1844.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



27<> 



lias carefully pxamined the works of extensive districts, explains the action 

 of any jiartial system, and suggests, in common with other witnesses— engi- 

 neers, arcliitects, builders, and others, the necessity of including the proper 

 application of supplies of water, the private house-drainage, the subotdinate 

 as well as the main drains under one system of scientific construction and 

 management. Dr. Rigby, physician to the General Lying-in Hospital, in 

 York-road, adduces the example of an obstruction in a drain to show the evil 

 eflects that will ensue, unless the connection of the internal works for a com- 

 plete house-drainage, and the works of external main drainage, be made ne- 

 cessary and component parts of an efficient measure. 



The medical witnesses have brought before us facts in support of their 

 strongly urged and unanimous opinion, that no population can be healthy ' 

 which live amid cess-pools, or upon a soil permeated by decomposing animal 

 or vegetable refuse, giving off impurities to the .air in their houses and in the 

 streets. They state the necessity of preventing all accumulations of stag- 

 nant refuse in or neat houses, and of substituting a system of house-drainage 

 and cleansing, aided by the Introduction of better supplies of water into the 

 houses. They have brought forward instances whire the main drains or 

 sewers were tolerably well formed, and subordinate or house-drains attached, 

 but where from the want of properly directed supplies of water both liouse- 

 drains and sewers only acted as extended cess- pools. 



In consequence of these facts, and otliers brought before us. connecting 

 personal and household uncleanliness, a low state of health, and extensive 

 disease, with the deficiency and impurity of the supplies of water in the dis- 

 tricts inhabited by the poorer classes, we directed our special inquiries to 

 those e.xisting arrangements, to which tliese defects were attributed. 

 The Supply of W.\ter. 



We find that the laws in force, and the usages at present prevailing with 

 regard to the supply of water to the great majority of towns and districts in- 

 vestig.ated, provide only for carrying the mains through the principal streets. 

 Upon an examination of the measures generally adopted and in force under 

 the provisions of these laws, and the plans proposed to the legislature for their 

 improvement, it appears that they all stop short of a most important point 

 namely, measures for carrying supplies under an economical and properly re- 

 gulated system, into tlie habitations of the poorer con.suniers. In a large 

 proportion of the poorer districts the inhabibanis have only out-door sup- 

 plies by means of stand-pipes or common tanks or wells. In many instances 

 they are obliged to fetch water from considerable distances from their dwell- 

 ings, at much inconvenience, delay, labour, and expense ; in many towns they 

 are dependent for supplies either on collections of rainwater, or on water 

 taken from adjacent streams, or pumped from springs, frequently liable to be 

 polluted. 



Upon the examination of the statements and answers from the towns to 

 which our inquiries have been directed, it apiwars that only in six instances 

 could the arrangements and the supplies be ileemed In any comprehensive 

 sense good ; while in thirteen they appear to le indiliiront, and in thirty-one 

 so deficient as to Ije pronounced bad, and, so far as yet examined, frequently 

 inferior in purity. 



The expanse and various inconveniences entailed by the existing modes of 

 supply, by common stand-pipes or tanks, and the frequent and increasing 

 pollution of the springs supplying the wells in some densely peopled districts 

 are stated in the evidence of Mr. Quick, engineer, who has the management 

 of the works of the Southwark Water Company. 



The same witness describes a district in which, until a properly devised 

 system of house-drainage be adopted, additional supplies ot water, carried 

 into houses would frequently only increase the damp of the house, and the 

 causes of disease, as well as of the dilajiidations of the premises. In the evi- 

 dence of Mr. Toynbee, Mr. Liddle, Mr. Quick, and Dr. Aldis. facts are slated 

 showing the impurities and deterioration in water comparatively pure at its 

 source, caused by tlie common mode of intermittent supply, which renders 

 necessary the use of butts or tanks, especially in the manufacturing districts, 

 and in towns and densely populated neighbourhoods where there is much 

 smoke, and other impurities. 



The general facts disclosed in the course of our inquiry, led us to seek out 

 and carefully examine all tried and successful measures of improvement that 

 we could find in use. 



The important advantages allbrded by a constant supply of pure water kept 

 on night and day, and superseding the necessity for the use and expense of 

 water-butts and tanks, are stated in the evidence of Mr. Hawksley, engineer 

 to the Trent Water Works in the town of Nottingham, founded on an ex- 

 perience during twelve years, of an improved mode of supply introduced 

 by him into that town. The evidence of Mr. Anderton, manager of the 

 Preston Water Works, gives the experience of a similar mode of supply 

 during ten years in that town ; and the evidence of Mr. Thorn, engineer of 

 the Shaws Water Works at Greenock, supports these views. From the cities 

 of Philadelphia and New York, we have received information of much in- 

 terest and importance in answer to the inquiries addressed by us, showing 

 the successful operation of a system of a constant and ample supply of water 

 adopted in those cities. 



