Reports of Dr. Parkes and Dr. Sanderson, on the sanitary condition of Liverpool.

  • Parkes, Edmund A. (Edmund Alexander), 1819-1876.
Date:
[1871]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports of Dr. Parkes and Dr. Sanderson, on the sanitary condition of Liverpool. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    former as being in immediate communication with the sewer which receives the discharge from the works of Messrs. Heap and Co., (1,000,000 gallons weekly) the latter as being indirectly affected by the numerous manufactories in the neighbourhood. These observations were made on the same days as those we previously referred to in Canning Place and by the same method. From the results obtained in Beckwith Street we learnt that during certain hours of each day air was injected into the sewers by pulsations, which recurred at intervals of about 26 per minute. Of the quantity of air injected we could, by the mode of investigation employed, form no judgment, but we inferred that it was considerable from the fact Hhat at each stroke the water column in the open limb of the manometer was jerked up to a height which varied from 2 to 5 tenths of an inch, instantly regaining its fonner level. On both of the days on which the observations were made it was found that the pulsations ceased about six o’clock in the evening, and that in conse- quence the state of ventilation of the sewer was materially altered. The pressure inside of the sewer which had previously been slightly in excess of that of the atmosphere, (about a tenth an of inch) was now in defect. The difference was very considerable, amounting on the 9th and 10th of March to nearly an inch. On the following day (Saturday) when notes were taken of the state of the gauges in our absence the readings were similar. At our subsequent visit to Liverpool in April, we had the advantage of inspect- ing the works of Messrs. Heap & Co., under the guidance of one of the members of the firm, who was kind enough to give us the fullest explanations of their mode of working, so far as relates to the discharge of air and water into the sewers. We learnt that in the sugar factory a powerful air pump is employed for the purpose of exhausting the vacuum pans, and, that the air discharged by this pump is conveyed along a large main into the sewer, and that its strokes are at the rate of about 26 per minute. We further learnt, as has already been stated that the discharge of warm water from the sugar and rice works although it varies in quantity per hour is always taking place, so that the sewers leading from the works are always flooded with water at a -temperature varying from 100° Fahr. to the ordinary temperature according to their distance. From these facts, taken in connection with our previous observations, we conclude that the general effect of the constant discharge of warm water into a sewer is to increase the in-draught, by diminishing the tension of the air in its
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