View report page

64
SEWER VENTILATION.
The question of how to ventilate the sewers has been one of
considerable trouble ever since the present system of sewage was
inaugurated. If a sufficient number of openings be not made in the
roads to permit the sewer gases to escape, the larger sewers cannot be
entered by the men whose duty it is to cleanse them without fear of
suffocation ; or, in the case of smaller sewers, such gases escape into
the houses connected with them. Where openings are made in the
roads they are a constant cause of annoyance to the inhabitants, and
the complaints having always been both loud and numerous.
Attempts have been made to carry these shafts to the tops of
houses, but this is found to be impracticable, as so many inhabitants
are impressed with the idea that their houses are rendered unhealthy
thereby, and in one out of the only two instances in which permission
was given the shaft had to be removed, as two deaths from typhoid
fever occurred in the house, which of course were attributed to the shaft.
Charcoal boxes have been tried, but these destroy the current of
air, and on entering the Hannibal Road sewer (the ventilators of which
had been fitted with them), I found that the lamps would not burn, and
had to retreat in the dark.
I have therefore arranged a simple contrivance by means of which
the air passes over a series of wicks saturated with Burnett's disinfecting
fluid, which deprives sewer gas of all its smell. The disinfecting boxes
(for such they are) were placed in the ventilator at the junction of
Copley Street and Tillotson Street, Stepney Green, of which constant
complaints were made. It has entirely removed the nuisance, and I
find the cost of working will not exceed one shilling per annum.

I have the honour to be,
Gentlemen,
Your obedient Servant,
JOHN M. KNIGHT,
Surveyor.