After a refreshing draught from this sparkling and delicious fountain,
let us not fail to examine the proprietors' peculiar and very perfect
method of bottling and barreling the Excelsior water by its own
hydrostatic pressure. Since last season a handsome brick
bottling-house has replaced the ancient wooden structure. Entering
this bottling-house we find our way to a capacious and well-lighted
cellar, in which we discover a perpendicular opening some ten feet in
diameter; this proves to be a circular brick vault, in whose depths
the process of filling is performed. Twelve feet below the surface of
the spring a block tin tube conveys the water into reservoirs placed
at the bottom of this vault. These reservoirs are strong oak barrels,
lined with pure block tin in such a manner as to be perfectly
gas-tight, and furnished with two tubes, one quite short and the other
extending from the top to the bottom of the reservoir. Then, by
filling the reservoirs through the long tube by hydrostatic pressure,
the air is excluded, while the gas is not allowed to escape. When sold
on draught, it is necessary simply to connect the long tube with the
draught tube, and the short tube with an air pump, when the water can
be forced out by the pressure of the air, and will flow forth
sparkling and delicious as at the spring, without being re-charged
with gas.
[Illustration: GEYSER SPRING THE SPOUTING SPRING]
Having concluded our investigation, and tarried to notice the
MINNEHAHA, UNION, and other springs which bubble up in this
immediate vicinity, we have now the choice of continuing along the
banks of a winding stream to the Eureka and White Sulphur Springs, or
of returning by the way of Lake avenue. But should we prefer the
healthful exercise of walking, we may dismiss our carriage and stroll
into those magnificent woods that border the hill and valley for half
a mile between Excelsior Spring and the village. Through them there is
a wide and shady path, well known to visitors who love the
picturesque, and along its winding way is found the shortest walk to
the center of the village.
The beauty of this region would seem to indicate it as the proper site
for the future Central Park of Saratoga.
THE GEYSER SPOUTING SPRING
Is about a mile and a half below the village, on the Ballston road,
and near the railroad. Business address, "Geyser Spring."
History.
This wonderful mineral fountain was discovered in February. 1870.
There had been indications of mineral water in this neighborhood,
which had been noticed for a long time. The building which is now used
as a bottling-house, and beneath which the spring was found, was used
as a bolt factory. The proprietors, Messrs. Vail and Seavy, determined
to bore for a spring. They were successful, and when they had reached
a point 140 feet below the surface rock, they struck the mineral vein.
The water immediately burst forth with vehemence, and the marvelous
phenomenon of a spouting spring was established.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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