SEWAGE DISPOSAL 
IN THE 
UNITED STATES, 
BY 
GEO. W. RAFTER/ M. Am. Soc. C. E., 
AND 
M. N. BAKER, Ph.B., 
Associate Editor, Engineering NEWS 
NEW YORK 
D. VAN NOSTRAND CQMPANY 
LONDON 
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON & COMPANY, Limited 
1894 Copyright, 1893 
By D. VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY 
AU rights reserved 
TROW DIRECTORY 
PRINTING AND BOOKBINDING COMPANY 
NEW YORK DEDICATED 
TO THE HEALTH AND PROSPERITY OF 
AMERICAN CITIES AND TOWNS PREFACE. 
Questions of River Pollution and Sewage Disposal have assumed so 
much importance in this country that no excuse is necessary for put- 
ting forth an American treatise on the subject. The chief object, there- 
fore, of this book is to specifically call the attention of sanitary 
authorities, engineers, and others interested in questions of public 
sanitation, to the fact that we have already accumulated a considerable 
stock of experience in sewage disposal in this country, and that for 
the future Americans, who wish to study the subject in detail, will not 
be obliged, as until recently was the case, to go abroad for the purpose. 
•In making this remark we do not wish to be understood as discour- 
aging the study of foreign precedents in sewage disposal; on the 
contrary, it is cheerfully conceded, inasmuch as the necessity for sew- 
age purification first arose abroad, that consequently the foreign en- 
gineers had the opportunity to attack the problem first, and we may 
very properly profit by their experience. The full idea is that the 
conditions here are generally quite dissimilar from those obtaining 
abroad, and that, with most of the feasible methods of sewage purifica- 
tion now in successful operation, the chances are decidedly in favor of 
quite as much profit from studying carefully the results obtained here 
as can be expected from the casual examination of executed projects 
abroad, which, after all, are for the most part only relatively appli- 
cable. 
The experience at Worcester, Massachusetts, is a striking exemplifi- 
cation of the truth that in the end the American engineer must design 
works to suit his specific case. In the preliminary discussion at 
Worcester it was nearly universally assumed that, by reason of an 
identity of climatic conditions between Worcester and Danzig, the 
sewage irrigation fields of the latter city might be duplicated at 
Worcester, and results obtained quite as successful as those attending 
sewage farming at Danzig. But Mr. Allen took the ground that the 
climatic conditions were sufficiently dissimilar to render an extensive 
sewage farm at Worcester an experiment, relative to which it was im- 
possible to predicate success from what had occurred at Danzig. 
At South Framingham, Massachusetts, however, disposal by broad VI 
PREFACE. 
irrigation and intermittent filtration is in operation on a comparatively 
large scale; and inasmuch as the distance from this town to Worcestei- 
is only twenty-three miles, we may hope to gain in a few years some 
useful experience from these two towns on the relative value of different 
systems of treatment at low temperatures. The extensive intermittent 
filtration works at Marlborough, Massachusetts, in the immediate 
vicinity, may also be looked to for interesting information on the same 
point. 
An attempt has been made to present in Part I. the governing prin- 
ciples of sewage disposal with special reference to American needs; 
while in Part II. there have been given the salient features of the 
principal American sewage disposal works, with, so far as they can be 
obtained, reliable statements of cost of construction and operation. It 
is hoped that the information may be of use, not only to such sanitary 
authorities as Sewer Commissioners and Health Officers, but also to 
those engineers who are looking into the subject for the first time. 
We even venture to hope that it will prove of material benefit to the 
few engineers of ability and experience who have thus far designed 
most of the sewage disposal works of the country; for American 
knowledge of and practice in sewage purification is growing rapidly, 
and has never before been brought together with any degree of com- 
prehensiveness. 
Our references, citations of authorities, and quotations are drawn 
very largely from American sources of information. The reason for 
this is, as already indicated, that we need to know first of all about our 
own special conditions. At the same time we have not hesitated to 
use foreign data when necessary for the completeness of the discussion. 
As conducing to a knowledge of our own special conditions, the ex- 
periments of the Massachusetts State Board of Health may be cited 
first of all. The views of a high English authority on the comparative 
value of these experiments have been referred to in the footnote on 
page 265, and it appears unnecessary to further elaborate this part of 
the subject. The work accomplished by our Agricultural Experiment 
Stations has also been freely drawn upon, with the result, it is believed, 
of furnishing a large amount of new data of special value in projecting 
American sewage disposal works. 
Concluding this part of the subject, it is sincerely hoped that Ameri- 
can engineers and physicists may, by their improvements and increase 
of accurate knowledge of sewage disposal, be able to pay back some 
portion of the obligation which we owe chiefly to English engineers, 
and investigators for our preliminary ideas in relation to sewage puri- 
fication. 
It will be noticed that the amount of original matter in the book is 
relatively small. This is partially owing to the use of the language of PREFACE. 
VII 
the authorities drawn upon, instead of veiling its identity under slight 
verbal changes. For all this, of necessity many elaborate and valuable 
contributions to the literature of sewage disposal have been either 
condensed into a few sentences or dismissed with a brief reference. 
In all cases the aim has been to present as clearly and yet as briefly as 
possible the best available information on the subject under discus- 
sion and to indicate the sources of information. 
Quoted matter has generally been indicated by the use of smaller 
type. Quotations have been freely made in Part I. in all those cases 
where the quoted matter appears necessary for a complete discussion, 
or where nothing can be added to what the various authors have 
originally written. In Part II. we have preferred to quote at length 
from available memoirs prepared by the engineers who have actually 
designed and constructed the different works, because these memoirs, 
by reason of embodying the results of personal experience, are more 
valuable than any mere abstract could be possibly made. We have 
assumed, in short, that the making of the ideal sewage disposal manual 
is to some extent a matter of discreet editing. 
While we have used footnote references liberally, we have not at- 
tempted to make the references to any part of the subject absolutely 
complete. To do this would involve an amount of labor out of all 
proportion to the results. Nevertheless it is hoped that the references 
to original sources of information are numerous enough to enable any 
person wishing to go further into the subject than the limits of a 
volume of this character would permit, to find readily, so far as the 
American literature is concerned, practically all there is of value at 
the present time. 
A word in regard to the joint authorship. In the fall of 1891 Mr. 
Rafter began, at the request of the publishers, D. Van Nostrand Co., 
the preparation of a Manual of Sewage Disposal in the United States. 
Early in 1892 Mr. Baker began the collection, largely by personal 
visits to existing purification works, of data in regard to executed 
works as the basis of a series of articles in Engineering News. Neither 
was aware of the work of the other until about July 1, 1892 ; at which 
time Mr. Rafter had nearly completed the task to which he had set 
himself, while Mr. Baker was just beginning the series of articles on 
executed works which have since appeared in the journal named. A 
comparison of data indicated that Mr. Baker's work on the executed 
projects, by reason of bringing the information more nearly down to 
date, would add to the completeness of the book, and accordingly 
arrangements were made for joining forces. In addition to considera- 
bly extending Part II., Mr. Baker has also made material additions 
to Chapter VII. in Part I., and has revised the whole work so far as 
necessary to include any additional information in his possession. VIII 
PREFACE. 
This revision brings the work down to June, 1893, as completely as is 
practicable in a work of such a character, and the additions include 
descriptions of all the town and city purification works known to be 
in operation to date. That the book is now other than relatively com- 
plete is not pretended; it is merely put forth as representing the best 
effort in this direction of which the joint authors are capable at this 
time. 
Our sincere thanks are due to the many engineers who have cordially 
responded to our requests for information, as well as to the superin- 
tendents of a number of public institutions to whom we have applied. 
Among engineers to whom we are specially indebted may be men- 
tioned Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C.E., J. Herbert Shedd, M. 
Am. Soc. C.E., Samuel M. Gray, M. Am. Soc. C.E., and Chas. A. Allen, 
M. Am. Soc. C.E. 
The major portion of the illustrations have been prepared, specially 
for this work, under the direction of Mr. F. P. Burt, of Engineering 
News. For the illustrations not so prepared, we are indebted to The 
American Society of Civil Engineers, The Engineering Magazine, The 
Engineering Record, and Engineering News. 
G. W. R. 
M. N. B. 
New York, June 1, 1893. CONTENTS. 
PART I. 
DISCUSSION OF PRINCIPLES. 
CHAPTER I. 
PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION. 
PAGE 
Definition of Teems, 1 
The Germ Theory of Disease, 4 
Typhoid Fever, 5 
Responsibility of Purification, 6 
Typhoid Fever at Lowell and Lawrence, ....... 6 
The Bacillus of Typhoid Fever, 7 
Vitality of the Typhoid Bacillus, 8 
Limit of Influence in the Merrimac River, ...... 9 
Limit of Influence in Lakes and Ponds, 9 
The Case of Schenectady, Cohoes, West Troy, and Albany, ... 10 
Why Crude Sewage Should be Kept out of Streams, .... 12 
List of Water-borne Communicable Diseases, 12 
Disinfection of Dejecta, 12 
Importance of Disinfection, 13 
Typhoid Fever at Lausen, Switzerland, 15 
Typhoid Fever in Massachusetts Cities, 17 
Typhoid Fever at New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, ... 18 
Typhoid at Rochester, New York, 20 
The Fundamental Proposition, 23 
CHAPTER II. 
THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 
Definition of Terms, 24 
Important Intercommunicable Diseases, 24 
Glanders, 25 X 
CONTENTS. 
PAGE 
Hog Cholera, 25 
Texas Fever, 26 
Anthrax, 27 
Tuberculosis, 27 
Actinomycosis 28 
Typhoid Fever in Animals, 28 
Blyth's Theory of Typhoid Fever, 29 
The Entozoic Diseases, 30 
The Tape or Intestinal Worms, 30 
An Iowa Case, . .... 30 
Need for Definite Information, 31 
CHAPTER III. 
ON THE POLLUTION OF STREAMS. 
The State of Massachusetts Leads in the Study of Stream Pollution, 33 
Amount of Stream Pollution Investigation, 33 
The Massachusetts Work Reviewed, 34 
Maine, 45 
Connecticut, 45 
Manufacturing Processes and Refuse, 46 
New Jersey, 57 
The Pollution of the Passaic River, .58 
Investigations in Pennsylvania, 63 
Minnesota, 65 
The Illinois Studies, 65 
Self-purification in the Illinois and Michigan Canal, .... 66 
The Law of the Self-purification of Streams, 69 
Stream Pollution in New York, 70 
Protective Legislation in New York, 71 
Classification of Streams with Reference to Pollution, . ... 72 
CHAPTER IV. 
THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF RUNNING STREAMS AND THE RA- 
TIONAL VIEW IN RELATION TO THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE 
BY DISCHARGE INTO TIDE-WATER. 
The Biological Point of View, 75 
Beaver Dam Brook, Massachusetts, 80 
Manurial Constituents of Sewage, 82 
Money Value of Sewage, 83 
Fallacy of the Argument, 83 
The Right Way to Approach the Problem, 84 
Sewage Disposal Works not Properly Subject to Franchise, ... 85 
Disposal into Tide-water, 86 CONTENTS. 
XI 
PAGE 
Disposal into Fresh Water, 86 
The Legitimate Conclusion 89 
The Rational View of Disposal into Tide-water, 89 
CHAPTER V. 
THE COMPOSITION OF SEWAGE MUDS. 
The Conditions Favorable to Sedimentation, 92 
Macadam's Study of the Water of the Leith, Scotland, .... 93 
Dr. Beale's Study of Thames Mud, 94 
Lortet's Results from a Study of the Mud of Lake Geneva, ... 95 
What the Several Studies Indicate, 96 
CHAPTER VI. 
LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CASE. 
How the Right of Property in a Water-course is Derived, ... 97 
Riparian Proprietor's Right to a Stream in its Natural Condition, . 97 
Natural and Artificial Uses of a Stream, 100 
Actionable Pollution, ........... 100 
Distinction between Natural and Artificial Use, . . . . . 101 
The Case of Evans v. Merriweather, . 101 
Riparian Proprietors can Abrogate the Right to the Natural Use, . 102 
Right to the Use of a Stream can be Acquired by Grant, . . . 102 
Prescriptive Rights in Streams, . . . . . . . . .102 
The Case of Bealy v. Shaw, .......... 103 
Popular Views of Prescription, 103 
The Law of Custom, ........... 104 
The Proper Application of the Fundamental Principles, . . . .104 
The Case of Lake Cochituate, 105 
Chancellor Kent's Views, 107 
Gould's Definition of Prescription, 107 
English Cases, 108 
Original Application of the Doctrine of Adverse Possession, . . . 109 
The Relation of Legal Principles to the Development of Science, . 109 
The Mill Acts, 110 
The Law of Eminent Domain, 110 
Chief-Justice Bigelow on Eminent Domain, Ill 
The Underlying Principle of the Mill Acts, 112 
The Principle of Permissive Pollution, 113 
The Views of the Massachusetts Drainage Commission, . . . .113 
The Right of the Legislature to Prescribe Rules for the Protection 
of Streams, 115 
The Important Points, 117 XII 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER VII. 
QUANTITY OF SEWAGE AND VARIATION IN RATE OF FLOW. 
PAGE 
Dearth of Accurate Information, 119 
The Use of Water in American Cities, 119 
The Use of Water does not Follow any Law, 123 
Necessity for Considering Future Growth, ....... 127 
How to Determine the Law of Increase of Population, .... 129 
Generalizations 131 
Cause of Variations in Quantity of Sew age, ...... 131 
The Infiltration of Ground-water, ........ 131 
Provision for Rainfall in Combined Systems, 132 
The Time of Occurrence of Maximum and Minimum Flow', . . . 137 
Results of Sewer Gagings, 140 
A Year's Dally Sewage Pumping Record at Atlantic City, New' Jersey, . 144 
CHAPTER VIII. 
GENERAL DATA OF SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 
The Constituents of Sew'age, 150 
Sew'er Systems-Separate or Combined, 150 
The Average Composition of American Sewage, 152 
The Average Composition of English Sewage, 153 
Relation of American to English Sew'age, 153 
The Composition of London Sewage, 154 
Character of Drainage from Street Surfaces, ...... 154 
The Data of Human Excrements, 155 
Analyses and Values of Fertilizers, 160 
Theoretical Values, 162 
The Fixed Data of Sewage Disposal, 163 
The Mechanical Analysis of Soils 163 
Classification of Soil Particles, 163 
Quality of Material Required for Intermittent Filtration, . . 163 
Mechanical Composition of Materials Used at Lawrence, . . . 166 
Relation between Quality of Filtering Material and Quantity of Ap- 
lied Sewage, 168 
CHAPTER IX. 
DISCHARGE INTO TIDAL OR OTHER LARGE BODIES OF WATER. 
Early American Sew'erage Systems, 169 
Sewerage at Chicago, 169 
Condition of English Towns Fifty Years ago, ...... 170 
Results of the Early Sewerage Systems, 171 PAGE 
Mb. Chesbrough's Chicago Report, 172 
The Chicago River, 173 
The Chicago Water Supply, 176 
Contamination of the Chicago Water Supply, ...... 177 
The Boston Main Drainage, 177 
Early Sewers of Boston, 177 
The Massachusetts Sewer Act of 1709, 178 
The Limits of Original Boston, 179 
The Boston Sewerage Commission of 1875, ....... 180 
Description of the Boston Main Drainage, 182 
CHAPTER X. 
ON NITRIFICATION AND THE NITRIFYING ORGANISM. 
Warington's Paper before the Society of Arts in 1882, .... 188 
Warington's Paper of 1884, 189 
The Massachusetts Investigations, 190 
Disappearance of a Portion of the Nitrogen, 194 
Practical Experiments, 195 
Present Theory of Nitrification, 201 
Denitrification, 201 
CHAPTER XI. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION. 
Definition of the Process, 203 
Re-agents, 203 
Theory of Precipitation, 203 
Conditions Essential fob Success, .' . .204 
Classification of Chemical Treatments, 205 
Capacity of Precipitation Tanks, 205 
Vertical Tanks, 206 
Methods of Sludge Disposal, 207 
Methods of Mixing Chemicals, . 208 
The Massachusetts Experiments on Chemical Purification, . . . 209 
Cost of Chemicals, ............ 209 
Detail of the Experiments, .......... 210 
Experiments with Lime, 212 
Lime and Copperas, 214 
Ferric Sulphate, 216 
Aluminum Sulphate, 217 
Results with Different Amounts of Chemicals but of Equal Value, 218 
Deductions, 219 
Purification of Sewage by Aeration, 222 
Chemical Precipitation by the Use of Manganate of Soda and Nitre, 223 
CONTENTS. 
XIII XIV 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XII. 
BROAD IRRIGATION. 
PAGE 
Special Applications of Broad Irrigation in the United States, . . 225 
Preparation of Land for Pipe and Hydrant System of Distribution, . 225 
Ridge and Furrow System, 227 
Catchwork System, 228 
Cost of Distribution Systems, 229 
Underdraining, ' 232 
Irrigation Practice 234 
Sewage Irrigation Fallacies, 234 
Report of the Sewage of Towns Commission, 235 
Results Obtained on the Application of Sewage to Meadow and Italian 
Rye Grass, 288 
Results Obtained with Fattening Oxen, 239 
Results Obtained with Milch Cows, 239 
Composition of the Rugby Sewage, 240 
Chemical Composition of the Grass, . 240 
Effect of Sewage on the Mixed Herbage of Grass Land, . . . 241 
Composition of the Milk from the Unsewaged and the Sewaged Grass, 241 
Results Obtained on the Application of Sewage to Oats, . . .241 
General Conclusions, 242 
The Royal Agricultural Society's Sewage Farm Competition, . . . 243 
Exploded Objections, 248 
CHAPTER XIII. 
ON SILOS AND THEIR USE IN SEWAGE FARMING. 
Definition of Terms, 254 
How Silage is Produced, 254 
Early Use of Silos, 255 
The Modern Use of Silos, 255 
The Value of Ensilage in Sewage Farming, 256 
Ensilage in the United States, 257 
Sources of Information, 257 
Experiments with Rye Grass, 258 
CHAPTER XIV. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
Origin of Intermittent Filtration, 261 
Definition of Intermittent Filtration, 262 
The Theory of Intermittent Filtration, 262 
The New Thesis of Intermittent Filtration, 265 CONTENTS. 
XV 
PAGE 
Results with Tank No. 1, • 266 
Tank No. 2 270 
Experiments with Trenches, 270 
Experiments with Fine Soil, .......... 272 
Experiments with Sand Covered with Soil, ....... 273 
Experiments with Peat, Loam, etc., ........ 274 
Experiments with Coarse Gravel, ......... 275 
On the Use of the Effluents for Drinking Water, 277 
Permanency of Filters and Renewal of Sand, 279 
The Effect of Frost and Snow upon Intermittent Filtration at Law- 
rence, Massachusetts, 280 
Frost and Snow at the South Framingham, Massachusetts, Filter Beds, 284 
Snow on the Filter Beds at Summit, New Jersey, 285 
Summary, 286 
CHAPTER XV. 
SUB-SURFACE IRRIGATION, 292 
CHAPTER XVI. 
THE DISPOSAL OF MANUFACTURING WASTES. 
Classification, • 294 
Manufacturing Wastes-How Purified, 294 
Relative Danger to Health, 295 
Difficulties in the Way of Purification, 295 
American Examples, 296 
A Study of Paper Mill Wastes, 299 
CHAPTER XVII. 
ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR AND OF NATURAL SOILS, 
AND ITS RELATION TO SEWAGE PURIFICATION BY BROAD 
IRRIGATION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
Empirical Tendency of English Practice in Sewage Disposal, . . . 303 
Information Still Lacking, 303 
Temperatures of Air and Sewage at Lawrence, 304 
Comparison of Air Temperatures at a Number of Places, .... 306 
Soil Temperature Observations Abroad, 308 
Relation of Specific Heat to Sewage Disposal, 309 
How Heated Bodies Cool, 312 
Solar and Terrestrial Radiation, . . . . . . . . .317 
American Soil Temperature Observations, 321 
Remedies for Frost, 333 
Comparative Estimates, 334 
Deductions, 339 XVI 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
PAGE 
ON BEGGIATOA ALBA AND ITS RELATION TO SEWAGE 
EFFLUENTS, 342 
CHAPTER XIX. 
THE EFFECT OF THE POLLUTION OF STREAMS BY MANU- 
FACTURING WASTES UPON THE LIFE OF FISH. 
Penny and Adams' Experiments, 344 
Saare and Schwab's Experiments, 346 
Experiments of the United States Fish Commission, . 346 
CHAPTER XX. 
CONCLUSIONS TO PART I., 349 
PART II. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF WORKS. 
CHAPTER XXI. 
PAIL SYSTEM AT HEMLOCK LAKE, NEW YORK 351 
CHAPTER XXII. 
THE FULLERTON AVENUE CONDUIT AND THE BRIDGEPORT 
PUMPING STATION, CHICAGO. 357 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION PLANTS AT CONEY ISLAND. ROUND 
LAKE, WHITE PLAINS, AND SHEEPSHEAD BAY, NEW YORK, 369 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE, 
NEW JERSEY 383 CONTENTS. 
XVII 
CHAPTER XXV. 
PAGE 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND MECHANICAL SEPARATION AT 
LONG BRANCH, NEW JERSEY, 399 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS, . . 405 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, . 415 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
DISCHARGE INTO TIDE-WATER AND PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRE- 
CIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND, . . .441 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE STATE HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, 
WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, 456 
CHAPTER XXX. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT 
PULLMAN, ILLINOIS, 460 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE MASSACHUSETTS REFORMATORY, 
CONCORD, 468 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE RHODE ISLAND STATE INSTITU- 
TIONS, 475 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AND BROAD IRRIGATION AT SOUTH 
FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS, 480 XVIII 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
PAGE 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MEDFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS, . 490 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AND BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE 
LONDON, ONTARIO, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, . . . 494 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT 
THE ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE, 500 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHU- 
SETTS, 504 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL 
FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED, 507 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
SUB-SURFACE IRRIGATION AT THE LAWRENCEVILLE, NEW 
.JERSEY, SCHOOL FOR BOYS 511 
CHAPTER XL. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS, . 516 
CHAPTER XLI. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY, . . 522 
CHAPTER XLII. 
LAND DISPOSAL AT HASTINGS, NEBRASKA, 528 XIX 
CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
PAGE 
SURFACE IRRIGATION AT WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA, . . . 532 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
THE USE OF SEWAGE FOR IRRIGATION IN THE WEST, . . 539 
Colorado Springs, Col.-Trinidad, Col.-Fresno, Cal.-Pasadena, Cal.- 
Redding, Cal. - Los Angeles, Cal. - Santa Rosa, Cal. - Helena, 
Mont.-Cheyenne, Wyo.-Stockton, Cal. 
CHAPTER XLV. 
MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS, • . 560 
Sub-Surface Disposal at Lenox, Mass.-Disposal Upon Land and Sedi- 
mentation at Amherst, Mass. - Disposal on Land at Greenfield, 
Mass.-Mechanical Separation at Atlantic City, N. J., and Lead- 
ville, Col.-Electrical Treatment at Brewsters, N. Y.-Chemical 
Precipitation at Canton, O., Chautauqua, N. Y., and the World's Co- 
lumbian Exposition.-Purification Works under Construction. 
APPENDICES. 
I. The English Rivers Pollution Act of 1876, 569 
II. The New York State Act of 1885, 574 
III. Bules and Regulations for the Sanitary Protection of the Waters 
of Hemlock Lake, 575 
IV. The Massachusetts Act for the Protection of Inland Waters as 
Amended in 1888, 578 
V. Decision of Chancellor. Newark, New Jersey, Aqueduct Board v. 
City of Passaic, 579 
VI. The Virginia Act to Prevent the Pollution of Potable Water Used 
for the Supply of Cities, Passed in 1892, 586 
VII. Rules of the New York State Board of Health Governing the 
Preparation of Such Plans for Sewerage and Sewage Disposal 
Works as are Required by Law to be Submitted to that Board 
for Approval, ........... 586 
VIII. The Minnesota Act to Prevent the Pollution of Rivers and 
Sources of Water Supply, 588 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
PLATES. 
PAGE 
I. Chemical Examinations of Croton Water, 1876, 1885-86, and 1888, 71 
II. Daily Sewage Pumpage at Atlantic City, N. J., for One Year, . 145 
III. Chemical Precipitation Works at White Plains, N. Y., . . . 375 
IV. Details of Worcester Precipitation Tanks, 434 
V. Maps of Marlborough Town and Plan of Filter Beds, . . . 504 
VI. Details of Intermittent Filtration Plant at Marlborough, Mass., 505 
VII. Plan and Details of Sewage Farm, Hastings, Neb., . . . 520 
FIGURES IN TEXT. 
PAGE 
1. Water-Works Intakes at Junction of Hudson and Mohawk Rivers, 11 
2. Map of Lausen, Switzerland, 16 
3. Decrease of Free and Albuminoid Ammonia in the Illinois and Mich- 
igan Canal between Bridgeport and Lockport, .... 69 
4. Proposed Multiple Discharge Outlet Sewer at Milwaukee, Wis., 88 
5. Diagram illustrating the Law of Growth of American Cities, . 130 
6. Water Consumption and Sewage Pump age at Atlantic City, N. J., . 147 
7. Mechanical Composition of Sand Used for Filtration at the Law- 
rence Experiment Station, 167 
8. Proportion of Sewage and Lake Water in the Chicago River, . 176 
9. Map showing Original Boston, Old Sewer Outlets, New Intercept- 
ing Sewers, and the Outfall Sewer to Moon Island, . . 181 
10. View of Moon Island Storage Reservoir, Boston Sewerage System, 185 
11. Floating Arm for Decanting Effluent from Tank, .... 205 
12. Plan and Section of Ridge and Furrow System, .... 226 
13. Ridge and Furrow Beds with Cropping, 227 
14. Catchwork System of Irrigation, 228 
15. Distribution System applicable to Land with a Uniform Slope, . 231 
16. Distribution System applicable to a Field Intersected by a Ridge, 232 
17. Combined Pipe and Open Carrier System of Distribution, . . 233 
18. Italian Rye Grass, 246 
19. View of Sewage Farm at Bedford, England, 248 XXII 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
PAGE 
20. View of Sewage Farm at Wimbledon, England, .... 249 
21. Sewage Filtration Fields at Mitcham, England, .... 250 
22. Large Experimental Tanks at Lawrence, Mass., .... 266 
23. Plan and Section of Filter Trenches at Lawrence, . . . 271 
24. Snow-covered Sewage Filter Bed at South Framingham, Mass., . 284 
25. Suggestions for Covered Winter Absorption Drains, . . . 289 
26. Cultivated Filtration Area with Absorption Ditches, Luton, England, 290 
27. Method of Adapting Intermittent Filtration Area to Cultivation 
by Means of Absorption Ditches, 291 
28. Section of High Grade Intermittent Filtration Beds, . . . 291 
29. Settling Basins at Woollen Mills, Hyde Park, Mass., . . . 298 
30. Mechanical Filter at Tannery, Winchester, Mass., . • . 298 
31. Fullerton Avenue Conduit Pumping Station, Chicago, . . . 358 
32. Sections through Fullerton Avenue Conduit 359 
33. Plan showing Location of Bridgeport Canal Pumping Station, . 363 
34. Plan of Bridgeport Pumping Station, ...... 364 
35. Cross-section of Bridgeport Pumping Station, .... 365 
36. Longitudinal Section of Set of Bridgeport Pumping Engines, . 366 
37. Sections of Centrifugal Pumps, Bridgeport, ..... 367 
38. Sketch Plan of Sewage Purification Works at Coney Island, N. Y., 370 
39. Longitudinal Section through Coney Island Tanks and Pump Well, 370 
40. Sectional Plan of Sewage Purification Works at Bound Lake, N. Y., 373 
41. Vertical Sections through Round Lake Works, .... 373 
42. Hinged Screen in Sewage Tank at White Plains, N. Y, . . . 377 
43. Automatic Feed Cock from Lime Tank, ...... 377 
44. Automatic Three-way Cock for Perchloride of Iron Tank, . . 378 
45. Map of East Orange, N. J., and Vicinity, 384 
46. General View of Sewage Disposal Works, East Orange, N. J., . 387 
47. View of East Orange Works, showing Filtration Area, . . 389 
48. General Plan of East Orange Disposal Works, .... 391 
49. Sections through East Orange Disposal Area, 391 
50. Plans and Sections of East Orange Chemical Precipitation Works, 392 
51. East Orange Sludge and Sludge Forcing Receivers, . . . 393 
52. Johnson Filter Press in Operation at East Orange, . . . 395 
53. Plan and Section of Sewage Purification Works at Long Branch, 
N. J., and Sections through Tidal Chamber, ..... 400 
54. Plan of Sludge Compressing Apparatus, Long Branch, N. J., . . 401 
55. Details of Sludge Compressing Apparatus, Long Branch, N. J., . 402 
56. Details of Sludge Compressing Apparatus, Long Branch, N. J., . 403 
57. General View of Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works, . . 411 
58. General Plan of the Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works, . 412 
59. Cross-section through Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works, . 413 
60. Plan of Sewage Disposal Tanks at Worcester, Mass., . . . 432 
61. General View of Worcester Disposal Works, 433 
62. View of Central Channel, Worcester Precipitating Tanks, . . 434 
63. Cross-section of New Lime Agitator, Worcester, Mass., . . 435 
64. Plan of Outlet Sewer at Fields Point, Providence, B. I., . . 451 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
XXIII 
. PAGE 
65. Sections of Outlet Sewer, Providence, R. I., 452 
66. Sections of Outlet Sewer, Providence, R. I., .... 453 
67. View in Storm Outlet of Providence Intercepting Sewers, . . 454 
68. Plan of Disposal Area, Hospital for the Insane, Worcester, Mass , 457 
69. Settling Tank at the Hospital for the Insane, Worcester, Mass., 458 
70. Plan of Sewage Farm at Pullman, III., as Laid Out in 1880, . 462 
71. Screening Tank and Pressure Regulating Valve at Pullman, III., 464 
72. Plan of Disposal Works, Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord, . 469 
73. Receiving and Separating Tanks, Massachusetts Reformatory, . 470 
74. Plan of Disposal Area, Rhode Island State Institutions, Cranston, 476 
75. Screening Basket, Rhode Island State Institutions, . . . 477 
76. Details of Carrier and Drain, Rhode Island State Institutions, . 478 
77. Map of South Framingham, Mass., and Vicinity, .... 481 
78. Plan of Reservoirs and Pumping Station, South Framingham, Mass., 485 
79. Sections through Settling and Filtering Tanks, Medfield, Mass , . 491 
80. Plan and Section through Sewage Outlets and Cesspool, Med- 
field, Mass., ........... 492 
81. Disposal Area, Hospital for the Insane, London, Ont., . . . 495 
82. Section of Absorption Ditches 496 
83. Collecting Tank and Pumping Station, Hospital for the Insane, 
London, Ont., 497 
84. Section of Carrier Ditches, 498 
85. Details of Distributing Well, Hospital for the Insane, London, Ont., 498 
86. Section of Distributing Ditches, ........ 499 
87. Plan of Disposal Works, Second Minnesota Hospital for the In- 
sane, Rochester, Minn., 500 
88. Precipitation Tank, Second Minnesota Hospital for the Insane, . 501 
89. Detaining Tank, Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded, . 508 
90. Plan of Disposal Works, School for the Feeble-minded, . . 509 
91. Receiving and Settling Tank, Lawrenceville, N. J., School, . . 512 
92. Plan of Disposal Worls, Lawrenceville School, . . . .513 
93. Plan and Section of Settling Tank, Gardner, Mass., . . . 517 
94. Inlet to Settling Tanks, 518 
95. Gates on Outlet-pipe from Tank, 518 
96. Plan of Filter Areas, Gardner, Mass., 519 
97. Plan of Filter Areas, Summit, N. J., 523 
98. View of Summit Filter Areas from Road near Northwest Corner, 524 
99. Details of Sewage Carrier, 525 
100. Plan and Elevation of Plug for Carrier, . . .' . . 526 
101. Plan and Section through Tile Chamber, 526 
102. Sections through Tile Chambers and Underdrains at Changes of 
Grade at Embankments, Summit, N. J., 527 
103. Plan of Disposal Works, Wayne, Pa., 533 
104. Screening Chamber, 534 
105. Receiving Tank and Pump House, 534 
106. Distributing Well, 535 
107. Cross-section through Cinder Bank, 535 XXIV 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
PAGE 
108. General View of Disposal Works from North Side of Creek, . 536 
109. General View of Works from South Side of Creek, . . 537 
110. Plan of Sewage Farm at Colorado Springs, Col 541 
111. Plan of Sewage Farm at Trinidad, Col., 544 
112. Sketch of Sewage Outlet Gate, Pasadena, Cal., .... 547 
113. Plan of Sewage Farm, Redding, Cal., 550 
114. Plan of Chemical Precipitation Plant, Canton, O., . . . . 564 
115. Sections of Canton Precipitating Tanks, 564 
116. Elevation and Section of Receiving and Precipitating Tanks, 
World's Columbian Exposition, 566 LIST OF TABLES IN PART I. 
NUMBER 
OF TABLE PAGE 
1. Statistics of Typhoid Fever in Lowell and Lawrence, Mass., 1890-91, 9 
2. Deaths from Typhoid Fever in 13 Cities of Massachusetts before and 
after the Introduction of Public Water Supplies, .... 18 
3. Statistics of Typhoid Fever and Deaths from all Causes in New 
York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, 1870 to 1891, .... 19 
4. Typhoid Fever at Rochester, N. Y., from 1870 to 1891, ... 20 
4 A. Analyses of Water of Blackstone River, made in 1887,1888, and 1889, 43 
4 B. Analyses of Waters of Blackstone River, made in 1889 and 1890, . 44 
4 C. Analyses of Connecticut River Water, made in 1890 and 1891, . . 57 
5. Analyses of Passaic River Water above the Great Falls at Paterson, . 60 
6. Analyses of Passaic River Water between the Great Falls and Dundee 
Lake, ............ 60 
7. Analyses of Dundee Canal Water at and near Passaic, N. J., . . 61 
8. Chemical Changes in Passaic River Water at Six Points, ... 62 
9. Chemical Changes in the Water of the Illinois and Michigan Canal 
while flowing 29 miles from Bridgeport to Lockport, ... 67 
10. Analyses of Water from South Framingham Underdrain, ... 80 
11. Results of Microscopical Examination of Framingham Samples, . 81 
12. Constituents of Sewage, ......... 83 
13. Daily Consumption of Water in Cities of the United States with a 
Population of over 10,000 in 1890, ....... 120 
13 A. Daily Consumption of Water, classified by Amounts and Size of City, 123 
13 B. Population per Water-Tap, classified by Numbers and Size of City, . 124 
13 C. Consumption of Water and Use of Meters in the 50 Largest Cities of 
the United States, .......... 125 
14. Increase in per Capita Consumption of Water, ..... 126 
14 A. Water Pumped per Family at Detroit, Mich., 1853 to 1892, inclusive, 126 
15. Increase in Population in 10 Years in a Number of Cities and Towns 
of the United States with from 8,000 to 50,000 Inhabitants in 1890, 127 
16. Increase in Population in 10 Years in Cities of the United States of 
over 50,000 Inhabitants in 1890, ....... 128 
17. Population of a Number of the Smaller Cities and Towns of the 
United States at each 10-Year Period from 1800 to 1890, . . 129 
18. Population of a Number of the Largest Cities of the United States at. 
each 10-Year Period from 1800 to 1890, ..... 130 
19. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Milwaukee, Wis., 1871 to 1892, . 134 
20. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Detroit, Mich., 1871 to 1892, . . 134 
21. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Cleveland, O., 1871 to 1892, . . 135 
22. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Rochester, N. Y., 1872 to 1892, . 135 
23. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Cincinnati, O., 1871 to 1892, . . 136 
24. Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Atlanta, Ga., 1879 to 1892, . . 136 
25. Rainfalls in Excess of 2.5 Inches in 24 Hours at Vicksburg, Miss., 
1872 to 1892, 136 
26. Heaviest Rainfalls, with Duration, at Shreveport, La., 1872 to 1891, . 137 
27. Total Average Daily Use of Water at Rochester, N. Y., . . . 138 XXVI 
LIST OF TABLES IN PART I. 
HUMBER 
OF TABLE PAGE 
28. Approximate Use of Water at Rochester, N. Y., from the Hemlock 
Lake System by Hours on Three Different Days in 1890, . . 139 
29. Flow of a Number of Outfall Sewers in Providence, R. I., in 1884, . 141 
30. Flow of the Main Outfall Sewer of the State Insane Hospital at 
Weston, W. Va., in January, 1891, 142 
31. Hourly Flow in the Main Sewer at Schenectady, N. Y., . . 143 
31 A. Sewer Gagings at Toronto, Ont., in 1891 144 
31 B. A Year's Daily Sewage Pumpage at Atlantic City, N. J., . . 145 
31 C. Water Consumption and Sewage Pumpage at Atlantic City, N. J., . 14(5 
31 D. Maximum and Minimum Daily Pumpage of Sewage, by Months, at 
Atlantic City, N. J., for the Year ending with November, 1892, . 148 
31 E. Monthly Temperatures and Precipitation at Atlantic City, N. J., . 148 
32. Average Composition of the Sewage Experimented with at Lawrence, 152 
33. Average Composition of Sewage of English Towns, .... 153 
33 A. Means of Analyses of London Sewage, made by W. J. Dibdin in 1883, 155 
34. Weight of the Excrements of 100,000 Persons for a Year, . . . 155 
35. Weight of Excrements per Person per Day and the Organic Nitrogen 
and Phosphates contained therein, ...... 15(5 
36. Weight of Excrements per Person per Year, ..... 156 
36 A. Average Composition of Human Excrements, 157 
36 B. Analyses of Night Soil from Vaults, ....... 157 
36 C. Manurial Constituents of the Excrements of Domestic Animals and 
Human Beings, 158 
37. Analyses of Soils from the South Carolina Experiment Farms, . . 164 
38. Approximate Number and Average Diameter of Particles in One Gram 
of Soil from the Farms of the South Carolina Experiment Stations, 164 
39. Surface Area of Particles in One Gram of Soil from the Farms of the 
South Carolina Experiment Stations, ...... 165 
40. Per Cent, of Empty Space in a Number of Soils in Comparison with 
Average Size of Particles, Approximate Number of Particles, and 
Surface Area, per Gram, 165 
41. Mechanical Composition of the Materials used in a Number of the 
Experimental Filter Tanks at the Lawrence Experiment Station, 166 
41 A. Size and Uniformity Coefficient of Lawrence Filtering Materials, . 167 
41 B. Quantity of Sewage applied to Different Filtering Materials at Law- 
rence, ............ 168 
42. Amount of Sewage passing through the Deposit Sewers of the Boston 
Main Drainage in 1887, and the Amount of Sludge removed, . . 184 
43. Tank Capacity in Relation to Population and Quantity of Sewage at 
Three English Towns . 206 
44. Results of Chemical Treatment in Large Tank at Lawrence, . .211 
45. Summary of Second Experiments on Chemical Treatment at Lawrence, 212 
46. Results of Precipitation with Large Excess of Lime, .... 213 
47. Results of Precipitation with Lime about Equal to the Carbonic Acid, 214 
48. Results of Treatment of Sewage with about 500 Pounds of Copperas 
per 1,000,000 Gallons, and Lime adjusted to the Copperas, . . 215 
49. Results of Treatment of Sewage with 1,000 Pounds of Copperas per 
1,000,000 Gallons, and Lime adjusted to the Copperas, . . 216 
50. Results of Treatment of Sewage with Ferric Sulphate, . . . 217 
51. Results of Treatment of Sewage with Alum, ..... 217 
52. Results of Treatment with Equal Values of Different Chemicals, . 218 
53. Per Cent, of Soluble Organic Matter removed by Chemicals of Equal 
Value, 219 
53 A. Treatment with Lime and Copperas, followed by Aeration of Effluent, 222 
54. Three Years' Experiments at the Sewage Farm in Rugby, England, . 237 
55. Per Cent, of Dry Substance in Crops raised on Experimental Fields, 237 
56. Results of Feeding Unsewaged and Sewaged Grass to Milch Cows, . 238 
57. Statistics of Foreign Sewage Irrigation and Filtration, . . . 247 
58. Per Cent, of applied Nitrogen that appears in the Effluent as Nitrates, 267 LIST OF TABLES IN PART I. 
XXVII 
NUMBER 
OF TABLE PAGE 
59. Number of Bacteria in Sewage applied to Coarse Sand Filter No. 1, 
in the Effluent therefrom; together with the Amount applied, 
Amount of Effluent, and Temperature of Sewage and Effluent, . 267 
60. Mineral Analyses of Sewage applied to Tank No. 1, and of its Effluent, 268 
61. Per Cent, of the Ammonias in the Sewage applied to Tank No. 1, 
which appeared in the Effluent in Comparison with the Percentage 
of the Total Nitrogen in the Effluent, ...... 268 
62. Total Nitrogen applied to Tank No. 1, Amount appearing in the Efflu- 
ent, Amount stored in the Tank, and the Unaccounted-for Balance, 269 
63. Daily Quantity of Effluent in Gallons per Acre, the Average Amounts , 
of Ammonia, Nitrates, and Bacteria in the Effluent, and the Time of 
passing through One Foot in Tank No. 2, Clean, Fine Sand, . . 275 
64. Average Quality of the Effluent from a Fine Gravel Filter in Compari- 
son with the Original Sewage when filtering at the Rate of 108,500 
Gallons per Acre per Day, 276 
65. Average Quality of the Effluent from a Fine Gravel Filter in Compari- 
son with the Original Sewage, after Filtering at Rate of 70,000 
Gallons per* Acre per Day for Seven Months, ..... 276 
66. Comparison of the Effluent from Several of the Experimental Filters 
with Water from Wells in the City of Law'rence in Common Use, 278 
66 A. Per Cent, of Organic Matter remaining in Filters in Winter, . . 282 
66 B. Bacteria in Effluent from Experimental Filters in Winter, . . . 283 
67. Examination of Various Samples of Refuse from Crehore's Paper Mill, 301 
68. Examination of Various Samples of Refuse from Crehore's Paper Mill, 302 
69. Mean Maximum, Mean Minimum, and Mean Temperatures of Air at 
Lawrence during the Winters of 1887-88 and 1888-89, . . . 304 
70. Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperatures of Applied Sewage and 
Effluent at Lawrence, from January, 1888, to April, 1889, inclusive, 305 
71. Winter Temperatures in Europe and the United States, . . . 306 
72. Winter Temperatures of 1886 and 1887 in Michigan, .... 307 
73. Winter Temperatures for a Series of Years in Alabama, . . . 307 
74. Soil Temperatures at the Berlin Sewage Farms in 1884 and 1885, . 309 
75. Heat Retaining Pow'er of Different Soils, ...... 311 
76. Time Sew'age remained on Surface when applied to Sand Filters, . 312 
77. Heating Effect of the Sun on Wet and Dry Soils of Different Colors, 319 
78. Temperatures of the Air and of the Soil at Various Depths, Novem- 
ber, 1890, to April, 1891, inclusive, at State College, Pennsylvania, 322 
79. Temperatures of the Air and of the Soil at Various Depths, Terres- 
trial and Solar Radiation, May to October, 1889, inclusive, at Maine 
State College, Orono, Me., ........ 323 
80. Temperatures of the Air and of the Soil of Various Depths, January 
to April, 1889, inclusive, at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota, . . 324 
81. Temperatures of the Air and Soil at Lincoln, Neb., .... 325 
82. Temperatures of the Air, January to April, inclusive, 1889 and 1890, 
at Fort Collins, Col., ......... 327 
83. Weekly Means of Soil Temperatures at Various Depths, January to 
May, 1889 and 1890, Fort Collins, Col., ...... 327 
84. Temperatures of Air and Soil and Terrestrial Radiation, for 1890, at 
Fort Collins, Col., .......... 327 
85. Difference in Temperature of the Soil at Various Depths in Dry and 
Wet Ground at Fort Collins, Col., in 1890, 328 
86. Monthly Evaporation at Fort Collins, Col., 1887 to 1890, inclusive, . 329 
87. Solar and Terrestrial Radiation at Fort Collins, Col., .... 329 
88. Temperatures of Air and Soil at Various Depths, Auburn, Ala., . 331 
89. Mean of Air, Terrestrial, and Soil Thermometers at Auburn, Ala., . 332 
90. Maximum and Minimum Temperatures of Terrestrial Radiation, Air 
and Soil Thermometers, for 1889, at Auburn, Ala., . . . 332 
91. General Results of Penny and Adams' Experiments on Fish, . . 345 SEWAGE DISPOSAL 
IN THE UNITED STATES. 
PART I. 
DISCUSSION OF PRINCIPLES. 
CHAPTER I. 
PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION. 
Definition of Terms. 
One occasionally meets a misuse of the terms sewerage and sewage, 
and by way of giving a clear idea of the thing discussed we may 
properly begin a treatise on sewage disposal with a definition of the 
leading terms. By sewerage, as here used, we refer to the general 
process of removing the liquid and solid wastes of the human economy 
by water-carriage, while a sewer is the conduit through which, by the 
medium of water, such removal is effected ; sewage, on the other hand, 
will be used as the generic term not only for the combined water and 
waste matters flowing in sewers, but for the mixed solid and liquid 
matters handled by a pail or pneumatic system as well. 
Sewage disposal in its broadest sense may be taken, then, as refer- 
ring to any disposal or treatment of sewage which renders it innocuous 
to human beings; it may include disposal by discharge into tidal 
or other large bodies of water, utilization in sewage farming, or 
by burying, as is sometimes practised with pail systems. 
Classification. 
With this definition, methods of sewage disposal may be classified 
under the following heads : 
I. The use of privies and cesspools. 
II. Collection by pail systems. 2 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
III. The pneumatic systems of Liernur, Berlier, Shone, and others. 
IV. Simple subsidence or sedimentation. 
V. Simple filtration through some artificial substance, as coke, 
excelsior, or ashes. 
VI. Discharge of crude sewage into tidal or other large bodies of 
water. 
VII. Chemical precipitation. 
VIII. Broad irrigation. 
IX. Intermittent filtration. 
X. And finally electrolysis; although this method, while promis- 
ing good results, must still be considered as in the experi- 
mental state.* 
The first three methods will not be considered at all in this treatise, 
* Mechanical filtration may be also possibly regarded as another method of sewage disposal, and 
the Farquhar-Oldham filter is cited as a device of this character, which apparently has limited 
application to small quantities of sewage, as, for instance, to the sewage of detachpd houses. So 
far as the writer knows, it has never been successfully used on a large scale in the United States. 
