1818.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



41 



We tliink Mr. Pliillips fully justifiefl in stating [p. 30], that the 

 sewers are bad in construction, but the house drains are worse. 

 He states that in going along the sewers, he has often tried 

 whether the currents of air were flowing into the sewers, or out of 

 them into the houses. By placing the light which he had in his 

 hand by the side of the house drains, he almost invariably found 

 tlie flame carried into the mouths of the drains — showing that 

 tliere nnist have been direct currents from the sewers through the 

 house drains into the houses. Many of the gully drains showed 

 an outward current into the streets, though some have a downward 

 draught. 



Fig. 1. 



Fig. 2. 



Mr. Phillips gives his support to the statement that some neigh- 

 bourhoods are at times afflicted with more noxious effluvia from 

 the sewers, than if there were no sewers whatever. He thinks the 

 great remedies are to keep a constant supply of water in the 

 sewers, and to circulate it through them ; and to carry all the 

 outlets under the side beds of the river, to discharge into the main 

 stream under low-water level. J\Ir. Phillips has found that the 

 atmosphere of districts near the outlets of the sewers is liable to 

 be affected with effluvia, when the wind happens to blow up tlie 

 sewers. By carrying the outlets into the stream, he expects, more- 

 over, to get rid of the filthy mud-banks, and the myriads of worms 

 sweltering upon them. 



The Report notices the extended use of the egg-shaped sewer in 

 the Holborn and Finsbury and Westminster divisions, but remarks 

 that the new sewers constructed are generallv of the same internal 

 capacity as the old forms, and therefore disproportioned to the 

 extent of the drainage. A further great saving will conseiiuently 

 be made in the new operations by reducing the size of the sewers. 

 The commissioners observe, with justice, that the mere view of the 

 ordinary run of sewer water in the sewers, or of the run of water 

 on the occasion of heavy storms, might have led to some amend- 

 ment in the construction of sewers without any gaging, had a view 

 been taken of the flow in the lateral, as well as in the main lines 

 of sewer ; but the sizes of all classes of sewers have been main- 

 tained on the view of the main lines alone. Mr. Hertslet, the clerk 

 to the AVestminster commission, well observes that he has been 

 perfectly at a loss to conceive, in traversing the sewers, why such 

 immense sewers should be built to carry off such mere threads of 

 drainage. He has seen sewers 5 ft. 6 in. high by 3 feet wide, built 

 where, even during heavy rain, a 3 or 4-inch JJipe would have car- 

 ried off all the water. 



Mr. Phillips makes some curious remarks with reference to the 

 size of current which would suffice to keep an ordinary sewer 

 clean. In passing through the branch sewers, he has noticed that 

 the currents of water are mere dribbles, and being spread over a 

 flat surface are not strong enough to remove the soil. Looking at 

 the currents, and comparing them with the extraordinary sizes of 

 the sewers, it was easy to decide that the currents might be passed 

 through pipes of from 3 to 9 inches diameter. Indeed, in a large 

 number of the sewers, the currents have cut narrow and deep 

 channels for themselves, leaving the bulk of the deposit untouched, 

 but showing, as Mr. Phillips says, that nature was trying to remedy 

 the faults of art. Sometimes it is necessary to cut such channels 

 through the deposit, to allow of the flow of water. Acting upon 

 this view, j\Ir. Pliillips proposes to improve the flat-bottomed 

 sewers, Ijy bedding cliannel tiles along their bottoms, and filling 

 them in behind with concrete. In the middle he would place a 

 channel tile of say 1 foot diameter, having other flat tiles sloping 

 down to it on each side. By this means, the currents would be 

 concentrated on smaller sized channels, kept regularly in action, 

 and therefore clean. 



