Wholesome houses : being an exposition of the Banner system of sanitation / by Edward Gregson Banner.

  • Banner, E. Gregson.
Date:
1878
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Wholesome houses : being an exposition of the Banner system of sanitation / by Edward Gregson Banner. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

    20/122 (page 14)
    Mr. J. p. Seddon very fully endorses and confirms Major Seddon's report (page 41), and adds :— The first thing that Mr. Banner showed us was, by experi- ment upon a small scale, that a pipe open at the top, charged with the noxious gases, which are heavier than the atmosjDhere, remained so charged—that is, full to the brim, notwithstanding all efforts to disturb by blowing down the i3ipe (as wind might be supposed to do), until an aperture at the bottom of the pipe, to allow of the admission of air, was opened, and an extracting force applied at the top by means of one of his patent cowls, to be hereafter described. Then instantly, but not till then, was the pipe emptied of its contents, which represented the foul air in a soil-pipe, and a current of fresh air upioards maintained through the pipe. We next proceeded to inspect the patent trap, which was fixed in a cupboard in the basement, and resembled in size and ap- pearance an ordinary gas-meter. The description of this trap had appeared to us complicated, and as such to present weak points, but when its handy position, and facility for inspection, and the ease with which it could be got at, cleansed, and repaired, if necessary, were taken into consideration, these fears seemed to be unwarranted, and of its efficiency in securing a perfect seal, under all circumstances of its action, we were speedily conyinced. We took some trouble to test the trap by throwing cloths, corks, &c., down the closets and watching its action under these circumstances. The cloths disappeared bodily, with a swiftness that almost escaped our vigilance. We then went to inspect the outlet of the ventilating pipe which brought fresh air to the bottom of the soil-pipe, just above the tra]3. This certainly proved to demonstration the satisfactory work- ing of the current of air kept up between the ventilating pipe and this cowl, in preventing the slightest accumulation of foul air or gas in the pi]3es. We then went to examine the cowl itself. WitJwut doubt, the cowl is an admirahle one, and may he applied to many other pur- poses besides the one under consideration, with great advantage, as for instance, to the exhausting ventilating pipes Mr. Banner proposes for house ventilation. To sum up the result of our examination into these sanitary ap-