Modern methods of sewage disposal : for towns, public institutions, and isolated houses / by Geo. E. Waring, Jr.

  • George E. Waring, Jr.
Date:
1896
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Modern methods of sewage disposal : for towns, public institutions, and isolated houses / by Geo. E. Waring, Jr. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    injuriously affect the effluent itself, by rendering it cloudy or discolored, though not chemically objection- able. The effect of pouring liquid on soils when charged by attraction, is to drive out by the fresh liquid that which is already in possession of their interstitial spaces; and as these spaces can hardly be said to be perfectly aerated (though it can only be by the influ- ence of the atmosphere existing in the soil that the water is driven out), the action is not as perfect as desirable. A peaty soil is the most retentive, and at the same time the most absorbent of soils. It will hold water of greater weight than itself, but it readily yields when in this saturated condition to the gravitating force of liquids applied to its surface. Clays of the denser nature . . . will stubbornly resist its passage through them. It is this condition that renders them the most unsuitable of all soils for filtration, though by burning and mixing they may be rendered available at a cost which, though comparatively great, may yet be less than that of other treatments. The facts as to Merthyr Tj^dfil, as Mr. Denton sets them forth, may be thus summarized: — The population of 1871 was about 50,000, of which the sewage equivalent to that of 25,000 was discharged at Troeclyrhiew. The total dry-weather flow varied from 860,000 to 1,200,000 [U.S.] gallons per day. The larger amount was doubled in wet weather. It was proposed to take 375 acres of the valley of the Taff. Of this, about 75 acres was near Troedyrhiew, 2 milej
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