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The original of this book is in 
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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924004127837 
 
THE DRAINAGE 
 
 HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICE OF PLUMBING. By S. 
 
 STEVENS HELLYER, Author of "The Plumber and 
 Sanitary Houses, " and ' ' Lectures on the Science and Art 
 of Sanitary Plumbing." Small post 8vo, with i plates and 
 180 Illustrations, 5s. 
 
 " For all intents and purposes this book maybe described as an illus- 
 trated plumber's dictionary, and should always be 'at home ' for study and 
 reference. It is invaluable to the working apprentice commencing his 
 trade, and cannot but prove of considerable assistance to builders, clerks 
 of works, foremen, <fcc." — The Flumber and Decorator. 
 
 SEWAGE TREATMENT, PURIFICATION, AND UTILIS- 
 ATION. A Practical Manual for the Use of Corporations, 
 Local Boards, Medical Officers of Health, Inspectors of 
 Nuisances, Chemists, Manufacturers, Riparian Owners, 
 Engineers, and Ratepayers. By J. W. Slater, F.E.S., 
 Editor of "Journal of Science." "With Illustrations, 6s. 
 
 "The writer, in addition to a calm and dispassionate view of the situation, 
 gives two chapters on 'Legislation' and 'Sewage Patents.'" — Spectator. 
 
 London : "Whittaker & Co. 
 
THE DRAINAGE 
 
 OF 
 
 HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 "W. LEE BEARDMORE, 
 
 ASSOCIATE MEMBER OF THE INSTITUTION OP CE. J MEMBER OF COUNCIL AND HON. 
 SEC. CIVIL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS' SOCIETY, ETC. 
 
 BEING A REPRINT AND REVISION OP A SEBIES OF ARTICLES 
 
 WHICH APPEARED IN THE PAGES OP ' THE PLUMBER 
 
 AND DECORATOR, AND JOURNAL OF GAS AND 
 
 SANITARY ENGINEERING.' 
 
 LONDON : 
 WHITTAKER AND CO., 
 
 2, WHITE HART STREET, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 
 1892. 
 
 [All rights reserved-] 
 
^ly&Ezs 
 
 k . M-5~0tf^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In the early part of the year 1881, 1 was employed to 
 write for the Plumber and Decorator, and Journal of Gas 
 and Sanitary Engineering, a series of articles which now 
 comprise this work ; and in writing upon such a subject 
 as Habitable Buildings, I elected to touch, but briefly, 
 upon what has been done in such an insanitary manner 
 in the past, and to point out mainly what should be done 
 to render a dwelling thoroughly sanitary as regards its 
 drainage arrangements. The title therefore of The Drain- 
 age of Habitable Buildings suggested itself to me as an 
 appropriate one. 
 
 It is a great question if there is any necessity at all for 
 a preface to such a book, but I beg to take the liberty 
 with my readers of opening this edition with a few words 
 of a prefatory nature. 
 
 For many years past I have made a special and 
 particular study of the Science of House Drainage, and 
 that fact being known was the reason of my being 
 employed to write this work for the above Journal, in the 
 pages of which it appeared. 
 
 It is probable that I should never have taken up this 
 subject as a specialist had it not been that I was employed 
 as an assistant to Mr. E. F. Griffith, Associate Member 
 Institution C.E. (so well known in connection with his 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 work at Oxford), who at one time was manager to that 
 eminent sanitarian Mr. Rogers Field, M.A., Member 
 Institution C.E. 
 
 My obligations are great to certain gentlemen at the 
 Natural History Museum (British Museum), South 
 Kensington, S.W., for their kind assistance, but this has 
 been acknowledged in one of the chapters of the book. 
 
 Some critical readers may maintain that I have neither 
 gone sufficiently deep into the theory, nor into the practice, 
 but I trust that, at the same time, it will be said that I 
 have made a hearty endeavour to place before the public 
 what should be done in order to have a truly habitable, 
 building. 
 
 I beg to acknowledge the kindness and courtesy of 
 Messrs. Dale, Reynolds & Co., the proprietors of the above 
 Journal, and of the present publishers, Messrs. Whittaker 
 & Co. of Paternoster Square, and to claim the indulgence 
 of the many critics that I trust will read this book. 
 
 W. Lee Beardmore, 
 
 Assoc. M. Inst. C.E. 
 
 7, Little Queen St., 
 Great George St., Westminster, S.W. 
 December 1891. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Air we breathe — How and why we do breathe such Air — How 
 the Blood is cleansed by good Atmosphere — Those Gases gener- 
 ated in Sewers, &c, which we should not breathe — The Danger 
 arising from breathing such Gases — The necessity of preventing 
 such Gases and Germs, or Bacilli, entering our Dwellings p. 1 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE. 
 
 " The Stoneware Syphon Trap " — American Practice — Argument in 
 favour of a " Disconnecting Trap," and with regard to the Danger 
 of Gases from the Main Sewer entering the House — Introduction 
 of Fresh Air through the House Drain for the purpose of Oxi- 
 dizing any Foul Gases that may be generated — The Stoneware 
 Syphon Trap — Demonstration of the Principle of same — Liability 
 of the Syphon Trap to choke, and arrangement for its Examin- 
 ation — Chamber known as the Disconnecting Manhole — Method 
 of discharging Branch Drains into Main House Drain — White 
 Glazed Faced Bricks should form the Brickwork inside the Man- 
 hole — Syphon Traps sometimes of too large Diameter — The same 
 consequently never Scoured thoroughly . . . p. 8 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MAIN" HOUSE DEAIN, ETC. 
 
 The Distinction between the "Main House Drain" and the "Con- 
 necting Drain" — Position of the Disconnecting Manhole — Com- 
 pulsory Position of the Disconnecting Manhole in the case of 
 Houses in Towns — The Objection to Excessive Pall — The Practice . 
 pursued in laying the House Drain and the Connecting Drain — 
 The Laying of Drains generally to insure their being Self-Cleansing 
 — Glazed Stoneware Drain Pipes — The Reduction of Friction in, 
 and of Porosity of, Pipes by being Glazed — The " Stanford Joint " 
 and the Joints of Glazed Stoneware Pipes — The Selection of such 
 Pipes — The Danger of Cement being left in the Pipes — Drains 
 should not be laid under the House — Coated Cast-iron Pipes — 
 The Employment of such Pipes gives a minimum of Joints — 
 General Argument for use of Cast-iron Pipes under House — The 
 Geological Nature of Ground through which they have to be laid 
 — Concrete Bed, &c, for Drains — Glazed Stoneware Bend Pipe 
 for reception of Soil Pipe — Such Bend Pipe should be accessible 
 from a Manhole — Construction of such Manhole — Branch Drains 
 — A Manhole to admit of Inspection of same — Change of Direc- 
 tion of the Line of Drains — The Turning Chamber — Test as to the 
 proper laying of a Drain — The Enlargement of Syphon Trap at 
 Spigot end — The Flap Trap — The Size of House Drains — Formula 
 for calculating the Discharge through Drains — Drains should be 
 Self-Cleansing p. 17 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AUTOMATIC FLUSHING SOIL AND VENTILATING PIPE. 
 
 The Annular Syphon— The Soil Pipe— The Connecting Soil Pipe- 
 Lead and Iron for such Pipes— The Ventilating Pipe— The Size 
 of same — Cowls . . ■ . . p. 26 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 w.c.'s. 
 
 Disconnection of w.c. Apparatus, &c, from the House Drain and 
 Soil Pipe, &c— "P" and "S" Traps— The Pan Closet— The 
 Container — The "D" Trap — The Long Hopper Closet — The 
 Improved Hopper Closet — The Valve Closet — Its Overflow Pipe 
 —The Safe— The "Warning Pipe"— The Hinged Seat— The 
 Loose Riser— Situation of the w.c. — The Fhish — The^ Waste 
 Preventer Cistern— The Screw-down Stop-Cock — Cistern Over- 
 flow Pipes p. 34 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE UEINAL, SINKS, ETC. 
 
 The Urinal with Flushing Rim — Inspection Cap to Traps — Auto- 
 matic Flushing of Urinals — The w.c. may be arranged for use 
 as an Urinal — The Slop Sink — Housemaids' and Butlers' Sinks 
 ■ — Bell Trap — Enamelled Earthenware Sinks — The Space beneath 
 Sinks— The Gully Trap p. 43 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LAVATORY, RAIN-WATER PIPES, BATH, ETC. 
 
 The Tip-up Lavatory Basin — Rain-water Pipes — Their Joints — The 
 Rain-water Shoe— The Bath— The Safe- The Safe Waste Pipe— 
 The Area of same — The Outlet from Bath — The Bath Waste Pipe 
 — The Overflow Pipe — Cisterns — Dustbin — The Portable Iron 
 Dustbin p. 49 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STABLES. 
 
 The Nature of Stable Sewage — Flooring — Stable Channels — Special 
 Flushing of same — The Fall of Stable Floors — The Coach-house 
 
 p. 56 
 
x CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 
 
 The Rivers Pollution Prevention Act— The Cesspool— The Float 
 Indicator — The Overflow Pipes — Eemoval of Solid Residue— 
 The Straining Chamber — The Position of the Cesspool — Surface 
 Disposal — Shuttle and Flap Valves — The Objection to the Dis- 
 charge of Crude Sewage on the Ground — Sub-Irrigation — Bed 
 for Sub-Irrigation Pipes — Contour Principle of Irrigation — 
 Sewage Meter Tank — Sewage Sick — Setting out ground on the 
 Contour Principle — Herbage grown on Sewage-fed Land — Tape- 
 worm — Ventilation of the Connecting Drain . . p. 61 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Preparation of Schemes for House Drainage — Maxims— Rules 
 for Housekeepers '•. . . . . . . . p. 80 
 
THE DRAINAGE 
 
 HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 The Air we breathe — How and why we do breathe such Air — How 
 the Blood is cleansed by good Atmosphere — Those Gases gener- 
 ated in sewers, &c. which we should not breathe — The Danger 
 arising from breathing such Gases — The necessity of preventing 
 such Gases and Germs or Bacilli entering our Dwellings. 
 
 This question is one of the greatest import. Although 
 some few years ago it commanded but little consideration, 
 its vital consequence is now fully recognized. As the 
 inward mau cannot be judged by the outward coat he 
 wears, the visible exterior or interior of a dwelling cannot 
 be a criterion of its healthy condition. The disclosures so 
 constantly made in both palace and cottage on the investi- 
 gation of their drainage arrangements tend to prove this. 
 Not many years ago a nation was anxiously watching round 
 the bed of a prince afflicted with a dangerous illness, caused 
 by the poisonous effects of sewer gas ; — a few years later a 
 princess was struck down with serious blood-poisoning, 
 
 B 
 
2 DBAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 supposed to be the result of defective drainage, and since 
 then how many princes and people, peers and peasants, 
 have suffered in a greater or less degree from similar 
 causes ? Can we wonder that this subject of house 
 drainage receives the prominence it does in the minds of 
 both professional men and the intelligent public generally ? 
 How many diseases such as diphtheria, typhoid, scarlet, 
 and other fevers, cholera pestifera, &c, if not actually 
 created are provoked and aggravated by inefficient house 
 drainage ? Many people appear to be expecting a visit 
 from the last-mentioned terrible scourge, and perhaps the 
 words on house drainage, &c, referring to this malady, of 
 the late eminent author of Two Years Ago (whose novels 
 were always written with some good object in view), 
 may be here appropriately quoted — "It is hard," he 
 writes, " to human nature to make all the humiliating 
 confessions which must precede sanitary repentance ; to 
 say — I have been a very nasty, dirty fellow. I have lived 
 contented in evil smells, till I care for them no more than 
 my pig does. I have refused to understand Nature's 
 broadest hints, that anything which is so disagreeable is 
 not meant to be left about. I have probably been more 
 or less the cause of half my own illnesses, and of three- 
 fourths of the illness of my children ; for aught I know it 
 is very much my fault that my own baby has died of 
 scarlatina, and two or three of my tenants of typhus. No, 
 hang it ! that's too much to make a man confess to ! I'll 
 prove my innocence by not reforming ! So sanitary reform 
 is thrust out of sight, simply because its necessity is too 
 humiliating to the pride of all, too frightful to the con- 
 sciences of many." 
 
 Before proceeding to the technical portion of our subject 
 it may be advantageous to consider cursorily the reason 
 why it is unhealthy to breathe the gases arising from 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 3 
 
 sewers and drains, but it is not proposed to do so from 
 a medical point of view, but merely in a popular 
 manner. 
 
 In order to do this, let us observe what composes the 
 atmosphere we should breathe. 
 
 The globe is enveloped in an atmospheric sea, indis- 
 pensable to life, which is known to be at least forty-five 
 miles in depth. This atmosphere is a mixture of different 
 matters, each fulfilling to the life of both animals and 
 vegetables a marvellous, awe-inspiring, and beautiful office. 
 Oxygen, nitrogen, carbonic acid, and watery vapour are 
 known at least to be its components, the two former 
 almost constituting its whole bulk, whilst the carbonic 
 acid and watery vapour exist but in small quantities. 
 
 Oxygen is a gas with neither colour, taste, nor smell, 
 and gives to animals breathing it increase of enjoyment, 
 their circulation being quickened, producing finally a 
 state of fever. When combustion takes place in this gas, 
 the process is greatly accelerated. 
 
 Nitrogen is also a gas without colour, taste, or smell, 
 but is almost opposite in its action to oxygen, animals no 
 longer breathing, and burning objects being immediately 
 extinguished, when placed in it. 
 
 Carbonic acid is a gas which is slightly odorous, and 
 has a sharp, sour, and acid taste, but no colour ; as in the 
 case of nitrogen, animals cease to breathe, and burning 
 bodies are extinguished, when introduced into it. 
 
 The watery vapour is a result of evaporation which 
 takes place. 
 
 These four substances are always to be found in the 
 atmosphere, and are necessary to life, although it is cus- 
 tomary in speaking of dry air, to say that it only consists 
 of nitrogen and oxygen, and when the watery vapour and 
 carbonic acid, &c, are absent, the proportions of the two 
 
4 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 former gases in one hundred parts is seventy-nine of 
 nitrogen to twenty-one of oxygen. 
 
 Having deliberated somewhat on the atmosphere we 
 should breathe, let us glance at how and why we do 
 breathe it. 
 
 The heart is situated in our bodies between our two 
 lungs, and is a muscular organ consisting of four chambers, 
 the two in the upper portion being termed auricles and 
 the two in the lower ventricles. 
 
 Roughly viewed, there are two classes of circulation of 
 the blood, the one being the " pulmonic," by which, as 
 implied by the name, the blood is circulated to the 
 lungs and back to the heart ; the other being the 
 " systemic," by which the blood is conveyed all over our 
 systems. 
 
 By the muscular contraction of the left auricle the blood 
 is driven to the left ventricle, and by a similar action 
 of the left ventricle, to the extremities of our bodies by 
 the arteries ; then, the blood, having become impure and 
 charged with carbonic acid, is returned by the capillaries 
 and veins to the right auricle, and thence by muscular 
 contraction to the right ventricle ; this, in_its turn, forces 
 our life fluid to the lungs, where, after purification by 
 the oxygen we inhale, it is returned to the left auricle, to 
 be once more circulated over the system, to perform its 
 offices in a properly cleansed condition. 
 
 But although the greater portion of respiration takes 
 place in the lungs, yet it also does so in a less degree 
 through the outer skin or cuticle by the pores in it. 
 
 Thus the oxygen we breathe is carried along by our 
 blood, and, combining with the carbon and hydrogen of 
 our fat, ultimately is exhaled in the forms of watery 
 vapour and carbonic" acid, and the waste tissues and matter 
 of our system being oxidized, pass off with the fluid excre- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. o 
 
 tions of our skin and organs in the form of urea and uric 
 acid, &c. 
 
 Therefore, of all the constituents of the atmosphere, 
 oxygen is directly of the greatest importance to animal 
 life, but the nitrogen is necessary to counteract the effects 
 of the oxygen, which alone would give us but rapid life ; 
 without the watery vapour our skin would be dry and 
 arid, and without the carbonic acid vegetable life could not 
 exist. 
 
 Having slightly considered the atmosphere we should 
 breathe, let us turn our attention to some of those gases 
 we should not breathe, but which, nevertheless, Nature has 
 ordained we shall have to contend with. 
 
 By the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter 
 gases are generated, and the following are some which may 
 be advantageously considered in connection with this 
 subject. 
 
 Sulphuretted hydrogen is a highly poisonous gas ; it has 
 no colour, whilst its smell is of a most disagreeable, foetid 
 sulphury nature, and is of a sour and sulphureous taste. 
 
 Bi-carburetted hydrogen (defiant gas) is a poisonous 
 gas, being colourless, but of an unpleasant odour. 
 
 Carbonic acid gas has been already referred to. Light 
 carburetted hydrogen (marsh gas) is a non-poisonous gas, 
 and is without smell, taste, or colour. 
 
 Ammoniacal gas is also colourless, but, as is generally 
 known, has a strong alkaline taste, and stinging smell. 
 
