Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.]) 1852-1859, 1859-03-29
Tnn seientillo and phiIanlthropio world is be.

and practicable plan for draiDing the great cities
The agitation of this subject has begun, MS it
very properly should, in England The momen-
tous question is now and has been for the last
few years, how to construct system of sewer
age for London thatwill best cleanse that city and
preserve its sanitary condition. Not that Lon
den has. never been drained, (though pcrhapsit
never has been thoroughly but that its 9Th
has not been drawn off in the right direction
For some yehrs the complaint has been growing
louder each succeeding year that the sewerage
of London, carrying its the Thames,
was rendering that river such cesspool that
the healthy condition of the entire city was seri-
ously threatened by it Instead of the pellucid
stream it once was "a very long time ago, how
ever,) the Thames has become turbid recepta
Gle for the offal of that vast concentrated world
of iniquity and nastiness, London. During the
heated term this of stngnnnt broths and
garbage becomes extremely noxious As long
ago as 1854, writer in the Times described it
in the following terms:
''The smell was very bad and common to the
whole water. 1t was the that which
now comes up from the gully holes in the streets
The whole river was for the time real sewer
Having just returned from the country air
was perhaps more affected by it than others;
hut L do not think that could have gone on to
Lambeth or Chelsea, and was glad to enter the
streets for an atmosphere, which, except near
the sink-hoes, l found much sweeter than on
the river
The same writer adds:
1.-The condition in which saw the Thames
may be considered exceptional; but it ought to
be an impossible state, instead of which it Is,
fear gradually becoming the general condition.
ed to do so with impumity; nor ought we to be
surprised if ere many years, a hot season gives
sad proof OF the folly of our cnrelessness.
Numerless plans have been suggested and
many theories elaborated for the abatement of
this nuisance. The general theory of the sani-
tary refor1ners of London may be thus set forth:
A system of sewerage similar to the arterial and
venous system in the human economy, is to be
constructed. Water to supply the city is to be
brought from the river or reservoir through
great aqueduct, which divides into pipes Along
the main streets; these pipes being shbdivided
so as to furnish stream for every house. Thus
an abundance Of pure water is to be kept rum
ing at high pressure through every house,
passing out through a pipe, carrying with it all
impurities, into street pipe and on until it
reaches the main sewer and helps to swell the
great Hood of Impurities which is being carried
away from the city. The net work of pipes
bringing in and circulating the fresh water rep
rcsents the arteries, and the pipes convey Ing it
away, loaded with contamination, the veins
But it has still been a question, what can be
done with this onl(lowing stream, unless it is
conducted finally into the Thames? At length
this question has been answered, it is hoped,
successfully, and the great work which is TO
mark an era in the history of London has been
begun
The general features of the undertaking may
be briefly explained. On each side OF the river
there are to be two main sewers,-one on n.
high-level and the other on loI-level. The
contents of the low.level main sewer, containing
all the drainage of the low districts, are pumped
up by steam into its higher ncighbor, thus Sc
curing for the whole, descent sufficient to
carry it away from the city. 1t is designed, to
avoid making it offensive to the populated dis
tricts, to conduct the stream into the marshes
that border on the Thames. If it were simply
to be run from the marshes into the Thames,
although London would be much more thor
oughly cleansed than ever before, this very cir
cumstance would make the amount of impuri-
ties carried into the river greater than ever and
thus one object of the project would be defeated.
Hence, wher the stream arrives at its destina-
ton tor destinations, as there are TO be two,
ono on each side of the river, nearly opposite,)
something must be done to purify it before
sending it into the Thames. This publication,
thanks to the assistance of Science, is accom-
plished by the the process of deodorization.
Deodorizing works are to be built at the out
falls, the operation of which is to retain the
solids and send the liquid portion of the stream,
comparitiyelypure and colorless, into the river.
Such is. the gist of the great project now oc-
cupying the sanitary philosophers of London
and England 1t is difficult for us to compre-
bend the magnitude of such a work; but we may
comprehend the truth that if successfully car
ried out, it will result in great good, not only to
London, but the districts surrounding it, and, by
example, all England Indeed the subject of
sewerage, properly cons Iered, involves other
considerations hardly less important than health.
1t affects the productiveness of countries no less
than the security of cities For instance The