berlin, Fuller started working at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Lawrence, Massachusetts while still under the tutelage of William T. Sedgwick. While at LES, he investigated the treatment of sewage using filtration systems. His most important work was the study of filtration for potable water treatment. His early investigations were designed to increase the filtration rate for slow sand filters so that water treatment facilities could be built on smaller land footprints and, thus, be constructed more economically.
Louisville and Cincinnati filtration studies
During the period 1895 to 1897, Fuller was hired by the City of Louisville, Kentucky to study water filtration processes for the purpose of purifying Ohio River water for human consumption. The focus of his investigations were on “mechanical filtration” treatment systems (also called rapid sand filtration), which used filtration rates that were 60 times higher than those of slow sand filters. Aluminum sulfate was added prior to filtration to form larger particles that would be amenable to filtration. The work in Louisville made it clear that except for the clearest upland water supplies, a sedimentation treatment step would have to be added prior to filtration to remove the bulk of the suspended particulate matter
Fuller learned from his Louisville work when he designed the investigations at Cincinnati, Ohio for the purification of Ohio River water. From 1897 to 1899, Fuller investigated mechanical filtration using the addition of aluminum sulfate followed by a sedimentation step before the final filtration process.[4] Water purification
After completing the Cincinnati filtration report, Fuller opened a single person consulting practice in New York City. One of his first assignments was from the East Jersey Water Company to design a 30 million gallon per day mechanical filtration plant at Little Falls, New Jersey. The plant was a milestone in public health protection because it incorporated all of Fuller’s findings from his research over the previous 10 years and it became the model for the design of subsequent drinking water filtration facilities.
Graph showing dramatic decrease in typhoid fever death rate after chlorination of water supplies in the U.S. Death rates for typhoid fever in the U.S. 1906–1960 On June 19, 1908, Fuller was hired by John L. Leal to design and build a chlorination system for the Jersey City, New Jersey water supply at Boonton Reservoir on the Rockaway River. Given an impossible deadline as a result of a New Jersey Chancery Court order, Fuller successfully completed the chlorination system in 99 days. John L. Leal developed the basic concept of applying chlorine in the form of a dilute solution of chloride of lime (calcium hypochlorite) at fractions of a ppm.
Fuller modeled his chloride of lime feed system on the aluminum sulfate feed system that he designed for the Little Falls Water Treatment Plant. The chlorination facility fed 0.2 to 0.35 ppm of chlorine to an average water flow of 40 million gallons per day from Boonton Reservoir. Fuller testified as an expert witness for the defendants, the Jersey City Water Supply Company, in both trials that resulted from a lawsuit filed by Jersey City against the water company.
The chlorination system that he designed and built was declared a success by the Special Master, William J. Magie, and was judged capable of supplying Jersey City with water that was “pure and wholesome.”[10] The success of the Boonton chlorination system was due, in no small part, to the engineering excellence of Fuller. Chlorine use exploded after the positive ruling by Justice Magie and typhoid fever and other waterborne diseases were conquered as a direct result of Fuller’s reliable engineering of the first chlorination system.[7] Sewage treatment The foundation of Fuller’s expertise in sewage treatment was laid at the Lawrence Experiment Station in Massachusetts.
He later went on to design and supervise the construction of some of the most important sewage treatment plants in the U.S. Fuller and his partner Rudolph Hering were responsible for the design of the earliest Imhoff tank sewage treatment facilities in the U.S., which were located in Chatham, New Jersey and Atlanta, Georgia.[ He wrote two books that defined the state-of-the-art of sewage treatment. \
At the time of his death, an activated sludge system that he designed was being constructed on Wards Island to handle sewage flows from New York City.
TYPHOID FEVER DEATHS
DECANTATION AND STORAGE TANKS
SLUDGE VESSEL OUTWARD PROFILE
SLUDGE VESSEL SECTIONS
SLUDGE VESSEL INBOARD PROFILE AND PLANS
CONTEMPORARY VESSEL
LANDSCAPE PLAN
1929 RENDERING AND LAST WEEK FROM NYC FERRY
YOU ARE INVITED TO THE DEDICATION OF THE
WARD’S ISLAND SEWAGE TREATMENT WORKS
Invitation found on e-bay today!
MONDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEND YOUR ENTRY TO ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
WIN A SELECT TRINKET FROM THE RIHS VISITOR CENTER KIOSK
WEEKEND PHOTO OF THE DAY
SEATING AREA BEHIND THE NEW 460 MAIN STREET
NINA LUBLIN GUESSED THE WATER CONTAINERS
USED FOR WEIGHT TESTING OF THE TRAM CABINS
WEEKEND PHOTO
WEST 4TH STREET SUBWAY STATION
NINA LUBLIN WAS THE FIRST TO GET IT. WE HAVE HAD COMPUTER GLITCHES, SO FORGIVE ME FOR NOT MENTIONING ALL THE READERS WHO RECOGNIZED THE STATION.
CLARIFICATION
WE ARE HAPPY TO GIVE WINNERS OF OUR DAILY PHOTO IDENTIFICATION A TRINKET FROM THE VISITOR CENTER. ONLY THE PERSON IDENTIFYING THE PHOTO FIRST WILL GET A PRIZE.
WE HAVE A SPECIAL GROUP OF ITEMS TO CHOOSE FROM.
WE CANNOT GIVE AWAY ALL OUR ITEMS,. PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT IN THESE DIFFICULT TIMES, WE MUST LIMIT GIVE-AWAYS. THANK YOU
FROM OUR KIOSK
GREAT STUFF FOR ALL OCCASIONS
BEADING SET $11-
KIOSK IS OPEN 12 NOON TO 5 PM. WEEKENDS
ON-LINE ORDERING AT ROOSEVELTISLANDHISTORY@GMAIL.COM
EDITORIAL
Years ago I bid on a set of plans of the Ward’s Island Sewage Treatment Plans on E-Bay. I won the plans and they have been tucked away for ages.
As with all the architectural plans, I have featured, the artwork is amazing and the care and detail put into these utilitarian buildings is wonderful.
The story of people like George W. Fuller is interesting and his work has brought water treatment so far forward.
You are belatedly invited to the plant dedication. (You should bring your facemask).
Judith Berdy
Text by Judith Berdy Thanks to Bobbie Slonevsky
for her dedication to Blackwell’s Almanac
Thanks to Deborah Dorff for maintaining our website
Edited by Melanie Colter and Deborah Dorff
All materials in this publication are copyrighted (c)
PHOTOS FROM JUDITH BERDY COPYRIGHT RIHS/2020 (C)
FUNDING BY ROOSEVELT ISLAND OPERATING CORPORATION PUBLIC PURPOSE FUNDING
DISCRETIONARY FUNDING BY COUNCIL MEMBER BEN KALLOS THRU NYC DYCD
Copyright © 2020 Roosevelt Island Historical Society, All rights reserved.Our mailing address is:
rooseveltislandhistory@gmail.com
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