An unsuccessful trial was made at the Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works a few years ago. 
(See reference to same in Part II.) 
The Lortzing system of combined mechanical and chemical purification may be referred to. 
According to the Inventor's Circular the following combinations of advantages have been 
successfully incorporated in this filter : 
1. The mechanical and chemical treatments are strictly separated, all impurities capable of 
being eliminated mechanically being first extracted before recourse is had to chemicals. 
2. By thus reducing the quantity of chemicals used, not only their cost is saved, but the 
quantity of the final products is diminished, and therefore the expense of dealing with them 
reduced to a proportionate degree. 
3. By the provision of means for circulating the same chemicals repeatedly, it is possible to 
employ certain difficultly soluble chemicals, which at present cannot be used at all, and the cost of 
which is merely nominal. The small cost of these materials is, however, only part of the 
advantage gained by their use; a further great advantage is, that being difficultly and slowly 
soluble, they act at first as mechanical precipitants; and afterwards, as they slowly dissolve in 
their course of circulation, their chemical action comes into play. 
4. The working of the apparatus is almost automatic, and requires very little manual labor. 
5. Owing to its special mechanical principles of construction and its continuous working, no 
interruption being necessary for the purpose of clearing out the sediment, the space taken up by 
the apparatus and buildings, as compared to the quantity of work done, is reduced to a small 
fraction of what is now necessary. 
G. Owing to the provision of natural filter-beds within the apparatus, which are formed by the 
sedimentary matter itself, the prime cost of additions, as well as the disadvantage of their unduly 
increasing the bulk of the by-products, is saved. 
7. Such filters act automatically, and can be continuously and expeditiously cleaned out without 
any stoppage of the working. Owing to the sediments being thus removed from day to day, no 
time is given for decomposition and its injurious consequences. 
8. It will be clear that, as the quantity of mechanical and chemical admixtures during the 
process is very greatly reduced, the really valuable ingredients of the sewage are contained in the 
final by-products in a concentrated form, which transforms these products into a valuable 
marketable commodity, whilst for the converse reason the products attained by the present 
method are rarely worth the cost of transport, and often absolutely valueless. 
For further details of the Lortzing system see (1) the inventor's circular, " Improvements in the 
Method of, and Apparatus for, Purifying the Water-Carried Sewage of Towns," etc.; (2) an abstract 
of this circular, with the illustrations, may be found in Eng. News, vol. xxii. (1889), p. 362. 
The Lortzing system appears to be, so far as the actual purification process is concerned, essen- 
tially a chemical treatment, to which a certain amount of mechanical detail has been added. It 
also illustrates the recent development of chemical treatment in vertical tanks, for further infor- 
mation regarding which see Chapter XI., on Chemical Precipitation. SEWAGE DISPOSAL A NEW SUBJECT IN THE UNITED STATES. 
3 
except that a short chapter is included in Part II. descriptive of the 
pail system at Hemlock lake, N. Y.* 
Sedimentation and simple filtration will not be considered any fur- 
ther than as, at times, useful adjuncts to the more positive systems of 
purification. Experience in England has amply demonstrated that 
they have little claim to be considered systems of purification by 
themselves. 
In the case of disposal into tidal or other large bodies of water the 
problem to be solved is, in its engineering features, purely one of 
physics, while that involved in disposal by chemical precipitation, 
broad irrigation, or intermittent filtration, may be considered as also 
including, in addition to the physical features, problems in chemistry 
and biology. With this understanding it may be premised that the 
chief object of the present work is to treat of sewage disposal by 
chemical precipitation, broad irrigation, and intermittent filtration, and 
that only a relatively small amount of space will be devoted to the dis- 
cussion of disposal into tidal or other large bodies of water. 
Again, electrolysis will not be discussed in this work.f 
Sewage Disposal a New Subject in the United States. 
| Sewage disposal, in its practical application, is comparatively a 
new subject in the United States; but the rapid growth of population, 
with its movement into cities and towns, has led to a large number 
of cases throughout the country in which sewage is discharged into 
streams, ponds, or lakes which are also the sources of public water 
* The pneumatic systems have been thoroughly described elsewhere, and inasmuch as it is im- 
possible, at the present time, to either add anything to what has already been said in regard to such 
systems, or give any examples of their use in American practice, it is sufficient to merely refer 
the reader to some of the sources of information which are accessible in American sanitary litera- 
ture, namely: 
(1) The Sanitation of Cities and Towns, and the Agricultural Utilization of Excreted Matters. 
A Report on Improved Methods of Sewage Disposal and Water Supplies. By C. W. Chancellor, 
M.D., Sec. Md. St. Bd. Health, 1887. Pamphlet, 176 pages. 
(2) Proposed Plan for a Sewerage System, and for the Disposal of the Sewage of the City of 
Providence. By Samuel M. Gray, City Engineer. 1884, pp. 22-30. 
(3) Berlier System, &c., Eng. and Bldg. Record, vol. vi., p. 376; vol. x., p. 411. 
(4) Col. Geo. E. Waring's Sanitary Drainage of Houses and Towns, where may be also found 
the main facts about dry earth systems, vaults and privies, and pail systems. 
Wm. Paul Gerhard's The Disposal of Household Wastes (No. 67 Van Nostrand's Sei Ser.) may 
be also consulted. 
+ The available information in regard to the electrolysis of sewage may be found in (1) Eng. 
News, vol. xxi., p. 339, and vol. xxii., p. 387; (2) Eng. and Bldg. Record, vol. xiii. (1890), p. 114; 
(3) Sci. Am. Sup., May 4, 1889, Nov. 23, 1889, and Apr. 25, 1891. 
See also description of the Hardy system of sewage purification, in which electrical treatment is 
proposed as an adjunct, in Eng. News, vol. xxi. (1889), p. 88. 
J A portion of the following discussion originally appeared (1) in a paper on Sewage Disposal in 
the United States, in The Eng. Mag., vol. ii., No. 4 (Jan. 1892); and (2) in a Report to the Trus- 
tees of the Weston, W. Va., State Insane Hospital. In Jour. W. Va. House of Delegates for Feb. 
18, 1891. Both by Mr. Rafter. 4 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IX THE UNITED STATES. 
supplies. The drinking of water containing human excrement is a 
disgusting and dangerous practice, and we cannot hope for immunity 
from communicable diseases until the custom is entirely discontinued. 
The fact that there are a number of places where this condition exists 
has enforced the necessity for sewage purification, and made it a vital 
question demanding immediate solution. 
As always happens when new conditions arise, numerous remedies 
are proposed, many of them bearing little or no relation to the case to 
be treated ; and by way of assisting to a clear understanding of the 
present state of the whole question, it is proposed to give herein a 
presentation of (1) some of the main reasons why sewage purification 
may be considered in many cases an imperative necessity ; (2) a brief 
statement of the approved methods of effecting sewage purification ; 
and (3) an account of the principal sewage purification works, already 
in operation in this country, together with a description of a few 
notable disposal works designed to remove sewage without purifica- 
tion. 
In the beginning, then, we need to understand clearly why sewage 
purification is, in many cases, an imperative necessity ; and by way 
of assisting to such understanding, we will present a short statement 
of the leading facts, as now understood, in relation to the causation 
of communicable diseases, and the bearing of such facts on sewage 
disposal. 
The Germ Theory of Disease. 
Certain diseases of men and animals are communicable from one in- 
dividual to another, and the modern studies in bacteriology show that 
some of them are not only communicable between individuals of the 
same species, but are interchangeable between animals and men, and 
between men and animals. 
The germ theory of disease as announced in the last few years is the 
most rational explanation of the causation of communicable diseases 
that has yet been advanced, and, without asserting its absolute cor- 
rectness, it may be still said that at the present time all advanced 
sanitarians assume its correctness, and the best sanitary work is exe- 
cuted on the supposition that the said theory is essentially correct. 
It is important that this be thoroughly understood, because the as- 
sumption of essential correctness of the germ theory forces upon sani- 
tary authorities the responsibility of not only taking certain precautions 
and providing preventive measures always, but leaves upon them the 
responsibility of possibly imperilling human life in case of neglect. 
The germ theory assumes that the active causes of communicable or 
contagious diseases are minute, living organisms, for the most part 
capable of independent life both within and without the animal body. TYPHOID FEVER. 
5 
They belong among the Schizomycetes, or fission-fungi, embracing the 
lowest and least developed forms of life in the vegetable kingdom, and 
they may hence be considered the very simplest forms of plants. 
Some of the forms are bacilli, micrococci, spirilla, vibrios, all of which 
may be referred to as bacteria. 
Many forms of bacteria are harmless and must be looked upon as the 
beneficent friends of man, doing him many a good turn which other- 
wise he would find it difficult to accomplish. Others are the morbific 
causes, when they gain access to the human economy, of the various 
infectious or communicable diseases. Attention may be here directed 
to the fact that the bacteria, although microscopic in size, are still, so 
far as the evidence goes, divided into distinct species, and by conse- 
quence each contagious disease has its own specific germ, which must 
be present in every case before that particular disease can be de- 
veloped. 
Once introduced into the animal body, however, the specific germ, 
after a period of incubation, finally grows and multiplies enormously; 
so that while a single germ, or the least atom of infectious material, 
serves to inoculate a disease in a susceptible person, the contagious 
matter produced in the course of the disease may be sufficient to inocu- 
late many thousands. In each special disease, the contagion multi- 
plies chiefly in the particular tissues which are especially subject to its 
action, and the infective germs are cast off from the body with the 
secretions of those tissues. Thus, in typhoid fever, the seat of the 
disease is such that the infectious matter passes away in large quanti- 
ties in the dejections from the bowels. 
Typhoid Fever. 
The period of incubation in typhoid is a long one, of from 14 to 20 
days, while the course of the disease after full development is usually 
as many more. Frequently this disease is of so mild a character, that 
the person having it is unaware of its presence. This constitutes a 
walking case, but the dejections from such are quite as dangerous as 
from the severest cases. A walking case of typhoid may go about for 
a number of weeks, sowing the germs of the disease broadcast with 
every dejection, absolutely without knowledge of the fact, and with no 
unpleasant sensation other than that which accompanies being slightly 
unwell. 
How Typhoid Germs Gain Access to the Human Economy. 
The germs of typhoid usually gain access to the animal economy 
through the medium of drinking-water, although the germs may be 6 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
present in the air of sewers receiving the dejections of typhoid 
patients, as has been demonstrated by Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, of the 
University of Michigan. When this is the case, breathing the sewer 
air will lead to the production of the disease, as happened at the Jack- 
son prison, in a case studied by Dr. Vaughan.* 
Usually, however, the germ of typhoid, by reason of passing from 
the body of the patient in the dejections, is liable to be present in the 
water we drink rather than in the air we breathe, and the length of 
time the germs will survive, after passing from the human body into a 
stream of water as a constituent of sewage, becomes a practical ques- 
tion of considerable importance in connection with sewage disposal, 
especially where a stream of moderate size receives sewage at a given 
point, and is at the same time, lower down, the source of a public 
water supply. 
Responsibility of Purification. 
The question, Upon whom does the responsibility of purification rest? 
has been raised in a number of cases, and from the foregoing considera- 
tions it may be concluded that it rests upon every community, manu- 
facturing establishment, public institution, or individual whose sewage 
outfall is into a stream, pond, lake, or other body of water, which either 
is or may be the source of a public water supply at any point fairly 
within the influence of the inflowing sewage. In this view, the further 
question at once arises as to what may be considered the legitimate 
limit of influence; to this a definite answer is afforded, in one case, by 
some experiments on the vitality of the germ of typhoid fever, as 
detailed by Hiram F. Mills, A.M., C.E.f 
Typhoid Fever at Lawrence and Lowell. 
Ill the month of November, 1890, the Massachusetts health returns 
indicated that the number of deaths by typhoid fever in Lowell far 
exceeded that of the whole city of Boston. The returns also showed a 
rapid increase at the same time in Lawrence, and, as no similar in- 
crease appeared in the other cities of the State, the State Board of 
Health made the matter the subject of special investigation in these 
two cities. Lowell has a population of 77,696, Lawrence 44,654, and 
Boston 448,477, all in 1890. Lawrence and Lowell are on the Merrimac 
river, Lawrence being nine miles down the river from Lowell. Both 
cities take their water supply from the Merrimac, and the crude sewage 
of Lowell is discharged into the same stream a short distance below 
* 16th An. Rept. Mich. St. Bd. of Health, pp. 186-194 (1888). 
+ 22nd An. Rept. of the Mass. St. Bd. of Health (1890). Typhoid Fever in its Relation to 
Water Supplies, by Hiram F. Mills, A.M., C.E., pp. 525-543. tytpiioid fever a preventable disease. 
7 
the Lowell water supply intake. A probable cause of the contamina- 
tion of the Lowell water supply at this time was found in the discovery 
of the discharge of the dejections of typhoid patients into Stony brook, 
a tributary of the Merrimac, three miles up stream from the Lowell 
water works intake.* 
The Bacillus of Typhoid Fever. 
It was also found that such discharge was, in proper sequence of 
time, followed by a rapid increase in the number of deaths from 
typhoid in Lowell; the increase there being further followed by 
an alarming increase in the number of deaths from typhoid in Law- 
rence. In December, bacteriological examinations of water drawn 
from the service pipes in Lawrence resulted in finding the bacillus of 
typhoid in the Lawrence supply. The bacillus of typhoid, or, as it is 
frequently called, Eberth's bacillus, is a rod-like bacillus with rounded 
ends. It is a plant with normal specimens in« in length and 
about in. in diameter. At the ends are hair-like appendages, 
technically called cilia. In cases of typhoid these bacilli multiply in 
enormous numbers, the seat of their greatest activity being in the 
Peyers' glands, although they have also been found in the mesenteric 
glands, larynx, and lungs of patients dead of typhoid. The typhoid 
germs are propagated either by fission or from spores. In propaga- 
tion by fission each rod divides into two, each of which, after attaining 
maturity, again divides, and so on. Multiplication by spores is not yet 
fully understood, though in a general way it may be stated that spores 
form in the interior of bacilli, after the manner of spore multiplication 
in other cryptogams. The spores are much smaller than bacilli, and 
can only be seen with the most powerful objectives known to modern 
microscopists. It is probable that spores, when once formed, possess 
the power of survival under very adverse conditions, while the bacilli, 
by reason of possessing less vitality, more easily succumb.! 
Typhoid Fever a Preventable Disease. 
The statement may be made that typhoid fever is, in the fullest 
sense, a preventable disease. Keeping it out of the food we eat, the 
air we breathe, or the water we drink, is an absolute preventive ; or, if 
* Nashua and Manchester, New Hampshire, and a number of other towns on the river above 
Lowell also discharge crude sewage into the Merrimac. 
+ For discussion of formation of typhoid spores, with references to the literature and history of 
the subject, see paper, Experimental Studies on the Causation of Typhoid Fever, with Special Ref- 
erence to the Outbreak at Iron Mountain, Michigan, by Vaughan and Novy; 15th An. Rept. Mich. 
St. Bd. Health (1887), pp. 2-11; also, The Specific Organism of Typhoid Fever, by Geo. W. 
Fuller, S.B., Technology Quarterly (Boston), vol. iv., No. 2, July, 1891. 
An extended bibliography of the bacillus of typhoid fever is given in Sternberg's Manual of 
Bacteriology (1892), pp. 808-11, which includes 82 references to different papers, etc. 8 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
present in either, its destruction before allowing it to enter the human 
body is equally a preventive. Water, milk, or other drink or food sus- 
pected of containing it, should undergo a degree of heat equivalent 
to the boiling point of water for at least 30 minutes, as experience has 
shown that this will more than kill the most refractory spores.* 
Returning to the Massachusetts Board's investigation of the 
epidemics of typhoid at Lowell and Lawrence, the practical ques- 
tion is at once raised as to whether (1) the numerous cases in Lowell 
may be justly ascribed to the known contamination of Stony brook 
above the Lowell water-works intake; and (2) whether the cases 
at Lawrence are also due either to the same cause, or, further, to an 
accession of typhoid germs in the water of the Merrimac river from 
the sewers of Lowell, which presumably received the dejections 
of many persons suffering from the disease in that town ? The an- 
swer to both questions, as given in the report, is a decided yes, and 
we may now inquire whether typhoid germs, which grow in the human 
body at blood-heat, will survive in water only a few degrees above 
freezing long enough to pass, in the ordinary flow of the river, from 
the Lowell sewers to the Lawrence intake, thence through the 
distribution pipes to the services, thence into the houses, and finally 
into the bodies of the citizens of Lawrence. The temperature of the 
river water in November, 1890, was from 45° to 35°. 
Taking the mean velocity of the river, it is found that the time from 
the Lowell sewer outfall to the Lawrence water-works intake is eight 
hours. Entering the reservoir the same day, the water would certainly 
go to the consumers through the service pipes in from a week to ten 
days; and the inquiry is narrowed to finding out whether the typhoid 
germ would live from seven to ten days in the Merrimac river water 
when at a temperature of from 45° to 35°. 
Vitality of the Typhoid Bacillus. 
To settle this interesting question, the Massachusetts Board made a 
series of experiments by inoculating water from the Lawrence service 
pipes with typhoid germs, and keeping it in a bottle surrounded by ice 
at near the freezing point for a month. Each day one cubic centimetre 
was taken out, and the number of typhoid germs therein determined 
by the usual culture methods. The number was found to decrease 
from day to day, although some survived 24 days as follows: 
Germs. 
On the first day there were 6,120 
On the fifth day there were 3,100 
* Disinfection and Disinfectants : Their Application and Use in the Prevention and Treatment 
of Disease and in Public and Private Sanitation. By the Committee on Disinfectants appointed 
by the American Public Health Association. limit of influence in lakes and ponds. 
9 
On the tenth day there were 490 
On the fifteenth day there were 100 
On the twentieth day there were 17 
On the twenty-fifth day there were 0 
Limit of Influence in the Merrimac River. 
It appears, then, for the purpose of illustrating the subject, we may say 
that in the Merrimac river the limit of influence of the sewage of the city 
of Lowell is fairly the point reached by the flowing water in 25 days 
after passing Lowell, the possible effect of dilution and sedimentation, 
the antagonism of the non-pathogenic bacteria, and the purifying effect 
of minute plants and animals in reducing the danger, not being here 
taken into account. The Merrimac river flows the nine miles from 
Lowell to Lawrence in eight hours, or at the rate of 1| miles per hour. 
Twenty-five days is 600 hours, and it is accordingly found, with the 
limitations noted, that a flow of 675 miles may occur before the Merri- 
mac river can be considered perfectly free from the typhoid germ, if 
once inoculated, in the month of November. Enough is known of the 
persistency of vitality of the typhoid spore to justify assuming that 
the legitimate safe limit of influence in this stream will be quite as 
great as indicated in the foregoing, although there are modifying cir- 
cumstances which will be referred to in some of the following chap- 
ters. 
Table No. 1 gives the statistics of this epidemic of typhoid fever at 
Lowell and Lawrence.* 
Table No. 1.-Statistics of Typhoid Fever in the Cities of Lowell and Law- 
rence, Mass., September, 1890, to January, 1891, inclusive. 
Month. 
September, 1890 
Lowell. 
Pop., 77,605. 
Lawrence. 
Pop., 44.559. 
Deaths. 
8 
10 
28 
26 
19 
91 
Deaths per 
100.000 
population. 
10.31 
12.88 
36.08 
33.51 
24.48 
Cases. 
47 
95 
171 
159 
78 
Cases to 
one death. 
5.6 
9.5 
6.1 
6 1 
4.3 
Deaths. 
3 
3 
19 
19 
51 
Deaths per 
100,000 
population. 
6.73 
6.73 
15.71 
42.64 
42.64 
October 
November 
December 
January, 1891 
Totals 
117.26 550 
Limit of Influence in Lakes and Ponds. 
Iii the case of a lake or pond the limit of influence will be more re- 
stricted than in a running- stream, though it must be stated in this con- 
* Derived from (1) Mr. Mills' paper in 22nd An. Rept. Mass. St. Board of Health; (2) from a 
Report upon the Sanitary Condition of the Water Supply of Lowell, Mass., presented to the 
Water Board of Lowell, April 10, 1891, by Wm. T. Sedgwick, Professor of Biology, etc. 10 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
nection that the usual hydrographic observations of direction of water 
currents, as indicated by floats for a few days only, are utterly without 
significance so far as a rational solution of the problem of legitimate 
influence in any given case is concerned. Such observations must be 
carried on in conjunction with biological and chemical studies for a 
considerable period of time, and when so carried on will undoubtedly 
result in showing that the limit of influence in large lakes is much 
greater than has thus far been generally assumed. 
The Case of Schenectady, Cohoes, West Troy, and Albany 
Professor William P. Mason has given in a recent paper an account, 
pertinent to the present discussion, of a series of epidemics of ty- 
phoid fever in a number of towns supplied with water from a sewage- 
contaminated stream.* 
The stream in question is the Mohawk river, which receives the 
sewage of nearly every large town on its banks, several of them, as for 
instance Rome, Utica, Little Falls, Amsterdam, and Schenectady, hav- 
ing complete sewerage systems which discharge considerable quanti- 
ties of crude sewage directly into the stream. 
In July, 1890, a marked increase in the amount of typhoid fever was 
noted at Schenectady, and from that time to the middle of April, 1891, 
about 300 cases were reported, of which 70 were fatal. The health 
officer of the town is of the opinion that many of the milder cases were 
never reported, so that in reality the total number of cases was consid- 
erably in excess of 300. The population of Schenectady is, according 
to the census of 1890, 19,902. 
The entire water supply of the city, amounting to 2,200,000 gallons, 
is now derived from the Mohawk river by direct pumping. Previous 
to 1887 the supply had been taken from a filter gallery near the river, 
but in that year extensions were made and the supply drawn from a 
crib in the middle of the river. 
The water supplies of the towns of Cohoes and West Troy are also 
derived from the Mohawk river, while that of Albany is partly from 
the Hudson river, the balance being from inland lakes. Waterford, 
Lansingburgh and Troy, which are in the immediate vicinity, draw 
their public supplies from the Hudson above the mouth of the Mo- 
hawk ; a portion of the public supply of Troy is from lakes to the back 
of the town by gravity. The approximate locations of the several in- 
takes are shown by the squares on the map, Fig. 1. 
The populations of these towns are: Waterford, 5,400; Lansingburgh, 
* Notes on some Cases of Drinking-Water and Disease. By William P. Mason. Jour. Frank. Inst., 
Nov. 1891. Reprint, pp. 6-9. SCHENECTADY, COHOES, WEST TROY, AND ALBANY. 
11 
10,550 ; Cohoes, 22,509 ; West Troy, 12,967; Troy, 60,956 ; Albany, 94,- 
923; total, 207,305. 
There is also a town of a population of 4,463 on Green Island, which 
derives its water supply from a filter gallery. 
In October, 1890, an epidemic of typhoid began in Cohoes, and con- 
tinued until the middle of March, 1891. Altogether there were about 
1,000 cases (1 in every 22.5 of the population); fortunately they were 
mostly mild in character, resulting in very few deaths. 
In West Troy an epidemic of typhoid began in the latter part of 
November, 1890. On about December 15, 50 cases were reported. Of 
these 42 used Mohawk river water, the remainder well water. On 
December 20, the Mohawk supply was discontinued, and arrangements 
made for a supply of filtered water from Green Island, which had no 
SCHENECTADY 
LANS/N6BUR6H 
WEST TROY 
TROY 
Schenectady to Cohoes .... /7 miles 
Cohoes . West Troy-. 3 » 
West Troy . Albany..-. 6 , 
alban^ 
Fig. 1.-Towns and Water-Works Intakes at and near Junction of Hudson 
and Mohawk Rivers. 
typhoid. In one week the report of new cases showed 15, while in two 
weeks but 1 was reported. On returning to the Mohawk supply, in the 
middle of January, a slight increase was observed. The total number 
of cases in West Troy exceeded 100. 
An epidemic of typhoid began at Albany in the latter part of De- 
cember, 1890, and continued during January, February, and March, 
1891. A total of 411 cases were reported, but this figure is stated to be 
far below the real fact. Of the 411, only 18 are reported as occurring in 
the district supplied with water by gravity from the inland lakes. 
Waterford, Lansingburgh, and Troy, whose entire water supplies are 
from fairly uncontaminated sources, were ordinarily free from typhoid 
during this period. The same is true of Green Island, the water sup- 
ply of which is filtered from the Hudson river by means of a filter 
gallery. 
The statistics of this epidemic, while not very complete, are of the 
greatest interest. They show that in a total population of 150,000 liv- 12 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ing in several towns, all of which are supplied with a grossly contami- 
nated water, the number of cases of typhoid occurring in a few months 
was over 1,800, or about 1 in every 84 persons. At the same time, in 
a similarly situated adjacent population of about 77,000, with an un- 
contaminated water supply, very few or no cases at all occurred. 
It will be understood that the upper Hudson is only slightly con- 
taminated with sewage. 
Facts and discussions of the character of the foregoing lead to the 
conclusion that, as a mere matter of ordinary prudence, it is unsafe to 
allow raw sewage to flow into streams which are, at any point below 
where the sewage flows in, the source of a public water supply. 
The' question of production of a nuisance by causing bad odors along 
the stream is the least important part, and in many cases it is certain 
that no material effluvium nuisance is ever created. Usually a mini- 
mum volume of flow in a stream of about ten times the volume of sew- 
age will be sufficient to prevent this.* 
Why Crude Sewage should be Kept Out of Streams. 
List of Water-borne Communicable Diseases. 
Returning to the general question of infectious diseases, we may 
note that the most important diseases which are usually water-borne, 
but of which the germs may be present in the air of sewers receiving 
the dejections of patients, are: 
Typhoid fever, 
Diarrhoea, 
Cholera, 
Dysentery. 
In the case of these infectious water-borne diseases, it may be laid 
down as a fundamental proposition that the dejections of patients sick 
with them should never be allowed to pass into the sewers until they 
have been thoroughly sterilized by treatment with a proper disinfect- 
ant. Such treatment should be used as an additional precaution, as a 
mere matter of justice to any human being wishing to use the water 
of a sewage-contaminated stream for drinking, and it should be further 
used absolutely without reference to whether or not the sewage into 
which the dejections are discharged is to be treated at disposal works. 
The only exception to this rule may be found in the case of discharge 
directly into tide water. 
Disinfection of Dejecta. 
The American Public Health Association in 1884 appointed a com- 
mittee to investigate the subject of disinfectants ; a series of experi- 
* Notes on the Pollution of Streams. By Rudolph Hering, C. E., Trans. Am. Pub. Health 
Assoc., 1887. Also Eng. and Bldg. Record, vol. xvii., p. 228. IMPORTANCE OF DISINFECTION. 
13 
ments were instituted and a valuable report was made. Among many 
other recommendations, the committee say, that for disinfecting ex- 
creta in the sick room there may be used-(1) chloride of lime in four 
per cent, solution (five ounces to one gallon of water); (2) mercuric 
chloride in solution, 1 to 500 (two drachms of mercuric chloride to one 
gallon of water). In order to give the mercuric chloride solution a 
distinct color as a guard against mistakes, two drachms of permanga- 
nate of potash may be added to each gallon when it is mixed in stock. 
The label should bear the word " poison " as an additional precaution 
against mistakes. 
The dejections having been received in a vessel, an amount of either 
(1) or (2) equal to the quantity of dejections should be added, and after 
thorough stirring the whole allowed to stand for at least one hour. 
The mixture may then be safely permitted to go into the sewer.* 
Of these two disinfectants the chloride of lime solution is the more 
certain in its application to excrement, provided fresh chloride of 
standard strength is used. It has the disadvantage that the dry chlor- 
ide loses its strength quickly on exposure, and when there is doubt 
on this score the quantity of chloride per gallon of water may be in- 
creased. 
The mercuric chloride solution is, however, certain in its effects, pro- 
vided the precaution is always taken to thoroughly stir the excrement 
until every minute particle is brought into contact with the mercuric 
chloride solution. When not thoroughly stirred there is a tendency 
to the formation of an insoluble coating, by the action of the mercuric 
chloride on the albuminous constituents of the excrement, with the 
result that the germ material in the interior of the masses may re- 
main entirely unaffected, and still capable, when liberated, of propa- 
gating disease the same as before disinfection. The chloride of lime, 
on the contrary, has a tendency to disintegrate the masses of fecal 
matter, thus bringing every particle in contact with the germ-destroy- 
ing material. 
Efficient disinfection of the dejections of typhoid and other patients 
may be accomplished by the use of either of these formulae, due re- 
gard being given always to the precautions indicated in the fore- 
going. 
Importance of Disinfection. 
In illustration of the importance of disinfection of dejecta from 
patients suffering from typhoid fever and other water-borne comma-' 
nicable diseases before allowing them to pass into sewers, it may be 
stated that the most efficient means of purifying sewage yet known, 
intermittent sand filtration, cannot be depended upon to absolutely re- 
* Report of Committee on Disinfectants, loc. cit. 14 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
move all the bacteria. Such means of purification will,.however, ordina- 
rily remove at least 99 per cent., and among those removed are presum- 
ably a large proportion of the disease germs, if any are present, thereby 
reducing greatly the chance of infection in any given case; but we 
cannot yet assume complete removal of all disease germs, especially of 
the more hardy varieties, as for instance the spore of typhoid fever. 
An experiment at the Lawrence Station aptly illustrates this point. 
Bacillus prodigiosus is a hardy, harmless variety of bacteria which is 
said not to occur naturally in this country.* It has a bright blood-red 
color, and grows luxuriantly in many situations. In order to test 
whether sand filters would fully destroy a hardy variety, this bacillus 
was added to the sewage applied to some of the experimental tanks, 
and the effluent examined with reference to its appearance therein. The 
result was that with coarse sand filters a few might be expected under 
ordinary conditions to pass through ; while with fine sand filters, to 
which comparatively small quantities of sewage were applied, the re- 
moval of Bacillus prodigiosus appeared complete. In a practical way, 
therefore, we may conclude that, under the ordinary conditions of work- 
ing, a few of the more hardy bacteria may pass through sand filters 
and appear in the effluent. On this point there is still some uncer- 
tainty, as will be shown further on in the discussion.! 
* See Crookshank's Manual of Bacteriology, 3rd ed., p. 275, for morphology of Bacillus prodi- 
giosus. 
+ The following is the general account of the experiment with Bacillus prodigiosus, as given by 
Professor William T. Sedgwick in Part II. of the Mass. Spec. Report: 
From what has been said * * * it is clear that a very large percentage of the organisms of 
the sewage perish in the filters during intermittent filtration. The question naturally arises, Do 
any of the sewage organisms live to pass through, or are they all destroyed within, the filters 'I 
those that are found in the effluent being accounted for as having come from the discharge pipes, 
under-drains, tank floors, etc., or from the air. The hygienic importance of this question is obvi- 
ous, when we consider the extreme desirability of removing all pathogenic germs from the sew- 
age. At the same time, the difficulty of solving the problem was great in some cases, inasmuch as 
the kinds of bacteria likely to occur in the air, in sewage, in pipes and drains, are very similar, or 
perhaps even identical; and consequently the comparison of the species in the sewage and the efflu- 
ents, apart from its inherent difficulty,was not likely to yield immediate results. It was, therefore, 
decided to experiment directly with rich cultures of a species of the bacteria foreign to the station, 
which could be applied in the sewage, and detected, if present, in the effluents. 
For this purpose Bacillus prodigiosus was chosen. This species has never been observed in the 
sewage or effluents, and is said not to exist native in this country. It is tolerably hardy, and 
owing to its exceedingly rapid growth upon gelatine, and its production of a bright-red color in well- 
developed colonies, is comparatively easy to recognize. Luxuriant vegetations of this species 
were prepared either in the usual "gelatine tubes" or in the ordinary "bouillon," and after at- 
taining the extraordinary development of which it is capable, so that a single cubic centimeter of 
the fluid contained millions of the individual germs, it was ready to be applied to the tanks. 
One or two liters of this fluid, swarming with the germs of Bacillus prodigiosus, were then added 
to the ordinary charge of sewage, for the larger tanks, and thirty cubic centimeters, or there- 
abouts, to that for the smaller tanks, after which the mixture was poured upon the sur- 
face. The smaller tanks of coarse mortar sand were first experimented with, and samples 
of the effluent were collected, beginning several hours after the application. From data obtained 
since that time it appears likely that these collections did not begin early enough to secure the 
largest discharge of germs. 
The results proved conclusively, however, that Bacillus prodigiosus passes through these tanks 
of coarser sand. The number of germs discharged, as compared with the number applied, was 
extremely small, which indicated, so far as it went, that most of those applied had perished in the 
sand, precisely as those from the sewage mostly perish, during the ordinary operations of inter- 
mittent filtration. In the first experiment Tank No. 14 was used, and three tubes of gelatine al- 
ready liquefied by the culture, in all some thirty cubic centimeters, were added to the sewage TYPHOID FEVER AT LAUSEN, SWITZERLAND. 
15 
By way of enforcing the statement that dejections of typhoid patients 
should not be allowed to pass into streams, or to be even cast on to the 
ground before thorough sterilization, and also to farther indicate the 
probable vitality of the typhoid germ, we may refer to another illus- 
trative case, which, while often referred to in sanitary literature, may 
still be once more profitably reproduced by reason of the many useful 
deductions to be drawn from it. The case referred to is that of the 
outbreak of typhoid at Lausen, Switzerland, in 1872, the facts in regard 
to which are as follows : 
Typhoid Fever at Lausen, Switzerland. 
The house at A, Fig. 2, contained a number of cases of typhoid 
fever, during the summer of 1872, the first occurring on June 10, fol- 
lowed by recovery in September ; the second on July 10, with recovery 
in October; there were also two mild cases of short duration in August. 
The dejections of all these cases passed into the Furlen brook, flowing 
near. 
At about the point C there is an area of land which it was custom- 
ary tq irrigate each year, from the middle to the latter part of July. 
While the irrigation was in process this year, the public well of Lau- 
sen, at D, became so turbid and foul-tasting that many people gave 
up using it. This well distributes water through a wooden pipe to 
four public pumps, marked on Fig. 2 by dots. 
At that time Lausen was a village of 780 inhabitants, living in 90 
houses. Its location is on gravelly soil from 35 to 65 feet above the 
Ergholz brook, the elevation of which is about the elevation of the 
ground-water under the village. The last epidemic of typhoid fever 
was in 1814, when the village was occupied by soldiers; so free had it 
charge. This tank had previously been fitted with side taps at different levels, in order to test the 
bacterial composition of the descending fluid, step by step. Whenever it was desired to use these 
taps, they were first sterilized by directing against them the flame of a plumber's naphtha burner. 
In the present experiment the fluid collected from such a tap, one foot from the surface, seven 
minutes after the application, contained Bacillus prodigiosus. The outflow from the same tap, 
three minutes later, also contained this species, as did that from a tap thirty inches from the sur- 
face, twelve minutes after application. It was not looked for in the effluent on this day (Nov. 21, 
1888), but was found in the effluent of the 22nd on three separate trials, as well as in that from 
the thirty-inch side tap. It was also found in the effluent of the same tank three days after the 
application (November 24), and seventeen days after (December 8). It was not found at any later 
time, and although hundreds of examinations of the effluent of this tank, and of the sand compos- 
ing it, have been made, it has never been found since. The conclusion is inevitable that it speed- 
ily died out. 
The next experiment was upon a tank of similar material. Tank No. 13, on Dec. 5, 1888. As 
before, three tubes, or thirty cubic centimeters of a rich culture of B. prodigiosus, were ap- 
plied in the sewage charge. On the 7th this species was found in the effluent, and also on the 8th, 
after which it disappeared completely. Apparently it died out even more speedily than in the 
first experiment. 
Further experiments, made at the Lawrence Experiment Station in 1891 and 1892, and given 
in 23d Rept. Mass. Bd. Hlth. (1890-91), pp. 604-7, show several instances of complete and nearly 
complete removal of the Bacilli typhosus, prodigiosus. coli communis, and the bacillus of canal 
water. An account of these experiments was given in Eng. News, vol. xxix. p. 19 (1893). 16 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
been from typhoid that not a single case had occurred since 1865, when 
a few were imported from Basle. 
The first case occurring in the house A, in 1872, was thought to have 
been imported, as the patient had been away from Lausen during the 
period of infection. 
On August 7, 1872, 10 persons in Lausen were attacked with typhoid 
fever; from the 7th to the 16th, 57 ; from the 7th to the 28th, 100; and 
in September and October, 30, after which the epidemic ceased; 8 
cases were fatal. 
Of the 130 cases, every one had used the public water supply from 
Fig. 2.-Map of Lausen, Switzerland. 
the well at D. Not one case occurred among those who drank other 
water only. Thus the 6 houses marked S are supplied from their own 
private wells ; in them only two persons were taken sick with the 
fever, and it was found that they had drunk the public water when 
away from home. 
On looking into the matter it was found that in 1862 a hole in the 
earth had appeared at the point B, 8 feet deep and 3 feet wide, which 
disclosed at its bottom a running stream, apparently fed by the Furlen 
brook from a point higher up. At that time the brook was led into 
this hole, with the result that the water all disappeared and in an hour 
or two streamed out at the well D, showing a connection which had TYPHOID FEVER IN MASSACHUSETTS CITIES. 
17 
been suspected for years. On refilling the hole the brook returned to 
its bed. 
At the investigation in 1872, after the epidemic had ceased, the hole 
B was reopened and a large quantity of salt thrown in; its presence 
at D was soon ascertained by chemical examination. A considerable 
quantity of flour was also added at B, but its presence could not be de- 
tected at D. 
As a result of the investigation it was found that: 
(1) The Furlen brook was contaminated with typhoid dejections in 
June, July, and August, 1872. 
(2) The contaminated water was used for irrigation at C in July for 
about two to three weeks before the outbreak of the epidemic. 
(3) This irrigation water could not have been filtered in any proper 
sense of the word as it was turbid and foul enough to cause many peo- 
ple to discontinue the use of water from the well; hence : 
(4) It seems fair to conclude that the germ of typhoid passed 
through the ground from C to D, a distance of nearly a mile without 
losing its vitality.* 
It may be remarked that the non-appearance of the flour at D 
although frequently cited as proof of the indestructibility of the germ 
of typhoid fever by filtration is in reality no special proof on that 
point, for two reasons: (1) because the pasty nature of the flour 
would of itself conduce to its quick retention even in coarse gravel; 
(2) in the case cited the typhoid germ was present in a comparatively 
rapid flowing stream which, apparently, entirely filled all the voids of 
the gravel for a considerable space, producing a case of rapid continu- 
ous filtration in which the only filtering action would be that due to a 
retention of suspended material; hence before it can be assumed that 
the typhoid germ would not under any circumstances be filtered out, 
it must be shown that all the voids in the filtering material are of less 
size than the germs. 
In considering questions of this character it is necessary to keep in 
mind the distinction between continuous filtration and intermittent. 
Typhoid Fever in Massachusetts Cities. 
In Table No. 2 we have the statistics of typhoid fever in 13 cities in 
Massachusetts, for a series of years, both before and after the intro- 
duction of public water supplies from sources nearly all of which 
* For more complete accounts of the epidemic of typhoid fever at Lausen, see 
(1) The Lancet (London), July 15, 1876. 
(2) Jour. Chem. Soc., June, 1876. 
(3) 6th Rept. Riv. Pol. Com., p. 463. 
(4) Rept. for 1873, Army Med. Dept. (English). 
(5) 8th An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health, p. 124. 18 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES 
Table No. 2.-The Yearly Number of Deaths from Typhoid Fever per 10,000 
of the Population in Thirteen Cities of Massachusetts before and after 
the Introduction of Public Water Supplies. 
Name. 
Yearly 
deaths by 
typhoid 
fever per 
10,000 
people, 
1859 to 1868. 
Public 
water 
supply 
introduced. 
Yearly 
deaths by 
typhoid 
fever per 
10,COO 
people, 
1878 to 1889. 
Percentage 
deaths in 
the latter 
period to 
those in the 
former. 
Population. 
1870. 
1890. 
Fall River 
7.78 
1874 
6.32 
81 
26,766 
74,398 
Springfield 
9.67 
1875 
5.29 
55 
26,703 
44,179 
Taunton .. 
6.12 
1876 
5.02 
82 
18,629 
25,448 
Northampton 
10.98 
1871 
4.04 
37 
10,160 
14.990 
Lynn 
9.06 
1871 
3.87 
43 
28,233 
55.727 
New Bedford 
7.77 
1869 
3.80 
49 
21,320 
40,733 
Newton 
6.57 
1876 
3.65 
56 
12,825 
24,379 
Malden 
8.04 
1870 
3.54 
44 
7.367 
23,031 
Fitchburg 
10.59 
1872 
3.16 
30 
11,260 
22,037 
Woburn 
8.29 
1873 
2.95 
36 
8,560 
13,499 
Somerville 
4.28 
1867 
2.95 
69 
14,685 
40,152 
Chelsea 
5.97 
1867 
2.89 
48 
18,547 
27.909 
Waltham 
8.12 
1873 
2.42 
30 
9,065 
18,707 
are reasonably free from sewage contamination. If we take into ac- 
count the development of population in that state as illustrated by 
the increase in these 13 cities for the 20 years from 1870 to 1890 
we cannot but admit that the showing in favor of pure water supplies 
as a preventive for typhoid fever is a very strong one. In Lowell 
and Lawrence, the public water works of which were constructed at 
about the same time as those tabulated (1872 and 1875, respectively) 
we find that the Merrimac river, a stream known to be badly contami- 
nated by sewage, was selected and that the typhoid rate has not 
decreased in either town. In Lawrence it has remained the same as 
previous to the introduction of the public water supply, while in 
Lowell the rate is considerably greater for the period following the 
introduction of the Merrimac river water than before. 
Of the several preventable diseases, typhoid is the best known both 
in its etiological and pathological aspects ; and in order to show its 
relation to public health, Table No. 3, which has been compiled from 
the health reports of the cities of New York, Philadelphia and Chi- 
cago, is included.* 
Typhoid Fever at New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. 
From Table No. 3 we learn that the deaths from typhoid, in both 
Philadelphia and Chicago, are on an average double what they are in 
New York. The reason for this is found, it is believed, entirely in the 
* This table is derived from data given in a paper, Typhoid Fever in Chicago. By Prof. Wm. T. 
Sedgwick and Allen Hazen. Eng. News, vol. xxvii., pp. 399, 400 (April 21, 1892) ; also reprinted 
in pamphlet form. Reference to this paper may be made for a large amount of statistical infor- 
mation in regard to typhoid fever in its relation to polluted water supplies. Table No. 3.-Statistics of Typhoid Fever in Relation to Total Population and Deaths from all Causes in New York, Phila- 
delphia and Chicago, 1870 to 1891, inclusive. 
Year. 
New York. 
Philadelphia. 
Chicago. 
Year. 
Total 
population. 
Deaths 
from all 
causes. 
Typhoid fever. 
Total 
population. 
Deaths 
from all 
causes. 
Typhoid fever. 
Total 
population. 
Deaths 
from all 
causes. 
Typhoid fever. 
Total 
deaths. 
Per 
cent, 
of all 
deaths. 
Deaths 
per 
10,000 
inhabi- 
tants. 
Total 
deaths. 
Per 
cent, 
of all 
deaths. 
Deaths 
per 
10,000 
inhabi- 
tants. 
Total 
deaths. 
Per 
cent, 
of all 
deaths. 
Deaths 
per 
10,000 
inhabi- 
tants. 
1870 
943,300 
27,175 
422 
1.55 
4.47 
674,022 
15,317 
409 
2.67 
6.06 
298,000 
7,323 
268 
3.66 
9.00 1 
1870 
1871 
955,921 
26,976 
251 
0.93 
2.62 
700,000 
15,485 
313 
2.02 
4.47 
334,270 
6,976 
272 
3.90 
8.14 
1871 
1872 
968,710 
32,617 
386 
1.18 ' 
3.98 
725,000 
18,987 
369 
1.94 
5.09 
367,396 
10,156 
524 
5.16 
14.26 
1872 
1873 
981,671 
29,084 
313 
1.07 
3.19 
750,000 
15,224 
364 
2.39 
4.85 
380,000 
9,557 
272 
2.85 
7.15 
1873 
1874 
1,030,607 
28,727 
305 
1.06 
2.96 
775,000 
15,238 
461 
3.02 
5.95 
395,000 
8,075 
211 
2.61 
5.34 
1874 
1875 
1,044,396 
30,709 
376 
1,22 
3.60 
800,000 
17,805 
420 
2.36 
5.25 
407,060 
7,899 
207 
2.62 
5 09 
1875 
1876 
1,075,532 
29,152 
325 
1.11 
3.02 
825,000 
18,892 
761 
4.03 
9.22 
420,000 
8,573 
168 
1.96 
4.00 
1876 
1877 
1,107,597 
26,203 
343 
1.31 
3.10 
850.856 
16,004 
542 
3.39 
6.37 
439,776 
8,026 
159 
1.98 
3 61 
1877 
1878 
1,140,617 
27,008 
321 
1.19 
2.81 
876,118 
15,743 
404 
2.57 
4.61 
450,000 
7,422 
146 
1.97 
3.24 
1878 
1879 
1,174,621 
28,342 
268 
0.94 
2.28 
901,380* 
15,473 
344 
2.22 
3.82 
475,000 
8,614 
208 
2.41 
4.38 
18'9 
I860 
1,209,268 
31,937 
372 
1.16 
3.08 
846,980* 
17,711 
498 
2.81 
5 88 
503,298 
10,462 
171 
1.63 
3.40 
1880 
1881 
1,246,011 
38,624 
594 
1.54 
4.77 
868,000* 
19,515 
654 
3.30 
7.43 
540,000 
13,874 
568 
4,10 
10.52 
1881 
1882 
1,283,870 
37,924 
516 
1.36 
4.02 
886,539* 
20.059 
650 
3.24 
7.33 
560,639 
13,234 
462 
3.49 
8.24 
1882 
1883 
1,322,880 
34,011 
625 
1.84 
4 72 
907,041* 
20.076 
579 
2.88 
6 38 
580,000 
11,555 
361 
3.12 
6.22 
1883 
1884 
1,363,075 
35,034 
476 
1.36 
3.49 
927,995 
19,999 
662 
3.31 
7.13 
630,000 
12,471 
354 
2.84 
5.62 
1884 
1885 
1,404,401 
35,682 
405 
1.13 
2.88 
949,432 
21,392 
610 
2.85 
6.42 
665,000 
12,474 
496 
3.98 
7.46 
1885 
1886 
1,447,166 
37,351 
433 
1 16 
2.99 
971,363 
20,005 
618 
3.09 
6 36 
704,000 
13,699 
483 
3.52 
6.86 
1886 
1887 
1,491.137 
38,933 
421 
1.08 
2.82 
993,801 
21,719 
621 
2.86 
6.25 
760,000 
15,409 
381 
2.47 
5.01 
1887 
1888 
1,536,444 
40,175 
364 
0.90 
2.37 
1,016,758 
20,372 
785 
3.85 
7.72 
830,000 
15,772 
375 
2.38 
4 52 
1888 
1889 
1,583,120 
39,679 
397 
1.00 
2.51 
1,040,245 
20,536 
736 
3.59 
7.07 
1,100,000+ 
16,946 
453 
2.67 
4.70 
1889 
1890 
1,631,232 
40,103 
352 
0.88 
2.16 
1,046,964 
21,732 
666 
3.07 
6.36 
1,200,000 
21,869 
1,008 
4.61 
8.40 
1890 
1891 
1,700,000 
43,634 
384 
0.88 
2.26 
1,092,168 
23,367 
6 4 
2.93 
6.27 
1,200,000 
27,754 
1,997 
7.19 
16.64 
1891 
Averages . 
