The inventiveness of early builders constantly provides us with wonder at their ability to create systems from available materials.  The use of wood logs as piping for water and sewer is one of those logically illogical things that makes a lot of sense, but also boggles the mind when you consider the immensity of urban infrastructural systems that relied on this as the primary water and sewer conveyance technology for many years.  A May 2017 article in The Washington Post, “Discovered: Philadelphia’s high-tech, totally natural plumbing of 1812″ shows the use of tree trunks, in this case, a series  “…of 10-foot pine logs, laboriously drilled to create a 4- to 6-inch center opening and bound together by iron couplings… The pine pipes lay buried and forgotten for two centuries until a worker sank a backhoe in the 900 block of Spruce Street earlier this week.”

Part of the original 45 miles of wooden mains in Philadelphia, expert on all things water in Philadelphia, Adam Levine via his great site PhillyH20 (see also my post here for more) provided some, including some additional history and imagery of the wooden pipes, in this case “A section of wooden water pipe, long out of service, removed from a Philadelphia street in 1901.  It had been installed about 1801.”

Other cities obviously used similar technologies, via a fascinating site by Jon C. Schladweiler, The History of Sanitary Sewers we can find some good history and lots of imagery of wood pipes, including bored elm & hemlock used in London as well as Philadelphia and other US Cities where it was employed.  From the site:

“The use of bored elm pipes underground with quills of lead running off into the houses of the well-to-do seems to have begun in London as early as the 13th century. All the old London water companies that appeared between the 16th and 18th century used bored elm pipes for distributing water. “

The natural taper of trees allowed for fittings that mirror the flange of modern pipes, and the holes were bored out manually, aided some times by the use of fire to burn out heartwood.  A couple of images from The History of Sanitary Sewers , showing “Bored hemlock (wood log) water pipe, laid about 1754. Early wood log pipe was used often for either water or sewage conveyance.”

The concept of ‘fire plug’ was also explained, where wood pipes could be tapped when there was a fire, auguring through the wood to get at the water (or installed at intervals) and once marked, could be replaced by driving a redwood plug into the hole – thus, the fire plug.  An image of this, an example from Philadelphia from a wood pipe with metal banding that was removed in the early 1900s.

An pair of articles from the NYC Environmental Protection mentions the discovery in 2013 of a section of 19th Century Wooden water main during repairs, and some of the history of this in New York infrastructure back as far as the 1820s.

The image above shows the excavation and pipe, with some context via their site.

“The wooden mains were installed in the early 1800’s and were discovered in 2006 during routine utility upgrades that included the replacement of water mains in Lower Manhattan. Adding to the uniqueness of the discovery, when unearthed, the two wooden pipes were still connected, to form a 26-foot section of the city’s original 19th century water distribution system. While several New York City institutions, including the New-York Historical Society, have pieces of wooden water mains in their collections, there are no known examples of complete sections still intact. Once on display, the wooden mains will help educate New Yorkers and visitors about how clean drinking water helped New York grow into a modern metropolis.”

Another image shows wood water supply pipes, in this case excavation of some pipes installed in Bristol, England, dating back 500 years.

Historical precedents for the use of wood as pipe date back even longer, up to a few millennia, probably to when people began to convey water in earnest by ‘mechanical’ means.  Via Dr Susan Oosthuizen (who posts great stuff on Twitter) there was an interesting link about Dutch dam builders (from New Scientist, 1996), which along with the fact they were ‘plagued by lice’, mentions preserved wooden logs used as pipes that were found, using dendrochronology, to have been from around 100-70 BC. “The dig has also uncovered dams and sluices built along an estuary. The dams were shut to keep out high tides, and the sluices were opened at low tide to allow water to drain from farmland that would otherwise have been tidal marsh. One dam, says de Ridder, is in the same place as a modern bridge with a similar tidal barrier and sluice. “They were regulating the water level on a large scale,” he says.”

A sketch showing what these tidal sluices using logs may have looked like comes from a sketch Dr. Oosthuizen posted via Twitter along with the quote “Late IronAge banks kept seawater off Dutch coastal marshes at high tide; & were set w/ wooden pipes to drain dams of fresh water at low tide”

Later iterations use wood in somewhat different ways, typically using ‘staves’ that were milled in lengths and banded with metal straps to create a tight fit, and didn’t require boring. The use of wood that had natural waterproof characteristics, such as cedar and redwood, aided in water tightness. As the saying goes, ‘Wood Pipe is Good Pipe’.

The wood stave offered the option of being able to reach dimensions much larger for greater conveyance (the above shows a range from “3 to 120 inches in diameter”, and allowed for greater expansion in the use of projects, shown here as a diagram of outfall sewers from Niagara Falls which includes both brick tunnel sections and a super steep wood stave flume.

This one below is via sewerhistory.org shows a wood stave sewer line here in Seattle, from around the 1930s, which was a common type of installation of the era.  You also see the images of Tanner Creek from this previous post show installation of a similar wood stave and brick in Portland in the 1920s, the preferred method of erasure of urban creeks. along with brick sewers that were becoming more common.  Will do a bit more digging on where this is but looks like the image below shows an outfall to Lake Union?

