EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
IS IT SAFE TO DRINK THE WATER?
TEACHERS’ NOTES
Included in the Activities & Worksheets you will find 10 Water Analysis Report Forms
and also a blank Urban District Council Notice form. The Water Analysis forms are
based on the actual Analytical Report forms completed by Dr William Gruggen, the
Medical Officer of Health in September 1899, when he analysed the water in 10 wells
in and around Akeman Street. The original forms and transcripts are included in the
database.
The 10 Activity & Worksheet Forms each concern one well and contain the analysis
results for that well, but not Dr Gruggen’s conclusions. These forms can be used by
the students, along with the Medical Officers’ Handbook (below), to determine
whether or not the well water is safe to drink. While they appear complex to interpret,
there is enough information for students working in small groups, with appropriate
guidance, to decide for themselves whether the water is unsafe. This activity could
be done in conjunction with a science lesson on bacteria, microbes, viruses, etc or on
pollution, or water resources. Students need to understand the terms organic,
albumen, ammonia and chlorine. The Medical Handbook is also included on the
database under the title “Is it safe to drink the water?”
Whole class or group discussion:
Where does our water come from? How is water stored? How do we know it
is safe to drink? Has it always been that way? Are there places where the
water is not safe to drink? In the UK? In the world? When flooding occurs, for
example in late 2000 in the UK, people were told to boil their water. Why?
Why do diseases often break out in countries with bad flooding, for example
Mozambique? How is the water in swimming pools kept safe and clean?
What sorts of things can pollute water (rivers, streams, dams, wells, lakes)
today? What about 100 years ago? How can you tell if water is polluted
before you drink it? How would someone test it to make sure?
Here’s an example from the analysis of a well in Tring in 1900:
Date
Nov
13
1900
NAMES OF OWNERS AND
DESCRIPTION OF THE SAMPLES OF
WATER
Grains per Gallon
Solids
Sample from well supplying 43 to46
King Street, Tring. Marcham and
others, occupiers.
Chlorine
8.4
Parts per Million
Free
Ammonia
.080
Albuminiod
Ammonia
.180
All water contains some organic matter. When there is too much, the water becomes
unsafe to drink. The above example was condemned by Dr Gruggen.
Chlorine: urine and sewage contain large amounts of chlorides. The presence of 5 or
10 grains of chlorine per gallon in water is suspicious. Good natural waters contain
from .7 to 1.2 grains per gallon.
 This sample contains 8.4 grains per gallon which makes the water suspicious.
Albuminoid Ammonia: .00 parts per million (ppm) is organically pure even if it
contains free ammonia and chlorides. Pure water contains less than .05 ppm. If it is
.05 or more you have to look at the amounts of free ammonia. Water which has a lot
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EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
of free ammonia and more than .05 albuminoid ammonia is suspicious. Above .10
ppm is very suspicious and if over .15 ppm, the water should be condemned.
 This sample contains .180 ppm which means it is contaminated with organic
matter, probably animal or human in origin, and should be condemned.
Free Ammonia: Good water for drinking should not contain more than .01 or .02 parts
per million (milligramme per litre)
 This sample contains .08 ppm which means it is probably contaminated with
urine and should be condemned.
You could discuss how wells could come to contain urine and other types of organic
matter.
There is also a blank poster form in the Activities & Worksheets section which can be
used by students to construct either by hand or on the computer, a poster warning
people about the dangers of drinking the well water. Students could consider how
this would have been done in the 1890s and perhaps how such a warning would be
publicised today. How could you warn people about drinking the water if they couldn’t
read?
Finally, towards the end of the programme it becomes clear that some people in
Tring were once again using the well water even though the wells were supposed to
be closed. They preferred this to going to the standpipes connected to the mains.
Why would they do this? Consider the way water comes into our houses now – for
washing, cooking, flushing toilets, bathing, etc. Before mains water and taps, how
was water brought into the house? When earth closets were replaced with water
closets, the early ones did not flush although they were connected to a sewer. How
would you flush a non-flushing water closet? Look at the Town Plan or Ordnance
Survey Maps again and work out how far residents of the yards and Akeman St had
to go to fetch water. Consider how much water is needed for washing the clothes,
bathing the family (even occasionally!). cooking, drinking, washing up, cleaning and
flushing the WC. For a family with 4-6 children and 2 adults, how much water would
need to be fetched and how often? What would it be fetched in? How many buckets
or large pitchers can be carried at once? Calculating the amount of water that would
need to be fetched regularly for the family might give the children some insight into
the effort required to obtain water and why some people still used the wells and didn’t
flush their water closets enough!
