The  matter  of  improving  and  extending  the  water  service  was  one
that  occasioned  frequent  deliberations  from  year  to  year,  the  lack  of
funds  being  a  continual  embarrassment. From  1825  to  1829,  at
intervals,  the  laying  of  iron  pipes,  instead  of  wooden  ones  as  formerly,


1 826 1845. 667

or  leaden  ones  also  experimented  with,  which  had  been  commenced
as  early  as  1813,  was  continued. In  1826,  this  more  durable  con-
nection was  completed  to  the  stand  pipe  on  Market  Street,  the
octagonal  stone  tower  of  1803  a  little  east  of  the  corner  of  Cedar
Street,  which  stood  until  1832. Then  the  new  reservoir  on  the
higher  ground,  north  of  Broad  Street  and  east  of  New  Street,  added
to  that  of  181 7,  on  Market  Street,  with  the  smaller  ones  at  the
apothecary  shop,  1805,  and  that  on  Church  Street,  1806,  which
remained  for  many  years,  rendered  it  needless. In  1830,  the  extension
of  the  pipes  up  Main  Street  and  along  a  portion  of  Broad  Street  was
completed. In  1831,  that  excellent  and  well-located  building,  the
oil-mill,  was  secured  to  contain  the  new  pump  put  in  by  the  water
committee  in  1832,  in  order  to  meet  the  increasing  demand,  while  the
grinding  of  oat  and  buckwheat  meal  was  yet  continued  in  part  of  it ;
these  products  acquiring  a  high  reputation  under  Charles  David
Bishop,  the  lessee,  1835-1847,  who  twenty-five  years  before  had  man-
aged the  combination  industry  in  that  mill  for  the  Brethren's  House
Diacony — a  reputation  sustained  in  later  years  under  the  management
of  his  son  who  is  yet  living,  the  venerable  Gilbert  Bishop,  so  that  long
after  he  had  to  vacate  in  1874,  because  the  entire  building  was  needed
for  the  water  works,  city  dealers  continued  to  plume  themselves  with
the  oat  and  buckwheat  meal  alleged  to  have  been  ground  there,  as  a
specialty,  and  report  has  it  that,  even  yet,  some  are  advertising  the
"celebrated  Bethlehem  buckwheat  flour."  The  water  supply  contin-
ued to  be  in  charge  of  such  a  water  committee  until  the  incorporation,
in  1845,  oi  the  "Bethlehem  Water  Company,"  which,  in  1871,  sold
out  to  the  Borough,  when  this  important  department  of  municipal
service  again  passed  under  the  control  of  a  "water  committee."

As  regards  the  fire  department,  the  several  years  after  the  free-
school  epoch  were  a  time  of  revived  interest  in  improving  its
equipment. 