loo 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[ Marcif, 



annual cost of tlie proaont water supply to only 2.59,608 houses 

 (tlie number of viator tenants fiiven by Sir William Clay), is 

 391,121/. IK.*, (irf., or little under 22,0U()V. less tlian the annual 

 revenue re(|uirc(l l)y the lecturer to supply .S:i(i,000 houses, and to 

 pav off all the sum reijuired to afford an entire new service for 

 domestic uses, and to purrliaso the plants of all the present com- 

 jianies for sauitiiry jiurposes. 



Mr. Tai!11i:hni:ii pro])osed, that tlie public commission under 

 which tliis beneficial sanitary institution should be establislied, and 

 by which it should he workeil, should he composed of property- 

 qualified ratepayers, four or six out of every electoral district, to 

 lie periodically elected — say one-third to retire every three years, 

 and to be elif(il)le to he re-elected; which commission should 

 appoint an actin}; paid committee, not members of the commis- 

 sion, but practically-()ualified men, as ))ublic servants, — which 

 committee sliould be liouud constantly to attend, and to devote 

 tlie whole of their time to the business of the c(mimis.sion, aided 

 by not more than two ffovernment inspectors, throui;h whom the 

 cimimission should be made I'esponsible to government thnuifjh 

 the medium of the Hoard of Health: thus ])roducirif; a jiower of 

 control directly responsible to the inhabitauts and to the {govern- 

 ment. And in additi(m to the water supjilv, he would ]dace the 

 control and manag-ement of the sewerage ami drainage, jiaving and 

 lighting, and tlie erection of metropolitan buildings, under one and 

 the same commission ; thereby secure efficiency, uniformity, and 

 economy, and, he believed, in a very short space of time, an annual 

 saving of the public funds of not less than .SOO.OOO/. He also sug- 

 gested, that it would be well to make such a Bill as he proposed, 

 fomj)ulsorily applicable to every town and city in the United 

 Kingdom; each place to be divided into districts, and each com- 

 mission to be elected in numbers according to the amount of popu- 

 lation, and the whole also subjected to an ins])ection responsible to 

 government through tlie medium of the general Board of Health. 



R E M A R K S 



ON THE PLAN PROPOSED BY THE 



METROPOLITAN COMMISSIONERS OF SEWERS 



FOB THE 



DRAINAGE OF THE SURREY SIDE OF THE METROPOLIS. 



" At present there is a prevailing approatti to agreement in the Sciences, founded on an 

 observation of oritward nature. When controversies ari'.e in these Sciences, they are 

 generally confined to lirnitetl questions, and to points upon which attenlion has been 

 recently turned, and alter a time they are settled by invesligation and reasoning.'*— 

 LEWIS. 'Essay on the Influence of Authority in matters of Opinion.* 



" It has been shown in matters of drainage, that the economy and efficiency of the works 

 will be uccnrdintj to the qualifications, the powers, and the respnnibilit'es of the officers 

 appointed to execute them, secured by legislative means: atid that new laljonr on the old 

 condition, without sKili, will be executed in the old manner, extravagatitly and ineflBci- 

 enUr."— EDWIN CHADVVICK. -Report from the Poor Law Commissioners on the 

 Sanitary Coodition of the labouring population of Great Britain.' 1H4^. 



At a meeting of the Members of the Metropolitan Sewers Com- 

 mission, held at the Chief Office, Greek-street, Soho, on the 25th 

 of .faiiuary last, the following resolution was put from the chair 

 by Sir Henry ])e la Beche, and carrietl: — 



"That it be recommended to the court that the engineer he 

 instructed to jirepare estimates for the consideration of the Com- 

 missioners, for a plan of the drainage of the Surrey side of the 

 Thames, with reference to a covered channel for general outfall, 

 between V'.iuxliall and Deptftu-d, to' thereabouts, by which the 

 present distance liy the river will be shortened, and a better out- 

 fall secured; to the contiiuitition of the channel to and beyond 

 ^^'o(dwich, and to the removal of the whole sewage of such area 

 from that part of the Thames, due attention having been had and 

 being paid to those plans sent into this Commission which relate 

 to the same area." 



W'e may therefore shortly expect a detailed communication on 

 the subject from Mr. Frank Forster; and as, in the event of his 

 estimates being deemed satisfactm-y, there is not merely a possi- 

 bility, but a probability, of the proiiosed scheme being carried into 

 effect, we take an early ojiiiortuuity of making a few brief obser- 

 vations on the merits of Captain Vetch's ]ilan, which, we hope, 

 will at least have the effect of directing the attention of the ))ublic 

 to the necessity of mature consideration being given to so impor- 

 tant a subject before any plan is finally adopted. 



