Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-04-02
SEWAGE OF LONDON.
INTERESTING FACTS CONCERNING
THE IMMENSE SYSTEM


| THE IMMENSE SYSTEM.
How DeOdorizing Is Donc-Strange Things
Get Into the Sewers of a Great City-The
| People Take All For Granted and Don't
Know How Things Are Done.
Londoners in general are wonderfully
npathetic about matters which concern
them closely and which cOnduCe to their
health, happiness and comfort. We
turn on little tap and are at once sup
| piled with abundant light or plenty of
water, but little heed is given to the
previous deep thought and incessaGt
care which have brought us to this well
arranged state oS affairs. Water pipes
| and gas pipes ramify through every
street and lane and alley, distributing
| their valuable contents to the inhabit-
ants Of the dwellings, therein. Then
| there are huge sewer pipes, which car
ry away for US all that is disagreed le
| and unwholesClne. We do not say that
our present supply of gas and water is
perfect, nor that our mode of dealing
with the disposal of o1S sewage is per
feet, but at all events they ;.Ie on the
hlghrOad to perfection.
1t was one day, when CO}ritating on
the vast machinery requisite to meet the
demands of LOndoners. and more uSEu-
cialIy to '>2ep them in a healthy s;init3-
ry condition, that | was led to visit the
outfall works Of CrOssness, where the
sewage from the sOuth side of London
is poured into the Thames. 1t comes
along in sewer 1 feet inches in di-
ameter. The main pumps lift the sew
age into reservoirs. where the sewage is
treated chemically with lime and prOto-
sullhate of iron i'll the proportion of
four grains of lime per gallon and one
of protosulphate of iron. The sewage
in the course of treatment flows along
large reservoirs.
The flow is very slow, in order that
the majority of solids may be deposited.
1t flows finally over a Weir wall, and
thence into the river. This is called the
effluent This treatment necessltates
the use of Is to Is tons of lime per day,
and TO tons of rrotOsulphate of iron.
The sewage is drained off the reservoirs
every two days, and men go down and
thoroughly clean all the sludgo cut,
which is swept down to Il stump and
pumped from there into the sludGe set
thing channels. where il undergOCs Il fur
ther draining. 1t is then let down into
lower sIIdgs store and pumped from
there on to ships and taken to sea. FIT
teen To twenty thousand tons per week
of sludgc are sent to sea.
There are five sludGc ships altogether,
which are sent out at every tide. They
go some 40 miles away to the Barrow
decps. Two engines are required for
pumping up the sludge from the rcsvr-
voirs to the sludge settling channels, and
two for pumping the sludge from the
sludgc store on to the ships. There are
fou1 precipitation reservoirs, the capac
ity of two being $3.50, 600 gallons each,
and that of the two smaller ones >. l21,
600 gallons each.
In the warm weather the eliuUnt is
deudorized by means of mauganate OF So
da and sulphuric acid IN the proportion
of one gain of manganate to 10 grain
of sulphuric acid per gallon of ctLiuent.
This de0d0riZing at Cr0ssnCss costs Lon
doncrs just Goo day, 50 that 1t is no;
continued longer than absolutely neccs-
sary. Clossness Outfall works employ
from 100 to 200 men. They have an en-
gineers' shop on the spot fitted up to
carry out the various repairs that are
constantly required to be done.
Some strange things get into the sew
ers of London, and now and again ba
bies have been found. Such are some
of the most important features of Il sec
ton of the great machinery of the me-
tropOls, which never rests, never sleeps.
Notwithstanding the room which exists
for further Improvement i'll the disposal
of its sewage, the reduction which has
been brought about in the death rate of
London i'll modern times Is as nOteWOr-
thy as it Is satisfactory. In the latter
half of the seventeenth century the av-
eragc mortality of London is said to
have been not less than so per 900,
at the end of the eighteenth century it
had dropped to 50 per 1000, while in
1890 it had fallen to 1913 per 1000.
The main interccpting and principal
branch sewers which have been con-
structed for the conveyance of the sew
age Of London to the two outfalls into
the river Thames at Barking and Cross
ness respectively measure about 50 Eng
lish miles. AS illustrating the magni-
tude of London, it has been computed
that the streets and roads within the
metropolis, if placed end to end in one
continuous line, would measure about
?. 500 miles, equal to the distance from
London to Lands End, thence across
the Atlantic ocean to the mouth of the
gulf of st. Lawrence III Canada on the
st ward NNnn11 ANtnn1