Science Art: Intercepting Well, Prospect Park, Brooklyn, by R.S. Bross, 1882.

Scientific illustration of public water utilities and hydrological equipment from the steampunk era.
Scientific illustration of public water utilities and hydrological equipment from the steampunk era.

This is an illustration of a public waterwork taken from the pages of A practical treatise on hydraulic and water-supply engineering: relating to the hydrology, hydrodynamics, and practical construction of water works, in North America, a text by John Thomas Fanning (a name that I think British people of a certain age might find very funny) dedicated primarily to “the wholesomeness of domestic water supplies.”

There are some lovely atmospheric engravings in there of things like bridges and pumping stations, but this really seems to capture that middle ground between “landscape painting” and “engineering schematic.” It’s a cyclopean machine for supplying water, is what it is.