HENRY DARCY'S PUBLIC FOUNTAINS OF THE CITY OF DIJON

The Public Fountains of the City of Dijon is the English translation of Darcy's account of the water supply system he built for Dijon in 1839-40. The book also includes Darcy's description of the sand experiments that led to the formulation of Darcy's Law. Darcy wrote the book in 1856, near the end of his life, to provide guidance for engineers in the construction of water supply systems.

Henry Darcy's first major project after being assigned to Dijon as a young engineer of the Corps of Bridges and Roadways was to provide an abundant supply of pure water to his hometown. Darcy diverted a spring to Dijon via a 12.7 km aqueduct. He built two reservoirs, a network of cast iron pipes and 120 water posts within the city. The water posts supplied free water for domestic use, street washing/sewer flushing and fire-fighting. They were located at intervals no greater than 100 m so that no one had to walk farther than 50 m to get water. After the water supply system was completed in 1840, Dijon ranked second only to Rome in terms of water quantity and quality.

The 1855 experiments on the flow of water through sand were conducted after Darcy had retired on disability, at the end of a career that included supervising the water and street services in Paris, working as consultant to Brussels' water supply, and traveling to London to study macadam roads. The sand experiments resulted from Darcy's desire to make sand filters more efficient for cities like London that used surface water.

The original French version is a rare book; only 12 copies are available in the U.S. The English translation, published in 2004, includes a 28-plate atlas that was originally published as a separate volume. The atlas contains exquisite drawings of the components of the water supply system, pipe experiments, artesian wells, his modifications to the Pitot tube for stream gauging, the apparatus used for the sand experiments, and other topics.

The presentation will include photographs of what remains of Darcy's projects in Dijon, including the only known remaining water post, discovered in 2006.