Reports and correspondence respecting the drainage of the new palace at Westminster : January, 1849.

  • London (England). Metropolitan Commission of Sewers
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports and correspondence respecting the drainage of the new palace at Westminster : January, 1849. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Mr Austin's Observations. u any other cause, while the present foul condition of the public sewer in Bridge “ street is suffered to continue, it is im- i( possible to ascertain.” I would submit whether, under the circumstances sug¬ gested by Mr Barry, water would not rise in the sewer rather than air, and that the horribly foul state of the sewer itself is quite sufficient evidence that the bubbles are those of noxious gas generated on the spot. This portion of the sewer was inad¬ vertently stated to be situated immediately beneath the Speaker’s house, instead of that of the Serjeant-at-Arms, on the north side of the Speaker’s court. The statement in the Report relative to the excessive foulness of the air ex¬ perienced on first entering the New Palace sewer, Mr Barry considers is likely to lead to misapprehension, because no mention is made of a “ safety” flap, which existed further up the sewer, and by which the New Palace was entirely protected from the evil reported. It was, in fact, this “safety” flap which, by cutting off all ventilation from this part of the sewer, created the danger that was at first ex¬ perienced ; and it was on passing this flap, beyond which the sewer was “ temporarily ventilated,” (as Mr Barry says,) “from the man-holes at the two extremities,” and he should have added, from the numerous openings into the building along its course, that the atmosphere was found to be con¬ siderably improved. Notwithstanding these means of venti¬ lation of the sewer, or, in other words, the escape of the foul air from it into the build¬ ings and courts, which Mr Barry acknow¬ ledges, and so accounts truly for the great
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