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22
In a large number of cases the Traps were choked full bore, the
the channels, benching and lower parts of the chambers, covered
with decomposing sewage matter, and the drainage system only
escaping complete blockage by the fact that some genius had removed
the clearing arm caps through the aperture of which the
drainage was passing as best it could over the decomposing offensive
deposit in the choked Traps and channels.
In several cases the cap of the clearing arm had been removed
entirely, and the imagined security of disconnection compeletly
negatived by actual and direct opening from the sewer. In
many other cases like results and conditions were found in consequence
of these caps not being properly fixed, or which did not fit
the grooves or collars on the clearing arms.
In scores of cases, in fact as one walks along the street it can
be seen that the mica flap valves of the fresh air inlet pipes are
either completely missing or are so defective that they do not close
properly and, in either case, the intended procedure has been quite
reversed, and the imaginary inlet pipe becomes an outlet for foul
air. Many of these pipes are fixed in close proximity to doors and
windows of dwellings where they may be seen daily doing their best
and worst, all being silent, but most emphatic witnesses to the
wisdom or otherwise of conventional sanitary requirements.
Defects, such as badly constructed manholes, defective covers,
absence of effective benching and channelling, leading to the retention
of faecal matter, which were found in numerous cases to be
present, and causing nuisances, may be passed over as more capable
of abatement than the serious defects above which seem inherent in
the system.
I am aware the advocates of the Trapping system are now
asserting that these detects which can no longer be denied or ignored
are caused by the use of a Trap, defective in design or make, that
has been badly fitted.
As a matter of fact, choked Traps and the nuisance arising from
them, have been found in work of a high character and to which no
objection could be taken.