 Excreta and sewage matter generally give off all these 
 gases when decomposing, which process takes place at 
 different times in various climates, but in this country 
 commences in about three or four days ; excreta from a 
 healthy person, although so offensive, being practically 
 harmless when fresh. But when we consider that one 
 gallon of sulphuretted hydrogen, mixed with one hundred 
 
6 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 gallons of air, will make a mixture poisonous enough to 
 kill a dog, when we reflect that near the earth's surface in 
 every five thousand gallons of air there are hut two gallons 
 of carbonic acid gas, and that if this proportion were much 
 increased it would he injurious to the health of animals, 
 can we wonder that the endeavours to avoid such gases 
 entering our houses have resulted in the important and 
 necessary science of house drainage ? When, owing to 
 untrapped drains, leaky joints, broken and unconnected 
 pipes, ill-ventilated soil pipes, &c, such gases escape into 
 our dwellings, can our blood he properly cleansed, can we 
 enjoy good health, when, instead of the normal atmosphere 
 we should breathe, we inhale a mixture of pure air with 
 such deadly gases as sulphuretted hydrogen and carbonic 
 acid? 
 
 Does it not, therefore, behove us to retain, if possible, in 
 an unvitiated condition, the natural atmosphere as given 
 to us by our wise and all-provident God ? 
 
 But, in referring to these gases, we must remember that 
 besides differing in nature they vary also in weight; for 
 instance, carbonic acid is heavier than oxygen, which is • 
 heavier than nitrogen, the two former being heavier than 
 common air, whilst the latter is lighter. Thus a question 
 I was once asked in connection with this subject of house 
 drainage suggests itself, viz. How is it the heavier gases 
 do not lie in distinct strata nearest the earth's surface ? 
 
 It is a fact not generally known that a vast amount of 
 the ventilation of our dwellings takes place actually 
 through the brick walls of them ; but it is only in some 
 degree due to the natural winds and aerial currents that 
 this takes place, for independent of these there is a grand 
 law of Nature which governs the blending and inter- 
 mixture of all gases. This law is known as the " Diffusion 
 of Gases," and in conformity with it the heavier gases 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 7 
 
 intermingle with the lighter, even through porous 
 partitions. Thus the poisonous gases of decomposing 
 sewage matter, if properly discharged into the atmosphere, 
 are diffused with it to a harmless condition. 
 
 Graham, by various experiments, demonstrated the law 
 that " the rates of diffusion of two gases into each other 
 are in the inverse ratio of the square roots of their 
 densities." 
 
 But, besides the danger of the poisonous gases gener- 
 ated by decaying refuse, there is also another to be faced 
 wherever the house drains discharge into a main sewer. 
 
 Whether the cause or effect, it is, I believe, still a 
 disputed question, but I think the medical faculty agree 
 that minute germs or bacilli, capable of transmitting 
 disease, emanate from the fseces of patients suffering from 
 zymotic disorders. 
 
 Therefore, if the evacuations of such patients pass into 
 the main sewer, is there not a danger of such germs 
 passing into any house drains that may be in direct open 
 communication with the main sewer, thereby tending to 
 spread disease ? 
 
 In order, then, to prevent such germs and the gases 
 generated in the main sewer, sewage meter tank, 
 irrigation tanks, or cesspools, &c, from entering the 
 house drains, a trap of syphon shape, consisting of a 
 water seal, has been devised in order to disconnect entirely 
 the house drains from the main sewer, &c. With this 
 disconnection I shall open my next article. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE. 
 
 The Stoneware Syphon Trap — American Practice — Argument in 
 favour of a " Disconnecting " Trap, and with regard to the Danger 
 of Gases from the Main Sewer entering the House — Introduction 
 of Fresh Air through the House Drain for the purpose of 
 Oxidizing any Foul Gases that may be generated — The Stoneware 
 Syphon Trap — Demonstration of the Principle of same — Liability 
 of the Syphon Trap to choke, and arrangement for its Examin- 
 ation — Chamber known as the Disconnecting Manhole — Method 
 of discharging Branch Drains into Main House Drain — White 
 Glazed Faced Bricks should form the Brickwork inside the 
 Manhole — Syphon Traps sometimes of too large Diameter — The 
 same consequently never Scoured thoroughly. 
 
 In England, all those Civil Engineers who have made 
 House Drainage their especial study, and all those who 
 have given serious attention to sanitary work, agree, I 
 think, that whether discharging into a main sewer, 
 sewage meter tank, irrigation tanks, or cesspool, &c, the 
 house drain should be disconnected from them in such a 
 ■way that the gases generated in them shall not be diffused 
 with those of the latter, and they further, I believe, 
 concur in the opinion that the proper and most suitable 
 form of trap for this purpose is that known as the 
 " Stoneware Syphon Trap." 
 
 In America, however, this view does not appear to have 
 gained such universal approval ; for in some recent articles 
 on house drainage by Mr. George E. Waring, junr. (who 
 
THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE, 9 
 
 by his writing shows the great attention he has given to 
 this subject, and his vast knowledge of it), this "dis- 
 connection is not advocated." 
 
 He contends that " the trap itself, unless the course of 
 the drain is very steep, and its flushing very copious," 
 may "form a seat of decomposing filth,'' and will also 
 " set back the flow," thereby causing a " deposit of foul 
 material for some distance along the house-side of the 
 drain ; "—but if the suitable form of trap is employed, 
 viz. the " Glazed Stoneware Syphon Trap," and is 
 properly arranged, and if the drains are laid with a 
 proper fall, I think there can be little chance of danger 
 arising from the employment of such a trap, and my 
 opinion is most positive that its use is highly necessary 
 and advantageous. 
 
 Again, he states that " if the sewer is not extremely 
 offensive, there will be less stench coming from a current 
 of air flowing from the sewer without a trap, than will be 
 developed in the house drain itself with a trap. The 
 absence of the trap will secure a pretty constant and 
 effective current of air from the sewer through to the top 
 of the soil pipe. Without the trap a sufficient current 
 can be established by the use of a well-placed fresh air 
 inlet." 
 
 But is not the presence of a trap required especially to 
 prevent any current of air from the sewer passing through 
 the house drain and up the soil pipe to the outlet at the 
 top ? Again, it is true that a sufficient current can be 
 established without a trap by the use of a well-placed 
 fresh air inlet, but let us look at what the nature of such 
 a cuiTent will be. 
 
 When a current of gases is established in a channel, 
 there is a tendency to create a vacuum at the point at 
 which the current arises, and all gases about that point 
 
10 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 rush to it in consequence. Therefore, if there is no 
 disconnecting trap, the gases of the main sewer, or 
 whatever be used, will be in direct communication with 
 those of the house drain, and when a current is caused in 
 this drain by a fresh air inlet, in the absence of a discon- 
 necting trap, not only will fresh air pass up the house 
 drain, but the gases generated in the main sewer or what 
 not, will do so also ; thus the house drain will act as a 
 ventilating shaft for the main sewer, or whatever receptacle 
 it may discharge into. I fail entirely to see how " there 
 can be less stench coming from a current of air flowing 
 from the sewer without a trap," for no sewer is entirely 
 inoffensive, and if the gases arising in it pass into the 
 house drain owing to there being no disconnecting trap, it 
 is obvious that there must be more stench caused by a 
 current of such gases mingled with fresh air than there 
 would be from fresh air alone passing from the external 
 atmosphere into the house drain, &c, by the fresh air 
 inlet ; therefore, I consider it most necessary to disconnect 
 the receptacle, into which the house drain discharges, from 
 that drain, with such a trap as will entirely prevent 
 the gases of the one diffusing into the gases of the other. 
 A fresh air inlet should be placed near this trap on the 
 house-side of it in connection with the house drain, in 
 order that a current of air may be created throughout the 
 house drain, soil pipe, and ventilating pipe to the outlet 
 at the top, and that any offensive gases generated in the 
 house drains, &c, may be intermingled with the fresh air 
 current, or ventilated to the outlet to be diffused into the 
 atmosphere, for the purpose of oxidization. 
 
 All those who read the introductory chapter to this 
 series, will, I think, agree as to the necessity for, and 
 importance of, such a trap as will completely sever the 
 gases of the main sewer, &c, from the house drain. 
 
THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE. 
 
 11 
 
 Fig. 1 shows a " Stoneware Syphon Trap," which is 
 tubular, and has a socket sometimes at one end, being 
 similar to an ordinary stoneware drain pipe, bent to a 
 syphon shape ; this trap is also sometimes made with half 
 
 Syphon Trap with socket 
 
 (Nat to Scale) 
 Fig. 1. 
 
 the socket of the above, and with a branch from the spigot 
 end as shown by Fig. 2. Inasmuch that if a liquid is 
 contained in a vessel its surface must be level, if water be 
 poured in at the eod D (Fig. 1), till the syphon is filled 
 to the surface DE, that surface will be horizontal, and the 
 
 columns AB and BC will be in equilibrium ; but if more 
 water be poured in at D, the column AB will tend to 
 increase in height, and become heavier, thereby equilibrium 
 will no longer take place, and the column AB will tend 
 to force BC upwards; then, by the force of gravity, the 
 
12 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 water at E will flow down the drain until the surface of 
 water in the syphon columns again assumes the level DE, 
 when equilibrium will again take place and the water will 
 be at rest ; thus", when water passes through the syphon 
 a quantity always remains to fill it to* the level DE. But 
 if the syphon is always full to the level DE, then for all 
 practical purposes the passage of the gases up the drain to 
 E will be barred by the surface E, or in other words the 
 trap is " sealed " by the water being to the level DE, and 
 the amount of "seal" is measured by the distance F. 
 But owing to the peculiar shape which the syphon trap 
 is made to assume, there is necessarily considerable liability 
 to its becoming choked, from time to time, and conse- 
 quently it should be accessible so that a man can at any 
 time clear and clean it thoroughly. For this purpose, it 
 is usual to construct at the house end of the syphon trap 
 a chamber not exceeding about three feet square, in nine 
 inches thick brickwork, which is termed the disconnecting 
 manhole ; concrete should be laid in the bottom of this 
 manhole, and a straight, open, glazed stoneware channel 
 should be laid on and in this concrete, forming a butt joint 
 with the house drain, and being bedded in cement on the 
 socket of the syphon trap. It is better, if possible, to give 
 this channel about an inch more fall than the house drain 
 has, as thereby the sewage receives a greater impetus 
 before entering the syphon trap, which is consequently 
 better flushed. 
 
 The concrete should be brought some few inches above 
 the channel on each side, and then " battered " off to the 
 side of the manhole, the whole of the concrete should then 
 be neatly rendered over with a smooth surface of cement 
 with a float, "the cement being flush" with the internal 
 face of the channel on each side. 
 
 The concrete should be made with good Portland cement, 
 
THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE. 13 
 
 and it may be well to state here that it is advisable in all 
 house drainage work to use this cement for the joints of 
 brickwork and all stoneware pipes, &c. The manhole 
 should be covered with an iron, air-tight cover (such as 
 invented by Mr. A. T. Angell), and a stone carefully sealed 
 down with cement. 
 
 Immediately adjoining the syphon trap, at that end 
 farthest from the house, there should be a Y junction 
 pipe, with its branch pointing to the manhole, and an 
 inspection pipe should be fixed, accessible from the man- 
 hole and jointed with this branch. A stoneware inspection 
 cap should be placed in the socket of the inspection pipe, 
 and be carefully sealed down with Portland cement. 
 
 Thus at any time by the removal of this inspection cap 
 the connecting drain between the syphon trap and main 
 sewer, (or whatever be used,) can be cleared in the event 
 of its becoming choked. For the purpose of clearing 
 drains of l,ny stoppage that may occur, a bundle of "Rods" 
 is employed, each rod being of a convenient length to 
 enter a drain from a manhole, and being fitted at each 
 end with. a screw joint, so that as each length is passed 
 into the drain a fresh one can be attached to its end by 
 the screw joint ; various tools can be fixed to the first 
 " rod," for the purpose of either pushing forward or raking 
 back, &c, any matter that may be blocking the course of 
 the drain. It will therefore be understood that the dis- 
 connecting manhole admits of the "house drain" being 
 cleared from it in one direction, and the " connecting 
 drain " and syphon trap in another, at least as far as the 
 extent of the total number of "rods" when all joined 
 together will admit, which reaches about one hundred 
 feet. From a side wall of the manhole, a little above the 
 concrete batter, and communicating with the inside of the 
 manhole, a pipe of the same size as the house drain at 
 
U DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 least, should be carried up to a few feet above the surface, 
 this terminating in a wall or chamber on which a vase or 
 statue may be placed, in order that fresh air may pass into 
 the manhole and thence up the " house drain," soil and 
 ventilating pipes to the outlet at the top, thus ventilating 
 the house drain. 
 
 The current of air up the house drain, &c. (when 
 properly arranged) is nearly always found to be very 
 considerable, but in the event of there being a down 
 draught into the disconnecting manhole, then the pipe 
 leading from the side wall of the manhole will be service- 
 able as an outlet to ventilate the manhole ; it is therefore 
 wise to conduct it to a point on the surface sufficiently 
 apart from any approach to the building. Branch drains 
 may be conveniently led into the disconnecting manhole, 
 discharging through curved open glazed stoneware channels, 
 into the straight, open channel, on either side of it, so that 
 such drains may be cleared with as much ease as the 
 house drain, should they become choked. 
 
 It is advisable to face the inside of the manhole, where 
 the brickwork is exposed, with white glazed faced bricks 
 (especially when the manhole is of considerable depth), 
 for such bricks reflecting the light more efficiently than 
 ordinary ones, enable the man when clearing the drains, 
 &c, to see his work better. 
 
 Before leaving this subject of the disconnecting manhole, 
 it may not be out of place to refer to a mistake that is 
 sometimes made in the employment of a syphon trap of 
 too large a diameter. I have known one of these traps 
 used of a diameter of nine inches, the diameter of the 
 " house drain " discharging into it being also nine inches ; 
 in this case the diameter of both drain and trap alike was 
 too large, the consequence being that when a closet or 
 sink was used, instead of the discharge coming down the 
 
THE DISCONNECTING MANHOLE. 
 
 15 
 
 drain as a good flush, to thoroughly scour out th% syphon 
 trap, it only trickled through the large drain (although 
 there was a good fall), to little more than ooze into the 
 syphon trap. 
 
 In this instance, even the flushing of a closet did not 
 appear to be sufficient to change the contents of the trap; 
 heavier matter being deposited in the lowest bend of the 
 
 ^ /-a«a*w 
 
 
 Fig. 3. 
 
 syphon, and a slight film collecting about the surface of 
 the contents of the socket end of the syphon trap. 
 
 In my opinion it is rarely, if ever, (in house drainage 
 work,) necessary to use a syphon trap of larger diameter 
 than four inches ; even if it be essential to employ a house 
 drain of six inches diameter. I think a trap four inches 
 in diameter will be found more advantageous when con- 
 
16 
 
 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 nected to the house drain by a reducing, (from six inches 
 to four inches,) open glazed stoneware channel in the 
 bottom of the manhole. 
 
 If there be a proper flush from the closets, through a 
 properly laid drain, there will be little fear of the contents 
 of a syphon trap of four inches diameter not being flushed 
 out, and little chance of the trap forming a " seat of 
 decomposing filth." 
 
 The sections of a disconnecting manhole, shown by Figs. 
 3 and 4, may assist in explaining the text of this article. 
 
 Fig. 4. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MAIN HOUSE DKAIN, ETC. 
 
 The Distinction between the " Main House Drain " and the " Connect- 
 ing Drain" — Position of the Disconnecting Manhole — Compulsory 
 Position of the Disconnecting Manhole in the eases of Houses in 
 Towns — The Objection to Excessive Fall — The Practice pursued 
 in laying the House Drain and the Connecting Drain — The 
 Laying of Drains generally to insure their being Self-Cleansing 
 — Glazed Stoneware Drain Pipes— The Reduction of Friction in, 
 and of Porosity of, Pipes by being Glazed — The " Stanford Joint," 
 and the Joints of Glazed Stoneware Pipes — The Selection of such 
 Pipes — The Danger of Cement being left in the Pipes — Drains 
 should not be laid under the House — Coated Cast-iron Pipes — 
 The Employment of such Pipes gives a minimum of Joints — 
 General Argument for use of Cast- Iron Pipes under House — The 
 Geological Nature of Ground through which they may have to 
 be laid — Concrete Bed, &c, for Drains — Glazed Stoneware Bend 
 Pipe for reception of Soil Pipe — Such Bend Pipe should be 
 accessible from a Manhole — Construction of such Manhole — 
 Branch Drains — A Manhole to admit of Inspection of same — 
 Change of Direction of the Line of Drains — The Turning Chamber 
 — Test as to the proper laying of a Drain — The Enlargement of 
 Syphon Trap at Spigot end — The Flap Trap — The Size of House 
 Drains — Formula for calculating the Discharge through Drains 
 — Drains should be Self-Cleansing. 
 
 Attention must now be turned to the house drain, and 
 although, of course, literally it is all " house drain," yet 
 it will be easier to make a distinction between that part 
 of the drain from the soil pipe foot to the disconnecting . 
 manhole, and the drain from the syphon trap to the main 
 sewer, or whatever it may discharge into ; therefore, here- 
 
 c 
 
18 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 after the former part will be referred to as the " house 
 drain," and the latter part as the " connecting drain." 
 