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EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
Medical Officer's Handbook
By Dr Cornelius B. Fox
Medical Officers of Health must make sure that drinking water is safe. They should
know how to test drinking water, understand the test result and give an opinion as to
whether the water is safe to drink. It is important in stopping the spread of disease to
be able to give an opinion quickly.
What is best water?
1. Pure water from a spring is the healthiest drinking water.
2. Water from pure shallow wells is the next best for drinking.
3. Water from artesian wells and the rain that falls in the country far away from
towns and cities are both in third position.
4. Waters from streams and rivers, most of which contain more or less filth, and in
times of heavy rains, soil and many minerals, are the least healthy for drinking.
Here are 2 examples of the best spring waters:
Sample of Water
Grains per Gallon
Solids
Chlorine
Spring supplying village of
Woodham Walter, Essex
21.
2.4
Spring near Drewsteignton,
Dartmoor, Devon
14.
1.6
Part per Million =
Milligramme per Litre
Free
Albuminoid
Ammonia
Ammonia
.00
.01
.02
Total
Hardness
Degrees
6
.01
8
Now here are examples of good shallow well and good artesian well waters and pure
rain water:Sample of Water
Grains per Gallon
Part per Million =
Milligramme per Litre
Free
Albuminoid
Ammonia
Ammonia
.01
.05
Total
Hardness
Degrees
Solids
Chlorine
Good shallow well water
Depth 25 feet
30.
7.
Good Artesian well water
Depth 300 feet
85.4
27.1
.74
.03
5
Good Artesian well water
Depth 175 feet
106.4
37.7
.01
.02
9 1/2
1.
.6
.45
.08
.7
Pure rain water collected in
open country
All waters, even the purest, contain some organic mattter. It is when there is too
much organic matter, especially from humans and animals, that water becomes
unsafe to drink.
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EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
What the terms mean:
Albumen
Albumenoid
Albuminoid ammonia
Ammonia
Artesian
a part of animal solids and fluids, and of plant roots
and seeds
proteins, forming a chief part of human, animal and
plant organs and tissues
ammonia produced by decaying or rotting animal
organic matter such as dead bodies, sewage,
manure, urine.
colourless harmless gas with strong smell
deep hole, like a well, bored or drilled straight down
through earth layers which produces a constant
supply of water rising to the ground surface
Chlorides
a compound of chlorine
Chlorine
non-metal element, yellowish-green in colour,
strong smelling gas
loose or unconnected with organic material,
naturally present in air and passes by rain into
water systems.
water which has a heavy concentration of mineral
salts
Salts, combination of nitric acid with another
substance
Free ammonia
Hard water
Nitrate
Nitrites
mixture of base or alcohol with nitrous acid
Organic
having an organised physical structure, of animals
and plants
Organic matter
vegetable or animal and human waste
Oxidising
process where a metal element or organic matter
combines with oxygen
Subsoil water
underground water
How to understand the test results:
If water shows .00 parts of albuminoid ammonia per million, it can be passed as
organically pure, even if it contains free ammonia and chlorides
If the albuminoid ammonia adds up to .02, or to less than .05 parts per million, the
water is still considered very pure water.
When the albuminoid ammonia amounts to .05, then you have to look at the amounts
of free ammonia and water which has a lot of free ammonia, along with more than
.05 parts of albuminoid ammonia per million is suspicious or questionable.
If free ammonia is not present or in only a tiny amount, water should not be
condemned unless the albuminoid ammonia reaches something like .10 per million.
Albuminoid ammonia above .10 per million begins to be a very suspicious sign
If albuminoid ammonia adds up to over .15 parts per million the water should be
condemned.
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EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
Well waters are greatly influenced by:
1. Changes in the height of the subsoil water, which is always varying
2. The amount of water that is passing through the subsoil of a country
3. Heavy downfalls of rain or periods of drought.
Often a water can be tested as pure at one time and impure at another This
occasional pollution of water is often due to the washing of filth into a well by heavy
rains.
