Bad Drains; and How to Test Them / With notes on the ventilation of sewers, drains, and sanitary fittings, and the origin and transmission of zymotic disease

by R. Harris Reeves

In 1858, Mr. Goldsworthy Gurney made experiments in the neighbourhood of the House of Commons by connecting a number of the sewers near with the furnace of the clock-tower, and this was reported on by Sir Joseph Bazalgette as follows:—

“I find that the furnace of the clock-tower of the House of Parliament was supposed to have been connected with the adjoining district to the extent of about a quarter of a square mile, and with about 6½ miles of sewers, but that the ventilation had in reality been intercepted by a flap so that the benefit supposed to be derived therefrom was purely imaginary. Having come to that conclusion, the next thing I directed my attention to was, supposing the whole of the air extracted by that furnace was produced from the sewers, and supposing that all the intermediate channels could be stopped, and that it could be directed from the most remote ends of each of the sewers, and distributed over those sewers with the most perfect theoretical accuracy, so as to have uniform currents passing through each of the sewers towards that chimney, still the effect on those sewers would be nothing, and the way in which I prove my statement is this: the total area of the 6½ miles of sewers now connected with the furnace is 713 feet, the total area of the channel through which the air has to be brought from them is 8 feet, that is about the ninetieth part of 713; the air was passing at the rate of 542 feet per minute through the 8 feet area. Therefore, if I could divide that over the whole district, the velocity in all those sewers would be 6 feet per minute or ⅕ of a mile per hour. But we have shown already that there exist in the sewers from other causes velocities amounting to 100 feet per minute and upwards; and 6 feet per minute is practically speaking stagnation and not ventilation.”

This experiment was undoubtedly one that if it had been continued (instead of being abandoned), and the errors corrected, would have led to a more practical result. The area of the air space to the furnace was 8 feet, and the current 542 feet, or equal to 6 miles an hour. If this current had been the same in the sewers as in the channel, the suction produced on the water-traps of the small drains attached would lift the water in each trap a little more than 3 inches. But as the ordinary trap has only an average 2-inch dip, the weakest would have been at once sucked and the experiment a failure. Had the dips of the traps been 4 inches, the drains would have remained sealed except at the intended inlets. The air being supplied at the ends would have gone through the sewers without breaking the water-seal, providing that the air space between the crown of the sewer and the sewage was not in any way blocked. If the current in the sewers had been less than 200 feet per minute, the ordinary trap would have effectually sealed the various inlets.

Had the average area of gas space above the sewage been 8 feet, the whole of the 6½ miles of sewers would have been emptied of its gas and supplied with fresh air in about an hour. The different areas should not have been considered, but the total quantity of gas taken.

The velocities of 100 feet here mentioned, is accounted for as follows. Should the sewage in any part of the sewers lower itself, causing an additional gas space in that part of the sewer, the rush of gas in the sewer to fill the space would cause this 100 feet per minute current.

These hitherto unaccountable currents in sewers and drains are produced by the variation of the gas space above the sewage, the result of water being thrown in at the various inlets.

The gases of a sewer may be passing backward and forward in currents varying from 100 to 300 feet per minute, and not any ventilation would take place except at the gratings, and this would be very little indeed when the gas in the sewer was of a heavier gravity than the atmosphere.

Speaking on the same subject, Colonel Haywood says, “a down draught so complete as to be superior to the diffusive power of the gases, you cannot start with a velocity of less than 2 miles an hour, and suppose the whole district has been so arranged as to have a sufficient exhaustive power, the mere opening of a water-closet, or the enlarging or the putting in of a new drain into a sewer, or the making of a hole a foot square, or a servant taking up a bell trap in a sink, or a sewer-man lifting a side entrance covering, would very much destroy the power of the furnace, and unless you had a gigantic power sufficient to guard against these casualties the system could only be a failure.”

What is here meant is, suppose that if the whole of the 6½ miles of sewers were emptied of their gas at a velocity of 2 miles an hour, the poisons from the sewage would not be noticeable or injurious in the atmosphere of the drain. If each inlet to the sewer was trapped, the opening of a water-closet or the opening of a bell trap in the sink would not have affected the 2 miles an hour current in the sewers.

Had the currents in the sewers near the furnace of the clock-tower been kept at 2 miles an hour, the traps being tight, and attention been paid to the compression of the gases in the sewers by the water entering them, the experiment would have been in a measure a successful one.