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but now days, if i saw a wooden container, with straight, or slightly bowed sides, bound with hoops-- i would, no matter what its size, call it a barrel-- barrels are
quite common in NY-- our water supply is for the most part, gravity feed, the water pressure is sufficient to get water up 65 to 70 feet (or about 6 floors) Building
taller than that all have water barrel on the roof for counter pressure.. Usually these barrels are 500 gallon range.. they are such a common part of the NY skyline
most NY don't even think about why the exist..
i never thing of a barrel as a quantity- i think of a barrel as a thing.
of:
That's interesting. I had heard some years ago that antiquated building codes in NY required the big barrels on top of low and medium-rise buildings as fire department reservoirs. Can't remember where, but in this discussion there was a "revelation" that there are more coopers in NY than anyplace else in the country.
Having been a firefighter I have some knowledge of hydraulics. If you have a certain height the water goes to from the gravity pressure, you would need to pump it higher than that to get it into the cisterns on the roof. Then the cisterns would have to feed ALL of the building, otherwise the higher head in the cistern would push all the water down to the gravity head level.
Ted