 The "disconnecting manhole" should be built, if 
 possible, at a distance of — say, some seventy feet from the 
 house ; and I have known a good draught up the " house 
 drain " and ventilating pipe when it has been situated 
 about, or over, two hundred feet from the house ; but, of 
 course, this is too great a distance to admit of the " house 
 drain" beiag efficiently cleaned by the "rods" ; however, 
 in the case of houses in towns drained on a main sewerage 
 system, it is rarely possible to place the " disconnecting 
 manhole " at a greater distance than a few feet from the 
 house. 
 
 Now, as the main sewer is often as much as seventeen 
 or twenty feet below the crown of the road, and often 
 only some twenty or thirty feet from the house, the fall 
 from the head of the drain to the main sewer is necessarily 
 great, and objection to excessive fall is raised on the score 
 that, the sewage flowing at a high velocity, there is a 
 tendency for the solids to deposit and the fluids only to 
 pass to the main sewer, &c. ; again, the expense of deep 
 excavations must be considered, where no advantage is 
 gained by it, as all that is necessary is a proper and suffi- 
 cient fall. It is therefore the practice to lay the "house 
 drain " to a proper fall, (to which I shall refer hereafter,) 
 and to lay the " connecting drain " at whatever fall may 
 be left between the manhole and main sewer, provided 
 such fall be not less than the minimum fall to which the 
 drain in question should be laid. Of course there may be 
 occasions when both " house drain " and ■' connecting 
 drain '' can be laid to the same fall, or when a sufficient fall 
 cannot be obtained, and to this latter case I shall refer 
 later on. 
 
 All drains should be laid perfectly straight from point 
 
THE MAIN HOUSE DRAIN, ETC. 19 
 
 to point, and when possible to a good and true and even 
 fall, such that will ensure their being self-cleansing. 
 When a drain is laid of four-inch pipes, it should have a 
 fall of at least one in thirty, one of six-inch pipes should 
 have a fall of at least one iu forty, and one of nine-inch 
 pipes should not have a less fall than one in sixty. But, 
 of course, it is not always feasible to lay drains to these 
 falls, and when such falls cannot be procured, recourse must 
 be had to automatic flushing. 
 
 It is generally admitted now, I think, that in most cases 
 the glazed stoneware drain pipes form the best and most 
 efficient drains for house drainage, owing to the truth 
 with which they can now be made, and the smooth surface 
 the glazing presents to the sewage ; the process of glazing 
 reduces frictional. resistance very materially, and, no 
 doubt, greatly diminishes the otherwise porosity of the 
 stoneware. These pipes are made with the ordinary 
 socket and ■ spigot, the joint being made with cement 
 luting ; there are also, I believe, various other patent 
 joints employed with these pipes, notably amongst them 
 being the " Stanford joint." This joint is formed by rings 
 of durable material being moulded and cast on the socket 
 and spigot of each pipe, which, when brought together, 
 form a joint, and in addition to this the joint may be luted 
 with cement. It is, however, my practice to use the 
 ordinary socket and spigot pipes, with a Portland cement 
 joint, which, if properly laid, gives satisfaction, and I 
 believe, taken all round, to be the best class of pipes. 
 
 It must be the duty of the engineer, in selecting these 
 pipes for use, to inspect and ascertain that they are 
 straight, and of uniform and sufficient thickness, not over 
 or under-fired in the kiln, so that they are not too brittle 
 or too soft; that they are free from cracks, flaws, and 
 blurs ; that the spigot fits well and evenly in the socket ; 
 
20 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 that a good joint can be made, and that they are thoroughly 
 glazed inside as well as outside. A good pipe should ring 
 well when knocked. In laying these pipes, the greatest 
 care must be taken that none of the cement is left inside 
 the barrel of the drain, as thereby the danger is incurred 
 of an accumulation of the solids of the sewage. If a piece 
 'of cement is left in the sewage channel, a small portion of 
 solid matter may catch on it in passing down the drain, 
 then more solid matter may catch on the first portion, and 
 more again on the two deposits, and so on, till at length a 
 very considerable obstacle may be presented to the flow of 
 the sewage down the drain, perhaps, eventually, causing a 
 complete block. 
 
 For the purpose of cleaning out any cement that may 
 be left in the barrel of the drain,' a tool should be made of 
 a piece of wood cut to a chord of a circle rather smaller 
 than the circle of the barrel of the drain, its versed sine 
 being about one-third of the diameter of the barrel; this, 
 having been secured to a handle about eighteen inches 
 long, at right angles to the versed sine and chord, should 
 have flannel or some similar material wrapped round it 
 and secured; then, when each pipe is laid, the workman 
 should pass the tool up the drain and wipe back any 
 cement that may have been squeezed into the drain 
 from the joint, when the socket was placed home over the 
 spigot. 
 
 This removal of superfluous cement is very important, 
 and is one of those things which, when proper super- 
 intendence of house drainage work is not employed (too 
 often the case), can easily be neglected without detection, 
 and which is, no doubt, very often left undone. 
 
 If possible to avoid it, no drains should be laid under 
 the house, for should the pipes be faulty or have leaky 
 joints, owing to '' scamped " work, &c, the ground is apt to 
 
THE MAIN HOUSE DRAIN, ETC. 21 
 
 become saturated with the leaking sewage, converting the 
 subsoil of the basement into little better than a cesspool 
 with its consequent dangers. However, in town houses the 
 laying of drains underneath the house is often unavoidable, 
 and in such cases the use of cast-iron pipes coated inside 
 and out with Dr. Angus Smith's paint, or some suitable pre- 
 paration, for the prevention of rust and the eating away of 
 the iron by acids, &c, is to be strongly recommended. It 
 is indisputable that the more joints there are employed 
 the greater must be the chance of leakage, &c, and as, by 
 the employment of iron pipes, about seven joints less are 
 used in every two nine-feet lengths of iron piping than 
 would be the case if stoneware pipes were used, this alone, 
 I think, should advocate the use of iron pipes, with well- 
 caulked lead and spun yarn joints underneath the house. 
 But, again, iron is stronger than the more fragile stone- 
 ware, and consequently, in the event of the house giving 
 away at its foundations, pipes made of the former are better 
 able to cope with the compressive force brought to bear on 
 them, on the house " dropping." For similar reasons, the 
 use of iron pipes is to be advised when the drain is laid 
 under a road, over which there is liable to be heavy traffic 
 passing, unless it is laid at some considerable depth below 
 the crown of the road. In laying a drain, careful observ- 
 ation of the geological nature of the excavated bed, on 
 which the pipe will rest, must be made by the engineer, 
 and if of soft ground or running sand, an artificial bed of 
 harder substance must be provided, so as to retain the 
 continuity of straigbtness of the drain; for this purpose, 
 in such instances a bed of six inches to one foot in depth 
 of concrete should be laid under the pipes. It is the 
 practice, I believe, of most of our leading authorities on 
 House Drainage, to specify that such concrete shall be 
 made of Portland cement; but, in my opinion, it may 
 
22 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 sometimes be made of blue lias lime, wbich will be found, 
 when such a bed is of considerable length, not only 
 nearly equally effective, but of less cost. 
 
 By some people, the use of glazed stoneware cradles, 
 as introduced by the late Mr. George Jennings, of Lam- 
 beth, is advocated ; upon these, both pipe and socket can 
 be supported, and no doubt there is an advantage gained 
 by keeping the joint from off the ground, as the workman 
 is thus enabled to better get at it ; but, all considered, 
 I think, if a bed is required at all, the concrete one is 
 the best. The soil pipe foot should be connected to the 
 " house drain " by a glazed stoneware bend, of the same 
 diameter as the " house drain "'; and, in case there should 
 be any stoppage at this bend, it should be accessible from 
 a manhole covered by an iron air-tight cover ; this man- 
 hole should have an open glazed stoneware channel run- 
 ning through the bottom of it, similar to the disconnecting 
 manhole, and, in fact, this manhole should be so similar 
 to the disconnecting manhole — minus its inspection pipe, 
 syphon trap, and fresh air inlet (see Figs 3 and 4, Chap. 
 II.) — that I consider an illustration of it unnecessary. It is 
 my experience, however, that in the majority of cases, 
 people rarely have sufficient money to lay out, in order to 
 have their drainage arrangements efficiently carried out, 
 and the engineer is much exercised as to what can be best 
 done for the limited means at command. In such a case, 
 in my opinion, this manhole may be omitted from the spe- 
 cification, although it is, undoubtedly, better to have one. 
 When there is not one, the " house drain " can be cleared 
 from the disconnecting manhole, and should there be any 
 stoppage at the bend, then the water, &c, would rise up 
 the soil pipe, and consequently considerable hydraulic 
 pressure would be brought to bear on the stoppage, with the 
 result that the blockage would probably soon be removed. 
 
THE MAIN HOUSE DRAIN, ETC. 23 
 
 When the " house drain " has to pass under the house, 
 no branch drain should, if possible, be connected to it 
 under the house, and in cases where a branch drain dis- 
 charges into the " house drain," a manhole should be con- 
 structed similar to the one just referred to, in the line 
 of "house drain," and the branch drain should be dis- 
 charged into the straight open channel in the line of 
 "house drain," through an opercular or straight open 
 glazed stoneware channel, unless the branch drain only 
 be a very few feet in length, when perhaps the manhole 
 may be dispensed with ; such a manhole admits of the 
 branch drain being cleared by the rods at any time, in 
 the event of choking. Whenever a change of direction 
 of the line of drain is necessary, a manhole should be con- 
 structed at such a point, somewhat like the one at the 
 soil pipe foot, only the open glazed stoneware channel 
 must be curved, and of such a sweep that the centre line 
 of the drain in each direction from the manhole shall form 
 a tangent to the centre line of the curved channel ; by 
 this means the drain, in either direction, can be inspected 
 and cleared. Such a manhole is more properly termed 
 a "turning chamber." 
 
 An easy and rapid test, as to whether a drain has been 
 laid straight and to a true and even fall, can be effected 
 almost at a glance, by looking through a length of drain 
 from one manhole or turning chamber to another. If the 
 length of drain has been laid efficiently in these respects, 
 the disc of light visible at the far end will be circular 
 (the size of the disc is immaterial, as this is only dependent 
 on the length of the drain looked through), but if elliptical, 
 or otherwise than circular, or invisible, the drain will have 
 been irregularly laid. There is perhaps no simpler test 
 as to whether a drain is air and water-tight, than by 
 blocking one end and filling it with water ; if, after being 
 
24 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 left for an hour or two, no leakage is observable at the joints 
 or elsewhere, the drain may be considered as satisfactory. 
 
 Manufacturers make the spigot end of a four-inch syphon 
 trap of six-inch diameter, which admits of a Y branch of 
 four-inch diameter, forming part of the trap, for the re- 
 ception of the inspection pipe, as shown in Fig. 3, and con- 
 sequently the connecting drain is laid from such a syphon 
 trap of a diameter of six inches, although, perhaps, a smaller 
 diameter would quite suffice ; but it must be remembered 
 that the drain enlarging after the syphon trap will 
 effectually prevent syphonage of that trap. 
 
 The connecting drain is often terminated at the main 
 sewer end by what is termed a " flap-trap" ; this trap has 
 a galvanized iron flap which, by the force of gravity, falls 
 on a seat or bed, and the sewage passing down the drain 
 to the main sewer, lifts it ; but I am doubtful if it is of 
 much service, unless it be a prevention against rats enter- 
 ing the drain. 
 
 Towards the conclusion of Chap. II., I refer to a case 
 in which the diameter of the drain was too large for the 
 work required of it, and whilst upon the subject of the 
 drains, reference to their size will not be out of place, as 
 it is of great importance that it shall be neither too small 
 nor too large. 
 
 The minimum size of a house drain is almost univer- 
 sally fixed, no doubt empirically, at a diameter of four 
 inches, the reason being that, after use of a closet, 
 the solid mass of paper, &c, would probably become 
 wedged in a drain if of smaller diameter, although a pipe 
 of four inches diameter would pass considerably more 
 liquid sewage, at a good fall, than many houses would 
 produce. But whilst the minimum size of a drain is fixed, 
 the maximum may vary in accordance with the size and 
 nature of the building to be drained. 
 
THE MAIN HOUSE DRAIN, ETC. 25 
 
 The following rule, of which Mr. Henry Robinson is 
 the author, I believe, may be of assistance in calculating 
 the discharge through a drain : — 
 
 x = Area of sewer 4- the wetted perimeter in feet. 
 
 /= Fall in feet per mile. 
 
 » = Velocity in feet per minute. 
 
 a = Area in square feet. 
 
 c = Cubic feet of liquid delivered per minute. 
 
 « = 55 J x + 2 f- 
 
 c = V + a. 
 Another very good method of ascertaining the discharge, 
 &c, from a drain, will be found at Table VIII. page 49, 
 in Beardmore's Manual of Hydrology, which can be seen 
 in most professional libraries. 
 
 All house drains ought to be laid in such a way that, 
 not only when half full, but also if only about an inch of 
 sewage were passing down them, they would be self- 
 cleansing, and any water discharged from a bath, sink, or 
 closet into them should pass down the drains en masse, so 
 to speak, in order to flush them. In case of stoppage, all 
 drains and pipes should be accessible, if possible, without 
 having to remove ground, paving, or brick -work. &c. 
 
 Glazed stoneware goods are easily obtainable in this 
 country, and notably amongst the various manufacturers 
 may be mentioned Messrs. Doulton and Co., of the Lam- 
 beth Sanitary Engineering Works, and Messrs. Bailey and 
 Co., of the Fulham Potteries, London, S.W. 
 
 The length of this chapter prevents my referring to 
 automatic flushing, but this subject will form the com- 
 mencement of Chapter IV. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 AUTOMATIC FLUSHING — SOIL AND VENTILATING PIPE. 
 
 The Annular Syphon — The Soil Pipe — The Connecting Soil Pipe — 
 Lead and Iron for such Pipes — The Ventilating Pipe — The Size 
 of same — Cowls. 
 
 The automatic flushing of drains was, I believe, first 
 introduced by Mr. Rogers Field, B.A., M. Inst. C.E., by 
 bis invention of tbe annular sypbon. 
 
 The action of this syphon is caused by pneumatic 
 pressure ; the syphon is constructed by a pipe A (see 
 fig. 5), which forms the longer limb, and by a pipe B 
 closed at one end, which encases the upper portion of pipe 
 A, and with it forms the shorter limb ; the syphon is 
 fixed in a tank, supplied with water by a tap or other 
 means, as shown in the figure, the longer limb passing 
 through the bottom of the tank into the trapping box, C, 
 about an eighth to a quarter of an inch below the level of 
 the weir D, which keeps the water in the trapping box at 
 the level E, by which means the bottom end of the longer 
 limb of the syphon is sealed. As the tank fills, the water 
 rises up the shorter leg of the syphon, and on reaching 
 the level of the top of the longer one, commences to flow 
 down it over the lip F, which causes the water to pass 
 down clear of the sides ; thus a quantity of air is displaced, 
 and a partial vacuum formed thereby in tbe longer limb 
 of the syphon, which is sufficient to create syphonage, 
 
AUTOMATIC FLUSHING; SOIL PIPE. 
 
 27 
 
 flushing the contents of the tank, to the level of the 
 bottom of the shorter leg of the syphon at G, with con- 
 siderable force and velocity into the drains. The sole 
 licensees and manufacturers of this efficient patent are 
 Messrs. Bowes, Scott, and Keed, of Westminster, who will, 
 I believe, readily give any information as to the working 
 of this syphon, which prevents my going further into 
 details respecting it, except to add that care must be 
 taken, when erecting one of these flushing cisterns, that 
 
 it is fixed " plumb," for if not the " seal " in the trapping 
 box may be done away with, and the syphonage no longer 
 able to take place. Of course the frequency of flushing is 
 regulated by the supply of water to the tank ; the greater 
 the feed, the more often the tank discharges. Amongst 
 the numerous other flushing tanks, the one made by 
 Messrs. Doulton and Co., of Lambeth, may be noticed; 
 
28 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 this one, although different in action to the one mentioned 
 above, is very similar in results. This firm will also, I 
 believe, willingly give any information, and a tank may be 
 seen at their show-rooms, so fitted with glass that the 
 action may be more easily understood, and which, perhaps, 
 hardly necessitates my explaining its working here. When 
 automatic flushing has to be employed, the flushing tank 
 should be placed at the head of the drain, but if a proper 
 fall can be obtained for the drains, a flushing tank is 
 unnecessary, and then, if possible, the soil pipe should 
 form the head of the drain. 
 
