Synopsis of Chapter. Early British Sewers—Sewer in the Great Hall of Westminster—Shape of Early English Sewers—Adoption or Recommendation of Pipe Sewers—Early Paris Sewers—Paris Sewers of To-day—Lack of Sewage Data in America—Effect of Memphis Epidemics on Sanitary Progress. The earliest mention we have of English sewers is contained in an old record of the fourteenth century, which informs us "The refuse from the king's kitchen had long run through the Great Hall in an open channel, to the serious injury to health and danger to life of those congregated at court. It was therefore ordered that a subterraneous conduit should be made to carry away the filth into the Thames." This description of the sewer from the Great Hall presents a vivid picture of the sewers of that day. At first the main sewers were natural water courses which, having become offensive, were arched over to shut out the sight and odor. Street gutters leading to those arched-over water courses became foul in turn, and were replaced by underground channels of the roughest brickwork or masonry. These drains which were square in cross section received and carried off slop water and rain water from the streets; the drains were constructed according to no regular design nor fixed principles, although usually they were 12 inches square and made by laying flat stones to form the bottom of the drain, then building walls of brick and topping off with flat stones, spanning from wall to wall. Excreta were collected in cesspools often built beneath the floor of the house. The introduction of the water closet about the commencement of the century, though it abated the nuisance of the latrine, aggravated In 1852, the General Board of Health under the Public Health Act, made their first report to the British Parliament, and advocated very strongly the introduction of smaller pipes in lieu of the large brick and stone drains then in use for house drainage. Prior to this date, the first report of the Metropolitan Sanitary Commission, London, appeared, which, while not to be taken as advocating exclusively the use of small pipes, yet pointed out the necessity of reducing the dimensions and altering the shapes of the old stone and brick structures. From this period, then, can be assumed the adoption and first use of earthenware pipes for house drains and public sewers. The construction of sewers in Paris dates from 1663, but the earliest of those still in use are not earlier than the beginning of this century. Before the great epidemic of cholera in 1832, the total length of sewers was not more than 21 miles. The sewers of Paris to-day aggregate over 750 miles in length, and constitute one of the sights of the city. According to Mason, The great sewer, which is tunnel-like in dimensions, being 16 feet high and 18 feet broad, is, on occasions of a visit, lighted with lamps alternately red and blue, and as these stretch away into the distance the effect is decidedly striking. Under ordinary circumstances, the sewage confines itself to the center channel, but upon occasions rises above the sidewalk on either hand. The central channel is about 10 feet wide and 4 feet deep with a curved bottom, and a walk on either side. The boats with their loads of visitors are pulled by ropes in the hands of attendants who walk along the sidewalks. On either side of the sewer may be seen the large mains, carrying the city water supply, also the telegraph cables." Reliable data concerning the construction of sewers were not obtainable in the United States until long after the close of the Civil War. In 1857, when Julius W. Adams was commissioned to prepare plans for sewering the city of Brooklyn, N. Y., which at that time covered an area of 20 square miles, a great proportion of which was suburban territory, the engineering profession was wholly without data of any kind to guide in proportioning sewers for the drainage of cities and towns. The half century intervening since that time, however, has seen the development of sanitary engineering and witnessed the installation of sewer system, rightly proportioned and properly designed, in almost every city, town and village in the United States, while text books on engineering contain all necessary data for their design and construction. It must not be inferred from the foregoing statement that sewers were unknown in the United States prior to the construction of the Brooklyn sewer system. There was one in Boston, for example, which dated from the seventeenth century, while the first comprehensive sewerage project was designed by E. S. Chesbrough, for the city of Chicago in 1855. There was no great activity in sewer building in this The various works which had been built up to this time to supply communities with water, had for their sole object the providing of an adequate supply so far as quantity is concerned, but gave little thought to the quality of the water, so long as it was clear and cold. The sewers or drains on the other hand were constructed solely to prevent a nuisance and with no definite knowledge that an unclean environment and polluted water were conducive to ill-health, while pure water and clean surroundings were conducive to the public health. Some events were about to happen, however, which would awaken the public mind to the dangers of dirt, and that would usher in the present epoch of sanitation. |