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ground are tested with water, pipes above ground with smoke or air.
The numbers of each test employed were:—
Chemical 462
Water 391
Smoke 274
Air 29
Offensive Smells from Sewer Ventilators.—A number of complaints
were investigated, and the attention of the County Council called
thereto, where the ventilators were on main line sewers; the others
were dealt with by the Works and Highways Departments of the City
Council, and special attention was given to the prevention of accumulations
of foul gases at particular spots.
Interceptors on House Drains.—A Departmental Committee has been
appointed by the Local Government Board to inquire with regard to
the use of intercepting traps on house drains, and incidentally on the
question of ventilation of sewers. The City Council had already
considered the question of abolishing the use of intercepting traps
between the house and the sewer in 1906, and resolved that so far as
Westminster is concerned they ought to be required (Minutes, pp. 326
and 338). I was authorised to give evidence before the Committee,
and in doing so pointed out that very few of these traps were found
obstructed in Westminster; that where obstruction occurred it was due
to one of the following reasons: improper setting, want of sufficient fall
to drain, want of proportion of trap to drain, obstruction in sewer
preventing outflow of drain contents. The experience of the Council's
sanitary inspectors is that constant supervision has to be exercised in
order to prevent drains and traps being improperly constructed or laid.
It has been suggested that the interceptors should be done away with,
in order that each house drain and soil pipe should act as a ventilator
for the sewer. This is quite unnecessary ; the proper remedy is to have
the sewers properly constructed and kept clean. Under such circumstances
the amount of ventilation required is, in the absence of abnormal
conditions, very small, and street openings into the sewers would cease
to be a nuisance. The difficulty in obtaining such ideal conditions is
doubtless that of expense, hence engineers have had to make openings
in the roadway to render the sewers tolerable for the men employed in
them. As, however, this leads to annoyance and injury to the public,
and is prohibited by law (Metropolitan Management Act, 1855,
Section 71), various methods have been tried to obviate this. In Westminster,
the use of screens of iron and of canvas have been used with
success ; these act by sectionizing the sewer, and, in the case of the canvas,
partly by filtering the air. The use of a water-spray for washing the