First report of the commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis : with minutes of evidence.

  • Great Britain. Metropolitan Sanitary Commission
Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report of the commissioners appointed to inquire whether any and what special means may be requisite for the improvement of the health of the metropolis : with minutes of evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

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    missioners, accumulates deposit and generates noxious gases, a tubular earthenware drain, of nine times less capacity, or of four inches in diameter as here represented, or proportional to the house of from three to six inches, keeps perfectly clear. Even three-inch drains convey away the refuse from middle-sized houses, and keep perfectly clear, whilst the larger permeable brick drains which are usually charged three times the price, are choked up. Mr. Roe,* the surveyor of the Holborn and Finsbury division of sewers, who led the way in systematic improvements in the form of construction of main lines of sewers in the metropolis, recently, at our suggestion, made experiments on the rate of flow of water through the common brick drains for houses, as compared with the rate of discharge through earthenware drains of the same capacity, and with the same run of water. The general results which he gives are, that through the earthenware tubes the rates of discharge are increased to an important extent—in the smaller and more frequent forms to the extent of more than one- third. -In other vrords, an economy of one-third the. quantity of water to obtain the same result is effected by them, and the general efficiency of the drainage in ordinary runs proportionately augmented, as will appeal-;, at a greatly reduced price. The following are examples :— Table of Comparative Time of Run of Water through Brick Drains and Glazed Pipes. Inclination. Depth of Water. Time tliroiigli Glazed Pipes. Time tliiough Brick Drain. Level .... I nclics. 5 38 50 2 inches in 50 feet 4i 16i 25 If ditto 51 19 27 2i ditto 3 18 'iG li ditto 3^ 25 3G 3i ditto 4 15 22 2% ditto] G I3i- 21i Some of the consequences of the dsfective constructions in question, as well as the principles of amendment, are displayed iu the following evidence. And first as to the expanse of house-
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