Mr. Roe proposes to reduce the expense of sewage for one side 

 of a sewer for a house of 17 feet frontage, which lately with 

 upright-sided sewers was £9 ll.«. 3f/., and no%v is with egg-shapt<l 

 sewers £6 Os. &d., — this he pro])Oses to reduce to ,£2 19*'. Grf. for 

 first-class houses, and i'l 14«. for sixth-class houses. In these 

 latter charges is included the su]iply of water. The bottom por- 

 tions of the larger sewers Mr. Roe proposes should be of well- 

 prepared clay, moulded in blocks tivo feet long, and well burnt ; 

 the upper portions to be formed of radiated bricks, laid in blue 

 lias mortar. The smaller sewers are to be likewise egg-shaped, 

 but to be made entirely of brown stone-ware glazed. Mr. Roe's 

 first-class largest sewer is 3 ft. 9 in. by 2 ft. 3 in., with an area of 

 6-6 feet, and costing 7s. per foot run ; bis seventh-class, or smallest 

 sewer, is 15 in. by 9 in., with an area of 9 inches, and costing 3*. 

 per foot run. 



The greater part of the duties of the officers, Mr. Roe states, is 

 taken up by attending to complaints of the stoppage of drains and 

 sewers, and in superintending the removal of the soil ; when, with 

 a proper system of sewerage and house drainage, nearly the whole 

 of the duties in that respect may cease. We agree with him that 

 it is far better that a staff' of officers should be constantly engagetl 

 in making examinations, in order to pre^'ent filth from depositing 

 and accumulating, than in waiting for it to collect and annoy the 

 public with its noxious emanations, perhaps for weeks and months 

 before complaint is made and steps are taken to remove the evil. 



We think a great deal may be done by Mr. Guthrie's plan, men- 

 tioned in the Health of Towns Magazine. In this he proposes to 

 separate the house drainage from the surface drainage. The house 

 drainage being conveyed in tubes, as stated by Mr. Roe, would, 

 under the pressure of water, be carried to tlie outfall, without 

 gully holes or other communications with the external atmosphere. 

 The surface drainage in the secondary streets could be conveyed 

 by the kennels, and in the main streets be received by the large 

 sewers. 



The commissioners come to no decision, at present, as to the 

 use of chimney shafts, with currents of air created by heat, for 

 ventilating the sewers and carrying off the noxious emanations, 

 though they express their appro\al of the principle. 



In conclusion, we must again urge upon the commissioners the 

 necessity of coming to some immediate decision respecting the use 

 by the public of all sewers which have been built at the expense of 

 the commissions, and at once abandon the extoi'tionate demand of 

 lOs. per foot run on the frontage of a house, which, if it happen to 

 be a corner house, may amount to the sum of £20, besides £i more 

 for making the drain, for a fourth-rate building that cost only 

 £200. Every facility and encouragement ought to be gi\en to the 

 owners of house property to make drains into the public sewers, 

 and so to abandon the pest of cesspools. 



CANDIDUS'S NOTE-BOOK 

 FASCICULUS LXXVIII 



*' I must have liberty 

 Withal, as Urge a charter as the winds. 

 To blow on whom I please." 



I. Some have acquired a reputation for having a style of their 

 own, merely because they have repeated the very same ideas over 

 and over again, on occasions the most dissimilar ; and, so far from 

 improving upon them, that their latest applications have been less 

 appropriate and judicious than their earlier ones. Such decided 

 mannerism ought rather to be taken not so much for consistency 

 of style as for sterility and inactivity of mind. He who at all de- 

 serves the name of artist — and architects claim it by courtesy, at 

 least — is always enlarging the stock of his ideas, and is always 

 studying, throughout the whole of his career. Without copying 

 others he profits by what they have done, both by shunning the 

 faults they have committed, and into which he himself might have 

 fallen but for such evidence of them, and by borrowing from them 

 hints and motifs, — after a very different manner, be it observed, 

 from the mere plagiarist. There is no merit in not availing our- 

 selves of ideas thrown out by others, more especially if it has been 

 done so very imperfectly and at random, that very much more than 

 was at first thought of remains to be made of them. "He, says 

 Reynolds, " who resolves to ransack no mind but his own, will 



7 



