The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1903-02-17
THF SEPTIC TANKS.
Up-to-Date System by Which Newberry
DiSpOses Of Its Sewage.


/ number of The Literary Digest
b upon "Sewage Disposal by Bao
terra" gives some interesting read,
ing to our citizens at this time. AS
Is system of serewage on this plan has
y just been inaugurated in Newberry
\ by the commissioners of public works,
under the superintendence of En-
gineer O. @. Beddoes, and as one OF
the best popular explanations Of the
system, we. ask you to print the fol-
lowing extracts from the article:
y "The study of the way in which
+ the publication of sewage takes place
in filtration, the investigation of the
mechanism of the transformation of
the heterogeneous organic matter into
"a 8ammonia and then into nitrous and
& nitric acids by the successive action
q of various ferments, due to the re-
searches of Schloesing and Hunt
land of Win ogradsky, has led the
English to sort of intensive fItra-
& tion through bed of Stag of small
3 dimensions. This constitutes the
bacterial puritication of sewage.
NJ at was the chemist Dlbdin who
first applied this method practically.
$sHis process, first carried out at Sut
Sston, near London, consists in letting
s2the sewage to be purified stand for
&two periods of four hours each in
basins, whose bottoms, properly
drained by system of pipes, are
covered with layer of Stag 60 cen
s5timeters [about 2 feet thick, the
size Of the fragments decreasing
from the bottom to the surface.
a "This is not at all filtration pure
and simple. 1t has been found
that, contrary to what we might ex-
Speot, there is no clogging of the
layer of Stag, and that after six
months it is as clean as Mt first.
This ls due to the work of the bac.
terra in the sewage, which,
finding in the interstices of the Stag
the oxygen necessary for their life,
literally burn the organic matter,
transforming successively the nitro
genous substances into ammonia and
then into nitrites and nitrates, which
flow away with the water.
"Thus the purifcation of the sew.
age is effected by the very germs
it contains, thanks to the presence of
atmospheric oxygen; it is a process
of oxidation in which the bacteria
serve as Intermediates.
Cameron has modified the meth
od--we cannot say perfected it, for
both the systems are in use, and the
question Of superiority has not yet
been settled. In the hope of avoid
ing the clogging of the aerobric beds,
Cameron let's the sewage ferment
twenty four hours in a huge reser.
Stvoir, the septic tank out of contact
with the air. A very active fermen-
tation develops: the water becomes
covered with layer that serves as
natural lid. This is broken here
and there by discharges of gas, but
according to the inventor this is not
Objectionable The solid matter
liquifies, and, in word, the sewage
abecomes more ready for purfcation
8by the aerobio contact beds through
(which it is afterwards passed.
"Here, briefly set forth, are the
atwo English processes that are of.
8fered as new solution Of the seri
@ous question of sewage purification.
They both have enthusiastic parts
ans are ardelt detractors, numerous
f8are the articles and books of
q which they have been the subjects. :.
"The system that employs for the
purification of sewage the very bac
terra that it contains, and that consti
tute it's dangerous element, is evident
ly seductive. BY it we confine with.
in narrow limits of space and time
the work Of publication that is effect
cd spontaneously in arabic land and
in watercourses into which cities dis
charge their sewage, as in the Seine,
which is infected at Asruares, but
has become pure again at Meulan. =.
"At any rate, the bacterial purifi
cation of sewage constitutes one more
step in advance, in the important do
main of municipal hygiene. Thanks