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Management Act, but in such close contiguity to the Parishes of Hammersmith
and Fulham as to be as prejudicial to them, as it is to that in which
it actually stands. The authorities of Barnes have already taken action
before the magistrate, and, I believe, intend to prosecute an indictment at
the sessions, a proceeding which should receive every possible countenance
and support from the authorities and inhabitants of the Fulham District.
An order has been obtained from the magistrate compelling the proprietors
to provide covercd receptacles on the premises for the refuse from the
works, and to prevent its being poured into an adjoining open ditch,
communicating with the Thames. The Conservators of the river have
also prohibited its flowing in any way thereto.
VENTILATION OF SEWERS.
The subject of the Ventilation of Sewers has occupied much of my
attention during the last 12 months, and in conjunction with Mr. Bean,
your Surveyor, I have been engaged in a series of experiments with reference
to the deodorization of their gases.
On the 23rd of September last I presented to the Committee a
Report upon this subject, which, as it has not been published, I beg
permission to refer to and attach hereto.
Since the date of that Report, in consequence of its favourable reception
by yourselves, the Board of Works have had constructed two cast-iron
ventilators of the kind described. One of these has been placed in the
Broadway, and the other in the Bridge Road. Hammersmith. Upon
these I have for several weeks been making observations, but the season
of the year has not been favourable for obtaining definite results.
From the tests, however, to which the apparatus has been subjected,
I feel perfectly convinced the principle is that which offers the greatest
chance of remedying the evils arising from the present ventilating
shafts.
The results of my experience go to prove that the mechanical obstruction
offered by the charcoal does not prevent the free and easy
egress of the sewer air, a difficulty which, a priori, there was reason to fear
would seriously militate against its use.
I am not in a position yet to give you more than an outline of my
opinion as to what may be expected to be accomplished. It will require a
patient series of investigations throughout the summer months to ascertain
the full powers of the apparatus.
I may observe that the Broadway shaft presents the severest trial to
which it can be subjected, constructed as it is over one of the largest
sewers existing in the district, receiving an enormous quantity of sewage
matter from an extensive area, and being immediately in contiguity with
an old and very offensive sewer under Queen Street. It is worthy of
remark that though the Bridge Road Sewer is continuous with that at the
Broadway, and I believe, of the same dimensions, there is a concentration
of foetid gases emanating from the latter, not experienced from the
former sewer ; this may be accounted for from the fact, that in the sewers
passing northward to Shepherd's Bush and eastward to Brook Green, from
this point no ventilating shafts exist, neither is there any outlet for
the gases in that portion of the old sewer between the Broadway and the
river.
Hitherto my experiments have been confined to ascertaining the amount
of deodorizing power possessed by dry charcoal, and of the same material
saturated with Condy's Patent Disinfecting Fluid. That this substance
(charcoal), has an extraordinary capability of arresting and absorbing