Previous discussion has dealt largely with basic principles of sanitation. The construction and operation of simple utilities embodying some of these principles are discussed in the following order: (1) Privies for excrements only; (2) works for handling wastes where a supply of water is available for flushing.

PIT PRIVY

Figure 6 shows a portable pit privy suitable for places of the character of that shown in figure 1, where land is abundant and cheap, and in such localities has proved practical. It provides, at minimum cost and with least attention, a fixed place for depositing excretions where the filth can not be tracked by man, spread by animals, reached by flies, nor washed by rain.

The privy is light and inexpensive and is placed over a pit in the ground. When the pit becomes one-half or two-thirds full the privy is drawn or carried to a new location. The pit should be shallow, preferably not over 2½ feet in depth, and never should be located in wet ground or rock formation or where the surface or the strata slope toward a well, spring, or other source of domestic water supply. Besides standing on lower ground the pit should never be within 200 feet of a well or spring. Since dryness in the pit is essential, the ground should be raised slightly and 10 or 12 inches of earth should be banked and compacted against all sides to shed rain water. The banking also serves to exclude flies. If the soil is sandy or gravelly, the pit should be lined with boards or pales to prevent caving. The standard galvanized or black enameled wire cloth having 14 squares to the inch. The whole seat should be easily removable for cleaning. A little loose absorbent soil should be added daily to the accumulation in the pit, and when a pit is abandoned it should be filled immediately with dry earth mounded to shed water.

A pit privy for use in field work, consisting of a framework of ½-inch iron pipe for corner posts connected at the top with ¼-inch iron rods bent at the ends to right angles and hung with curtains of unbleached muslin, is described in Public Health Report of the United States Public Health Service, July 26, 1918.

A pit privy, even if moved often, can not be regarded as safe. The danger is that accumulations of waste may overtax the purifying capacity of the soil and the teachings reach wells or springs. Sloping ground is not a guaranty of safety; the great safeguard lies in locating the privy a long distance from the water supply and as far below it as possible.

SANITARY PRIVY

The next step in evolution is the sanitary privy. Its construction must be such that it is practically impossible for filth or germs to be spread above ground, to escape by percolation underground, or to be accessible to flies, vermin, chickens, or animals. Furthermore, it must be cared for in a cleanly manner, else it ceases to be sanitary. To secure these desirable ends sanitarians have devised numerous types of tight-receptacle privy. Considering the small cost and the proved value of some of these types, it is to be regretted that few are seen on American farms.

The container for a sanitary privy may be small—for example, a galvanized-iron pail or garbage can, to be removed from time to time by hand; it may be large, as a barrel or a metal tank mounted for moving; or it may be a stationary underground metal tank or masonry vault. The essential requirement in the receptacle is permanent water-tightness to prevent pollution of soils and wells. Wooden pails or boxes, which warp and leak, should not be used. Where a vault is used it should be shallow to facilitate emptying and cleaning. Moreover, if the receptacle should leak it is better that the escape of liquid should be in the top soil, where air and bacterial life are most abundant.

Sanitary privies are classified according to the method used in treating the excretions, as dry earth, chemical, etc.

DRY-EARTH PRIVY

Pail type.—A very serviceable pail privy is shown in Figures 7 and 8. The method of ventilation is an adaptation of a system that has proved very effective in barns and other buildings here and abroad. A flue with a clear opening of 16 square inches rises from the rear of the seat and terminates above the ridgepole in a cowl or small roofed housing. Attached to this flue is a short auxiliary duct, 4 by 15 inches, for removing foul air from the top of the privy. In its upper portion on the long sides the cowl is open, allowing free movement of air across the top of the flue. In addition, the long sides of the cowl are open below next to the roof. These two openings, with the connecting vertical air passages, permit free upward movement of air through the cowl, as indicated by the arrows. The combined effect is to create draft from beneath the seat and from the top of the privy. The ventilating flue is 2 by 8 inches at the seat and 4 by 4 inches 5 feet above. The taper slightly increases the labor of making the flue, but permits a 2-inch reduction in the length of the building.

