1912. 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKE8 
49C 
CESSPOOLS AND SEPTIC TANKS. 
D. S. B., Chadwick, N. Y .—I wish to dig 
a cesspool this Spring. Can you give me 
some information on the subject? There is 
no sewer nor other place to drain into. 
Ans. —In an open sandy soil, or in 
gravel, the construction of a cesspool 
for the sewage waste from a house 
is a simple matter, all that is needed 
for an average family being a dry well 
or pit about four feet across and eight 
feet deep. This pit should be stoned 
up without mortar to within about a 
foot of the surface and covered with 
large stones or concrete, after which 
the ground may be leveled and no trace 
of the cesspool is visible. If the pit is 
walled up in circular form it may be 
done by unskilled labor, as tight joints 
are not needed, and the pressure of the 
surrounding earth tends to hold the 
wall in place. The precautions to be 
observed in digging such a cesspool are 
to keep as far as possible from any 
well, and to avoid digging down into 
hardpan or to rock, either of which 
would make a tight bottom for the 
pit and interfere with the necessary 
seepage from it. There is always dan¬ 
ger that the liquids from such a cess- 
pool may find their way along a stratum 
of hardpan or rock to a neighboring 
well, and as a method of sewage dis¬ 
posal it is not to be commended save 
in such places as have few or no wells 
in the immediate neighborhood. 
For the disposal of house sewage in 
towns and in country districts where 
the soil is of a retentive nature, as 
clay or fine loam, other methods have 
bed be provided. The outlets from the 
septic tank into this filter bed are by 
means of curved tiles so placed that 
they open two feet above the level of 
the inlet pipe and the openings in the 
cross wall. If the method of construc¬ 
tion illustrated is followed, there should 
be a row of such tile outlets placed 
across the end of the tank to more 
evenly distribute the sewage over the 
filter bed. The object of this so-called 
filter bed is not so much to provide 
mechanical filtration as it is to furnish 
a place where the aerobic bacteria may 
be brought into contact with the ef¬ 
fluent from the first tank and complete 
the work of purification, this bed should 
therefore be exposed to light and air. 
After having passed through this sec¬ 
ond part of the process of purification, 
in the filter bed, the sewage has be¬ 
come a clear, inodorous, and harmless 
liquid which may safely be disposed of 
in any convenient manner, all harmful 
bacteria and other poisonous matter 
having been removed by the double 
process through which it has gone. 
Another form of construction dis¬ 
penses with this second pit, and a trench 
encircling the septic tank is dug and 
filled with cobble stones over which the 
effluent fluid is allowed to flow and 
finally to leach away into the surround¬ 
ing soil. This method is obviously oply 
possible where the surrounding soil is 
of an open porous nature, as otherwise, 
it would soon become saturated and fail 
to care for the sewage. Still another 
method disposes of the effluent from the 
first tank by conducting it through a 
series of drain tiles laid about a foot 
beneath the surface of the ground, the 
/te^SedimOutfet 
THE DISPOSAL OF HOUSE SEWAGE. Fig. 177. 
had to be devised, and perhaps the most 
practical of these is the so-called sep¬ 
tic tank. This method depends upon 
the power of certain bacteria to liquefy 
and destroy the organic or solid matter 
in sewage when given proper conditions. 
These bacteria, which are classified as 
aerobic or anaerobic acording to their 
need of air, are always present in sew¬ 
age, and are utilized as the purifying 
agencies in this system of sewage dis¬ 
posal. The principle underlying the ac¬ 
tion of septic tanks is briefly this: All 
house sewage is conducted into a closed, 
watertight, underground tank where it 
remains for about 24 hours until the 
solid or organic matter which it con¬ 
tains has been acted upon and liquefied 
by the anaerobic bacteria present. It is 
then conducted over a filter bed of sand 
and gravel where it is exposed to air, 
light, and the action of aerobic bac¬ 
teria which complete the work of purifi¬ 
cation and change the dark turbid fluid 
full of poisonous matter into a clear 
innocuous liquid which may safely be 
drained away into a convenient stream, 
the surrounding earth, or out upon the 
surface of the ground at some lower 
level. 
The septic tank shown in the ac¬ 
companying illustration, Fig. 177, con¬ 
sists of a concrete box three feet wide, 
seven feet long and five feet deep, this 
size being sufficient for any ordinary 
family. After having been in use a 
short time a scum an inch or more 
thick forms upon the surface of the 
sewage, and as it is essential that this 
scum should not be broken up, the inlet 
pipe from the house is carried into the 
tank about two feet below the surface 
level of its contents. For the further 
protection from agitation of the con¬ 
tents of the tank, a partition is built 
across one end through which several 
openings are made on a level with the 
inlet pipe, this makes a separate smaller 
compartment from which the contents 
may be withdrawn with little disturb¬ 
ance to the bacterial action in the re¬ 
ceiving chamber. A small amount of 
insoluble matter called sludge gradually 
collects upon the floor of the receiving 
chamber, and as this may in the course 
of years, require removal it is well to 
provide a manhole in the top. Outside 
this septic tank, and either adjacent to 
it or at any convenient distance, a filter 
bed is constructed. This bed may be 
a simple pit filled with sand and gravel, 
or a concrete box as in the illustra¬ 
tion, the essential point being that some 
method of carrying off the effluent 
liquid after it has passed through the 
fluid gradually leaking through the 
joints of these tiles is absorbed by the 
earth surrounding them and is at the 
same time purified by the bacteria pres¬ 
ent in the surface layers of the soil. 
Which of these methods should be 
adopted in any given case depends, of 
course, upon which is most practicable 
for that particular installation, the first 
or third method being preferable. In 
practice, however, there seem to be 
numerous modifications of the methods 
here described, even so simple an ap¬ 
paratus as a large barrel sunk into the 
ground having been reported in suc¬ 
cessful operation. If the principle 
underlying the process is understood, 
and is kept in mind, the builder may 
modify the construction to suit his indi¬ 
vidual conditions. m. b. dean. 
A Tempting 
Treat- 
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Crisp, fluffy bits of white 
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•\ 
u 
The Memory Lingers 
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Si 
How Your Peculiarities 
Affect Your Watch 
OU ought to write us for the 
Y FREE book, "How Good 
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You shouldn’t buy a watch until you 
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^Soizth Rend 
— 1 J Watch, 
19 
The South Bend Watch, you know, Is the famous watch that 
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THE SOUTH BEND WATCH COMPANY 
4 Rov/Iey Street, SOUTH BEND, IND. (89) 
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