The 6-in. pipe is not being used now as much as the 8-in., and in most cases this is probably because the capacity of the latter is nearly double that of the 6-in., and costs only a few cents more per foot. If there is a sufficient population per acre, or if, within 30 or 40 years, such a population is anticipated as will fill the 8-in. pipe half full, its use, of course, is justified and necessary; but where it is quite evident that this will never occur, its use is counter-indicated.
In Monterrey, where the building lots have a frontage of 41 ft., where the houses, as a rule, are only one story high, where the water service is metered and paid for, and the sewage flow is also paid for, there seems to be no reason to justify the use of 8-in. pipe for the upper reaches of the smallest sewers. The sewage flow to be anticipated will probably never be sufficient to keep an 8-in. pipe sewer in a good clean condition at the upper ends of the lines of sewers without excessive flushing; and the sharper or steeper the grade on which it is placed, the worse will be the result, because the sharper the
grade, the thinner the flowing thread of sewage will be drawn out in the invert; on the other hand, if the grades are flat, the slight quantity of sewage flow will be spread out in a sluggish stream, without sufficient depth, on the bottom of the 8-in. pipe.
Where a wide surface is given to a small quantity of flowing sewage, it stagnates slowly along the bottom of the sewer, leaving frequent deposits to undergo decomposition and create foul air, if not to choke the sewer, a result often produced; and where a circular sewer which is too large for the ordinary flow is given a strong velocity by using steep grades, the stream, though flowing rapidly, is drawn out to such a thin thread that it will not effect the flotation of the solid masses in the sewage brought in at house connections, and the shallow and thin stream simply flows around such masses until a dam or obstruction forms and the sewage is backed up sufficiently to force the obstruction farther down, to form another obstruction in a larger pipe below. Flushing may possibly keep such a sewer fairly clean; but, as usually practiced, it is effective only for a few hundred feet from the flush-tank; and the quantity of flush-water required by an 8-in. pipe is more than twice as much as that required to keep the 6-in. pipe clean. Ventilation is better in the smaller sewer than in the larger, as there is less air to move; but the elaborate ventilating stacks provided at Monterrey may take care of this; and it is evidently a place where ventilation will be needed.
The ideal size and shape of cross-section for a sewer is such as will give the best flotation to moving solids which are being carried along by the flow; and this means the sewer that, with the expected ordinary or average flow, will give the best depth in the invert, when the velocity of flow is sufficient to keep suspended solids, grit, etc., moving at a rate of from 2 to 3 ft. per sec. The size, however, is limited by practical considerations. The circular pipes cannot well be less than 6 in. in diameter, because the house connections cannot well be less than 4-in. pipe, and the sewer should be larger than the house connections, for various practical reasons; but, in order to secure flotation and a scouring flow, the smallest pipe, or the pipe having the smallest invert radius, that practical considerations permit, should be selected. The grade should be such, and the collecting system so laid out, that the flow may be conserved as far as possible, and the sewage flow should be kept of as great a depth in the invert, or bottom of the sewer, as safety in self-cleansing velocity will permit. This will save flush-water and prevent stoppages, and thus reduce the cost of maintenance to a minimum. For good sanitary practice, the sewers should be designed, first of all, to comply with the requirements of the present, or immediately expected, ordinary flow, with some reasonable allowance for the future. They should be
neither too large nor too small, and the grade should neither be too great nor too little, to secure the best flotation and scouring effects and the best flush-wave action under all circumstances.
The use of cement concrete pipe for sewers seems to be growing in favor; nor is this surprising, in view of the many improvements made in their design and manufacture. The excellence of the concrete pipe used in Monterrey and its success, suggest the query: Why was it not used still more extensively?
[Table 13] shows that the cement pipe cost much less than the vitrified tile, or "fire-clay" pipe. Thus, the 38.1 cm. (15-in.) fire-clay cost 6.14 pesos per lin. m., the 45.7 cm. (18-in.) cost 8.80 pesos, and the 50.8 cm. (20-in.) cost 11.30 pesos. Compared with this, the concrete pipe was much the cheaper; the 55.9 cm. (22-in.) cost 5.93 pesos, which is less than the cost of the 38.1 cm. (15-in.) fire-clay; and the 61.0 cm. (25-in.) concrete pipe cost 7.30 pesos, which is less than the 45.7 cm. (18-in.) fire-clay.
The writer's experience with concrete pipe, derived mainly from a long service in sewer design and construction in Brooklyn, N. Y., leads him to believe that at Monterrey the whole sewer system might, with advantage, have been built of concrete pipe, using an egg-shaped pipe with an area slightly larger than an 8-in. circle, designed for a discharge equal to an 8-in. pipe for all the smaller sewers. The invert of such an egg-shaped pipe would fulfill the present requirements in carrying a very small flow with good flotation depth, better than would a 6-in. circular pipe, and the reserve capacity of the 8-in. pipe would be secured without interfering with good present service. Egg-shaped pipes, similar to those used in Brooklyn, the writer believes, would have given far better satisfaction throughout the Monterrey sewerage system than circular fire-clay pipe, and would have cost no more, but probably less. The egg-shaped pipe referred to is made with a flat base and a self-centering joint, thus insuring perfect alignment, and a smoother interior surface than can be obtained with fire-clay pipes.
Brooklyn has about 450 miles of concrete pipe sewers, of all sizes less than 24 in., the greater part of which is egg-shaped. There are also about 250 miles of vitrified stoneware circular pipe sewers of similar sizes, and the cost of repairs and replacing pipe, over a period of years is about the same per mile for each kind. Incidentally, it may be stated that the annual cost of repairs per mile on both kinds of pipe is very small, and is only about one-fifth of the cost of repairs per mile on the brick sewers, of which there are about 200 miles.