The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-31 00:00:00

STATE OF THE RIVER THAMES.

A copy of the reoent report of Mr. Gurney to the
First Commissioner of Works on the state of the
Thames has been printed by order of Par lament. It is
dated the ad of November last, and explains the means
proposed by Mr. Gurnee) for preventing a further pollu-
tion of the river and the atmosphere around the Hon ses
of Parliament during the construction of any system of
drainage that may be carried out.
Sewage from the drains may be divided into three
parts—the liquid, solid, and gaseous, or soluble, inso-
luble, and aeriform. It is a vulgar error to suppose
that the solid or insoluble sewage fiats on the surface
of the water, or " fleets up and down with the tide."
On the contrary, its specific gravity is as much as 1.325,
it will sink one foot per minute in still water or slow
currents, and precipitate (or ratber.deposit) in stronger
currents, moving in parallel lines ; at a greater rate
than 170 feet per minute, it will not precipitate (or de-
posit), the force of convolution then being greater than,
and consequently overcoming the force of gravitation.
Mr. Gurney gives an interesting account of his experi-
ments with the insoluble sewage taken from the river
which were made in August, the month of least water.
The quantity of sewage retained in the Thames seems to
be a ruling or constant quantity ; the river is never
choked up, nor is it ever clean ; and the most filthy part
of the stream lies between Hungerford and the Peniten-
tiary at Millbank, this being mainly occasioned by two
retrogades, the one outside the Speaker's residence, the
other at Hungerford. The liquid and soluble sewage is
carried away by excess of the downcast, but some part
hangs about in the cesspools. The rate of solution of
solid sewage after maceration in the "river bas not yet
been ascertained, but it is estimated that generally one-
filth will be dissolved after a week's maceration.
Mr. Gurney, in fine, recommends :that all the retro-
grades and brattice cesspools be destroyed—that all
the obstructions to the uniform flow of the river at
low water be removed—that the pr ejections along
shore be rounded off, and the hollows filled up ;
that the serrated edges of the river at low water
be made plain and continued along the whole line of
low-water mark ; that the width of the water way at the
loweet ebb be not more than 140 yards from side to side,
so that the river may not only run in au uniform current,
but at a minimum rate of 225 feet per minute, and that
from low-water mark upwards the beach be so con-
structed that the shore may rise at an angle of about
three or four degrees with the horizon, or, in r oat-making
parlance, of not less than 1 in 16, to facilitate the fall of
the sewage into the bed of the river. The cost of this
arrangement will not be so great as •,vould at first sight
appear, and the navigation of the river would he im-
proved by it. As regards gaseous or aeriform sewage, a
most deadly poison, Mr. Gurney suggests the destruc-
tion of the retrograde, the pioper trapping of the mouths
of the sewers, and the combustion of the noxious gases.
The former failures to burn the sewage gases at Brussels
and here were not in principle, but in practice, the in
terference of the mass of atmospheric air over that of the
gases not having been taken into account. It is shown
that carburetted hydrogen, and, in fact, all the elements
of combustion, whether gaseous or not, require to be
brought up to a very high temperature before they will
ignite, and it is obvious that so to raise the temperature
when the gas of the sewage is so mixed up with a large
mass of atmospheric air is very difficult. A different
apparatus, to meet the conditions, must be constructed
before success can be attained.