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pipe, etc. There are no definitions of these, and the only thing that one can
gather from the context of the By-laws is that a rain-water pipe carries
rain water only; that, a waste pipe carries only waste water from a bath,
lavatory, or sink; and a soil pipe only carries water soiled by excretal
matters. Rain-water pipes and waste pipes are not allowed to he in structural
continuity with a drain, but the highest point of a drain is the top of the vent
pipe, and the soil pipe and the vent pipe are in structural continuity with a
drain, but neither a soil pipe nor a vent pipe appears to be a drain, nor is there
anything to show where a soil pipe ceases and a drain begins. There is no
reason why a soil pipe or a drain should not be vertical, oblique, or horizontal
in direction; mere verticality cannot convert the drain into a soil pipe, nor
can horizontality convert a soil pipe into a drain, as either pipe of either kind
may assume either direction. The only conclusion that it appears possible to
draw is that a soil pipe becomes a drain as soon as it is joined by a branch,
whether that branch carries soil, waste water, or surface water; one of these,
or any two, or all three. Similarly it is possible for a branch of a drain tocarry
only waste water or only rain water, and from the trapped gully where it
commences to run horizontally or vertically or obliquely to the point where
it joins the main drain or another branch.
There does not appear to be any valid reason why the gully or gullies
receiving waste water or rain water should not be situated at a roof level or at
any higher level than the absolute ground, provided thai the piping is in iron.
This brings me to the point upon which I desire to lay emphasis, namely, that
it is possible to construct drainage much more advantageously under disadvantageous
circumstances in iron than in earthenware, and that it is desirable that
special by-laws or provisions should be made for construction in iron. For
instance, it is possible to conceive an iron drainage system with a manhole
situated on the first floor and gullies slung on the wall, in fact, this is the manner
in which the Officers' Building of the London and North-Western Railway
Company on the east side of Cardington Street is drained, being built on iron
columns from the ground upward, so that the basement and ground floor are
absent in order to make room for rolling stock, and so that the drainage is
raised sufficiently to discharge into the sewer in Cardington Street. This is an
exceptional case perhaps, but there are other cases which illustrate similar
requirements, and the construction of drainage in iron gets over many
difficulties which would be insuperable if constructed in earthenware and
carried out scrictly in accordance with the By-laws as at present framed and
interpreted. For instance, it should be permissible to discharge a trapped iron
gully into an iron soil pipe, provided that the point of junction is furnished
with a clearing eye, gas and water tight, and that the trap of the gully is
secured against syphonage and kept constantly charged by a waste pipe or
pipes, and not only by a rain water pipe or pipes, and that the gully opening is
situated in the open air.
I beg to recommend that in addition to supporting Hampstead in
asking the Loudon County Council to amend the Drainage By-laws so as
to define whose duty it shall be to comply with the By-laws as to the
depositing of plans of drainage, and to comply with the By-laws as to the
construction of drainage, that the St. Pancras Borough Council should
also ask the London County Council to insert in the interpretation clause
definitions of rain water pij e, waste pipe, soil pipe; and also provide by