In plan the privy is 4 by 4½ feet. The sills are secured to durable posts set about 4 feet in the ground. The boarding is tight, and all vents and windows are screened to exclude insects. The screens may be the same as for pit privies or, if a more lasting material is desired, bronze or copper screening of 14 squares to the inch may be used. The entire seat is hinged, thus permitting removal of the receptacle and facilitating cleaning and washing the underside of the seat and the destruction of spiders and other insects which thrive in dark, unclean places. The receptacle is a heavy galvanized-iron garbage can. Heavy brown-paper bags for lining the can may be had at slight cost, and their use helps to keep the can clean and facilitates emptying. Painting with black asphaltum serves a similar purpose and protects the can from rust. If the contents are frozen, a little heat releases them. Of nonfreezing mixtures a strong brine made with common salt or calcium chloride is effective. Two and one-half to 3 pounds of either thoroughly dissolved in a gallon of water lowers the freezing point of the mixture to about zero. Denatured alcohol or wood alcohol in a 25 per cent solution has a like low freezing point and the additional merit of being noncorrosive of metals. The can should be emptied frequently and the contents completely buried in a thin layer by a plow or in a shallow hand-dug trench at a point below and remote from wells and springs. Wherever intestinal disease exists the contents of the can should be destroyed by burning or made sterile before burial by boiling or by incorporation with a strong chemical disinfectant.

A privy ventilated in the manner before described is shown in Figure 9. The cowl, however, is open on four sides instead of two sides as shown in Figures 7 and 8. The working drawings (figs. 7 and 8) show that the construction of a privy of the kind is not difficult. Figure 10 gives three suggestions whereby a privy may be conveniently located and the approach screened or partially hidden by latticework, vines, or shrubbery.

Vault type.—A primitive and yet serviceable three-seat dry-earth privy of the vault type is shown in Figure 11. This privy was constructed in 1817 upon a farm at Westboro, Mass. The vault, made of bricks, was 6 feet long by 5 feet wide, and the bottom was 1 foot below the surface of the ground. The brickwork was laid in mortar, and the part below the ground surface was plastered on the inside. The outside of the vault was exposed to light and air on all four sides. Across the long side of the vault in the rear was a door swinging upward through which the night soil was removed two or three times a year, usually in the spring, summer, and fall and hauled to a near-by field, where it was deposited in a furrow, just ahead of the plow.

Especial attention is called to the shallowness of the vault and the lightened labor of cleaning it out. The swinging door at the rear facilitated the sprinkling of dry soil or ashes over the contents of the vault, thus avoiding the necessity of carrying dirt and dust into the building and dust settling upon the seat. This privy was in use for nearly 100 years without renewal or repairs. When last seen the original seat, which always was kept painted, showed no signs of decay. Modern methods would call for a concrete vault of guaranteed water-tightness,[3] proper ventilation and screening, and hinging the seat.

Working drawings for a very convenient well-built two-seat vault privy are reproduced in Figures 12 and 13. The essential features are shown in sufficient detail to require little explanation. With concrete mixtures of 1:2:3 (1 volume cement, 2 volumes sand, 3 volumes stone) for the vault and 1:2:4 for the posts there will be required a total of about 2 cubic yards of concrete, taking 3½ barrels of cement, 1 cubic yard of sand, and 1½ cubic yards of broken stone or screened gravel. The stone or gravel should not exceed 1 inch in diameter, except that a few cobblestones may be embedded where the vault wall is thickest, thus effecting a slight saving of materials.

CHEMICAL CLOSET

A type of sanitary privy in which the excrements are received directly into a water-tight receptacle containing chemical disinfectant is meeting with considerable favor for camps, parks, rural cottages, schools, hotels, and railway stations. These chemical closets,[4] as they are called, are made in different forms and are known by various trade names. In the simplest form a sheet-metal receptacle is concealed in a small metal or wooden cabinet, and the closet is operated usually in much the same manner as the ordinary pail privy. These closets are very simple and compact, of good appearance, and easy to install or move from place to place. In another type, known as the chemical tank closet, the receptacle is a steel tank fixed in position underground or in a basement. The tank has a capacity of about 125 gallons per seat, is provided with a hand-operated agitator to secure thorough mixing of the chemical and the excretions, and the contents are bailed, pumped, or drained out from time to time.

Chemical closets, like every form of privy, should be well installed, cleanly operated, and frequently emptied, and the wastes should receive safe burial. With the exception of frequency of emptying, the same can be said of chemical tank closets. With both forms of closet thorough ventilation or draft is essential, and this is obtained usually by connecting the closet vent pipe to a chimney flue or extending it well above the ridgepole of the building. The contents of the container should always be submerged and very low temperatures guarded against.

As to the germicidal results obtained in chemical closets, few data are available. A disinfecting compound may not sterilize more than a thin surface layer of the solid matter deposited. Experiments by Dr. Alvah H. Doty with various agents recommended and widely used for the bedside sterilization of feces showed "that at the end of 20 hours of exposure to the disinfectant but one-eighth of an inch of the fecal mass was disinfected."[5] Plainly, then, to destroy all bacterial and parasitic life in chemical closets three things are necessary: (1) A very powerful agent; (2) permeation of the fecal mass by the agent; (3) retention of its strength and potency until permeation is complete. The compounds or mixtures commonly used in chemical closets are of two general kinds: First, those in which some coal-tar product or other oily disinfectant is used to destroy germs and deodorize, leaving the solids little changed in form; second, those of the caustic class that dissolve the solids, which, if of sufficient strength and permeating every portion, should destroy most if not all bacterial life. Not infrequently the chemical solution is intended to accomplish disinfection, deodorization, and reduction to a liquid or semiliquid state. Ordinary caustic soda, costing about $1 in 10-pound pails, has given good results.

