Minutes of information collected with reference to works for the removal of soil water or drainage of dwelling houses and public edifices and for the sewerage and cleansing of the sites of towns / General Board of Health.

General Board of Health.

Date:: 1852

Credit: Minutes of information collected with reference to works for the removal of soil water or drainage of dwelling houses and public edifices and for the sewerage and cleansing of the sites of towns / General Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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$As an example of the rate of charge to the puhlic, it may be mentioned, that the charge of builders for the first soil-pans of a very rude and inferior description was 7s. each. When the makers were remonstrated with on the workmanship, they pleaded that they could not afford to improve it, inasmuch as they were only paid 2s. 6d. each for them by the builders. Yet it appeared that the prime cost of production to the potter, for the same article, was little more than half that sum. Since the subject was first investigated, there has been much reduction in the prices of the pipes, but it is chiefly by per-centages to contractors and to tradesmen, amounting, it is understood, to 40 per cent, or more upon the trade or the li.st prices, in itself a very objectionable mode of pro- ceeding, maintaining the old and corrupt influences at the public expense. There has been very little improvement, how-ever, in the manufacture of pipes or the connected apparatus ; except in syphon water-closets, which have been much improved, but the prices of the best of them appear still to be extravagantly high, as compared with the cost of production and any superadded fair profit for articles produced on a large scale. The quantity of clay used in the manufacture of hollow bricks of the common sizes is less than in the solid bricks ; in the larger sizes it is very much less ; there is less digging, less working, less wheeling and moving, and less carriage. Nevertheless, common brickmakers have charged more for the hollow bricks than for the common bricks, and full two thirds more than they are actually manufactured for by gentlemen wrho make them in their own kilns. It is probable, however, that there will be few^, if any, of the smaller towns where it would not be found worth while, if from other circumstances it were practicable, for the Local Board to do what individual owners might do, i.e. construct kilns for the manufacture of the drain-pipes required. The delay of efficient measures of sanitary improvement is in itself a source of great expense, and sacrifices may be required for speed. It is only for undertakings on a very large scale, and under peculiar circumstances, that it could be recommended as worth while for the Local Board of any town to erect works for the manufacture of pipes, as contemplated for the service of the metropolis. In general, more money would be lost by delay than would be saved upon the prices of the articles, even w here the circumstances were more than usually favourable for such a course ; but it will, nevertheless; be of use that members of Local Boards should, to protect the ratepayers and themselves from excessive charges, acquaint themselves with the real expenses of production, and of how much room there is for improvement in the quality of the goods sup- plied w ithout trenching upon a fair remuneration for their manufacture V\ hen the. labour and expense of production has been analysed and ascertained beyond a doubt, a liberal profit should be allowed to the manu- demand*' * ^ allowance for the irregular nature and risk of the In respect io the trial works, hereafter described, although as being the ?, tW°WV? bt°n ma1dc' the^ ma>' bo M and useful as far and the Wn;^ **a o]?sei:vi> *hat % WlWP °f ^ was so various, menS S T ^'P^tions of them so different, that it is recom- mended hat for any large or special works, new and varied trials will be Sfftnt obrverf Gd ™ *»« **# b° and * *>y Extracts from a Report of the Works Committee of the First Consolidated Metropolitan Servers Commission. pr4^ve^S^S! °f ea?henwarc ?rain-pipes is, apparently, in a very primitive state. The machines now in use are only a few years old. It$