The Sun.
London, England, 1863-01-05 00:00:00

THE SEWERS OF PARIS.

To those who only know the capital of France as
the city of splendid palaces and gay promenades,
the following description of its less brilliant, but
not the less wonderful constructions underground,
borrowed from a highly elaborate and useful work,
entitled, " Dictionnaire General des Lettres, des
Beaux-Arts, et des Sciences Morales et Politiques,"
by MM. Baehelet and Dezobry, may be acceptable ;
the more so as the author of the article, M. Charles
Dezobry, has himself visited those dark regions,
under the guidance of M. Mille, one of the City
engineers entrusted with the works. From the
earliest times, the Parisians had provided
open gutters to carry off the foul waters of the
town to a rivulet called de Menilmontant.
In the ninth century the dykes of the fortifica-
tions were used for the same purpose; and as
late as the sixteenth century, the Palais des Tour-
nelles, then a Royal residence, was exposed to the
infection which exhaled from the surrounding
gutters. The first vaulted sewer, however, was
constructed RR early as 1374, in the quarter of Mont-
martre; but so slow was the progress of the im-
provement, that in 1663 there were not more than
1,207 toises of these sewers in existence. In 1836
their length amounted to 81,000 metres, and the last
uncovered sewer only disappeared 10 years ago. The
present system of sewerage was decreed on the 26th
of March, 1852, and consists of six main galleries,
called collectors, 15 secondary ones opening into
the former, and themselves fed by a vast number
of smaller ones, intersecting the city in every
direction. The right bank has three collectors—
one beginning from the Bastille, and skirting the
quays as far as the Place de la Concorde, a,
length of 4,000 metres; the second, descending the
Boulevard de Sebastopol down to the Pont an
Change, a length of 1,800 metres; and the third,
from the Bastille to the Place de la Concorde by the
Rue de Rivoli, a length of 3,800 metres. The three
collectors of the left bank are—one from the Pont
d'Austerlitz to the Pont de lena along the quays,
a length of 6,400 metres; a second from the Boule-
vard de Mont Parnasse by that of Sebastopol tothe
Pont St. Michel, a length of 1,700 metres; and
lastly, one along the Boulevard St. Germain, 1,100
metres in length. The ratio of the section to be
given to the various sewers has been fixed, as expe-
rience required, at from two to three square metres
of wet surface for every 100 hectares. On this prin-
ciple 12 different sizes have been chosen, the smallest
having a section of 2.15 metres in height by 1.15
in breadth, and the largest one of 4.40 metres in.
height by 560 in breadth. The former is of an
ovoid shape, and offers ample space for a man and a,
wneel-barrow. The largest sewer, or collector, has
a circular segment for its section ; its breadth is
divided into three parts, the two lateral ones being
foot-pavements, and the middle one a gutter or
drain 1.20 metres broad. On each foot-pavement a
aeries of iron forks support a water-pipe, varying
in diameter from 1.10 metres to 0.89. In some of
the galleries there is but one water-pipe. To cleanse
the drain, a small cart running on iron rails laid.
along the bottom is pushed forward by two men;
the front of this cart is provided with a drop-
plank, acting like a sort of sluice, which, when
down, exactly closes the section of the gutter,
and pushes all the mud before it as the cart ad-
vances. By the sewers above described, all the
foul waters of the right bank are easily brought
to the Place de la Concorde, where a general col-
lector receives them and carries them off to As-
nieres. But what was to be done with the sewage
of the left bank, which, according to the system
adopted, was also to be poured into the general
collector. After much reflection, it was decided.
that the waters of the left bank should be carried
over by a syphon passing under the bed of the
Seine; and this singular engineering feat has
actually been accomplished. An enormous pipe
of wrought iron, having an interior diameter of
one metre, and about 200 metres in length, is
sunk, a little above the Pont de la Concorde, two
metres below the low-water mark, and thus the
desired communication is established. As to the
General Collector, it is the most stupendous work
of the kind in existence. It is 5 metres in height
by 5.60 in breadth, with a length of about five kilo-
metres and a half, in nearly a right line, except a
turn under the Place-de•la-Madeleine. The foot-
pavements are 4.90 metres on each side, the central
drain is 3.50 metres in breadth, with a depth of
1.35 ; so large, in fact, that a well-sized boat is kept
afloat on it for the purpose of cleansing. This boat
is also provided with a drop-plank in front; this is
let down to a distance of 15 centimetres from the
bottom, while the boat advances; whereby such 0
head of water is obtained in front, as to drive all the
sedimentary matter, nay, even stones, to a distance
of 100 metres. There the boat finds it again as it
advances, and drives it further and further till the
orifice of the emissary is reached. Four boats per-
form this work, and it takes 16 days to cleanse the
whole length. Ventilation is provided for by air-
traps at certain distances, and the gallery is lighted
with oil-lamps. The execution of this immense
system of sewers has cost 50 millions of francs•
M. Dezobry, comparing this gallery with the far-
famed Cloaca Maxima of Rome, shows that it is in-
finitely superior to it in size, not to mention the
improvements in construction, of which the Romans
had no idea. The Cloaca Maxima is ten metres iii
height, but only 4.48 broad, and is supposed never
to have succeeded a length of 900 metres. The
dimensions we have given above abundantly ahoy/
how vastly superior the modern French Construed
tion is to the ancient Roman one.

NEW BARONETS.—Lord Palmerston has signified
to our townsman, David Baxter, Esq., the head of
the distinguished firm of Baxter Brothers and Co., ha'
Majesty's pleasure fo raise him to the baronetage of the
United Kingdom, "in consideration of hie eminent corn'
mercial position and generous conduct to the town of Dune'
doe." The patent conferring cn Mr. Baxter tho title of Sir
David Baxter, Baronet, of Kilmaron and Belgravia, is, We
believe, now being made out, and we shall only anticipate
by a few days the execution of a formal document, in speak'
ing of Mr. Baxter as Sir David Baxter, Bart. It is under°
stood that the same honour will be conferred at the same
time on Mr. William Brown, the eminent shipowner' of
Liverpool, and Mr. Frank Crossley, the enterprising mane'
facturer of Halifax.—Dundee Advertiser.

WESTMINSTER BRIDGE AND PALACE-YARD AP'
PROACIIES.—On Friday notice was given to the
owners and occupiers of the remaining houses situate irs
New Palace-yard that they will have to vacate in the course'
of the month, the apace being required for the new West-
minster-bridge and Palace-yard approaches. The next re'
moval of property for the improvement will include the
oid-established confectioner's (Lucas's), the old lii.ulo
Arms, and Fendall's Hotel, which will complete the deino"
lition of all that side of Bridge-street, Westminster.

A Segon letter of the 15th November says
Our colony is jus' beginning to shake off its apathy'•
Until now all that had been done was provisional. Not
only the civil population, but also everything belongia
to the military and naval administrations, were sheltered
wretched huts. Now, under the direction of a young arhio'
tect who has arrived from Suez, handsome stone and
brick houses have risen as if by enchantment. In Lower
boats to introduce arms and ammunition into the country
Cambodia the country is tranquil. The frigate Didolls
which guards the mouth of the Donnai, allows no suspected
Advices received from Tonkin are far from being favourable"
to the royal authority. The rebels continue their marell
upon the capital, and the population is tacitly favour'
able to them. The fear of the mandarins alone prevents
the expression of those feelings. The people here are nri:
serable. The exactions and injustice of the Governors 01
the provinces exasperate them against the supreme Power'
which they render responsible for such abuses, and theil`
sympathies are in favour of any change that can give thela_