 The importance which attaches to the careful attention 
 to all details of house drainage, does >so particularly to the 
 "soil pipe"; its close proximity to the bouse renders it 
 especially a source of danger, if not fixed, jointed, &c, 
 with the greatest caution. The carelessness with which 
 soil pipes are made, both as regards the material used and 
 the class of workmanship bestowed on them, makes it a 
 matter of considerable surprise that more illness does not 
 emanate from bad drainage than is the case. Wood, zinc, 
 earthenware, and wrought-iron have been used, no doubt 
 as soil pipes, but in these more enlightened days any 
 architect or engineer would condemn such use, it being 
 now admitted that the two materials most suitable for 
 use in a soil pipe are lead and cast-iron. Lead has its 
 superiority over cast-iron, owing to the smoother surface 
 it presents to the passing sewage, it being more compact 
 in its molecules ; but otherwise, I am doubtful if it has 
 any advantage over cast-iron when employed in a proper 
 manner for use in soil pipes, and it certainly has the 
 disadvantage of being more expensive. Of course, owing 
 to the ductile nature of lead, which allows of its being 
 bent with great ease, in such cases where the soil pipe 
 has to turn corners and angles, its use is to be advocated, 
 
AUTOMATIC FLUSHING; SOIL PIPE. 29 
 
 but I consider such cases ought to be most rare, for if it 
 is necessary to pass a soil pipe round obstructions, then 
 the W.C. ought to be removed elsewhere to such a point 
 where the structural arrangements of the house will 
 admit of the soil pipe being taken " plumb down " to the 
 head of the drains; however, the money to be laid out 
 on the drainage of a house will not often admit of such 
 extensive alterations as this, and in such an event I 
 should recommend the use of lead for the soil pipe. All 
 soil pipes should be erected in a truly vertical position 
 outside the house, and fixed so as to ensure their being 
 thoroughly rigid and stable. It has too often been, and 
 is too often now, the pernicious custom to fix soil pipes 
 inside the house. When such is the case, not only are 
 the joints less accessible for inspection probably, but, in 
 event of there being any leakage at any of them, the 
 gases escape into the house, with much less chance of 
 oxidization before reaching the inmates. It has not only 
 been the practice to erect soil pipes inside the house, 
 but actually to build them inside the walls. 
 
 I would impress on my readers the great necessity for 
 careful attention to all these seemingly almost needless 
 precautions, but I can assure them that it is often such 
 attention which distinguishes between a well and a badly 
 drained building. In using the term soil pipe, I do not 
 refer to the connecting pipe, (although, of course, it is 
 practically a soil pipe,) which connects the vertical soil 
 pipe and P trap of the w.c. I shall refer hereafter to 
 this pipe as the " connecting soil pipe.'' No soil pipe 
 should, in my opinion, be less than four inches in 
 diameter, and it very rarely occurs that it need be more 
 than four inches, if ever. 
 
 A disadvantage attaching to the use of leaden soil pipes 
 is that rats will sometimes gnaw holes in them, thus 
 
ao DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 causing leakage. If lead be selected as the material 
 to be used, the drawn lead soil pipe should be adopted, 
 and not the piping made from sheet lead with a soldered 
 seam all the way down it, it being an admitted fact that, 
 the solder being of a soft nature, such piping is more 
 perishable. Drawn lead soil pipe may be obtained, I be- 
 lieve, in lengths of twelve feet, the weight generally used 
 being seven pounds to the superficial foot, which lengths 
 should be joined together by carefully-made " wiped 
 joints," this class of joint being the one which should 
 be used throughout in such work. About the point 
 where the vertical soil pipe passes into the house, a Y 
 junction should be fixed, with one limb pointing vertically 
 upwards, to be continued as the ventilating pipe, and the 
 other pointing into the house to be jointed to the " con- 
 necting soil pipe," as shown in cast-iron in Fig. 6 ; these 
 Y junctions are now made in cast-lead, and are extensively 
 used, I believe. 
 
 Exception is taken to cast-iron for soil pipes on the 
 score of corrosion, but this may be avoided, at any rate 
 for some time, if the pipes are properly coated inside and 
 outside with Dr. Angus Smith's or some similar pre- 
 paration, or if galvanized ; there is also the treatment 
 known as the Bower-Barff process for preventing rust; 
 but I have lately been informed that after a time iron 
 so treated, scales, flakes of the parts acted on by the 
 process coming away. Whether this is so or not I cannot 
 testify to, from practical experience. 
 
 Iron soil pipes should not be fixed unless treated in 
 some way for the prevention of corrosion both inside and 
 outside. There is no doubt that the best class of joint 
 for iron socket and Spigot pipes for sanitary work is that 
 made by caulking tow down into the bottom of the socket, 
 and then running the socket of the pipe full of lead and 
 
AUTOMATIC FLUSHING; SOIL PIPE. 
 
 31 
 
 then caulking that well home. I believe the iron filings 
 and sal ammoniac joint is also resorted to sometimes, but 
 I give preference to the former. Such joints should not 
 be made with Portland cement or red-lead. 
 
 To 015CQNHECTH1 
 
 Fig. 6. 
 
 A cast-iron Y junction pipe should be jointed to the 
 vertical iron soil pipe, as shown in Pig. 6, to connect 
 it with the " connecting soil pipe," which should be made 
 of lead. 
 
32 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 I believe the most common method of making the joint 
 of the " connecting soil pipe " with the cast-iron Y 
 junction, is by caulking home tow or some fibrous sub- 
 stance in the bottom of the socket and then filling it 
 in with red-lead. 
 
 A much better, but far more costly joint may be made 
 by a brass ferrule being fastened on the end of the 
 '' connecting soil pipe," by a wiped joint, and caulked 
 with lead in the iron socket. The " connecting soil pipe " 
 should be attached to the P trap by a wiped joint. From 
 the vertical limb of the Y junction pipe, a pipe should be 
 carried up vertically to at least six feet above the eaves 
 of the house, of the same diameter as the vertical soil 
 pipe, and of the same material (the joints being made 
 as described above respectively), in order to form a venti- 
 lating pipe to the soil pipe and drains. It should be 
 arranged that the ventilating pipe should be removed 
 as far as possible from any chimneys, windows, or openings 
 in the roof, or carried at least nine feet above such. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that a current of fresh air can be 
 established right through the drains and soil pipe, from 
 the fresh air inlet at the disconnecting manhole to the 
 top of the ventilating pipe. Great importance attaches 
 to having this ventilating pipe of sufficient size. It is 
 often the custom to continue the soil pipe upwards as 
 a ventilating pipe only half the diameter of the soil 
 pipe, (or even less). But recently, I had great trouble 
 in convincing a gentleman (even if I have now done 
 so, although he adopted my suggestions) that a pipe, if 
 I remember rightly, about three-quarters of an inch 
 diameter of wrought-iron gas barrel, carried up from 
 the stoneware drain quite away from the soil pipe was 
 insufficient and incorrect; such a pipe was fixed in a 
 wrong place, was too small, and probably blocked with 
 
AUTOMATIC FLUSHING; SOIL PIPE. 33 
 
 dirt and rust. It is well to test any piping that comes 
 on the site, for use as soil piping, by blocking one end 
 of a length, and standing the pipe upright on the blocked 
 end, filling it with water, and watching for any leakage 
 there may be, and having done this, unblocking the end 
 and doing the same with the other end. Some people 
 advocate a cowl being fixed on the top of the ventilating 
 pipe, but most of our leading sanitary experts have now, 
 I believe, discarded its use. A short time ago, discussing 
 this question with one of a large and well-known firm of 
 manufacturers of sanitary appliances, I asked him if he 
 would guarantee their cowl to pump air ? He replied, 
 " No ; but I'll guarantee it will not admit a down draught." 
 
 There should be no persistent down draught in properly- 
 arranged drains ; if there is, I should say use a cowl, but 
 think more than a cowl would be required in such a 
 case, for if there is a tendency to down draughts it is 
 most probably due to badly-arranged drainage and venti- 
 lation, which should be re-arranged, cowl or no cowl. 
 
 For a proper system of drainage, no cowl, in my opinion, 
 should be necessary. In order, however, to prevent birds 
 building their nests in and blocking the ventilating pipe, 
 it is well to finish it with a wire " balloon," which should 
 be of an open area, rather larger than that of the pipe. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 "w.c.'s." 
 
 Disconnection of w.c. Apparatus, &c, from the House Drain and 
 Soil Pipe, &c— "P" and "S" Traps— The Pan Closet— The 
 Container— The "D" Trap— The Long Hopper Closet— The 
 Improved Hopper Closet — The Valve Closet — Its Overflow Pipe 
 —The Safe— The "Warning Pipe"— The Hinged Seat— The 
 Loose Eiser — Situation of the w.c. — The Flush — The Waste 
 Preventer Cistern — The Screw-down Stop-Cock — Cistern Over- 
 flow Pipes. 
 
 In the same way that it is necessary to separate the house 
 drain from the main sewer by the syphon trap, so it is 
 essential to disconnect the W.C. apparatus, raiu-water 
 pipes, sinks, bath, lavatory, &c., from the house drain, 
 its branches and soil pipe, by suitable traps. 
 
 Experience has shown that the form such traps should 
 assume should be of a syphon nature, of which such class 
 of traps known as the P and S for use in disconnecting 
 the soil pipe and drain from the W.C. apparatus are the 
 result. 
 
 The P trap is the more preferable one for this purpose 
 when it can be used; it has been shown, I think, in 
 Chap. II. how effectual the syphon form of trap is, and 
 it will not be out of place here to remark that nearly 
 all traps employed in house drainage work should, when 
 possible, assume this shape. 
 
 A P trap may be described as a pipe bent to the shape, 
 
W.O.'S. 35 
 
 as shown in Fig. 6 (p. 31), under the floor, fixed between 
 the w.c. apparatus and connecting soil pipe. It will be 
 seen that the form of it presents a passage through it, 
 having practically a circular section throughout, free from 
 angles, obstructions, or even very sharp bends, so that 
 sewage matter is unlikely to be arrested or lodged in 
 it, and admitting the flush to pass through in a body. 
 
 For servants' w.c.'s on the ground, such traps are 
 usually made of stoneware, but for valve or other w.c.'s 
 (unless the basin and trap are in one piece), they are more 
 generally made in lead. 
 
 The various kinds of w.c. apparatus are so numerous, 
 many of them most undesirable from a sanitary aspect, 
 that to discuss all their merits and demerits might alone 
 easily fill more than one chapter, if not a volume. The 
 majority of them are unworthy of notice, and their use 
 is to be deprecated, chief amongst them being the still 
 much used, but excessively filthy, pan-closet. As nearly 
 every one who has taken up a pen of late years on the 
 subj'ect of house drainage has described this baneful class 
 of apparatus, pointed out its defects, and condemned its 
 use, it appears to me almost superfluous to give a descrip- 
 tion of it here, although its much-continued use sorely 
 tempts one to give an illustration of it, and point out 
 its defects yet again, I will, however, content myself 
 with one or two remarks on it. Amongst the objections 
 to this disgusting w.c. apparatus, the chief is due to 
 that part of it known as the container ; this is a receptacle 
 into which the contents of the pan, on its being lowered, 
 are shot, the consequence being that in time a large 
 portion of the internal surface of the container becomes 
 coated with soil. This collection gives off obnoxious gases, 
 which, whenever the pan is lowered, rise into the house 
 and face of the user, and in the course of a year or two 
 
36 DBAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 this becomes such an intolerable nuisance that, in the 
 better class of houses, the apparatus has to be taken to 
 pieces and the container cleaned and repainted — its 
 contents being first burnt out. This can only be done 
 at a cost, I should say, of about £1. Yet people prefer 
 to go on paying this sum once in every year, or two years, 
 rather than expend from £6 to £8, once for all, in having 
 a wholesome valve closet and P trap fixed, and avoid an 
 inconvenience, risk of danger, and expenditure of the 
 equivalent of from ten to twenty per centum per annum 
 on the capital they would thus invest. I think it un- 
 necessary to say more, except that long ago this class 
 of w.C. apparatus has been condemned by sanitary experts 
 as dangerous and filthy, and I can corroborate this con- 
 demnation. It is in connection witli these pan-closets 
 that D traps have been so much used. A pan-closet, 
 when fitted with a P trap, is insanitary enough, but 
 when a D trap is employed it is a filthy and insanitary 
 arrangement in the extreme. This trap may be charac- 
 terized as being in effect a small cesspool. 
 
 It is a very deleterious form of trap, as it admits of 
 a gradual accumulation of sewage matter, which the flush 
 of water coming from the W.C. apparatus cannot displace ; 
 under no circumstances should one be used. 
 
 In most houses where the pan-closet is found in use 
 up-stairs, a class of closet known as the Long Hopper 
 closet is found on the ground floor or basement for the 
 use of servants. This apparatus is almost as disgusting 
 and filthy as the pan-closet, although perhaps not quite 
 so dangerous ; with the cistern fixed only a few feet 
 above this apparatus, supplying the water probably through 
 a pipe of too small a diameter, the flush is inadequate, 
 which being admitted at one side of the basin, flows 
 round and round it in such a manner that instead of 
 
W.C.'S. 37 
 
 dislodging the contents of the trap they are only whirled 
 round it. This w.C. apparatus should never be used. 
 The best kind of w.c. apparatus for servants' use is the 
 Hopper, of improved shape, with a flushing rim, which 
 admits the water all round the basin almost at once, 
 in such a way as to thoroughly scour the internal face 
 of the basin, and keep it clean, and completely remove 
 its contents. 
 
 This W.C. basin should be trapped by a stoneware " P " 
 or " S " trap, jointed carefully to the basin by cement. 
 All w.c.'s for other use in an ordinary house should, in 
 my opinion, be fitted with that type of apparatus called 
 the Valve w.c. In this there is a valve, from which it 
 takes its name, just below the foot of the basin, which 
 is lowered and raised by a lever, and which always retains 
 a certain amount of water in the basin when shut ; this 
 valve is technically termed a " batt." Thus in addition 
 to the flush (when the supply valve is opened), and the 
 water, which is always standing in the P trap below, there 
 is, on the " batt " being opened, the water left in the basin 
 from the previous flush to wash through the P trap. This 
 w.c. apparatus has also a flushing rim. The P trap that 
 should be employed in connection with this class of w.c. 
 apparatus, is the leaden one, and the usual method of 
 jointing it to the w.c. apparatus is by turning the lead 
 of the trap over on to the lead safe, so as to form a flange ; 
 this flange should be covered with red-lead putty, and the 
 outlet of the w.c. apparatus bedded thereon, which, when 
 screwed down, should squeeze out the surplus putty, 
 leaving a good joint. 
 
 It should, however, be the duty of those overlooking 
 the work to ascertain that careless workmen, in placing 
 the w.C. apparatus over the P trap, have not displaced the 
 putty, thereby causing a defective joint. 
 
38 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 Amongst the leading manufacturers of this valve closet 
 class of w.C. apparatus, Messrs. J. Tylor and Sons may be 
 mentioned. Both the design and the workmanship 
 bestowed on their apparatus is excellent, and of the many 
 types supplied by them, I recommend chiefly their patent 
 clear-way regulator valve closet (Mr. Rogers Field's 
 pattern). This varies from the majority of valve closets 
 in not having an overflow pipe leading from the basin, 
 and, generally, discharging into the soil pipe by a con- 
 nection with the valve box below the " batt " at the 
 bottom of the basin. It is usual to bend this overflow pipe 
 near the bottom in such a manner as to form a syphon 
 trap, so that the after flush (which should always be 
 arranged with this type of w.c.) will fill the basin 
 sufficiently to flow slightly over the inlet of the overflow 
 pipe. Thus, when the apparatus is in use, the syphon 
 trap seal is replenished. However, it often happens that 
 the supply regulator is not so set as to fill the basin 
 sufficiently for this to take place, and of course without 
 the seal the trap is useless ; or it may happen when a 
 W.C. is not much used, that the seal may dry up, thus the 
 use of an overflow pipe is not to be advocated, for under 
 such circumstances just referred to, noxious gases may 
 rise into the house through this pipe, owing to soil having 
 been splashed into the end of it, or near it in the valve 
 box, at its connection with the valve box. Another 
 objection to the use of such an overflow pipe is that 
 defects in the water supply fittings are not so readily or 
 easily detected. 
 
 Under every w.C. apparatus, (except, perhaps, when it 
 is fixed on the ground,) a safe should be fixed. A safe is, 
 as implied by the name, a safeguard against the flooding 
 and consequent damaging of a house in the event of 
 overflowing or leakage at the water supply fittings. It 
 
W.G.'S. 39 
 
 may be described as a tray, witb the edges turned up all 
 round, forming flanges, and when properly made is con- 
 structed in lead. A waste pipe should be connected with 
 the safe, and should on no account have any connection 
 with the soil pipe, or P trap, but should be made to 
 discharge in the open air through an external wall of the 
 house, so that in the case of an overflow or leakage, 
 warning is at once given, by the splashing of water on the 
 ground, that something is wrong with the water supply 
 fittings. 
 
 From the office they so fulfil, such pipes are often very 
 properly termed " warning pipes." 
 
 A very common mistake is often made in supplying 
 these pipes, in fixing them of a diameter very materially 
 smaller than the water supply pipe or vajve. They 
 should be of a rather larger diameter, for it must be 
 remembered that the water is supplied under a head, 
 whereas when discharging from a safe, in the case of 
 overflows, &c, there is comparatively no pressure at all. 
 When a w.c. apparatus without a basin overflow pipe does 
 overflow, the water runs into the safe, and thence through 
 the warning pipe, manifesting to the inmates of the house 
 that the water is being wasted. If an overflow pipe is 
 used in connection with a w.c. basin, it should be carried 
 straight through an external wall of the building, or be 
 made to discharge over the lead safe near the warning 
 pipe. But its use seems altogether superfluous, for, in 
 any event, a safe should be employed. It is a common 
 practice to terminate the warning pipes outside the house 
 with a copper flap. 
 
