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18
ditch and water course which flows down the Wickham Valley
and takes the overflow of these cesspools and others in Wickham
Lane. I frequently inspected these nuisances, and pressed on
the Vestry the need of constructing a new sewer. The Vestry
decided to do this and plans were prepared. Some delay
occurred in obtaining the sanction of the County Council, but
the work has now been advertized for contract, and will I hope
be completed before my next report.
3. Inspector Rance discovered, in testing with the smoke
machine, an obstructed double combined drain passing under a
house in Barth Road into the sewer which goes along Hartville
Road. I visited it with Inspector Duck and found the pipes
three parts full and the sewage almost stagnant. The sewer
was also found silted up, running half full with an almost imperceptible
flow. The matter was referred to the Surveyor, who
filled up the combined drain under the house, and constructed a
new drain at the back of the houses opening into a sewer in
Benares Road. The sewer is frequently flushed with a water
cart.
Drain Testing.
4. Previous to 1894 the Vestry, and its predecessor, the
Board of Works, had employed no system of drain testing. The
Inspectors had occasionally used smoke rockets and tests, such
as Kemp's, for discovering the soundness of traps, and a few
drains had been tested by a smoke machine, borrowed from the
Woolwich Local Board. In March of last year the Vestry on
my advice purchased an improved form of smoke machine, made
by Burns Brothers, which has been found to act in a very