A simple type of chemical closet is shown in Figure 14, and the essential features are indicated in the notation. These closets with vent pipe and appurtenances, ready for setting up, retail for $20 and upward. A chemical tank closet, retailing for about $80 per seat, is shown in Figure 15.

The Department of Agriculture occasionally receives complaints from people who have installed chemical closets, usually on the score of odors or the cost of chemicals.

Disinfection is the destruction of disease germs. Sterilization is the destruction of all germs or bacteria, both the harmful and the useful. Antisepsis is the checking or restraining of bacterial growth. Deodorization is the destruction of odor. Unfortunately in practice none of these processes may be complete. The agent may be of inferior quality, may have lost its potency, or may not reach all parts of the mass treated. A disinfectant or germicide is an agent capable of destroying disease germs; an antiseptic is an agent merely capable of arresting bacterial growth, and it may be a dilute disinfectant; a deodorant is an agent that tends to destroy odor, but whose action may consist in absorbing odor or in masking the original odor with another more agreeable one.[6]

Of active disinfecting agents, heat from fire, live steam, and boiling water are the surest. The heat generated by the slaking of quicklime has proved effective with small quantities of excreta. Results of tests by the Massachusetts State Board of Health[7] show that the preferable method consists in adding sufficient hot water (120° to 140° F.) to cover the excrement in the receptacle, then adding small pieces of fresh strong quicklime in amount equal to about one-third of the bulk of water and excrement combined, covering the receptacle, and allowing it to stand 1½ hours or longer.

Among chemical disinfectants a strong solution of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or potassium hydroxide (caustic potash, lye) is very effective and is useful in dissolving grease and other organic substances. Both chemicals are costly, but caustic soda is less expensive than caustic potash and constitutes most of the ordinary commercial lyes. Chlorinated lime (chloride of lime, bleaching powder) either in solution or in powdered form is valuable. For the disinfection of stools of typhoid-fever patients the Virginia State Board of Health[8] recommends thoroughly dissolving ½ pound of best chlorinated lime in 1 gallon of water and allowing the solution to cover the feces for at least 1 hour. The solution should be kept in well-stoppered bottles and used promptly, certainly within 2 or 3 days. Copper sulphate (blue vitriol, bluestone) in a 5 per cent solution (1 pound in 2½ gallons of water) is a good but rather costly disinfectant. None of the formulas here given is to be construed as fixed and precise. Conditions may vary the proportions, as they always will vary the results. The reader should remember that few, if any, chemical disinfectants can be expected fully to disinfect or sterilize large masses of excrement unless the agent is used repeatedly and in liberal quantities or mechanical means are employed to secure thorough incorporation.

Among deodorants some of the drying powders mentioned below possess more or less disinfecting power. Chlorinated lime, though giving off an unpleasant odor of chlorine, is employed extensively. Lime in the form of either quicklime or milk of lime (whitewash) is much used and is an active disinfectant. To prepare milk of lime a small quantity of water is slowly added to good fresh quicklime in lumps. As soon as the quicklime is slaked a quantity of water, about four times the quantity of lime, is added and stirred thoroughly. When used as a whitewash the milk of lime is thinned as desired with water and kept well stirred. Liberal use of milk of lime in a vault or cesspool, though it may not disinfect the contents, is of use in checking bacterial growth and abating odor. To give the best results it should be used frequently, beginning when the vault or cesspool is empty. Iron sulphate (green vitriol, copperas) because of its affinity for ammonia and sulphides is used as a temporary deodorizer in vaults, cesspools, and drains; 1 pound dissolved in 4 gallons of water makes a solution of suitable strength.

PREVENTION OF PRIVY NUISANCE

The following is a summary of simple measures for preventing a privy from becoming a nuisance:

1. Locate the privy inconspicuously and detached from the dwelling.

2. Make the receptacle or vault small, shallow, easy of access, and water-tight.

3. Clean out the vault often. Do not wait until excrement has accumulated and decomposition is sufficiently advanced to cause strong and foul odors.

4. Sprinkle into the vault daily loose dry soil, ashes, lime, sawdust, ground gypsum (land plaster), or powdered peat or charcoal. These will absorb liquid and odor, though they may not destroy disease germs.

