90 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[March, 



Another improvement that you have adopted, is a form of gully hole and 

 shoot, constructed with radiated bricks, the shoot being half a brick in 

 substance. The form of these is such as to deliver the water and deposit 

 from the surface of the streets into the sewer, in such a direction as to cause 

 no obstruction to the flow of water along the sewer. 



There have been 690 gullyholes and 13.060 feet of shoot built after this im- 

 proved manner ; the saving in expense is £2149 11*. 9d. 



An improved form of grale was also adopted, by the use of which there 

 has been a saving of £422 12s. Gd. effected/ 



The adoption of the present method of cleansing the gullyholes, intro- 

 duced in the old system, has eflected a saving of £200 3s. 2d. 



By the improvement in the form and construction of new sewers, a saving 

 of £1094 6s. Gil. has been effected on 14,591 feet length of sewer. In no case 

 has the curved form of sewer failed ; nor were there any struts at all in the 

 new sewer la'ely built from near Thornhill Bridge to the Mo.lel Prison ; nor 

 any left in, as none were required. 



Every engineer and scientific person must agree that curved work for 

 sewers is stronger than upright walls, where the substance of material is 

 equal. By the use of curved work, you have been enabled to adopt a sewer 

 for the use of short streets, by which a saving of nearly 5s. per foot lineal is 

 effected from the cost of your second size sewer, which, when the great 

 length of sewers required in situations where this sewer will suit, is con- 

 sidered, the item of saving will be found ultimately to reach a very consider- 

 able amount. 



Of the benefit of curved junctions and proper curves to turns in sewers, it 

 would seem needless to utter one word ; and whether it be better for water 

 conduits to have turns with curves, or turns with angles, it could scarcely be 

 expected that there would be two opinions ; and in sewers where the water is 

 loaded with foul matter, surely the less obstruction there is to the current 

 the better. Besides, curved junctions are in reality a saving of expense to 

 the public, by preventing occasions of obstruction where deposit would other- 

 wise accumulate. 



To illustrate this, take the capital letter T, the head of the T to represent 

 two sewers, the currents of water in which meet at the point where the up- 

 right port : on of the T touches the head thereof, and then flow down in the 

 direction represented by the stem or upright of the T; this see-ns bad 

 enough; but a little way along the left portion of the head of the T let 

 another line be drawn perpendicular thereto : this will represent a sewer 

 coming in at right angles with a considerable flow of water, adding to the 

 obstruction formed by the meeting of the other two streams, it being only- 

 six feet from that adverse junction : and the natural consequence is, tlrat a 

 very considerable accumulation of deposit has taken place. And if two 

 other lines be drawn across the last perpendicular line, each of those lines 

 will represent two sewers coming into that main line at right angles and op- 

 posite to each other, so that the water falling from the sewer or the highest 

 level not only meets and obstructs the current of water in the main sewer, 

 but presents an obstacle to the flow of water from its opposite neighbour, 

 hence considerable deposit has formed in the latter ; such consequences ac- 

 cruing from junctions at angles, entail a perpetual expense upon the public 

 in the removal of deposit. 



The absvc is a description of part of a new line of sewer and its junctions, 

 built within the last seven years. 



The next improvement which the surveyor has to report upon is, the adop- 

 tion of s ; de entrances to new sewers in lieu of man-holes or apertures, as 

 formerly used. In the 24,624 feet of new sewer built by your Commission, 

 since this improvement was adopted, side entrances, and such flushing gates 

 as was deemed necessary, have been placed in lieu of apertures, and the 

 saving by so doing has been £1349 lis. In the 21,048 ft. of sewer, petitioned 

 for and built by individuals after the same manner, a saving to them of £782 

 has been effected, after allowing 2-3 per cent as their profit, or the amount 

 which a builder might think he could save by doing his own work, instead 

 of paying for it at your contract prices. The avoiding breaking up the 

 pavement or roads, and other advantages which the use of side entrances 

 secures, the surveyor named in his former report on this subject. 



The total saving by the adoption of flushing apparatus, and of the other 

 improvements named in this report, in about two years, is £6443 19s.; and 

 2-7ths of the sewers that require artificial aid in removing deposit are pro- 

 vided with side entrances and flushing apparatus for future use. 



