Report to the honorable commissioners of sewers of the city of London, on sewage and sewer gases, and on the ventilation of sewers / by Henry Letheby.
- Henry Letheby
- Date:
- 1858
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Report to the honorable commissioners of sewers of the city of London, on sewage and sewer gases, and on the ventilation of sewers / by Henry Letheby. 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.
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![copper. The quantities of the products vary con- siderably, but they are never such as to indicate the same proportions of carbon and hydrogen as are found in marsh gas.* By another mode of proceeding, I have been able to condense the organic vapour from the sewer atmosphere, and obtain it in a liquid form. A glass globe filled with ice, was suspended from the crown of a sewer, and the cold thus produced has, in the course of a few hours, caused the con- densation of aqueous vapour, and with it the organic matter contained in the atmosphere. In this way, on three separate occasions, I have obtained from 1| ounces to 4 ounces of liquid,*]* the properties of which were as follows. It had a turbid appearance, and contained minute flocculi of organic matter. Its odour was very disagreeable, like that of bad Sewage. Its re-action was alkaline; and it contained free ammonia, with a large quantity of sulphate of ammonia,—a compound derived from the oxydation of sulphuretted hydrogen. Nitrate of silver, and * See Table XI. in the Appendix for illustrations of this. | The liquids were obtained at the following places :— No. 1. From Angel Street, St. Martin's-le-Grand, June 7, 4 ozs. were collected in 16 hours. No. 2. From the Sewer in the South Place branch of the Lon- don Bridge Sewer, June 9th, 3 ozs. were collected in 8 hours. No. 3. From the Sewer in Catherine Wheel Alley, Bishops- gate Street, June 12th, lj oz in 6 hours.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21064180_0032.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