3.19 
6.20 
6.90 
Averages. 
+ Large additions to territory in 1889. 
* These figures are here given as they stand in Phil. Health Rept. for 1890, p. 154. 20 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
relative degree of pollution in the water supplies of these cities. On 
this point a considerable amount of evidence is submitted in the chap- 
ters following. 
The effect of introducing into a city a public water supply uncon- 
taminated by sewage has been almost universally to materially reduce 
the death rate from typhoid. In order to illustrate this point we may 
refer to Tables Nos. 2 and 4. 
Typhoid Fever at Rochester, N. Y. 
Table No. 4 presents the deaths from typhoid in the city of Roches- 
ter, N. Y., by months, from 1870 to 1891, inclusive. Previous to the year 
1873 this city, which then had a population of nearly 74,000, was en- 
tirely without a public water supply. Water for domestic purposes 
was drawn from shallow wells, which in the course of time had become 
badly polluted through the operation of soil saturation. The' extent 
of the pollution may be appreciated by considering the results of a 
series of analyses of the water of 40 wells made in 1877, when it was 
found that the average amount of sodium chloride per U. S. gallon of 
the well water was 16.78 grains. The normal sodium chloride of the 
region, as determined from an unpolluted well, was 1.36 grains per 
Table No. 4.-Statistics of Typhoid Fever at Rochester, N. Y,, from 1870 to 
1891, INCLUSIVE. 
Totals. 
I 
S 
| >-'iS>-»CTCO>-*O5*S00O»»O>-*>-'>-*4OCOO«>-'O«3se0*9 
January. 
ft 
February. 
March. 
g 
CO*30*0'-»CetOCO»-»CC»-"-'&3i--»M>fc3>0^'-'h5'-*»-' 
April, 
8 
OJicowotoo^.uwooM^MfoaM^HOjo 
May. 
8 
June. 
July. 
K 1 
« a - c *c j: fi o ; j: i. fi z 
August. 
§ 
OOSJOiACC-lOtiCk^iUQrO^^OttOCeiUOtOteS 
September. 
3 
□S-JODCO^OlOO-lOJOTOi-Qi-OOtot-^S-S-QX 
October. 
g 
Awwwwww^of.uiuwiuooii^iuwoiaio® 
November. 
CT -1 IO 00 X*. i- 
December. 
sl 
Totals. 
Population. 
gS3S83SSSS3^§33gS3SaS3 ' 
No. of deaths per 
10,000 population. | 
* Official population. TYPHOID FEVER AT ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
21 
gallon. At the same time the average amount of sodium chloride in 
samples of sewage collected from nine of the principal sewers of the 
city was found to be 5.26 grains per gallon. In some of the badly 
polluted wells free ammonia was found to the amount of 1.5 grains per 
gallon, and albuminoid ammonia 0.5 grain per gallon.* 
With a water supply of this character it was inevitable that sickness 
of all kinds would rapidly increase and we accordingly find the typhoid 
rate 10 per 10,000 inhabitants in 1872. 
In January, 1874, a partial water supply was introduced from the 
Genesee river, which, while not suitable for domestic purposes, was still 
of value by reason of furnishing a means of flushing sewers and assist- 
ing in maintaining the general cleanliness of the town. 
In January, 1876, a domestic supply from Hemlock lake was intro- 
duced. Its use rapidly extended among all classes of citizens, until in 
1892 at least 95 per cent, of the total population used the water from 
Hemlock lake for all domestic purposes. From such general use of an 
uncontaminated water resulted a permanent material lowering of the 
typhoid rate, as indicated in Table No. 4. 
The detailed statistics of typhoid at Rochester show that in 1878 to 
1880, the death rate from the disease was only 2.05 per 10,000 of the 
population. During these years the use of Hemlock lake water was 
extending very rapidly, and by the end of 1880 the use of the uncon- 
taminated water had become nearly universal in the localities most 
affected by typhoid fever. A marked rise in the typhoid death rate 
began in 1881, which has continued permanent to the present time, 
averaging 3.51 per 10,000 for the period 1882 to 1891. The reason for 
this increase is apparently as follows: 
The city of Rochester is situated upon the Genesee river, a few miles 
south from the point where the river empties into Lake Ontario. The 
river now receives the crude sewage of over one-half the population, 
and in the near future, when constructions now under way are com- 
pleted, will receive it all, or the sewage of a population of say 140,000. 
The total fall in the river in its course through the city is about 266 
feet, the major portion of this being included in the three falls known 
as the Upper, Lower, and Middle falls of the Genesee. The balance 
of the total is included in several reaches of rapids. A short distance 
below the Lower fall the river has found the approximate level of 
Lake Ontario, and there changes its character from that of a shallow 
stream with alternating falls and rapids to that of a stream with slug- 
gish flow in a deep, wide channel. From this point to the lake, a dis- 
tance of a trifle less than 6 miles, the channel is from about 300 to 500 
* Report to the Board of Health and the Executive Board of the city of Rochester, N. Y., in 
regard to the chemical examination of samples of water from suspected wells. By Professor S. A. 
Lattimore. In An. Rept. Ex. Bd., City of Rochester for 1877. 22 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
feet in width, with an average depth for the greater portion of the dis- 
tance of about 24 to 25 feet. 
The river rises in Potter county, Pennsylvania, and flows north 
across the state of New York. A considerable portion of its drainage 
area is characterized by steep slopes, and the stream, in consequence, 
responds quickly to a rainfall. The ordinary flood flow is perhaps 
35,000 cubic feet per second, while its minimum flow is as low as 130 
cubic feet per second. Hence during the time of minimum flow the 
velocity in the deep water below the Lower fall is very slight; at 
times it does not exceed 1 mile in 24 hours. Into such a body of at 
times nearly still water the sewage of over one-half of the population 
is now discharged, although before reaching the deep water it has 
passed over the Middle and Lower falls and the intervening rapids. 
(A small portion has further passed over the Upper fall.) 
The river carries a considerable amount of silt in suspension, and in 
times of low water a very thorough sedimentation takes place in the 
upper reaches of the still water. During high water the velocity is 
sufficient to sweep the precipitated matter out into the lake, as is 
proven (1) by the channel maintaining a nearly uniform depth from 
year to year; and (2) by the formation of a bar off the mouth at the 
lake. 
About 1880 a number of large hotels were constructed on the lake 
beach not far from the mouth of the Genesee river. Numerous cottages 
were erected and there soon gathered about and near the river's mouth 
a considerable summer population, consisting almost entirely of citi- 
zens of Rochester. On Sundays and holidays it is no uncommon thing 
for from 25,000 to 30,000 people to visit the lake beach. Drinking 
water is supplied through pipes which lead a short distance into the 
lake, and through which at times the sewage polluted water of the 
Genesee river, mixed with lake water, is drawn. 
With the information at hand there seems reason to infer that the 
growth of the summer resorts at Lake Ontario and the consequent 
drinking by a large number of citizens of a seriously polluted water, 
has directly contributed to nearly double the typhoid rate in the city 
of Rochester. The influence of the out-go of population to the lake 
is forcibly shown by the increase in number of deaths from typhoid 
fever in the months of May, June, and July in 1889,1890, and 1891, these 
months being usually free from that disease. As the matter stands a 
warm May is followed by an increase in the typhoid death rate, either 
in the latter part of the month or in the following month of June. 
We have here the case of a city which, properly enough, has spent 
several million dollars in procuring an uncontaminated water supply 
but in which a lack of clear views on sanitary questions has led to a 
condition of affairs which in a considerable degree negatives the result THE FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITION. 
23 
of the large expenditure. The conditions at the present time, while 
the Genesee river receives only one-half the sewage of the city, are 
alarming enough, in view of the statistics here presented; when the 
river receives the entire sewage of the city, a still further increase in 
the typhoid rate in summer may be expected. 
The Fundamental Proposition. 
From the consideration of a large number of cases similar to the fore- 
going we derive the conclusion that crude sewage should never be dis- 
charged into any body of water used as a water supply at any point 
within the influence of the sewage. This statement may be considered 
the fundamental proposition of modern sewage disposal. 
In the following chapters we shall discuss the various cognate ques- 
tions requiring consideration in order to determine how the indis- 
pensable purification may be best attained in any given case. CHAPTER II. 
THE INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF ANIMALS. 
The subject of water-borne communicable diseases of human beings 
may be considered as standing closely allied to that of the communi- 
cable infectious diseases of animals; and while this important branch 
of the general subject has not, as a whole, received the attention which 
it deserves, we still have accumulated in the last two or three decades 
a considerable body of information, some*of which will be referred to 
here. 
Definition of Terms. 
In this discussion the word infection will be taken as opposed to 
contagion in the sense that contagious diseases are only communi- 
cated by immediate personal contact, as by touching or by breathing 
the breath. Infectious diseases will be considered as those which may 
be communicated through considerable space, as typhoid fever, the 
germ of which may be, as already pointed out, borne long distances in 
water. Under these definitions it is apparent that some diseases are 
both infectious and contagious (tuberculosis, for example), though 
such are for convenience here referred to as infectious only, the 
present discussion having no reference to their communicability from 
the contagious point of view. 
It has already been stated that some of the infectious diseases are 
communicable from men to animals, and from animals to men ; and 
the opinion is rapidly gaining ground that the animal diseases com- 
municable to human beings have a greater influence over health and 
life than has been generally supposed.* 
Important Inter-communicable Diseases. 
Among the water-borne communicable diseases of animals which 
have either been proven also common to man, or are strongly suspected 
of being so, may be mentioned, as of great importance, glanders, hog 
cholera, Texas fever, anthrax, tuberculosis, and actinomycosis. All of 
these have been widely prevalent among animals in this country in 
recent years, and if in any way communicable to man, every opportunity 
for their dissemination by running water lias been offered. There are 
* 1st Rept. Beau. An. Ind. (1884), p. 68. HOG CHOLERA. 
25 
a number of other infectious diseases of animals, probably a score in 
all, but with the exception of Texas fever, none of such diseases are 
regarded as having originated in this country.* 
Glanders. 
The first of the important diseases, glanders, is a specific infectious 
disease especially peculiar to horses, but also capable of transmis- 
sion to men, sheep, dogs, cats, and some of the rodents; whether hogs 
are susceptible to it is yet uncertain, but horned cattle and domes- 
tic fowls are stated to be proof against it. 
The seat of the disease is either (1) the lymphatic glands, (2) the 
mucous membrane of the nasal and respiratory tract, or (3) the lungs 
and spleen. The definite germ causing it is Bacillus mallei,^ discov- 
ered by Loftier and Schutz in 1882. It classifies with the specific 
diseases caused by a germ (Saprophytes), which when planted in 
the tissues of an animal body, developes therein, but which exists, 
naturally, as a spore outside the animal body. 
Although in one form of glanders the discharge from certain ulcers 
may be a source of infection, the germs are transmitted chiefly by the 
nasal discharge, by scattering the germs promiscuously in feed-boxes, 
watering-troughs and the like. They may gain access to the system 
by way of the digestive tract, when the discharge is present in 
drinking-water or food. So far as is known, this disease is never 
air-borne.J 
Hog Cholera. 
Hog cholera, or swine plague, is an infectious disease of hogs, 
resembling in many particulars both typhoid fever and dysentery in 
man. The disease is apparently distinct from typhoid fever as 
indicated by generic differences in the micro-organisms producing the 
two diseases, though they have the common characteristic of each, 
being the cause of ulceration of the region in and about the intestine, 
typhoid fever appearing in the lower part of the small intestine, and 
hog cholera chiefly in the upper part of the large intestine. 
Hog cholera is perhaps more closely allied to dysentery in man, 
than to typhoid fever; but our knowledge of hog cholera is still too 
limited to enable us to say definitely that its bacilli can produce dysen- 
tery in man. 
The transmission of the bacillus of hog cholera by water is, how- 
ever, a matter of more certainty, and it may be taken as settled that it 
* Contagious Animal Diseases, Dr. Ezra M. Hunt. 1st Rept. Beau. An. Ind. (1884), pp. 437-443. 
t Crookshank, Manual of Bacteriology, 3d ed., p. 325. 
t Glanders, C. A. Cary, Bui. No. 25 (June, 1891), S. Dak. Ag. Col. and Ex. Sta. 26 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
is a water-borne disease, and it is in this connection that we are chiefly 
interested in considering it here. On this point a large amount of 
evidence is presented by the recent writers,* who conclude that 
streams are perhaps the most potent agents in its distribution. Labo- 
ratory experiments show that the bacilli may not only remain alive in 
water for four months, but they may even multiply -when in water con- 
taminated with sewage or other organic matter. Assuming that they 
will survive the various adverse influences likely to be met with in 
natural water only two months, and it still appears possible that an 
original planting at the head of the longest river in the country might 
infect herds throughout its whole course. 
Experiments have been made by the biologists of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry upon the vitality of the bacilli of hog cholera and 
their resistance to various germicides determined. The general 
conclusion may be drawn from the experiments that they are some- 
what tenacious of life, although certain reagents properly applied 
easily destroy them.f 
Texas Fever 
Exact information relative to the etiology of Texas fever is difficult 
to obtain. The biologists of the Bureau of Animal Industry affirm on 
the one hand that it is essentially a blood disease in which all the 
symptoms and lesions are referable to the destruction of red corpus- 
cles ; $ while on the other hand, according to Paul Paquin, the biol- 
ogist of the Missouri Agricultural College Experiment Station, the 
germs are found outside of the blood corpuscles in the liver and 
spleen, under conditions apparently indicating their presence in the 
blood as an incident of the disease and not its chief cause. Paquin 
considers that the ordinary source of infection is by ingestion, the 
same as for glanders and hog cholera, and water contaminated by the 
excrements of infected cattle is mentioned as a prolific method of 
dissemination.§ The biologists of the Bureau of Animal Industry in 
their last report have affirmed that cattle ticks are chiefly concerned 
in spreading the disease from one animal to another. For the present 
we may look upon Texas fever as probably one of the water-borne com- 
municable diseases of cattle, although the evidence, so fully establish- 
ing it, is not yet at hand. 
* Swine Plague, its Causes, Nature and Prevention. By Frank S. Billings. Bui. of Ag. Ex. Sta. 
of Neb., vol. ii., No. 4 (June 30,1888). The Influence of Running Streams upon the Extension 
of Swine Plague, pp. 31-32. 
Hog Cholera, its History, Nature and Treatment. Rep. Beau. An. Ind. (1889). Relation of Hog 
Cholera to the Public Health, pp. 120-122. Prevention of Hog Cholera pp. 123-133. 
+ Hog Cholera (loc. cit.) pp. 75-103. 
I 1st Report of the Secretary of Agriculture (1889), p. 91. 2d Report (1890), pp. 105-110. 
§ Texas Fever, by Paul Paquin. Bui. No. 11, Mo. Ag. Col. Ex. Sta. (May, 1890). 27 
TUBERCULOSIS. 
Dr. Billings asserts positively that Texas fever "is an infectious 
disease of a very malignant type." He points out that it is indigenous, 
or at any rate apparently confined to the moist, hot regions of the 
South, and corresponds closely with yellow fever in man which is 
found in the same localities.* 
Anthrax. 
Anthrax is the best known of all the infectious diseases which are 
intercommunicable between animals and man. Its specific germ, Bacil- 
lus anthrax, presents in its life-history nearly every phase of bacterial 
development. It presents distinctive features which prevent its con- 
fusion with other forms, and inasmuch as its morphological and bio- 
logical characteristics have been completely worked out, it serves as 
an excellent type for gaining acquaintance with the methods employed 
in studying micro-organisms.f When occurring in animals the disease 
is known as Charbon, splenic fever, or simply as anthrax, while in man 
it has been variously denominated wool-sorters' disease and malignant 
pustule. In both man and animals ingestion is considered a chief 
source of infection, although there are other sources, as with most of 
these intercommunicable infectious diseases. Flowing water is men- 
tioned as one of the methods of dissemination. 
A number of years ago there was an outbreak of wool-sorters' disease 
among the operatives of a large woollen factory at Bradford, England. 
At the same time the disease appeared among cattle feeding in a 
meadow through which flowed the stream receiving the washings from 
the factory where the wool sorters were suffering from the disease.^ 
There is a modified variety of the disease among cattle, known as 
black-leg.§ 
Tuberculosis. 
Tuberculosis has also received a large amount of attention since the 
new views in relation to germs, as the specific cause of infectious dis- 
eases, grew up. Its existence in cattle as well as human beings has 
been known for many years, but it is only in the last decade that the 
evidence has been accumulated which enables the positive assertion 
to be made, not only that bovine tuberculosis is communicable to man, 
but that human tuberculosis is communicable to a number of the lower 
animals, as cattle, dogs, cats, and fowls. 
* Frank S. Billings, The Relations of Animal Diseases to the Public Health (1884), p. 130. 
+ Crookshank, Manual of Bacteriology, 3rd ed., pp. 315-325. 
J For some of the more important points in relation to Anthrax, see Report on Anthrax in 6th 
An. Rept. Prov. Bd. Health of Ontario (1888). 
§ Black-leg, by Paul Paquin, Bui. No. 12, Mo. Ag. Col. Ex. Sta. (June, 1890). 28 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Actinomycosis. 
Actinomycosis has during several years past been observed in dif- 
ferent parts of the country, especially at the Chicago stock yards, 
where a large number of cattle are assembled. The disease has long 
been known in England under various local designations, but it is only 
since the comprehensive studies of Crookshank (1887) that the inter- 
correlation of the various forms has been fully pointed out. 
In cattle the disease appears first as a swelling in the lower jaw, 
subsequently spreading to the upper jaw and neighboring parts. In 
man the symptoms are sometimes those of chronic bronchitis, accom- 
panied by fetid expectorations. It also invades the bones, causing 
caries. 
Paquin states* that some cases of actinomycosis in man, like cases 
of glanders, are not recognized as such. A case in Southern Missouri, 
which local physicians designated by various names, was probably 
contracted by drinking at the same trough with an ox which was suf- 
fering from actinomycosis at the lower maxillary. The lesions in the 
man were in one of the maxillary articulations. 
The cause of actinomycosis is a fungus closely resembling Cladothrix, 
which may be detected, in the fresh discharge of a bovine tumor, with 
the naked eye. In man the appearance of the fungus is somewhat dif- 
ferent, but inoculation experiments have proven the interrelation.f 
In discussing the preceding communicable diseases they have been 
considered as communicable chiefly by ingestion, that is, by passing 
into the digestive tract in food or drink, and gaining access to the 
physical economy through some of the delicate membranes with which 
they come in contact. Tuberculosis is frequently communicable in 
this way, but it is further conveyed from one animal to another, from 
one person to another, or from persons to animals and vice versa, by 
breathing the breath.$ The method by which actinomycosis is trans- 
mitted is, like Texas fever, not yet well settled, although drinking-water 
and food appear as the more usual sources of infection. 
Typhoid Fever in Animals. 
The foregoing six diseases include the leading diseases of animals 
which, by reason of prevailing extensively in recent years in this coun- 
try, are of most importance in the present connection. They, however, 
do not exhaust the list of diseases common to animals which may be 
* Actinomycosis, The Bacteriological World, vol. i., No. 1 (June, 1891). 
+ Actinomyces, Crookshank, Manual of Bacteriology, 3rd ed., p. 379, and following. Also see 
recent reports of several of the State Boards of Health. 
J Tuberculosis, Chas. H. Fernald, Bui. No. 3 (Jan., 1889), Hatch Ex. Sta of the Mass. Ag. CoL blyth's theory of typhoid. 
29 
considered as water-borne, and which are possibly in some degree 
intercommunicable. Investigations have been made abroad by Klein 
and other bacteriologists in reference to the possibility of infecting 
animals with true typhoid, and in this country Dr. Victor C. Vaughan, 
of the University of Michigan, has succeeded in producing typhoid 
in dogs and cats by inoculation.* There are in addition to the fore- 
going some reasons for supposing that typhoid fever is common 
among animals, in so modified a form as to be generally unnoticed, al- 
though the germs from their dejecta may produce the true typhoid in 
human subjects. A few words about the theory of the propagation of 
the disease, in addition to what has been said in Chapter I., will make 
this plain. 
The specific microbe of typhoid is a bacillus which forms spores 
within itself, as already referred to on page 7 ; these spore-holding 
bacilli may be expelled in myriads in the f;eces. The resistant power 
of the spores has been also referred to on page 7, and the further 
statement may be made, that under favorable circumstances the spores 
are preserved for an unknown period. There can be no typhoid fever 
without either the bacillus or the spore, and the fact that this disease 
has many a time attacked travellers in regions uninhabitable by hu- 
man beings, but in which various wild animals abound, may be fairly 
taken as indicating the prevalence of the disease among the animals 
there, with the existence of the spore in their dejecta the same as in 
the stools of human beings. In a number of well-attested cases trav- 
ellers have been attacked after drinking from water-holes to which 
wild animals also came for drinking-water in times of drought. Again 
cases have occurred in civilized regions where the most exhaustive 
inquiry failed to reveal a pre-existent case. If we admit the agency 
of animals as carriers of the germs, the explanation of very many 
such cases is greatly simplified. 
Blyth's Theory of Typhoid. 
According to Blyth, however, the most reasonable theory is that 
the cause of typhoid fever is a vegetable parasite capable of existing, 
propagating its kind, and completing its cycle of existence indepen- 
dent of an animal body; probably its normal existence is, like glan- 
ders, that of a Saprophyte, or plant living upon dead organic matter. 
Hence its endemic prevalence in places where its presence cannot be 
traced to a pre-existing case, and hence the mysterious isolated out- 
breaks which from time to time occur.f 
* 16th An. Rept. Mich. St. Bd. Health (1889), p. xlvi. 
t Blyth, A Manual of Public Health (1890), p. 504. 30 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The Entozoic 'Diseases. 
The entozoic diseases, while invasive rather than infectious, are also 
common to men and animals; they are of interest in a discussion of 
sewage disposal because the advocates of the numerous precipitation 
processes have at one time somewhat vigorously insisted that sewage 
farms must inevitably become centres of distribution for entozoic 
germs.* 
At present the argument against irrigation derived from the as- 
sumed distribution of entozoic germs has little weight, and Mr. Slater, 
whose book is the recent authoritative exposition of the views of the 
English precipitationists, in. his chapter on irrigation does not mention 
it at all.f 
The Tape or Intestinal Worms. 
The entozoa are of interest in the present connection, not only from 
their parasitic life in men and animals, but because a common method 
by which they gain access to the human economy is from drinking- 
water. They are characterized by a remarkable development of the re- 
productive system. A common form, Tcenia solium, the tape worm, 
has neither mouth nor stomach, the so-called head being merely an 
organ for attachment, the numerous segments of the body each con- 
taining within itself the necessary generative apparatus to enable it 
fertilize and mature its own numerous eggs. The relations of Tcenia 
to cystic entozoa which inhabit the muscles and glands of hogs and 
sheep has been shown to be very close; they are in fact the same form 
modified by the environment. Other forms of entozoa, among which 
Ascarus lumbricoides, the common intestinal worm, may be considered 
typical, infest the intestines of almost every vertebrated animal, their 
eggs passing readily from one to the other through the medium of 
drinking-water.^ 
An Iowa Case. 
M. Stalker gives an interesting account of a severe outbreak of 
disease, in the latter part of the summer of 1890, among the domestic 
animals on a farm in Iowa, in which horses, cattle, and sheep were all 
affected in the same way.§ The local symptoms, largely confined to the 
throat, were a swelling and partial paralysis of the walls of the upper 
* Tidy, The Treatment of Sewage, No. 94, Van Nostrand's Set Series, pp. 101-103. 
+ J. W. Slater, Sewage Treatment, Purification, and Utilization (1888). 
J Carpenter, The Microscope and its Revelations, 6th ed. (1881), p. 693. 
§ Some Observations on Contaminated Water Supply for Live Stock, M. Stalker, Bui. No. 13, 
(May, 1891), Iowa Ag. Ex. Station. NEED FOR MORE DEFINITE INFORMATION. 
31 
air-passages, accompanied by painful and difficult breathing. The 
animals attacked uniformly died after an illness of about two days. 
The extraordinary nature of the case, animals of so many different 
species all suffering from the same disease and all dying of it, led to a 
somewhat close study of the surroundings, with the result of ascertain- 
ing that the animals affected had all obtained drinking-water from a 
small creek which ran in a ravine through the farm. The dry weather 
for several months previous to the attack had so reduced the flow of 
the stream that water was found only in pools along its bed. A few 
animals on the same farm which did not have access to the creek, but 
which were watered from a well were, although in contact with the 
sick, entirely unaffected. On inquiry it appeared that earlier in the 
summer chicken cholera had prevailed among the fowls and hog 
cholera among the swine, and that a considerable number of dead 
chickens and hogs were thrown down the steep bluffs of the ravine 
into the bed of the stream. On other farms in the neighborhood it 
was customary to dispose of dead animals in the same way, and inquiry 
further showed that on no less than four other farms situated on the 
banks of this stream, animals had died showing symptoms identical 
with those on the farm first investigated. 
Mr. Stalker also states another case where contaminated water was 
distinctly proven as the cause of large mortality among cattle running 
on the open prairie. An animal dead from anthrax had been drawn 
into a basin which later filled with rain-water and furnished a drink- 
ing-place for about 1,000 cattle on the adjacent range. The result 
was that about ten per cent, of all the animals having access died 
from anthrax. In the language of Mr. Stalker : 
The teachings of these object lessons are sufficiently obvious. These animals are 
endowed with organizations not unlike our own, and the manifest laws of being 
and of health can no more be violated with impunity by them, than by ourselves. 
Need for More Definite Information. 
The foregoing- remarks on the infectious diseases of animals are a 
very inadequate presentation of the subject as it stands at the pres- 
ent day. In Europe the literature has already become exceedingly 
voluminous, while in this country there is also too much of it to en- 
able one to present other than a skeleton in a brief chapter like the 
present. It is hoped enough has been said to indicate that the sub- 
ject is of importance in connection with the general question of pol- 
lution of streams, and the purification of the sewage of any large town 
where extensive stock yards are located. Certainly the allowing of 
the drainage from stock yards and abattoirs to contaminate streams 32 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
which are the sources of public water supplies cannot be considered 
in touch with the best recent thought on public sanitation.* 
This discussion must be further taken as indicating that a sewage- 
polluted stream is not a safe source of drinking water for horses, cat- 
tle, and other domestic animals. 
Per contra we may say that a stream to which animals suffering 
from any of the intercommunicable diseases have access is not a safe 
source of drinking-water for human beings, though the fact pointed 
out by Dr. Billings, that " man has far greater receptivity to the con- 
tagious (infectious) diseases of animals than they have to those of 
man " may be considered as indicating less danger to animals than to 
human beings from the use of drinking-water polluted by the excre- 
ments of either. 
* Professor J. H. Long states in his report on Chemical Investigations of the Water Supplies 
of Illinois, 1888-89, that, in the summer of 1886, the sewage of the Chicago Stock Yards amounted 
to about 7,000,000 gallons daily, and gave then by several analyses in parts per 100,000 the 
following: 
Free ammonia, 4.20 
Albuminoid ammonia, 0.64 
Oxygen consumed, 20.80 
It is also stated that later tests show a great improvement in the character of the Stock Yard 
effluent, due to the fact that it has been found commercially profitable to remove many of the 
contaminating matters for use as fertilizers and for other purposes. (Professor Long's report, 
page 9.) CHAPTER III. 
ON THE POLLUTION OF STREAMS. 
The State of Massachusetts Leads in the Study of Stream 
Pollution. 
The history of stream pollution and the discussion of measures for 
its abatement have been confined in this country, until recently, al- 
most entirely to the Reports of the Massachusetts State Board of 
Health. Something has indeed been done in several of the other 
states, but to Massachusetts must be assigned the credit of not only 
first taking up the subject systematically but of materially advancing 
accurate knowledge of the subject. 
In making the preceding statement the authors have not overlooked 
the work done in several of the other states, as for instance, Maine, 
Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and 
Illinois. A large proportion of the work in the other states is, how- 
ever, considerably later in point of time than that in Massachusetts, 
and some of it has been modelled after the Massachusetts work as 
published from year to year in the Annual Reports of the State Board 
of Health. The credit of a systematic beginning therefore properly 
belongs to Massachusetts. 
Amount of Stream Pollution Investigation. 
The amount of systematic work and discussion of the same have now 
grown to such proportions as to render any adequate presentation of 
the tabulated results impossible in the limits of a single chapter in a 
book of this character, and about all that will be attempted here is to 
give a brief account of the work actually accomplished, in the prepara- 
tion of which the various reports will be used in some sort as a syl- 
labus. A complete knowledge of stream pollution as it stands in this 
country to-day can only be obtained by a study of the original 
reports. 
We will begin by reviewing the work done in Massachusetts, in 
regard to which it may be remarked that a portion of the information 
in the earlier reports, by reason of the recent developments, is some- 
what out of date ; it has nevertheless been deemed proper, in view of 34 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the historical importance of the Massachusetts work, to give a brief 
synopsis of all that has been done in that state in the way of studies 
of stream pollution and cognate questions. 
The Massachusetts Work. 
On April 6, 1872, the Massachusetts legislature directed the State 
Board of Health to " consider the general subject of the disposition of 
the sewage of towns and cities " and " report to the next legislature 
their views, with such information as they can obtain upon the subject 
from our own or other lands." This order of the Massachusetts legis- 
ture may be fixed upon as the beginning of accurate information in 
reference to sewerage, sewage disposal, and the pollution of streams 
in this country.* In compliance with the order the Board employed 
Professor Wm. Ripley Nichols, who, in conjunction with Dr. George 
Derby, Secretary of the Board, presented a report of 112 pages, which 
may be found in the Fourth Annual Report of the Board. 
After defining the terms sewer, sewerage, and sewage, the Report 
discusses at some length the following questions : 
(1) The Dry Earth System. 
(2) The Water Carriage System. 
(3) The Ventilation of House Drains. 
(4) Sewage from other sources (i.e., other than human wastes, kitchen 
drainage, etc.). 
(5) Other forms of Refuse not Removable by Sewers (as, for instance, 
swill, ashes, meat and vegetable refuse, etc.). 
(G) Sewage. 
(7) Sewers. 
(8) Sewers now in Use in Massachusetts. 
(9) Outlets of Sewers in Massachusetts. 
(10) On the Treatment of Sewage (including value of the sewage, 
lime process, phosphate process, intermittent filtration, and sewage 
irrigation). 
(11) On the Treatment and Utilization of Sewage in Massachusetts, 
(including tabulated statements of the results of analyses of sewage 
of Boston and Worcester). 
(12) The Effect of Sewage and Manufacturing Refuse on Running 
Streams (including examinations of a number of streams, namely, Mill 
brook, Blackstone river, and Merrimac river). Also condition of 
certain English rivers. 
(13) Alleged Self-Purification of Running Streams. 
* This may be considered a broad statement in view of the systematic design of several large 
sewerage systems, notably that of Chicago several years previous to 1872. The statement is 
intended more especially in reference to the design of sewerage systems with regard to systematic 
disposal other than into large bodies of water. THE MASSACHUSETTS WORK. 
35 
(14) The Water Supply of Towns. 
(15) Lakes and " Great Ponds." 
(16) Great Ponds are Public Property. 
Under heads (2) and (4) the report states that while drains have 
been in use for thousands of years it is only in the present century 
that they have been used as carriers of human excrement. The other 
waste substances passing into sewers are the liquid slops from wash- 
ing and cooking, the washings and scrapings of hides, the washings 
of slaughter-houses and stables, Chemicals used in the preparation 
of leather and morocco, chemicals used in cotton factories and print 
works, the fluid wastes of rendering establishments and of soap 
factories, and the liquid wastes of other manufacturing establishments 
of every description. 
Under (7) the report states that " Sewers may be used (1) for the 
exclusive removal of excremental and waste fluids ; (2) for the removal of 
rainfall; (3) for the removal of superfluous water in the soil." " There 
are those who strongly advocate the separation of the first two from 
each other. The rainfall to the river, the sewage to the soil is an 
alliterative saying which has had great currency in England. It 
however involves the construction of a complete double set of sewers 
in every case, and it sacrifices the advantage of occasional flushing 
and the complete washing out of these conduits by occasional storms. 
Our best engineers do not advise this separation, except to provide 
storm-water overflows as a measure of economy." 
Under (9) the report states: " We believe that, in the present state of 
human knowledge and experience, no better receptacle than the ocean 
can be found, provided the sewage is delivered where deep currents can 
disperse it so that it can be no more seen, and can prevent its deposit 
in the settling-basins of docks and the mud flats of estuaries." 
Under (11) the report discusses the manurial value of excrement and 
deduces a value for the sewage of Boston of perhaps one cent per 
net ton. 
Under (12) tabulated analyses of the waters of the streams studied is 
given, together with brief statement of some of the difficulties in the way 
of maintaining the purity of streams receiving manufacturing refuse. 
In the Fifth Annual Report of the Board the discussion is continued 
by Professor Nichols with special reference to the condition of certain 
rivers in the state, the inquiry being prosecuted more especially in 
reference to "the increasing joint use of watercourses for sewers and 
as a source of supply for domestic use." The rivers selected for ex- 
tended examination were the Merrimac, Blackstone, Sudbury, Con- 
cord, and Charles. 
The report begins with a discussion of the sources of pollution of 
the Merrimac river and presents in detail statements of population 36 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
and number of operatives of some of the manufacturing towns, with 
statistics of the annual use of polluting substances, such as oil, starch, 
Hour, madder, copperas, alum, sumac, sulphuric acid, bark, soda ash, 
and soap. The character of the river bed and the condition of the 
river are also considered. Extended tables of analyses are given and 
the relative effect of oxidation, deposition, and dilution in assisting 
purification discussed. 
The studies of the Blackstone river, begun in the previous year, are 
continued and tables given of analyses of series of samples of water 
taken at different points. These together with the tables of analyses 
of the waters of the Charles, Sudbury, and Concord rivers, and a sin- 
gle examination of water from the Neponset river conclude the exam- 
ination of river waters in the Fifth Report. 
Professor Nichols then takes up the discussion of (1) rivers as a 
source of supply, in which chapter the various arguments pro and con. 
are clearly stated; (2) the present condition of the water-supply of 
certain cities in Massachusetts, the water-supplies discussed being the 
Cochituate and Mystic of Boston, the ^lerrimac river at Lowell and 
Lawrence-the water-works of which latter was at that time in pro- 
cess of construction-and the Charles river, which was already in use 
at Waltham and had been at various times proposed for a number of 
other towns. Tables of analyses of the various water-supplies are pre- 
sented. 
These two reports in the Fourth and Fifth Annual Reports of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health are thus noted somewhat in de- 
tail, not oidy because of the valuable discussions of the several sub- 
jects considered, but because of their historical value as the starting- 
point of a definite knowledge of river pollution and the cognate ques- 
tions in this country. The task of making a beginning could hardly 
have fallen into more capable hands than those of the late Professor 
Wm. Ripley Nichols. 
In continuation of the work thus begun we find in chapter 192 of the 
Acts and Resolves passed by the General Court of Massachusetts in 
1875 an act to provide for an investigation of the question of the use 
of running streams as common sewers in relation to the public health. 
By its terms the State Board of Health is directed to investigate by 
themselves, or by agents employed by them, the correct method of 
drainage and sewerage of the cities and towns of the commonwealth, 
especially with regard to the pollution of rivers, estuaries, and ponds 
by such drainage or sewerage. 
The investigations undertaken under this act were divided into 
three heads and each assigned to a specialist for study and discussion 
as follows: 
(1) The pollution of rivers, with general observations on water sup- THE MASSACHUSETTS WORK. 
37 
plies and sewerage, James P. Kirkwood. M. Am. Soc. C. E., the nec- 
essary chemical analyses being made by Professor Nichols. 
(2) The water supply, drainage, and sewerage of the state from a 
sanitary point of view, Frederick Winsor, M. D. 
(3) The disposal of sewage, Chas. F. Folsom, M. D., Secretary of 
the Board. 
These several reports, which appear in the Seventh Annual Report 
of the Board, make 385 octavo pages of printed matter and present 
nearly every phase of the subject, and may at the present day be 
taken with slight modifications as a pertinent treatise with special 
reference to the conditions obtaining in this country. 
In Part II. of Mr. Kirkwood's report is given a brief account of the 
kinds of chemicals used in the various manufacturing processes, as 
prepared by L. B. Ward, M. Am. Soc. C. E., chiefly from the English 
reports, with reference to the differences in practice in this country. 
This part of the report includes notices of the processes of the follow- 
ing : The manufacture of woollen and cotton goods ; bleaching opera- 
tions ; linen and jute manufacture with the bleaching of the same; 
jute dyeing; silk manufacture; paper manufacture; metal manufac- 
tures, including iron works and rolling mills, and iron and steel wire 
and galvanizing works, together with brass foundries and electro plate 
works. The report also includes a chapter on poisoned water and its 
limits, with experiments upon fish with acids, metallic salts, special 
chemicals, and furnace ashes, this latter information adapted entirely 
from the English reports. 
Detailed statistics of all existing sources of pollution on the several 
rivers examined are given in this portion of the report. 
In a report of 100 pages Dr. Frederick Winsor discusses the ques- 
tions relating to water-supply, drainage, and sewerage in Massachusetts 
from the sanitary point of view. 
In the section devoted to the Disposal of Sewage, by Dr. C. F. Fol- 
som, the following are the several heads discussed: 
(1) The effect of filth on health. 
(2) The influence of sewer-gases on health. 
(3) Water contaminated by sewage. 
(4) Experience in England. 
(5) The sewage question in England. 
(6) Substitutes for the water-carriage system. 
(7) Experience in France. 
(8) Experience in Germany. 
(9) Experience in Holland. 
(10) Experience in other countries. 
(11) Processes for purifying sewage-including filtration, intermittent 
downward filtration, precipitation by lime,' aluminia, superphosphate, 38 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
sulphite of lime and magnesia, the A. B. C. process, metallic salts, Su- 
vern's system, and Lenk's process. 
(12) Irrigation, including sub-soil irrigation, surface irrigation, the 
mode of distributing sewage, location of sewage farms, amount of land 
necessary, the effect of climate, theory of the purification of sewage, 
the effluent from sewage farms, alleged ill effects and the cost of irriga- 
tion. 
(13) Methods of disposing of sewage in the various English and Con- 
tinental towns, including Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham, Coventry, 
Edinburgh, West Derby, Crewe, Romford, Croydon, Bedford, Tun- 
bridge Wells, Leamington, Merthyr Tydfil, Paris (sewage farm at 
Gennevilliers), and Danzig. 
(14) The waste of sewage. 
(15) The conditions of sewage farming. 
In the summary following the several reports the Board makes the 
following recommendations: 
(I.) That no city or town shall be allowed to discharge sewage into any water- 
course or pond without first purifying it according to the best process at present 
known, which is irrigation ; provided that this regulation does not apply to the 
discharge from sewers already built, unless water-supplies be thereby polluted ; 
and provided also that any intended discharge of sewage can be shown to be at 
such a point that no nuisance will arise from it. 
(II.) That no sewage of any kind, whether purified or not, be allowed to enter 
any pond or stream used for domestic purposes. 
(III.) That each water-basin should be regarded by itself in the preparations of 
plans of sewerage and water-supplies. 
(IV.) That accurate topographical surveys always be made of all towns before 
introducing water-supplies or sewers. 
(V.) That steps should be taken, by special legislation, based upon investigations 
and recommendations of experts, to meet cases of serious annoyance arising from 
defective arrangements for the disposal of sewage. 
(VI.) That irrigation be adopted, at first experimentally, in those places where 
some process of purification of sewage is necessary; and that cities and towns be 
authorized by law to take such land as may be necessary for that purpose. 
(VII.) That every city or town of over 4,000 inhabitants be required by law to 
appoint a Board of Health, the members of which shall be required not to hold 
any other offices in the government of their city or town. 
In the Eighth Annual Report (1877) the discussion of stream pollu- 
tion and sewage disposal is continued by the Secretary of the Board. 
The stream selected for this year's work was the Nashua river, which 
was not only polluted at many points, but from being situated in two 
States was considered to illustrate most of the important features of 
such an investigation. 
The topics discussed under this head are: Area and population of 
the river basin; water supply and sewerage of the towns in the basin ; 
statistics of the sources of pollution in detail; including the specific 
kinds of pollution from woollen mills, paper mills, cotton mills, comb 
manufactories, tanneries, etc.; the purification of polluted streams; THE MASSACHUSETTS WORK. 
39 
pollution of the Nashua river: some pollution unavoidable; and dis- 
posal of sewage in the Nashua basin. 
From the Report it appears that the area drained by the Nashua 
river in Massachusetts is 457 square miles; in New Hampshire 87 
miles. The average popidation for the portion in Massachusetts was 
found to be 106.5 per square mile. 
None of the towns in the Nashua basin had sewerage systems at the 
date of the Report, although a few surface-water drains had been built 
in Fitchburg, Clinton, and Leominster, the three chief towns in the 
portion of the river basin in Massachusetts. The chief sources of pol- 
lution were therefore found to be the wastes from manufactories. The 
following included all in this basin in Massachusetts at that time: 
Number of 
manufactories. 
Hands 
employed. 
Woollen mills 
14 
1,265 
Shoddy mills 
2 
6 
Cotton mills 
22 
2,478 
Paper mills 
20 
437 
Edge-tool and machine works 
6 
350 
Comb manufactories 
9 
330 
Tanneries 
4 
180 
Chair and tub shops 
3 
245 
Leather-board mills 
5 
94 
Flour mills 
2 
14 
Gas works 
2 
6 
Linen mill 
1 
22 
Wood-pulp mill 
1 
6 
Cotton and Shoddy mill 
1 
10 
Totals 
92 
5,443 
The Nashua river flows from Massachusetts into New Hampshire, 
joining the Merrimac river at the city of Nashua in the latter State; 
the Merrimac itself passes into Massachusetts in a few miles flow. 
The result of the examination was to lead to the conclusion, as stated 
in the Report, that the pollution of the Nashua river, while mostly 
from manufacturing wastes, was still altogether too serious to permit 
of the use of the stream at any point, except at its extreme head-waters, 
as the source of public water supplies. 
In the portion of the Eighth Report referring to the disposal of 
sewage, the following are the heads discussed : Experiments in Mas- 
sachusetts ; progress elsewhere; sewage disposal at Glasgow; the 
Liernur system; brief references to disposal at Coventry, Leeds, 
Hille's process, and sewage precipitates generally; dry removal; opin- 
ions of experts as deduced from results of sanitary conference held in 40 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
1876 under the auspices of the Society of Arts; English government 
statistics published in March, 1876, including purification by overflow 
of sewage on land; filtration, precipitation and filtration, cost of pre- 
cipitation, cost of irrigation, cost of Barking farm, cost of Cheltenham 
farm, cost of Bedford farm, cost of dry removal, cost of no removal of 
sewage, and conclusion of the English Local Government Board ; expe- 
rience in Germany, Austria, and France ; objections to irrigation below 
Paris; sewage of Paris; irrigation with sewage of Paris; proposed 
intercepting sewer for Paris and deep sea outlet; experiments on pre- 
cipitation at Paris ; present condition of the question at Paris, objec- 
tions, etc.; some objections to sewage irrigation considered; effects on 
health of bad drainage; contaminated water; the purist theory; con- 
taminated air and soil ; oxidation of sewage ; filth not safe and specific 
poison theory; illustrative cases of disease from poisoned air at Croy- 
don, Fort Cumberland, and Uppingham school; illustrative cases of 
disease from polluted water at Eagley and Bolton, England, and 
Lausen, Switzerland ; * yellow fever and filth ; dysentery and fever from 
filth ; earth-closets; and the prevention of tilth diseases. 
E. S. Chesbrough, M. Am. Soc. C. E., also discusses in the Eighth 
Annual Report the subject of Sewerage, its Advantages and Disad- 
vantages, Construction and Maintenance. 
In the Ninth Annual Report, Sewerage and the Pollution of Streams 
is further discussed by the Board, the investigations for the year having 
been made with special reference to the basins of the Hoosac and 
Housatonic rivers. Statistics in detail of the sources of pollution in 
the river basins examined are given, same as in the previous reports, 
and at the conclusion the Board presents a draft of A Bill to Prevent 
the Pollution of Streams, and for Other Purposes. In concluding this 
portion of the report the Board submit the following : 
Recommendations. 
There are a few points to be borne in mind with reference to water-supply, 
drainage of houses, and sewerage, which have been suggested by the examinations 
of the Board in this State, and may properly be summarized here :- 
1. The privy system, so common throughout the State, by which filth is stored 
up to pollute the air, soil, and water, near dwellings, should be in all cases 
abolished. 
2. Cesspools, unless with extraordinary precautions as to ventilation and pre- 
vention of pollution of soil and air, are little better, and should be given up for 
something less objectionable as soon as practicable. 
3. Wells cannot be depended on for supplies of wholesome water, unless they are 
thoroughly guarded from sources of surface and subsoil pollution. Some of the 
foulest well-water examined by the Board has been clear, sparkling, and of not un- 
pleasant taste. 
