Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-10-05
MEMPHIS APPEAL.
FRIDAY, :: OCTOBER 5, 1888.
MEMPHIS

There was a time when Memphis was
looked upon as a place to be stunned as
a horrible example of what an unsani-
tary city might become. Now she is
held up as an example for the most en-
lightened communities to follow, as the
best drained and best severed city in the
world. Paris, London and st. Peters
burg are about to try the separate
system of sewerage attended here with
such unfailingly excellent results, and
Philadelphia-alrcady severed in the old
and very vicious combined system-and
Baltimore are about 10 adopt it, The
great sewers of Paris, once the pride of
her engineers, are condemned as huge
meters for the storage of the foulest
gases, and those of London are so bad as
to be instantly felt under certain atmos-
pheric conditions by the least observant
and most Indifferent persons. What was
triedin Alnwick in 1S49as an experiment
has in Memphis proven a certainty. In the
past four years, as readers of the APPEAL
will remember, many delegations of en-
gineers aud officials from other cities in
spected our sewer system. These have not
only reported favorably upon it, but en-
Enthusiastically, and the result is that not
only the cities named, but Keene, n. H.,
Wilkesbarre, Pa, Pittsfield and Lenox,
Mass, Pullman, ILL.,, Kalamazoo, Mich,
Omaha, Neb., Little Rock, Ark, Birming-
ham, Ala, and Norfolk, Va, have all set to
work to introduce Col. Warnings system.
New Orleans has voted to adopt it, and
l. only waiting for some way out of its
financial straits to begin work. At
SherbOrn, Mass, for the women's
prison, and at tho Bryn Mawr Hotel, un-
der the careful supervision Of the
officers of the Pennsylvania railroad, the
best tests have resulted satisfactorily
and at Wayne and WoottOn Mr.. George
w. Childs has gone to great expense in
securing the thorough drainage of his
extensive properties, so hat not only
his own homestead, but the whole region
Of his large land purchase, may be Sc
cured against imperfect drainage. In
Paris the Memphis system of sep
arate sewerage was made the theme
of scientific discussion by a tenn
porary technical commission composed
of engineers, physicians, chemists and
sanitary experts, who reported favorably
upon it, and on the 3lst of July last the
City Council adopted the system and APP
propriated money for the execution OF
the work under Col. Warning himself.
The plan includes. the laying of public
sewers and supplying them with flushing
tanks, aud adjusting the drainage of all
the houses along the th%oroughfares
through which these sewers 60. aud final.
ly is 10 test the success of this expert
mental work and if tho result is salts.
factory it is to extend toa modification OF
the entire drainage of Paris, with supple
mental sewerage in the part of the city
already provided for on the old plan, and
with an extension of sewerage facilities
over 200 or 800 miles of streets not pro.
vided for ut present. While the matter
was under discussion in Paris, the en-.
g]ineers from other European cities fol
lowed the subject up, and already a plar
for the sewerage of the new part of Rom,
on the Memphis plan has been approve,
by Nescovali, the chief engineer of tn,
city, and will soon be begun there
In Naples, local engineers have mad
plans for its introduction an,
Trieste has handed over to Col
Warning all the plans hitherto propose,
to be revised according to his plans
And in st. Petersburg an association O
leading citizens have united in request
ing Col. Wariug to make u plan o
sewerage for that city which is shortly t
be submitted to the city government
Thus out Of evil has come forth good
out of a great calamity a great publ
blessing, carrying with it far and nea
the name and fame of Memphis as
plucky place, kept alive under mos
adverse circumstances, whose peopl
promptly initiated the reforms in sewer
age now considered by the best engineer
and most distinguished experts of tn
world the very best that human skill ca
devise