 The wooden enclosure of the W.C. apparatus now 
 demands attention. 
 
 It is too often the case that the apparatus is so enclosed, 
 that an inspection of the lead safe, water fittings under 
 
40 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 the basin, &c, necessitates a workman being sent for to 
 enable such inspection to be made. 
 
 This should not be ; in addition to the hinged seat- 
 cover, the seat itself should be hinged, and the casing in 
 the front of the basin termed the " Riser " should be so 
 arranged that it can be easily taken out, so that the safe, 
 &c, may be readily examined or cleaned. Another 
 advantage in the hinged seat is, that, if a w.C. be used 
 for pouring away slops, the seat may be lifted and the 
 slops emptied direct into the basin without the chance 
 of the seat being splashed. 
 
 Deeming some of them unworthy of notice, I have not 
 above referred to every class of w.c. apparatus, but, 
 before passing from this part of our subject, there is one 
 which calls for attention as being suitable, perhaps, for 
 use in boys' schools or by servants. It is one in which 
 the basin and trap are all in one piece, made of glazed 
 stoneware or china, and of such a shape that it will 
 stand unique, and the usual wooden enclosure may be 
 dispensed with. This class of apparatus is, I believe, 
 . made by several makers, amongst them Messrs. Doulton 
 and Co., and Messrs. J. Tylor and Sons, the latter 
 giving theirs the name of " The Torrent." They advocate 
 the use of as large a down supply pipe as two inches 
 in diameter, claiming that the flush clears the closet 
 instantaneously. 
 
 They fix to this basin a spring seat, which flies up 
 when not in use, and leaves the basin for use, either as a 
 W.C, slop-sink, or urinal. Owing, however, to the basin 
 and trap being in one piece, there is some objection to 
 this form of W.C, for should the basin ever become loosened, 
 then of course there is no longer any trap to the soil pipe, 
 and this danger is greater when the basin is situated on 
 any floor above the basement, for in the case of settlement 
 
W.C.'S. 41 
 
 of a building, the joint between the basin (with trap,) and 
 soil pipe is likely to be broken. 
 
 With regard to the room forming the W.C. it should, 
 when possible, always be situated against two outer walls, 
 being roomy, well-ventilated, and lighted, and an ante- 
 room, which may be used advantageously as a lavatory, 
 should intervene between it and the main portion of the 
 house. 
 
 Before concluding this chapter, the very important 
 question of w.c. water supply must be referred to. No 
 cistern supplying water for drinking or washing purposes 
 should furnish the flush for a w.c. ; the cistern supplying 
 a W.c. should be entirely distinct; the. only other use it 
 may be put to, is to supply the flush for a urinal, or the 
 flush (not the draw-off cocks over,) for a housemaid's slop- 
 sink. In neighbourhoods where the w.c. flush is restricted 
 by the Water Company, the use of water-waste preventing 
 cisterns, (of which there are several manufacturers,) 
 supplied from the main house cistern, is often to be 
 advocated. Such cisterns, I believe, nearly all work with 
 a pneumatic syphon action, one action flushing the cistern 
 practically empty, which has again to be refilled by a ball- 
 cock, before another flush is available. The quantity of 
 water such cisterns are generally made to hold is, I believe, 
 two gallons, which is the limit allowed by the regulations 
 of most of the London Water Works Companies. 
 
 Such a flush is, perhaps, small enough, and people may 
 do well to await the refilling of the cistern, and supple- 
 ment the first by a second flush. 
 
 I recommend the use of these cisterns, especially in 
 connection with schools or servants' w.c's, for, when once 
 the flush has been started, it cannot be arrested : — thus, 
 careless people who generally release the ordinary lever 
 immediately they have pulled it, before anything like 
 
42 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 an adequate flush has passed, will, when one of these 
 cisterns is used, of a necessity cause a W.C. to be well 
 flushed, if they only just pull the lever. The supply 
 pipe from the cistern to the W.O. is often too small; it 
 should be at least one inch in diameter, but a larger 
 diameter than this is preferable. 
 
 It is, in some cases, valuable to place, at some point in 
 this supply pipe, a screw down stop-cock, so that the 
 water may be turned off from the W.C. in the event of 
 repairs, &c. All cistern overflow pipes should be of 
 larger diameter than the pipes which supply the cistern, 
 and should discharge direct into the air through an external 
 wall of the building as a warning pipe. 
 
 In concluding 1 would recall part of the evidence of 
 Mr. Rogers Field, B.A., M. Inst. C.E., at the meeting of 
 the sanitary section of the Society of Arts, in 1880. He 
 related how one of his clients (in whose house a death 
 had occurred from diphtheria) wrote, " I tell every one there 
 was formerly always a bad smell about the closet, but now 
 if I want fresh air, I pay it a visit." Is there any reason 
 to prevent any householder having his w.c. in a similar 
 state of sanitary perfection ? In this chapter I have not 
 given illustrations of the various W.C.'s and appliances I 
 recommend, for I think it unnecessary, as I am sure the 
 various manufacturers will willingly and courteously show 
 any intending user, not only illustrations, but the actual 
 apparatus as used. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE UKINAL, SINKS, ETC. 
 
 The Urinal with Flushing Rim — Inspection Cap to Traps — Auto- 
 matic Flushing of Urinals — The w.c. may be arranged for use 
 as an Urinal — The Slop Sink- — Housemaids' and Butlers' Sinks — 
 Bell Trap — Enamelled Earthenware Sinks — The Space beneath 
 Sinks— The Gully Trap. 
 
 Two other sanitary appliances may be connected to the soil 
 pipe, besides the w.c, viz. the urinal and the housemaid's 
 slop-sink. Leaving the latter for discussion later on, the 
 former may at once command attention. In the majority 
 of cases, the ordinary lip white ware urinal, with a good 
 flushing rim, will be found to give satisfaction. 
 
 Immediately beneath the urinal basin the trap should 
 be fixed, and the good sanitary principles and design of 
 the syphon form of trap, known as the "P " trap, made in 
 lead, by Messrs. Dent and Hellyer, recommend it. 
 
 This trap is of true syphon form, and has fixed in its 
 base (see Fig. 7), a brass cap, which screws into a brass 
 socket, soldered in the bottom of the lead trap, forming, 
 with the aid of a little red-lead, a sound, water-tight joint. 
 
 This cap is for the purpose of cleaning or clearing the 
 trap, and is consequently very appropriately termed the 
 inspection cap. The waste-pipe from this trap should be 
 carried through an external wall of the house into the 
 open air, and made to discharge into a gully trap, which, 
 
44 DRAINAGE OF HABIT 'ABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 in its turn, should discharge through a short branch drain 
 and opercular channel into the channel of the main house 
 drain, in a manhole or turning chamber. It is well to 
 choose for this purpose a gully trap which has also a bath 
 or a lavatory waste pipe, or both discharging into it. 
 If it is quite impossible to discharge an urinal waste pipe 
 over a gully trap, and if an urinal is really indispensable, 
 then the waste pipe may be joined to the soil pipe or 
 
 the connecting soil pipe, so as to discharge into it.. 
 Every urinal should be supplied with its flush by a flushing 
 cistern, in my opinion ; and for schools, clubs, and public 
 buildings, an automatic flushing cistern is always to be 
 advocated. 
 
 However, in the majority of private houses, I consider 
 an urinal to be almost unnecessary, as a w.C, properly 
 arranged with a lift- up seat and lead safe, may fulfil the 
 
TEE URINAL, SINKS, ETG. 
 
 45 
 
 Office; thus there will be one sanitary appliance less in 
 the house, an object always desirable when attainable. 
 For certain pertinent reasons I have not explained the 
 conclusions arrived at, which suggest the above recom- 
 mendations. Other kinds of urinals are made, but in my 
 opinion they cannot lay claim to any advantage over the 
 one above described, when fitted in the manner suggested, 
 and will probably be found more expensive. 1 
 
 A slop sink may be described as a basin, with a flushing 
 rim fitted with a P or S trap, which should be made to 
 discharge into the soil pipe. This appliance should be 
 treated as a w.c. entirely, and I consider one should never 
 be fixed if possible to do without it, as a W.C, if properly 
 
 1 Since writing the above chapters, a trap that has excited 
 considerable notice, as a substitute for a " P" trap (shown in Fig. 7), 
 is the Anti-"D" trap, one designed by Mr. Hellyer, of the firm of 
 Messrs. Dent and Hellyer, and it will be seen by the diagram, Fig. 
 la, that the outlet of the trap is of rectangular form, and of larger 
 diameter than the bottom of the trap, and the main feature claimed 
 
 in regard to this trap, is that it is not so liable to be "unsealed" by 
 either momentum or syphonage, a fact no doubt indisputable. How- 
 ever, it must be remembered that in such a trap there are angularities, 
 and where such occur there is more liability to deposit than would 
 be in the case of Fig. 5 ; and frictional resistance must be increased 
 by such angularity. 
 
46 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 arranged with lift-up seat and lead safe, very well fulfils 
 the office of a slop sink for the pouring away of slops. 
 If one is necessary, those made by Messrs. Geo. Jennings 
 and Co. of Lambeth will be found to be as good as any. 
 Sinks generally in the past have been sanitary appliances 
 which, paradoxically, have been most insanitary ones, often 
 having been a source of ventilation to the drains, admitting 
 sewer gases directly into the house. Housemaids' and 
 butlers' sinks should be carefully disconnected from the 
 drains by having similar traps fitted underneath them, 
 and their waste pipes discharging over a gully trap in a 
 similar manner as recommended for the urinal above. 
 Owing to the numerous small particles of solid matter 
 which necessarily pass down the waste pipe of a scullery 
 sink, the excellent form of trap recommended for the 
 butler's sink and urinal is scarcely suitable, as such a trap 
 would too frequently become choked. The patent bell 
 trap, made by Messrs. Geo. Jennings and Co., will be found 
 to be the most satisfactory form of trap for trapping the 
 waste pipe of a scullery sink ; and, as in the case of the 
 above sinks, the waste pipe should be made to discharge 
 over a gully trap. On no account should any other form 
 of bell tra23 but the one above mentioned be used, and 
 that one only in conjunction with the waste pipes of 
 scullery sinks. To the old form of bell trap there are 
 many objections, the chief, perhaps, being that when the 
 grating covering it is removed, or should the bell of it 
 become broken, the outlet to the waste pipe or drain is 
 no longer trapped. Further, the form of it is such as to 
 readily admit of a collection of filth. Again, the quantity 
 of water which constitutes the seal of such a trap is so 
 small, that it is soon dried up by evaporation, and con- 
 sequently, when such traps are used for trapping drains 
 carrying off the surface water of areas, &c, the seal of 
 
THE URINAL, SINKS, ETC. 47 
 
 them becomes dependent on the state of the weather, and 
 after but a few days without rain, the seal of these traps 
 will be found so much evaporated that the drain is no 
 longer trapped. Messrs. Jennings and Co.'s trap is also 
 open to this last objection, and hence, in my opinion, it 
 should only be used in conjunction with the waste pipes 
 of scullery sinks, down which water is frequently being 
 passed, to replenish the seal of the trap. Their trap is 
 so constructed that the grating may be entirely removed 
 without the trap being in any way interfered with, thus 
 the grating may be taken up and solid matter removed. 
 
 Sinks very suitable for the use of the house or scullery • 
 maid, are now constructed of enamelled earthenware, 
 the four corners being rounded instead of angular, 
 thus not affording such a good harbour for dirt, and the 
 glazed surface will not so readily allow of dust, &c, ad- 
 hering to it. Butlers' sinks are generally made deeper 
 than these earthenware sinks are constructed, and are 
 generally wooden ones lined with lead ; x the outlet of the 
 sink to the waste pipe being closed by a brass plug (of 
 the same diameter as the waste pipe), fitting in a socket 
 with a grating, so that the sink can be filled with water 
 for the purpose of washing glass, &c. 
 
 A housemaid's sink may be fitted with a similar plug 
 and socket, or a brass grating alone may be used. The 
 space underneath sinks should not be enclosed by a casing, 
 but left open, in order to prevent a refuge being provided 
 for the accumulation of dirt and rubbish. 
 
 Before proceeding further it may be well to speak of 
 the gully trap, to which so much reference has been made 
 in this chapter. 
 
 The gully trap is an excellent form of trap consisting 
 
 1 Butlers' sinks are now made in white glazed stoneware and 
 china. 
 
48 DRAINAGE OF -HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 of a small hopper, discharging through a bent outlet pipe, 
 together with it forming a syphon form of trap, much of 
 the more solid matter discharged into it being deposited 
 at the bottom of the hopper, so that it can be cleared out 
 at intervals ; it is constructed of glazed stoneware, and 
 the glazing admits of any fat or grease which may adhere" 
 to the sides of the hopper being easily washed off. This 
 trap was no doubt suggested by the filthy dip trap of the 
 past, and now some stoneware traps termed gully traps 
 are sold, which somewhat assimilate the dip trap; care 
 should be taken to avoid these, and a gully trap selected 
 
 ts^™™^ 
 
 Fig. 8. 
 
 Fib, 9. 
 
 having an easy bend at the junction of the hopper with 
 the bent outlet pipe, which pipe itself should have its 
 bends easy. 
 
 One of the best gully traps made is that supplied by 
 Messrs. Bailey and Co., of the Fulham Potteries, and 
 termed Field's gully trap. 
 
 Every gully trap should be covered with an iron grating, 
 in order to prevent stones, &c, entering them. 
 
 Figs. 8 and 9 show a bad and good form of gully trap. 
 
 There are other appliances which should be made to 
 discharge over a gully trap, but these must be treated of 
 in another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE LAVATORY, BAIN-WATER PIPES, BATH, ETC. 
 
 The Tip-up Lavatory Basin — Rain-water Pipes — Their Joints — The 
 Rain-water Shoe— The Bath— The Safe— The Safe Waste Pipe— 
 The Area of same— The Outlet from Bath— The Bath Waste 
 Pipe — The Overflow Pipe — Cisterns — Dustbin — The Portable 
 Iron Dustbin. 
 
 At the conclusion of the preceding chapter, a good form 
 of gully trap was illustrated, and previously the method 
 in which this trap should be made to discharge into the 
 main house drain was explained ; always when possible 
 this method should be adopted. It now remains to refer 
 to the other few appliances, the waste pipes of which 
 should be made to discharge over a gully trap ; these 
 may be summed up in the lavatory, rain-water pipes, and 
 the bath. 
 
 A gully trap should also be used to receive the stable 
 drainage, but it may be well to leave this till the stable 
 drainage is under discussion in a later chapter. 
 
 It is a matter of opinion as to what kind of lavatory 
 basin should be used. In my opinion the convenience of 
 the tip-up basin, made by Messrs. Geo. Jennings and Co., 
 commends its employment. 
 
 It is maintained in some quarters, I believe, that in the 
 course of time, the hopper into which the soapy contents 
 of the basin are tipped, becomes coated with filth, and 
 
 E 
 
50 DBAINAQE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 engenders foul gases, but this objection may be over-ruled, 
 I think, when the ease with which the hopper may be 
 cleaned is taken into consideration. 
 
 Of course in any case where careless negligence is 
 allowed to prevail, the result must be filth with its 
 consequences ; if any sanitary appliance were never 
 cleaned, the same consequence would result, and the 
 chambermaid's office become almost a sinecure. 
 
 The hopper in question should have fixed immediately 
 beneath it a similar trap (Fig. 7) as recommended for the 
 urinal in the last chapter, and when the lavatory is on 
 the ground floor, the waste pipe from the trap should be 
 made to discharge in a like manner over a gully trap, as 
 before recommended, in connection with this trap. 
 
 Should the ordinary basin with the brass plug be 
 adopted, the disconnection should be just the same, and 
 of course then the above trap should be connected to the 
 basin itself immediately under it, the waste pipe from the 
 trap being carried through an external wall of the house 
 to discharge over a gully trap as above. 
 
 The ordinary basin should have an overflow pipe taken 
 from just beneath the rim of the basin, and such a pipe is 
 best carried through an external wall, so that it can 
 discharge into the air as a warning pipe. 
 
 It is now almost always the custom to fix rain-water 
 pipes made of cast-iron with socket and spigot joints. 
 
 The sockets, when the pipes are fixed, should be filled 
 with spun yarn and red-lead, which should be well caulked 
 home. All rain-water pipes should discharge through a 
 short bent pipe, termed a shoe (see bottom of rain-water 
 pipe, Fig. 10), over a gully trap. 
 
 In the past, it has been the practice to connect the 
 rain-water pipes actually to the main house drain, with 
 the joints above referred to totally devoid of any filling 
 
THE LAVATORY, RAIN-WATER PIPES, ETG. 51 
 
 PlaH- 
 
 whatsoever ; thus, these 
 pipes have filled an office 
 which should never be de- 
 manded of them, namely, 
 the office of ventilating 
 pipes to the main house 
 drain, the foul gases flow- 
 ing up them, and passing 
 out at any unfilled joint, 
 in many cases almost im- 
 mediately beneath a win- 
 dow. 
 
