A NEW SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE FOR TOWNS WHEN APPECTED BY THE TIDE
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Jean Claude Durand at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 26th April
1860.
I, JEAN CLAUDE DURAND, of Brydges Street, Covent Garden, in the County
of Myddlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention
for "A NEW SYSTEM OF DRAINAGE FOR TOWNS WHEN APPECTED BY THE TIDE,"
to be as follows:-
The system of drainage for the towns has been the same since the remotest
times; it simply consists of sewers, through which the refuse waters and other
matters flow to the stream, which generally traverses the town, and which
serves a common sewer. When the stream is not affected by the tide, the
process, although bad, is not accompanied with very great inconveniences; but
when the tide is felt in the so drained town, one can easily understand the
result of the process; the liquid & solid matters so poured into the stream
are not allowed to flow away to the sea, being successively carried down by
the current & ebbed up by the tide.
By my process I obviate these inconveniences. Instead of sewers getting
into the stream during its course through the town, I suggest the establishment
of a common sewer or canal along both sides of the stream, which common
sewer or canal has only two communications with the stream, one up the river,
above the town to allow the ingress of the water, the other down the river..
below the town to allow the flowing out of the contents of the lateral canal..
The several ordinary drain sewers carry to this canal all the refuse, waters and

page_text: other matters, which, aided by the flow of water coming from the upper stream,
go freely towards the egress door down the river.
Should the flowing take place in a regular and continuous way, the evil
would be scarcely lessened, for the tide would bring back the filth in the town
and up to the place reached by the tide. What is then required is, a certain
force or power which may carry this filth toward the sea with so great a
rapidity that the tide could not bring it back. I attain this end in the follow-
ing manner-I shut up during all the tide time the door through which the
contents of the canal flow into the river below the town. During all the tide
time the filth accumulate into the lateral canal, together with the water coming
from the upper stream. As soon as the ebb begins to flow down, the egress
door below the town is opened, and all the contents of the lateral canal is
carried into the river with a velocity proportionated to the declivity of the said
canal and to the quantity of accumulated water.
In order to obtain a result as perfect as possible, the lateral canals must be
so constructed as. to require no repairs. To this effect I adopt the circular form
and the use of over-burnt indented bricks, connected together by means of a
mortar of hydraulic lime. The tubular canals far from being deteriorated by
the time, become stronger and stronger every day.
Instead of one large canal, it is sometimes better to construct two of a lesser
size, and being in juxtaposition.
In summing up, my system consists of a canal lateral to the stream, and
constructed of bricks duly cemented together and in the tubular form, the said
canal receiving the water of the stream up the river and the town, and besides
admitting all the refuse waters and other matters of the town, during the
whole tide time and a part of the ebb time, & letting all its contents flow away
at the first moment of the ebb, then being shut up down the river, after the
flowing of its contents, for being filled again, & so on.