The Palatka daily news. (Palatka, Fla.) 1884-1888, 1888-01-31

.Sirfh-Limitation of house-drairs TO a
diameter of four inches. While this re-
! striction had never before been advo-
Gated for a whole city, numerous iso-
| lated instances existed.
Serenfh-Lateral sewers were to be
six inches in diameter until the maxi
mum flow of sewerage filled them half
| full This was likewise a new feature
| when applied to street sewers.
The novelties introduced by Colonel
/ Warning. therefore, were:
| Strict exclusion of all rain-water; use
of automatic flush-tanks of erery lateral;
practical adjustment of manboles;
house-drains limited to a diameter of
four inches: and LATERAL sewers limited
mainly to six inches.
shall examine them in this order:
/ First-While in theory it may be pos
sible To prevent persons from discharging
the rain-water from their premises into
the sewer, yet in practice it seems
impossible. Although strict measures
were applied, yet the Memphis
| sewers began to be so overcharged
during rams by surreptitious connections
| that overfiow-pipes had to be laid to the
bayou or ditch running through the city,
and last year a new 24-inch intercepting
sewer, discharging directly into the Miss
| issippi, had to be built across the city to
| the storm-water overfiows into the COM
parativeiy dry bayou. As there is no
| reason whatever in Memphis why the
| rain-water from houses should not go
| into the sewers to flush them and to re-
lieve the property, this restriction cannot
be called a good one.
Second-The use of automatic flush
tanks at the head of all the laterals does
not seem to have been fully justified in
! Memphis. The ground is generally
sloping and at many points quite steep,
and the sewers would in some cases
seem to be able to keep fairly clean with
out daily flushing. The engineer told
me this was actually the fact in several
instances of new laterals where no tanks
had been put in. This elbows that dis
elimination is advisable for economical
construction and maintenance. The
best use for automatic fiush-tanks is on
fiat grades, where they are sometimes
almost indispensable. They must be con-
sidered rather a luxury on steep grades.
Third-The adjustment of manholes
| on laterals, while strenuousiy advocated
| by Colonel Waring. but disapproved of
/ generally, must be set down as a failure
The frequent stoppages in the laterals.
at the rate of about three per week = and
the consequent tearing up of the sewer,
| would have been avoided had there been
| proper means of access. Where repeated
stoppages occurred manhnles have been
inserted. and there are now about seventy
on the lateral sewers, where at first :here
| were none. In planning for the extern
| sion of the system in the northern part
of the city, Mr.. Aeriwether has con-
cluded to place a manhole at every street
| intersection.
ameter for house-pipes likewise cannot
be called a success. Owing to the en-
trance of rubbish, which seems UMPIRE
ventable in other cities as well as in
| memphis, s:oppages are frequent,
amounting, according to Mr.. Ross, to
| several every week. The difference be-
tween the size of the sewer-pipe and of
the largest opening into it must be
/ greater than a finch pipe permits when
earthen pipe is used. Experience has
amply proven that diameter of six
inches is the only safe minimum for the
main house-drain under such conditions.
| When finch pipe Is relied on it needs
a great fall, abundant flushing, and
specially well-jointed pipes.
FJtt-The use of 6-inch pipe for street
sewers has also shown itself to be an inn
| proper restriction. A report of Mr.. Niles
| Meriwether says: I'm future nothing
less than s-inch pipe will be used in the
branch or lateral lines, as all the OBJ
| structions which have occurred in the
branches in the past have been i'm the
six and none in the eight inch" The
sample experience was already had years
ago in England, where pipe-sewers were
for the tirst time extensively used; and
in America we have since had abundant
confirmation. With 6-inch house pipes
the s-inch street pipes have given no
! trouble.
Erery one of the deviations made by
| Colonel Warning from the principles pre-
viously adopted, and strenuously de-
Tended by him, have therefore proved to
be either OF minor importance or wholly
! Objectionable.
An additional point, although not es-
sential to the system as a general one,
| must not be overlooked. The sewers
are often complained Of as being alto
gether too shallow. The are generally
from 4 to feet deep and are unable
TO receive the drainage from cellars.
Mr.. Ross stated that they should be at
| least IL feet deep to do what the people
often demand. This depth is the COM
mon one in many of our cities, and for
permanent system in a large city it
should generally not be less. In view of
L the great economy required at the time
| the Memphis sewers were built, it may
be questioned whether the expense Of
twice the present depth would not have
| been too much OF q tax on the people
the lateral sewers, with greater depth
and diameter, seems, however, newt
abb.
In summing up, the conclusion seems
unavoidable. regarding the essential
features of the ''Waring" system, as out
lined above, that what was new cannot
be called good, and what is good cannot
be called new.
The successful working of the Memphis
system, and it is generally giving salts
faction to the public, is clearly not due
to any new features, but to those prin-
ciples Of sewer construction which have
been known and practiced elsewhere for
many years before. and greatly, also, to
the careful and constant attention il re
ceives at the hands of a competent force
of five or six men.
Had not these works been so promi-
nently advocated by Colonel Waring and
his friends abroad as well as 1t home
and had not the general public been led
to believe that an essential progress had
been made in the art of sewer building
.ObstrIctions in s-inch laserais fer six week
, Two during week ending October 1.
Three during week ending October 2.
Three during week e0<1ing o. tOber Is.
hroe during week ending October r.
Your oUyD8 Woek eD1)ng October %
Llvo oogo1g Wook eo11ng N0ve06or&
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