Report of the Highway and Sewerage Committee of the Local Board of Health.

  • Leicester (England). Local Board of Health. Sewerage and Highway Committee.
Date:
1852
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report of the Highway and Sewerage Committee of the Local Board of Health. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    34/68
    These remarks 1 have eonsidcred neeessary, in order that your honour- able board may judge of the weight due to only one single experiment made by Messrs. Aitken and Taylor, with a mixture of equal portions of the second series of samples, diluted with four measures of water taken from the I'iver Soar, and intended to represent the Leicester sewage, as it will be. In this instance, the combustible matter spontaneously deposited was twenty-four grains to the imperial gallon, while that thrown down by one-third volume of saturated solution of lime, u'as tifty-four grains. Upon this isolated result, produced by a re-agent which ]\Ir. Wick- steed does not intend, and cannot employ, namely, lime rvater, in the proportion adrised,* and with all the uncertainty as to the circumstances xmder which the samples loere taken, Mr. Wicksteed ventures to base the financial success of his manure scheme, and its claims for approval by the Town Council of Leicester and your honourable board. Taking, therefore, in the first instance, as an illustration, the propor- tion given above, and bearing in mind that the value of the sewage is in the ratio of eombustible or organic matter, I find that 24-54ths of the valne, or 4-9ths of the whole, is due to spontaneous subsidence; and 30-54ths, or 5-9ths, due to the lime water. From the quantity of manm’e estimated by Mr. Wicksteed, namely, 10,000 tons, it unll be necessary to deduct the lime which has been piu-chased and added. This was the mode of proceeding adopted by Messrs. Aitken and Taylor in their experiments, and is undoubtedly proper. The residue is 5,340 tons due to the sewage waters, and, as 4-9ths, or 2,373 tons is orring to spontaneous subsidence, there remains 2,967 tons arising fi-om the use of lime water “in the pro- portion advised” by the chemists. But to get this 2,967 tons, 4,660 tons of lime are required to be bought and mixed with 1,825,000,000 gallons of sewage ; and the whole fluid being discharged after subsidence and deposit, the additional 2,967 tons of manure, the 4,660 tons of lime, and minus the large quantity lost during rain, wordd be secured; and being prepared by the further process of turning, drying, evaporation, and packing, would be ready for the market; and being sold, would probably more than pay for the lime, even if it did not pay anything for the laboin- and the capital sunk. Spon- taneous subsidence alone would yield four-ninths of the quantity of or- ganic or combustible matter, and consequently of money value. Of coui’se I do not recommend such a system, but the process woidd have been much cheaper; though, perhaps, a little more objectionable on sa- nitary grounds. Tliis, it appears, woMd be the residt of Mr. Wicksteed’s scheme, under the most favourable circumstances, with the use of one- third saturated lime water. But I am not satisfied that so important an undertaking shoidd be based iqmn a single and very artificial experiment, and I therefore prefer taking the broadest basis rvliich the infonnation furnished will admit of. Tlic following statement shows the results of all the experiments made See Chemi.sts’ repurl, page fi* of printed report.
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