106 



KNOWLEDGE 



[Feb. 6, 1885. 



would river pollution become impossible bj the employ- 

 ment of such a scheme, but the pure vraste water 

 may be returned to the earth in localities where its dis- 

 charge is most needed. This is one aspect of the question 

 which has been very much neglected. It may not be quite 

 so important as the discharge of our debt to the soil, as soil, 

 but it is nevertheless worthy of the consideration of every 

 philosophical student. It has a direct bearing upon the 

 underground water-supply of the country. Man's influence 

 as a geological agent is most marked here. To induce 

 favourable circumstances for his existence, he ought to 

 follow the precepts of Nature ; he must return to the 

 earth an equivalent for what he takes from it ; he must 

 give back, uot only solids, but liquids and gases ; he must 

 not merely give them back, because in the end he is obliged 

 to do so, but if he wishes to rank as an inteliigfnt being of 

 the highest order, he must give them back in such a way and 

 in such a place that they may react beneficially upon his 

 surroundings. As a social being, and in his commercial 

 struggle for existence, his activity may be modified, but 

 yet his duty is clear, he must conform to the laws of 

 nature. Sewage utilisation may prima facie be looked 

 upon as a theme so prosaic as to be left entirely to the dis- 

 cussion of health-officers and domestic sanitarians ; indeed, 

 when we search for the literature upon the subject, we find 

 that it is constituted by dreary reports of committees and 

 technically-written i.rticles which do not even make a pre- 

 t-nce to appeal to those ordinary individuals whom it most 

 concerns ; whereas, when treated of as it ought to be, and 

 as it has excejitionally been done, the question unfolds 

 itself as of great interest and value to each and every one. 

 We are glad to be able here to direct the attention of our 

 readers to a most clearly-written, instructive, and useful 

 little pamphlet, the title of which, " Our Debt and Duty 

 to the Soil ; or, the Poetry and Philosophy of Sewage 

 Utilisation," does not belie its contents.* 



Our former remarks upon the dry-earth system have also 

 brought to our notice a new invention which aims at 

 dealing efiectively with the sewage of large towns. The 

 principles upon which this contrivance depends are carried 

 out in a novel way. It is so constructed as to dispose of 

 both solid and liquid refuse. The solids are treated upon 

 the dry-earth method, the mechanism being such as to 

 throw a fixed quantity of earth from a divided disLharge- 

 box which is worked by an ordinary pull-handle ; the 

 material thence lies in a suitable receptacle, and can be 

 periodically removed. But, in addition to this, ilr. 

 Donkin's patent provides for the removal of bedroom 

 and house slops, as well as all fluid excreta which may 

 be directly discharged into it. This is done by 

 a division of the basin of the closet in such a 

 way that soil-waste is separated from fluid-waste. Our 

 contemporary, Health, stalest that '= the urine may thus 

 be either conducted to the drains (though entirely discon- 

 nected from them) or to a separate utensil, as may be best 

 suited to individual requirements, while the fajces are depo- 

 sited in a layer of dry earth, being again covered by a similar 

 charge, ai.d conveyed outside to a receiver provided for it, 

 in a perfectly harmless condition, and deprived of all 

 noxious or disagreeable effluvia." 



Thus the appliance is not a copy of any of the existing 

 forms of apparatus, but is original both in its special 

 mechanical details as well as in its mode of action. Its 

 principle is separation, and in procuring that it abolishes 

 the liability of harm from the use of wet instead of dry 

 earth, whilst it meets the difficulty to be encountered in a 

 removal of fluid waste. 



* By E. D. Girdlestone, Esq., B.A., of Clifton, Bristol, 

 t August 29, 1884. 



To quote once more from Health. Messrs. Lawson & 

 Doukin's "Patent Combination Earth and Water Closet" 

 " is not, therefore, a siniplt modification of any of the 

 present contrivances, but forms an essential difltrence in 

 the fact of its combining the application of earth and 

 water, and, at the same time, being capable of taking the 

 place of the present water-closet in any class of house or 

 position in it. It may be fixed at practically any height 

 above the receiver, which, in most cases, would be placed 

 outside, level with the ground. It would thus aftbrd ready 

 access for the constant and regular removal of its contents, 

 which, under proper management, is capable of being 

 carried out without the slightest ofience to the most 

 sensitive person, while the expense would be more 

 than defrayed by the value of the manure obtained. 

 Some of the granulars prepared from carbonised shale 

 mixed with dry earth are more absorbent and effectual 

 than dry earth merely, and the quantity required of 

 these agents is therefore reduced to a minimum, but 

 they are not necessarily essential, and a mixture of common 

 dry earth and sifted a=hes will be found to answer suffi- 

 ciently well. In any case, it is evident a far smaller 

 quantity will be required than in the case of ordinary 

 earth-closets, where the fluids are allowed to mix with 

 the earth, and all the sloppy masses are avoided, which 

 have hitherto formed one of the chief drawbacks attending 

 the earth-closet system." 



THE WEIGHT OF EXGINES. 



SCARCELY less remarkable than the growth of rail- 

 ways themselves is the vast increase in the weight of 

 the locomotives used on them. Peter Cooiier's engine 

 weighed about a ton. Stephenson's earlier engines sent to 

 this country did not exceed five tons. Twenty years ago, 

 thirty-six tons might be called a heavy weight for engine 

 and tender. To-day, eighty-four tons is not an uncommon 

 weight for a twelve-wheeled " consolidation " engine and its 

 tender, while the Central Pacific Railroad has lately con- 

 structed several ninety-three ton engines to haul long 

 freight trains over the heavy grades of the Sierra Nevada. 

 When these iron monsters first appeared, iron rails were in 

 general use. They were often of poor quality, and soon 

 crushed, broomed up at the ends, or even split under the 

 weight and pounding of these ponderous machines. Then 

 came the era of cheap steel, and railroad-managers fondly 

 hoped that their tracks of steel might now truly deserve the 

 English name of permanent way. Steel rails were a great 

 advance in strength and durability over the softer metal, 

 but it was soon found that even steel had limits of 

 endurance. 



The monstrous engines of the present day find out every 

 weak .'•pot in bridges and track, and we seem to be reaching 

 a limit in this direction of heavy locomotive construction 

 whicli cannot be passed without reconstructing our bridges, 

 which were never designed to carry such weights, and 

 replacing the wooden cross-ties with some more enduring 

 material, for these heavy engines crush the steel rails deep 

 into the ties, which are cut long before they decay. Ties 

 of iron or steel have been used to some extent in the old 

 world (where they have been generally made in the form of 

 an inverted trough), but their cost is stOl a bar to their 

 general adoption. With the ever decreasing price of iron, 

 however, and the increasing cost and scarcity of timber, 

 they may come irito geceral use much sooner than is now 

 deemed probable. — lUdlvxiy Revievj, Chicago. 