All we are in jiossession of as yet respecting the proposed ]dan 

 for the drainage of the Surrey side of the metro|)olis, is priucip.illy 

 contained in the reported speech of Sir Henry De la Heche, deli- 

 vered at the meeting of the Commissioners above alluded to. We 



shall therefore confine ourselves strictly to the statements made 

 by Sir Henry, and consider how far such statements are likely to 

 lead us to hope for such effet^tual drainage of tlie south side of the 

 river as the public have a right to e.xpect from the Commissioners 

 and their engineer. 



It was with no small degree of satisfaction, after the published 

 opinions of Sir John Burgoyne and others of the Commissioners, 

 that we saw the report in the T/mc.v, ' headed "Drainage of the 

 Metropolis — I'nrijicatinn of tin- Thdme.s;" and the o|iiiiions of Sir 

 Henry respecting the importance of the non-pollution of the 

 Thames fully stated. He concludes this important part of his 

 address with the following sentence: — "Under all these points of 

 view, it seemed essentially desirable that they (the Commissioners) 

 should be instrumental in removing the sewage from the Thames. 

 This is most satisfactory: it settles the important ijuestion — "Is 

 the Thames to he polluted, or not.'" — "No." 



In considering the manner of draining a district, the matter of 

 consideration that deserves our first attention is, that of a sufficient 

 outfall; and the (|uesti(m naturally arises, what natural outfall or 

 outfalls does the district and its neighbourhood afford? Of outfalls 

 there are three different kinds: first, there are natural outfalls 

 immediately connected with the district under consideration, which 

 again divide themselves into available outfalls and unavailable 

 outfall.s, according to the conditions imposed on the engineer — -viz., 

 according to the object or objects, whether direct, indirect, or 

 both, for which the drainage is contemplated. Secondly, natural 

 outfalls, not immediately connected w ith the district to be drained, 

 requiring an artificial conduit of communication between the area 

 to be drained and that possessing the necessary sufficient outfall. 

 Thirdly, artificial outfalls. — Let us consider the case in question. 

 We have, in the first place, a natural outfall in the river Thames, 

 encircling:, as it does, nearly the whole of the western, northern, 

 and eastern sides of the district. Is it an available outfall or not.'' 

 That the Thames is not to be polluted by the admission of sewage 

 matter into its .stream, is at length acknowledged by the Commis- 

 sioners themselves. "They," says Sir Henry De la Beche, "should 

 recidlect that the sewage, according as the population had increased, 

 was more abundant in the Thames than formerly. Good as the 

 'flushing system' was in many points of view, it had added to this 

 evil, inasmuch as the matter which was previously collected and 

 removed by hand, was now thrown into the Thames. Another 

 point to be consiilered was, that since the erection of London- 

 bridge there was a difference of Sg feet in the height of the water 

 above the bridge, and which had been a source of considerable 

 annoyance to the population." Under "all these points of view," 

 ailds Sir Henry, it seems "essentially desirable" that the Commis- 

 sioners "should be instrumental in removing the sewage from the 

 Thames." Under these considerations, the natural outfall of the 

 district of Southwark becomes an unavailable outfall. But there 

 are other reasons why the Thames should be rejected as a recep- 

 tacle for the sewage of this portion of the metropolis. It is a 

 tidal river, and portions of the district are below high-watermark; 

 from which circumstance it follows, that whatever means be 

 adopted for draining the said area, making use of the Thames for 

 an outfall, the mode of operation must inevitably become inter- 

 mittent instead of constant — the sewers and drains becoming 

 cesspools during portions of each day. Moreover, the length of 

 time during whicli, in such a case, the sewage woukl have to re- 

 main confined within the drains, would be in an inverse ratio with 

 the inclinations, and, consequently, "effectiveness," as regards 

 discharge, of the whole system of drains; or, in other words, 

 according to the height of the cill of the outfall-eml of the main 

 sewer. It is true, that by proper trapping much of the evil attend- 

 ing an intermittent plan of draining can be remedied; hut no 

 system of sewerage can be deemed really good that is not constant. 

 Well, then, the tiomiuissioners have agreed most judiciously — not 

 to say of necessity — not to make use of the only natural outfall 

 presented by the di.strict. Of neighbouring outfalls (the second 

 class before alluded to) there ai"e none at all available along the 

 line of coast: artificial means, therefore, become indispensable. 



Let us now examine the jilan priqiosed by Captain Vetch, for the 

 thorough drainage of the Surrey side of the river. 



Sir Henry De la Beche began his observations to the Commis- 

 sioners by calling to their recidlection, that when they first took 

 office under the present Commission, it was intimated to them 

 that the subject of the drainage of tlie Surrey and Kent side of 

 the river had received very considerable attention. "During the 

 existence of the previous Commission," continues Sir Henry, 

 "there had been a committee, termed the 'Ordnance Survey Com- 



1 " Times " of Saturday, January :26th. 



