Water towers and pumping were not twentieth century technologies (and nor were water closet toilets and sewerage). London had steam-pumped water supply two-hund

Water towers and pumping were not twentieth century technologies (and nor were water closet toilets and sewerage). London had steam-pumped water supply two-hundred years earlier, and those pesky regulators forced every multi-storey building in NYC to have them during the 19th century. Piped water wasn't the future in the 1930s, it was just unevenly distributed.