Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-09-23
A SANITARY Point.


DIR. Huddleson urges the adoption of the
furnace stack system Of ventilating sew
ers. and no doubt It would be an efficient
one. The gases generated in the sewers
need to be drawn off In current flowing
toward their highest elevations that will
be sufficiently strong to keep the cases
from penetrating through the defective
traps Of dwelling houses. High shafts
with an artificial draft up through them
created by ife would work effectively, and
their cost should not bar their use. But
this suggestion for the mitigation OF
the harm from sewer gases does not
reach to the root of the evil. The way
to stop the danger is to stop the
creation of the gases. Our ances-
tors did not have the sewers which
our refinement has created. Because of
them we suffer now from contaminated
air and water, The water shat is used
to float away the excreta from the dwell
ing passes to the river or penetrates to
the sources of the springs and wells and
poisons our drinking water, and in its
course poisons the air we breathe with the
gases it generates. Surely it would
seem that where two of the essential
elements oflife and health are poisoned
by our plan of drawing off from our
dwellings their rejected matter, there is
loud call to modify the practice |;
especially when it is considered that
this matter is prime element,
when mingled with the easth, in the
creation of the food, which provides,
with air and water, the three necessary
elements for life. # .
All this has been pointed out many
times, and is known OF all men yet no
method is in general use to rob sewers of
their terrors and TO make innocent
and profitable their dangerous
contents. Some cities have made the
effort, and a good many have talked
about it. The new town of Pullman, in
Illinois, we believe is the only one in this
country where the contents of the
sewers sre' utilized for agriculture.
Whether the system obtaining there
obviates the dangers from sewer gases
as well as from sewer water, we do not
know; but evidently no system will be
perfect until the air we breathe rs well
as the water we drink is preserved from
possible sewer contamination. And evi.
IDENTIFY plan which would prevent the
generation of the gases would be better
than one which only sought to dissipate
them Sewers are convenient outlets for
the waste of cities. and there does not
seem TO be any necessary generation
of gases in them. The air in
the sewers of Paris is said to
be pure and it is certainly prac.
Hcable to rake these avenues large
enough 10 be subject to constant inspec-
tion, and TO the certainty that everything
they carry is speedily swept through
them. They can thus be utilized also to
carry water, steam and gas pipes and
electric and telegraph wires all of
which are soon to be required by law to
be carried under the ground.
The law needs to provide that no sewer
shall be less than six feet in diameter
and that it shall be ventilated and daily
swept that all wires and pipes shall be
carried through it; and that the solid
matter taken from its mouth shall be at
once covered with earth. Then our air
and water will lie assured of purity, and
usefulness instead OF noxiousness will be
given to the sewerage.