4. Where wells have already been polluted, and it is not practicable to dig new 
* This is a good account of the famous case where typhoid germs are proven to have passed 
through a mile of gravel. Account illustrated by map. Also see Chapter I. THE MASSACHUSETTS WORK. 
41 
deep wells remote from sources of contamination, or to introduce pure public water 
supplies, the storage of rain-water, properly filtered, is a satisfactory method of 
procedure. 
5. In small towns where public water supplies have not been introduced, and, in- 
deed, wherever water-closets are not used, some method of frequent removal and 
disinfection with earth or ashes, should be adopted in place of privies, by which it 
should be impossible for the filth to soak into the soil or escape into the air. Ce- 
mented vaults are not always to be depended upon, as their walls crack from frost 
or through settling of the ground; and they thus sometimes become sources of 
pollution of wells, besides contaminating the air. Nor is the fact of a privy being 
on a downward slope from the well a sufficient safeguard; for even then the direc- 
tion of the subsoil drainage may be toward the well. 
6. Earth-closets, with proper care, may be satisfactorily adopted. But the earth, 
after having been once used, should be placed upon the land, not stored within 
doors and dried, to be again used ; for, in the process of drying, there are emana- 
tions from it which are, perhaps, not less dangerous from the fact of their being 
imperceptible by the unaided senses, or through chemical examination. With 
earth-closets, a plan similar to that in use at the Pittsfield Hospital* may be well 
used for the chamber slops ; and the kitchen waste may be utilized (with the cham- 
ber slops, too, if desired) in the manner used by Mr. Field and Col. Waring. . . . 
Less intricate methods are used in scattered dwellings, but with the effect of having 
the slop-water absorbed by the ground and taken up by vegetation so far from the 
house as not to involve a nuisance or danger to health. 
7. Where water supplies, water-closets, etc., are introduced, sewers should follow 
immediately, in most kinds of soil ; cesspools should not be used, unless with 
extraordinary precautions. But with a few hundred feet square of lawn, the irriga- 
tion system by agricultural drain-pipes is to be recommended, whereby the filth is 
at once taken up by the roots of grass. In all cases, of course, with or without 
cesspools, there should be thorough ventilation of the system of house-drainage, 
with disconnection from the main-outlet drain by means of either a ventilating pipe 
or rain-water spout between the sewer-trap and the house, and whose openings at 
the top should be only at points remote from windows and chimney-tops. 
On the whole, a thoroughly satisfactory arrangement of this kind, if properly 
looked after, is in many respects to be preferred to connecting with public sewers. 
8. While the water-carriage system is the least offensive to a refined people, the 
least costly in the end if on a large scale, and, when well managed, the least objec- 
tionable from a sanitary point of view, it should be remembered : (1), that in the 
case of towns and cities of moderate size its introduction involves the outlay of a 
large capital; (2), that the connections between houses and sewers can be made 
free from danger-bringing elements only with great care, and that usually from a 
want of such care they are often productive of a certain amount of harm-a danger 
often very great, especially to children and delicate persons, since the possibility 
of the continuous ill effect on the system of a slight poison is not often recognized, 
and as few people can be induced to believe that anything is a poison from which 
they cannot see immediate and striking ill results ; (3), that the outlets of sewers, 
except near large bodies of water, generally involve a great deal of difficulty, and 
often of serious nuisance, from the fact that there is at present no really satisfactory 
way of disposing of the sewage, while a properly arranged system of frequent dry 
removal is not attended with especial danger to health, and may at any time be 
changed for better' methods without involving any great pecuniary loss. 
When sewers are built, or sewerage systems adopted, the work should be planned 
and carried out only by the best available talent; for badly constructed sewers are 
in many respects worse than none; and their proper arrangement and maintenance 
involve an amount of knowledge, skill, and experience, which are found only 
among men of unusual ability, who have had special opportunities for preparing 
themselves for their work. 
Whichever of the three great disinfectants and destroyers of filth is used- 
namely, a sufficient quantity of earth, water, or air and sunlight-the essential proc- 
ess is the same : the effete matters are converted bv oxidation and by chemical 
* Described in an article on Cottage Hospitals, pp. 83-95, 9th Ann. Rept. 42 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
combination into products that are finally both harmless and inoffensive. In all 
three the oxygen is the most important agent, and burning, or oxidation, is the es- 
sential process. The most offensive gases, however, to a certain extent when in the 
earth, and to a less degree in the water, are absorbed mechanically ; in the earth, 
too, the foul-smelling sulphuretted hydrogen unites with the iron found in most 
soils, forming an inert and inoffensive compound. But in all three, unless 
the amount of filth is proportionately very small, there are certain gases escaping, 
and what are called emanations-possibly, too, disease "germs"-often so minute 
or diluted as not to be appreciable to our senses. It is the part of prudence, there- 
fore, to have any and all of these processes reasonably remote from dwellings, and 
within certain limits to destroy all filth by oxidation, sewage irrigation, etc., with 
as little delay as may be necessary. 
All of these points seem of such importance to the Board, that, in their opinion, 
no city or town shall be allowed to embark upon costly schemes of water-supply 
and sewerage without having the benefit of advice from somebody who has had ex- 
perience in such matters. There has therefore been inserted, in the draft of the 
law which precedes, a section providing that all such plans must be approved by 
the Rivers Pollution Commission. The matter of local drainage is also one involv- 
ing great danger to the public health if not properly regulated; and provisions for 
that, too, have been made in the bill. 
In 1879 the State Board of Health of Massachusetts was succeeded 
by the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, and in the first re- 
port of that Board (1880) the investigations as begun by the previous 
Board are continued, by a study of the basin of the Westfield river, 
which with a further preliminary examination of the Merrimack river 
concludes the special work of pollution on streams for the year 1879. 
Professor Nichols gives in this report an account of a stream pol- 
luted by a large quantity of sulphuric acid discharged into it by the 
burning of a chemical works. This case is of considerable value as illus- 
trating how seemingly great amounts of contaminating material may 
under favorable conditions be easily lost sight of in large volumes of 
water. 
The Second Report of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Char- 
ity, contains an investigation of the pollution of the Deerfield and Mil- 
ler rivers as made by W. E. Hoyt, C. E., with the statistics given in 
form similar to that of previous years. 
The Third Report contains in Appendix B, (1) a report on the Wor- 
cester sewage and the Blackstone river, by Drs. Folsom and Wolcott 
and Joseph P. Davis, M. Am. Soc. C. E.; and (2) a report on the same 
subject by Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C. E., the latter present- 
ed on behalf of the town of Milbury, situated on the Blackstone river 
below Worcester and alleged to be suffering from the nuisance caused 
by the sewage pollution in the stream.* 
Appendix C contains extracts from the Report on the First Metro- 
politan Drainage Commission as presented to the Massachusetts Leg- 
islature, Jan. 9, 1882. 
* For further references to these two Reports see Chapter XXVII. on sewage disposal at 
Worcester, Mass. THE MASSACHUSETTS WORK. 
43 
The next work on pollution of streams in Massachusetts is in the 
Nineteenth Annual Report of the State Board of Health (1888), where 
are given tables of analyses of the waters of several of the streams 
examined in previous years. An outline of the proposed experiments 
on sewage purification at Lawrence is also given. 
In the Twentieth and Twenty-first Reports questions of pollution 
are incidentally discussed from the standpoint of the recent views 
under the head of advice to cities and towns in relation to water sup- 
ply and sewerage. 
In the Special Report, Part I., and in the Twenty-second and 
Twenty-third Annual Reports, may be found the best exposition of 
many of the'questions arising in connection with stream pollution 
that has yet been made. 
In the Chapter on the Examination of Rivers in the Special Report, 
the pollution of the Blackstone river is first considered. This river 
is stated to be, by reason of receiving the sewage of the city of Wor- 
cester, the most polluted stream in Massachusetts. For several miles 
below Worcester the stream was found not only very offensive at times, 
but too dirty for use in the manufacture of light colored cloths. 
The report gives a series of analyses of (1) the unpolluted water of 
the streams which unite to form the Blackstone above Worcester; (2) 
samples taken at Quinsigamond village about one mile below the point 
where the Worcester sewage enters the Blackstone ; (3) at Uxbridge 
17 miles below, and (4) at Millville 24 miles below. Table No. 4 A 
gives the means of analyses made in 1887, 1888 and a portion of 1889, 
and is from data in the Special Report. 
Table No. 4 A.-Means ok Analyses of Water of Blackstone River at the 
Points Indicated, as Made in 1887, 1888 and 1889. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Locality. 
Number of analyses in 
series. 
1 
| Color. 
Residue on 
evaporation. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen as 
Total. 
Loss on ignition. 
Fixed. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Nitrates. 
N itrites. 
Lynde Brook reservoir 
23 
0.25 
2.98 
0.91 
2.07 
.0040 
.0162 
0.14 
.0062 
.0001 
Tatnuck Brook reservoir 
23 
0.19 
2.43 
0.86 
1.57 
.0009 
.0155 
0.12 
.0038 
.0001 
River below Quinsigamond village 
24 
0.70 
23.83 
5.66 
18.17 
.2160 
.1218 
1.19 
.0315 
.0027 
River at Uxbridge 
24 
0.40 
0.67 
1.48 
5.19 
.1011 
.0286 
0.65 
.0292 
.0009 
River at Millville 
24 
0.39 
5.06 
1.26 
3.80 
.0455 
.0253 
0.46 
.0211 
.0005 
At Millville, the lowest point at which the samples were taken, the 
drainage area is about four times as great as at Quinsigamond village, 44 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
while the population is only 34 per cent, greater. A very considerable 
purification takes place in the flow down the river by reason of dilu- 
tion, independent of any purification resulting from other causes. 
The dilution is nearly sufficient to account for all the purification in- 
dicated by the chemical analyses. 
In Table No. 4 B we have the averages of a similar series of analyses 
made from June, 1889, to December, 1890, and given in the Twenty- 
second Annual Report. 
Table No. 4 B.-Means of Analyses of Water of Blackstone River at the 
Points Indicated, as Made in 1889 and 1890. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Locality. 
Number of analyses in se- 
ries. 
Color. 
Residue on 
evaporation. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen as 
Hardness. 
Total. 
Losson ignition. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Nitrates. 
Nitrites. 
Total. 
Dissolved. 
Suspended. 
Lynde Brook reservoir 
19* 
0.22 
3.07 
1.15 
.0028 
.0149 
.0121 
.0028 
0.15 
.0062 
.0001 
0.9 
Tatnuck Brook reservoir.... 
River above Worcester sew- 
19* 
0.19 
2.74 
1.24 
.0005 
.0153 
.0115 
.0038 
0.13 
.0056 
.(XXX) 
0.9 
age disposal works 
River below Worcester sew- 
19* 
0.84 
9.97 
3.04 
.2452 
.1135 
.0615 
.0520 
1.10 
.0295 
.0018 
2.82 
age disposal works 
6t 
0.95 
11.43 
3.20 
.2860 
.1510 
.0787 
.0723 
1.44 
.0345 
.0022 
3.72 
River at Uxbridge 
20J 
0.27 
8.27 
1.69 
.1131 
.0242 
.0167 
.0077 
0.67 
.0302 
.0007 
2.88 
River at Millville 
20: 
0.38 
6.81 
2.31 
.0544 
.0231 
.0180 
.0051 
0.46 
.0216 
.0003 
2.25 
* Six analyses included in the mean total residue and five in the loss on ignition. 
+ These analyses were all made in 1890 after the opening of the sewage disposal works. 
t Seven analyses included in the mean total residue and six in the loss on ignition. 
The means for total residue and loss on ignition included in Table No. 4 B are all of analyses made after 
opening of Worcester sewage disposal works in 1890. 
In considering the results of the analyses embodied in Table No. 4 
B it may be remembered that the Worcester disposal works were put 
in operation June 25, 1890. 
The Worcester sewage is mostly discharged into Mill brook, which 
flows into the Blackstone river at Quinsigamond village. The water- 
shed of Mill brook is about 12.5 square miles with an average daily 
flow of about a million gallons per square mile, or the average daily 
volume of brook water is something like 12,500,000 gallons. In dry 
weather the average daily flow is less than this. The sewage proper 
amounted to about 5,000,000 gallons per day in 1892. 
At present the main intercepting sewer extends only from the new 
precipitation works, which are situated about one mile south of Quin- 
sigamond village, to the lower end of the Mill brook channel, where it 
intercepts the sewage after dilution with brook water to the extent 
indicated in the foregoing. 
During the time covered by the analyses in Table No. 4 B, only CONNECTICUT. 
45 
about 3,000,000 gallons of the polluted brook water were treated at the 
disposal works, the balance of the untreated How of Mill brook enter- 
ing the river as formerly. 
The effect of the treatment of the 3,000,000 gallons daily is indicated 
by the third and fourth series of Table No. 4 B.* 
The results of recent studies of the pollution of the Charles, Chico- 
pee, Concord, Connecticut, Deerfield, Hoosac, Housatonic, Ipswich, 
Merrimack, Millers, Nashua, Neponset, Shawsheen, Stony Brook, 
Taunton, Ten Mile, and Westfield rivers, are given in the Special Re- 
port. The Twenty-second Annual Report also contains the continua- 
tion of the study of a number of the streams. 
In the Twenty-third Annual Report the results of studies of the 
Blackstone are continued to include the year 1891; the same is true 
of the Merrimack and Taunton rivers. In addition advantage was 
taken of an unusually dry season to make special studies of the Black- 
stone, Quaboag, Merrimack, Nashua and Neponset rivers. The Report 
states: 
Nearly all of the examinations show an increasing pollution of the streams as 
compared with previous years. This is caused not only by the fact that the sum- 
mer and autumn of 1891 were drier than for several years before, but also by an 
unusually rapid increase in population and manufactures during these years, little 
being done by the towns and manufacturers to keep the larger streams from being 
polluted.-(p. 256.) 
Other Massachusetts Reports of value are (1) the Report of Commis 
sion Appointed to Consider a General System of Drainage for the 
Valleys of the Mystic, Blackstone and Charles rivers (1886); and (2) 
the Report of the State Board of Health upon the sewerage of the 
Mystic and Charles River Valleys (1889). Both of these reports 
should be read by whoever wishes to fully consider the literature of 
Sewage Disposal in the United States. 
Maine. 
In Maine a few chemical analyses of river waters used as public sup- 
plies have been made by the State Board of Health in the last few 
years, the results of which may be found in the Annual Reports of the 
State Board. 
Connecticut. 
In Connecticut the General Assembly, by an Act approved March 
24, 1886, made it incumbent upon the State Board of Health to " inves- 
tigate and ascertain so far as practicable all facts in relation to the 
pollution of streams and natural waters of this state by artificial causes. 
* For further in regard to pollution of the Blackstone, see Chapter XXVII. 46 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
which in their judgment may be necessary to determine the sanitary 
and economic effects of such pollution." 
The work authorized by this act was put in charge of Professor S. W. 
Williston, of Yale College, who submitted a preliminary report in the 
Tenth Annual Report of the State Board (1888). According to Pro- 
fessor Williston, this enactment grew out of a conviction on the part of 
those acquainted with the rapidly growing pollution of the streams of 
Connecticut that the time had arrived when state jurisdiction was 
imperatively needed. Many of the streams are already in or approach 
iug a state of excessive pollution. The growth of manufacturing inter- 
ests, and the decrease of the agricultural population, has been steady 
and general in Connecticut for some years. The manufacturing towns 
and cities have thus increased rapidly; many of them showing 50 per 
cent, or more in the last decade. This has produced a twofold result 
upon the streams; not only are the manufacturing wastes added, but 
the population by compacting in towns is brought into the most favor- 
able condition for discharging sewage and other human waste prod- 
ucts directly into the rivers. 
The chapter on Manufacturing Processes and Refuse in Professor 
Williston's Report gives in brief space the essential facts in relation 
to pollution from the ordinary manufacturing processes, and it is 
accordingly included here as a useful contribution to the recent Ameri- 
can literature of rivers pollution. 
Manufacturing Processes and Refuse. 
BRASS MANUFACTURES. 
As is well known, the various brass manufactories form the chief industry of the 
Naugatuck valley, an industry for which not only the chief towns on the river are 
noted, but also for which the State itself is justly celebrated throughout America. 
These brass works, notwithstanding their extent, are in reality productive of little 
harm to the river in a sanitary sense, though they have long since rendered the 
water of the stream wholly unfit for fish, the chief waste, sulphate of copper, being 
the most poisonous of any substance known to this form of life. Their refuse, aside 
ftom the sewage of their operatives, is almost wholly acids and oils, with a certain 
considerable quantity of the metals themselves dissolved by the action of the acids. 
The refuse or waste materials differ somewhat in character, but not much, accord- 
ing to the product of the various mills. Some of the manufactories produce only 
the sheet or bar brass from the copper and zinc; others are engaged wholly in the 
production of the various metal goods from the alloy, while others manufacture 
both the alloy and the goods. Of the rolling mills proper there are a half dozen or 
more, located in Torrington, Thomaston, Waterbury, Seymour, and Ansonia, and all 
of them are on a more or less extensive scale, employing about four-fifths of all the 
operatives engaged in the brass industries in the Naugatuck valley. 
In the rolling mills, the acids, chiefly sulphuric, are used almost wholly for the 
removal of the oxidized scales on the surface of the metal after annealing. The 
metal, in the process of rolling, as is well known, becomes hard and brittle and 
requires repeated heating in order to render it ductile. After having been thus 
heated, the tarnished surface is again rendered clean and shining by immersion in MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND REFUSE. 
47 
diluted acid, a process technically called " pickling." The acid for this purpose is 
diluted in a large vat with six to twelve times its quantity of water, and is constantly 
kept renewed by the addition of acid as its strength is weakened. This pickling 
vat may be emptied and renewed daily, weekly, or at longer intervals, depending 
upon the different usages, and the different amounts of metal treated in it. In no 
case, however, am I aware of the recovery of any part of the acid in the metal salts, 
except in copper mills, where the copper crystals, precipitated from the saturated 
solution, are removed and thrown into the furnace to be again reduced to the metal 
state. After the metal has been allowed to remain in the pickling vat for a few 
minutes, it is removed and placed in another vat of running clean water, to remove 
the residue of acid. It is thus seen that all or nearly all of the acids employed 
reach the stream, carrying with them copper and zinc in solution. How much 
copper and zinc is thus lost I cannot say, but, from analysis, I believe that more 
than one-half of the acid becomes saturated, so that the amount actually going into 
the stream is at least thirty per cent, greater than the amount of acid used. 
Almost the only other, and the worst, element of contamination from the rolling 
mills, is that caused by the oils used. The brass that is cast into bars, either for 
future rolling, or for use as such in other manufacturing purposes, requires the use 
of oil in the moulds, but this, it is unnecessary to state, is all consumed. In the 
process of rolling, however, lard, fish, and whale oils in about equal proportions, are 
applied to the surface of the metal and the rollers. Some little of this oil, it is 
true, finds its way through and is consumed by the fire in the process of annealing; 
but the great pressure of the rolls, it is readily understood, squeezes back this and 
causes it to flow off, for the greater part, into a trough or depression below, whence 
it is carried off by a stream of constantly flowing water. Very little of the mineral 
oils is used in rolling, but chiefly for lubrication on bearings. My reports will not 
show accurately the amount of oils that are used, for, in some of the manufactories 
where I am pretty confident they must be employed to a greater or less extent, no 
reports were given of them. Several of the largest manufactories on the river did, 
however, give complete reports, from which it is evident that lard oil is not the one 
chiefly used, but also whale and fish oils, as well as large quantities of the mineral 
oils. The report of one large firm will give a pretty clear idea of the amount used 
for the rolling mills. In this manufactory, for each one thousand pounds of metal 
treated or manufactured one gallon of "fish and mineral" oils was used and fifteen 
pounds of acid. Of course the lighter mineral oils are the ones least likely to get 
into the water and the ones least injurious. 
The only other refuse from the rolling mills, aside from the sewage of the oper- 
atives, is derived from the cinders, scoriae, and other matter containing fragments 
of the metal which it is desired to save. This material, after having been crushed, 
is washed by water and the metals separated and again used. 
Much the larger amount of brass used is composed of copper and zinc in the pro- 
portion of about six to four ; where the alloy is desired of a more granular or brittle 
character to adapt it for turning, rather than for ductility, a small part (two or three 
per cent.) of lead is added. 
In the larger number of the manufactories the alloy is cast or turned, or other- 
wise formed into the various objects for which the metal is used, and here neces- 
sarily they undergo a different treatment, but one not essentially different so far as 
refuse is concerned, save in the use of oil. In most of these the acid is used to 
give some desired finish to the goods, and not merely to clean the surface. Sul- 
phuric acid is still used in by far the larger quantity, but muriatic and nitric acids 
are also used in different ways and in different combinations to produce different 
effects. The process is technically called " dipping," and the acid is used in full 
strength in small kettles kept at a boiling temperature. Before being dipped, the 
goods are treated with a solution of caustic soda to remove whatever grease may be 
adhering to them. After dipping they are washed in running water and polished. 
The dipping vats are kept at the required strength and the contents changed from 
time to time (several months before being wholly changed). The combination of 
these acids, their proper degrees of strength, and the proper methods of using them, 
require a certain degree of technical skill on the part of the worker. The metal 
salts are not recovered in this process, or, if so, are treated as refuse, so that the 48 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
acids all practically find their way into the stream, together with a considerable 
quantity of the metals. 
One hundred pounds of sulphuric acid used in the pickling baths require for 
saturation : 
64.3 pounds of copper, producing 254 pounds of blue vitriol 
[CuO^H2SO4^CuSO4+H2O], 
66.3 pounds of zinc, producing 292 pounds of white vitriol 
[ZnO+H8SO<=ZnSO4+HsO]. 
One hundred pounds of the same acid used in the hot dipping baths would 
require : 
32.1 pounds of copper, producing 127 pounds of blue vitriol 
[Cu+2(HaSO4)=CuSO4+SO1-b2(HaO)]. 
33.2 pounds of zinc, producing 146.4 pounds of white vitriol 
[ZnSO4+7HaO]. 
Considerable quantities of soap are reported from the latter class of manufacto- 
ries, used for wire drawing and lubricating metals in press operations. 
In the polishing of brass and iron considerable quantities of oil and grease are 
used, which are afterward removed by potash in different forms, or other alkalies. 
In all the brass manufactories, save the rolling mills proper, considerable quan- 
tities of cyanide of potash and ammonia are reported. These are used in electro- 
metallurgical processes, and all are wasted, together with some fatty matters taken 
up by the alkali. Goods to be electroplated are first treated with the alkali to re- 
move what greasy matters may be adhering to the metal, and are then subjected to 
a dilute bath of acid to remove the oxides from the surface. They are then placed 
in a solution of the cyanide of potash, which acts as a carrier or agent in the de- 
position of the metal by the galvanic current. 
Cyanide of potash, as is well known, is a virulent poison, and there is a sufficient 
quantity employed annually in the Naugatuck valley to destroy all the inhabitants 
of the United States, yet it is doubtful whether its contaminating influence is very 
great. The waste solution is more or less neutralized by acids and diluted in the 
drain-pipes that carry them off. 
The amount of aqua ammonia reported does not differ much in the various manu- 
factories ; from two-thirds as much in weight, as of the cyanide of potash, to an 
equal quantity are given. 
IRON MANUFACTURE. 
In the manufacture of iron, almost the only waste of importance comes from the 
pickling baths, used to give a clean non-oxidized surface to the metal. These pick- 
ling vats, as I saw them in one of the largest iron manufactories in the State, were 
elongated tanks holding several hundred gallons of dilute sulphuric acid, kept at a 
boiling temperature. The iron, in the shape of bars or long plates, was brought in, 
in bundles, by suspended pulleys and immersed for a few minutes in the first vat, 
after which it was carried to a second similar vat and likewise allowed to remain 
for a short time. It is next dipped into a vat of water to wash off the superfluous 
acid, and is then dipped into a fourth vat containing a heated solution of lime to 
neutralize the remaining acid. 
The common practice is to add fresh acid to these vats from time to time during 
the day, as it is needed, and then to empty them all at the close of the day's work. 
A sample which I was kindly permitted to take at the Stanley works, of New Brit- 
ain, from one of these pickling tubs a little before the contents were to be turned 
into the stream, gave the following, as stated by Professor Smith : 
"The 'bath solution' contains 5.66 per cent, of sulphuric acid, calculated as 
such, of which there is sufficient iron to unite with 87 per cent., leaving but 13 per 
cent, of the sulphuric acid in the free condition ; or, .79 per cent, is the amount of 
free acid that the solution contains." 
It is thus seen that four-fifths or more of the acid enters the stream as sulphate MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND REFUSE. 
49 
of iron (copperas). For every ton of acid thus used, nine hundred pounds of iron 
are taken up in solution, producing four thousand pounds of copperas, to which is 
to be added four hundred pounds of free acid. 
Tinning is a process that is often applied to iron goods, and especially to pins. 
It is done by boiling the goods to be whitened in a solution of cream of tartar with 
block tin or " tin crystals " for two or three hours. Practically all the waste here 
is the cream of tartar alone. In the manufacture of pins there is but little other 
waste; the pins are made by machines which complete them ready to whiten; after 
whitening they are stuck in papers. Hooks and eyes are whitened in the same way, 
or are covered with japan, a varnish composed of asphaltum, linseed oil, and turpen- 
tine, of which there is little or no waste. 
In the manufacture of metal buttons and similar goods, another source of waste, 
aside from that due to the ordinary use of the acids, is the japan varnish removed 
from tin plate. The articles are boiled in a solution of caustic soda, and the latter 
is washed off and carried into the stream together with the saponified varnish. 
Small amounts of stannate of soda probably go w'ith the soda. In the baking to 
which the varnished articles are previously subjected the turpentine of the varnish 
is, of course, dissipated. This waste, however, cannot be very important. In a 
firm employing two hundred hands, not more than eight pounds of the alkali used 
daily were reported, and there consequently could not be a very large quantity of 
the varnish removed. 
In the polishing of the metals, as has already been said, considerable quantities 
of oil and grease are used, which are afterward removed by potash or other 
alkalies. 
PAPER MANUFACTURE. 
There are numerous paper mills on the streams examined, and I have been unable 
to obtain a full knowledge of the waste products of the very various raw materials 
used. In many of the smaller manufactories, especially on the Hockanum, heavy 
binder's boards are made, and as there is no bleaching nor much cleaning of the 
raw materials, there is little refuse. In others where the coarser papers are manu- 
factured, and where jute, gunny sacking, old paper, and colored rags are used, the 
organic waste may be as great or even greater than in those where the higher 
qualities of writing paper are produced. 
In the manufacture of paper from rags, the first process that the material under- 
goes is prolonged boiling under pressure in a solution of lime, by which the fibre is 
freed from the glutinous and other matter. Caustic soda may be used for this pur- 
pose, especially for the lower grades of paper, but in the mills in Connecticut lime 
is used either alone, or, for colored rags, with a slight addition of the soda. This 
solution of lime, after use, with all its impurities, is turned into the stream, and the 
rags are subjected to long and thorough washing. It is seen that almost if not quite 
all of the lime thus gets into the stream ; certainly but a very small part can remain 
in the fibre after several hours washing in running water. From ten to fifteen 
pounds are used to every hundred pounds of rags, and the extractive matter dis- 
solved out by it, together with more or less of the fibre itself washed away, must 
add materially to the waste. The next process in the production of white or light- 
colored papers is bleaching. The material used for this purpose is called chloride 
of lime, but is really a combination of the chloride and hypochlorite, and even in the 
best qualities rarely has more than thirty-five per cent, of chlorine, the effective 
agent. The residuum of non-soluble parts is turned into the stream and the clear 
solution is applied to the pulp. To set free the chlorine, large quantities (a third 
or a half as much as the bleaching powders) of alum (or, in some places, sulphuric 
acid) is added to the solution. The pulp is allowed to remain in the solution for 
some time, when it is removed and very thoroughly washed, and the spent solution 
is discharged into the river. Again here it is seen that, besides the alum, nearly 
the whole quantity of the bleaching powder finds its way into the stream, either as 
lime, chloride of lime undissolved, or other chlorides, chlorine gas dissolved in 
the Water, or hydrochloric acid. All this bleaching waste is highly injurious to 
fishes. 50 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The refuse from this class of mills, though containing not a little organic matter 
from the filth, grease, etc., of the rags, cannot convey many germs, as they must be 
destroyed in the boiling processes, except such as are in the dust and refuse 
separated in the preliminary sorting out of the rags. The fatty acids, furthermore, 
are converted into insoluble lime soaps. A large part of the material discharged is 
lime, a substance that can hardly be said to contaminate the water, especially in 
New England, where the rivers are deficient in this mineral matter. For every 
million pounds of fine writing-paper manufactured, from three to four hundred 
thousand pounds of solid refuse matter are discharged into the river. According 
to the British reports on Rivers Pollution, from fine white rags there is about 
fifteen per cent, refuse; from colored rags, twenty-five per cent.; from esparto, 
forty ; and from straw, fifty per cent.* 
WOOLLEN MANUFACTURE. 
On the rivers examined, the woollen manufactories are chiefly confined to the 
Hockanum. On the Naugatuck there are but few that manufacture from the raw 
material. In former years the woollen manufacture of this stream was much more 
important than it is at present. During the last year, even, one of the principal 
mills, that at Beacon Falls, has suspended indefinitely its operations, throwing out 
of employ some three hundred operatives. There is probably no class of manufac- 
tories in the State that pollute the streams more extensively, in proportion to their 
number, than these, their waste consisting, as it does, chiefly of organic material. 
" Wool is always accompanied with other secretions, which issue from the skin 
along with it and lubricate it, rendering it more or less 'yolky ' and giving it its 
peculiar and characteristic odor. These secretions differ enormously in amount 
between the different breeds, and vary greatly in character. Here it is sufficient to 
say that besides the oil that accompanies all wool, there is a complicated mixture of 
several chemical substances called together 'yolk ' or gum (or sometimes ' suint,' 
the French name, German ' Fetterschweiss ' and ' Wollschweiss '), and which consti- 
tutes a large percentage of the unwashed merino wool. In extreme cases, and with 
certain fine-wooled breeds, these secretions constitute upward of sixty per cent, of 
the unwashed fleece, diminishing in quantity as the fibres becomes coarser and the 
staple longer, and as the wool passes from the carding to the combing varieties, 
reaching its minimum in certain coarse-wooled native breeds. This ' yolk is chemi- 
cally a sort of natural soap, and is more or less soluble in water. In certain merino 
breeds it is bred for, and thus its quantity has been relatively increased, and, when 
abundant, dirt and dust are more apt to cling to the wool,' thus diminishing still 
further the percentage of actual wool fibre." (Professor W. H. Brewer, Report of 
the National Acad, of Sciences, 1885, p. 84.) 
As is stated by Professor Brewer above, the composition of this "yolk" or 
"suint" is very complicated; in an analysis appended to his report, no less than 
thirty different chemical compounds are enumerated. 
" It is the common practice with sheep growers in most countries before shearing 
to wash the sheep in running water of natural temperature. The yolk is partly 
soluble in cold water (more in hot), and if the washing is thorough, a part also of 
the oil and attached dirt is removed, the oil being somewhat soluble in a solution 
of the yolk, or else it and other dirt are mechanically removed with the soapy 
emulsion. No matter how poorly this washing by the wool-grower may be done, 
or how much impurity may be left in the fleece, it is known in the market as 
washed wool." (W. H. Brewer, ibid., p. 87.) 
Raw wool, of ordinary grades as it comes to the manufacturer, contains a third or 
more by weight of organic matter that it is necessary to remove. This removal is 
accomplished by scouring in alkaline solutions, chiefly soda ash, but also, in some 
of the mills at least, in urine, the latter being used, I have been told, to give a 
softer finish to the goods than can be obtained from the ordinary alkalies; that 
urine is not used more extensively in many of the Connecticut mills is due to the 
* For more complete discussion of the constituents of paper mill wastes, see A Study of Paper 
Mill Wastes, in Chapter XVI. MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND REFUSE. 
51 
difficulty of procuring it. The amounts of alkalies returned by four different mills 
for each thousand pounds of raw material treated, are as follows : 
Sal Soda 
Soda Ash - - 
48 
75 
130 
32 
22 
50 
J 150 
■ ■ ■ 
- 
■ ■ 
128 
162 
72 
150 
Of this amount of wool, treated by these and other detergents, probably at least 
three hundred pounds are removed. 
In English mills, where urine is used extensively, in this first washing about five 
hundred pounds are used to the thousand weight, with about fifty pounds of aika- 
lies. As my reports show, a much larger amount of the alkalies is used in the 
Connecticut mills, and but little urine, at least I was so told by several manufact- 
urers. All this refuse goes into the stream. After rinsing the next process, in 
the manufacture of fine black cloths, is that of " woading," in which the wool is 
steeped for a short time in a solution of indigo. This solution is used constantly 
with fresh additions and the only part that finds its way into the stream is the little 
that is removed from the wool in rinsing. From two of my reports I find not more 
than six or seven pounds of indigo given daily for each thousand pounds of raw 
material. 
The next step is dyeing, in which the chief substance used is logwood. Four of 
the mills, from which I have reports of the dyestuffs and the raw material, give 
from three to five hundred pounds of the logwood for each thousand pounds of raw 
wool. With the logwood and other organic dyestuffs (fustic, camwood, madder, 
etc.) are used in different methods of dyeing, various mordants, the chief of which 
is copperas, the next argols (crude cream tartar), then bichromate of potash, alum, 
blue vitriol and tin crystals or muriate of tin. The wool after having been boiled 
in the dyeing vat for an hour or more is well washed in running water, and the 
contents of the vat turned into the stream. As a half or two-thirds as much dye 
material is used as the wool weighs it is very certain that only a small proportion is 
absorbed in the cloth. It is this waste material that discolors the streams so much, 
and which causes the chief complaints by the inhabitants along the streams. The 
amount of spent dye-liquor turned into the streams has been estimated at 6,000 
U. S. gallons for each thousand pounds of raw material treated, by the British 
Commission. 
After the wool has been dyed and dried it is prepared for carding by the recep- 
tion of oil. One report gives about twelve gallons of lard oil for each thousand 
pounds of raw material; another about ten gallons. In English manufactories 
about one-tenth part by weight of sweet oil is given for the washed wool, which does 
not seem to be far from the quantity above given of lard oil. After having been 
spun, the thread may receive a small quantity of thin glue before weaving. This 
oil and glue is washed out and removed by the aid of soda and urine after weav- 
ing ; the washings of course finding their way into the water. The remaining 
treatment is by soap in fulling the cloth, each piece requiring from twelve to 
fifteen pounds. This soap, where I have seen it, is of a pure white color, and in 
some of the reports it is given as " palm oil " soap. 
The chief and worst polluting material in these processes is the natural grease 
and allied matter washed from the wool, and, next to this, the lard oil and organic 
dye-stuffs. The soap is much less important, and the inorganic chemicals harm- 
less, or positively beneficial in counteracting the organic matter It is to be under- 
stood, however, that not all the woollen mills manufacture from the raw material, or 
do it only to a small extent. 
There are several manufactories either in whole or in part, of old wool, and in 
which a different process is used, and one that causes less pollution-in a sanitary 
sense-than do the manufactures from the raw wool. The material here is of two 
kinds, that composed wholly of wool, and that, the larger part, containing more or 
less cotton. In the former the process is not very different from that employed in 
ordinary wool, the rags having been first reduced to wool by especial machines for 
the purpose. The -washings and scourings of this material remove the grease and 52 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
dirt of the rags, an important polluting substance, it is true, but much less 
in quantity than the grease from the natural wool. In the larger proportion 
of rags, however, the cotton must be removed, requiring very different treat- 
ment, and a treatment that must largely, if not entirely, disinfect them. They are 
treated with a dilute solution of sulphuric acid in order to convert the cotton fibre 
into cellulose, as in the treatment of old rubber material. The acid is dried in and 
then washed out; the material is then dyed and manufactured by the ordinary 
processes. In the scouring processes alkalies and soaps are used, as in ordinary 
woo], but there is proportionately more of the alkali and less of both in proportion 
to the amount of raw material treated. 
COTTON MANUFACTURE. 
The cotton manufactures on the streams investigated are either of ginghams, or 
mixed wool and cotton goods, and are not extensive as compared with the other 
classes of manufactures. The wastes are both organic and mineral, but chiefly the 
former. The chemicals reported in the manufacture of ginghams are as follows : 
Sulphuric acid. 
Nitric acid. 
Muriatic acid. 
Chloride of lime. 
Sal scjda. 
Soda ash. 
Bichromate of potash. 
Alum. 
Copperas. 
Blue vitriol. 
Lime. 
Pearl ash. 
Stannate of soda. 
Brown sugar of lead. 
Indigo. 
Cutch. 
Sumac. 
Logwood, 
Soap. 
Aniline colors. 
Oils. 
Of the mineral matters, the most important are lime, chloride of lime, and 
bichromate of potash. Of the organic dye-stuffs, logwood. 
It is very evident that all, or very nearly all, of the mineral matters are waste ; 
with the exception of a small part of the mineral mordants, none of them are con- 
tained in the finished goods, and consequently they are lost in the process of 
manufacture. This is especially the case with the lime and alkalies, the latter of 
which are used in small quantities. The acids are used in bleaching to counteract 
the effects of the lime. The soap is used-not to clean, but to soften the yarn in 
the process of dyeing, and in bleaching to neutralize the acids. 
Bichromate of potash, alum, copperas, blue vitriol, stannate of soda, and the 
acetate of lead are mordants, used to impregnate the cotton, and with which the 
coloring matter unites to form a chemical compound insoluble in water. After the 
dyeing, the excess is removed by washing, and, to render the quantity absorbed 
absolutely insoluble, in calico print works it is customary to treat the goods to a hot 
emulsion of cow's dung. To what extent, if any, the dunging-process is used in 
gingham-dyeing, I do not know; but the process can be substituted by other 
processes not involving the use of dung. 
The waste of the actual dye-stuffs in cotton-dyeing is large, owing to the fact 
that the coloring principle forms, usually, only a small proportion of the crude 
stuffs, as used. A firm, employing three hundred operatives, reported the con- 
sumption of logwood, and the other dye-stuff's, at over ten thousand pounds per 
annum ; but this amount is very small compared with what is actually used in 
print works. 
A much smaller proportion of organic matter is removed from the fibre in the 
treatment it is subjected to prior to weaving than is the case in wToollen mills. It is 
estimated that about five per cent, in weight of the raw cotton is removed in 
bleaching, or in the prior treatment with soda. This waste is chiefly color- 
ing matter and fatty acids, and is not putrescible, or, is so only to a very 
slight extent, due to a very small quantity of albuminous matter. The removed MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND REFUSE. 
53 
matter will not cause a stench, if allowed to remain in a concentrated form, exposed 
to the atmosphere. Even the larger mills on the Hockanum cannot contribute 
more than one hundred pounds daily of this waste to the stream pollution. 
Of the oils used in spinning, chiefly olive oil, at least one half is waste. 
Here, as elsewhere, the aniline colors, when used, give but comparatively little 
waste. 
To recapitulate : the acids, lime salts, and alkalies are virtually wholly turned 
into the stream; at least one-half of the mordants are lost, and not far from 
the same proportion of the dye-stuffs used in the mills reported ; all of the soap, 
one-half of the oil, and perhaps one-tenth of the anilines is wasted ; and five or six 
per cent, of the raw material. When dung is not used, the putrescible waste is 
very small. Where starch is used, practically none is waste. 
SILK MANUFACTURES. 
There are but three silk mills in the region examined, but they are important, 
both by reason of their size, and their effects upon the streams. 
Raw silk is covered with a so-called " gum," which it is necessary to remove that 
the silk may not have the elasticity and stiffness that it otherwise would. For the 
following in relation to this "silk-gum " I am indebted to Professor Johnson : 
" Silk-gum (sericine) has the following composition in parts per hundred: 
Carbon 44.32 
Hydrogen 6.18 
Nitrogen 18.30 
Oxygen 31.20 
100.00 
" Its empirical formula is CioHasNjOs. It is similar to gelatine in chemical 
composition and characters, but has 6 per cent, less carbon, 1 per cent, less 
hydrogen and nearly | per cent, more oxygen. It is destitute of sulphur, of which 
gelatine contains 0.56 per cent." 
" It yields by action of hot dilute acids and oxidizing agents, products simi- 
lar to, and in a great part identical with, those yielded by gelatine, albumen, etc." 
This sericine constitutes from twenty to twenty-five per cent, of the raw silk, 
and is chiefly soluble in water. It may be removed by maceration, which pro- 
duces a most intense and disagreeable stench, or it may, as is usually the case, 
be removed by scouring in a weak solution of soap. The soaps used are of the 
best olive-oil kinds, and a very large quantity is required in large mills. The 
soap is dissolved in hot water, and, if the goods are not intended to be dyed, 
the silk is boiled in the solution for an hour or more; if the silk is required 
white, it is first treated for several hours in a warm solution. After scouring, 
the silk is thoroughly washed, and all refuse, both scourings and washings, 
are turned into the stream. Whether raw silk is treated as such, or in the co- 
coons before reeling, the processes so far as refuse is concerned, can not be 
very different. 
The further processes are those of dyeing, which, so far as the stream is con- 
cerned, are wholly of secondary importance. But little oils are used, and the or- 
ganic refuse is almost wholly the extractive matter of various dyewoods. Propor- 
tionately there is less waste of dye-stuffs from the silk mills than from those of 
other kinds of fabrics. Aniline colors here form a very important part, and of 
them, owing to their expensiveness, there is less waste. 
HAT MANUFACTURE. 
The waste products in the process of hat manufacture from fur are consider- 
able in quantity, and of a kind that discolor very much the waters of streams 
that receive them. The character of these wastes, however, is of a kind that ac- 54 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tually pollute the streams much less than would be supposed from the visible 
effects produced, and far less than is caused by the wastes from woolen mills, con- 
sisting as it does in Connecticut, chiefly of dye-stuffs. Almost the whole of the 
hatting industry in this State, as is well known, is confined to Norwalk, Bethel, 
and Danbury, which supply a large part of the hats worn in the United States, the 
only other manufactories of importance being those of New Jersey. In Danbury and 
Bethel, the two places under consideration in this report, the furs are, mostly, 
purchased ready prepared, and the most of the most deleterious process, so far as 
the stream is concerned, thus avoided. There are, however, two fur-cutting mills 
in Danbury, which furnish a large portion of the carreted fur for that city. 
When the fur is cut, the first process that the skins undergo is that of washing. 
The skins, chiefly those of the coney, and nutria, are imported in bales from Aus- 
tralia, South America, and elsewhere, and contain a considerable quantity of foreign 
matter, in the shape of sand, dirt, etc. These skins are first placed in large tubs 
of hot water and allowed to soak, after which they are washed, rubbed, and rinsed, 
about twenty-five pounds of whale-oil soap being used to each thousand pounds of 
skins. The water thus used is run into the stream, and must contain a consider- 
able quantity of offensive organic matter, the waste having a very whitish color. 
The actual quantity of polluting material cannot, however, be very great in Dan- 
bury, for altogether only about three thousand pounds are washed daily, and with 
seventy-five pounds of soap, not a very large amount of greasy matters can be 
washed out. I can give no estimate of what this quantity is, for such could only 
be obtained by carefully weighing the skins before and after washing, and then, 
too, the inorganic matter removed could hardly be determined without special ex- 
aminations therefor. In the treatment of raw wool, a fourth to a third of the 
actual weight is washed away by the alkalies, but, in the furs, there can be but 
little fatty matter removed from the hair itself. 
The other processes of shearing and carreting do not require the waste of water, I 
was told. Carreting is that process which gives the shrinking or felting property 
to the fur required to bring it into the desired compact shape, and consists of a treat- 
ment with the nitrate of mercury. The process has long been known to have a very 
injurious result upon the health of the workmen engaged in the various hatting 
processes ; not so great, perhaps, in the actual carreting as in the forming and press- 
ing of the hats. Since the general use of stiff hats has come into vogue, there has 
been a decrease in the extent of mercurial poisoning, especially in Connecticut, 
where comparatively few soft hats are made. The manufacture of soft hats requires 
in finishing a much greater use of the pressing iron on the damp felt, and a corre- 
sponding greater inhalation of the mercurialized vapor. Perhaps, also, the shellac 
now used prevents the vaporization of the mercury. Still, there is not a little mer- 
curial poisoning among the operatives, especially in the hat-forming shops. 
The dyers' waste liquors are constantly escaping from the factories, partly as rins- 
ings from the hats, but chiefly from the dye-tubs themselves after they are no longer 
of sufficient strength to serve their purpose. There is a difference among the differ- 
ent manufacturers as to the frequency with which the dye-tubs are emptied, but 
there seems to be little difference in the amount of dye-stuffs used for a given num- 
ber of hats. 
Logwood forms by far the chief material used, inasmuch as black hats are those 
chiefly worn ; the other dye-stuffs are used in the production of different effects, or 
the lighter colors, but their effect on the stream is essentially' the same. The fol- 
lowing is a recipe given me by one of the manufacturers, and differs only' in unessen- 
tial details from those used by the hatters in general: 
Bichromate potash 1| lb. 
Argols 1| lb. 
Madder 2 lbs. 
Cudbear J lb. 
Blue vitriol 4 oz. 
Logwood (chips) 60 lbs. 
Fustic 3 lbs. 
Madder 1 lb. MANUFACTURING PROCESSES AND REFUSE. 
55 
The above is the quantity required for the dyeing of twelve dozen stiff hats. Soft 
hats require rather a larger quantity, and the extract of logwood is used in place of 
the chips, about ten pounds being required for each gross of hats. The logwood 
chips, after the coloring matter is extracted, are either burnt or thrown upon the 
ground. As ten pounds of the extract takes the place of the chips in dyeing the soft 
hats, it is evident that five-sixths of the logwood chips is non-coloring matter. 
Alum, in the proportion of three ounces to the dozen hats, is used by some hat- 
makers. 
The manufacture of wool hats, which is carried on only to a small extent, produces 
proportionally a much greater degree of contamination. The treatment of the ma- 
terial is here not much different from that in woolen mills, except in the use of oils. 
The raw wool is scoured withalkalies to remove the natural greasy matters, and after- 
ward treated much like the ordinary fur, the chief refuse being the logwood and simi- 
lar dye-stuffs. 
