Engineering in relation to hygiene.
- International Congress of Hygiene and Demography
- Date:
- 1892
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Engineering in relation to hygiene. 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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![The pipe, in which there can be no pressure, can be carried np either in the core o£ the wall or in one of the many projecting pilasters or architectural features at present so much in vogue. It can discharge either by a finial at the apex of the gable constructed on purpose, or at the back of the coping. There is no architectural dilScnlty wdiatever. Where, however, there is no gable, it can be built in the party-wall as suggested by the City of London authorities, and undoubtedly this arrangement overcomes the difficulty which might arise from the varied height of street buildings. But even where there is no gable and the ])arty-wall is impossible in a new building, it is merely a matter of the exercise of ingenuity on the part of the architect to conceal the eyesore, than Avhich many more difficult problems will arise for solution in almost every day of his practice. Oases may arise, especially if an owner’s prejudice can be over- come and a pipe ventilator added to an existing house, where it is impossible, or may be considered too unsightly, to erect it on the fa9ade. It may be insisted that there is no serious objection to its being carried under or through the house and up the back. It will not act quite so freely in this case, but it will act freely enough, just as a ventilating pipe to a house drain does, which always takes the same course. The suggestion of the St. Pancras Vestry, already alluded to, embodies this arrangement of conducting the sewer-air under the house of necessity, as in almost every town-house drains under the basement are essential. A dry pipe, with no pressure within it, laid by the side of the house drain can have no reasonable objection urged against it. I summarise as follows ;— 1. That the system of open grids in the streets, supplemented by shafts from the sewer side of every disconnecting trap upon the main house drains, be recognised as the effective automatic means of sewer ventilation, and its adoption be aimed at in all possible cases. 2. That it be made compulsory over new areas of building, or over large areas of rebuilding. 3. That the flushing and deodorisation of sewers be made com- pulsory, and in new districts that the former be part of the charters of the water-company. 4. That the vestries be called upon to exercise rigidly their statutory powers, not only in respect of new drains, but in respect of existing drains ; also to adequately ventilate the dead ends of all drains. The adoption of the system as suggested in new districts, or in large areas of rebuilding, would be a fitting stepping-stone,—and possibly the only one—to its spreading by the force of example and success to the older parts of our great towns. I cannot better conclude than with the Avords of the Vestry of Tooting Graveney, who, in a well-considered memorial to the Metro- politan Board upon the subject, say, that “ several persons have had “ shafts from the sewers carried up the sides of their houses at their](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b28045427_0059.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
