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Kensington some 30 years ago. Others have formed the subjects of patents; not one of which has
come into general use, a fairly sure indication of their practical inutility. The late Metropolitan
Board of Works and the County Council, alike, expended vast sums on disinfectants with the same
object, to little purpose.
My own view has always been that abatement of nuisance from this cause should be sought
by means for admitting to the sewers copious streams of atmospheric air. In 1887, Sir Henry
Roscoe, F.R.S., who had been retained by the Metropolitan Board of Works as chemical expert
adviser, expressed the view, in a report on "the deodorisation of sewer emanations," that the free
admission of air is the only efficacious means of preventing foul emanations: first, by the oxidation
of putrescent sewage; and second, by the dilution of any offensive gases evolved. "The
policy of closing the air openings to the sewers, instead of allowing as much fresh air to enter as
is possible," was, he said, "based upon a wrong scientific principle; the only feasible plan of
rendering the sewers sweet, being to carry out thoroughly, and on a proper scale, the system of
pipe ventilation recommended (in 1886) in the excellent report of the Board's Special Purposes and
Sanitary Committee."
In my annual report for 1887, reference was made to a system,* having for its object, the
free admission of air to sewers, in regard to which it was stated that Sir Henry Roscoe's assistant
in the investigations undertaken for the Board, and also the flushing inspector of the Metropolitan
Board's sewers in the Poplar district, had spoken favourably. The principle involved in this system
found favour at the Conference (in 1898), of the engineers and surveyors, whose recommendations,
in effect, aimed at securing the multiplication of surface ventilators and upcast shafts, so as to flood
the free space in sewers with fresh air. This, moreover, would appear to be the object aimed at in
the latest patented ("Shone") system of sewer ventilation; power, however, being used for the
extraction of foul air, by means of fans operated by electricity—a plan admittedly costly in installation
and in working.
Here it may be mentioned that the question of sewer ventilation engaged the attention of
the late Metropolitan Board of Works during many years, and formed the subject of several reports
by their engineer, which, so far as they relate to the years 1856-1866, comprise a record of ineffective
or impracticable suggestions. The reports in my possession are:—
(1) Report by the Engineer, Mr. (afterwards Sir J. W.) Bazalgette on "the Ventilation of
Sewers" (6th January, 1866), embodying the results of "experiments . . . for testing the value of
charcoal or other deodorising ventilators"; and (2) Report by the Engineer (31st May, 1866) on a
reference requiring him to report "what experim ents had been made during the preceding twelve
months by himself and the assistant etmineers, with respect to the ventilation of the sewers of the Metropolis,
and the result of such experiments."
The methods to which the engineer's attention had been directed during the period in
question, were (a) by the use of charcoal ventilating grates; (b) by ventilation through chimney
shafts and furnaces; (c) by ventilation through pipes carried to the tops of buildings, &c., and (d)
by diluting the sewage with water.]
(3) Report by the Engineer and Dr. W. A. Miller, F.R.S. (19th December, 1866), on experiments
with respect to the ventilation of sewers through charcoal ventilators. (4) Further report by the
Engineer (31st March, 1869) on a reference requiring him to "report . . . the result of all his most
recent experiments in connexion with the ventilation of sewers, and also any suggestions which he may be
able to make in reference to this question." (5) Report on the ventilation of sewers made in conformity
with a resolution of the "Ventilation of Sewers Committee" that "the various opinions with regard to
the ventilation of sewers which have been arrived at by Committees of the Board employed to inquire
into the subject, and the orders of the Board thereon, be collated and classified in the Clerk's and
Engineer's departments and submitted . .
This last report (18th July, 1876), prepared by Mr. J. E. Wakefield, clerk of the Board,
and approved by the engineer, dealt with the subject in two parts:—
(1) Chronological sketch (1856-1874). (2) Classification of Results, under the headings, (a) General
Conclusions, (b) Methods of Ventilation that have been tried in different localities with a variable amount
of success, (e) Various schemes that have, from time to time, been submitted to the Board with reference
to the ventilation of sewers.
* "A new system of ventilating and puritying sewers," invented and patented in (or about) the year 1877, by the late
Mr Robert Parker, formerly surveyor to the Board of Works for the Poplar district.