In 1652 the nation’s first city waterworks was built. Using a gravity conduit system, it connected springs and wells to a 12 ft square reservoir. The water pipes were made of bored-out logs cut into conical shapes and then jammed together and connected with iron hoops or lead caulk. The purpose of this system was to provide water for domestic use and fire protection. Boston was a city almost entirely consisting of wooden buildings, so fires were common. Fire fighters would just cut a hole into a nearby wooden pipe, attach a hose to it, and put a wooden plug into the hole when they were finished (this is where the term "fireplug" comes from). A major flaw with the underground wooden pipes was that uneven ground caused sags in the logs that caused water to stagnate and be infested by insects. It also caused the water to taste like wood.

This system contained a lot of firsts. It was the first citywide plumbing system in America, and because the first iron system wasn’t invented until 1804, most other cities probably used this system as an example. It was also the first time that a city government used a private company for a public service. From this, privatization was born. By the beginning of the 19^th century, 94% of the nation’s water service was in the private sector’s hands.

*Picture from "History..."

Brubaker, Elizabeth. "The Promise of Privatization." Environment Probe. 2001. Accessed January 2, 2004: <http://www.environmentprobe.org/enviroprobe/pubs/Ev548.htm>

• The Promise of Privatization is an article discussing the privatization of water and wastewater utilities. In the article it cites the 1652 waterworks in Boston as the first of many occurrences. This article contains many related statistics.

"History of Plumbing in America." Plumbing Supply. July 1987. Plumbing and Mechanical magazine. Accessed January 2, 2004: <http://www.plumbingsupply.com/pmamerica.html>

• This is a very detailed article about American plumbing. It goes into depth about the men who hollowed out the tree trunks to make pipes, how the system worked, its flaws, and the names of various important points in the 1652 Boston waterworks system.

Olsztynski, Jim. "A History of Plumbing Engineering." Plumbing Mechanical Engineer. June 9, 2000. Accessed January 2, 2004: <http://www.pmengineer.com/CDA/ArticleInformation/coverstory/
BNPCoverStoryItem/0,2730,4435,00.html>

• This article contains a detailed history of plumbing. The article has only a small amount of information on the Boston waterworks system, but it does include some detail on how firefighters used the pipes.