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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$(No. 14.) Trial Works in respect to Street Cleansing by the use of the a lexible Hose and the Water Jet. ^ZescribZ, %CTiT\CatT hj Mr- Lee> Superintendent Inspector, id'dtowS6!* !nd ?!irif °S' of R°^rham, arc patentees of a tap for last vk ! ^ a Vf t0J at W ?ressures- called upon me in February stand n i i****** °f their invention to the purpose of a fire-plug and stancl-pi e,_and expressed a wish to make an expert with it. ChJtl fU*? J0Ct Yaf t0 show its P°wers t0 extinguish fires, we selected SwSw °/ t]n m°St public ^g^es in the town, and con- taining the hall of the Corporation of Cutlers, a rather lofty building. At my lequcst the apparatus was applied with the most perfect success to the Cleansing ot the street ; the Mayor, the Town Regent, and many other innueatial persons were present. The hose was of leather, 3 inches dia- meter, and about 60 yards long, with a discharge-pipe ll inch diameter. I lie carriageway is from 20 to 24 feet wide, and about 150 yards long. It was washed almost as clean as a house-floor in five minutes. The surtace of the reservoir is 350 feet higher than the point of discharge, and 4557 yards distant from it. The time occupied, and the efficacy of the cleansing experiment, depended, of course, upon the quantity and force of the water, and not, to any material extent, upon the use of Messrs. Guest and Ghrimess stand-pipe. The apparatus will, however, be very useful where a constant supply of water at high pressure is given, and deserves a brief description. It consists of two parts ; one of which, containing a female screw and closed valve, is to replace the common fire-plug, to be Fast to the main pipe, and to be covered, when not in use, by a metal cap. The other part is the stand-pipe—a copper cylinder about 2 feet long, which screws on to the fire-plug. On the sides of the cylinder, about 6 inches from the top, are two arms at right angles, and each about 4 inches long, with screws to attach the hose. A screw piston about half an inch in diameter, with crutch handle, working in a stuffing-box, passes through the centre of the upright cylinder, and opens or shuts the valve of the fire-plug. Its advantages are, that it can be applied to the mains, and used with great readiness, Without the assistance of the turncock, at any amount of vertical pressure. With the ordinary plug it is necessary, on the discovery of a fire, to seek the turncock, who is obliged, if the mains are full and a constant supply given, to seek the nearest main-tap, and turn of the water until the fire plug is opened and the hose attached, and then to go back and turn it on again. In the midst of the confusion much valuable time is thus added 111 that already lost in procuring the engines, and the jet is at last directed, as a matter of prudence, to the preservation of adjoining buildings, leaving that in which the fire originated to certain destruction. If this apparatus were at hand, two men could have it in full operation in less than two minutes. By a slight increase in the diameter of the stand-pipe, four arms might be connected with it, and four jets, managed by as many men, would throw into any building torrents of water sufficient to extinguish speedily any fire that had not been long raging. It will be obvious that this saving of time and labour would also be of great importance as affecting the cost of any system of public cleansing by the agency of water. In consequence of the gradual opening and closing of the valve there is much less danger of bursting tho hose by a sudden$