The hat-forming shops, of which there are two or three in Waterbury and Bethel, 
receive the carreted fur from the different manufacturers and beat it loosely into 
conical bags by machinery. The fur is first placed in a blowing or separating ma- 
chine, where it is finely and evenly mixed. It is then removed, weighed out into 
proper amounts, and run through a machine that beats it loosely into large conical 
bags. Next, the bags are dipped in water and rolled several together in a cloth to 
give sufficient consistency to handle, and are then sent to the hat-shops. The only 
refuse, in forming, it is thus seen, is thabcarried off in the water in which the bags 
are dipped, and must be small in quantity. 
The next process these conical bags undergo is that called sizing, and consists of 
repeated dippings in hot water and rolling with the hands, which produces the 
shrinkage or felting of the material necessary to bring them to the required size. 
The water in which they are dipped, carrying with it a small amount of refuse, is 
turned into the stream. After drying and shaving to remove the projecting fur 
they go into the dyer's hands, where they are subjected to the ordinary vegetable 
dyes, such as logwood, camwood, madder, fustic, hypernick, etc., the refuse of 
which, chiefly logwood, forms almost the whole of the contaminating waste, the 
treatment with shellac, drying, pressing, and curling producing little or none. The 
short particles of fur shorn from the hats, with other dry waste, is used wherever 
practicable, or when not, is usually destroyed, used for fertilizing material, or 
otherwise disposed of. At the most, but little of it gets into the streams. 
RUBBER MANUFACTURE. 
In the ordinary manufacture of nibber there can be but little waste of a delete- 
rious nature. The only use of water is in the washing of the raw gum, to remove the 
adhering dirt; and to cool the rolls when they get too hot. The bisulphide of car- 
bon is about the only chemical used, and this for a solvent to cement the different 
pieces of rubber; there can but little of it get into the stream. 
In the manufacture of reclaimed rubber goods, there is a source of considerable 
refuse in the treatment the material undergoes in the removal of the vegetable 
fibers contained in it. As in the treatment of cotton and wool shoddy material, the 
old rubber is soaked in a dilute solution (13° Beaum6) of sulphuric acid; this 
attacks the vegetable fiber, converting in into the soluble cellulose, which, with the 
spent solution is washed out and turned into the stream together with a quantity of 
alkali (about ten per cent, of the acid), used in neutralizing the acid. 
The balance of this Report is chiefly occupied with detailed state- 
ments of the specific sources of pollution in the state, the amounts of 
the various polluting materials and chemical and bacteriological anal- 
yses of the waters of several of the streams being given. 
In the Eleventh Annual Report of the Connecticut State Board tha 56 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Rivers Pollution Report is continued by Professor Williston with 
further detailed statements of sources of pollution and chemical and 
bacteriological analyses of a number of water supplies of the State. 
Reports of progress are given in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Annual 
Reports, and the complete results appear in the Fourteenth Annual 
Report, covering the year from December 1,1890, to November 30,1891. 
Of the results in the Fourteenth Annual Report brief reference will 
be made to the analyses of the Connecticut river water, samples of which 
were analyzed from three points, namely, Warehouse Point, Rocky 
Hill, and Goodspeed's. 
Warehouse Point is about 13 or 14 miles below Springfield, and not 
far from the north line of the State. The samples taken here show the 
composition of the water as it enters the State and after pollution by 
the sewage of Northampton, Holyoke, Chicopee, and Springfield in 
Massachusetts. 
Rocky Hill, the second point from which samples were examined, 
is about 20 miles below Warehouse Point, and 9 miles below Hartford. 
Between this place and Warehouse Point the river receives its chief 
tributaries in Connecticut, which are the Farmington, but slightly 
polluted; the Park river, which is grossly polluted by the sewage of 
New Britain and Hartford; and the Hockanum, into which is dis- 
charged the sewage of Rockville and Manchester. 
Goodspeed's is about 22 miles below Rocky Hill. The chief pollu- 
tion between this station and Rocky Hill is at Middletown, about 15 
miles above Goodspeed's. 
The samples were all taken on the same day at each station and 
always from the same point, well out in the current and one foot below 
the surface. 
The series extend from August, 1890, to June, 1891, the samples for 
analysis being taken about the 25th of each month. The following 
table shows the average discharge of the river at Hartford for the ten 
days preceding the dates on which the samples were taken. 
Average discharge 
in cu. ft. i>er sec. 
June, 1890 10,320 
July " 7,740 
Aug. " 8,310 
Sept. " 41,280 
Oct. " 41,820 
Nov. " 26,930 
Dec. " 16,450 
Average discharge 
in on. ft. per sec. 
Jan., 1891 64,370 
Feb. " 39,120 
March " 54,200 
April " 89,530 
May " 26,460 
June " 9,800 
July " 8,025 
Aug. " 7,550 
Sept. " 7,550 
Oct. " 7,360 
The means of the monthly analyses are given in the Table No. 4 c. 57 
NEW JERSEY. 
Table No. 4 c.-Mean Results of Analyses of Connecticut River Water, 
MADE IN 1890 AND 1891. 
(Parts per 100,000. Water filtered through paper.) 
Locality. 
Number of analyses in 
series. 
Color. 
Suspended 
matter. 
Residue on 
evaporation. 
| Chlorine. 
Nitrogen. 
Hardness as CaCO3. 
Oxygen consumed from 
pemanganate, % h., 
at 100° C. (212° F.). 
Fixed. 
Volatile. 
Total at 100° 
C. (212° F.) 
1 Loss on 
ignition. 
Fixed. 
Of free 
ammonia. 
Of albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Of nitrites. 
Of nitrates. 
Warehouse Point 
11 
0.3 
2.09 
.27 
4.42 
.86 
3.56 
.123 
.0034 
.0126 
.00018 
012 
2 3 
.519 
Rocky Hill 
n 
0.3 
0.178 
.22 
4.46 
.87 
3.59 
.128 
.0033 
.0135 
.00019 
.011 
2.5 
.504 
Goodspeed's 
11 
0.3 
0.138 
.29 
4.50 
.88 
3.62 
.136 
.0036 
.0138 
.00015 
.013 
2.5 
.492 
The Connecticut river is not used as the source of a public water 
supply at any point in the State except at Hartford, where it is in- 
tended to be used as an emergency supply only. The conclusion of 
the report is that while the analyses show that the sewage entering 
the stream has scarcely a perceptible effect on the chemical composi- 
tion of the water, nevertheless it is unsafe for drinking at any point in 
Connecticut. 
New Jersey. 
In New Jersey the question of rivers pollution is in an exceedingly 
unsatisfactory state. A high court of the State has recently indorsed 
the opinion that the sewage from 15,000 people can enter a stream 
having a minimum daily flow of 125,000,000 gallons, already largely 
polluted, and flow only four miles on a level reach before entering the 
public water supply of 400,000 people without demonstrated danger.* 
The only law in this State dealing with the pollution of streams is 
one passed in 1876,f which is stated as entirely inadequate to deal 
effectively with the evils of stream pollution. Its text is open to 
various constructions and its letter and spirit are constantly violated.^ 
In a report presented to the New Jersey Sanitary Association in 1890 
* Bassett, Inland Sewage Disposal, Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., vol. xxv., p. 129. 
+ An Act to Prevent the Willful Pollution of Water of any of the Creeks, Ponds, or Brooks of 
the State. 
That if any person or persons shall throw, cause or permit to be thrown into the waters of any 
creek, pond, or brooks of this State the waters of which are used to supply any aqueduct or reser- 
voir for distribution or public use any carcass of any dead animal or any offal or offensive matter 
whatsoever, calculated to render such waters impure or to create noxious or offensive smells, or 
shall connect any water closet with any sewer or other means whereby the contents thereof may 
be conveyed to and into any such creek, pond, or brook, such person or persons shall be deemed 
guilty of a misdemeanor and on conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding $1,000, 
or by imprisonment not exceeding two years, or both. (Approved, April 21, 1876.) 
J Report of Committee of New Jersey Sanitary Association, presented Dec. 13, 1889. In Eng. 
News, vol. xxv., p. Ill (Jan. 31, 1891). 58 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the state of the question in New Jersey is fully discussed, and the 
recommendation made that an act be passed empowering the State 
Board of Health to act as arbitrator in all matters affecting the pol- 
lution of streams, water courses, and lakes. 
In this State studies of stream pollution thus far have been chiefly 
by the chemical methods and in reference to the pollution of the Passaic 
river, which until 1892 was the source of the water supply of the large 
cities of Newark and Jersey City, and from which stream the water 
supply of Jersey City is still drawn, although efforts are being made 
to secure a new supply. Some of them are published in the earlier 
reports of the New Jersey State Board of Health. Sources of pollution 
from manufacturing wastes are also discussed in the Report of the 
Newark Aqueduct Board on Additional Water Supply, published in 
1879. 
The Pollution of the Passaic Bi ver. 
An extended discussion of the pollution of the Passaic from the 
chemical point of view is published by Henry Wurtz, Ph. D., formerly 
State Chemist of New Jersey, in The Engineering and Mining Journal 
for March 22, and April 12,19, and 26,1890. The matter there given is 
the substance of a report on the waters of the Passaic river and its 
tributaries, presented to the Board of Aldermen of Paterson in 1882, 
and covers the examination of a series of samples collected between 
September 7, 1881, and January 7, 1882. Previously Mr. Wurtz had 
made two reports in reference to the Passaic waters, namely, in March 
and October, 1873; the first, referring to the condition of the water 
during the fall and winter 1872-73; the second, to the summer of 1873. 
Both of these reports appear in Vol. IV. of the American Chemist, but 
the present report is of greater interest by reason of giving Mr. 
Wurtz's recent views on the pollution and self-purification of this 
stream, which serves as the present source of water supply for Jer- 
sey City. 
The report of 1882 covers a series of chemical analyses of the water 
of the Passaic river and its tributaries, including also a few compara- 
tive analyses of the water of the Croton river. Its chief object is ap- 
parently to substantiate the view advanced in the report of 1872 that 
" the oxidizing power of this alkaline river water is so great that but 
slight traces of the sewer matter can be detected after flowing but four 
miles through the channel." On this point Mr. Wurtz considers the 
showing specially strong by reason of the prevalence of a severe 
drouth not only previous to the beginning but during nearly the 
whole time covered by the investigation, there being no rainfall which 
contributed anything appreciable to the flow of the river or its tribu- THE POLLUTION OF THE PASSAIC RIVER. 
59 
taries from early in July, 1881, to December 29. Moreover no ice 
formed on the Passaic until about January 3, 1882; and Mr. Wurtz 
deems it probable that never before was such an opportunity offered, 
" to examine a question of river pollution, during so long a time, with- 
out disturbance of the uniformity and normality of the composition of 
the stream through natural agencies." This fact confers upon this 
work a value and importance in some respects wholly unique. As 
illustrative of this proposition a series of analyses of samples from 
different parts of the river are given. The first of these, following the 
general table of all the analyses made, is of water from above the high 
falls in the city of Paterson. 
The next tabulation covers samples taken between the outlets of 
several of the Paterson sewers at the Straight street bridge, and the 
Broadway bridge below, a distance of some miles along the stream. 
For the first two miles the flow is sluggish and according to Mr. Wurtz 
" a narrow sewage-laden strip of the current closely hugs the right hand 
bank in a very curious way." At the other side of the river the bottom is 
densely overgrown with water weeds. A flow of this character for two 
miles brings us to the Race track bridge, below which the current is 
rapid and usually rippling, diffusing the sewage all across the bottom. 
In this portion of the channel the weed bed extends the whole width 
of the channel and the following extract from the report will indi- 
cate the chief reason for most of the changes which take place, to- 
gether with Mr. Wurtz's views of the sufficiency of the purification 
attained: 
The weed-bed also here spreads all across, and the water is thus filtered through 
this half-mile of dense and matted vegetation, feeding both the weeds and vast 
colonies of crustaceansand mollusks which swarm throughout them. Much below 
these rapids, and even all around the Dundee lake below, shallow margins still 
show' the weeds under water. Columns 13 and 14 of Table IV.* bring out quite sat- 
isfactorily the purifying action here of aeration in this alkaline river water, to- 
gether with that of the plant and animal life. Thus, compare the total N in the 
three sewage-stream samples, 2, 34, and 26 = .0579 in the mean ; with the three 
from the Broadway bridge, 3, 45, and 47 = .0309 in the mean, showing a large loss 
of putrescible nitrogenous matters. This diminution is not due to mere dilution 
of the sewage-stream throughout the whole river, as is shown by comparison with 
Table III. There, three N-figures above the falls, before receiving the sewage, 
give a mean of .0322, even a little more than at the Broadway bridge. We are 
forced to admit, therefore, that this flow of 4| miles from the mouths of the sew- 
ers has actually destroyed the total animal and animalized matter introduced by the 
drainage of the 50,000 inhabitants of Paterson. Moreover, the greater part of this 
effect appears due to the last 24 miles of such current. 
Further, the same surprising phenomenon is showrn under winter conditions of 
the stream ; as seen by comparison of No. 46, Table III., and No. 47, both of 
January 7th, 1882, with the stream frozen and somew'hat swollen-No. 46, above 
the falls, yielding .0389 of total N and 47, at Broadway bridge .0363; a propor- 
tionate reduction even twice as large as before. 
* Roman numerals designate original table numbers, as given in the table headings in parentheses. 60 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 5 (Table HI. of Mr. Wurtz's Report).-Analyses of Water of the 
Passaic River above the Great Falls at Paterson. 
.u co 
Original 
numbers. 
* 
Sept. 7. 1881. 
Sept. 29, 1881 
Oct. 31. 1881. 
Nov. 14, 1881 
Dec. 31, 1881 
Jan. 7,r1882, r 
Means... 
Dates. 
co 
iver ice-bound.... 
| 4.918 11.166 
4.794 
4.934 
4.875 
4.969 
5.016 
Total solids. 
p 
1.458 
0.711 
0.991 
1.400 
1.266 
Combustible 
and volatile. 
3.752 
4.228 
3.884 
3.569 
3.750 
Ash. 
os 
Chlorine. 
£ 
p 
0.124 
p 
io 
Common 
salt. 
KOTO 
1.003 
0.521 
0.690 
0.779 
1.020 
Sulphuric 
oxide, SO3. 
.00550 
£ 
.00248 
.00851 
.00554 
Ammonia 
(as such). 
p 
.0125 .0210 
.0160 .0239 
o* 
X 
oo; 
.0053 .0187 
.0181 
Ammonia 
(albuminoid). 
Ammonia 
(from nitro- 
gen acids). 
•gi 1 n 
.0391 
.0472 
.0347 
.0264 
Ammonia. 
Total. 
CO 
ggfiO- 
.01389 
1 
.0217 
Nitrogen. 
Total. 
X 
(Grains per U. S. gallon.) 
Table No. 6 (Table IV. of Mr. Wurtz's Report).-Analyses of Water of the 
Passaic River between the Great Falls and Dundee Lake. 
(Grains per U. S. gallon.) 
1. 
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 
6 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
I Original 
| numbers. 
Localities. 
Dates. 
| Total solids. 
Combustible 
and volatile. 
•qsy 
Common salt. 
Sulphuric 
oxide. SO3. 
Ammonia 
(as such). 
Ammonia 
(albuminoid.) 
Ammonia 
(from nitro- 
gen acids). 
Ammonia. 
Total. 
Nitrogen. 
Total. 
2.. 
Bleecker street, from sewage 
stream 
Sept. 7, 1881 
Nov. 14, " 
6.135 
1.020 
5.115 
495 
0.340 
.0356 
.0166 
0247 
.0769 
0633 
34 
36 . 
35 . 
West end of race-track bridge, 
in sew'age stream 
West end of Fifth avenue 
bridge, in sewage stream... 
East end of race-track bridge. 
Fifth avenue bridge 
5.873 
6.059 
1.557 
1.755 
4.316 
4.304 
.381 
.276 
1.048 
1.197 
.0102 
.0175 
.0169 
.0350 
.0233 
.0321 
.0266 
.0088 
.0773 
.0674 
.0637 
.0555 
13.. 
3. 
Sept. 21, " 
Sept. 7, " 
Jan. 7, 1882 
5.132 
1.166 
3.966 
1.079 
Broadway bridge 
5.931 
1.312 
4.619 
0 382 
.0019 
0088 
0195 
.0303 
.0250 
47.. 
Broadway bridge, river ice- 
bound 
5.237 
1 749 
3.488 
285 
0 977 
.0041 
.0181 
0219 
0441 
0363 
Means of the sewage stream, 
Nos. 2, 34. and 36 
6.022 
1.444 
4.578 
.384 
0.862 
.021] 
.0250 
0278 
0739 
0579 
Means of Broadway bridge, 
Nos. 3 and 47 
5.584 
1.531 
4.054 
.285 
0.680 
.0030 
.0135 
.0207 
.0372 
.0307 
Means of Table III., above 
Falls (repeated for compari- 
son ) .... 
4 918 
1.166 
3 750 
.194 
0 802 
.0056 
.0125 
0210 
0391 
.0322 
0010 
Net increase within Paterson 
City limits 
0.666 
0.365 
0 302 
.091 
0010 
0011 
45.. 
Flooded river at Broadway 
bridge .... 
Dec. 31,1881 
3.855 
1.166 
2 689 
.086 
crease 
0.936 
crease 
0044 
0169 
crease 
.0169 
.0382 
0315 
Menns of all Broadway bridge, 
Nos. 3, 47, and 45 
5.008 
1.409 
3.600 
.285 
0.765 
.0035 
0146 
.0194 
.0375 
.0309 
The report farther considers the effect of the Dundee lake in assist- 
ing the process of self-purification; for this purpose examinations were 
made at different times of the water of its outlet, the Dundee canal, 
with the expectation of gaining thereby information relative to the 61 
THE POLLUTION OF THE PASSAIC RIVER. 
average composition better than by studies of samples taken from the 
lake itself. This canal is in effect a mill race about If miles in extent, 
leading from the 'lake to the mills at Passaic city, and discharging 
into the tidal stream below. The results are included in Table No. 7 
following, where Mr. Wurtz has placed them in comparison with the 
means of the analyses of samples taken from points above as exhibited 
in Tables No. 5 and 6. 
Table No. 7 (Table V. of Mr. Wurtz's Report).-Analyses of Water of the 
Dundee Canal at and Near the City of Passaic. 
(Grains per U. S. gallon.) 
1 Original 1 
numbers. | ' 
2. 
Localities. 
3. 
Dates. 
| 
। Total solids. 
Combustible 
and volatile. 
| Ash. 
Common salt. «> 
Sulphuric 
oxide. SO3. 
Ammonia 
(as such). 
Ammonia h* 
(albuminoid). * 
Ammonia 
(from nitrogen j* 
acids). 
Ammonia. « 
Total. 
Nitrogen. w 
Total. 
9.. 
19.. 
26 . 
41.. 
Canal at Passaic 
Exit from lake into 
canal; at west end 
of dam 
1881. 
Sept. 9 
" 29 
Oct. 31 
Dec. 30 
6.275 
5.587 
5.552 
6.777 
5.805 
5.008 
0.797 
4.918 
0.887 
1.312 
1.050 
1.050 
3.674 
1.101 
1.409 
0.305 
1.166 
0.062 
4.963 
4.537 
4.502 
3.103 
4.276 
or 
4.667 
3.600 
0.676 
0.429 
0.505 
0.371 
0.435 
0.285 
0.150 
0.590 
0.691 
1.156 
0.954 
0.84S 
0.854 
.0007 
.0047 
.0021 
.0085 
.0040 
.0035 
.0005 
.0056 
.0070 
.0093 
.0280 
.0146 
.0357 
.0280 
.0294 
.0235 
Canal at Passaic 
Canal at Passaic, river 
in flood 
.0105 
.0089 
.0146 
.0090 
.0172 
.0194 
.0271 
.0304 
.0375 
.0231 
.0250 
.0309 
Means* 
f Means of Broadway 
1 bridge ; Table IV. 
J Increase in travers- 
] ing Dundee lake.. 
| Decrease in travers- 
[ ing Dundee lake.. 
f Means above falls ; 
I Table III. 
J Increase from falls 
| to Passaic city .... 
0.006 
0.802 
0.046 
.0057 
.0125 
.0022 
.0210 
.0071 
.0391 
.0059 
.0322 
3.752 
0.915 
0.194 
0.241 
I Decrease from falls 
[ to Passaic city.... 
.0016 
.0036 
.0038 
.0087 
.0072 
* Regarding these mean figures, one point needs explanation. As stated, the flood sample 41 was turbid 
when analyzed, and the total solid and combustible matter were both therefore overestimated. In the means of 
columns 4 and 5, therefore, the figures of 41 have been neglected. Not so with the ash. however (column 6). 
Here two mean figures have been computed, the first with, and the second without, No. 41. It will be observed 
that the mean of the waters above the falls does not include a flood sample, this having been duly collected, but 
broken and lost in transit (See Table I., No. 44). It was judged proper, therefore, to compute the figure .915, 
representing the increase of mineral matter from the falls to the lake-outlet, from the second mean 4.667, with- 
out the flood water. The figure .676, however, the increase of mineral matter in the lake, does include the flood 
water, as it is the difference between two means, both containing flood-water figures. 
The balance of the report is occupied with a discussion of (1) the 
pollution of the tideway portion of the Passaic river below the city of 
Passaic by the sewage of Newark; and (2) with a brief discussion of 
the quality of the water of the Morris canal as representing the pure 
water of the upper tributaries of the Passaic. The tables illustrating 
these points, while interesting, are less valuable than those included 
in the foregoing, so far as indicating the possible extent of the self- 
purification of a running stream. The final tabulation giving the 62 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
chemical changes in the water of the Passaic river at six stages of its 
flow may be included as pertinent to the present discussion. 
Table No. 8 (Table XIII. of Mr. Wurtz's Report).-Showing the Chemical 
Changes in the Water of the Passaic River at Six Stages of its Flow. 
(Grains per U. S. gallons.) 
1. 
4. 
5. 
6. 
7. 
8. 
9. 
10. 
11. 
12. 
13. 
14. 
| No. of stage. 
Stage of the river. 
Total solids. 
Total organic 
matter. 
Mineral. 
Common salt. 
Sulphuric oxide, 
SO3. 
Ammonia 
(as such). 
Ammonia 
(albuminoid). 
Ammonia 
(from nitrogen 
acids). 
Ammonia. 
Total. 
Nitrogen. 
Total. 
1... 
2.. 
8... 
4. . 
5... 
6... 
Uncontaminated head waters, 
Morris canal; mean of 4. at 
different dates 
River entering Paterson, above 
falls ; mean of 5, different 
dates 
River leaving Paterson, Broad- 
way bridge ; mean of 3, dif- 
ferent dates 
River leaving Dundee canal ; 
mean of 4, different dates... 
Down flow in tidal channel; 
mean of 5, different dates... 
Up flow, carrying Newark 
sewage ; mean of 5, differ- 
ent dates 
3.165 
4.918 
5.008 
5.805 
6.752 
31.710 
1.064 
1.166 
1.409 
1.104 
1.394 
5.396 
2.101 
3.752 
3.C00 
4.667 
5.358 
26.514 
0.190 
0.194 
0.285 
0.435 
0.938 
21.193 
0.511 
0 802 
0.765 
0.848 
1.081 
2.084 
.0023 
.0056 
.0035 
.0040 
.0101 
.0111 
.0062 
.0125 
.0146 
.0089 
.0090 
.0159 
.0083 
.0210 
.0194 
.0172 
.0364 
.0375 
.0167 
.0391 
.0375 
.0304 
.0508 
.0667 
.0135 
.0322 
.0309 
.0250 
.0418 
.0549 
The conclusions are stated in the following language: 
A general review shows that we have obtained quite complete and satisfactory 
data regarding the chemical composition of the Passaic at six important stages of 
its flow, during the four months of September to December, inclusive, 1881. In 
the course of this report there have been presented, moreover, rational and con- 
sistent theories of the causes of the principal changes of composition throughout 
these six stages. In Table XIII. they are presented in succession. 
First Stage.-This is represented by the Morris canal, chiefly and directly fed 
from the Highland hillstreams of your State, unexcelled in purity. Lake Hopat- 
cong, the Summit canal reservoir, it should, however, be remarked, does not natu- 
rally belong to the Passaic watershed, but to that of the Delaware ; its tributaries, 
nevertheless, interlock with those of the Passaic, and rise in the same crystalline 
rocks. 
Second Stage.-Represented by the river just above the Passaic falls. The incre- 
ments shown here of dissolved matters above those in the canal cannot be attrib- 
uted in any important measure to evaporation, which takes place from both channels. 
The salt is the same in both, the sulphates considerably larger in the river, the total 
organic matter but little larger, while the albuminoids are doubled, and the total 
nitrogen more than doubled in the river. This last increase, with that of the sul- 
phates, is easily traceable to the much larger drainage from animals and fertilized 
lands received by the river before arriving at this stage. 
Third Stage.-Represented by the river at the Broadway bridge, before entering 
the Dundee lake, after receiving the total sewage of Paterson, but subsequently 
furnishing nourishment to extensive masses of aquatic plants and animals, and 
rippling through some miles of shallow rapids, which, with the aeration and oxi- 
dation consequent upon these conditions, and upon the basic composition of this 
river, has effected the absolute absorption and destruction of almost the whole of 
the Paterson sewage matters. Of the latter, the only chemical evidences left are INVESTIGATIONS IN PENNSYLVANIA. 
63 
the salt, which has been increased about 50 per cent., the total organic matter, 
which has increased only 21 per cent., and the albuminoids, which now average 
more than double the proportion in the first stage, the canal, though still not large 
enough to condemn the water for potable purposes, even at this point. Moreover, 
the total nitrogen has been kept down, so that it barely exceeds that above the 
falls. The sulphates, by fertilizing the water weeds, have actually been reduced 
in amount. 
Fourth Stage.-Represented by the current in the Dundee lake outlet, or Dun- 
dee canal. The water has here undergone evaporation, but at the same time much 
further aeration and depuration by its slow passage through the expanse of the 
lake. Thus, we find that, while the total solids have increased by concentration, 
the total organic matter has been partly consumed, so that it has fallen to less than 
4 per cent, more than in the first stage. The salt and sulphates have both increased, 
while the albuminoids have now decreased to a figure not greatly above the first 
stage, and the total nitrogen has also decreased nearly 20 per cent, during the lake 
passage, so that now both this and the albuminoids are appreciably less (the former 
22, the latter 29 per cent, less) than above the Falls before entering Paterson. 
Fifth Stage.-Represented by what we have concluded to be the " normal " com- 
position of the downflowing tideway waters when free from the great influx of sew- 
age from Newark. The increase of nearly a grain per gallon of total solids, half of 
which is salt, is due to several causes, one being evaporation, another local sewage 
influx. The increase of sulphates, over one-fifth of a grain, may be partially from 
the Lodi chemical works, as already shown. The total organic matter increases 
26 and the total nitrogen as much as 67 per cent., although, rather unexpectedly, 
the albuminoids do not increase at all, but must be destroyed by the downflowing 
current and converted inte the innocuous forms of ammonia salts and nitrogen acids 
about as fast as they enter. 
These latter twro components, accordingly, have increased at the rate of 152 and 
112 per cent, respectively. 
Sixth Stage.-Represented by samples-mostly Newark hydrant waters-showing 
large sewage pollution. Here the salt has increased over 22 times, the sulphates 
are doubled, and the total organic matters increased four-fold, over the downflow- 
ing tidal current of the fifth stage. Nevertheless, very curiously again, the albumi- 
noids have not increased proportionately, but only about 77 per cent., now being 
but little more than at the Broadway bridge, at the head of Dundee lake. The 
destructive action of Passaic water on animal and animalized matters appears, 
therefore, to prevail at all stages of the river's flow. The total nitrogen in 
this sixth stage is but 31 per cent, larger than in the fifth stage, though 70 per 
cent, larger than in the water above the Paterson falls, 120 per cent, larger than in 
the Dundee canal, and 307 per cent, larger than in the Morris canal. 
The question of the pollution of the water supplies of the large 
cities of Newark and Jersey City has, by reason of the extensive 
litigations which have ensued, become somewhat celebrated, and the 
essential features of the case are given in Appendix V. 
Investigations in Pennsylvania. 
In Pennsylvania Col. Julius W. Adams presented a Report On the 
Pollution of Rivers as Applicable to the Future Water Supply of 
Philadelphia, to the Commission of Engineers appointed to consider 
the entire subject of the present and future water supply of Phila- 
delphia in 1875.* This report is followed by (1) a Report of Messrs. 
Booth and Garrett to the Commission, on their Examination of the 
* Vol. ii. of the Journal of the Select Council of the city of Philadelphia for 1875. (Appendix A.) 64 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Waters of the Schuykill and Delaware rivers; and (2) by a tabulation 
of analyses made by Dr. Charles M. Cresson. 
In the Eighty-second Annual Report of the Philadelphia Water 
Department (1884) is found the beginning of an elaborate chemical 
investigation of the present and future sources of water-supply for 
Philadelphia, by Dr. Albert R. Leeds, the preliminary work of the 
first year, including a chemical study largely of the pollution of that 
river from various sources. 
In the Eighty-third Annual Report of the Department the study of 
various sources of prospective future supply is continued, and Dana 
C. Barber, C. E., assistant engineer, reports on sources of pollution 
in detail. One of the Schuylkill cases cited may be reproduced here. 
The principal source of contamination at the falls of the Schuylkill 
is the refuse waste from an extensive carpet, blanket, and cloth mill, 
situated a short distance from the river on a natural water-course, 
through which the waste products of the mill flow directly into the 
river. In January, 1884, the proprietors furnished the following state- 
ment of the quantity of material used per day:* 
45,000 pounds of wool scoured. 
500 " tallow (used in soap for 
scouring). 
11 " acetic acid. 
19 " muriatic acid. 
31 " oxalic acid. 
3 " tartaric acid. 
88 " alum. 
64 " aniline dyes. 
27 " butter of antimony. 
235 " aqua ammonia. 
42 " aqua fortis. 
674 " archil liquor. 
24 " barwood. 
90 " bi-chromate of potash. 
33 " black dye. 
12 " blue stone (blue vitriol). 
3 " borax. 
245 " brimstone. 
9 " camwood. 
124 " caustic soda. 
17 " cochineal. 
7 " copperas. 
16 " cream of tartar. 
27 " crystals of tin. 
8 " cud-bear. 
24 " cutch (catechu). 
247 " extract of bark (quer- 
citron). 
80 " extract of fustic. 
19 " extract of indigo (acid). 
165 " extract of indigo (neu- 
tral). 
22 pounds of extract of logwood. 
11 " extract of logwood (liq- 
uid). 
192 " extract of sumac. 
4 " flaviue. 
7 " fuller's earth. 
47 " chipped fustic. 
2 " gambier. 
715 " Glauber's salts. 
GO " gum substitute. 
69 " hypemic. 
32 " indigo. 
3 gallons of iron liquor. 
1 pound of litharge. 
2,351 pounds of chipped logwood. 
26 " madder. 
3 " muriate of copper. 
3 " muriate of iron. 
3 " muriate of tin (double). 
16 " muriate of tin (single). 
3 " nutgalls. 
505 " oil of vitriol. 
82 '• Paris white. 
36 " pipe clay, 
3 gallons of red liquor. 
2 pounds of red sanders wood. 
344 " sal soda. 
349 " soda ash. 
66 " sumac. 
4 " turmeric. 
10 " yellow prussiate of pot- 
ash. 
* Eighty-third An. Rept. Phil. Water Dept. (1885), pp. 308-309. THE ILLINOIS STUDIES. 
65 
Mr. Barber was unable to state whether or not the list included all 
the pollution from this particular mill, as he was denied access. The 
list may therefore be taken as representing the pollution which the 
proprietors were willing to admit. Chemical analyses showing the 
effect of this pollution on the stream are given in the report of Dr. 
Leeds. 
Mr. Barber's report is also included in a Report on the Pollution of 
Rivers, by the Committee on Water Supply, Drainage, Sewerage, etc., 
of the State Board of Health of Pennsylvania, in the First Annual 
Report of that Board (188G). 
In the Eighty-fourth Annual Report of the Philadelphia Water De- 
partment Professor Leeds concludes his report on the chemical ex- 
amination of the water supply, which, with an additional short report 
by Mr. Barber and tables showing the extent and density of the pop- 
ulation of the collecting areas examined, concludes the Philadelphia 
investigation so far as questions of stream pollution are concerned. 
Minnesota. 
In Minnesota, the State Board of Health has for several years made 
more or less systematic chemical analyses of waters throughout the 
state. A number of such of the water of the Mississippi river are 
given in the Eighth Annual Report of that Board. A few analyses 
of the Mississippi river water are given in the Ninth and Tenth Re- 
ports. 
In 1883, Professor James A. Dodge made a few chemical analyses 
of the Mississippi river water at points in the vicinity of Minneapolis, 
St. Paul, Hastings, and Winona. The results may be found in the 
Bulletin of the Minnesota Academy of Science, Vol. III., No. 1. 
The Illinois Studies. 
In Illinois, the water supply of the city of Chicago, drawn from the 
lake front, is badly polluted by the sewage of the city which finds 
its way into Lake Michigan, largely by way of the Chicago river, into 
which nearly all the sewers of the city discharge.* 
The pollution of the Chicago river has, however, increased with the 
growth of the city from year to year, and finally means were taken to 
force, by pumping, a portion of the polluted water of the South 
branch of the Chicago river through the existing Illinois and Michi- 
gan canal, thereby obtaining to some extent the relief proposed by Mr. 
* See also Chapter IX., on Discharge into Tidal or other Large Bodies of Water, where the Chi- 
cago problem is further touched upon. 66 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Chesbrough in 1855. The present plant for this purpose, erected in 
1882-83, has a nominal capacity of 60,000 cubic feet of water per min- 
ute,* which is taken from the Chicago river, near where it receives, in 
addition to the sewage of about 400,000 people, the drainage of the 
Union Stock Yards at South Chicago, amounting to about 7,000,000 
gallons per day of concentrated sewage.^ 
The work of the Chicago Drainage and Water Supply Commission 
of 1887 revived the project of a large, navigable canal to the Des 
Plaines river, and led to a study in 1888-89, by the State Board of 
Health, of the question of probable pollution of the Illinois river by 
the discharge through such a canal of the sewage of the city of Chi- 
cago diluted with 600,000 cubic feet of lake water per minute. 
Before discussing briefly the results obtained in the study of the 
water supplies of Illinois and the pollution of its streams in 1888-89, 
we may refer to the fact that the State Board of Health had previous- 
ly made a few similar studies, the results of which can be found in 
their several reports, though chiefly in the Ninth Report, for the year 
1886. In regard to the results in the Ninth Annual Report, it may be 
observed that they are not nearly so complete as the work of 1888-89, 
and must be considered at the present time, in view of the extended 
results of the later investigation, of historical value chiefly. 
Self-purification in the Illinois and Michigan Canal. 
In the investigation of 1888-89, as made by Professor J. H. Long, 
750 samples of water were examined between May 1 and November 15. 
One of the chief objects of the investigation was to determine the 
rate and degree of self-purification taking place in the Illinois and 
Michigan canal between Bridgeport, the point where the sewage-pol- 
luted water of the South branch is pumped into the same, and its 
point of discharge into the Des Plaines river at Joliet, and so on down 
stream to the Illinois river, and finally to the Mississippi. On this 
question Professor Long presents among others a series of analyses at 
(1) Bridgeport, the head of the canal, and (2) at Lockport, 29 miles be- 
low. In this distance the canal receives nothing aside from rainfall and 
the slight infiltration which may possibly take place, but which is stat- 
ed as nearly nil. During the summer of 1888, while the tests were in 
progress, the pumps at Bridgeport were in continual operation at the 
rate of 50,000 cubic feet per minute, an amount on an average for each 
whole day about seven times in excess of the total of sewage flowing 
into the river from all sources. We have, then, in this canal the ideal 
* See Chapter XXII. in Part II. for description and illustrations of this plant. 
+ For an analysis of this stock-yard sewage see foot-note, page 32. SELF-PURIFICATION IN THE ILLINOIS AND MICHIGAN CANAL. 
67 
conditions for determining the rate of self-purification of a running 
stream by the purely chemical agencies. To place this in stronger 
light, we may note that the necessity for maintaining the canal in nav- 
igable condition precludes allowing the growth of water plants along 
the sides and bottom. Again, the frequent passing of heavily laden 
boats stirs up sediment which may have collected at or near the bbt- 
Table No. 9.-Chemical Changes in the Water oe the Illinois and Michigan 
Canal while flowing 29 miles from Bridgeport to Lockport.-(From anal- 
yses made by Professor J. H. Long in 1888-89.) 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Place collected. 
Date of 
collection. 
Total 
solids. 
Matter 
in sus- 
pension. 
Nitro- 
gen in 
nitrates. 
Chlo- 
rine. 
Hardness 
CaCO3. 
Free 
ammo- 
nia. 
Albu- 
minoid 
ammo- 
nia. 
Oxygen 
con- 
sumed. 
" ■ . 
1888 
Bridgeport 
May 1 
109.90 
0.0 
15.57 
15.90 
2.92 
0.68 
5.96 
Lockport 
May 3 
53.80 
4.10 
0.0 
7.78 
27.90 
1.57 
0.33 
2.51 
Bridgeport 
May 8 
45.00 
11.51 
0.0 
4.81 
15.90 
1.11 
0.37 
2.96 
Lock port 
May 10 
60.85 
24.20 
0.0 
2.12 
18.30 
0.85 
0.27 
2.46 
Bridgeport 
May 15 
58.00 
2.85 
0.0 
5.95 
24.24 
1.08 
0.18 
2.22 
Lock port 
May 17 
69.20 
10.70 
0.0 
3.54 
25.70 
1.28 
0.16 
1.59 
Bridgeport 
May 22 
42.81 
7.67 
0.0 
3.04 
21.96 
0.77 
0.25 
2.27 
Lock port. 
May 24 
46.84 
5.69 
0.0 
3.54 
26.04 
0.64 
0.17 
1.74 
Bridgeport 
May 28 
50.55 
14.70 
0.0 
3.54 
23.52 
0.82 
0.21 
2.08 
Lock port 
May 31 
69.90 
8.06 
0.0 
12.17 
26.88 
1.73 
0.22 
2.26 
Bridgeport 
June 5 
47.48 
7.51 
0.0 
2.55 
23.04 
0.77 
0.20 
2.11 
Lock port 
June 7 
42.81 
6.45 
0.0 
2.26 
22.80 
1.01 
0.18 
1.72 
Bridgeport 
June 12 
46.49 
13.20 
0.0 
3.68 
21.00 
1.05 
0.20 
2.16 
Lockport 
June 14 
38.71 
5.80 
0.0 
2.55 
21.30 
1.14 
0.16 
1.21 
Bridgeport 
June 19 
34.75 
6.23 
0.0 
2.12 
17.40 
0.80 
0.29 
1.98 
Lockport 
June 21 
32.29 
4.65 
0.0 
2.83 
19.20 
0.72 
0.17 
1.58 
Bridgeport 
June 26 
36.70 
15.52 
0.0 
1.42 
19.20 
0.61 
0.17 
1.86 
Lockport 
June 27 
33.19 
4.70 
0.0 
3.54 
20.00 
1.05 
0.17 
1.60 
Bridgeport 
July 17 
48.65 
10.97 
0.0 
6.23 
21.20 
1.68 
0.28 
2.63 
34 67 
3.80 
0.0 
5.95 
21.50 
1.10 
0.18 
1.86 
Bridgeport 
July 24 
34.75 
8.45 
0.0 
2.77 
16.80 
0.72 
0.20 
2.37 
Lockport 
July 26 
34.25 
4.67 
0.0 
3.29 
16.80 
1.10 
0.12 
1.54 
Bridgeport 
July 31 
75.49 
14.45 
0.0 
18.12 
24.00 
3.10 
0.18 
2.66 
Lockport 
Aug. 3 
48.95 
17.14 
0.0 
2.83 
21.60 
1.50 
0.20 
2.24 
Bridgeport 
Aug. 7 
42.03 
7.25 
0.0 
3.12 
21.00 
0.98 
0.18 
1.80 
Lockport. 
Aug. 9 
38.64 
4.88 
0.0 
3.26 
20.40 
1.08 
0.36 
1.36 
Bridgeport 
Aug. 14 
37.30 
4.98 
0.0 
2.55 
19.20 
1.06 
0.16 
2.00 
Lockport 
Aug. 16 
31.24 
3.12 
0.0 
1.27 
18.80 
0.69 
0.19 
1.47 
Bridgeport 
Aug. 21 
32.35 
5.04 
0.0 
2.55 
19.00 
0.76 
0.32 
1.55 
Lockport 
Aug. 23 
33.05 
3.25 
0.0 
1.27 
18.00 
0.66 
0.17 
1.53 
Bridgeport 
Aug. 28 
34.12 
6.50 
0.0 
2.83 
19.40 
0.86 
0.14 
1.58 
Lockport 
Aug. 30 
39.00 
4.54 
0.0 
5.84 
19.00 
0.98 
0.15 
1.85 
Bridgeport 
Sept. 11 
33.68 
6.55 
0.0 
1.27 
16.80 
•1.04 
0.19 
1.40 
Lockport 
Sept. 13 
34.88 
3.08 
0.0 
1.56 
16.80 
0.97 
0.18 
1.52 
Bridgeport 
Sept. 14 
44.70 
9.90 
0.0 
2.97 
19.00 
0.98 
0.33 
1.46 
Lockport. 
Sept. 15 
42.30 
3.90 
0.0 
4.96 
18.00 
1.18 
0.23 
1.25 
Bridgeport 
Sept. 18..... 
5S.34 
18.42 
0.0 
7.64 
21.00 
2.58 
0.26 
1.57 
Lockport 
Sept. 20 
60.70 
14.34 
0.0 
8.78 
25.00 
1.90 
0.21 
1.07 
Bridgeport 
Sept. 25 
34.50 
9.30 
0.0 
3.04 
18 00 
0.88 
0.18 
1.12 
Lockport 
Sept. 27. ... 
33.88 
6.70 
0.0 
3.40 
16.60 
0.88 
0.26 
1.34 
Bridgeport 
Oct. 9 
32.10 
7.81 
0.0 
2.83 
17.40 
1.18 
0.17 
2.18 
Lockport 
Oct 12 
39.54 
5.71 
0.0 
5.95 
18.20 
0.94 
0.19 
1.96 
Bridgeport 
Oct. 16 
34.10 
5.83 
0.0 
5.10 
20.00 
0.98 
0.25 
3.04 
Lockport 
Oct. 18 
37.36 
0.0 
5.10 
21.60 
1.10 
0.23 
0 88 
Bridgeport 
Oct. 23 
41.52 
8.36 
0.0 
6.11 
24.00 
0.92 
0.26 
3 74 
Lockport 
Oct. 25 
38.40 
5.38 
0.0 
9.90 
19.00 
0 89 
0.15 
0.69 
Bridgeport 
Oct. 30 
38.68 
15.75 
0.0 
1.42 
21.20 
0.69 
0 24 
2.40 
Lockport 
Oct. 30 
40.50 
6.11 
0.0 
3.54 
19.20 
1.13 
0.15 
1.73 68 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tom, thereby preventing the appearance of a self-purification by actual 
destruction of organic matter, which is in reality merely a change of 
position of polluting material by sedimentation. Further, in relation 
to sedimentation it may be stated that the current of the canal of 
nine-tenths of a mile an hour is sufficient to prevent it, and this fact is 
further said to be proven by numerous dredgings of the bottom, which 
show no traces of sewage subsidence. The changes which do take 
place may therefore be considered as due entirely to oxidation; and in 
order to show their extent, Table No. 9, derived from Tables II. and 
III. of Professor Long's report, has been prepared, in which the 
samples are grouped in such way as to give in juxtaposition, so far as 
possible, the same sample from the two places, the difference in time 
allowing for the flow from Bridgeport to Lockport. 
The following are the means of all the analyses made from May to 
October inclusive (includes a number not given in the foregoing 
table.) 
Place collected. 
Date of 
collection. 
Total 
solids. 
Matter 
in sus- 
pension. 
Nitro- 
gen in 
nitrates. 
Chlo- 
rine. 
Hardness 
CaCO3. 
Free 
ammo- 
nia. 
Albu- 
minoid 
ammo- 
nia. 
Oxygen 
con- 
sumed. 
Bridgeport 
Lockport 
1 1888 -j 
47.12 
43.12 
12.92 
6.98 
0.0 
0.0 
4.68 
4.61 
20.13 
20.77 
1.23 
1.08 
0.26 
0.20 
2.31 
1.62 
The following are the means of a number of analyses made in Jan- 
uary, February, and March, 1889. (The single analyses of these two 
series are not comparable in the same way as the summer series, from 
the fact that the samples were taken at both places on the same day.) 
Place collected. 
Date of j Total 
collection. solids. 
Matter 
in sus- 
pension. 
Nitro- 
gen in 
nitrates. 
Chlo- 
rine. 
Hardness 
CaCO3. 
Free 
ammo- 
nia. 
Albu- 
minoid 
ammo- 
nia. 
Oxygen 
con- 
sumed. 
Bridgeport 
Lockport 
) Jan. to ( 1 87.66 
( Meh., 1889"j । 40.86 
2.72 
2.46 
0.0 
0.0 
6.29 
5.60 
0.89 
0.81 
028 
0.25 
2.65 
2.28 
The amount of purification attained appears from Table No. 9 to be 
quite slight, although dilution would undoubtedly assist the process 
somewhat. The indication of the table is, however, quite clear, that 
an ordinary stream receiving a large quantity of a moderately dilute 
sewage, of the average quality indicated by these tests at Lockport, 
can hardly be considered safe as a source of drinking-water for many 
miles beyond. 
In a paper. Notes on some Cases of Drinking-Water and Disease, 
read by Professor William P. Mason, before the Chemical Section of 
the Franklin Institute, May 19, 1891, and to which we have already 
referred in Chapter I., page 10, some propositions are advanced in THE LAW OF SELF-PURIFICATION. 
69 
regard to the process of self-purification taking place in the Illinois 
and Michigan canal, between Bridgeport and Lockport, which are of 
importance in connection with the present discussion. 
The Law of Self-purification. 