 Eain-water pipes should, 
 without exception, be dis- 
 connected from the main 
 house drain, by being made 
 to discharge over a gully 
 trap, as shown in Fig. 10, 
 and on no account should 
 a rain-water pipe be fixed 
 inside a house, but against 
 an external wall of the 
 house. 
 
 That very important 
 
 Fig. 10. 
 
52 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 and luxurious sanitary appliance, the bath, now claims 
 attention. 
 
 Baths are made in various metals and materials, but 
 probably those ranking amongst the first in superiority 
 are the copper and iron ones ; and whilst the former 
 are . perhaps to be preferred, the latter are more often 
 employed owing to the great difference in cost of the 
 materials, &c. 
 
 A similar " lead safe " as that recommended in connection 
 with the W.C., only in length and breadth an inch or two 
 greater than the length and breadth of the bath itself, 
 should be fixed beneath the bath, as a safeguard against 
 damage to the ceiling, &c, below, in case of an overflow. 
 
 From this safe a waste pipe should be carried through 
 an external wall of the house to discharge into the air so 
 as to give warning in the event of overflow of the bath. 
 It is as well to close the end of such a pipe outside the 
 house with a copper flap, in order to prevent a draught of 
 air flowing into the house. 
 
 Such a pipe should be of an area (I refer to baths with 
 hot and cold water supply pipes) somewhat exceeding the 
 area of the supply pipes combined. In older kinds of 
 baths it has been the custom to make the outlet for 
 the waste water serve as the inlet for the fresh water, the 
 result being that hair, soap-suds, and dirt, not having been 
 entirely washed away from the immediate neighbourhood 
 of the outlet, are again forced back into the bath on the 
 fresh water being admitted to fill it. 
 
 The supply pipes should have inlets to the bath entirely 
 apart from the outlet, and the waste pipe should have 
 fixed in it a valve known as a " Quick Full-way Bath 
 Waste Valve," such as is made by Messrs. J. Bolding 
 and Sons, which firm holds one of the foremost positions 
 amongst those firms who supply baths and bath fittings. 
 
THE LAVATORY, RAIN-WATER PIPES, ETC. 53 
 
 As in the case of the lavatory -waste pipe, soap is apt to 
 be deposited on the internal face of the bath waste pipe, 
 which, on decomposing, becomes offensive, therefore this 
 pipe should have a trap fixed in it, and of a similar kind 
 to that advocated for the lavatory, only the inspection cap 
 should be fixed on the side of the trap instead of under- 
 neath it, as the trap's close proximity to the floor would 
 ill admit of the cleansing of the trap by the cap if so 
 fixed. (See Fig. 10.) A bath waste pipe should be at 
 least two inches in diameter. 
 
 Of course, when a bath is fixed on or about the level 
 of the ground, the waste pipe may be made to discharge 
 immediately over a gully trap, but when above the ground 
 level, it should be made to discharge into a rain-water 
 head and pipe as shown in Fig. 10. 
 
 The waste pipe of lavatories or housemaids' sinks, fixed 
 above the ground level, should also be made to discharge 
 in this manner. All baths should have an overflow pipe, 
 which should be of the same area as the waste pipe of 
 the safe, over which the overflow pipe may be arranged to 
 discharge. 
 
 A mistake often made calls for remark, that of fixing 
 overflow and safe waste pipes, of about the same size 
 only as one of the supply pipes; thus should a bath 
 be inadvertently left when being filled by both supply 
 pipes, and an overflow result, considerably more water is 
 being passed into the bath than the overflow pipe is 
 capable of carrying off, the result inevitably being damage 
 to the room below. 
 
 Such pipes should be of an area somewhat exceeding 
 the area of the two supply pipes combined — I say exceed- 
 ing, because it must be remembered that in most cases 
 the water is supplied to the bath at a greater pressure 
 than that at which it will pass from the bath. 
 
54 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 I have already in a former chapter referred at some 
 length to cisterns, but there is one point in connection 
 with them that calls for comriient; it is the pernicious 
 custom of fixing them in and under floors ; when so fixed, 
 they are liable to become the receptacle of much dirt 
 through the floor boards, &c. 
 
 They should be fixed when possible in positions easily 
 accessible of examination, and should be carefully covered, 
 and periodically cleaned out. 
 
 Perhaps the few remarks it is proposed to make with 
 reference to the dustbin, will be deemed irrelevant to the 
 subject of these chapters, but as the dustbin plays such 
 an important part in the removal of refuse of a house, and 
 has such a great sanitary bearing in a habitable building, 
 I may be pardoned for adverting to it. 
 
 No dustbin should be built against a wall of a house ; it 
 should be distinct and apart from the dwelling, being 
 removed as far as possible from it, consistent with its 
 convenient use. 
 
 It should be the care of the housekeeper to see that it 
 is regularly emptied, and the internal walls of it being 
 coated periodically with neat lime mixed with water, is to 
 be strongly advocated. 
 
 Quite recently, owing to illness in a large house in 
 Kensington, my opinion was sought with reference to the 
 sanitary state of its drainage arrangements. On arriving 
 at the house, a most unpleasant stench was observable, 
 apparently arising from the area below, which no doubt 
 was caused by the unemptied dustbin. In my opinion 
 the drainage arrangements were not responsible for the 
 illness, and the dustbin probably was — although, of 
 course, one could not say for certain such was the case. 
 The doctor, however, was strongly of opinion that the 
 illness arose from sewer or some such gases. 
 
THE LAVATORY, BAIN-WATER PIPES, ETC. 55 
 
 -The portable galvanized iron dustbins now made, will 
 be found an admirable substitute for the old-fashioned 
 buildings from a sanitary aspect. 
 
 Fig. 10 will be found to refer to some of those ap- 
 pliances alluded to in the last chapter as well as those 
 mentioned in this. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 STABLES. 
 
 The Nature of Stable Sewage — Flooring — Stable Channels — Special 
 Flushing of same — The fall of Stable Floors — The Coach-house. 
 
 It has been customary in the past to give but little 
 consideration to the drainage of stables, but in these more 
 enlightened days, when sanitary reform is becoming — 
 although but to a very slight extent — more recognized, 
 people are commencing to realize that foul gases are 
 capable of dispensing injury to both man and beast. 
 
 Owners of valuable horses are very gradually beginning 
 to pay that necessary attention to the drainage arrange- 
 ments of their stables, which no doubt not only decreases 
 the yearly account of the veterinary surgeon, but preserves 
 and prolongs the lives of costly horses. 
 
 Similarly as it is the successful endeavour of sanitary 
 reform to exclude sewer gases and to remove as speedily 
 as possible all sewage from the house, so it should be from 
 the stables ; the consideration of how best to do this will be 
 the object of this chapter. 
 
 It must be borne in mind that the sewage matter from 
 the stables is of a very different kind to that which is 
 passed down the main house drain from the various sanitary 
 appliances in the house, and that small pieces of straw in 
 large quantities, and contaminated with sewage matter, 
 
STABLES. 57 
 
 with which they have come in contact, pass into the main 
 house drain. 
 
 Again, it must not be forgotten that such straw, and even 
 the sewage itself discharged from stables is liable to be 
 deposited, and the greater the length of drain through 
 which it has to pass, of course the greater will be the 
 accumulation of deposit, on the sides of the main house 
 drain, after being discharged into it from the branch drain 
 receiving the stable sewage, owing to the fresh water flush, 
 as usually employed in the cleansing of stables, (even in 
 the best practice,) not passing down the drains in one body, 
 so to speak. 
 
 In the event of there being such deposit, (which would 
 not be washed away probably until a flush from a W.c. 
 came down the main house drain, which might not be 
 before some hours after,) it is patent that it must tend to 
 lessen the sweetness of the main house drain, and therefore, 
 in my opinion, the branch drain conducting the stable 
 sewage to the main house drain should be made to 
 discharge into it as near the syphon trap as possible ; that 
 is, such a branch drain should discharge, when possible, 
 through an opercular channel, (as before described for 
 branch drains,) into the straight open channel of the 
 main house drain in the disconnecting manhole. 
 
 At the head of this branch drain a gully trap should be 
 fixed, immediately outside an external wall of the stables, 
 into which the stable sewage should be passed. 
 
 Fig. 11 explains the method recommended for adoption 
 — only one stall is shown, but this, no doubt, will suffice 
 for a clear explanation. 
 
 The stable bricks, known as bevelled adamantine clinkers, 
 when set in Portland cement mortar on a bed of concrete, 
 form an admirable flooring, and if these be not used, care 
 should be taken that a good hard flooring is made. 
 
58 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 A main channel should be laid along the foot of the stalls, 
 (see Fig. 11,) and from it a branch channel should run up 
 the centre of each stall or loose box. 
 
 A class of channels for this purpose, which have earned 
 for themselves much commendation, are the iron ones made 
 by Messrs. Cottam & Co., termed by them the " Claremont 
 pattern " ; these are so made that when placed level on the 
 top they have the necessary fall to rapidly empty, but in 
 addition to this the top can at any time be removed and 
 the channels may be swept and cleaned out. 
 
 It is well, however, not merely to trust to the fact that 
 these channels may be cleaned as above, but each of the 
 branch channels should have introduced into it at its 
 upper end a fresh water supply pipe, with a full- way screw 
 down stop-cock situated just under the manger, so that 
 a stable hand can daily "flush down" the channels by 
 turning the cock. 
 
 A similar pipe and tap should be fixed at the head of 
 the main channel so that it may also be "flushed " through 
 to the above-mentioned gully trap, into which it should 
 discharge, being carried through an external , wall of the 
 stables for that purpose. 
 
 The cistern which feeds the flushing pipes "should be 
 fixed high up, for of course the greater the altitude the 
 better the flush will be. 
 
 The arrows shown in Fig. 11 indicate the direction in 
 which the floors of stables should be made to fall, but care 
 must be exercised that the fall given be not too great, for 
 if this is so a horse is unable to rest properly. 
 
 From the head of the stall to the main channel about 
 three inches, and one and a half inches for each side will 
 suffice. 
 
 The floor of the coach-house may have a slight fall to a 
 gully trap in the centre, which should be made to discharge 
 
STABLES. 
 
 59 
 
 through a branch drain and opercular channel also into the 
 disconnecting or other manhole or chamber. 
 
 ; *>« 
 
 Fig. 11. 
 
 Such a gully trap will be found convenient when 
 carriages are being washed, &c. 
 
60 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 Stables should be well lighted and airy, but not 
 draughty. 
 
 The method above described of discharging the main and 
 branch channels over a gully trap is an accepted and 
 approved one, I believe, but when the cost can be afforded 
 and water supply admits of it, a system of automatic 
 flushing of the branch drain which receives stable drainage 
 is to be advocated. 
 
 Those who have valuable horses will do well to pay 
 heed to the sanitary mode of their living, and the outlay 
 in the proper drainage of their stables will not be found 
 to have been money ill spent. 
 
 This portion of my subject has not produced a long 
 chapter, but I think the importance of it justifies there 
 being one wholly devoted to it. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 
 
 The Kiyers Pollution Prevention Act — The Cesspool — The Float 
 Indicator — The Overflow Pipes — Eemoval of Solid Residue — 
 The Straining Chamber — The Position of the Cesspool — Surface 
 Disposal — Shuttle and Flap Valves — The Objection to the Dis- 
 charge of Crude Sewage on the Ground — Sub-Irrigation — Bed for 
 Sub-Irrigation Pipes — Contour Principle of Irrigation — Sewage 
 Meter Tank — Sewage Sick — Setting out Ground on the Contour 
 Principle — Herbage grown on Sewage -fed Land — Tape- worm — 
 Ventilation of the Connecting Drain. 
 
 In the preceding chapters it has been my endeavour to 
 show the best method of collecting the sewage from the 
 various appliances in the house and from the stables, and 
 how to dispose of it to the public sewer, which being done, 
 it passes into the hands of other people, and out of the 
 control of the designer of the house drains. The disposal 
 of the sewage from the public sewer is a subject to which 
 a series of articles might be entirely devoted, and it is 
 hardly one that comes under the present heading at all, 
 being a subject to be discussed under that of " Main 
 Drainage," rather than under the present title, so that it 
 will not be considered here at all, it being only the duty 
 of the engineer designing a good system of house drainage, 
 when the house drains are to be discharged into a public 
 sewer, to see that such drains are properly " disconnected " 
 from it, &c, as described in earlier chapters. But it often 
 
62 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 happens, in the case of country residences, that there is 
 no public sewer into which the sewage can be discharged, 
 and then it devolves upon the householder or landlord to 
 dispose of the sewage. Properly to discuss the question 
 of how to do this, would require a small volume, no doubt, 
 but I trust in the limit of this chapter to treat on two 
 or three of the best methods for this purpose. 
 
 Cases sometimes occur, when a smaller residence has 
 not sufficient land to admit of a system of irrigation being 
 carried out, and in such a case the cesspool is the only 
 resource left, for it must be borne in mind that since the 
 passing of the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act of 1876, 
 crude sewage may no longer be passed into any river or 
 stream. 
 
 The very mention of the word cesspool is to some 
 people like the holding of a red lamp to a locomotive 
 driver on a railway, but a cesspool of proper size and 
 design, and properly " disconnected " from the main house 
 drain, when carefully attended to, is not nearly the offen- 
 sive and dangerous thing so many people think. It should 
 be noted that I am not advocating the use of a series of 
 cesspools, the one emptying into the other and so on, but 
 only of one cesspool of peculiar design, and that only when 
 the land belonging to a house is so limited as to prevent 
 the sewage being evenly and shallowly distributed over 
 the ground from the drains, at a suitable distance from 
 the residence. The cesspool of the olden days, a mere 
 hole dug in the ground, from which the liquids percolated 
 into the earth, and in which the solids disintegrated, was 
 superseded by an excavation, in which a sort of brickwork 
 sump or tank was constructed, from which an overflow 
 pipe is conducted to the nearest ditch, which of necessity 
 becomes horribly fouled. 
 
 Such a tank is rarely, if ever, water-tight, and percolation 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 
 
 03 
 
 f ROOT ElEVATIOS 
 OF INDICATOR. 
 
 M-, t-MPTV 
 
 Fig. 12 
 
64 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 takes place as before. This soaking away of the sewage, 
 in such cases where a cesspool may be used, is a source of 
 grave danger, if the water-supply of the residence is drawn 
 from a well, for the sewage will probably find its way to 
 the strata containing the water and thus contaminate it. 
 
 A cesspool, in my opinion, should be but a small recep- 
 ' tacle capable of holding but a few days' sewage discharge, 
 and should be constructed of a conical or some other form, 
 so that the top is much smaller than the base, in order 
 that when it is nearly full but a small area of the sewage 
 is exposed. 
 
 The bottle shape shown in Fig. 12 is such as will, I 
 think, be found very successful. 
 
 When the residence is supplied with water from a well, 
 and a cesspool must be used, such an one should be of 
 water-tight construction, cement mortar and concrete 
 being used. 
 
 In such a case no overflow pipes should, in my opinion, 
 be employed, and a suitable pump should be used to lift 
 the sewage, which should be distributed by a trough over 
 the garden, and the householder, who will find he has 
 thereby a valuable source of manuring, should insist on 
 this pump being used with such regularity that the cess- 
 pool is never allowed to so fill, that the sewage rises above 
 the level of the outfall of the connecting drain. To enable 
 the master of the house to tell by a glance whether the 
 cesspool is nearly full or not, it is advisable to arrange a 
 counterbalance float- indicator, as shown in Fig. 12. 
 
 When a house is supplied with water from public water- 
 works, then overflow pipes radiating • from the cesspool 
 may be fixed, and each of these may consist of about 
 three lengths of glazed stoneware pipes, continuous from 
 which for some feet may be laid a land drain of agricul- 
 tural drain-pipes. 
 
DISPOSAL OJP SEWAGE. 
 ■ — Section of LiueD.E 
 
 3 
 
 Q. :r 
 < w 
 
 a 
 
 65 
 
 
 ff 
 
 B 
 
 Fig. 13. 
 
66 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 These overflow pipes should be situated just below the 
 level of the outfall of the " connecting drain." 
 
 Such a cesspool should be covered by a large grating. 
 
 The solid residue should be removed, and the cesspool 
 cleaned out periodically, as often as possible. 
 
 However, if the expense can be afforded, and the fall 
 admit of it, a small straining chamber may be situated, 
 with advantage perhaps, in the "connecting drain " imme- 
 diately before the cesspool is reached, and grilles or gratings 
 of iron, or formed by thick wires in an iron frame, should 
 be placed across the chamber to form a strainer and to 
 intercept the solids. This chamber should be water-tight, 
 and the bottom may be formed by an invert with concrete 
 rendered over with cement, and, at the end where the 
 " connecting drain " leading to the cesspool is fixed, a 
 gutter may be made of the same " sweep " as the drain and 
 discharging into it. 
 
 The solids thus intercepted should be scooped out 
 periodically and as often as possible, and having been 
 distributed over the ground should be dug into it. 
 
 The straining chamber may be similarly covered as the 
 cesspool. It should be noted that this chamber should be 
 considerably smaller in cubic contents than the cesspool 
 into which it discharges, say about one-third of the size of 
 the cesspool. 
 
 Although, perhaps, common sense would nearly always 
 so dictate, yet it is incumbent on me to point out, that a 
 cesspool should always be situated as far from the residence 
 as possible, and with this admonition the subject of cess- 
 pool disposal may be left, and that of discharging sewage 
 direct on to the land discussed. 
 
