ON THE TREATMENT AND UTILIZATION OF SEWAGE. 65 



but by Mr. Drummond'a permission ; and he has most kindly promised that 

 the cylinders shall be his constant care. Your Committee is greatly indebted 

 to Mr. Drummoud, not only for this promise (which is all-important for their 

 purpose) and for his so readily oifering a site, but also for his liberality in 

 making all the necessary preparations for erecting the building, so that the 

 cost to the Committee has been considerably diminished. 



The building is of stone and lime, very substantial, about 10 feet square, 

 and 11 feet high to the top of the roof, ceiled and floored. On the perfectly 

 level floor two narrow smooth planks are placed, one directed N. & S. and 

 the other E. & W. On each of these are placed six cylinders of boxwood, 

 carefully turned on the lathe, at such distances apart on the planks that one 

 cannot strike against another in falling. The floor is levelled up to the 

 planks with dry fine sand, on whicli the cylinders must rest, without rolling, 

 if they fall. The cylinders are all of the same height, but of diff'erent dia- 

 meters, so that they are of very various degrees of stability. In this way 

 the exact direction of a shock is indicated, and a rough scale of intensity is 

 had. The narrowest cylinder is of so small diameter that it is hoped a very 

 feeble shock will be marked by its fall. 



The perfect accessibility of the building for frequent and regular observa- 

 tion, the certain and ready response of the cylinders to any movement of the 

 ground, and the impossibility of the existence of any disturbing cause, 

 will, it is the hope of the Committee, render the results highly satisfactory as 

 regards the intensity and horizontal direction of any earthquake-shocks which 

 may occur in future years. The comparison of these with the indications of 

 the seismometer may lead to more important conclusions than have as yet 

 been obtained from this inquiry. 



Seventh Report of the Committee on the Treatment and Utilization of 

 Sewage, reappointed at Belfast, 1874, and consisting of Richard 

 B. Grantham (Chairman), C.E., F.G.S., Professor A. W. Wil- 

 liamson, F.R.S., Dr. Gilbert, F.R.S., Professor Corfield, M.A., 

 M.D., William Hope, V.C, F. J. Bramwell, C.E., F.R.S. 



During the past year, from March 25th, 1874 to March 24th, 1875, the ob- 

 servations at Breton's Farm, near Eomford, were carried on by the Com- 

 mittee, though, owing partly to the want of funds at the beginning of the 

 year, and partly to the fact that the notched board by means of which the 

 flow of sewage was gauged had been removed from the trough by order of 

 the Surveyor to the Local Board, the experiments could not be made as com- 

 plete as they would otherwise have been. 



Instead of gauging the sewage applied to the land, as heretofore, by direct 

 observations in the distributing-trough, the quantities used on the farm have 

 been estimated solely by the method hitherto employed to verify the trough 

 gaugings — i. e., the sewage entering the farm during the working hours of the 

 engine is calculated by ordinary gaugings in the main sewer, and may be 

 considered as the "day" sewage ; the remainder, or the " night" sewage, is 

 ascertained by the difi'erent heights of liquid in the tanks at the time when 

 the engine stops at night and starts next morning. The quantities thus cal- 

 culated are given in Table I., from which we sec that the amount of sewage 



1875. F 