Professor Mason advances the proposition that the rate of purifica- 
tion varies directly as the amount of sewage contamination, and states 
FREE AMMONIA 
BRIDGEPORT TO LOCKPORT 
ALBUMINOID AMMONIA 
BRIDGEPORT TO LOCKPORT 
Fig. 3.-Decrease in Free and Albuminoid Ammonia in the Illinois and 
Michigan Canal from Bridgeport to Lockport, III. 70 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
that: " Given a stream with a certain amount of pollution, the per 
cent, of such pollution which must disappear per mile of flow will 
continually decrease as the stream flows on." In illustration of this 
proposition, Professor Mason submits a graphical exhibit of the 
results of a number of Professor Long's analyses (Fig. 3), showing the 
decrease in the free and albuminoid ammonias between Bridgeport 
and Lockport on certain dates. The following figures were used in 
preparing the diagrams: 
Parts per 1,000,000. 
Free 
ammonia. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Bridgeport. Lockport. 
Bridgeport. 
Lockport. 
June 
26. 
2.6 
2.8 
0.64 
0.56 
July 
3 
2.7 
2.4 
0.52 
0.42 
July 
17 
25.0 
10.2 
1.50 
0.72 
July 
24 
5.5 
9.2 
0.37 
0.47 
July 
31 
23.0 
11.0 
1.76 
0.72 
Aug. 
7 
26.0 
12.0 
1.50 
0.48 
Aug. 
14 
29.0 
15.2 
1.64 
0.88 
Aug. 
21 
27.2 
15.0 
1.50 
0.84 
Ausr. 
28 
29.2 
13.0 
1.90 
0.88 
In regard to these figures and their significance, Professor Mason 
calls specific attention to the samples of July 3, which, with relatively 
low ammonias at both ends, show a loss of 11.2 per cent, of the free 
ammonia, and 19.3 per cent, of albuminoid ammonia; and also to the 
samples of August 28, where, with relatively high ammonias at both 
ends, the indicated losses are 55.5 per cent, free ammonia, and 53.7 
per cent, albuminoid ammonia. Many other illustrations of the same 
law will be noted on examination of the results given in Table No. 9, 
in detail. 
Stream Pollution in New York. 
In New York State stream pollution has not, until the last two or 
three years, received the attention which its importance demands, 
although the Hudson and Mohawk rivers have been used as the 
sources of public water supplies for more than 20 years. 
A few chemical analyses of the waters of these rivers may be found 
in the earlier water works reports of some of the towns supplied, but 
altogether they furnish nothing of special value in studying questions 
of stream pollution. In 1873 Professor Charles F. Chandler made a 
number of analyses of the water of the Hudson river at Albany, and 
strongly recommended the river as a source of supply for that city. In 
1885, after 12 years' use of it in accordance with that recommenda- 
tion, some doubts arose as to the propriety of further use in view of PLATE I. DIAGRAMS SHOWING CHEMICAL EXAMINATIONS OF CROTON WATER, 1876, 1885-6 AND 1888. PROTECTIVE LEGISLATION IN NEW YORK. 
71 
the constant and rapid increase of both sewage and manufacturing 
pollution. Professor Chandler again examined the Hudson river 
water, and a series of analyses of this and other American rivers may 
be found in his report to the Albany Water Commissioners of that 
year. 
Protective Legislation in New York. 
Notwithstanding the lack of organized study of stream pollution, 
the partial evils of it have been felt in various parts of New York State, 
especially in relation to preserving the purity of the public water 
supplies. This led to the passage in 1885 of an Act conferring upon 
the State Board of Health the power to protect from contamination, 
by suitable regulations, the water supplies of the State and their 
sources. 
Early in that year the Executive Board of the city of Rochester 
caused to be made a detailed survey of all the various pollutions at 
and about Hemlock lake, the source of the domestic water supply of 
the city of Rochester. The information gained was used as the basis 
of rules and regulations, formulated by the State Board of Health 
under the act just referred to, for the protection of the Rochester 
supply. (See Appendices III. and IV.) 
Similar regulations have since been made for the protection of the 
water supplies of the villages of Fredonia, Norwich, Cobleskill, and 
Oneonta; and the cities of Amsterdam, Mt. Vernon, and New York. 
The rules and regulations established at these several places are all 
modelled after the original Rochester rules, although in some cases 
modified to suit either the locality or to provide for special condi- 
tions. They may be found in detail in the several reports of the 
State Board of Health. 
Furthermore, these rules have all been formulated to meet cases of 
pollution which were apparent to the unaided senses on inspection, 
and in regard to which it may be justly claimed that the pollutions 
were so flagrant that neither chemical nor biological studies were 
necessary to point out the necessity for improvement. 
In connection with the establisment of the rules for the protection of 
the water-shed of the Croton river, an extended survey of the sources 
of pollution was made by Professor Charles C. Brown, C.E., whose 
report in the Ninth Annual of the State Board contains a compilation 
of all the chemical analyses of Croton water as made by the New York 
City Health Department for many years. As stated in the report a 
number of analyses are included in the tabulations which have never 
before been published. The tables include analyses from 1843 to 1888 
inclusive. 72 
sewage disposal in the united states. 
In a brief discussion of these analyses by Professor Elwyn Waller, 
who, as chemist for the Metropolitan Board of Health, had made many 
of them, it is pointed out that as a whole they do not show any seri- 
ous decrease in the quality of water from year to year. The fact is, 
however, clearly brought out, that the Croton water is considerably 
better some years than others. 
The accompanying diagrams (Plate I.) from the report show some of 
the fluctuations. 
In 1889 the State Board of Health began an extended study of the 
Hudson river with reference to pollution and allied questions. The 
Tenth and Eleventh Annual Reports (1890 and 1891) contain prelimi- 
nary reports, and Professor Brown, who has charge of the work, prom- 
ises an extended series of chemical and biological determinations for 
the Twelfth Report. 
Classification of Streams with Reference to Pollution. 
The foregoing1 essentially represents the present state of the infor- 
mation in relation to stream pollution in the United States. Study- 
ing it analytically, streams may be divided into five classes, namely : 
(1) Streams which are the sources of public water supplies, and 
which are not polluted by either sewage or manufacturing wastes. 
(2) Unpolluted streams which are not now the source of public water 
supplies, but which are likely to be so used in the future. 
(3) Streams either polluted or unpolluted which are not the sources 
of public water supplies, and which are not likely to be so used in the 
future. 
(4) Streams which are now the sources of public water supplies, and 
which are polluted with both sewage and manufacturing wastes. 
(5) Streams which are now the sources of public water supplies, and 
which are polluted with manufacturing wastes only. 
In regard to (1) it is clear that the thing to be done is to keep them 
in the same condition for all time to come. To this end, sharply cut 
legislative enactments ought in the majority of cases to prove suffi- 
cient. The New York State Act of 1885, with some modification in the 
way of increased powers for the executive sanitary authority, could be 
taken as a model on which to build. 
For (2) it is equally clear that definite measures should be inaugu- 
rated for preserving them so far unpolluted that, when actually needed 
for water supplies, they may be so used without prejudice by reason 
of the previous occupation. 
To this end each State needs some competent authority with a 
thorough knowledge of all the streams, ponds, lakes, etc., of the State. CLASSIFICATION OF STREAMS WITH REFERENCE TO POLLUTION. 
73 
Iii Massachusetts, as already seen, the State Board of Health is made 
the custodian of the inland waters, and given powers which enable it 
to properly decide each case on its merits. In New Jersey the last 
legislature had under consideration an act leading to State custody of 
inland waters, which, however, failed to pass. 
For (3) it is probably permissible to use the streams as sewers and 
common drains, and the chief question to be considered is how much 
pollution any given stream will stand without becoming offensive to 
the senses or dangerous to health. In this connection it should be re- 
membered that a sewage-polluted stream is not an entirely safe source 
of drinking-water for domestic animals. 
The second question may properly be, What dilution of sewage in the 
stream is necessary in order to produce the best results in resolving it 
through the action of the biological forces ? The standard of Mr. 
Hering, of 150 to 200 cubic feet per minute minimum How per 1,000 
persons contributing, is in the majority of cases probably too small a 
dilution for the best results. As a matter of judgment based on some 
laboratory experiments merely, for the present, a minimum How of 300 
cubic feet per minute per 1,000 people contributing may be taken, al- 
though subject to modification when more data are obtained.* The 
amount and kind of silt carried by any given stream, whether there 
are rapids or pools just below the point of discharge, are some of the 
physical features of the stream which will modify conclusions as to 
amount of dilution in any given case. If the stream is rapid flowing 
above the sewage outfall, carries large quantities of clay or other 
earthy matter in suspension, and is sluggish below, a relatively large 
amount of the suspended matter of the inflowing sewage may be de- 
posited through the action of sedimentation in a very short distance.^ 
On the other hand, with rapid flow below the point of discharge and 
little earthy matter in suspension, the insoluble portion of the sewage 
may be carried a long distance before there is much deposition. If 
rapids intervene the process of reduction will go on somewhat faster 
than when the rapid flow is merely that of a deep channel. All these 
points and many others will require taking into account before decid 
ing any given case. 
In regard to (4) there can be but one conclusion, the pollution should 
either be removed or their use as a public water supply discontinued. 
Probably the decision of any given case will depend to some extent 
upon the bearing of legal questions. 
The decision of questions relating to (5) will be the most difficult of 
* See Purification of Sewages by Microbes. Editorial discussion in Engineering, Oct. 7, 1892; 
reprinted in Eng. & Bldg. Rec'd, vol. xxvi., p. 380 (Nov. 12, 1892). 
+ In regard to the sanitary bearings of a partial purification by sedimentation only, see Chapter 
V,, The Composition of Sewage Muds. 74 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
all. As pointed out in the chapter on The Legal Aspects of the Case, 
several of the States have, by the enactment of Mill Acts, apparently 
given legistative sanction to the ordinary pollution due to the use of 
streams as sites for manufacturing establishments. The development 
of manufacturing interests has led in Massachusetts to the well settled 
practice of temporary permissive pollution under State supervision, to- 
gether with purification of streams by gradually removing sources of 
pollution, rather than by forcing an immediate abatement in every 
case ; the experience gained in that State indicates that an independent 
commission, empowered to consider each case on its merits, can more 
nearly satisfy the various conflicting interests than any other form of 
adjudication yet devised. CHAPTER IV. 
THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF RUNNING STREAMS, AND THE RA- 
TIONAL VIEW IN RELATION TO THE DISPOSAL OF SEWAGE BY 
DISCHARGE INTO TIDE-WATER. 
In this chapter two questions are discussed which at first sight may 
be considered as possibly bearing no relation to each other. When, 
however, we take into account the action of biological' forces it is found 
that they are in reality interdependent, a consideration which leads to 
their discussion together. 
The Self-Purification of a Running Stream from the Biological 
Point of View. 
It has been asserted at various times that a running stream so far 
tends to purify itself after a few miles' flow that the argument against 
drinking sewage-contaminated streams which have had an opportunity 
for several miles' How is not founded in fact. So generally has this 
view been held that the Massachusetts legislature, in limiting the 
distance from the intake of a water supply, derived from a running 
stream, that sewage may be allowed to enter, has, in Chapter 80 of 
the General Statutes, fixed upon 20 miles. Beyond this distance, accord- 
ing to the legislature, there is no objection to polluting a stream with 
sewage, even though it is used as the source of drinking water. It 
would be interesting to know just how the legislature arrived at this 
limit of 20 miles. It is indeed true that under favorable conditions 
the tendency is toward self-purification, but the uncertainty as to 
how thoroughly the forces tending in that direction may act in any 
given case, is merely an enforcing of the views already expressed. By 
way of illustrating the recent views on the question of self-purification 
from the biological point of view, the following is given as a partial 
exhibit merely: * 
Among the invertebrata there are certain classes of microscopic animals which, 
under favorable conditions of sufficiency of food supply, multiply in enormous num- 
bers. As common representatives of these minute animals, we may mention; (1) 
certain of the filth infusorians, as for instance Paramecium; (2) Hydra, as the 
* Discussion by Mr. Rafter of Dr. Chas. G. Currier's paper on Self-Purification of Flowing 
Water and the Influence of Polluted Water in the Causation of Disease, in Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., 
vol. xxiv., pp. 70-76. 76 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
typical representative of the order Hydroida; (3) certain of the Rotifera, of which 
Lacinularia and Conochilus may be cited as perhaps typical forms; (4) the numer- 
ous species of animals included in the entomostracan Crustacea ; (5) Gammarus, or 
the fresh-water shrimp ; and (6) the larvae of a number of water insects. 
In comparison with bacteria the infusoria are creatures of vast size, even though 
some species are as small as to^-o inch in length. Paramecium aurelia, a form 
found I believe almost invariably wherever putrefaction of animal matter is taking 
place in water, is an infusorial giant, mature individuals measuring as much as -/0 
inch in length. Paramecium bursaria, however, is much smaller, about inch 
being the usual length. 
In addition to Paramecium, there are a number of other ciliate infusorians, which 
are almost invariably found in water containing organic matter undergoing decay, 
and examinations made by the recently developed methods of biological enumera- 
tion, indicate that from twenty to fifty such forms may be found in every cubic 
centimetre of badly contaminated water; but whether any such numbers would be 
found in running streams, even though flowing slowly, I have had as yet no means 
of determining. 
Any notice of the infusoria in relation to the self-purification of contaminated 
waters, would be incomplete without some reference to Euglena and the allied 
genera. In standing waters Euglena viridis, an infusorian of bright green color, is 
frequently present in such quantity as to impart a green color to the water. Its 
length varies from tH inch to kAo inch. The vast quantities of Euglena which are 
met with under favorable conditions are sufficiently accounted for when we learn 
that it may multiply, not only by fission, or by the division of one individual into 
two, but it further multiplies by the " subdivision of the entire body substance into 
sporular elements, and by the development of independent germinal bodies out of 
the substance of the endoplast." * 
Euglena is generally found in quantity in streams contaminated with sewage. 
Hydra is an animal of considerable size, frequently reaching a length, when fully 
extended, of nearly an inch. It is attached to water plants in quantity in stagnant 
waters, and voraciously devours everything coming within its reach. 
Rotifers frequently develop in vast quantity in waters carrying large amounts of 
organic matter; and among such Lacinularia socialis may be taken as typical. This 
creature is usually attached to water plants along the margins of slowly running 
streams; and in favorite locations at certain seasons many hundred thousand col- 
onies will be found in a limited space. The colonies are about £ inch in diameter, 
and frequently contain from fifty to one hundred individuals, each about A inch in 
length. A single sprig of water plant has been found to support nearly one hun- 
dred colonies. 
Another rotifer which may be mentioned is Conochilus rolvox-a free-swimming, 
social form-with the colonies containing from seventy to one hundred individuals. 
The colonies are on an average inch in diameter, with the single members A, inch 
in length. 
Probably the Entomostraca are of the animal forms the most efficient assistants 
in the self-purification of running streams. The vast numbers in which they de- 
velop, and the readiness with which they devour all sorts of filth, render them 
worthy of more extended study, from an economic point of view, than they have 
yet received. 
As illustrating the forms especially worthy of attention, in this connection, may 
be mentioned Daphnia, Ceriodaphnia, Cypris, Cyclops and others. These are all 
found in waters containing decaying organic matters, and if the water is intended 
for domestic use, their presence in quantity may be taken as danger signals, j- On 
the other hand, their presence in quantity may be taken to indicate a step in the 
process of self-purification of contaminated waters. As many as one thousand four 
hundred Ceriodaphnias have been counted in a single quart of such water,| and this 
number by no means exhausted the visible life in the sample. 
A study of the Entomostraca, and observations of their immense fecundity and 
* Kent: Manual of the Infusoria, page 379. 
t Herrick : Crustacea of Minnesota. 
J Herrick, loc. cit. THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF A RUNNING STREAM. 
77 
tendency to act as scavengers, led at an early day to singularly correct views as to 
the causation and spread of disease. Thus Otho Fredericus Muller, in his work on 
the Entomostraca, published in 1785, says: " The time is at hand when the causes 
of disease shall not only be sought after in the air, in our method of living, etc., 
but in the incautious use of waters often abounding in innumerable animalcules." 
The fertility of these little animals has already been referred to, and by way of 
illustrating it, reference may be made to Jurine's computation, that a single female 
Cyclops quadricornis might in one year have a progeny amounting to four billion, 
four hundred million.* The following are the average lengths of some of the 
animals of this group : Daphnia, inch ; Simocephalus, | inch ; Cyclops, -^7 inch ; 
and Cypris, inch. Gammarus, another crustacean of the order Amphipoda, is a 
denizen of sluggish-flowing, contaminated streams, where it may be frequently 
found in great quantity. This animal, when full grown, attains a length of | inch. 
The larvie of a number of insects pass their larval stage immersed in water, and 
among such the larva of the mosquito may easily take a high rank for large num- 
bers. 
The foregoing exhibits, in a very incomplete way, a few of the animals which 
assist in the self-purification of a running stream. The number of species which 
actually assist in such work is very great, and a mere enumeration of them would 
require considerable space. As to the definite part played by each species little can 
be said, as, with the exception of the Entomostraca, none of them have been 
studied in reference to their economic value in this direction. The exception 
noted in the case of the Entomostraca is a partial study made by Dr. H. C. Sorby, 
of England, a few years ago. 
Enough can be gathered, even though we possess little definite knowledge, to 
justify saying that animals of the classes under consideration play a very important 
part in the so-called self-purification of streams. Minute plants may also be con- 
sidered as assisting greatly in such work, but this part of the subject I leave un- 
touched at this time. 
The question of self-purification may, however, be somewhat simplified, if we 
consider just the distinction which marks the division line between animals and 
plants. The specific difference may be readily appreciated by considering that ani- 
mals always require organized food ; they seek those substances in which hydrogen, 
nitrogen, carbon, sulphur, etc., have been already assimilated into living forms, such 
living forms themselves being either animal or plant. Plants, on the other hand, have 
no power of assimilating organized food ; they require rather the elements hydro- 
gen, nitrogen, carbon, etc., in their primal state. In a general w'ay, it may be said 
that this distinction holds good through the whole scale from the highest to the 
lowest. Indeed, when we come to deciding a difficult case, as for instance, whether 
a given form belongs to the Protophyta or the Protozoa, we take advantage of this 
distinction, and the natural line of study is to determine in which way food is taken 
by the unknown form. 
A proper appreciation of this distinction will assist greatly in understanding the 
phenomena exhibited by streams in the process of self-purification. Thus we seem 
justified in concluding, that if contaminating organic matter in streams is to be re- 
duced to an innocuous form, without the intervention of foul, odor-producing, putre- 
factive processes, it will be accomplished, in the earliest stages at any rate, by the 
assistance of animals rather than plants. Just how animals and plants assist in the 
process of self-purification, is finely exhibited by the paper of Dr. H. C. Sorby 
herewith appended, entitled, Detection of Sewage Contamination by the Use of the 
Microscope, and on the Purifying Action of Minute Animals and Plants.f Dr. Sorby 
says: 
" By studying with the microscope the solid matters deposited from the waters 
of a river, the previous contamination with sewage can usually be detected 
without any considerable difficulty. If the amount be serious, the characteristic 
particles of human excrement can easily be seen ; and if it is small and has been 
carried a long way by the current, it can usually be recognized by means of the 
* Baird's British Entomostraca, page 190. 
+ Jour. Roy. Mier. Soc., 1884, pp. 988-991. 78 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
hairs of oats derived mainly from the droppings of horses, which resist decomposi- 
tion for a long time, and are not consumed as food by minute animals. 1, however, 
do not propose to enter into detail in connection with this part of my subject, but 
specially desire to call attention to the connection between the number of minute 
animals and plants and the character of the water in which they live, and also to 
their influence in removing organic impurities. 
" For some time past I have been carefully ascertaining the number per gallon 
of different samples of river and sea water, of the various small animals which are 
large enough not to pass through a sieve, the meshes of which are about part of 
an inch in diameter. The amount of water used varies from ten gallons down- 
ward, according to the number present. By the arrangements used there is no 
important difficulty in carrying out the whole method in a satisfactory manner. I 
confine my remarks entirely to general mean results. The chief animals met with 
in fresh water are various Entomostraca, Rotifera, and the worm-like larvae of insects. 
I find that the number per gallon and percentage relationships of these mark, in a 
most clear manner, changed conditions in the water, the discharge of a certain 
amount of sewage being indicated by an increase in the total number per gallon, or 
by an alteration in the relative numbers of the different kinds, or by both. All my 
remarks apply to the warm part of the year, and not to winter. 
" It is known that Entomostraca will eat dead animal matter, though probably 
not entirely dependent on it. I have myself proved that they may be kept alive for 
many months by feeding them on human excrement, though they soon died without 
it. If the amount of food in any water is small, not many of such animals can obtain 
sufficient; but if it be abundant, they may multiply rapidly, since it is asserted that 
in one season a single female Cyclops may give rise to no less than four thousand 
millions of young. In stagnant muddy ponds, where food abounds, I have found 
au average of 200 per gallon. In the case of fairly pure rivers the total number 
of free-swimming animals is not more than 1 per gallon. I found, however, that 
where what may be called sewage was discharged into such water, the number per 
gallon rose to 27, and the percentage relationships between the different groups of 
Entomostraca were greatly changed. In the Thames at Crossness, at low water, 
the number was about 6 per gallon, which fell to 3 or 4 at Erith, and was reduced 
to less than 1 at Greenhithe. 
"There is, however, a very decided limit to the increase of Entomostraca when 
the water of a river is rendered very impure by the discharge of too much sewage, 
probably because oxygen is deficient, and free sulphide of hydrogen present. Such 
water is often characterized by the great number of worm-like larvae of insects. 
Thus, in the Don below Sheffield in summer, I found the number of Entomostraca 
pei' gallon only about one-third of what it is in pure waters ; whilst, on the contrary, 
the number of worm-like larvae were more than 1 per gallon. 
" Now, if the minute free-swimming animals thus increase when a certain amount 
of sewage supplies them with ample food, it is quite obvious that they must have a 
most important influence in removing objectionable impurities. The number of 
excrements of Entomostraca in the recent mud of such rivers as the Thames is most 
surprising. In one specimen from Hammersmith I found that there were more 
than 20,000 per grain ; and the average number at Erith in August, 1882, was about 
7,000, which is equivalent to about 200,000 per gallon of water at half ebb, from the 
surface to the bottom. This enormous number must represent a very large amount 
of sewage material consumed as food ; and though, as in the case of larger animals, 
a considerable part of their excrements no doubt consists of organic matter capable 
of putrefaction, yet there can be no less doubt that the amount entirely consumed in 
the life-processes of these animals is also great. 
"As named above, I kept Cyclops alive for many months by feeding them on 
human excrement. It is thus easy to understand why, when they abound in the 
Thames, the relative amount of human excrement is very considerably less than in 
the winter, when their number must be much smaller. We thus appear to be 
led to the conclusion that when the amount of sewage discharged into a river 
is not too great, it furnishes food for a vast number of animals, which perform 
a most important part in removing it. On the contrary, if the discharge be 
too great, it may be injurious to them, and this process of purification may cease. THE SELF-PURIFICATION OF A RUNNING STREAM. 
79 
Possibly this explains why in certain cases a river which is usually unobjectionable 
may occasionally become offensive. It also seems to make it clear that the dis- 
charge of rather too much sewage may produce relatively very great and objection- 
able results. 
"Though such comparatively large animals as Entomostraca may remove much 
putrefiable matter from a river, we cannot suppose that, except incidentally, they 
remove such very minute objects as disease-germs; but it would be a subject well 
worthy of investigation to ascertain whether the more minute infusoria can, and 
do, consume such germs as a portion of their food. If so, we should be able to 
understand how living bodies, which could resist any purely chemical action likely 
to be met with in a river, could be destroyed by the digestive process of minute 
animals. Hitherto, I have had no opportunity for examining this question 
critically, but have been able to learn certain facts, which at all events show that it 
is well worthy of further examination. It is only during the last month that I 
have paid special attention to the number of larger infusoria, and various other 
animals of similar type met with in the waters of rivers and the sea, which can be 
seen and be counted by means of a low magnifying power. At low water in the 
Medway above Chatham, in the first half of June, the average number per gallon has 
been about 7,000, but sometimes as many as 16,000. Their average size was about 
Toon inch. Possibly the number of still more minute forms may be equally great; 
but if we confine our attention to those observed, we cannot but conclude that 
their effect in removing organic matter must be very considerable. Judging 
from what occurs in the case of larger animals, those n/mr of an inch in diameter 
may well be supposed to consume as food particles of the size of germs. Up to 
the present time I have, however, collected so few facts bearing on this question, 
that it must be regarded as a suggestion for future inquiry. 
" So far I have referred exclusively to the effect of animal life. Minute plants play 
an important part in another way. The number per gallon of suspended diatoms, 
desmids, and confervoid algte is, in some cases, most astonishing, and they must 
often produce more effect than the larger plants. As far as I have been able to 
ascertain, their number is, to some extent, related to the amount of material in the 
water suitable for their assimilation and growth. In the mud deposited from pure 
rivers their number is relatively small, but in the district of the Thames where the 
sewage is discharged, I found tljat in summer their number per grain of mud 
at half ebb-tide was about 400,000, which is equivalent to about 5,000,000 per 
gallon of water. This is two or three times as many as were found higher up 
or lower down the river, and out of all proportion more than in the case of fairly 
pure rivers like the Medway. Their effect in oxygenating the water must be very 
important, since when exposed to the light they decompose carbonic acid and give 
off oxygen, under circumstances most favorable for supplying the needs of animal 
life, and counteract the putrefactive decomposition so soon set up by minute fungi 
when oxygen is absent. 
" Taking all the above facts into consideration, it appears to me that the removal 
of impurities from rivers is more of a biological than a chemical question ; and 
that in all discussions of the subject it is most important to consider the action of 
minute animals and plants, which may be looked upon as being indirectly most 
powerful chemical agents." 
The self-purification of streams, as pointed out by Dr. Percy Frank- 
land and others, admits of discussion from two distinct points of view, 
namely, the chemico-physical and the biological. When discussed 
from the first the concensus of recent opinion is that dilution and sedi- 
mentation are the causes chiefly operative. From this point of view 
little remains to be said in addition to what has already been well said 
by others, and we may pass to the consideration in detail of a recently 
observed specific case of self-purification through the agency of the 80 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
biological forces.* We shall, however, consider the question from the 
purely physical point of view in the next chapter. 
The Case of Beaver Dam Brook. 
Beaver Dam brook, a tributary of Lake Cochituate, receives the 
water of the underdrain of the South Framingham separate sewerage 
system. The underdrain is laid at a lower level than the sewers and 
an analysis of the water flowing from it made before any sewage was 
turned into the sewers, in comparison with analyses made after, indi- 
cates that no leakage from the sewers takes place.f 
Tables Nos. 10 and 11 give the results of a series of chemical and 
microscopical analyses made in August, 1890, as detailed in the 
Special Report, Part I., and also the Twenty-second Annual Report. 
Table No. 10.-Analyses of Water from South Framingham Underdrain and 
from Beaver Dam Brook Above and Below, Made August 8, 1890. 
Sample collected from 
Chlorine. 
Ammonia. 
Nitrogen as 
Serial num- 
ber. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Nitrates. 
Nitrites. 
i E 
Oj 
Sus- 
pended. 
Beaver Dam brook, above entrance of stream 
from underdrain 
0.77 
.0018 
.0146 
.0022 
.0125 
.0001 
6381 
Underdrain at outlet 
3.62 
.0648 
.0058 
.0000 
.6000 
.0036 
6380 
Brook, 300 feet below entrance of stream from un- 
derdrain 
2.20 
.0236 . 
.0100 
.0002 
.2200 
.0023 
6382 
Mouth of brook proper, one mile below under- 
drain 
2.02 
.0016 
.0134 
.0018 
.2000 
.0005 
6383 
Estuary of brook, 1,700 feet below its mouth.... 
1.54 
.0024 
.0302 
.0150 
.0200 
.0019 
63S4 
Estuary of brook, 2,100 feet below its mouth.... 
1.39 
.1044 
.0286 
.0240 
.0200 
.0012 
6385 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
On the date of these examinations it is stated that the brook was 
extremely low, its waters flowing sluggishly through a luxuriant 
growth of aquatic plants. After receiving the flow from the under- 
drain the relative proportion was, as further stated in the Special 
Report, 45 per cent, from the underdrain and 55 per cent, from the 
original water of the brook. 
*For recent discussion of the self-purification of streams from the chemical point of view, see 
a paper by Dr. Percy F. Frankland on The Present State of Our Knowledge Concerning the Self- 
Purification of Rivers, read before the International Congress of Hygiene and Demography, 
1891, in Eng. News, vol. xxvl, p. 218 (Sept. 5, 1891). The earlier Reports of the Mass. 
St. Bd. of Health contain a large amount of information from the purely chemical point of view, 
while in the very recent ones may be found the most of what we have in this country from 
the biological side of the question. Moreover, a discussion of pollution of streams involves largely 
their self-purification, and the chapter on Pollution, etc., contains an abridged account of some 
of the more important recent studies in this country from the chemical point of view, as for 
instance, the report of Mr. Wurtz on the pollution of the Passaic river, and the pollution of 
the Illinois and Michigan canal in Illinois, to which the reader is referred. 
+ Twenty-second An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health, p. 149. THE CASE OF BEAVER DAM BROOK. 
81 
Table No. 11.-Results of Microscopical Examination of Samples Nos. 6,380 to 
6,385, as per Previous Table. 
(Number of organisms per cubic centimetre.) 
1890. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Aug. 
Day of examination.... 
9 
9 
9 
9 
9 
9 
Number of sample 
6380 
6381 
6382 
6383 
6384 
6385 
Plants. 
Diatomaceae 
0 
3 
2 
16 
1,794 
834 
Melosira 
0 
1 
0 
7 
0 
0 
Meridiem 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
Navicula 
0 
2 
pr. 
5 
2 
0 
Stephanodiscus 
0 
pr. 
1 
2 
0 
0 
Synedra 
0 
0 
1 
2 
1,792 
632 
Cyanophyceae. Anabama 
0 
0 
0 
0 
460 
328 
Algae 
0 
0 
0 
2 
2,812 
542 
Chlorococcus 
0 
0 
0 
2 
0 
66 
Cosmarium 
0 
0 
0 
0 
12 
0 
Eudorina 
0 
0 
0 
0 
84 
4 
Gonium 
0 
0 
0 
0 
20 
8 
Pediastrum ... 
0 
0 
0 
0 
8 
0 
Zoospores 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2,664 
460 
Scenedesmus 
0 
0 
0 
pr. 
22 
2 
Staurastrum 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
2 
Fungi. Crenothrix 
400* 
31 
28 
13 
0 
0 
Animals. 
Infusoria 
0 
0 
0 
pr. 
92 
12 
Monas 
0 
0 
0 
pr. 
0 
0 
Peridinium.... 
0 
0 
0 
pr. 
80 
4 
Trachelomonas 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
8 
Ciliated infusorian 
0 
0 
0 
0 
12 
0 
Vermes 
0 
0 
0 
0 
24 
42 
Anurea 
0 
0 
0 
0 
0 
24 
Asplanchna 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
0 
Monocerca 
0 
0 
0 
0 
14 
2 
Polyarthra 
0 
0 
0 
0 
4 
2 
Rotatorian ova 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
6 
Triarthra 
0 
0 
0 
0 
2 
8 
Total organisms 
400 
34 
30 
31 
5,182 
1,758 
* Estimated. 
Studying the results we note first of all the large amount of chlorine 
in the water of the underdrain, which is taken as meaning that it de- 
rives a portion of its water from the cesspools in use before the sewers 
were built and which are still in use in many instances. Even if the 
cesspools had all been abandoned immediately on the completion of the 
sewerage system in 1889 their effect could hardly have failed to be 
manifest for some time after. The water issuing from the mouth of 
the underdrain is clear and colorless and contains considerable Cre- 
nothrix, which rapidly deposits in the sluggish current of the open 
channel. The water of the brook itself above the mouth of the under- 
drain also contains a small amount of Crenothrix, as shown by the 82 
sewage disposal in the united states. 
microscopical analysis No. 6,381. As the flow proceeds down the 
brook, the analyses show a progressive change, and comparison of the 
successive stages of development of the plant life with the changes 
in quantity of the ammonias and nitrates, indicates the nature of the 
changes in the organic matter which are taking place. The impor- 
tance of distinguishing between the suspended and dissolved albu- 
minoid ammonia is also clearly brought out by these analyses. 
September 5 and 10, 1889, samples taken from the lower part of the 
Beaver Dam brook estuary were examined microscopically by Mr. 
Rafter. At that time the plant life was chiefly Zoospores, there being 
present on September 25, 2,442 per cubic centimetre, with 52 Diato- 
macece; and on September 10, 2,018 Zoospores and 14 Diatomacere per 
cubic centimetre. Heavy rains during the preceding summer had kept 
the stream at an abundant How. We may conclude, therefore, that 
the results obtained in August, 1890, were not exceptional, but that, 
on the contrary, in this case the biological forces are constantly at 
work in effecting a purification. This special case has been further 
discussed by Frederick P. Stearns, M. Am. Soc. C. E., in the Special 
Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Part I., and the 
reader is accordingly referred to that discussion for additional detail 
in regard to it. 
Before concluding the subject it may, however, be properly pointed 
out that this example is not quite the same as the problem of purifica- 
tion of a river polluted by raw sewage, as discussed by Dr. Sorby. 
We have in this case rather an incomplete reduction of the organic 
matter to the state of nitrates through the operation of partial soil 
filtration, and probably in such cases the farther changes in the nitro- 
gen will take place through the influence of plants rather than ani- 
mals. It may be pointed out, moreover, that mineral nitrates usually 
act as stimulants of an abundant algal life. 
The Manurial Constituents of Sewage. 
There is a popular impression that great quantities of valuable ma- 
nure annually go to waste in the sewage of our large cities and towns, 
and much ingenuity has been expended in attempts to utilize the ma- 
nurial elements of sewage. None of the various projects looking to- 
ward such realization have thus fat been successful from a commer- 
cial point of view, and, however hard it may be for those who have 
preconceived opinions on the subject to change their views, it must 
still be concluded that, in the present state of the applied sciences, 
anything like a general utilization of the manurial constituents of sew- 
age at a commercial profit is apparently impossible. A consideration 
of the amount of the manurial constituents in comparison with the FALLACY OF THE ARGUMENT. 
83 
amount of water carrying the sewage serves at once to emphasize the 
difficulties of the problem. Thus the average of total dry matter in a 
ton of sewage from an ordinary English town is from two to three 
pounds, while in American cities, where the use of water is greater 
than in the English towns, the amount is much less. Professor W. R. 
Nichols having found it to be only about one pound per ton in the 
sewage of Boston in the year 1872. 
The following table, No. 12, which gives the mean results of a num- 
ber of analyses, will serve to show the amount of matter actually pres- 
ent in the sewage of a number of cities: * 
Table No. 12.-Constituents of Sewage. 
Dissolved 
Suspended 
Total dry 
matter. 
matter. 
matter. 
2,000 lbs. Boston sewage 
1.179 
0.747 
1.926 
2.000 lbs. Worcester sewage 
0.507 
0.423 
0.930 
2,000 lbs. Berlin sewage 
1.578 
0.102 
1.680 
2,000 lbs. of sewage, average 50 English towns 
1.444 
0.894 
2.338 
Organic 
0.276 
0.C03 
0.879 
Inorganic 
1.146 
0.778 
1.924 
Sum 
1.422 
1.381 
2.803 
Of the fertilizing matters in sewage the nitrogen compounds are the 
most important, but their amount is very small, as little as 0.04 and 
0.05 pound in the Worcester and Boston sewage, as determined by 
Professor Nichols. 
Money Value of Sewage. 
From such data as the foregoing it has been estimated that the sew- 
age of English cities may contain from one to four cents' worth of fer- 
tilizing matter per ton, while a ton of the Boston sewage as indicated 
by these analyses will contain say one cent's worth of manure, f 
The conclusion from the foregoing cursory examination is that the 
valuable constituents of sewage are so diluted that the cost of extract- 
ing them by any known process is, on the whole, equal to, or in some 
cases even greater than the value of the material after it is extracted. 
Fallacy of the Argument. 
The argument as to the fallacy of attempting to utilize sewage at a 
commercial profit has been put very appropriately by a number of 
writers, as, for instance, Professor Anderson, who says it would be 
* Storer's Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 286. 
+ For discussion of this phase of the question in detail see paper, Sewerage; Sewage ; The pol- 
lution of Streams ; The water supply of towns, in the 4th An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health (1872). 
By Nichols and Derby. 84 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
about as reasonable to expect farmers to manure their land with the 
smoke of cities as with sewage, for, as everyone knows, enormous 
quantities of ammonia must be lost in the aggregate from cities where 
domestic fires are fed with soft coal. But precisely as it is with smoke 
so it is with sewage; that is to say, the fluid is so very dilute that it 
cannot be put to use. 
David Forbes, also, in replying to calculations based upon the as- 
sumption that the excrement of each inhabitant of a city represents a 
value of several dollars a year, argued that it would be equally correct 
to maintain that a barrel of water into which a bottle of brandy had 
been poured would be worth as much as the original brandy.* 
Professor Storer cites, also, another very striking illustration of a 
valuable substance so diluted as not to be worth the cost of collect- 
ing : The city of Philadelphia stands on an extensive bed of clay which 
contains a pound of gold for every 1,224,000 pounds of clay, and, it 
appears evident that this bed of clay contains, within the corporate lim- 
its of the city, at least $1,000,000,000 worth of gold. Except as a mat- 
ter of scientific interest no one has ever dreamed of extracting gold 
from this Philadelphia clay. It can be got, with infinitely less trouble, 
from places where it is more abundant; and in this, as in everything 
else, the cost of getting the thing depends upon the amount of labor 
of some sort that must be expended. It is precisely so with sewage 
utilization, and the sooner a clear appreciation of this fact is generally 
disseminated, probably the sooner will the question of sewage purifi- 
cation be placed on a thoroughly practical basis. At the present time 
agriculturists can get commercial fertilizers cheaper than the manurial 
elements of sewage can be utilized, and, so long as this proposition 
remains true, it is idle to talk of making sewage utilization, except 
under favorable circumstances, a commercial success. For a presenta- 
tion of the manurial constituents of domestic sewage in detail, with 
theoretical commercial values, sec Chapter VIII., on General Data of 
Sewage Disposal. 
The Right AVay to Approach the Problem. 
With this understanding, the problem of sewage purification is nat- 
urally approached from a different point of view from what it would be 
if we expected to realize commercial returns, either by utilization in 
broad irrigation or by the sale of a manure from the sludge, resulting 
from processes of partial chemical purification. Experience abroad 
has apparently settled both these questions, so we can approach the 
subject in this country in a somewhat more rational way than has 
characterized a large portion of the early discussion abroad. A full 
* Storer's Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 288. sewage disposal works not subject to franchise. 
85 
appreciation of the fact, on the part of the public, that ordinarily little 
commercial profit can be realized from sewage utilization, is of con- 
siderable importance in the beginning of sewage purification processes 
on an extended scale in this country. Such appreciation enables san- 
itarians and others interested in the improvement of the public health 
to insist upon sewage purification as a right which one community or 
individual owes to another, independent of the question of commercial 
profit; it further prevents the failure of executed projects which are 
successful in effecting a purification, but which do not return a com- 
mercial profit on the capital invested; again, it removes the motive 
for bolstering up projects, which, while inefficient in purification, are 
still operated at a commercial profit; it puts the whole subject, in 
short, on a scientific basis, in which the health of communities is 
placed first, and questions relating to commercial utilization are kept 
in the background, as of secondary importance only. 
In advancing the foregoing views it is not intended to assert either 
that broad irrigation may not be a successful way of both purifying 
and utilizing sewage when the proper conditions obtain, or that the 
sludge from a chemical process is not worth something for manure. It 
is desired merely to point out that in the present understanding of 
things, commercial utilization of sewage is, so far as this country is 
concerned, properly subordinate to the more important question of 
thorough purification. 
Moreover, in considering this phase of the question of sewage puri- 
fication, we should not lose sight of the fact that, independently of 
the manurial ingredients of sewage, it has, when not applied in too 
excessive quantities, a distinct value for purposes of irrigation. While, 
therefore, the preceding propositions are fundamentally true, it may 
be still stated that many cases will undoubtedly arise in practice in 
which broad irrigation may be an exceedingly valuable method of 
sewage purification ; and it is in this latter view that the subject has 
been discussed at length in Chapters XII. and XIII., following. 
Sewage Disposal Works Not Properly Subject to Franchise. 
As a corollary to the foregoing, it may be concluded that, generally 
speaking, sewage disposal works are not properly subject to franchise 
by private companies. The interests to be served are so important, 
and the effect of neglecting to render proper service so serious and far- 
reaching, that the commercial spirit should be absolutely eliminated 
from everything relating to sewage disposal. The problem has gen- 
erally been regarded in this light, as is shown by the fact that only a few 
municipalities, mostly small ones, have granted sewerage franchises, 
New Orleans being the only large city which has taken such action. 86 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Disposal into Tide-Water. 
Again it may be further concluded that where the conditions clearly 
indicate disposal into tide-water as the rational course of procedure 
there is no valid argument to be urged against such disposition. The 
view of twenty years ago that turning sewage into the ocean was a 
drain upon national wealth may be considered as fairly met by what 
has already been offered in reference to cost of utilization. There is, 
moreover, another line of argument substantiating the same conclusion 
from an entirely different point of view. We have already seen that 
when the amount of sewrage per unit volume of water is not too large, 
the entomostracan Crustacea multiply in enormous numbers. The 
Entomostraca are further the favorite food of the carnivorous fishes,* 
and while it has been the experience in Boston harbor and elsewhere 
that too much sewage per unit of volume drove the fish away from the 
vicinity of sewage outfalls, nevertheless the increase in Entomostraca 
and their utilization for food of fish at points somewhat removed from 
the centers of sewage pollution may be considered a practical utiliza- 
tion of sewage, and a direct return therefrom to the total stock of 
national wealth. To secure this return in the largest degree, it is still 
essential that certain general principles be observed in relation to the 
quantity and quality of the sewage discharge. In the first place the 
sewerage system should be so designed as to deliver the sewage into 
tide-water while perfectly fresh, and to this end tidal discharge sewer- 
age systems need to be self-cleansing, so far as is possible, in order to 
reduce sewage putrefaction to a minimum. Again the discharge at 
any given point should be, if possible, relatively small. Any tendency 
to the production of either an effluvium nuisance or of a foul beach line 
may be taken as evidence that the limit of quantity at any given point 
has been exceeded. We arrive, therefore, at the conclusion that for 
practical utilization of sewage as food for fish, the concentration of 
large quantities of sewage and the discharge of the same into tide- 
water at the single point is, generally speaking, undesirable. By dis- 
charging the sewage at a number of points, each far enough removed 
from the other to insure the proper dilution which has been pointed 
out by Dr. Sorby and others as necessary for the development of the 
maximum quantity of minute animal life, the best results will be 
secured. 
Disposal into Fresh Water. 
The same conclusion holds good when for any reason it may be con- 
sidered either necessary or desirable to discharge large quantities of 
* See the various Reports of the United States Fish Commission. DISPOSAL INTO FRESH WATER. 
87 
sewage into bodies of fresh water.* The correct principle governing 
such discharge has been recognized by the Milwaukee Special Com- 
mission, appointed " to prepare and present plans and estimates for the 
completion of works for the collection and final disposal of the sewage 
of the city, and for the permanent location of the intake for the water 
* In this country the most important studies thus far made of the relation of the minute life in 
water to fish life, are those of Professor S. A. Forbes, of the Illinois State Lab. of Nat. History. 
Beginning in 1877, Professor Forbes has published in the Bulletin of the Laboratory to date the 
following: 
(1) The Food of Illinois Fishes, vol. i., No. 2, pp. 71-89. 
(2) The Food of Fishes, No. 3, pp. 18-65. 
(3) On the Food of Young Fishes. No. 3, pp. 66-79. 
(4) The Food of the Smaller Fresh Water Fishes, No. 6, pp. 65-94. 
(5) The First Food of the Common White Fish, No. 6, pp. 95-109. 
(6) Studies of the Food of Fresh Water Fishes, vol. ii., art. vii., pp. 433-473. 
(7) On the Food Relations of Fresh Water Fishes: a Summary and Discussion, art. viii., pp. 
474-538. 
In these several papers Professor Forbes has discussed nearly every phase of the question of food 
for fishes, and pointed out in many cases the specific food of different species of fish. 
The great economic value of the Entomostraca is strongly brought out in these papers, and es- 
pecially as food for young fish. In the paper on The First Food of the Common White Fish, an 
account is given of the result of examining the stomach contents of over 100 young fish. After 
giving the data derived from these examinations in detail, Professor Forbes says :- 
* * * \ye are compelled to conclude that the earliest food of the white fish consists almost 
wholly of the smaller species of Entomostraca occurring in the lake, since the other elements in 
their alimentary canals were evidently either taken accidentally, or else appeared in such trivial 
quantity as to contribute nothing of importance to their support. 
In the paper on The Food of the Smaller Fresh Water Fishes it is further shown that the chief 
food of the young of the family Cyprinidae (popularly minnows) which embraces by far the larger 
part of the smaller fishes, is composed of such vegetable elements as filaments of Spirogyra and 
other filamentous algae, cells of Cosmarium and Closterium among the desmids, together with 
Cymatopleura and other diatoms. Among representatives of the animal kingdom Euglena was 
found to be an important item, as was also Bosmina, an Entomostracan. 
Summarizing the food of the young of this family, Professor Forbes says: 
" * * we may conclude that the young Cyprinidae draw almost indiscriminately for their 
food supply upon Protozoa, Algae, and Entomostraca. 
The fish of the family Cyprinidae are of economic interest because of furnishing an important 
part of the food supply of larger species. 
No. (7) of the foregoing list is the concluding number of the series of papers on the food of fish 
and in it Professor Forbes has presented a number of highly important facts and conclusions of 
interest in the present discussion, as for instance a statement in detail of the percentage of the 
various minute plants and animals found in the food of different species of young fish. Thus, the 
food of young perch consists of 92 per cent, of Entomostraca, while the food of young bass, sun- 
fishes, and pickerel consists of from 50 to 70 per cent, of Entomostraca. 
Young suckers prefer a diet of Entomostraca, Rotifers, Infusoria, and unicellular Algae, while 
young catfish apparently dine only on Entromostraca and Chironomus larvae. 
Recapitulating, Professor Forbes says : 
I find that, taking together the young of all the genera studied, considering each genus as a unit, 
and combining the minute dipterous larvae with the Entomostraca as having essentially the same 
relation, about seventy-five per cent, of the food taken by young fishes of all descriptions is made 
up of these elements. 