5. Make the privy house rain-proof; ventilate it thoroughly, and screen all openings.

OBJECTION TO PRIVIES

All the methods of waste disposal heretofore described are open to the following objections:

1. They do not take care of kitchen slops and liquid wastes incident to a pressure water system.

2. They retain filth for a considerable period of time, with probability of odors and liability of transmission of disease germs.

3. They require more personal attention and care than people generally are willing to give.

By far the most satisfactory method yet devised of caring for sewage calls for a supply of water and the flushing away of all wastes as soon as created through a water-tight sewer to a place where they undergo treatment and final disposal.

KITCHEN-SINK DRAINAGE

A necessity in every dwelling is effective disposal of the kitchen-sink slops. This necessity ordinarily arises long before the farm home is supplied with water under pressure and the conveniences that go with it. Hence the first call for information on sewage disposal is likely to relate merely to sink drainage. This waste water, though it may not be as dangerous to health as sewage containing human excrements, is still a menace to the farm well and capable of creating disagreeable odor.

The usual method of disposing of sink slops is to allow them to dribble on or beneath the surface of the ground close to the house. Such drainage should be taken in a water-tight carrier at least 100 feet downhill from the well and discharged below the surface of the ground. Every sink should be provided with a suitable screen to keep all large particles out of the waste pipe. An approved form of sink strainer consists of a brass plate bolted in position over the outlet and having at least 37 perforations not larger than one-fourth inch in diameter. Provided a sink is thus equipped and is given proper care and the land has fair slope and drainage, the waste water may be conducted away through a water-tight sewer and distributed in the soil by means of a short blind drain. A simple installation, consisting of a kitchen-sink and pump and means of disposal as described, is shown in Figure 16.

CESSPOOLS

Where farms have water under pressure an open or leaching cesspool is a common method of disposing of the sewage. Ordinary cesspools are circular excavations in the ground, lined with stone or brick laid without mortar. They vary from 5 to 10 feet in diameter and from 7 to 12 feet in depth. Sometimes the top is arched and capped at the ground surface by a cover of wood, stone, or cast-iron. At other times the walls are carried straight up and boards or planks are laid across for a cover, and the entire structure is hidden with a hedge or shrubbery.

Except under the most favorable conditions the construction and use of a cesspool can not be condemned too strongly. They are only permissible where no other arrangement is possible. Leaching cesspools especially are open to these serious objections:

1. Unless located in porous soil, stagnation is likely to occur, and failure of the liquid to seep away may result in overflow on the Surface of the ground and the creation of a nuisance and a menace.

2. They retain a mass of filth in a decomposing condition deep in the ground, where it is but slightly affected by the bacteria and air of the soil. In seeping through the ground it may be strained, but there can be no assurance that the foul liquid, with little improvement in its condition, may not pass into the ground water and pollute wells and springs situated long distances away in the direction of underground flow.

For the purpose of avoiding soil and ground-water pollution cesspools have been made of water-tight construction and the contents removed by bailing or pumping. Upon the farm, however, this type of construction has little to recommend it, for the reason that facilities for removing and disposing of the contents in a clean manner are lacking.

In some instances cesspools have been made water-tight, the outflow being effected by three or four elbows or T branches set in the masonry near the top, with the inner ends turned down below the water surface, the whole surrounded to a thickness of several feet with stone or gravel intended to act as a filtering medium. Tests of the soil water adjacent to cesspools of this type show that no reliance should be placed upon them as a means of purifying sewage, the fatal defects being constant saturation with sewage and lack of air supply. To the extent that the submerged outlets keep back grease and solid matters the scheme is of service in preventing clogging of the pores of the surrounding ground.

Where the ground about a cesspool has become clogged and water-logged, relief is often secured by laying several lines of drain tile at shallow depth, radiating from the cesspool. The ends of the pipes within the cesspool should turn down, and it is advantageous to surround the lines of pipe with stones or coarse gravel, as shown in Figure 16 and discussed under "Septic tanks." In this way not only is the area of percolation extended, but aeration and partial purification of the sewage are effected.

Where a cesspool is located at a distance from a dwelling and there is opportunity to lead a vent pipe up the side of a shed, barn, or any stable object it is advisable to do so for purposes of ventilation. Where the conditions are less favorable it may be best, because of the odor, to omit any direct vent pipe from the cesspool and rely for ventilation on the house sewer and main soil stack extending above the roof of the house.

Cesspools should be emptied and cleaned at least once a year and the contents given safe burial or, with the requisite permission, wasted in some municipal sewerage system. After cleaning, the walls and bottom may be treated with a disinfectant or a deodorant.