The herald., 1896-12-31
A WORD TO THE PUBLIC.


proper expression of their views.)
A WORD TO THE PUBLIC.
To the Editor of The Los Angeles Her.
aid: 1t must be pleasing to the citizens
of Los Angeles to know that the board of
health is contemplating prohibiting the
public from expectorating on the side
| walks, ETC., as a health measure. de-
sire through the medium of your pro-
gressive and liberal paper, to draw the
attention of the honorable board to the
large array of sewer and escape pipes
protruding through roofs of dwellings,
which are continuously expectorating
their disease elements al an al
titude which nature never intended them
to reach; and from after sundown to sun
rise they are depressed to the earth, en-
tering sleeping room windows and ventil-
ators in passing. Their odorOus presence
is very plainly determined in many
buildings throughout the city. While
entertain the greatest respect for the
honest intentions of the honorable doc
tors, have no more faith in the correct
ness Of their methods of dealing with this
important subject than 1 would have in
board of plumbers prescribing a con-
tinuous course of emetics to the human
sewerage system as they prescribe to the
sewers, when cathartics would be the
correct medical treatment. The orig
inator of this separate trap airpipe sys-
tenn never intended them to be used for
public sewer ventilators, their object be-
ing to admit air into the trap when dis
charging Ito prevent syphonage), and
where one trap is situated above another,
to allow the compressed air occasioned
by the discharge of the upper trap to es-
cape, and by having a cutoff trap be-
tween the sewer and the dwelling, with
out which, as is the case In this city, the
system is disease-creating arrange
ment.
The traps in general use in this city
l. e., the s. & Pare the most unreliable
of all traps in existence, and much sick
ness and death can be directly attributed
to them.
1t will be fresh in the minds of many of
your readers the memory of my attempt,
in the interest Of the public health, to
reform this danger; of my arrest and the
lower court trial, where was convicted,
not of what was charged with, namely,
Intellectually Ventilating Certain Trap,
but of breaking a city ordinance, or bank,
or robbing the United States mail, either
of which crimes was equally guilty Of
The superior court, to which I appealed,
ruled that 1 had been found guilty entire
ly contrary to evidence, and that my
work, instead Of being inefficient, was
most efficiently done, and granted new
trial, which the city hall combine, know
ing their pull even after the above decis-
ion, allowed the case to be tried again.
The same honorable Judge granting also
presided at the retrial. believing that
he had already decided the case, and that
superior court judge could not legally
reverse his own decision, waived having
jury. After mass Of the most unset
entiflc, theoretical, nOnsensical evidence
had been adduced, the grist of which
averred that by using an active waste
also as vent, 1t might stop up, notwith-
standing there was a bag or trap to ar
rest any foreign matter before it could
enter said waste pipe; also in the event of
two of the fixtures in room being dis
charged edsimultaneouslymy trap arrange
ment would be syphOned, which could no
more happen under the conditions in this
instance than that the discharge of the
outfall sewer into the Pacific ocean would
.syphon it, for the simple reason that my
arrangement is not syphon. AS for the
objection, which seemed to be the main
one, of a waste pipe being used for vent,
the city ordinance plainly enacts that all
waste pipes in dwellings shall be used as
vent pipes.
In order to sustain the just decision of
his honor, 1 exhibited before him in the
court a full-sized model of the city's S.
& P. traps, with regulation vents, and
glasses, SO that their action could be
plainly seen. With half a washbowlful
of water discharged through each trap,
the two city ones lost their seal, leaving
a direct passage into the dwelling of the
elements of contagion and death, while
the trap put in was not in the slightest
degree affected, conclusively proving its
efficiency as a safeguard to health.
Nevertheless, Daniel having come to
judgment, 1 was found guilty and fined
500 cents. Had been guilty of insisting
on putting in the city arrangement, the
$1,000 fine, which is the limit, would not
have been severe enough for the enOr-
nifty of the offense. l may state that the
United States national board of health's
sanitary experiments, which 1 conduct
ed to determine whether my system of
separate trap airpipes, with disconnect-
ing trap between dwelling and sewer, or
Col. G. E. Warnings plan of valve traps
should be adopted throughout the United
States, resulted in my system being ap
proved. l may state that these expert
ments extended over q period of three
months, and the bottle trap 1 recon-
mended was the most reliable one of all
tested.
A wrong impression seems to prevail
that / had some interested motive in
fighting this case. L have none whatever,
having no patents or claims on any ar
rangement l advocate, and any work l
get, in most cases, is got by being dol
lar lower than my competitors (the Los
Angeles preference for good work..
/ may also state that / held no public
office nor was my name before the county
convention for nomination for one con-
sequently, I did not require the city hall
combines powerful pull whichever way
the court decided. In fact, this trap ar
rangement requires no pull, having been
approved by the most advanced sanitary
engineers of the United States, and l
trust, in the interest of the public health,
that our honorable board of health will
have it adopted, as it may be relied upon
as never going back ON its decision rem
dered in court.
w. HENDERSON.
Los Angeles, December 27.