Glasgow Water Company

Piped water was first brought to the city with the creation of the Glasgow Water Company in 1806. Two years later, the Cranstonhill Water... 

What was the vicious slander and downright lying to which Clarke was referring Partly it appears to have been a reference to the opponents of municipal ownership who characterized municipal socialists as atheists, free lovers, birth-controllers, or any other name that aroused prejudice. But more importantly, it was a reference to the systematic and manifold efforts of the private water companies in Glasgow to block municipalization. 

The actions of officials in New York and Glasgow contrast sharply with those of Milford Water Company. As shown in chapter 3, the Milford Water Company was a private enterprise that responded more quickly to evidence of undue water lead than did either Glasgow or New York. One might object to this comparison by arguing that New York and Glasgow were both large cities, while Milford was small. Per-... 

Company was formed. Both companies used water from the River Clyde, and located their intake and filtration systems just north of the city. By drawing water from upstream of the city, the companies avoided the pollution generated by city residents. The difficulty with this strategy was that the water had to be pumped from the river to the city and, as a consequence, the pressure was not always sufficient to fight fires. Moreover, because these companies were private enterprises, they installed mains only in those areas that promised the greatest return. The result was neither fair nor economically efficient. In densely populated areas of Glasgow there were two sets of mains when only one set was required, while at the same time, in less densely populated areas of the city there were no mains at all. ... 

Unfortunately, the consolidation of the Glasgow and Cranstonhill companies did nothing to address two enduring problems with the city s water supply. First, as noted above, because the water had to be pumped from the source to the city, water pressure was a constant problem for the city s higher elevations. Second, the water filter, which was a small tunnel filled with sand, had limited capacity. Floods and seasonal changes regularly overwhelmed the filter s capacity and resulted in unfiltered and turbid water entering the mains. As explained by one observer, at an ordinary state Clyde water was pretty free from objection and... 

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