The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-11-08
A SEWAGE LABORATORY
WHAT SCIENCE Is DOING TO SOLVE A
MUNICIPAL PROBLEM.
Comparison of Various Methods OF
crobes Studied.

Correspondence of the Indianapolis Journal
BOSTON, Nov. Elm two modest wooden
buildings, the one suggesting the small Of
fee that often stands at the head or a coal
or lumber wharf and the other evidently
designed originally to be stable, there has
been recently established In the South End
of Boston a new laboratory for the study
of what is admittedly one Of the most Diff
ficult and serious problems of any great
modern municipality. This problem is the
publication of sewage, and the laboratory Is
one that has been established by the Mas
sachusetts Institute of Technology under
the provisions of gift of $4,000. The small
er building has been made into chemical
and meteorological laboratory devoted to
studying the bacteria ard chemistry of city
sewage, while in the larger building practi-
cal experiments are going on which look
toward a final solution of the question Of its
publication.
Naturally the geographical situation of
this remarkable laboratory, which, so far as
is known, occupies the most advantageous
position in the world for the study of
problem of such universal Importance, is no
mere matter of chance or accident The
laboratory is at the junction Of two main
arteries of the city's sewage, the one run
ming from the downtown district-Boston
proper as it would be known to a resident
of half a century ago-and the other carry
ing the accumulated sewage, of the back
bay district and the neighboring towns OF
Allston, Brighton, Brookline and Newton.
The new technology laboratory is therefore
able at any time TO sample the sewage or
the larger part of the Boston system, and
its rows of cypress tanks exhibit in actual
operation all the processes that science has
yet found practicable in the treatment Of
this undesirable but necessary product.
Modern sewage publication is first Of all.
a study in interchangeable elimination Of
the pathoganic or disease producing mi
crobes that flourish wherever the natural
processes of corruption provide them with
sustenance. and the cultivation of the So
called good bacteria whose function in
nature is apparently one of publication.
This, of course, is broad statement, since
the study OF our bacterial friends to say
nothing of bacterial enemies, is yet, COM
paratively speaking, so much so that to
many persons the idea that any bacteria
can be called good" is still somewhat sur
prising. Thus far sewage publication Is
process of which the details are for the
most part deeply mysterious. Roughly
speaking, two kinds of beneficial bacteria
have been found to be its important factors,
the anaerobes and the aerobes. OF the
anaerobes, who work only in the darkness
of sealed tanks, almost nothing is yet known
except their effect upon matter submitted
to them OF the aerobes, who do their
work in or near the open air, few distinct
species have been isolated and are now be-
ing studied by the psychologists.
STORY OF BACTERIA.
Fortunately, however, the work done COL
lectively by these invisible workmen is
much easier TO investigate than they are
themselves. In the first tank in the insti-
tute laboratory, for example, you will prob
ably find every kind of aerobic bacteria at
work, while in the other tanks you note
series of operations in which the labor of
publication is divided and the sewage
treated by several technically different
methods. The anerobic bacteria. for ex-
ample. complete only part of the pro-
cess of publication, which must then be
finished by their air-loving brethren. The
routine work of the laboratory is to provide
for these literally countless armies-millions
and millions and millions and millions of
them-of invisible microbes the best condi-
tions for development and healthful activi-
ty. In other words, the microbes are herded
together Systematically and intelligently fed
at fixed intervals. and the good things they
can do studied with all the minute accuracy
of chemical and meteorological investiga-
ton.
The sand filter, one of the first things to
be shown to a curious visitor, illustrates
the methods of publication which was first
scientifically studied at the experiment sta
ton established some fifteen years or more
ago at Lawrence, Mass, by the State Board
of Health of Massachusetts. BY this method
the sewage is allowed to pass slowly
through layer of sand to a depth of from
two and half TO four feet, fifty gallons
of sewage thus passing daily through the
tank at the new laboratory and represent