On the whole, the amount of immediate saving which it was calculated 

 would be effected by your adoption of the improvements herein named has 

 been exceeded; and this will be the case with the perpetual annual saving ; 

 experience showing that by flushing sewers with water, a saving of nearly 

 two-thirds may be made from the cost of the old method of removing de- 

 posit. But the fact which is of more importance, in a sanitary point of view, 

 than the expense of removal is, that instead of the two or three thousand 

 tons of refuse, which may be removed for £1000 or £1200 per annum, re- 

 maining for years decomposing in the sewers, and generating miasma which 

 penetrates the houses and creates disease there, and escapes, and is diffused 

 in the streets amongst the passengers, the deposit would by the flushing ap- 



paratus be removed, with sufficient rapidity to prevent any extensive decom- 

 position or any smell. 



The men engaged in cleansing the sewers have a more healthy employ- 

 ment ; the laying cut of large quantities of foul accumulations on the sur- 

 face of the streets, which was formerly the practice, is avoided ; the pave- 

 ments of the streets are undisturbed ; the putting in drains surreptitiously is 

 easily detected ; private individuals are saved from the annoyance of having 

 their drains choked, and the expense of cleansing them in consequence ; and 

 these are considerations of future expenditure in sewers, which your syste- 

 matic adoption of these and other improvements will influence, so as to 

 render your having done so one of those circumstances, the great and bene- 

 ficial consequences of which will be felt, not only in these kingdoms but in 

 every civilized nation in the earth. 



In conclusion, I respectfully beg permission to make a few observations 

 upon the address of the Chairman of the 'Westminster Commission, lately 

 published and circulated, in consequence of the late sanitary report of the 

 Poor Law Commissioners. At page 30, there is a paragraph, as follows— 

 " The truth is evident, that the Secretary of the Poor Law Commissioners 

 has been content to inform himself, in respect of the Metropolitan Sewage', 

 by special deference to the opinion of one individual, whose object has been 

 to give himself importance, by vaunting his own contrivances, by exalting 

 Iris own Commission, exaggerating his own success, and with unbecoming 

 boldness casting unjust reflections on the adjoining Commissions, traducing 

 the competency of hs brother surveyors of the surrounding jurisdictions." 



In the first place, I beg to state that the first communication I bad with 

 the Secretary of the Poor Law Commissioners, on this subject, was his sending 

 to me to give information as to sewerage, his questions being founded upon a 

 printed copy of my report to your court, in April, 1840 ; the only information 

 I gave him appears in the Report, at page 373, to part of page 378, and a 

 quotation at page 61, on the quantity of deposit passing from the sewers to 

 the Thames. 



I never endeavoured to show the superiority of the regulations of this 

 Commission, by comparing them with those of other Commissions: and in 

 the few observations I made as to the metheds adopted in the neighbouring 

 districts, I endeavoured to show tlrat improvements were in progress. 



After my interview with Mr. Chadwick, I informed the surveyor of the 

 Westminster seweis that I had been examined, and expected he would be 

 sent for. Finding from a letter of Mr. Kelsey, the surveyor of the City 

 sewers, that his feelings were much hurt, and that he attributed much of the 

 Secretary's blame to me, I wrote to him. and he sent me an answer, from 

 which the following is an extract. 



" Dear Sir, 

 " Did my letter to the Poor Law Secretary produce no other result than 

 your communication, I should feel highly gratified, for it has entirely dis- 

 abused my mind of an impression which is by no means confined to myself. 



" With your leave, I will show your letter to a gentleman, whose father 

 is connected with another Commission of sewers, for it is well tlrat the ill 

 impression should be counteracted. 



" It is much to be regretted that the course which you supposed would be 

 taken was not taken, 2 but advocates of any particular system never v\ ant to 

 know the whole truth, but only just as much as can be bent to suit their 

 object.'' 



And I have been informed that Mr. Dowley, the surveyor to the Westmin- 

 ster Commission, never considered that anything personal to him or others 

 was meant by me at all. 



In answering the questions of the Poor Law Commissioners' Secretary, I 

 cast no reflection or said one word on the competency of any one ; and it is 

 mere assumption to say that Mr. Chadwick has been content to inform him- 

 self, in respect to metropolitan sewerage, from me only, when the many 

 quotations he brings from others show the contrary. 



As to exalting my own Commission, it needs not my feeble praise ; its own 

 acts — the scientific knowledge of its members— the attention given to every 

 sort of improvement, will ever produce for it that meed of praise in the 

 public mind which is justly due. I have always been ready to give every in- 

 formation in my power to anyone that asks for it ; but, that little is rightly 

 known of what is doing in this Commission, or how it is done, is very evi- 

 dent ; a fact, which ths Report I this day have the honour to lay before you, 

 will confirm. 



I have the honour to remain, 

 Gentlemen, 

 Your obedient and faithful servant, 



Jan.27th, 1843. John Roe. 



That of other surveyors of sewers being examined. 



