Reports and correspondence respecting the drainage of the new palace at Westminster : January, 1849.

  • London (England). Metropolitan Commission of Sewers.
Date:
[1849]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Reports and correspondence respecting the drainage of the new palace at Westminster : January, 1849. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    28/32 (page 26)
    3oo 26 Mr Austin's Observations. tion above referred to, from the evils of which the New Palace is said to have been protected by the 66 safety ” flap.* Cut off from all possibility of ventila¬ tion, with constant foul deposit therein, the whole length of this sewer must shortly become nothing better than a vast retort, capable of holding some 15,000 cubic feet, in which the foulest gases will be perpetu¬ ally generating and escaping in a concen¬ trated form into the buildings. It is a fallacy to suppose that flaps, placed at the mouths of the drains, com¬ municating with the sewer, will at all times prevent the escape of this dangerous mi¬ asma. Even supposing that the contact of the surfaces could at all times be perfectly preserved, every time that a discharge takes place, and the flap is raised, an opening is formed through which the foul and pent-up gases will rise and escape into the building as indicated in this section. Mr Barry expresses himself doubtful as to the object of the diagram (on page 6 of the Report) exhibiting the discharge from a drain entering the sewer at the top, the force of which, acquired by the fall, stirs up the deposit at the bottom. I apprehend that the Committee will have no doubt upon the subject, and it will therefore scarcely be necessary to explain to them the great errors in principle which such a construction involves, and which it was thought would have been perceived at a glance, even by those little acquainted * Inquiry has been made as to the de¬ struction of this flap complained of by Mr Barry, and there is every reason to suppose that the person or persons guilty of the act were in no way connected with the Com¬ mission of Sewers.