342 



SEWAGE 



rapidly carrying away from the house all liquid 

 refuse, faecal, and other matters, must be so con- 

 structed as to preserve the Bite of the habitation 

 from being polluted and prevent the entrance of 

 any sewage-air into the house. As a rule it is now 

 required that every house-drain connected with a 

 public sewer shall nave an intercepting trap placed 

 between the house and the sewer. This trap serves 

 the purpose of cutting off the direct connection 

 between the house and the sewer, so that if the 

 house-drainage works are imperfectly carried out 

 the intercepting trap will at least prevent the air of 

 the public sewer entering the house. The inter- 

 cepting trap also forms an opening at the lower end 

 of the nouse-drain by which air can enter the drain. 

 All house-drains require to have separate and in- 

 dependent ventilation by means of either the soil- 

 pipe or some special pipe at the head of the drain, 

 and its branches earned up to a point somewhere 

 near the top of the house; but it must not ter- 

 minate near the eaves or a window or the top of a 



Fig. 1. 



A, inpply cistern; B, B, flushing cistern* for water-closets; 

 0, scullery sink ; D, overflow pipe from cistern ; R, F, waste- 

 pipes from safes under water-closet and bath ; G, open 

 grating ; H, water-main ; K, to sewer. 



chimney, for at all these points at certain periods 

 there are direct air-currents into the house which 

 would carry the foul air from the ventilating pipe 

 into the habitation. 



The apartment for the water-closet in a private 

 house should be well lighted and ventilated. A 

 window should always be provided, which should 

 open to the external air, and should be carried up 

 to near the ceiling of the apartment It is also 

 desirable that air-bricks should be built into the 

 external walls, both at a level with the floor and 

 near the ceiling. In large dwellings, and public 

 buildings, such as hospitals, workhouses, and 

 hotels, it is desirable that the water-closeta should 

 be separated from the main building, and Ira 

 approached by a corridor with doors at either end, 

 and having thorough ventilation, so as to out off the 

 direct communication of the closets from the rest of 

 the building. Such an arrangement will, in a 

 severe winter climate, need special provision for 

 heating the apartments. 



Fig. I gives an illustration of a section of a 

 house constructed in accordance with the sanitary 

 requirements of the Model Bylaws of the Local 

 Government Board. Fig. 2 shows the arrange- 

 ment adopted in the case of houses in streets, 



showing the position of the intercepting trap and air 

 opening at tne kerb of the street. \\ ith reference 

 to the sinks and baths of houses, the simplest way 

 of dealing with these appliances is to allow the 



Fig. 2, 

 A, air-inlet in kerb ; B, 4-Inch drain ; 0, to sewer ; D, eoncrvU. 



pipes to pass through the external wall, and to 

 discharge on the top of a trapped guiley outside 

 the building, as shown in fig. 3. 



The old pan closet, the invention of Bramah, is a 

 most intolerable nuisance and source of danger if 

 admitted into a house. This form of closet hag 

 been so generally recommended by plumbers and 

 others whose interest it has been to foist it upon 

 the public that a description of it is desirable. It 

 consists of a moving pan at the bottom of a basin, 

 which is worked from the handle of the closet, and 

 a receiver, against the sides of which the contents of 

 the pan are projected every time the handle of the 



Fig. 3. 



A, rain-water pipe disconnected below ; B, bath and dink waste- 

 pipes disconnected ; 0, overflow from safe under bath. 



closet is raised, the consequence being that the 

 walls of the receiver get plastered over with focal 

 matter, which, decomposing, generates noisome 

 gases. These gases being confined in the space 

 between the water seals of tho pan and that or the 

 l)-trap at the bottom, when the closet is used and 

 the contenta of the pan are discharged into the 