The conclusions of this paper are based upon a study of 1,221 fishes obtained from the waters of 
Illinois at intervals from 1876 to 1887, and in various months from April to November ; they repre- 
sented eighty-seven species, sixty-three genera and twenty-five families. A detailed recapitulation 
of data showing the number of examples of each species of fish in which a given food element was 
detected, appears at the end of the paper. 88 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
supply of the city." In the report submitted to the Mayor and Com 
missioners of Public Debt in 1889, this commission presented plans 
providing for the discharge of the sewage of the city into Lake Michi- 
gan, at a large number of different points, instead of one, and while the 
reasons assigned in the report for this arrangement are not entirely 
satisfactory from the present point of view, they may nevertheless be 
considered sufficient for the particular case. The Commissioners say: * 
At the lake end of the outfall sewer, a terminal basin is to be built. From this 
basin, two iron pipes, each 56 inches in diameter, are to discharge the sewage into 
the lake. 
These pipes are to be of sufficient capacity to carry all of the dry weather sewage, 
and a portion of the storm water. The basin is to be so arranged that the surplus 
of storm water is discharged over a weir, directly into the lake. 
In order to dilute the sewage to a high degree in the shortest possible time, and 
thus promote the rapid oxidation of the organic matter contained in it, the dis- 
charge from the 56-inch pipe is to be through eleven branch connections, placed 
about three hundred feet apart; the first discharge branch being placed about 
three thousand feet from shore. The branches are to be 17 inches diameter, and 
reduced, at the points of discharge, that the same quantity of sewage will be 
delivered by each branch. The size of the main pipes is to be diminished, after 
passing each branch, so that the velocity of flow may be maintained about the same 
throughout the entire length. 
The branches are to be placed in a vertical position, discharging about five feet 
above the bottom of the lake, and to be secured in their position by piles, or rip- 
rap filling. 
For a distance of 1,000 feet from its outer end, the main pipe is to be laid on 
piles, so as to bring the discharge about 
6 feet above the bottom of the lake. 
Any road detritus, or other material 
that may at long intervals accumulate 
at the mouth of the pipe, can be re- 
moved by dredging. 
Fig. 4, from the Commission's 
Report, illustrates the proposed 
method of discharge. 
The question of practical util- 
ization of sewage as food for fish 
has also recently received consid- 
erable attention in England, and a 
number of interesting and valu- 
able conclusions have been drawn. 
In the Agricultural Gazette, Sir 
J. B. Lawes, of Rothamsted, dis- 
cusses the subject at length,! and 
cites a number of facts, the real significance of which has not, so far 
as the authors are aware, been previously clearly pointed out. 
Fig. 4.-Proposed Multiple Discharge 
Outlet Sewer at Milwaukee. Wis. 
* Report of the Commission of Engineers on the Collection and Final Disposal of the Sewage 
and on the Water Supply, of the City of Milwaukee, 1889. 
+ See Colonel Waring's Sewerage and Land Drainage, pp. 231-232, for an extended extract. THE RATIONAL VIEW OF DISPOSAL INTO TIDE-WATER. 
89 
Dr. Sorby's results in relation to the number of entomostraca in 
rivers, apply entirely to fresh-water forms, but the marine entomos- 
traca are quite as numerous as the fresh water,* and we may assume 
that what is true of the one is equally true of the other. 
The Legitimate Conclusion.. 
The minute forms of animal life are thus seen to be powerful agents 
in the self-purification of sewage-polluted waters, but the conclusion 
which has been drawn that, therefore, sewage-polluted streams are, 
after a few miles' flow, fitted through the action of such and other 
natural agencies for drinking, is not wholly justified by the present 
state of knowledge of the subject as a wdiole. 
Along with our knowledge of the purifying action of the minute 
animals and plants has grown up a more definite knowledge of the 
causation of typhoid fever, cholera, and the other water-borne com- 
municable diseases; and before it can be positively affirmed that a 
sewage-polluted stream is safe for drinking after a few miles' flow, it 
must be shown so definitely as to be beyond question by those whose 
special studies have fitted them for intelligent judgment, that the 
purifying agencies have practically eliminated the germs of the water- 
borne communicable diseases. Until such showing is clearly made, 
the proposition that crude sewage ought not to be turned into running 
streams, ponds, lakes, or other bodies of water, which either are, or 
may be, the sources of water-supplies, must be considered as holding 
good. 
The Rational View of Disposal into Tide-Water. 
We may conclude from this brief discussion that the question of 
rational disposal of sewage in tide-water is not only transcendently 
important to the many large cities on the seaboard, but that its mag- 
nitude is such as to render it difficult to reach a successful solution 
except by studies of wide range. An investigation by the General 
Government might therefore be appropriate, by reason of its involving 
the broad question of national waste versus ultimate economic conser- 
*See (1) Baird's British Entomostraca. 
(2) Dana's Crustacea of the Wilkes Exploring Expedition. 
(3) Reports of the United States Fish Commission. 
(4) Catalogue of the Specimens of Amphipodous Crustacea in the Collection of the British 
Museum. 
(5) Brady's (a) British Oceanic Entomostraca ; (b) Copepoda of the Challenger Expedition ; 
and (c) Ostracoda of the Challenger Expedition. 
(6) Brooks' Stomatopoda of the Challenger Expedition. 
(7) Sars', (a) Cumacea of the Challenger Expedition; (b) Phyllocrida of the Challenger 
Expedition; and (c) Schizopoda of the Challenger Expedition. 90 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
vation.* As the matter stands, it may be asserted that there are abso- 
lutely no detailed data proving that sewage disposal in tide-water, 
under proper conditions, is in any way a waste of raw material. 
In regard to purification of sewage by intermittent filtration, in 
such manner as to convert the bulk of the organic matter into soluble 
mineral nitrates, we are equally unable to affirm that there is here, in 
any sense, a waste of raw material. The nitrates, when fiowing into 
streams, become the chief nourishment of an abundant cryptogamic 
life, which is again devoured by sponges, rhizopods, infusoria, and 
other Protozoa, f 
Protozoa again, with a certain portion of the Cryptogams, are eaten 
by higher minute forms, until in the universal round we may finally 
find our sewage utilized by an increase in the piscatorial life of the 
fresh water inland streams. Moreover, it must be urged that the mere 
fact of our present inability to control these cycles is no argument 
against the truth of the view here advanced ; such inability can only be 
taken as merely indicating the dearth of definite data in this direc- 
tion. 
* Such a study would seem to be in line with the work of the Fish Commission, and could be 
made by it without great expense. 
+ In reference to the food supplies of the Protozoa and classes immediately higher in the scale, 
it may be said: (I) that the chief food of fresh-water sponge is largely minute spores of algae, 
though the sponge when growing, attached to a fixed place, cannot be considered as having much 
power of selection, and may, therefore, at times, take into its organization animal foods also. It 
apparently receives and digests anything which the flowing waters in which it is usually found 
may bring to it. The proof that alga? may be considered the chief food is derived from the fact 
that sponge apparently prefers localities where alga; spores are more abundant than infusoria. (2) 
Rhizopods, according to Professor Leidy, chiefly devour desmids, diatoms, and other minute alga?; 
and many of the elegant illustrations in his Fresh-Water Rhizopods of North America show the little 
animals in the very act of ingesting the various forms of plants which they apparently prefer. The 
recurrence of examples of this character leads to the conclusion that the rhizopods, unlike the 
sponge, have some power of selection and are able to exercise a degree of preference. (3) The infu- 
soria, probably, take whatever comes in their way ; the motions of the flagella and cilia of the di ffer- 
ent classes set the water in the vicinity of each individual in motion, and whatever is within reach, 
and not of too large a size to enter the oral aperture, is received, digested, and the refuse excreted 
the same as with other animals. Some species, apparently, prefer decaying animal matter (Para- 
mecium, Coleps, etc.), and are usually found in vast quantities wherever such decay is taking 
place. Others (Trachelocerea, etc.), are found among vegetable debris, filaments of decaying 
algae, etc. As with sponge and rhizopods, algae spores are probably a large portion of the food of 
the infusoria. (4) In the next higher class of animals we find hydra, which is essentially a car- 
nivorous feeder, worms, entomostraca, and other animals, falling an easy prey whenever they 
venture within reach of its moving tentacles. (5) Polyzoa feed mostly on desmids, etc., with 
decayed vegetable matter, and have a finger, or tongue-like organ, stretching over the mouth, 
which enables them to exercise some selection of the food coming within reach. They some- 
times dine on rotifers. (6) Rotifers are like infusoria, in that the rotating apparatus, from which 
they derive their name, is in rapid motion when feeding, and brings into the capacious mouth- 
characterizing most of the species-whatever happens to be in the vicinity, although some power 
of selection may be observed. The literature of the food-supplies of the minute animals is still 
comparatively scarce. The classificatory tendencies of nearly all the writers on this branch of 
zoology has thus far mostly obscured the biological side of the subject, and with the broader views 
of the present day we must, to some extent, traverse ground already gone over, in order to supply THE RATIONAL VIEW OF DISPOSAL INTO TIDE-WATER. 
91 
In the discussions of this question which have taken place in Eng- 
land, it has been asserted* that the argument in reference to increase 
and decrease of fish by reason of either sufficiency or insufficiency of 
food supply is not valid, because " probably all the great sea fisheries 
are inexhaustible." In reference thereto it is answered that twenty 
years ago it was generally held in this country that the buffalo of the 
Western plains were inexhaustible, and to any one, who, traversing the 
plains at that period, saw the immense herds, it did appear plausible 
to say that no efforts which man could make would have any special 
effect upon such countless numbers. Nevertheless there are to-day 
less than 1,000 buffalo within the limits of the United States, and this 
extraordinary extermination has all occurred in 20 years. Again 
sixty years ago it was not unusual to find large schools of whales just 
outside New York and Boston harbors, and many successful whaling 
voyages were made to portions of the sea where now whales are 
scarcely ever seen. Again the rapid exhaustion of oyster beds is within 
the experience of everyone engaged in the oyster fishery. Many other 
similar illustrative examples could be cited, but the foregoing is con- 
sidered sufficient to indicate that it is quite possible to conceive of a 
great ocean fishing interest either seriously injured or even actually 
driven to other localities by systematic catching in excess of the nat- 
ural increase ; and that this has frequently happened in inland rivers 
and lakes is attested by the presence on the statute books of every State 
of protective laws. We may, therefore, fairly conclude that anything 
which tends to increase the food supply of fish must be looked upon 
as assisting in conserving the fisheries, through the operation of the 
natural law that sufficiency of food supply is one of the forces accele- 
rating natural increase. 
material deficiencies in the information. The following works may be consulted for hints 
merely ; a complete systematic treatise still remains to be written : 
Baird, British Entomostraca. 
Carpenter, The Microscope and its Revelations. 
Cooke, Ponds and Ditches. 
Gosse, Evenings with the Microscope. 
Herrick, Crustacea of Minnesota. 
Hudson and Gosse, The Rotifera or Wheel Animalcules. 
Kent, Manual of the Infusoria. 
Leidy, Fresh Water Rhizopods of North America. 
Report of Commissioners on Investigation of the Water-Supply of the city of Boston (1883.) 
Slack, Marvels of Pond Life. 
Taylor, The Aquarium. 
Tiemann and Gartner, Untersuchung des Wassers, etc. 
In addition, the various journals of Microscopy and Zoology contain notes and observations of 
more or less interest. 
* Corfield, Treatment and Utilization of Sewage, 3d ed., pp. 303-305. CHAPTER V. 
THE COMPOSITION OF SEWAGE MUDS. 
The Conditions Favorable to Sedimentation. 
The fact that a stream which is visibly polluted at one point may be 
clear and limpid only a few miles below is probably within the expe- 
rience of every person who has paid any attention to the pollution and 
self-purification of streams. Widely varying opinions have been ex- 
pressed as to the fate of the polluting matter, which, to the unaided 
senses, appears to have been removed from the flowing water. On the 
one hand, it has been claimed that an absolute destruction, through 
the action of either oxidation or of purely biological forces, has taken 
place, while, on the other, it is asserted that the apparent purity of 
the flowing water is due entirely to sedimentation, according to which 
the organic matter may still be found in a nearly unchanged form at 
the bottom. Probably the real truth is that all these several methods 
of self-purification may be operative in different streams, although un- 
doubtedly sedimentation is, where the conditions are favorable, likely 
to be a leading cause. Relative to the conditions favorable for sedi- 
mentation, they may be stated in a few words generally as produced by 
the presence in the water of some substance which naturally tends to 
assist sedimentation. For instance, a stream carrying a considerable 
quantity of clay in suspension is likely to free itself of sewage by sed- 
imentation more quickly than one in which the water is, under normal 
conditions, entirely free of earthy matter in suspension. In a stream 
where the conditions are unfavorable for rapid sedimentation we may 
expect to find of more importance the purifying effect of such minute 
animals as actually consume in their life processes a portion of the 
polluting matter ; while, in a rapid flowing stream, where the water 
tumbles over falls and cascades and flows down rapids, there may be 
a considerable degree of self-purification through the operation of the 
chemical process of oxidation purely. The self-purification of a stream 
may be effected, then, by either mechanical, biological, or chemical 
agencies, or by all of them acting in conjunction, and to which to ascribe 
the self-purification in any case can only be determined by a careful 
study of the attendant circumstances. For present purposes we will 
consider the case of a stream in which an apparent self-purification MACADAM'S STUDY OF THE WATER OF THE LEITH. 
93 
from sewage inflow is obtained within a short distance through the 
action of sedimentation. In doing this we will not concern ourselves 
as to just what agency is effective in producing sedimentation, but will 
merely assume such rapid action that a stream of moderate volume in 
ordinary stages frees itself of the visible evidence of a gross sewage 
pollution in the course of a sluggish flow of a few miles. We will 
further assume that the mean flood flow of the stream is at least 100 to 
200 times the ordinary flow at the season of low water, from which it 
results that the velocity through a given cross-section will be from 
100 to 200 times as great in flood flow as in low water. Under these 
conditions, it is clear that the deposited matter of a long period of low 
water may be swept along for an indefinite distance by the first flood 
flow, and, if we assume, as we safely may, that the organic matter of 
the deposited sewage has undergone little change, it follows that water 
supplies taken from the stream many miles below will be, in times of 
flood, as thoroughly subject to the deleterious influence of the sewage 
discharge as though water were drawn from that reach of the stream 
in which the most of the sedimentation takes place.* To appreciate 
the importance of this conclusion, we have only to consider that, in 
flashy mountain streams, the accumulated deposits of months may be 
swept along for many miles in a day. 
Macadam's Study of the Water of the Leith. 
Considering the importance of this phase of the self-purification of 
running streams comparatively few detailed studies have been made, 
but the few fully substantiate the view that sewage sediments retain 
their dangerous character for long periods of time. 
Of such studies, one of the first is that of the water of Leith made 
by Macadam in 1864, and given at length in the Third Report of the 
Sewage of Towns Commission.^ 
The Leith is a comparatively small stream, which, at the time of 
Macadam's report, received the sewage of about 100,000 people in the 
neighboring towns of Edinburgh and Leith. The accumulation of the 
sediment of this sewage in the mill dam and pools of the stream and 
in the harbor of Leith, had led to the production of a most disgusting 
nuisance. In many places the banks of sewage mud were several feet 
in depth, and analyses of samples from different parts of the stream 
* For discussion ot the conditions obtaining on the bottom of a stream in which sedimentation 
has been effective see paper, On the Amount of Dissolved Oxygen in Waters of Ponds and Reser- 
voirs at different depths, by Dr. Thomas M. Drown, 22d An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health (1891), 
pp. 373-381; the greater part of this paper was also published in Eng. News, vol. xxviii. (1892), 
pp. 309-10. 
t On the Contamination of the Water of Leith by the sewage of Edinburgh and Leith. By 
Stevenson Macadam, Ph.D. etc. 3d Rept. Sew. T. Com., Appendix No. 5. 94 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
showed, in some cases, amounts of organic matter as high as 55, 66, 
and in one case, of 82 per cent. The means of one series of four sam- 
ples of mud from the stream was, organic matter, 48.1 per cent., and 
earthy matter, 51.9 per cent. The same series showed a mean of 1.63 
per cent, of nitrogen. Another series of eight samples gave as a mean, 
organic matter, 43.7 per cent., earthy matter, 56.3 per cent., and ni- 
trogen, 1.14 per cent, of the whole. A series of 12 samples from the 
harbor, where more or less sand is brought in with the tide, gave a 
mean of organic matter 28.3 per cent., earthy matter, 71.7 per cent, 
and nitrogen, 0.64 per cent. Macadam's investigations were before 
the days of bacteriological examinations, and we are accordingly left 
in the dark as to what would now be a very important division of such 
a study; but he recognized the importance of a knowledge of the 
larger microscopical forms, and notes the presence of masses of infu- 
soria belonging to the family Vorticellidae, including the genera Vorti- 
celia, Carchesium, Zoothamnium and Epistylis. Paramecium and Euglena 
were also abundant. 
Macadam's results have been verified by a number of studies of the 
muds of the Thames river, the more recent of which are those of W. 
J. Dibdin, made in 1879-80, and 1882-83. Mr. Dibdin found in some 
samples from sewage of 24 hours as high as 57.4 per cent, of volatile 
matter in dried mud, with nitrogen of the dried mud amounting to 3.3 
per cent, and nitrogen of the dried volatile matter 5.75 per cent. The 
phosphoric acid of the dried mud in the same sample was 0.8 of one 
per cent. The means of the samples of mud taken at different points 
are, however, considerably lower than this. 
The net result, not only of Macadam's but of the more recent investi- 
gations, is to emphasize the statement already made, that usually the 
effect of a flood flow would be to actually increase temporarily the 
pollution at points far below where sedimentation takes place. 
Dr. Beale's Study of Thames Muds. 
After Macadam, nothing so interesting appeared until the publica- 
tion by Dr. Deale of a paper on The Constitutents of Sewage in the 
Mud of the Thames, in 1884,* in which are detailed the results of a 
microscopical study of 25 samples of Thames mud taken from various 
banks between Gravesend and Chelsea, the observations relating chiefly 
to the demonstration by microscopical investigation of the existence 
in sewage muds, which have been deposited a considerable length of 
time, of constitutents which can be identified as derived from human 
excrements. So thoroughly can this conclusion be demonstrated that 
Dr. Beale states in his judgment " that the several constitutents of 
* Jour. Roy. Mier. Soc., Sec. ser., vol. iv. (Feb. 1884), pp. 1-19. lortet's results. 
95 
human faeces are present in all the specimens of mud submitted for 
examination." Among the constituents of human food which Dr. Beale 
found, may be mentioned starch granules, fragments of vegetable 
tissue, the spiral fibers of cabbage, cooked muscular tissue and yellow 
elastic tissue, the latter in the state in which they are often found in 
fecal matter. Tea leaves, cotton fibers, probably from paper, fatty 
matter and crystals of fatty acids, fragments of paper and rags and 
many other substances were also present. " Even blood corpuscles of 
man or of one of the higher animals have been detected in the mud, 
having withstood all the destructive agencies to which they have been 
exposed, during probably many months." 
Dr. Beale's paper furnishes methods of working and may be profita- 
bly consulted by anyone pursuing a similar line of investigation. The 
methods of bacterial investigation, which were just coming into use, 
were applied, with the result of showing the presence of immense num- 
bers of bacteria in all the muds examined. 
Following Dr. Beale's paper, there appeared in 1885, in the Report 
of the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge, an exten- 
sive paper by Dr. H. C. Sorby; which is in many respects the most 
important contribution to the literature of sewage pollution that has 
yet appeared.* 
In this paper Dr. Sorby covers substantially the ground traversed 
by Dr. Beale, with the addition of developing many points which Dr. 
Beale left untouched. He agrees with Dr. Beale as to the ease and 
certainty with which the microscope may be used to determine the 
presence of sewage in river muds. 
The chief value of Dr. Sorby's paper lies in the development of a 
new method of quantitatively determining the amount of pollution in 
any given sample, and it is somewhat extraordinary that with a definite 
method of making such examinations before the scientific world for 
eight years it has not been more used. By its use the progress of the 
contaminating material may be traced down a stream, both in the flow- 
ing water and in the deposited muds ; and consequently the quantity 
and quality of any self-purification which may be attained more thor- 
oughly measured than by any other method of examination thus far 
made known. 
Lortet's Results. 
Probably the most useful study of this character in the way of defi- 
nite results obtained is that of Lortet, as recorded in his paper The 
Pathogenic Bacteria of the Mud of the Lake of Geneva,f in which it is 
* Report of a Microscopical Investigation of Thames Muds. By H. C. Sorby, LL.D., F.R.S. 
Appendix C. B. Report of Roy. Com. on Met. Sew. Dischg., p. 168. 
+ Centralblatt fiir Bakteriologie, ix., 709. 96 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
shown that sewage mud banks in lakes frequently contain living 
pathogenic forms of bacteria. 
What the Several Studies Indicate. 
The length of time which pathogenic bacteria may be expected to 
survive, when enveloped in masses of fecal matter, is, as noted in 
Chapter I., still somewhat uncertain, but what we positively do know 
teaches that there is nothing improbable in the assumption that sew- 
age mud banks may easily become centers from which immense num- 
bers of disease germs may be sent throughout the whole extent of the 
stream below the mud banks, at every time of flood flow. The fact that 
thorough sedimentation takes place in the course of a few miles' flow 
is therefore not only no guarantee of immunity at points below where 
the sedimentation occurs, but it may even be, independent of other 
circumstances, the source of the greatest danger in times of high 
water. CHAPTER VI. 
LEGAL ASPECTS OF THE CASE. 
In the preceding chapters some of the physical features of stream 
pollution have been presented ; we will now consider stream pollution 
from the legal point of view, though it may be premised that possibly 
the present discussion, as prepared by an engineer, must be taken as 
the views of a member of that profession interested in sanitary ques- 
tions, rather than as those of an authority in law. It may be properly 
stated, however, that this chapter has been submitted to a legal friend 
of some attainment in the law of waters, and it is chiefly by reason 
of his opinion that the views advanced are, on the whole, sound from 
the legal point of view, that the authors have been encouraged to 
include this chapter in the present work. 
How the Right of Property in a Water-course is Derived. 
The right of private property in a water-course is derived from the 
ownership of the soil over which the stream naturally passes. It 
carries with it the right to have a stream passing through private 
lands flow as it is wont by nature, without material diminution or 
alteration. Persons holding real property to which these rights in 
running streams pertain are called riparian proprietors, while those 
whose lands border upon tide waters are called littoral proprietors. 
It is the rights of the riparian proprietor that it is proposed to 
briefly discuss here. 
Riparian Proprietor's Right to a Stream in its Natural 
Condition. 
According to the legal authorities, each proprietor has the common- 
law right that the stream shall flow to his land in the usual quantity 
and in its natural condition. No one proprietor has any property in 
the flowing stream which is not equally the right and privilege of 
every other, and each may apply it to any use to which it can be 
applied without material injury to the right of the other proprietors. 
On this point the courts have held : 
Every owner of land through which a stream of water flows is entitled to the 
use and enjoyment of the water, and to have the same flow in its natural and 
accustomed course, without obstruction, diversion, or corruption. The right 98 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
extends to the quality as well as the quantity of the water. If, therefore, an 
adjoining proprietor corrupts the water, an action upon the case lies for the injury.* 
The right to the natural flow of water is not an easement but a natural right, 
which is not lost until an adverse easement has been acquired.! 
We consider it as settled law that the right to have a stream running in its 
natural course, is not by a presumed grant from long acquiescence on the part 
of the riparian proprietors above and below, but is a jure natures . . . and 
an incident of property, as much as to have the soil itself in its natural state, 
unaltered by the acts of a neighboring proprietor, who cannot dig so as to 
deprive it of the support of his land.! 
In the case of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania v. Sonias and 
others, decided in 1884, the common-law principles applying to stream 
pollution have been affirmed by the presiding judge in his charge to 
the jury with such clearness as to justify its reproduction in full here. 
The judge said: 
The case which you are engaged in trying is one of much importance, and your 
responsibility is proportioned, of course, to its importance. The facts which have 
been proved by the evidence given on behalf of the Commonwealth are very few and 
simple. They are, however, very weighty, and it is my duty to add, have not been 
contradicted. The law also upon this subject is very plain. The defendants are 
charged in this indictment with maintaining a common nuisance by causing the 
excrement and foul water from the water-closets and urinals upon their premises, 
which are situated upon the bank of the Schuylkill river just above the confluence 
of the Wissahickon with that stream, to be drained into the river. It has been 
shown by witnesses, some of whom are experts in such matters, that the effect of 
this has been to pollute the drinking water of this city, and to render it unwhole- 
some and dangerous. Such pollution has also been shown by competent and cred- 
itable evidence to have a direct tendency to produce disease in those who drink the 
water which is supplied to the city from the river Schuylkill. 
Now, it is a very old and well-settled law that to pollute a public stream is to 
maintain a common nuisance. It is not only a public injury, but it is crime, a 
crime for which those who perpetrate it are answerable in a tribunal of criminal 
jurisdiction. An act of Assembly forbids and punishes as crimes all common or 
public nuisances, and I know of no public nuisance more serious in its evil effects 
and more obnoxious to the denunciation of the law than to corrupt and poison a 
public stream from which large numbers of people obtain their drinking water. If 
the jury, therefore, find that the defendants have done the acts charged against 
them in this indictment, no doubt whatever remains that they are guilty of the 
offence of maintaining a common nuisance, and ought to be convicted. If the water 
drained from the defendant's establishment into the river is of a foul and impure 
character, and if the effect of that is to pollute the water and render it unwholesome 
for drinking purposes, then they are guilty as they stand indicted, and it is your 
duty to say so. 
It is no defence to say that the premises are in the same condition, and the drain- 
age conducted in the same manner, as when they obtained possession and began 
their occupancy. Their continuance of the nuisance is itself an offence against the 
law for which they are personally responsible. The law is perfectly well settled 
that no man can prescribe for a public nuisance, or defend himself by showing that 
others have violated the law before him. No length of time can justify a public 
nuisance, although it may furnish an answer to an action for a private injury. 
Public rights are not destroyed by private encroachments, no matter how long they 
have endured. Nor is it any defence that the river is also polluted from other 
sources, that impurities flow into it from sewers, and from towns and places above 
* Holsman v. Boiling Spring Bleaching Co., 14 N. J. Eq., 355. 
+ Stokee v. Singers, 8 Eh. A' Bl. 36, Erle, J. 
I Wadsworth v. Tillotson, 15 Conn. 366, 373. RIPARIAN PROPRIETOR'S RIGHT TO A STREAM. 
99 
Manayunk. If the defendants have contributed to the pollution, they are guilty. 
No man can excuse himself for violating the law upon the ground that others also 
violated it. It is said that the city ought to have built an intercepting sewer. But 
what of that? Perhaps it ought. But if the city has been guilty of negligence in 
that- respect that fact does not justify the defendants in their violation of the law. 
It makes no difference whatever in the guilt of the defendants that the city has not 
taken steps to protect itself against the unlawful acts of those who pollute the 
stream. Nor ought your verdict to be affected in the slightest degree by the sug- 
gestion that if these pollutions of the rival- are stopped by indictments and convic- 
tions, the effect of that may be injurious to large business interests, which are pros- 
ecuted under similar conditions upon the river. You have nothing to do with that. 
Such considerations cannot affect your duty in the present case. The law is to be 
enforced, and those who violate it are to be punished, no matter what the effect of 
that may be upon their business, for the law is above every personal and private 
interest. All persons engaged in business are bound to conduct that business in 
subordination to the law, and in such manner as not to injure the public. It has 
been argued also that the city ought to have resorted to a civil remedy against the 
defendant for the correction of these abuses, that it ought to have gone into a civil 
court and asked for an injunction against their continuance. Such suggestions have 
nothing to do with the case. It is sufficient that the defendants are arraigned by 
the Commonwealth to answer for an infraction of her laws. If they have broken 
those laws, they are in the proper tribunal to answer for their acts. Civil proceed- 
ings are slow, and in such proceedings, where the parties are private persons or 
corporations, which are a kind of artificial persons created by the State, many em- 
barrassing and dilatory questions might obstruct and hinder the speedy abatement 
of the nuisance. In my judgment the remedy which has been chosen is the 
speediest and the most effective. It is a proper, a lawful remedy, and you have no 
concern now with any other. The defendants are before you to answer the charge 
of maintaining a common nuisance, which is a public offence by the laws of Penn- 
sylvania. The simple question which you have to decide is, whether the defen- 
dants are guilty of this offence. If they have done the acts which are charged 
against them in this indictment, then, as a matter of law, I instruct you that those 
acts constitute the offence of maintaining a common nuisance, and they are guilty. 
Upon the question of fact you have the testimony of numerous witnesses examined 
by the Commonwealth, and they have not been contradicted by any witness pro- 
duced by the defendants. 
While the foregoing citations have thus affirmed the right of every 
riparian proprietor to have the stream flow in its natural state, it is 
still true that the reasonable use of a stream by each proprietor may 
modify this right in some way, and it accordingly becomes an impor- 
tant question to determine when one riparian owner's use ceases to be 
rightful by infringing on the rights of others. In the English case of 
Embrey v. Owen, it was held that the right of a riparian owner to the 
flow of the stream in its natural state, without diminution or alteration, 
is not an absolute and exclusive right to all the water in its natural 
state, but is a right only to the flow of the water and the enjoyment of 
it, subject to the similar rights of all the proprietors. 
From these citations it appears that the common law distinctly rec- 
ognizes within certain limitations the natural right of every riparian 
proprietor to receive the natural flow of a stream essentially pure and 
undefiled. But by reason of the operation of the law of custom, certain 
modifications of this general principle have grown up which we may 
discuss a little in detail. 100 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Natural and Artificial Uses of a Stream. 
Before entering upon such discussion it may be noted that the law 
further recognizes ordinary, or natural, and extraordinary, or artificial 
uses of streams ; the ordinary use being for the supplying of natural 
■wants, as for instance, the use of water for such domestic purposes as 
drinking, bathing, cooking, and laundry, and for watering stock. 
For these strictly natural uses the weight of authority is to the effect 
that any one riparian owner may, if necessary, consume all the water 
of the stream, though the exercise of such right is strictly confined to 
riparian land. Moreover, a stream, all the water of which is consumed 
by these ordinary natural uses of any one proprietor will usually be a 
very small one, though this fact cannot be considered as in any way 
affecting the application of the legal principle involved. But the fact 
that a city is itself a riparian proprietor does not authorize it to erect 
water-works and convey its supply several miles away. It can only 
take, without compensating the other owners, such an amount as will 
supply one family.* But the right of the one family to an undefiled 
water supply may nevertheless enable a municipality to insist on 
purity of the supply for the whole population under the common-law 
rule. 
Actionable Pollutions 
According1 to Gould, who is the most recent American writer and 
who makes elaborate citations in relation thereto, the following dis- 
tinct sources of pollution have been held to be actionable: The set- 
ting up of cattle-yards, hog-pens, or lime-pits for calf and sheep skins 
so near the water as to pollute it; discharging blood from a slaughter- 
house into the stream; erecting a cesspool, placing manure or oil, or 
permitting gas to escape, so near a well, spring, or stream as to pollute 
it; the casting upon one's own land of dirt and foul water or sub- 
stances w hich reach the stream by percolation ; the letting off of water 
made noxious by precipitation of minerals, or by dye wastes, liquors, 
madder, indigo, potash, sulphuric or muriatic acid ; discharging into 
a stream heated water injuriously, sewerage or anything rendering the 
water unfit for domestic, culinary, or mining purposes, for cattle to 
drink, fish to live in, or for use in manufacturing. 
A large number of cases are cited of actions brought for these 
various sources of pollution, and undoubtedly a more extended list 
could be easily made.f 
* Swindon Water-Works v. Wilts and Berks Canal, L. R. 7 H. L. 697. 
+ Gould On the Law of Waters, 2d ed., 1891, sec. 219, pp. 431-432. THE CASE OF EVANS V. MERRIWEATHER. 
101 
Distinction between Natural and Artificial Use. 
The extraordinary or artificial use of a stream is such reasonable 
use, aside from the ordinary natural uses, as is common to all the pro- 
prietors. It differs from the ordinary use in this, that no one may 
for an extraordinary use appropriate the whole stream, but each pro- 
prietor has, as already stated, a right to the use of the stream subject 
to a like similar use on the part of all the others. Moreover, the right 
to the extraordinary use is inferior to the ordinary, and cannot be 
made to interfere with an ordinary use when such is clearly indicated 
as necessary to any of the proprietors. So long as the reasonable use 
of the common property does no injury to the rights of others who 
are entitled to a like reasonable use no action lies ; but an unreason- 
able use is an actionable injury. 
The Case of Evans v. Merriweather 
A clear distinction of the difference between these two kinds of use 
was made for the first time in this country by the Supreme Court of 
Illinois, where the Court said :* 
Each riparian proprietor is bound to make such a use of running water as to do 
as little injury to those below him as is consistent with a valuable benefit to him- 
self. The use must be a reasonable one. Now the question fairly arises, is that a 
reasonable use of running water by the upper proprietor, by which the fluid is 
entirely consumed ? To answer this question satisfactorily, it is proper to consider 
the wants in regard to the element of water. These wants are either natural or 
artificial. Natural are such as are absolutely necessary to be supplied in order to 
his existence. Artificial, such only as by supplying them his comfort and pros- 
perity are increased. To quench thirst, and for household purposes, water is ab- 
solutely indispensable. In civilized life, water for cattle is also necessary. These 
wants must be supplied, or both man and beast will perish. The supply of a man's 
artificial wants is not essential to his existence ; it is not indispensable ; he could 
live if water was not employed in irrigating lands, or in propelling his machinery. 
In countries differently situated from ours, with a hot and arid climate, water 
doubtless is indispensable to the cultivation of the soil, and in them, water for ir- 
rigation would be a natural want. Here it might increase the products of the soil, 
but it is by no means essential, and cannot, therefore, be considered a natural want 
of man. So of manufactures, they promote the prosperity and comfort of mankind, 
but cannot be considered absolutely necessary to his existence. 
From these premises, the Court then proceeds to state the conclusion 
resulting, namely : 
That an individual owning a spring on his land from which water flows in a current 
through his neighbor's land, would have the right to use the whole of it, if neces- 
sary to satisfy his natural wants. He may consume all the water for his domestic 
purposes, including water for his stock. If he desires to use it for irrigation or 
manufactures, and there be a lower proprietor to whom its use is essential to sup- 
ply his natural wants, or for his stock, he must use the water so as to leave enough 
for such lower proprietor. Where the stream is small, and does not supply water 
* Evans v. Merriweather, 3 Scan. (Ill.), 496. 102 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
more than sufficient to answer the natural wants of the different proprietors living 
on it, none of the proprietors can use the water for either irrigation or manufact- 
ures. So far then, as natural wants are concerned, there is no difficulty in furnish- 
ing a rule by which riparian proprietors may use flowing water to supply such 
natural wants. Each proprietor in his turn may, if necessary, consume all the water 
for these purposes. But where the water is not wanted to supply natural wants, 
and there is not sufficient for each proprietor living on the stream to carry on his 
manufacturing purposes, how shall the water be divided ? We have seen, that, 
without a contract or grant, neither has a right to use all the water; all have a 
right to participate in its benefits. Where all have a right to participate in a com- 
mon benefit, and none can have an exclusive enjoyment, no rule, from the very 
nature of the case, can be laid down, as to how much each may use without infring- 
ing upon the rights of others. In such cases, the question must be left to the 
judgment of the jury, whether the party complained of has used, under all the cir- 
cumstances, more than his just proportion. 
Riparian Proprietors Can Abrogate the Right to the Natural Use. 
Concluding this part of the subject, it may be pointed out that the 
riparian proprietors can voluntarily, as by agreement, abrogate the 
right to the ordinary use of a stream, giving it up to such extraordi- 
nary uses as the exigencies of manufacturing or other artificial interests 
may be expected to subject it to. Custom for a series of years may be 
considered evidence of such voluntary abrogation. 
Right to Use of a Stream Can be Acquired by Grant. 
It is evident without special discussion, that the right to uses of a 
stream outside of the ordinary and reasonable extraordinary use may 
be acquired by grant or reservation the same as to real property. 
Such special rights are of the nature of easements, and can, like ease- 
ments in real property, only be created by deed, devise, or record. 
Prescriptive Rights in Streams. 
There is, however, another way in which the right to the super- 
extraordinary use of a stream may be apparently acquired, namely, by 
prescription, and as this is the more important part of the subject for 
present purposes, we will discuss the matter a little at length. 
By the common law the right to do a thing, which from the i ature 
of the case could have been created by a grant, may be acquired by an 
individual, by reason of long-continued and peaceable possession, and 
such right or title is denominated prescriptive, though the length of 
time required before such right can be held as acquired varies in dif- 
ferent States. In New York it has been fixed by the Statute of Limita- 
tions at 20 years, while in some other States the lapsing of 15 years 
suffices. In order to constitute a prescription in England, according 
to the old writers, the enjoyment must have existed " time out of POPULAR VIEWS OF PRESCRIPTION. 
103 
mind," but in modern times not only there but in this country definite 
periods are fixed by the Statute of Limitations. 
In its original sense the term prescription applied to incorporeal 
hereditaments and not to corporeal titles to land, as to easements of 
rights of way across land. In this sense prescriptive rights were 
originally enjoyed by adverse user, and finally by analogy came to in- 
clude title to land by adverse possession. A further extension of the 
doctrine again led to a presumption of some title in running streams 
not justified by the common-law rule, this latter being also a prescrip- 
tive title by adverse user. 
Angell has affirmed the principle of a prescriptive right to pollute 
water-courses under certain circumstances in the following language :* 
That a title to any incorporeal hereditament may be supported by an uninter- 
rupted enjoyment for the period limited by statute "for the right of entry upon land, 
was first laid down as law in England by Mr. C. J. Wilmot in the year 1761 . . . 
as twenty years' possession of land is considered a bar to an ejectment, so the pos- 
session of an easement attached to it for the same period is by analogy deemed evi- 
dence of right in the party possessing it. Indeed, it would seem absurd to acknowl- 
edge a right to a greater interest, as having been created by an enjoyment for a 
given space of time and to deny it to a lesser. 
The Case of Bealy v. Shaw. 
The case of Bealy v. Shaw, as cited by Angell, has been a leading 
case in England on the subject of acquisition of an adverse right to the 
use of a natural water-course; and it was decided in conformity to the 
doctrine above laid down. Lord Ellenborough, C. J., said: 
The general rule of law, as applied to this subject, is that, independent of any 
particular enjoyment used to be had by another, every man has a right to have the 
advantage of a flow of water in his own land without diminution or alteration, but 
an adverse right may exist, founded on the occupation of another, and, although 
the stream may be diminished in quantity, or corrupted in quality, yet if the occu- 
pation of the party so taking it and using it have existed for so long a time as may 
raise the presumption of a grant, the other party, whose land is below, must take 
the stream subject to such adverse right. 
Popular Views of Prescription. 
In administrating sanitary regulations for the protection of the 
drainage areas whence public water supplies issue, one quickly finds 
disseminated among both laity and professionals the idea that such 
rights of pollution as were enjoyed by the inhabitants, without con- 
test or objection on the part of any of the riparian owners before the 
taking of a given stream for a public water supply, have become per- 
scriptive through adverse use, and that such rights cannot be debarred 
except by the payment of a valuable consideration. The growth of 
this view is undoubtedly largely due to the strong affirmation of the 
* Angell, Law of Water Courses, 6th ed., p. 351. 104 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
doctrine of right to pollute by adverse possession as stated in the fore- 
going from Angell. It is believed, however, that, in the present under- 
standing of things, such a view is bad law, contrary, indeed, to the 
first principles of the common law, and an attempt will be made to 
make good that proposition. 
The Law of Custom. 
The laws of England, whence ours have been derived by inheritance, 
are defined by Blackstone as of two kinds,* the unwritten or common 
law, and the written or statute law, and it is from the former that we 
mostly derive our views as to prescription and adverse possession. 
We must observe in this connection that the common law is founded 
entirely in custom f and the sine qua non for the observance of the com- 
mon-law maxim is that the custom itself be good, and the goodness 
of the custom under the common-law ruling depends, according to 
Blackstone, (1) upon its having been used from a " time whereof the 
memory of man runneth not to the contrary if any one can show 
the beginning of it the custom is not good; (2) it must have been 
continued ; (3) peaceable, and acquiesced in, and (4) reasonable. A 
custom may be good if no good legal reason can be assigned against 
it. (5) Customs ought to be certain, and, (6) when established, com- 
pulsory and (7) consistent with each other. Moreover, Blackstone ex- 
pressly says, in regard to the legality of a custom, that if it is not good 
it ought not to be longer used. 
The Proper Application of the Fundamental Principles. 
In the application of these fundamentals to the question of sewerage 
and drainage it is urged that practically all such privileges are recent. 
The time when the custom began may be readily defined by many. 
Again it is unreasonable for one human being to turn excrement into 
streams from which others may take drinking water. The matter 
looked boldly in the face is so revolting as to need no argument es- 
tablishing its unreasonableness. Likewise it is inconsistent for human 
beings, either individually or in the aggregate, to pollute that which 
for their own uses should remain unpolluted, and, finally, when we un- 
derstand as we now do, the serious effects of such pollution, the cus- 
tom of turning sewage into any stream, which either is, or may in the 
future, be the source of a public water supply, is shown to be so ut- 
terly bad as to be worthy only of immediate abatement even though 
the custom has been maintained from time immemorial. 
* Blackstone's Commentaries, sec. iii., On the Laws of England. 
+ Customs are either particular or general. It is particular customs only that we are concerned 
with here. THE CASE OF LAKE COCHITUATE. 
105 
Moreover, the question of the right of the riparian proprietors to 
continue in the enjoyment of a right of pollution of which they may 
have been possessed at the time of taking of any given body of water 
as the source of a public water supply, has been the subject of a deci- 
sion in the case of the water supply of the city of Boston, which may 
be considered as marking an era in sanitary history in this country. 
The case referred to is that of Augustus P. Martin, Mayor of Boston, 
v. Luther E. Gleason, in regard to which the following preliminary 
statement is made as derived from the city of Boston's brief.* 
The Case of Lake Cochituate. 
In 1846 the Legislature, by an act entitled "An act for supplying the city of Bos- 
ton with pure water," authorized the city of Boston "to take, hold, and convey to, 
into and through said city the water of Long pond, so called (now Lake Cochituate), 
in the towns of Natick, Wayland, and Framingham, and the waters which may flow 
into and from the same, and any other ponds and streams within the distance of 
four miles from said Long pond, and any water rights connected therewith." Acts 
of 1846, Ch. 167, | 1. 
Pursuant to this authority, and in part execution thereof, the city, in August, 
1846, took certain water and water rights, described as, "all the waters of Long 
pond, so called, and other brooks and streams, whether permanent or temporary, 
entering into the same, and of all the bays, coves, and inlets thereof, and of the 
outlet of the same, and all the water rights thereunto belonging, or in any wise 
appertaining." 
August 19, 1846, the city filed in the office of the registry of deeds for the county 
of Middlesex, the foregoing description of the taking, and a statement of the pur- 
pose for which taken, as required by said act of the Legislature (see copy, page 4 
of the report) ; and, as soon as the necessary works could be constructed, pro- 
ceeded actually to use, and has ever since used, said waters for the supply of its 
inhabitants. Pegan brook is, and has always been, one of the streams entering 
into Long pond. (Report, page 1.) 
The defendant is the proprietor of a hotel in Natick, and all the human excre- 
ment discharged from the water closets, and all the sewage of his hotel are dis- 
charged directly into said brook in sufficient quantity to contaminate its waters. 
(Report, page 1.) 
The city of Boston, by petition of its Mayor (St. 1884, c. 154), prays for an in- 
junction to restrain the defendant from polluting this water supply. 
The following is the decision of the Supreme Judicial Court, C 
Allen, J. 
Disregarding punctuation, as may properly be done in construing a statute 
(Cushing v. Worrick, 9 Gray, 385), and looking at the purpose and contemplated 
scope of Stat. 1846, c. 167, the city of Boston was authorized by Section 1 of that 
statute to take the water of Long pond, and the waters which may flow into and 
from the same, and any other ponds and streams within the distance of four miles 
from said Long pond, and any water rights connected therewith, so far as may be 
necessary for the preservation and purity of the same, for the purpose of furnishing 
a supply of pure water for the said city of Boston. This declared purpose relates 
back, and illustrates the extent of the authority conferred. Water-rights may be 
taken so far as may be necessary for the preservation and purity of the water. The 
words " and any water rights connected therewith " are not limited to the immedi- 
* From 9th An. Rept. of Boston W. Bd., for yr. end. Apr. 30, 1885, pp. 76-79- 106 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ate antecedent, namely, the "other ponds and streams" there referred to, but they 
also include Long pond itself, and the waters which may flow into and from the 
same. It was designed to give a broad and comprehensive authority for the pur- 
pose of furnishing a supply of pure water for the city, and to confer the power to 
take everything included within the meaning of the antecedent words, so far as 
might be necessary for the preservation and purity of the water. Section 15, im- 
posing a penalty for wantonly or maliciously diverting the water, or any part thereof, 
of any of the ponds, streams, or water-sources which shall be taken by the city, or 
corrupting the same, or rendering it impure, confirms this view. Under this 
authority, the city might lawfully take any water rights connected with the waters 
flowing into Long pond, including the prescriptive rights which the plaintiff con- 
tends that he then had to discharge sewage into Pegan brook. It appears that this 
brook is and always has been a feedei' of Long pond; and that the whole of it is 
within four miles of the pond. A prescriptive right to foul the waters of a stream 
is included under the term "water rights." This, indeed, is asserted by the de- 
fendant in his answer. It is a right in respect to the water of the stream; and the 
statute conferred power to take all water rights which might interfere with the 
purity of the waters taken. It is contended for the defendant that, if it was neces- 
sary to preserve the brook or the purity of the water, power was granted to the city 
to take the land on each side of the brook, and thus cut off any use either of it or 
of its waters ; and, indeed, that the water-rights could not be taken separately from 
the land. But it does not appear to us to be necessary, even if it was competent, 
for the city to take the land on the sides of the brook in order to extinguish any 
prescriptive right to foul the water of it. 
