NATURE 



157 



THURSDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1871 



TECHNICAL EDUCATION IN HOUSE 

 CONSTRUCTION 



REFERRING to the recent sad events at Londcs- 

 boroiigh Lodge, and the disclosures made in the 

 medical press, showing how the whole internal air of this 

 house was tainted with sewer gas for want of ordinary 

 care, the Times, in an able article which appeared on 

 December 9, has the following telling passage : " What a 

 satire on the universal diffusion of knowledge, on the 

 lectures of the Royal Society, on hundreds of scientific 

 and educational institutions, and all our new inventions 

 and discoveries ! Here is the simplest thing in the whole 

 world, which wanted only common sense, and nobody 

 seems to have thought of it — nay, we are not sure that 

 our architects and builders will be thinking of it next 

 year. It is far too simple and too deadly an affair." 



We purpose to deal with this subject ; and in doing so to 

 show briefly how it is that with every apparent advantage 

 our houses are still not altogether safe to live in. 



In the first place, the whole subject of house-drainage 

 has been thoroughly discussed, and simple rules have been 

 laid down, which any one with ordinary technical skill can 

 apply to any conceivable case. 



The question has been treated in published reports by 

 llic Health of Towns' Commission, by the Metropolitan 

 Sanitary Commission, by the General Board of Health, by 

 the Barrack and Hospital Improvement Commission, by 

 the Local Government Act Office, and recently, by the 

 Army Sanitary Commission, for application in India. These 

 oflicial documents, extending over a period of nearly 

 thirty years, contain all the principles on which whole- 

 some house-conveniences can be constructed ; and be- 

 sides all this, engineering, architectural, and medical 

 journals have never ceased to advocate attention to the 

 requirements of healthy house construction. The Legis- 

 lature, on its side, has been anxiously engaged in defining 

 and granting evei"y necessary power for the efficient carry- 

 ing out of town-drainage works ; but hitherto these powers 

 have stopped short with the house drain. All between 

 the head of the house drain and the interior of our bed- 

 rooms has been left to chance, or to the imperfect know- 

 ledge or no knowledge of such officials as we have seen 

 defending the deadly arrangements of existing houses, 

 or to plumbers' journeymen or apprentices. The whole 

 experience shows that ever)' official has considered his 

 duty fulfilled when he had ensured an outlet for the refuse 

 water of the house. As to the subsidiary traps, and such 

 like things, they have been introduced without regard to 

 scientific considerations ; so that, instead of proving an 

 advantage, they have, in some instances, increased the 

 evil. Now, it must henceforth be recognised that house 

 drainage is not a question of hydraulics merely, it is in a 

 higher sense a question of pneumatics ; but even in 

 this extended sense it is far from being a difficult art, as 

 some would have us suppose. It is by no means a " refuge 

 of despair," as some have asserted. It is a great and 

 beneficial necessity. Because carelessly-fitted water-pipes 

 are burst by frost, and our houses are deluged every 



winter, are we to have a crusade against water supply ? 

 Bursting of water-pipes and the influx of foul air from 

 sewers are indications of want of ordinary common sense ; 

 or, at all events, of very ordinary technical skill. And 

 the real future question before us, is not whether we are 

 to abolish household drainage and water supply, but 

 whether some public control in these matters ought not to 

 be exercised over the proceedings of plumbers' appren- 

 tices and other similar persons, so that when we rent or 

 buy a house, we may be assured that typhoid fever, or 

 some other pestilence, is not included in the contract. 

 Every such contract should, however, ensure three 

 things, viz., that water-pipes are protected from frost ; 

 that the house is thoroughly drained ; and that no sewer- 

 air can, under any circumstances, enter the house. Now 

 all these things can be assured. 



It is a mere truism to say that there are plenty of non- 

 conductors of heat with which water-pipes can be effi- 

 ciently surrounded. Why should water-pipes be left un- 

 covered under flooring or in walls, as at present ? Surely 

 any local authority could deal with so simple, and, at the 

 same time, so important a question as this. 



As regards efficient drainage- pipes, traps, and the like, 

 there are great manufacturing interests involved in the 

 production of these, and any one who will cast an eye 

 over the advertising columns of our architectural and 

 engineering contemporaries, will see how much ingenuity 

 and wholesome competition there exists in the production 

 of the most scientific forms of apparatus of this class. 

 But the missing link in the whole of these drainage 

 arrangements is how to prevent foul air entering the 

 house. In an ordinary second or third-class house in 

 London, there are three or four water-closets, the main 

 pipe from which enters the drain, either directly or 

 through an inefficient trap. It may be safely stated that 

 at all times there is more or less pressure of sewer air on 

 the pan or trap of the closet, which must lead to an infil- 

 tration of foul air into the house. But nobody appears 

 to have apphed the long-known remedy for this, viz., to 

 take oft" the pressure by a small leaden pipe carriad from 

 the upper end of the soil-pipe to the open air. 



It is not, however, from the soil-pipe that most of the 

 danger arises. Houses of the same classes have generally 

 what is called a safe under the water-closet, from which 

 safe a pipe passes directly to the drain. Next there may 

 be a bath with its outlet pipe, its overflow, and the pipe 

 of its safe, all connected with the drain. There may be 

 three or even four sinks all connected with the drain, and 

 then every cistern has its overflow, also connected with 

 the drain. As these various open pipes are distributed all 

 over the house, we can easily understand how, while ful- 

 filling the function of removing waste water, they may, 

 in conformity with the laws of pneumatics, distribute the 

 most deadly poison among the unconscious sleeping in- 

 mates of every bed- room. 



Foul sewer air returns into a house for the following 

 reasons, viz. : — i. A wind-pressure exercised on the open 

 mouth of a sewer perhaps many miles away ; or a 

 similar pressure exerted on an ordinary gulley grate. 

 2. By pressure of foul air into the house from the superior 

 specific gravity of the atmosphere outside. 3. The draft 

 of chimneys, when doors and windows are shut, as durino- 

 the night. This draft must be supplied, and will supply 