 

HEADER: Image of 200 year old wood pipe discovered in Philadelphia in May, 2017.  Via Washington Post, image Jon Snyder/Philadelphia Inquirer

24 thoughts on “The Water in the Wood

    1. I own a cross section of pipe with a plaque from Chase Manhattan Bank inscribed with the legend that it was used to supply the city of new york with water from 1800 to 1842.

    2. Yes, I just dug one up in Dublin. It was buried for the last 250 years. If you want it, email me at darraghaiken@gmail.com and I will send my report on it to you and we can discuss further. I am a Civil Engineer.

      The pipe is located on the Grounds of Belcamp College, formerly owned by Sir Edward Newenham (c1760-1819_ he had correspondence with George Washington (6 letters) but much more with Benjamin Franklin (about 60) who doted on Lady Newenham. Sir Edward was very anti British Establishment and assisted in the American revolution through his influence as Excise duty officer in Dublin Port.

      Sir Edward built a monument to George Washington at Belcamp Hall, North Dublin and he was the only one in Ireland to do so. Understandably because it being a British dominion. He was at the Paris Peace conference with Washington and Franklin and they tried out hot air ballooning which was in vogue at the time.

      1. The cross section of pipe I own is a collector’s item. All of the outer bark is intact, the trunk portion hand finished and the Chase Manhattan Bank brass plaque is attached with all the pertinent information and is for sale.

    3. We have several hand cut wooden pipes excavated while putting in a pond. They were I believe used for a gold sluice water supply. They I think…are made of walnut.

      1. I just recently dug up a 10 ft. length of cedar water pipe that is 10 in. in diameter with a 2.5 in. diameter hole in it . It is in as good a shape as when it was buried , maybe 150 years ago. And there has to be several more buried there. The water line was about 250 ft. long going between the spring and the barn. There could be several more there , if you want one let me know. 1-506-209-3333 or email

    4. I have dug up 2 wooden water pipes on my property . They are 10 ft. long , 10 in. in diameter with a 2.5 in hole bored the length and connected with a cedar connector . The pipe is also eastern white cedar. They are in perfect condition , have been buried for , perhaps 200 years I am guessing . I live at 64 Hwy. 616 , Keswick Ridge , New Brunswick , Canada postal code E6L 1R8 tel: 1-506-471-3180 or 1- 506-209-3333 email : gilbeyearl@gmail.com or gilbeyes@hotmail.ca

      1. I could dig up another one I suppose , there has to be quite a few buried there. Also my telephone is 1-506-209-3333 .

  1. No clue where one would acquire such a thing, as the ones i’ve seen are typically found in museums – and probably not an ebay or craigslist find. Let me know if you track one down!

    1. Hello I realize your post is from2017 but I have recently unearthed two intact 10′ sections and two partial pieces 3 to 5 ft long. I’m in upper up state New York and wonder how old they are.

      1. I was just reading up on wood water pipe and I believe it was around 1800 those pipes was installed in New York.

    2. I have come into contact with several sections of antique wood pipe, in various sizes and lengths and wood couplers. They are all individually for sale. my contact information is 5702424492. located in northeast pennsylvania

      1. As a member of the Skaneateles Historical Society I’m doing a display for our museum on the history of the City of Syracuse water works which draws their drinking water from our Skaneateles Lake. The Syracuse Water Works used hollow logs as water pipes until the 1880’s and I would like to acquire a small section of log pipe for our display. Something like a 3″ length for a table top addition to our sign-board based story of the sourcing of Skaneateles Lake water to stop the water-borne diseases that we killing lots of citizens.

        Your phone voice mail box is full so you can contact me (Dave Miller) @ 315-491-5914 if you can help me……
        Thank you

  2. Just last week , May 17 – 2023 , I dug up a 10 ft. x 10 in. diameter cedar water pipe with a 21/2 in diameter hole bored the length of it and a wooden fitting to join another pipe to it.. It is in excellent condition. I live at 64 HWY. 616 , KESWICK RIDGE , NEW BRUNSWICK , CANADA email gilbeyes@hotmail.ca tel: 1-506-209-3333 . Howdy I conserve it?

  3. We have two four foot mating sections of wooden water main dating from the middle 1800’s that were recently dug up and soaked with moisture, we want to save them for display and are wondering how to preserve them without damaging them. Any info would be appreciated.

    1. I have no first hand experience with preserving a log but our small section of a water main log from the early 1800’s from the Wall Street area in NYC appears to have been preserved with satin varnish or polyurethane and it looks good….

  4. Victor Shauberger did research in the early 1900s in Austria and found from studying various collections of centuries old records, that when the pipes of the local cities were swapped out while being replaced with wood to iron, that the rates of cancer diagnoses also skyrocketed in those samw areas within a few months of the building material changes. Maybe those old timers were aware of things in a holistic community building sense that modern city planners just dont even have flying across their radar!

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