 When the lands of a house are of sufficient acreage to 
 admit of the sewage being conducted some 300 or 400 
 yards at least from the residence, crude sewage is some- 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 67 
 
 times distributed direct from the " connecting drain " over 
 the ground by placing branch drains (running out at the 
 surface) at intervals in the main line of drain, and in each 
 of these branch drains close to the junction a flap-valve 
 is situated, and in the connecting drain immediately below 
 each branch drain a shuttle valve is fixed. 
 
 By these valves the flow of the sewage may be directed 
 on the ground at any of the branch drains desired, and, of 
 course, the more numerous these are the more equally the 
 sewage may be distributed. 
 
 In this method of disposal it is necessary for the ground 
 to fall rapidly away from the main line of drain ; and of 
 course if ground can be found which admits of a fall on 
 both sides of it, so much the better. 
 
 Perhaps a sudden and sharp gradient is to be desired, 
 for it will admit of the branch drains running out to the 
 surface sooner than with a gradual fall. 
 
 Reference to Fig. 13 will no doubt assist in explaining 
 the method referred to. 
 
 A portion of the main line of drain is shown with some 
 of the branch -drains. 
 
 Supposing the shuttle valves are open and the flap 
 valves closed down to A, which is open, then sewage can 
 flow freely to that point, and if the shuttle at B be dropped 
 into its seat, then the sewage will of course be directed so 
 as to flow through the open A, and through the branch 
 drain and over the ground C, and to enable the sewage to 
 be more widely dispersed, little gutters may be cut in the 
 ground in the direction it may be desirous to distribute 
 the sewage. 
 
 When this branch drain at C has been in use a little 
 time, and the ground is barely covered with sewage, then 
 the valve A should be shut and B opened, and another 
 pair of valves and branch drains brought into use. 
 
68 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 The discharging of crude sewage over the ground in 
 this way is, however, objectionable, for the solids are apt 
 to be lodged on the roots or leaves of vegetables or herbage, 
 and for obvious reasons the distribution of sewage in the 
 state it leaves the house must be offensive, if only to the 
 eye. 
 
 The straining, therefore, of the sewage is to be advocated, 
 and to effect this a straining chamber similar to the one 
 already recommended in connection with the cesspool 
 should be fixed, having its position in the main line of 
 drain at a point just before the irrigating ground is reached. 
 This chamber may be constructed in a similar manner to 
 the one forming part of Fig. 15, which will be referred to 
 later in this chapter. 
 
 When a straining chamber is used the master of the 
 house must make it his imperative duty to see that it is 
 regularly cleaned out about every second or third day, as 
 in that time decomposition of sewage may commence and 
 danger arise. 
 
 If two strainers be employed, the bars of the one nearest 
 the irrigating ground being of much narrower gauge than 
 the other, then of course more solid matter may be caught 
 than with one alone, and when this matter is very offensive 
 it may, when scooped out, and before being dug into the 
 ground, be mixed with dry earth, which will be found a 
 very good deodorizer. The small amount of solid refuse 
 caught by the strainers in two or three days, even from a 
 large mansion, will be a matter of surprise to many. 
 
 The shuttle and flap valves mentioned above are not 
 illustrated here, for they will be found well represented 
 in the catalogue (Figs. 8 — 11) of Messrs. Henry Doulton 
 & Co., who make them. 
 
 The method of sewage disposal known as sub-irrigation 
 must now claim attention. 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 
 
 69 
 
 Sub-irrigation can undoubtedly be best employed when 
 there is only liquid sewage to be dealt with from cottages 
 and small houses, the grease and fat from larger dwellings 
 being found to soon choke the irrigation pipes, and if such 
 a method be adopted for disposing of the sewage from a 
 large mansion, and also when water-closets are used, the 
 sewage should be strained before reaching the irrigating 
 ground. 
 
 The process of sub-irrigation is somewhat similar to the 
 method just described for distributing sewage over the 
 
 B 
 
 -B- 
 
 B 
 
 -a- 
 
 B 
 
 -EH 
 
 5 
 
 -E3 
 
 IA 
 
 lA 
 
 IA 
 
 Fig. 14. 
 
 surface of the ground, only of course the branch drains are 
 entirely underneath the ground. 
 
 A flushing tank similar to the one shown in Fig. 5 
 (Chap. IV.) should be placed about the head of the main 
 house drain, and the liquid sewage discharged from it 
 down the drain and through the syphon trap to the 
 irrigating ground. 
 
 When this is reached branch drains, as shown at A, Fig. 
 14, composed of "butt-joint " pipes, should be laid with a 
 slight fall from the connecting drain about 9 in. or 12 in. 
 under the surface of the ground. 
 
 Chambers marked B, Fig. 14, may be constructed at the 
 
70 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 head of the branch drains in which valves are situated for 
 the purpose of directing the sewage down any particular 
 branch drain for the more equal distribution of the sewage. 
 
 Thus the sewage being forced down a branch drain finds 
 its way out at the butt-joints, floods the subsoil, and by 
 capillary attraction, &c, feeds the vegetation. 
 
 It will be found, however, that in time the pipes forming 
 the branch drains require to be cleaned, and it is therefore 
 wise to lay them on a permanent bed, which may be 
 made with half-round drain-tiles laid to a suitable and 
 slight fall. The pipes can then at any time be dug up, 
 cleaned and relaid on this bed ; but if a permanent bed be 
 laid, it will hardly be found necessary to remove all the 
 pipes for cleansing, as a few, removed at intervals, will 
 admit of the ones left having a rod passed through them 
 to clear them. Of course there is the objection to this 
 system of disposal, that everything is not well in sight, 
 and all the pipes cannot be freely and readily examined, 
 and the danger that a careless householder might not 
 have the subsoil drains frequently enough cleaned, with 
 the result that they may choke and the sewage " back-up " 
 through the syphon trap into the disconnecting manhole. 
 
 Sub-irrigation is most adapted to residences which have 
 not sufficient ground attached to them to admit of surface 
 irrigation being performed, but yet have more than abso- 
 lutely entails the use of the cesspool, and where the fall of 
 the ground will not admit of surface irrigation. 
 
 It behoves me to write of one other mode of surface 
 disposal which has been much practised by some of the 
 civil engineers who have made house drainage a speciality. 
 
 It is the practice of discharging sewage over an irri- 
 gating ground laid out on what is known as the contour 
 principle. 
 
 The sewage passes down the connecting drain from the 
 
72 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 disconnecting manhole, and just before reaching the irri- 
 gating ground, flows into a receptacle termed a sewage 
 meter tank (see Fig. 15), which is really nothing more or 
 less than the flushing tank shown by Fig. 5, Chap. IV., 
 on a large scale, with a straining chamber, the tank being 
 constructed in brickwork, rendered over smoothly inside 
 with cement; it is, therefore, deemed unnecessary to 
 again explain the action of the syphon. When the sewage 
 rises to about the level shown in Fig. 15, the syphon 
 acts and discharges the sewage with a rush to the irrigating 
 ground. 
 
 Referring to Fig. 16, it will be seen that the pipe 
 from the sewage meter tank to the irrigating ground 
 enters what I will term, to facilitate explanation, a 
 " direction chamber," in which the sewage may be directed 
 either by the use of paddle valves or by a piece of turf or 
 a little clay, either to the right or left, or straightforward 
 over the irrigating ground. The necessity for being able 
 to discharge the sewage over various portions of an irri- 
 gating ground is, that after sewage has been allowed for 
 some time to flow over land (even when it does so inter- 
 mittently, as referred to hereafter), it may become too 
 much charged with sewage, or what is called "sewage 
 sick." 
 
 By Fig. 16 it is my attempt to partially illustrate an 
 imaginary ground laid out on the contoured system, which 
 may aid explanation of the following text — 
 
 A piece of land falling away slightly from the "direction 
 chamber "' should be selected. 
 
 The engineer should then " range " a straight line across 
 the ground, being a production of the centre line of the 
 drain running from the sewage meter tank to the " direc- 
 tion chamber." Lines some 30 ft. apart should be set out 
 parallel to this line, and lines similarly equi-distant apart 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 73 
 
 should also be set out at right angles to the above line. 
 
 fRIMSEWACEMlTlRTflim' 
 
 FlQ. 16. 
 
 These rectangular lines are shown by the faint dotted lines 
 
74 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 in Fig. 16. Levels should then be taken at the various 
 points of bisection of these several lines. 
 
 Thus a line can be found across the ground at practically 
 one level, and along this should be dug a sewage carrier 
 (a grip about 3 in. deep by 5 in.), but of course it is well 
 that it should have a scarcely perceptible fall on either 
 side away from the drain, so that the sewage can just flow 
 along the carrier. A stop can be placed (a lump of clay 
 or piece of turf will suffice) at any point along a carrier, 
 and the flow of sewage will be arrested at that point, and 
 the carrier gradually filling will overflow, and the ground 
 can thus have the sewage more equally distributed over 
 it down to the next carrier. 
 
 It is a most difficult task to explain clearly on paper 
 the system in question, and I must claim the indulgence 
 of my readers. 
 
 It will be seen by Fig. 16 that the first carrier (DD) 
 nearest the " direction chamber " is carried along at the 
 level reading 51 - 30 at the point marked A on the line 
 DD ; thus a departure up the ground has to be made at 
 the point B, to find a similar reading (or nearly so), the 
 actual reading at this point being too small, namely 49 '50, 
 and similarly a departure down the ground is made at C 
 to find the proper reading, it being at this point too great. 
 
 Carriers may be dug across the ground about the points 
 F and G, and that portion of the ground brought into use, 
 when the portion nearer the " direction chamber " tends to 
 become sewage sick, or it is necessary for it to lie fallow, 
 &c. A carrier should be cut straight across the ground 
 to H, down which the sewage can be made to. flow from 
 the " direction chamber," and directed along any of the 
 carriers situated at E, F, or G. 
 
 Agricultural pipes may be laid a foot or so under the 
 irrigating ground, as shown in Fig. 16, to enable the 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 75 
 
 sewage to be more rapidly and evenly distributed in the 
 ground. 
 
 The difference between the two methods of surface 
 disposal herein described is, that in the case just dealt 
 with, ground that is nearly flat can be employed, and the 
 distribution is intermittent, whilst in the former case 
 (Fig. 13) the ground must have a considerable fall, and 
 although intermittent disposal may also be employed, yet 
 this may tend to force the sewage too rapidly (considering 
 the severe fall generally necessary in such cases) over 
 the ground, with the result that the bulk of it rushes to 
 the lowest point on the land, without having effectually 
 irrigated the highest portions. 
 
 In the case of the contoured ground, the sewage is 
 forced over the ground by the sewage meter tank, and 
 more evenly spread, and the intermittent action of the 
 tank admits of the sewage soaking into the land, and the 
 pores of the soil becoming aerated; for otherwise the 
 pores of the earth might become clogged by the sewage 
 slime, which, forming a deposit on the ground, would 
 prevent nitrification, and lend encouragement to putre- 
 faction at the surface of the ground. 
 
 Thus the value of even and intermittent distribution 
 can be seen, and such distribution should not take place 
 oftener than once a day. 
 
 Irrigation grounds should be planted with roots, &c, 
 that have a tendency to rapid absorption of liquids, and 
 osiers will be found to imbibe sewage with great avidity, 
 and are therefore frequently used. 
 
 Of course, the more porous the soil is constituting an 
 irrigating ground, the better ; but sometimes land practi- 
 cally impervious to water, such as clay, is only available ; 
 then such ground should be dug up to a depth of a few 
 feet, and then burned and broken up, which will enable 
 
76 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 the sewage to get away. An acre of land will be found 
 sufficient to act as an irrigating ground for a very large 
 mansion indeed. 
 
 Thus far it will be seen that it is most desirable that 
 sewage should be intermittently distributed over a light 
 loamy or sandy soil, at a distance of some hundreds of 
 yards from a residence, and when this is properly done, 
 experience seems to show that there is no danger (or little) 
 of a nuisance or epidemic being caused by so doing ; but 
 yet the greatest care must be taken that cattle are not 
 allowed to eat too soon of herbage which has been fed 
 with sewage, and that the cabbage, or what not, similarly 
 manured, is not placed on the table till a suitable time 
 has elapsed since sewage was distributed on the ground 
 where it has been grown. ! 
 
 We have it on medical authority that danger may arise 1 
 from the consumption by cattle of vegetation which has j 
 been flooded with sewage; for instance, in the case of ! 
 herbage to which has been applied sewage containing [ 
 faeces from a patient with tape - worm, danger may ! 
 exist. 
 
 We learn that a man suffering from tape-worm evacu- 
 ates thousands of ova of tape-worm with his feeces, and 
 some of these eggs are apt to stick to the herbage, and 
 thus be eaten by a bullock. 
 
 In course of time every ovum consumed by the bullock 
 is capable of creating a cyst (measle) in the flesh of the 
 animal, thereby producing measly beef, and if such beef 
 be consumed by the human being in an inefficiently cooked 
 condition, each cyst is liable to create a tape-worm in the 
 human body. 
 
 It would thus appear that the question to be solved is, 
 How long will such eggs when clinging to the vegetation 
 retain their germinating power ? The following quotation 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 77 
 
 is from the translation by W. E. Hoyle, M.A., M.R.C.S., 
 &c, of "The Parasites of Man," by Leu'ckart; referring 
 to the proglottides (a worm consists of a head and dozens 
 of proglottides, each proglottis being a procreative 
 segment containing thousands of ova, and capable of 
 breeding such ova), he writes : — 
 
 " It is not yet possible to tell how long this potency 
 can be retained ; the period will doubtless vary with the 
 environment; while Gerlach was able to infect a pig 
 with decaying proglottides of taenia solium five weeks 
 old. 
 
 " In an experiment I made, the eggs of taenia ccenurus 
 had lost potency after lying in water for eight weeks. 1 
 This follows more rapidly when the eggs are kept dry. 
 Haubner reports having ineffectually fed a sheep with 
 tape-worm eggs which had been kept dry for fourteen and 
 for twenty-four days, and I have had similar experi- 
 ence in which eggs exposed to an August sun had lost 
 their power of germinating after four - and - twenty 
 hours." 
 
 It would seem, therefore, from the foregoing that 
 dryness and heat are essential to the effectual and ready 
 decay and death of these ova, and that in this country, 
 even in the hottest weather, the herbage should stand at 
 least from three days to a week without having sewage 
 administered to it before cattle are allowed to graze on it, 
 and in the colder and more humid months at least three 
 weeks or a month ; and further, it can be gathered that 
 no vegetables (for human food) should be fed by sewage, 
 except such as will have to undergo the process of 
 cooking. 
 
 1 Davaine, on the other hand, asserts that he has " kept eggs of 
 taenia solium and taenia serrata in water for years, living and un- 
 altered."— (Mem. Soc. Biolog. t. III., p. 272, 1862.) 
 
78 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 I have not, in this article, at all entered into the 
 question of the chemical treatment of sewage, for it is 
 generally accepted — in the case of house drains where: 
 there is no public sewer to receive their discharge — to be 
 unnecessary, and although so frequently adopted in the 
 disposal of the sewage collected in public sewers, I believe 
 I may add that the fact that the sewage created in country 
 mansions may be distributed over land, as above described, 
 in its crude state (when such distribution is properly 
 attended to) without danger or nuisance, is established by 
 practical experience. 
 
 In all cases where possible, the disconnecting manhole 
 should be well removed from the house, as pointed out 
 in an earlier chapter, and when the land admits of it, the 
 irrigation ground (as explained in this chapter) should be 
 several hundred yards from the disconnecting manhole, 
 by which it is patent a great length of "' connecting 
 drain " is entailed. 
 
 This connecting drain must be thoroughly ventilated, 
 and should have along its length " inspection manholes," 
 situated about every 150 feet (counting from the "dis- 
 connecting manhole "), which should be covered with 
 large iron gratings ; and whenever there is a change of 
 direction, a turning chamber should be employed, which 
 may be similarly covered so as to act as a ventilator, and 
 practically as a substitute for a manhole (see earlier 
 chapters). 
 
 The length of connecting drain between the syphon trap 
 and the first of these inspection manholes or turning 
 chambers should be ventilated by a pipe being carried up 
 from a large T branch (with the _branch vertically, or 
 nearly so, upwards), situated immediately on the con- 
 necting drain side of the syphon trap. This pipe should 
 be finished off a little above the ground level with an 
 
DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE. 79 
 
 iron grating of an open area rather larger than the area 
 of the pipe. Such a pipe for ventilation should also be 
 used, in a similar position near the syphon trap, when the 
 connecting drain discharges into a cesspool. 
 
 I cannot close this article without acknowledging my 
 great indebtedness to Mr. T. Nichols, Assistant Director, 
 and Professor Bell, of the Natural History Museum, for 
 the kind assistance and courtesy afforded me in my 
 research into the question of parasites, &c. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 The Preparation of Schemes for House Drainage — Maxims — Rules 
 for Housekeepers. 
 
 A MOKE appropriate title for this chapter would be, 
 perhaps, '' Review," for the intention herein is to review 
 shortly what has already been written in the preceding 
 chapters, in order that certain deductions may be made 
 as to some of the more salient points to be remembered. 
 
