William J. Magie

That same year formed the law firm Magie & Frost in nearby Somerville, New Jersey.

[2] As Chancellor, in his role as Special Master, Magie presided over the trail in 1908, the purpose of which was to determine if the chloride of lime system that had been installed by Jersey City Water Supply Company was effective in controlling harmful bacterial levels and capable of providing water that was "pure and wholesome".

More than three thousand pages recorded the testimony of expert witnesses for both sides including William T. Sedgwick, George C. Whipple, Earle B. Phelps, Charles-Edward A. Winslow and a number of other experts for the plaintiffs and John L. Leal, George W. Fuller and Rudolph Hering (among others) for the defendants.

[4] "I do therefore find and report that this device is capable of rendering the water delivered to Jersey City, pure and wholesome, for the purposes for which it is intended, and is effective in removing from the water those dangerous germs which were deemed by the decree to possibly exist therein at certain times.

Statistics on the typhoid fever death rate in the U.S. showed a dramatic decrease in deaths due to the disease Filtration of water supplies contributed to the decrease in the typhoid fever death rate but chlorination is generally acknowledged as having a major impact on increased life expectancy in the U.S.[5][6] He was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Hillside, New Jersey.