The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-07 00:00:00

SEWAGE MANURE.

The history of the struggles by which the Metro-
politan Sewage Manure Company obtained ita acts too
well known to need recapitulation new. As we are given to
understand that the company are on the eve of commencing
their preparatory operations, the time seems appropriate for
the publication of the following ►ketch of what they con-
template:
- • - - • - •

The principle upon which the entire of the company's
plan is based is this: that the refuse-water of the metropolis,
richly impr, gaited with fertiiiaing properties, can be carried
out of London into the country by the same MAUL by which
it is brought from the country into London, and supplied te
the consumer at equal cheapness. Between the new houses
of parliament and Stanley-bridge run two great sewers, the
King's Scholars' Pond and the Ranelagh, both of them open,
and some five or six small ones. The cunpany makes an
intercepting sewer from the first of these to Stanley-bridge,
or the capacity of tit feet by four feet and three.quarters.
This sewer will run considerably deeper than either
ild the sewers it will intercept, and will be formed in
the London clay, and completely covered in, so u to afford
a perfect protection against the effluvia that prayed from
the sewers as they now exist. Bach sewer will be connected
with the company's sewer by means of a shaft, with a chute,
so that whenever they are not needed, the contents of the
sewer may be sent through their former channel, and a
grating at the mouth of the shaft will prevent the flowing
in of solid substances. At Stanley-bridge this intersecting
sewer will find its terminus, and there will the works of the
company be stationed. The machinery is extremely simple.
At the extremity of the sewer will be a tank, or well, from
which the contents will be pumped, by means of a sleek-'
engine of considerable power, into pipes precisely similar to
those rued by the water companies for conveying clean
water. These mains will run along the high road, with
branch mins into the side roads, and thence on either
side, bra mans of service pipes, will the magi
water distributed to all who may desire to ase
thiamine.' ar it; still observing preasely the plan by
vilidt ihe Inter companies carry the clean water through
iho saes if London. And much in the dame manner as
easy supply the very summits of our houses with these
mains, does the Metropolitan Sewage Manure Company pro-
pose to supply the gardens and farms that lie en either side
of their mains ; with this difference in favour of the latter,
that they have not to force the water up to the tops of high
houses, bat only along fields that are level, or almost so. It
is plain, then, that so far, at least, there is nothing .experi-
mental, or doubtful, or difficult, in the plan of the company :
it is already, and has been for years, in actual hourly opera-
tion throughout London and most of the great aides and
towns of England. Tffis only novelty lies in the proposed
manner of distributing the sewage water to the soil, after it
is conveyed to the immediate neighbourhood of the garden
or farm by the mains running along the roads. The mode
of distributing gas at once shows how this is to be effected.
The gas companies lay down main pipes in the public
ways, and individuals who desire to use it connect their pre-
mises with them by service pipes, and so receive the fluid in
any quantity they may require. Thus with the sewage.
Suppose a market gardener to desire a supply. A pipe will
pass from the main into his garden ; there will be placed a
standpipe (such as those erected in all the streets in London
for the use of the water-carts). If his gardens be large, be
can erect at a very trifling cost as many of these stand-pipes
u convenience and the saving of labour in conveyance of the
sewage may require. Thence he will be enabled to take an
unlimited supply, at all seasons and at all hours, of the mat
fertilising manure in the world ! But upon fume, and
where extensive grounds are to be manured, a singularly
simple contrivance is to be adopted, by which the sewage
will be thrown ever the land at the most trifling cost for
labour, and with an uniformity and apportionment of
quantity to the requisites of the soil, at present un-
known, and indeed impracticable. The simple means for
effecting this is the hose-pipe now in universe! nee for tire.
engines. this pipe in perfectly flexible, so that it an be
carried over hedges or walls, and laid in any direction, and
yet offering so little resistance to the fluid, that in an experi-
ment at which we were present, made at the New River
Head, with a preemie considerably. less than that proposed
for the company's works, after peeling through half-a-mile
of hose-pipe, the jet from the mouth was thirty feet, and so
powerful that it would have knocked a man down at a dis-
tance of five yards. But a hue-pipe et a quarter of a mile
in length will suffice for the purposes of any farm, for that
' . ' --. to In oliced halts mile ..,irt.
inti:r. permit toe waluinr-- • • 1 ,
Thus, then, when a farna ..::Itts to manure :::..I`.
firm thoroughly, be has only a fix the hose-pipe
to the stand-pipe: the former, being perfectly flexible,
will run over hedges or gates—up hill and down
dale ; and In the field required to be manured, nothing more
will be necessary than for one man to take in his hand the
end of the pipe, from which will flow a jet from twenty to
thirty feet, and play it upon the soil as easily ea he would a
watering-pot upon a flower-bed. And in this manner will
one man be enabled to manure two acres and a half per day
with more ease, and with tenfold mon efficiency, than, with
the present methods, flee men could manure We leas area
in four days. The in labour alone will be eneemons.
But it may be said, its milkmen alaniaanre, Ind
the saving of 'sham by the employ eent or the hose
pips in the miaow banitsetaibed, it iineamser le know what
peke to to be pail he the lIIIIese Unit belbesles saustegei
as be istimeil. It amt be sated the the pane prat of
masa in the neliabearbead et Idle, isitt spin the
field, but net 'peal Is it ten bane'Par tea• no
cost of apnea, Alt adds about al:penes per ion to this. Bat
the company be enabled to supply the amp at the

I price of sixpence per Pm ; and as one man will be enabled to
manure two sores in a day, the total met of the manure and
the spreading will be from aseenpenos to eightpence per ton,
instead of ten shillings and sixpence, its present cost. There
can, therefore, be ao doubt that it will be e taken by
the fanners, but still more so by the marketer, who
now pay ea much u from 161. to 2W. per man for manure.