Ammonia, which is in itself harmless, is produced by decaying or rotting animal
organic matter such as dead bodies, manure, urine. It is present in air in varying
amounts, out of which it is washed by the great air-cleanser, rain. Rain contains .49
parts per million of ammonia. Unpolluted well water contains less than this amount,
whilst spring water is generally free from it. As ammonia in contact with animal matter
and subject to oxidising influences is very quickly changed into nitrates and nitrites,
its presence in large quantity in river and shallow well waters shows that they have
been directly polluted with animal matters. Too much ammonia always goes with too
much albuminoid ammonia. In shallow wells a contamination of the water by urine is
most likely.
The amount of chlorine:
The amount of chlorine in the water of a district is an indirect guide as to whether or
not the water is contaminated with sewage. Urine and sewage contain a large
amount of chlorides. The presence of 5 or 10 grains of chlorine per gallon in water is
suspicious. Good natural waters contain, on average, from .7 to 1.2 grains of chlorine
per gallon. If there is too much chlorine and too much albuminoid ammonia and
ammonia, pollution with sewage is almost certain.
Diagnosis and Formation of an Opinion
1. The amount of organic matter in the best spring waters-Spring water A. Free ammonia .005 Albuminoid ammonia .02
Spring water B. Free ammonia .000 Albuminoid ammonia .01
2. A good water for drinking should not contain more than
Milligrammes per litre
Free ammonia
.01 or .02
Albuminoid ammonia
.08
3. Water containing the following amounts of the two ammonias would be
suspicious. I have often seen such waters from shallow wells surrounded by soil
on which soapsuds, etc, are sometimes thrown.
Milligrammes per litre
Free ammonia
.01 or .02
Albuminoid ammonia
.12
Contamination should be suspected if amounts of chlorides and nitrates or nitrites
are high.
4. Water shows a larger amount of albuminoid ammonia than .15 milligrammes per
litre. This should always be condemned if there is also too much nitrogen and
more than the average chlorides for the district.
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EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
5. Water shows too much free ammonia and albuminoid ammonia, with too many
nitrates and nitrites. The water is polluted with animal organic matter (eg water
from wells polluted by the foul soil of a graveyard or cemetery or manure from a
garden).
6.
Water has too much albuminoid ammonia but not much or no free ammonia, and
a tiny amount of chlorides and nitrogen salts. It is likely that the water is
contaminated or polluted with vegetable organic matter (eg. well water fouled with
rotten leaves, decayed roots of trees).
7. Water contains an enormous amount of free ammonia and too much albuminoid
ammonia. It is most likely that the contents of a cesspool or urinal is leaking into
the well. Urine is very quickly broken down and develops carbonate of ammonia
eg. water from a well polluted by urinal: free ammonia above 1.0 milligrammes
per litre, albuminoid ammonia above .35 milligrammes per litre.
Diagnosis of Pollution by Urine, or by Slop and Sink Water
Examples
Grains per Gallon
Miligramme per
Litre= Part per
Million
Free
Alb.
Amm.
Amm
Solids
Volatile
Matters
Chlorine
Water from well close to
broken sink pipe
50
2
9
A lot
present
.35
Water from artesian well
into which a drain from
a stable leaked urine
…
…
8.2
.51
.31
…
…
7.3
.04
.08
Remarks
The small
proportion of free
ammonia was
due to the
mixture of the
urine with a large
quantity of water
in this deep well.
Same after rain
Water from a shallow
well
Nitrogen
as
Nitrates
& Nitrites
Before}
Pollution
by contents
of drain
75.6
None
12.3
.01
.07
103
Abunda
nt
16
.69
.28
After }
6
Persistent
uncontrollable
diarrhoea
produced
EPIDEMIC TRING 1899 Teaching & Learning Resources
Diagnosis of Pollution by Contents of Cesspools and Sewers:
Grains per Gallon
Samples
Milligrammes per Litre=
Part per Million
Free Amm.
Alb.
Amm.
Solids
Chlorine
Water from shallow
well
101
12.5
Above 1.0
.24
Water from shallow
well
50.4
6.9
Above 1.0
.50
Adapted from Sanitary Examinations of Water, Air, and Food
A Handbook for the Medical Officer of Health
By Cornelius B. Fox MD, MRCP, LOND.
Medical Officer of Health of East, Central & South Essex
London J & A Churchill, New Burlington Street, 1878
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Remarks
Polluted by
leaky
cesspool.
Typhoid fever
and
diphtheria
amongst the
owners.
Accidental
overflow into
well of
cesspool
contents
which, having
been polluted
by the poison
of typhoid,
spread the
disease.