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6 . What description of pumps were best suited for lifting sewage 1 



After due consideration and many interesting experiments, the conclusion 

 was arrived at, that a district of average density of population contained 30,000 

 people per square mile, and the sewage was proved to be nearly equal in 

 amount to the water supply. The calculation was, that the average daily 

 amount to be provided for would be five cubic feet per head per day. The 

 total areas drained on the north side of the Thames amounted to about forty 

 square miles, on the south side to about the same, with a quantity of sewage 

 amounting to 40,000,000 cubic feet per day on the north, and 23,000,000 

 cubic feet per day on the south side, respectively. 



In 1865 a Private Bill was brought before a select committee of ten 

 members of the House of Commons, having as its object the utilization of 

 the sewage on the north side of the Thames. The Board of Works had pre- 

 viously advertised for tenders and proposals for effecting that purpose, with a 

 view of making the sewage repay the cost of maintaining the drains, — the cost 

 of construction, which will amount to about =£4,100,000, being provided for 

 by a rate upon an estimated rateable value of £14,500,000. The scheme 

 which the author is now describing was the one approved by them, and to the 

 advocates of which they made a grant of the total sewage on the northern 

 side, for a period of fifty years, upon certain terms. After a protracted 

 struggle the Bill was passed, in spite of the determined opposition of the 

 Council of the City of London, who insisted that the terms were not suffi- 

 ciently favourable to the ratepayers, the maximum estimated price per ton, 

 twopence, being, in the opinion of their advisers, far beneath the true value 

 of the sewage. 



The main works, which were estimated to cost about £3,000,000, were 

 then commenced, and for the purpose of testing the value to the farmer, of 

 London sewage, taken just as it came down the outfall sewer, the directors 

 determined upon renting a small farm of about two hundred acres, in the 

 vicinity of Barking, to which the sewage was forced by steam-power, at the 

 rate of 175 cubic feet, or five tons, per miirate. A tank, holding thirty tons, 

 was erected, into which the sewage was delivered from the main, so that at 

 any period in the day the quantity delivered could be accurately gauged by 

 the manager. His record, compared with the indicator attached to the engine, 

 gave correct and reliable data upon which the reports submitted to the public 

 were founded. 



Up to this time so little was known of the capabilities of sewage as a 

 manure, and the quantities in, and intervals at which it should be supplied, 

 that the directors considered they could not do better than conduct their 

 experiments on a thoroughly practical system, and one which would bear the 

 inspection of both farmers and business men in general ; more particularly as 

 there exists in England a strong feeling on the subject of the fouling of streams 

 and rivers, as is shown by the recent action of the Legislature, which is doing 

 its utmost to prevent public bodies and private individuals from turning 

 natural watercourses into noisome and unhealthy cesspools. Oxford and 

 Reading are at the present time liable to penalties of =£50 per day, under 

 recent Acts for the purification of the Thames, and the Royal Commission on 

 Rivers, now sitting, will doubtless place many towns under the necessity of 

 instantly carrying out their drainage works, with a view to the utilization and 

 deodorization of their sewage. It thus becomes a serious question whether it 

 will be possible so to utilize these products as to render the residuum harmless, 

 and at the same time to make the necessary works pay a fair interest on the 

 cost of construction. 



Sewage irrigation has been carried on at Edinburgh, Croydon, Carlisle, 

 Rugby, Watford, Worthing, the Crystal Palace, and in other places. 



