Bad Drains: And How to Test Them, With Notes on the Ventilation of Sewers, Drains, and Sanitary Fittings, and the Origin and Transmission of Zymotic Disease - Softcover

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1885. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... The most emineDt engineers of the present day will admit that vast improvements must he made in sewer ventilation before they can say of a district where a quantity of drains are laid and a large bulk of sewage matter is carried through them, that the atmosphere of that district is as pure as that of one where no drains are laid or where no sewage matter can be found. It was not until 1840 that the question of sewer ventilation received very much attention, and it is in the reports to the City Commissioners of Sewers and to the Metropolitan Board of Works that the earliest results are recorded. The report of Colonel Hayward to the City Commissioners of Sewers, dated 18th March, 1858, contains some of the earliest and most valuable information as to sewer ventilation. In that report it is stated that, previous to 1830» "the sewers were ventilated by the gulleys, which were large open shafts or shoots connected with the sewers without traps of any description: they were connected with gratings of large size, the bars of which were farther apart than those at present in use; there were no ventilating shafts rising to the centre of carriageways, nor were there any side entrances by which access to the sewers could be had. Whatever ventilation took place therefore was effected by the gulleys, and if a sewer required to be cleansed or examined the mode adopted was to open holes in the centre of carriageways down to what are technically called manholes, or working shafts, and perform these operations from these apertures, the shafts being left open a sufficient length of time to ensure ventilation before the men descended, and if there was fear of an accumulation of gas or mephitic vapour, which sometimes was the case near the heads of sewers, but at few other poi...