The evidence of Mr. Mylne, the experienced engineer of the New River 

 Company, shows the improvements in principle and detail which be has pro- 

 posed for new districts. Mr. Ashton of Hyde, and Mr. Smith of Preston, 

 ow ners of tenements occupied by the labouring classes, state their experience 

 of the advantages in household and personal cleanliness, in health and direct 

 saving of money, derived from the improvements eflected by the I'Xtension ot 

 the supplies of water into the houses of their tenants. 



Statements are made in the evidence upon this particular branch of our in- 

 quiry recommending the improved system of a constant supply of water at 

 high pressure, as the most efficient means that have been yet introduced lor 

 the arrangement of supplies of water for the extinction of fires. The very 

 important information collected on this head is contained in the answer.-, 

 (which also show the reduction that has been eflected in the rates ol 

 insurance) from the cities of Philadelphia and New York,— in Mr. I lawksley's 

 statement of experience at Nottingham, in that of Mr. Anderton, at Preston, 

 —and in that of Mr. Quick, in relation to the arrangements made for the pro- 

 tection of valuable warehouse property situated in the vicinity of those mains 

 of the Southwark Water Company wliich are always keiit charged at high 

 pressure. Mr. Wicksteed states that he has recommended the adoption of 

 similar arrangements for parts of the city of Cork. 



Pbcuniary Expbnces for Sewerage, Water, &c. 



The witnesses have uniformly stated that the great obstacle to the exten- 

 sive voluntary adoption of improvements and works of admitted necessity, 

 such as tenants' communication piix-s for supplies of water, or new drains for 

 the drainage of houses, is the great expense of immediate outlay, which has 

 been usually charged upon he owners or upon the occupiers, who are called 

 upon to pay at once for permanent works (frequently imperfect and unueces- 

 sarily expensive), in which thry have a very limited interest. 



The cost of maintaining and extending such works, in many cases for dis- 

 tant districts, and the irregular manner in which the collections are made, 

 often levied at uncertain intervals, are represented to have given rise to further 

 objections. 



The character of the evidence we have received of the oppressive effect of 

 the immediate charges, and the obstructions they create to the improvement 

 of the lower class of tenements, and the benefits anticipated from the adop- 

 tion of an improved mode of defraying the expense, will be seen in the evi- 

 dence of Mr. Jeremiah Little and Mr. Bratt, builders and owners of houses 

 in the metropolis occupied by the labouring classes; in the evidence of Mr. 

 Biers, a builder, and Mr. W. Hickson, an owner of tenements of a higher 

 description, also in the metropolis , of Mr. Corbett, Mr. AVroe, and Mr. Hop- 

 kins, of Manchester, and Mr. Kaye, of Huddersfield. 



We have inquired carefully as to the practicability of reducing the ex- 

 penses of works for house and main drainage, and for carrying supplies of 

 pure water into all houses, so as to bring them within the pecuniary means 

 ot the poorest class of inhabitants. 



Mr. Anderton, manager of the Preston Water-works, shows that the cost 

 of new supplies may be reduced to one-sixth of the former expense, if the use 

 of water-butts be dispensed with in new districts, by the adoption of the prin- 

 ciple of a constant instead of the present intermittent supply, and if the 

 tenants' communication-pipes be cnmprehended in one contract for construc- 

 tion and maintenance. Mr. Quick, engineer of the Southwark Water Com- 

 pany, states in his evidence founded on data from experience in the metropo- 

 lis, that the expense for the immediate outlay might be reduced to om-fourlh 

 of the existing charge. The evidence of Mr. Hawksley exhibits the nature of 

 the data for his most important conclusion, that the result, accomplished in 

 the town of Nottingham, is of possible attainment in many other extensive 

 town districts in this country, and that an abundant supply of pure water 

 may be carried into each of the lowest class of tenements, at a charge (giving 

 a fair remuneration for tlie capital invested) which might not exceed .'is. a 

 year, or about one penny weekly for each tenement. The same witness states, 

 the small additional cost at which the water may be filtered, when requisite, 

 and describes the precautions necessary to insure its purity. 



The same witnesses state, with reference to house-drainage, that a saving 

 may be effected of from one-half to one-third of the existing charges by the 

 sutjstitution of impermeable tube tile-drains of a superior construction for the 

 common brick drains, which allow the decomposing liquid refuse to permeate 

 through the foundations. Other competent witnesses slate that, in many 

 cases, the inconvenience of carrying the house-drains under the front rooms 

 of houses and across wide streets may be avoided, and the whole expense be 

 greatly reduced by a better arrangement, by leading them into small barrel 

 drains, carried along the back of the tenements. 



It appears by the adoption of an improved form of sewer in the Holborn 

 and Finsbury division, that, in what are termed first-class sewers, the expense 

 of construction has been reduced from 21.«. to 15s. per foot, and of the sewers 

 for side streets from 15s. to 10s., and in some cases to 8s. Cil. per foot ; and, 

 by an improveil construction, the expense of traps to prevent the escape of 

 foul air from gully-shoots into the streets, is reduced from 30s. to 10s. each, 

 while in other metropolitan Uistricts the charge for putting in each trap is 



24* 