 Both text and illustrations of these articles must, of 
 course, be taken to a great extent as typical only, as for 
 different buildings the organization of the drainage ar- 
 rangements will vary, and no scheme of drainage should 
 be prepared without the aid of the draughtsman. 
 
 A plan should always be prepared, and in many cases a 
 section showing the fall of the main house drain is of 
 great value. 
 
 It is, I believe, very often the custom for builders to 
 drain a house, and afterwards prepare a plan, showing 
 what has been done ; but how much better a scheme 
 might be produced if a plan of the house were always 
 consulted and a project designed on it before the works 
 were commenced, the drainage arrangements being pre- 
 pared in accordance with design and method instead of 
 being placed in any position hazarded by conjecture at 
 the site, and suggested by the false conception that the 
 
CONCLUSION. 81 
 
 "main house drain can be very well laid here, and a 
 branch drain can be run satisfactorily there," &c. 
 
 From these articles certain rules may be gathered, and 
 the following maxims founded on what has gone before 
 may be advantageously followed. 
 
 The main house drain should always be carefully " dis- 
 connected " by a good form of trap from the public sewer, 
 irrigating ground, &c. The main house drain and all 
 branch drains should be laid in absolutely straight lines, 
 change of direction being effected by turning chambers 
 only. The soil pipe should be carried up as a ventilat- 
 ing pipe (and of one area throughout) to a point well 
 removed from all openings in the house or its roof, 
 and should assume when completed a truly vertical 
 line, if possible. 
 
 The joints of all pipes should be air and water-tight, 
 the greatest care being observed that all superfluous 
 cement is wiped out from the barrel of the pipes in the 
 case of joints made with cement. 
 
 A fresh air inlet should be situated in connection with 
 the main house drain, on the house side of the trap which 
 "disconnects" the house drains from public sewer, &c, 
 and it should be fixed near this trap, so that fresh air 
 may flow through the entire length of the main house 
 drain and up the soil and ventilating pipes which form a 
 foul air outlet. 
 
 W.c.'s are preferable that retain water in the basin, for 
 the reception of a discharge from an user. 
 
 A good form of trap should be fixed immediately under 
 every w.C. Urinals and housemaid's slop sinks should 
 never be fixed, if it is possible conveniently to do without 
 them, and when fixed should always be properly trapped, 
 the latter being treated as if a w.c. Waste pipes of sinks, 
 
 G 
 
82 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 baths, and lavatories should be as short as possible, and 
 suitably trapped. 
 
 All branch drains should be trapped at their head by 
 a good form of trap. 
 
 Cisterns should be fixed so that they can be easily 
 examined or cleaned out, and should be carefully covered. 
 
 Stable floors should have channels, with loose covers, 
 laid in the flooring, and these channels should be capable 
 of being flushed, the flush passing to a trapped branch 
 drain, the trap of which should be situated, when possible, 
 outside the stables. 
 
 If a cesspool is used, it should be smaller at the top 
 than at the base, and should be capable of receiving only 
 two or three days' sewage discharge from the residence. 
 The connecting drain from the trap at the disconnecting 
 manhole to the irrigating ground or cesspool (when tbere 
 is no public sewer to receive the sewage) should be well 
 ventilated. 
 
 As few sanitary appliances as possible should be fixed 
 in a house, consistently with convenience. 
 
 Holders of residences drained on the principles advo- 
 cated in these chapters should see that the housekeeper 
 observes the following rules: — 
 
 " Once a week the brass plugs of all sinks and lavatories 
 should be placed in the sockets, and the sinks and lava- 
 tories filled with water; the plugs should then be with- 
 drawn, so that a good flush can pass through the waste 
 pipes and traps of the sinks and lavatories in order to 
 scour them. 
 
 " The bath should also be filled up with water, which 
 should then be released, with a similar object in 
 view. 
 
 " The basins of all w.c.'s should be cleaned daily, and 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 83 
 
 'Mass 
 
 D| ian c 
 
84 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 the underside of all w.c. seats scrubbed once a week. No 
 refuse should be deposited about the premises except in 
 the dust-hole, and all vegetable refuse should as far as 
 possible be burnt in the kitchen range. The dust-hole 
 should be regularly emptied every few days. 
 
 " A good contractor should be employed periodically 
 (at intervals of six months at least) to generally clean 
 the manholes, syphon and gully traps, &c, sweep the 
 drains, &c. Also to remove the inspection cap of sink 
 and bath traps, and clear such traps, and to coat the dust- 
 hole internally (unless of iron,) with neat lime mixed with 
 water. Further to clear out all cisterns at least once a 
 year, though preferably oftener." 
 
 In the past it has often, I believe, been the practice 
 of architects to design a house completely, without any 
 regard having been bestowed on the drainage arrangements, 
 and when the carcass has been completed, or nearly so, 
 then the consideration of the drainage arrangements has 
 been entered upon, and the result is that the soil pipe has 
 but rarely formed the head of the drain, as it should do. 
 W.C.'s have been placed in any convenient position left 
 by the previous situation of other rooms, and generally 
 the architect has said with regard to the drainage arrange- 
 ments — " Oh ! here is an excellent place for a W.C, a 
 lavatory can be fitted here, and then we can put the 
 housemaid's sink in that corner," &c. &c. 
 
 In the designing of a house, one of the first thoughts 
 of an architect, after having found the suitable plot of 
 ground, and the class and plan of house having been 
 roughly decided on, should be as to how the proper 
 drainage may be effected. A well-designed house should 
 have its drainage arrangements so disposed that the soil 
 and ventilating pipes form the head of the drain, and the 
 
CONCLUSION. 85 
 
 main house drain should be as straight as possible, and 
 the branch drains as short as can be, the w.c.'s being 
 situated so that two of the walls are two of the external 
 walls of the house. 
 
 Fig. 17 gives a hypothetical scheme of drainage, in 
 which it will be seen that a fresh current of air can freely 
 pass through the main house drain and up the soil and 
 ventilating pipes. 
 
 It will be seen in this particular case a change of 
 direction has been made in the main house drain, and 
 this is done in order to illustrate the use of the turning 
 chamber. 
 
 It will be observed that every branch drain can be easily 
 and freely examined, and that every w.C. is situated so 
 that two of its walls are two of the external walls of the 
 building in which it is placed. 
 
 The diagram will, I think, in most other respects be 
 self-explanatory, in connection with the reference. 
 
 Little more is left for me to add ; to one fact, however, 
 not generally recognized, attention should, perhaps, be 
 drawn, this fact being that it is not so much the endeavour 
 of specialists in house-drainage to do away with the foul 
 gases generated in sewers, &c, as it is to render such gases 
 as innocuous as possible; for as long as nature produces 
 sewage matter, foul gases will emanate therefrom. 
 
 In these chapters it has been my chief object to point 
 out what should be done, rather than what has been done 
 so badly in the past. Those who are desirous of learning 
 defects in house-drainage arrangements, will consult with 
 advantage the excellent pictorial guide, Dangers to Health, 
 by Mr. T. Pridgin Teale, M.A., Surgeon to the Leeds 
 Infirmary, which as regards defects proper is admirable, 
 and from practical experience (although I have not, per- 
 
86 DRAINAGE OF HABITABLE BUILDINGS. 
 
 haps, met personally with quite all the examples given 
 by him), I can quite believe every case is truthful and 
 unexaggerated. 
 
 In closing these chapters, I trust that those whose eye 
 they meet will say with me, "Quod erat faciendum," and 
 I would that I could say, " Quod erat demonstrandum." 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Ammoniaoal gas, 5 
 Annular syphon (Field's), 26 
 Anti-"D" trap, 45 
 Area, 25, 46, 52, 53, 54, 79 
 Arteries, 4 
 
 Atmosphere, 3, 4, 5, 10 
 Auricle, 4 
 
 Automatic flushing, 19, 25, 26 sqq., 
 44, 60 
 
 Bacilli, 7 
 
 Ball-cock, 41 
 
 Balloon, 33 
 
 Basin, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 43, 49, 82 
 
 Bath, 34, 49, 52, 55, 82, 84 
 
 Batt, 37, 38 
 
 Bell-trap, 46 
 
 Bend-pipe, 22, 48, 50 
 
 Bi-carburetted hydrogen, 5 
 
 Blockage, 22 
 
 Blood, 4, 6 ; blood-poisoning, 1 
 
 Branch drain, 14, 57, 66, 67, 70, 
 
 82, 85 
 Butler's sink, 46, 47 
 
 Capillaries, 4, 70 
 
 Carbon, 4 
 
 Carbonic acid, 3, 5, 6 
 
 Carburetted hydrogen, 5 
 
 Carrier (sewage), 74 
 
 Cast-iron pipes, 21, 28, 30, 31, 50 
 
 Cement, 12, 13, 19, 21, 57, 64, 66, 81 
 
 Cesspool, 7, 8, 21, 36, 62, 63, 64, 
 
 66, 70, 79, 82 
 Chambers, 14, 23, 59, 68, 69, 72 
 Channel, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 23, 57, 
 
 58, 59, 60, 82 
 
 Cholera, 2 
 
 Cistern, 41, 42, 44, 54, 58, 82, 84 
 
 Closet, 25, 35, 36 
 
 Coach-house, 58 
 
 Cock, 41, 42, 58 
 
 Concrete, 12, 21, 57, 64 
 
 Connecting drain, 13, 18, 64, 65, 
 
 66, 67, 69, 70, 78, 82 
 Connecting soil-pipe, 31, 32, 35, 44 
 Container, 36 
 Contour, 72, 73 
 Cover (air-tight), 13, 22, 82 
 Cowl, 33 
 Cradle, 22 
 Cuticle, 4 
 Cyst, 76 
 
 Diameter, 14, 15, 24, 32, 36, 39, 41 
 Diffusion of gases, 6 
 Diphtheria, 2 
 Dip-trap, 48 
 
 Direction chamber, 72, 74 
 "D" trap, 36 
 Discharge, 14, 25, 79, 81 
 Disconnecting manhole, 8 sqq. , 14, 
 15, 16, 17, 18, 22, 57, 59, 70, 78 
 Disposal of sewage, 61 sqq. 
 Dust-bin, 54, 55, 84 
 
 Earthenware, 8, 11, 12, 19, 25, 28, 
 
 47 
 Eaves, 32 
 Excavation, 18 
 Excreta, 5 
 
 Fall, 19, 24, 25, 28, 58, 67 
 Flange, 37 
 
88 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Flap, 39, 52 
 
 Flap-trap, 24 
 
 Float indicator, 63, 64 
 
 Flush, 15, 16, 57, 58 
 
 Flushing rim, 37, 43 
 
 Formula, 25 
 
 Fresh air inlet, 9, 10, 22, 81 
 
 Gases (diffusion of), 6 
 Gauge, 68 
 Germs, 7 
 
 Glazed stoneware sink, 47 
 Grating, 47, 48, 66, 78 
 Grease, 68 
 Grilles, 66 
 
 Gully trap, 43, 44, 46, 47, 48, 49, 
 53, 57, 58, 59, 84 
 
 Heart, 4 
 
 Herbage, 67, 68, 76, 77 
 
 Hopper, 48, 50 
 
 Horses, 56, 58, 60 
 
 House drain, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 
 
 18 sqq., 21, 22, 23, 25, 34, 44, 
 
 56, 57, 81 
 Housemaid's sink, 47, 53, 81 
 Hydrogen, 4 
 
 Improved hopper closet, 37 
 Inlet (fresh air) 9, 10, 22, 81 
 Inspection branch, 13, 24, 84 
 Inspection manhole, 78 
 Iron pipe, 21, 28, 30, 31, 50 
 Irrigation, 62, 66, 68, 69, 70, 75 
 Irrigation tanks, 7, 8 
 
 Joint, 6, 12, 13, 19, 23, 24, 29, 30, 
 31, 32, 37, 41, 69, 81 
 
 Lavatory, 34, 41 sqq., 44, 49, 50, 
 
 53, 81, 82 
 Lead, 28, 31, 32, 39, 47, 52 
 Levels, 74 
 Lever, 37, 41, 42 
 Lime, 22, 54 
 Long hopper closet, 36 
 Lungs, 4 
 
 Main house drain, 17, 56, 57, 81, 85 
 
 Manhole, 8 sqq., 13, 14, 15, 16, 22, 
 
 23, 44, 57, 59, 70, 78, 79, 84 
 
 Marsh gas, 5 
 Mortar, 57, 64 
 
 Nitrogen, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 defiant gas, 5 
 
 Opercular channel, 23, 44, 57, 59 
 
 Ova, 76, 77 
 
 Overflow, 38, 39, 42, 52, 53, 64 
 
 Oxygen, 3, 4, 5, 6 
 
 Parasites, 76 
 
 Pan closet, 35, 36 
 
 Pipe (glazed stoneware drain), 19, 
 
 21 
 Pipe (overflow), 38, 39, 42, 50, 53, 
 
 62, 64 
 Pipe (supply), 39, 40, 53, 58 
 
 „ (warning), 39, 42, 50 
 
 „ (waste), 39, 44, 46, 47, 49, 50, 
 
 52, 53, 81 
 Plug, 47, 50, 82 
 Pollution of rivers, 62 
 "P" trap, 29, 31, 32, 34, 36, 37, 
 
 39, 43, 45 
 Putty 37 
 
 Rain-water pipe, 34, 49, 50, 51, 53 
 
 Rats, 24, 29 
 
 Residue, 66 
 
 Respiration, 4 
 
 Rivers (pollution of), 62 
 
 Riser, 40 
 
 Rod, 13, 18, 70 
 
 Safe, 37, 38, 39, 40, 44, 46, 52 
 
 Sal ammoniac, 31 
 
 Scarlet fever, 2 
 
 Scullery sink, 46, 47 
 
 Sea (atmospheric), 3 
 
 Seal, 12, 27, 38, 46, 47 
 
 Sewage (carrier), 74 
 
 Sewage (disposal of), 61 sqq. 
 
 Sewage meter tank, 7, 8, 70, 71, 72 
 
 Sewage sick, 72 
 
 Sewer, 7, 8, 10, 17, 18, 25, 54, 56, 
 
 81 
 Sink, 14, 25, 34, 43, 46, 47, 81, 82, 
 
 84 
 Slop-sink, 40, 41, 43, 45, 46, 81 
 Socket, 11, 19, 22, 30, 47, 50 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Soil pipe, 6, 9, 10, 14, 22, 26, 27, 
 
 28, 29, 30, 81, 34, 35, 38, 39, 
 
 40, 43, 44, 81, 84 
 Spigot, 11, 19, 30, 50 
 "S"trap, 34, 37, 45 
 Stables, 56, 57 sqq., 60, 82 
 Stall, 57, 58, 59 
 Stanford joint, 19 
 
 Stoneware channel, 12, 14, 16, 22, 23 
 Stoneware cradle, 22 
 Stoneware sinks (glazed), 47 
 Stoneware syphon trap, 8 
 Stop-cock, 42, 58 
 Stoppage, 25 
 
 Straining chamber, 66, 68 
 Sub-irrigation, 68, 70 
 Sulphuretted hydrogen, 5, 6 
 Sump, 62 
 Syphonage, 24, 26 
 Syphon trap, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 
 
 14, 15, 16, 17, 22, 24, 34, 38, 
 
 43, 47, 57, 70, 78, 84 
 Syphon (annular), 12, 26 
 
 Tank, 7, 8, 26, 27, 28, 62, 69, 72 
 
 Tape-worm, 76, 77 
 
 Test, 23 
 
 Trapping box, 26, 27 
 
 "Turning chamber," 23, 44, 78 
 
 Typhoid, 2 
 
 Urea, 5 
 
 Uric acid, 5 
 
 Urinal, 40, 41, 43 sqq., 81 
 
 Vacuum, 9, 26 
 
 Valre, 35, 37, 38 
 
 Valve closet, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 52, 
 
 67, 70 
 Valve (flap), 24, 67, 68 
 
 „ (paddle), 72 
 
 „ (shuttle), 67, 68 
 Vapour (watery), 3, 5 
 Vegetable, 5 
 Velocity, 18, 25, 27 
 Ventilating pipes, 10, 14, 18, 26, 
 
 30, 31, 32, 33, 51, 81, 84, 85 
 Ventilation, 6, 10, 32, 41, 85 
 Ventricle, 4 
 
 Warning-pipe, 39, 42 
 
 Waste-pipe, 39, 43, 44, 46, 47, 49, 
 
 52, 53, 81, 82 
 Weir, 26 
 Well, 64 
 W.C., 29, 34, 37, 38, 39, 43, 44, 52 
 
 sqq., 81, 85 
 Wood, 28 
 
 Zinc, 28 
 Zymotic, 7 
 
 Richard Clay £ Sons, limited, London & Bungay. 
 
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 Furnaces, &c. Chap. V. The Blast Furnace — The Discharge of Cannon — 
 Internal Stress on Guns — Pressure of Gases in Bore of Guns, &c. Chap. VI. 
 Heat Engines Proper — The Gas Engine — The Hot Air Engine — The Rider 
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 Injector, &c. Chap. VII. Classification of Steam Engines — The Compound 
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 AND 
 GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK STREET, COVENT GARDEN. 
 
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