The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-01-18
sUBwAYs OF PARIS.
They Are Broad and High, and Give
Many Business Facilities.

Many Business Facilities.
Boston Record.
The main sewers are eleven feet high
and sixteen feet broad and are con-
~structed of solid masonry covered with
cement. Workme are constantly work
ing on them and the water My rises
to the sidewalks after a very heavy
rainfall The sewers contain two water
mains, as well as telegraph and tele-
phone wires and tubes for compressed
air. This ingenious system sprang from
another embodied in a contract granted
in 1881 by the municipal council of Paris
to the Clock Company, who
were given permission to place their
tubes in the sewers on condition that
they erected a given number of clocks
in the public places of the city and I'M
dertook to keep them to the time fur
nished daily at noon by the observatory.
The clocks are worked from a central
office by the compressed air and con-
stitute a great public Convenience
After twenty-five years from the date
of the contract they will become the
property of the city. AS a sat-off the
received a concession to es-
tablish and keep their pipes in the
sewers for fifty years for the purpose
of distributing compressed air as a mo-
tive power throughout the city. A very
wide use is made of SO advantageous
a system, for it obyiates the purchase
of an engine. saves space. time and
trouble. All that is needed is a meter
AiiA kAS P1OPSA iGAA kAS
compressed air tube. then a turn of -he
tap and the machinery is in motion.
The sewers are also used to accom-
modate the pneumatic tubes by means
of which the carte kilograms are con-
veyed from one end of the city to the
other. The convenience. of having the
telephone wires in the sewers is very
great. There are thousands of miles Of
these, connecting 244 ~postoffices as well
as hundreds of private subscribers in
every part of the city. Any subscriber
in any part of Paris may be heard with
ease in the general postoffice in Lon
don, and a whisper can be heard over
the telephone in Paris. with the result
that the hard swearing that goes on
over the London telephones is almost
unknown. The sluice carriage is run
along the Lodges of the sewers. while
a tongue scrapes the side and bottom
clean. The sewers are lighted with
lamps. and not only is every thorough
fare inscribed on enamel plates, but
every house which is connected with the
sewer is also numbered. AS many as
fifty tourists a day go down the sewers
in the tourist season to ride in the
tourist car or sail in the gondola. The
Paris council has decided upon adopt
ing the system of drainage which is in
vogue in English towns. They are to
spend $13, 600, 900 in adapting the sewers
to take all the sewage which at the
present time is stored in ~cesspools. They
are also going to spend 10. 1000. 900 francs
more in improving the water supply
and the means of distributing it. One
of the sewers passes under the river
by means of a syphon 10 yards lone
and three feet in diameter. This is
kept clean by inserting a wooden ball
on the left bank of the Seine which al
most exactly fills the tube. The pres-
sure of the steam carries the ball dawn,
and then, being of lighter specific grav-
ity. it PUSHES to the surface, carrying
before it everything that may have set
tied in the syphon.