Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1879-08-02

bors. Inasmuch, however, as an
error at this stage is liable to pro-
duce very serious effects on the
health of his neighbors, even this
portion of the work ought to be the
subject of municipal legislation and
inspected by public officers.
We will suppose you have the
various conveniences in your house
which are rendered possible by the
existence of water-wOrks-the bath
room, the laundry with fixed wash
tubs, the water-closet, the kitchen
sink, ETC., etc, every one of which
has its wate-pipe or soil-pipe for
carrying off the water polluted with
its various contaminatiOns. This
polluted water is what we call sew
age. On its disposition depend
health or sickness, life or death,
throughout the community; and
these sOil-pipes and waste-pipes are
the elementary portions of what we
call a sewerage apparatus. These
usually communicate with a verti-
teal pipe running from the top story
of the house to the basement, and
this with an underground pipe,
usually called the drain pipe, from
the basement to the street sewer.
At the point where this communi-
cation takes place the private sew
erage terminates and the public
sewerage begins, and as this is the
portion for which the individual
citizen is responsible, it will be as
well to lay down some of the lead
ing principles on which it should be
constructed.
Two points are, as before specified,
to be aimed at-quickness of dis
charge and ventilation. For the
former purpose a due proportion has
to be observed between the estimat-
ed amount of sewage to be disposed
of per diem and the calibre of the
pipes conveying it, and in the under
ground drain-pipe a fall or inclina-
ton proportional to its calibre. As
the drain-pipe would not probably
be more than six or eight inches
calibre, one inch in fifty would
probably be fall enough; but the
inclination ought to be given by the
same engineer who constructs the
public portion of the sewerage.
But the ventilation question cam
not be as summariIy disposed of. 1t
is comparatively a new matter for
consideration in sewerage, public
attention having been called to it
some years ago in England by the
dangerous sickness of the Prince of
Wales resulting from the neglect of
it.
Before this, typhoid fever, as
result of sewage contamination, had
been looked for among the poorest
classes in the lOw-lying Suburbs of
London and other great cities; but
the Investigations of DIR. Southwood
Smith and other benevolent physi-
clans had convinced them that this
infections form of typhoid could
only result from sewage contamina-
ton, and in that connection, Selcdg9
gases, or air contaminated with the
impurities of sewers, had of late
received that attention which had
hitherto been limited to the con-
taminatiOn of water with the same
pollutions. The scientific physi-
clans of the Prince were convinced
that his disease was of this class.
A stringent search was made for the
cause. He had been sleeping at one
of those magnificent rural palaces
which constitute the country resi-
dences of the English nobility. A
close investigation of the sewage
apparatus of the house was insti-
tuted. 1t was found that the head
of the Princes bed was close to the
open door of the bathroom, and
that in that room were wash-bOwl
ana a bath-tub, the waste-pipes of
which communicated with the gen
eral sewerage of the mansion,which
upon investigation was found to be
highly charged with sewage gases,
i'm a form so concentrated and COM
pressed that it rushed out with con-
siderable force wherever the appa-
ratus was opened. The sewerage of
this mansion had been considered q
model arrangement prior to this
and was quite elaborate, the sewage
of the house being carried by a sys-
tenn of pipes and drains to a reser- /
voir at some distance from the
house, where an arrangement was
made for mixing it with earth and
converting it into a valuable ma
nure. But the sewerage throughout /
its extent had no Yentilation-it /
was a closed apparatus; hence the /
gases as they accumulated became I
highly compressed, and, their elastic /
force being increased in proportion
to .he compression, made their way /
back through the waste-pipes of the |
bath, wash-bowl and water-closets
and dangerously poisoned the Prince
and his valet, as well as noble
man of his suite who slept in the
Same part of the house. The noble
men, we believe died of his fever.
From this time the subjects of
sewer gas and the ventilation of
sewers were actively studied by
hygienists and engineers. Various
arrangements in the way of traps,