Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

"Beginning in 1580, London companies sold water to consumers through a large network of wooden mains in the expanding metropolis. This new water industry flourished throughout the 1600s, eventually expanding to serve tens of thousands of homes. By the late eighteenth century, more than 80 percent of the city's houses had water connections-making London the best-served metropolis in the world while demonstrating that it was legally, commercially, and technologically possible to run an infrastructure network within the largest city on earth. Leslie Tomory shows how new technologies imported from the Continent, including waterwheel-driven piston pumps, spurred the rapid growth of London's water industry. The business was further sustained by an explosion in consumer demand. Meanwhile, several key local innovations reshaped the industry by enlarging the size of the supply network. By 1800, the success of London's water industry made it a model for other cities in Europe and beyond as they began to build their own water networks, and it inspired builders of other large-scale urban projects, including gas and sewage supply networks."--Provided by the publisher.