[5] Annual Report, Mass. State Board of Health, 1914, p. 727.
| Fig. 15.—Chemical closet. A, Water-tight sheet-metal container; B, metal or wooden cabinet; C, wooden or composition seat ring; D, hinged cover; E, 3 or 4 inch ventilating flue extending 18 inches above roof or to a chimney; F, air inlets. | Fig. 16.—Chemical tank closet. A, Tank, 2 feet 3 inches by 4 feet 2 inches, 5⁄64-inch iron, seams welded, capacity 125 gallons; B, 14-inch covered opening for recharging and emptying tank; C, 12-inch galvanized sheet-metal tube; D, 4-inch sheet-metal ventilating pipe extending above ridge-pole or to a chimney; E, agitator or paddle. |
A simple type of chemical closet is shown in [figure 15], and the essential features are indicated in the notation. These closets with vent pipe and appurtenances, ready for setting up, retail for $20 and upward. A chemical tank closet, retailing for about $80 per seat, is shown in [figure 16].
The Department of Agriculture occasionally receives complaints from people who have installed chemical closets, usually on the score of odors or the cost of chemicals.
LIQUEFYING CLOSET.
Another type of sanitary privy, known as a liquefying closet, makes use of bacterial action as an aid to disposal. The excretions are deposited in a tight receptacle containing water, where fermentation and decomposition reduce a large part of the organic solids to liquid and gaseous forms. Much of the liquid evaporates and the gases diffuse, so that the volume of sewage is reduced materially. More or less insoluble and undigested residue, known as sludge, gradually accumulates at the bottom of the receptacle, which from time to time must be cleaned out. Disposal of the partially clarified liquid and the sludge, however, involves much less labor than would be needed to handle the untreated excrements.
Liquefying closets have been used many years with fair satisfaction. The receptacle sometimes is a tight brick vault, but more frequently a barrel or hogshead with one end nearly flush with the ground. Over this is mounted the seat, sometimes with iron bars beneath to prevent accident to small children, and the whole is inclosed in a small frame house. The vault usually is bailed or pumped out two or three times a year.
Upon farms where slope, soil, and drainage conditions are favorable the effluent from liquefying closets may be distributed and aerated by means of drain tile laid in the top soil or in shallow beds filled with cinders, coke, gravel, or stone. [Figure 17] shows a simple one-chamber liquefying closet with shallow distribution of the effluent in a stone-filled trench. The vault or tank consists of vitrified sewer pipe, a simple and cheap construction. Where a larger vault is required concrete or brick may be used, the usual capacity being 12 or 13 gallons to a person.