Assuming that the defendant had such prescriptive right, it is further contended 
that the city did not take it; but that the taking of the waters of the brooks and 
streams entering into Long pond only appropriated the water as it flowed into the 
pond at the time of taking, and subject to all legal burdens and uses then existing. 
This, however, is too narrow a construction of the description of what was taken. 
The city, after reciting the whole of the first section of the statutes, took all the 
waters of Long pond, "and other brooks and streams, whether permanent or tem- 
porary, entering into the same," "and all the water rights thereunto belonging or 
in any wise appertaining, for the sole use and benefit of said city." This language 
does not exactly follow the language of the statute ; but we cannot doubt that it is 
broad enough to include Pegan brook, and the taking of " all the water rights 
thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining," includes any right then existing 
to foul its waters. It is urged, by way of illustration, that, if a mill existed on 
the brook, the right to use the mill was not taken. But it is not necessary to con- 
sider that question here. It does not appear that there was any mill on the brook. 
If there was, the use of the water for turning its wheels might not foul the water, 
and might therefore be consistent with the purposes and rights of the city. But 
the right to use the brook as a discharge for sewage in large quantities, as practised 
by the defendant, is inconsistent with such purpose. If. therefore, the defendant 
had any such prescriptive right to foul the water of Pegan brook, as he claimed, 
such right was taken and extinguished by the act of the city under the Statute of 
1846 ; and by Section 6 of that act the city was liable to pay all damages sustained 
thereby. The defendant, if he sustained damage, might have applied by peti- 
tion for the assessment thereof at any time within three years from such taking. 
This remedy was the exclusive one. 
It was not seriously contended in the argument that the defendant has acquired 
a prescriptive right to foul the waters since the taking by the city in 1846. Such 
prescriptive right could not be acquired, because the fouling of the water, since the 
right to foul it ceased, would be a public nuisance. Morton r. Moore, 15 Gray, 
576. Brookline v. Mackintosh, 133 Mass., 125, 226. 
Finally, it was contended for the defendant that, by reason of constructions 
erected by the city at the mouth of the brook, since the taking in 1846, the waters 
of Pegan brook do not, in fact, contaminate the water of the pond ; and that, there- 
fore, the city is not injured. It appears, however, as a fact, that the water of the 
brook is contaminated by the acts of the defendent. The city has a right to be 
protected against the necessity of maintaining works for the preservation of the gould's definition of prescription. 
107 
purity of the water from such a cause. If the acts of the defendant in fouling the 
stream have made it necessary for the city to resort to extraordinary means for pre- 
serving the purity of the water of the pond, he cannot justify the continuance of 
such illegal fouling by showing that the city has thus far been able, by the main- 
tenance of special works, to prevent the natural result of his acts. 
The result is that the petition for an injunction is maintained. 
Injunction to issue. 
Chancellor Kent's Views. 
Kent has justly observed in his Commentaries "that the nature and 
extent of the right acquired by prior occupancy of a running stream 
becomes frequently an important and vexatious question between dif- 
ferent riparian proprietors," * and, "without going into his views exten- 
sively in this connection, it is sufficient to say that the tendency of 
American law as indicated by the decisions, is on the whole in the 
direction of an abridgment of the right to pollute by reason of ad- 
verse possession, though Kent says that if such occupation of a stream 
as corrupted it in quality has existed for so long a time as to raise 
the presumption of a grant and which presumption is the foundation 
of a title by prescription, the other party whose land is below must 
take the stream subject to such adverse right. 
Gould's Definition of Prescription. 
Gould has defined the law of prescription in its application to water- 
courses in this country with great clearness; and his numerous cita- 
tions of recent cases are evidence of the most painstaking thorough- 
ness. According to him a prescriptive right in the waters of a stream 
can only be acquired under substantially the following terms and con- 
ditions : 
(1) The enjoyment must have been uninterrupted, adverse, and 
under a claim of right, and with the knowledge of the owner. 
(2) The user must have been inconsistent with, or contrary to the 
interests of the owner, and of such a nature that it is difficult or impos- 
sible to account for it except on the presumption of a grant. 
(3) The adverse use must be attended by circumstances of such 
notoriety that the person against whom the right is exercised may 
have reasonable notice that the right is claimed against him. 
(4) The enjoyment must be as of right, and not by license or merely 
permissive. 
(5) The burden of proof rests with the person claiming, to show that 
the use was adverse, uninterrupted, and known to the owner of the 
land. 
(6) Prescriptive rights are limited in extent by the previous enjoy- 
* Kent : Commentaries on American Law, sec. 446. 108 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ment and cannot be materially varied to the injury of others. This 
amounts to saying that one proprietor cannot acquire the right by 
prescription to pollute the stream to a greater extent than it was pol- 
luted at the commencement of the 20 years. 
Gould, in common with the other legal writers, affirms that " the 
right to pollute a stream to a greater extent than is permissible of 
common right may be acquired by prescription." But the conditions 
as defined in the foregoing indicate that prescriptive rights to pollut- 
ing are limited in this country. In any case a public nuisance cannot 
be prescribed for howsoever long the adverse enjoyment may have 
existed. 
English Cases 
In England many cases have arisen where riparian proprietors, ag- 
grieved by the pollution of streams, have applied for injunctions 
restraining the offenders from continuing the pollution. The frequent 
success of such attempts are stated as among the first causes which led 
to attempts to purify sewage and manufacturing wastes.* 
The right to pollute streams has been, however, in some cases in- 
cluded by prescription in the easements of estates on the banks of 
streams in England. Mr. Slater cites the case of a calico printer who 
began experiments on the purification of the waste waters from his 
works. Shortly after, he received a formal letter from the ground 
landlord warning him that by so doing, he was emperilling one of the 
prescriptive rights of the estate, and consequently violating one of 
the covenants of his lease. A clear case in which a misapplication of 
the law has led, as Mr. Slater remarks, to making river pollution not 
only facultative but a clear duty. 
The English courts, however, have frequently gone to extreme 
lengths in protecting the rights of parties against pollution. Thus in 
the case of Goldsmid v. Tunbridge Wells Commissioners,f the plaintiff 
was tenant for life of an estate in which was a pond used for watering 
cattle, and in winter for supplying ice for domestic use. The defend- 
ants were commissioners with full power to make sewers and drains, and 
turn sewage into any water-course. The sewage was discharged into a 
brook flowing through the town, and which ran into the plaintiff's pond. 
The town grew constantly, and thus what at first was, in the language of 
the Court, " an imperceptible injury," had so increased in the course of 
years that, at the time of bringing the action, the water in the plaintiff's 
pond had become unfit for either watering cattle or furnishing ice. It was 
held that the discharge of the sewage of the town into the brook was a 
nuisance and the commissioners were restrained from continuing it. 
* J. W. Slater : Sewage Treatment, Purification, and Utilization, p. 186. 
+ Goldsmid v. Tunbridge Wells Commissioners, L. R. 1, Ch. 349. relation of legal principles to science. 
109 
Original Application of the Doctrine of Adverse Possession. 
The arguments and cases cited in the preceding, while not in any 
sense exhaustive, will serve in a general way to indicate how the views 
in regard to the right of pollution by adverse possession are likely to 
be modified as such cases become of more importance throughout this 
country. In order to show somewhat more clearly the further origin 
of the doctrine of prescriptive rights in natural water-courses, the fol- 
lowing skeleton of the subject may be deemed sufficient: 
As already noted, the doctrine of adverse possession in its first 
inception must be considered as having applied to land only, and its 
application later to rights in natural water-courses is, as also noted, 
an extension of the doctrine by analogy. In the case of land mere 
possession does not suffice, there must be some show of title, and as 
strengthening the show of title the person claiming may be deemed to 
have possessed and occupied in the following cases: (1) When the 
land has been cultivated or improved; (2) where protected by a sub- 
stantial enclosure; (3) where not improved it has been used for the 
supply of fuel or fencing material ; and (4) where a known farm or de- 
fined lot has been partly improved, the portion of such known farm or 
lot that may have been left uncleared or unenclosed, according to the 
local custom, shall be deemed to have been occupied for the same 
length of time as the part improved or cultivated. None of these can 
in the nature of the case by any possibility apply to rights in a water- 
course, and therefore user alone must be deemed the all-sufficient 
reason for the acquirement of a prescriptive title in a water-course by 
adverse possession. But the doctrine of ownership by mere user, even 
though enjoyed long enough to justify, in the absence of any other 
proof, the presumption of a title, is, as we now understand the matter, 
in its application to streams a bad custom, and may be, so far as the 
right of pollution is concerned, safely abolished, by rulings of our 
courts in line with the recent additions to human knowledge in the 
realm of bacteriological science. 
The Relation of Legal Principles to the Development of Science. 
The development of this view through the additions to knowledge 
which have followed from the recent studies in the etiology of disease 
is a very striking illustration of how after all, everything in the mate- 
rial universe is relative. So long as mankind looked upon disease as 
an infliction of Providence there could be no general conception of 
the danger arising from the contamination of a public water supply. 
This is finely illustrated by the conditions which exist to-day in many 
parts of India. The natives believe that the causation of disease is 110 
sewage disposal in the united states. 
beyond their control and refuse to accept any explanation of an epi- 
demic of cholera other than that it is a visitation from the gods. 
Holding this view, they see no objection to placing their privies where 
the contents drain into reservoirs from which water supplies are drawn.* 
Nor will they yet listen to the plain teachings of experience, the result 
being that in many localities where such conditions exist, cholera is 
never absent. The unsanitary conditions produced by the Indian 
water tanks receiving quantities of privy drainage and other objection- 
able organic matter is intensified by the climatic conditions. In many 
localities the entire water supply must be stored through many months 
of tropical drought, and the stored waters by reason of the develop- 
ment of large quantities of infusorial and cryptogamic growth become 
in the end disgustingly offensive. 
The Mill Acts. 
There are in most of the States a series of enactments known as Mill 
Acts, which, founded in an extension of the doctrine of eminent do- 
main, have as their object the encouragement of the erection of mills. 
In order to understand thoroughly certain modifications of the com- 
mon-law principle in reference to the pollution of streams, which are 
essentially peculiar to this country, we may briefly consider the funda- 
mental application of the law of eminent domain to rights in natural 
water, together with the cognate extension of the question which nat- 
urally arises. 
The Law of Eminent Domain. 
Eminent domain is defined as the right which the government 
retains over the estates of individuals to appropriate them to public use ; 
but the exercise of this right has nevertheless attached to it as a 
necessary attendant condition, the principle that due money compen- 
sation shall be made to every individual whose property is taken, by 
operation of the law of eminent domain, without his consent. 
The authority for the exercise of this transcendent power can only 
emanate from the legislatures. State or National; and the extent and 
circumstances under which it may be exercised are among the most 
important questions which can arise. In England, as with us, there 
must be a public object of adequate importance in order to justify its 
use, but Parliament, as the supreme power in the kingdom, may in 
express terms define to what extent the right may be transferred, as 
to corporations, private or municipal, etc.; and may also by statutory 
enactments define, in a general way, the methods, terms, and condi- 
*See Blyth's, A Manual of Public Health, Fig. 53, p. 596. Tank in a Calcutta Busteewith Huts 
and Privies on its Edge. CHIEF JUSTICE BIGELOW ON EMINENT DOMAIN. 
111 
tions of compensation. The conservative spirit in England has, how- 
ever, usually led to embodying adequate compensation clauses in 
acts authorizing the exercise of eminent domain, although the extra- 
ordinary powers conferred upon some of the English railways are 
without precedent here. 
In the Constitution of the United States it is defined by the fifth 
article that " private property shall not be taken for public use with- 
out just compensation," and if any legislature should, by enactment, 
overstep this plain constitutional provision, the courts could step in 
and by decision nullify such act as not within the constitutional powers 
delegated by the people to the legislature. Thus the legislature has, 
within reasonable limits, the power of determining whether a particu- 
lar use is public or private, although the final decision in a doubtful 
case may rest with the courts. 
Chief Justice Bigelow on Eminent Domain. 
The subject of definition of the line between public use and private 
use was treated in a case in Massachusetts by Chief-Justice Bigelow, 
in the following manner :* 
In many cases there can be no difficulty in determining whether an appropriation 
of property is for a public or private use. If land is taken for a fort, a canal, or a 
highway, it would clearly fall within the first class ; if it was transferred from one 
person to another, or to several persons, solely for their peculiar benefit and advan- 
tage, it would as clearly come within the second class. But there are intermediate 
cases, where public and private interests are blended together, in which it becomes 
more difficult to decide within which of the two classes they may be properly said 
to fall. There is no fixed rule or standard by which such cases can be tried and 
determined. Each must necessarily depend upon its own peculiar circumstances. 
Many enterprises of the highest public utility are productive of great and imme- 
diate benefits to individuals. A railroad or canal may largely enhance the value of 
private property situated at or near its termini, but it is not for that reason any less 
a public work, for the construction of which private property may well be taken. 
. . It has never been deemed essential that the entire community, or any con- 
siderable portion of it, should directly enjoy or participate in an improvement or 
enterprise, in order to constitute a public use within the true meaning of the 
words of the constitutional limitation. Such an interpretation would greatly nar- 
row and cripple the authority of the Legislature, so as to deprive it of the power of 
exerting a material and beneficial influence on the welfare and prosperity of the 
State. 
In a broad and comprehensive view, such as has been heretofore taken of the 
construction of this clause of the Declaration of Rights, everything which tends to 
enlarge the resources, increase the industrial energies, and promote the productive 
power of any considerable number of the inhabitants of a section of the State, or 
which leads to the growth of towns and the creation of new sources for the em- 
ployment of private capital and labor, indirectly contributes to the general welfare, 
ami to the prosperity of the whole community. It is on this principle that many 
of the statutes of this commonwealth by which private property has been hereto- 
fore taken and appropriated to a supposed public use are founded. One of the 
earliest and most familiar instances of the exercise of such a power under the 
* Boston and Roxbury Mill. Corp. v. Newman, 12 Pink., 476. 112 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Constitution is to be found in the Mass. St. 1795, c. 74, Sec. 1, for the erection 
and regulation of mills. By this statute the owner of a mill had power, for the 
purpose of raising a head of water to operate his mill, to over flow the land of su- 
per-riparian proprietors, and thereby to take a permanent easement in the soil of 
another, to the entire destruction of its beneficial use to him, on paying a suitable 
compensation therefor. Under the right thus conferred, the more direct benefit 
was to the owner of the mill only ; private property was, in effect, taken and trans- 
ferred from one individual for the benefit of another, and the only public use 
which was thereby subserved was the indirect benefit received by the community 
by the erection of mills for the convenience of the neighborhood, and the general 
advantage which accrued to trade and agriculture by increasing the facilities for 
traffic and the consumption of the products of the soil. In like manner, and for 
similar purposes, acts of incorporation have been granted to individuals, with au- 
thority to create large mill-powers for manufacturing establishments, by taking 
private property, even to the extent of destroying other mills and water privileges 
on the same stream. 
The Underlying Principle of the Mill Acts. 
Having- defined some of the more important features of the doctrine 
of eminent domain we may now proceed with the discussion of the 
Mill Acts, and their effect in practically modifying, in some of the 
States, the common-law rule in reference to the possible public nui- 
sance caused by polluting running streams. The exercise of the pre- 
rogative of sovereignty in their enactment can only be justified on the 
ground of the public good, and their original inception in the early 
colonial period, when mills for grinding corn were an imperative 
necessity, is usually urged as their reason for being. Their effect 
in authorizing the overflow of another's land contrary to his wishes, 
on payment of a money consideration, has been to nullify to some 
extent by statute the natural right which every riparian proprietor 
has to the natural flow of a stream. 
In Massachusetts, where manufacturing has always been a chief 
occupation of the people, the statutory law encouraging mills is 
ancient; and the several successive enactments in that State may be 
cited as showing on the whole the best development of this particular 
phase of the subject. The Massachusetts acts have been the basis of 
most of the similar laws passed in the Northern and Western States, 
while the original Virginia act, which differs very materially from the 
Massachusetts, has been the basis of similar acts in the several 
Southern States. In England in early times the construction of mills 
was encouraged in a different manner. Mills were erected by lords of 
manors on their respective domains for the public advantage, the gift 
being fettered by the condition that the people of the respective 
seigniories bring their corn to be ground at the mills so built ; this 
custom being called " doing suit " to the mill.* The American acts, 
however, as founded in the broader principle of the public good and 
* Woolrych : On the Law of Waters and Sewers, 70, 108. THE VIEWS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS DRAINAGE COMMISSION. 
113 
as extending the doctrine of eminent domain to the acquisition of 
rights in running water not authorized by the common law, are purely 
a development from the conditions of interdependence among the 
people which existed in the 'early colonial days. The progressive de- 
velopment in most of the manufacturing States has led practically to 
the enunciation of legal principles somewhat different from any of 
those derived by precedent from the laws of England. These new 
principles can hardly be considered as fully established in all parts of 
the country, although clearly in the line of the immemorial policy of a 
number of the States. Thus New York State may be cited as one in 
which no Mill Act has ever been enacted, and the Supreme Court, in 
the case of Hoy v. Cohoes Co.,* say " The Legislature of this State, it is 
believed, has never exercised the right of eminent domain in favor of 
mills of any kind. Sites for steam engines, hotels, churches, and other 
public conveniences, might as well be taken, by the exercise of this 
extraordinary power." The prevalence of this view of the matter in the 
State of New York has, however, operated to materially discourage 
such development of manufacturing interests as depend upon the con- 
struction of large storage reservoirs at points remote from the place 
where the stored waters are required for use, and in various other 
ways. 
The Principle of Permissive Pollution. 
The Mill Acts, while originally intended merely to secure to parties 
wishing to build mills the right to flow the lands of others, have never- 
theless led, with other causes, to the development of what may be 
termed the principle of permissive pollution. 
Again, it may be further said that their enactment, by tending to en- 
courage manufactures, has led to a tacit modification by statute of the 
common-law rule in reference to moderate nuisances. 
The Views of the Massachusetts Drainage Commission. 
The Massachusetts Drainage Commission of 1884-5, discussed the 
various questions involved so broadly that we can hardly do better 
than to conclude this chapter by extended quotations from their report. 
The Commissioners say: 
Manufacturing industry has from the earliest days been greatly favored by the 
law-makers of Massachusetts. To foster and encourage it they long ago substanti- 
ally dedicated the unnavigable running waters of the land to its use. Believing its 
prosperity essential to the common welfare, the Legislature has not hesitated to step 
to the very verge of its constitutional power to stimulate and maintain it. For 
more than half a century persons have been authorized by law to dam up streams 
* Hoy v. Cohoes Co., 3 Barb., 42. 114 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
and flood lands of others for their own private manufacturing ends. This taking of 
one man's property against his will for the individual benefit of another has been 
justified as a proper exercise of the prerogative of eminent domain, on the ground 
of the advantage inuring to the public from the improvement of water power, and 
the importance of encouraging manufactures. It has been supported also, upon 
the principle which permits the State to compel the several possessors of a common 
interest, which they cannot beneficially enjoy in severalty, to submit to measures 
esssential to secure a full and profitable use of their property. 
As a general proposition of law it is laid down that the owners of the bed and 
banks of a stream have the right to use the running water in common from its 
source to its outlet. Each one has an equal right to its reasonable use as it flows 
by his land. This right of each is limited by the like right of every other. But 
this special qualified property of the individual in the water does not seem to ex- 
clude a general paramount interest which the public retains. Consequently, while 
no one can justly diminish his neighbor's enjoyment by greatly vitiating the water 
during his own short-lived tenure of it, neither may he destroy or greatly impair 
the public property in it. The factory or the mill may temporarily monopolize the 
flow, but they do so under an implied agreement not to spoil the water for the 
ordinary uses of the people in general. If they pollute the stream unduly they 
violate their license, and may be compelled to abate the nuisance they have made. 
But while it is easy to lay down the principle, it is not easy to insist upon its rigid 
application without danger of working injustice and of frustrating the immemorial 
policy of the Commonwealth. An inflexible enforcement of a rule forbidding any 
defilement whatever might rain many mill-owners and stop half the water-wheels of 
the State. Some diminution of purity is inevitable, and tolerable, while other con- 
tamination is unnecessary or excessive. The difficulty lies in distinguishing the 
legitimate from the destructive usage. A satisfactory definition is impracticable. 
Each case differs a little from the next. The circumstances may be utterly unlike. 
All will agree that some kinds of corruption may reasonably be sharply dealt with. 
No one, for example, pretends that he can rightfully pour human excrement and 
household filth into the water below7 his dam. Neither can he justify dumping into 
the river w7aste and refuse and garbage. On the other hand, the most exacting 
purist might not care to complain of the sediment washed from some bleachings or 
scourings, the slight taint of certain kinds of harmless chemicals, or the evanescent 
stain of dyes which are not unw'holesome. The task is to discriminate the variety 
of shades of impurity which occur between these extremes. 
Then there is a class of cases where it may be an open question w hether it is not 
for the public interest to abandon a stream or sheet of water to the customary pol- 
lution of industry, so long as it does not imperil the public health. Unless this be 
admitted, the alternative may be to drive aw7ay thriving communities, and destroy 
the work of years of patient labor and active enterprise, undertaken under a pre- 
sumed security of tenure. In such dilemma, if the water is not required for drink- 
ing purposes, a considerable contamination may be suffered without inordinate in- 
convenience. No doubt the State cannot entirely escape responsibility even by such 
a relinquishment as this. The public have a right not to be poisoned by the air 
they breath any more than by the water they drink. There is a foulness which is 
inadmissible even in a factory stream, which may embitter the life and undermine 
the health of the dweller upon its banks. In such cases the State is bound to in- 
tervene peremptorily if the riparian owners remain obstinately deaf to the public 
protest. Generally, however, before this stage is reached, the dirt of the earlier 
usage has so impaired the value of the w'ater for some subsequent taker that he 
insists upon an abatement of the abuse above him. 
We think it will be enough for the present to require that water for dwellings 
must be protected from every avoidable taint, while water for business must not be 
offensive or dangerous. All wanton ill usage, such as privies over the stream or 
cesspools draining into it, may well be put a stop to; and where the incidental 
injury characteristic of an industry is detrimental to the next user or to the public, 
it should be scrupulously restricted to absolutely unavoidable dimensions by the 
adoption of the most approved methods of remedial treatment. 
But even if it should be thought expedient to impose some such restrictions as we THE VIEWS OF THE MASSACHUSETTS DRAINAGE COMMISSION. 
115 
have indicated, there is still room for much difference of opinion as to the best method 
of enforcing whatever regulation is adopted. 
There are several ways which naturally suggest themselves. We may leave the 
land owners, the water owners, and the community at large to the ordinary courts 
and to the common law to define and protect their various interests, or we may 
erect a special tribunal and prescribe by statute the scope and method of its over- 
sight and jurisdiction, or the Legislature may pass upon each case as it arises. For 
reasons which we state in another place, we are inclined to recommend that the 
supervision of matters pertaining to water supply, sewerage, and the pollution of 
waters generally, be assigned to some board which shall be clothed with powers 
analogous to those of the Railroad Commissioners and Harbor Commissioners, to 
enable it to introduce system and method in these important departments of the 
common welfare. 
We take it that no one will controvert the general proposition of law that every 
holder of property, however absolute and unqualified be his title, holds it under the 
implied liability that his use of it may be so regulated that it shall not be injuri- 
ous to the rights of the community. 
The Right of the Massachusetts Legislature to Prescribe Rules for the 
Protection of Streams. 
In the exercise of its undoubted prerogative to watch over the general welfare and 
to guard the public rights by the ample police powers with which it is armed, the 
Legislature may make exactly such rules respecting the pollution of streams and 
ponds or other inland waters as it may judge requisite and necessary for the public 
welfare. It may absolutely prohibit, under suitable penalty, any contamination of 
any water within the borders of the Commonwealth, if it so please. It is a question 
always of expediency what degree of interference with individual liberty is required 
by the circumstances. Thus far the Legislature has been content to forbid any pol- 
lution of waters used directly or indirectly for a water supply by any city or town 
within twenty miles above the point of taking, provided this prohibition be not held 
to impair rights by statute before July 1, 1878, or prescriptive rights of drainage, 
to the extent to which they lawfully existed on that date. The Merrimack and 
Connecticut rivers and so much of the Concord as lies within the city of Lowell are 
also exempt from this rule. Nor can any person save those employed in getting ice 
or hauling lumber, drive a horse on any pond used as a water supply for domestic 
purposes by a city or town. Neither is bathing permitted in any such pond. The 
Legislature seems to have drawn the line at drinking water. Water dedicated to 
household uses is protected, within certain limits and to certain degree, by a 
speedy, peremptory, and effectual process. Municipal authorities may obtain an 
injunction at any time, from any justice of the supreme or superior court, to restrain 
any person from violating the 80th chapter of the General Statutes, which we have 
recited above. But all other waters are left to the ordinary rules of the common 
law. We think that a comprehensive knowledge of all the facts will satisfy any un- 
biassed inquirer that under this kind of customary guardianship of no one in par- 
ticular, the general condition of our waters has suffered a steady degradation, or, to 
borrow the language of the State Board as long ago as 1876, "any defence against 
the impurities which so conveniently flow into our waters from the settlements and 
works on their banks has thus far been merely nominal; that is, the law can be used 
to prevent a nuisance from continuing to be poured into the river, but it is not 
used, because the process is too slow, cumbersome, and expensive." The lapse of 
nine years has only served to point and emphasize this commentary. The growth 
of population, the spread of modern refinements of living, the increase in industrial 
establishments, and all the indefinite multiplication of incidents appertaining to a 
prosperous and progressive community, must naturally and perhaps inevitably tend 
to vitiate the waters of its rivers and lakes. But even if a certain degree of taint 
be unavoidable, there is a vast amount which is wanton and preventable. A cursory 
glance at the report of Mr. Clarke will convince any one that there is no necessity 
whatever for a large part of the abuse to which our water-courses are subjected. It 116 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
is a question of time only, and that not a long time either, when, if we hold to the 
path we are travelling, we shall find ourselves face to face with a state of things as 
intolerable as that of England twenty-five years ago, when the Sewage of Towns 
Commission denounced it as an " evil of national urgency requiring the earliest and 
most serious attention." The condition of many of its important and frequented 
streams had become so filthy and disgusting that a universal protest arose, and large 
sums of money had to be expended in haste to mitigate the extremity of the of- 
fence. Meanwhile untold misery and mischief had been inflicted. Now, preventive 
measures are far less costly and much more effective than remedial expedients. 
We think it is high time that some steps should be taken here to arrest the prog- 
ress of rivers pollution at the point it has reached in Massachusetts, and gradually 
to retrieve some portion, at least, of the ground we have carelessly yielded. Im- 
pressed with this conviction, we yet consider it impracticable to ask for a summary 
enforcement of the extreme right of the community in its waters now for the first 
time. Apart from technical points of law, and taking it upon broad, equitable 
grounds, it would be felt unfair for the community suddenly to insist upon a rigid 
exaction of its abstract right to clean waters after so many years of license and neg- 
lect. Even if it be law that no one can prescribe for a public nuisance, it does not 
necessarily follow that it is policy to abate all nuisances forthwith. And supposing 
such a project of law to have been enacted, we do not believe that the statute 
could or would be enforced. Certainly the existing law is not, then why should 
one so much more severe ? We therefore cast about a good deal to hit upon some 
principle of classification, some scheme of discrimination, or even a mere frame of 
fixed regulations to guide the steps of a guardian of public waters. It was sug- 
gested that schedules might be made of streams which could be allowed a certain 
kind and amount of pollution, to be carefully defined, either in general or for each 
individual case. Certain others might be set apart and reserved for the standard 
purity expected for drinking water. While posssibly a few might be left to take 
care of themselves, at least for the present. It was held to be reasonable to forbid 
certain more dangerous or offensive trades from seating themselves in future at or 
near the fountain heads of rivers or brooks. It was urged that there would be no 
hardship in compelling a newcomer, whose labors must grievously deteriorate the 
quality of the water, to go below the industries which already depended upon the 
water as they were getting it, and could not endure without suffering any addi- 
tional impairment of its purity. 
These expedients, and many like them, were canvassed and weighed in turn, 
but to all there seemed to be grave objections. After much consideration it was 
decided to propound a plan of action which seemed to fit the exigency as well 
or better than any which occurred to us. It had, besides, the strong recommen- 
dation of shaping itself in exact conformity with precedents which have stood 
the test of time and have proved themselves to be valuable working agencies. 
In the year 1879 the Legislature intrusted the care of "the lands, flats, shores, 
and rights in tide-waters belonging to the Commonwealth," and the supervision 
of " all its tide-waters and all the flats and lands flowed thereby," to a Board 
whom it empowered "to prevent and remove unauthorized encroachments," or 
whatever " in any way injures their channels." Every work done within tide- 
water, not sanctioned by them or authorized by the General Court, where a 
license is required, is declared to be a nuisance, and the Board may order suits 
on behalf of the Commonwealth to prevent it or stop the removal of material 
from any bar or breakwater of any harbor. This legislation is strictly in line 
with that we offer. It is, indeed, almost identical with it. Alter its wording 
but a little and it would suit our purpose exactly. Precisely the same principle 
which enjoins a watchful care over the exterior waters of the State, would seem 
to call for at least an equal solicitude concerning the abuse of its interior 
waters. But mindful of the tenderness with which Massachusetts has always 
treated her industrial classes, we think it would be wise to embrace in the enact- 
ment one peculiarly characteristic feature borrowed from the act establishing a 
Railroad Commission, and which has proved strong enough to enforce amply all 
the rights of the public in that class of highways called railroads. This distinc- 
tive trait is the use of advisory as distinguished from mandatory power. We the important points. 
117 
think it would be well, then, for the Legislature to designate some one or more 
persons to look after the public interests in this direction. Let these guardians 
of inland waters be charged to acquaint themselves with the actual condition of 
all waters within the State as respects their pollution or purity, and to inform 
themselves particularly as to the relation which that condition bears to the 
health and well-being of any part of the people of the Commonwealth. Let them 
do away, as far as possible, with all remedial pollution and use every means in 
their power to prevent further vitiation. Let them make it their business to 
advise and assist cities or towns desiring a supply of water or a system of sew- 
erage. They shall put themselves at the disposal of manufacturers and others 
using rivers, streams, or ponds, or in any way misusing them, to suggest the best 
means of minimizing the amount of dirt in their effluent, and to experiment upon 
methods of reducing or avoiding pollution. They shall warn the persistent violator 
of all reasonable regulation in the management of water, of the consequences of 
his acts. In a word, it shall be their especial function to guard the public interest 
and the public health in its relation with water, whether pure or undefiled, with 
the ultimate hope, which must never be abandoned, that sooner or later ways may 
be found to redeem and preserve all the waters of the State. We propose to 
clothe the Board with no other power than the power to examine, advise, and 
report, except in cases of violation of the statutes. Such cases, if persisted in 
after notice, are to be referred to the Attorney-General for action. Other than 
this, its decisions must look for their sanction to their own intrinsic sense and 
soundness. Its last protest against wilful and obstinate defilement will be to 
the General Court. To that tribunal it shall report all the facts, leaving to its 
supreme discretion the final disposition of such offenders. If such a Board be 
able to commend itself by its conduct to the approval of the great court of 
public opinion, it will have no difficulty, we think, in materially reducing the 
disorders and abuses which are threatening to give great trouble in future, if 
not speedily checked. If, however, we err in this expectation, and more drastic 
measures prove indispensable, the mandate of the State can always be invoked to 
re-enforce its advice.* 
The Important Points. 
The points which it is chiefly desired to enforce in this chapter 
are: 
1. There is no natural right to pollute a water-course. 
2. In the case of a stream which either is, or may be used, as the 
source of drinking water by any of the riparian proprietors, prescrip- 
tion, with the present understanding of the causation of the infectious 
communicable diseases, ought not be urged as the foundation of a right 
to pollute. 
3. In case the interests of all the riparian proprietors are in favor 
of using a stream as a common receptacle for manufacturing wastes, 
mutual agreement, either actually expressed, or implied by the opera- 
tion of custom, may dedicate the stream to such use, but such dedi- 
cation cannot be construed to justify such unreasonable use as leads 
to the creation of a common nuisance. 
4. The Mill Acts, while probably not in their original inception in- 
tended to cover the specific case of such pollution as renders the water 
* For complete text of the Massachusetts Act which has been enacted as the result of the 
foregoing recommendations of the Drainage Commission, see Appendix IV. 118 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
of a stream unfit for domestic use, have still, by fostering manufactur- 
ing interests, created new customs and conditions, and consequently 
tend to modify the strict construction of the common-law rule. 
5. From the Mill Acts, as a natural consequence of the development 
of manufacturing which they have fostered, has come a recognition of 
the principle of permissive pollution under State supervision as exem- 
plified in the recent Massachusetts acts. CHAPTER VII. 
QUANTITY OF SEWAGE AND VARIATION IN RATE OF FLOW 
Before proceeding to the consideration of the various methods of 
sewage disposal, which experience has indicated as of value, we may 
properly inquire into the question of quantity and variation in the 
rate of flow of the sewage which it is proposed to treat. 
Dearth of Accurate Information. 
Accurate information as to quantity is rather difficult to obtain. 
But few observations have yet been made in this country, and aside 
from the few, the subject has been treated from a purely theoretical 
point of view. In England extensive observations were made by Mr. 
Haywood, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, and by the Referees in reporting 
upon the main drainage of London. Obviously the quantity of flow 
is closely related to the amount of the water supply, and inasmuch as 
the water supply of American towns is, as an average, at least double 
that of English, the experience gained by gagings there do not 
greatly assist in determining the quantity of sewage which may 
reasonably be expected in towns here. We may, therefore, consider in 
some detail the amount of water used in American towns, but it must 
be remembered that in designing sewage-disposal works general dis- 
cussion can only be of use for indicating tested and approved 
methods of procedure. It cannot be too strongly insisted that each 
case stands by itself as a problem for special solution. 
The Use of Water in American Cities 
Table No. 13 gives the average daily consumption of water per in- 
habitant for nearly 200 of the 348 cities in the United States, which, by 
the census of 1890, had a population of over 10,000. The wide varia- 
tion in consumption shown by the table, it will be seen, is only in 
small part caused by the differences between the populations of the 
various cities. One of the chief causes for the variation in consump- 
tion is the variation in the proportion of the total population, which is 
quite clearly shown by the last column of Table 13, giving the popu- 
lation per tap for each city, so far as the figures are available. Other 120 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 13.-Average Consumption of Water per Capita in Cities of the 
United States with a Population of over 10,000 in 1890.* 
Daily consumption. 
Population, 
1890.+ 
Population 
per tap.J 
Bank and name of city. 
Total. 
Per inhabi- 
tant. 
1 New York, N. Y 
1,515,301 
121,000,000 
79 
13.9 
2 Chicago, Ill.1 
1,099,850 
152,372,288 
140 
3 Philadelphia, Pa.2 
1,046,964 
806,343 
137,736.703 
55,060.000 
132 
6.1 
4 Brooklyn, N. Y.3 
72 
8.7 
5 St. Louis, Mo 
451,770 
448,477 
32,479,000 
42,173,100 
72 
14 8 
6 Boston, Mass.4.... 
80 
6.6 
7 Baltimore, Md 
434,439 
298,997 
40,978,229 
18,359.000 
94 
5 8 
8 San Francisco. Cal 
61 
9.9 
9 Cincinnati, O.s 
296,908 
261,353 
33,997.007 
27,787,158 
112 
8 5 
10 Cleveland, O6 
103 
8.7 
11 Buffalo, N. Y 
255,664 
47,517.137 
186 
6.3 
12 New Orleans, La 
242,039 
8,976.715 
37 
54.0 
13 Pittsburg, Pa,' 
238,617 | 
36,000,000 
11,509,000 
144 
153 
8.2 
14 Washington, D. C.8 
230,392 
36.588,629 
158 
6.5 
15 Detroit. Mich 
205,876 
33,208,067 
161 
5 1 
16 Milwaukee, Wis 
204,468 
22,380,783 
110 
11.1 
17 Newark, N. J.9 
181,830 
14,079,793 
76 
8.6 
18 Minneapolis, Minn ..... 
164,738 
12,416,117 
75 
16 5 
19 Jersey City, N. J.10 
20 Louisville, Ky 
163,003 
161,129 
140,452 
133,896 
19,300,000 
11,874,688 
14,000,000 
8,800,000 
97 
74 
94 
ii 9 
21 Omaha, Neb J1 
24 0 
22 Rochester, N. Y 
66 
5.4 
23 St. Paul, Minn 
133,156 
8,000,000 
60 
12.7 
24 Kansas City, Mo.12 
132.716 
12,000,000 
71 
15.3 
25 Providence, R. I.18 
132,146 
6.743,092 
48 
9.4 
26 Denver, Col 
106.713 
20,000,000 
187 
7.0 
27 Indianapolis, Ind 
Il 5,436 
7,500,000 
71 
35 6 
28 Allegheny, Pa 
105.287 
25,000,000 
238 
7 0 
29 Columbus, O 
88,150 
6,882,333 
78 
11.5 
30 Syracuse, N. Y.14 
88,143 
84,655 
6,000.000 
4,971,340 
68 
59 
21 5 
31 Worcester, Mass 
8.9 
32 Toledo, O 
81,434 
5,842,768 
72 
18.6 
33 Richmond, Va 
81,388 
13,597,102 
167 
7.9 
34 New Haven, Conn 
81,298 
11,000,000 
135 
35 Paterson, N. J 
78,347 
10,000,000 
128 
ii 8 
36 Lowell, Mass 
77,696 
5,127,199 
66 
9.2 
37 Nashville, Tenn 
76,168 
11,153,885 
146 
14.9 
38 Fall River, Mass 
74,398 
2.186.182 
29 
14 9 
39 Cambridge, Mass 
70,028 
4,489,180 
64 
6.0 
40 Atlanta, Ga 
65.533 
2,359,564 
36 
20.0 
41 Memphis, Tenn 
64,495 
8,000,000 
124 
11.9 
42 Wilmington, Del 
61,431 
6,934,912 
113 
5.0 
43 Davton, 0 
61,220 
60,956 
2,848,926 
7,608,468 
47 
20 1 
44 Troy, N. Y 
125 
10.5 
45 Reading, Pa 
58,661 
5,000,000 
75 
5.8 
♦Compiled from official returns included in the Manual of American Water-Works for 1890-91. Edited by 
M. N. Baker. 
t Populations are according to the 1890 census, and for the whole city, regardless of the proportion of the 
population supplied. 
t Tap or house service connection. 
1 Chicago. Figures are for main city works. Estimated populations supplied by small public plant built 
by former village of Washington Heights, and of former village of Pullman, supplied by a company. A total of 
14,850 was deducted in finding averages. 
2 Philadelphia. Estimated populations of Holmesburg and Tacony, supplied by companies, 6.964. 
3 Brooklyn. Long Island Water Supply Co. supplies Twenty-sixth Ward, with population of 29,505. 
4 Boston. Supplies Somerville, with population of 40,152 ; Chelsea, 27,909; Everett, 11,068: total, 527,006. 
4 Cincinnati. Supplies Avondale and Clifton, with populations of 4,473 and 1,200, latter estimated ; total, 
302,581. 
• Cleveland. Supplies Brooklyn and West Cleveland, with populations of 4,585 and 4.117; total, 270,055. 
7 Pittsburg. Monongahela Water Co. supplies "South Side," and outside towns with estimated aggregate 
population of 75,000. 
8 Washington. Figures are for July 1, 1891, and population is for the whole District of Columbia, the gov- 
ernment of which and of Washington is now co-extensive. 
9 Newark. Supplies Belleville, through meter, population of which is 3,487; total, 185,317. 
10 Jersey City. Figures are for 1889. Supplies Bayonne, population of 19,033 ; Harrison, 8.838, and Kear- 
ney. 7,064 ; total, 197,483. Report did not state whether total average daily consumption includes supply to 
above places, but it is assumed that it did. 
11 Omaha. Supplies South Omaha: population, 8,026 ; total. 148.478. 
12 Kansas City. Supplies Kansas City. Kan., with population of 38,316 : total. 171.032 
13 Providence. Supplies population in adjacent towns, estimated at 7,854 ; total, 140,000. 
14 Syracuse. Figures are for December, 1891, (approximate). THE USE OF WATER IN AMERICAN CITIES. 
121 
Table No. 13.-< 
■Continued 
Rank and name of city. 
Population, 
1890. 
Daily consumption. 
Population 
per tap. 
Total. 
Per inhabi- 
tant. 
46 Camden, N. J 
58,313 
7,660,000 
131 
47 Trenton, N.J 
57,458 
3.569,150 
62 
6.0 
48 Lynn, Mass 
55,727 
2,656.690 
48 
6.0 
49 Lincoln, Neb 
55,154 
2,500,000 
45 
38.0 
50 Hartford, Conn 
53,230 
1,772,129 
33 
8.0 
51 St Joseph Mo.. 
52,324 
2,500,000 
48 
27.0 
52 Des Moines, la 
50,093 
2,750,000 
55 
53 Portland, Or 
46,385 
9,415,000 
203 
54 Lawrence, Mass 
44,654 
2,770,592 
62 
49.0 
44,126 
1,932,073 
44 
32.0 
56 Savannah, Ga 
43,189 
5,851,610 
135 
.... 
57 Peoria, Ill 
41,024 
4,000,000 
97 
.... 
40,733 
4,066,200 
100 
6.0 
59 Erie, Pa 
40,634 
4,546,919 
112 
6.0 
60 Harrisburg, Pa 
39,385 
5,856,937 
150 
4.0 
61 Elizabeth, N. J 
37,764 
2,500,000 
66 
10.0 
35,637 
2,548.045 
72 
13.0 
63 Binghamton, N. Y 
35,005 
3,290,490 
94 
8.0 
64 Wheeling, W. Va 
34,522 
5,000,000 
145 
65 Augusta, Ga 
33,300 
3,385,484 
102 
66 Youngstown, 0 
33,220 
1,634.687 
49 
20.0 
67 Yonkers, N. Y 
32,033 
2.176,396 
68 
11.0 
68 Springfield, 0 
31,895 
1,704.069 
53 
16.0 
69 Topeka, Kan 
31,007 
1,600,000 
52 
20.0 
70 Salem, Mass 
38,001 
2,135,600 
56 
7.0 
71 Altoona, Pa 
30,337 
2,140,000 
71 
5.0 
72 Terre Haute, Ind . 
30,217 
2,500,000 
S3 
25.0 
73 Elmira, N. Y 
29,718 
2,250,000 
76 
15.0 
29,084 
905,753 
31 
7.0 
75 Williamsport, Pa 
27,932 
4,000,000 
143 
76 Bay City, Mich 
27,839 
2,708,963 
97 
77 Houston, Tex 
27,557 
3,750,000 
97 
23.0 
78 Canton, 0 
26,189 
1,200,000 
46 
13.0 
79 Birmingham, Ala 
26,178 
4,250,000 
162 
9.0 
80 Little Rock, Ark 
25,874 
3,000.000 
116 
23.0 
81 Taunton, Mass 
25,448 
796,716 
31 
8.0 
82 La Crosse, Wis 
25,090 
2,162,196 
86 
17.0 
83 Springfield, Ill 
24,996 
2,571,223 
103 
14.0 
84 Gloucester, Mass 
24,661 
300,000 
12 
27.0 
85 Newton, Mass 
24,379 
985,396 
40 
5.0 
86 Wichita, Kan 
23,853 
2,400,000 
101 
20.0 
87 Rockford, Ill 
23,584 
2,373,100 
101 
9.0 
88 Joliet, Ill 
23,264 
1,747,134 
75 
89 Ft. Worth, Tex 
23,076 
3.000,000 
130 
• • • • 
90 Oshkosh, Wis 
22,836 
1,700.000 
75 
23.0 
91 Muskegon, Mich 
22,702 
1,385.188 
61 
20.0 
92 Burlington. la 
22,565 
1,592,509 
71 
13.0 
93 Cohoes, N. Y 
22.509 
3,000,000 
133 
15.0 
94 Poughkeepsie, N. Y 
22,206 
1,680,362 
76 
11.0 
95 Montgomery, Ala 
21,883 
800,000 
37 
17.0 
96 Springfield, Mo 
21,850 
1,217,000 
56 
15.0 
97 South Bend, Ind 
21,809 
1,873.653 
86 
15.0 
98 Lewiston, Me 
21,701 
2,462,231 
114 
10.0 
99 Lexington, Kv 
21,567 
800,000 
37 
27.0 
ICO Council Bluffs, la 
21,474 
2,000,000 
11.0 
101 Racine, Wis 
21,014 
484,360 
23 
11.0 
102 Zanesville, 0 
21,009 
2,411,095 
115 
6.0 
103 Woonsocket, R. I 
20,830 
326,455 
15 
19.0 
104 York, Pa 
20,793 
1,250.000 
60 
5.0 
105 McKeesport, Pa 
20.741 
2,864,763 
138 
9.0 
106 Chester, Pa 
20,226 
3,000.000 
148 
4.0 
107 Wilmington. N. C 
20,056 
431.374 
22 
33.0 
108 Bloomington, Ill 
20,048 
799,730 
40 
18.0 
19 902 
2.246.967 
113 
14.0 
110 Norristown, Pa 
19,791 
2,250.000 
114 
Ill Lynchburg, Va 
19,709 
2,462.042 
139 
ii .0 
112 Newport, R. I 
19,467 
1,500,000 
77 
6.0 
113 Nashua, N. H 
19,311 
2,067,819 
107 
6.0 
114 Bangor, Me 
19,103 
2.500,000 
131 
7.0 
115 Waltham, Mass 
18,707 
625.779 
34 
8.0 
116 New Brunswick, N, J 
18,603 
1,254.844 
67 
9.0 
117 Sandusky, O 
18,471 
2.475.823 
134 
9.0 
18,208 
1.600,000 
88 
14.0 
119 San Jose, Cal 
18,060 
3,500,000 
194 
5.0 
120 Kalamazoo, Mich 
17,853 
1,896,600 
107 
14 0 122 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Rank and name of city. 
Population, 
1890. 
Daily consumption. 
Population 
per tap. 
Total. 
Per inhabi- 
tant. 
121 
Norwalk, Conn 
17,747 
1,200,000 
68 
14.0 
122 
Hamilton, 0 
17,565 
751,082 
43 
13.0 
123 
Jacksonville, Fla 
17.201 
991,194 
58 
16.0 
124 
Decatur, Ill 
16,841 
1,650.000 
98 
23.0 
125 
Sheboygan, Wis 
16,359 
450,000 
27 
22.0 
120 
Lafayette, Ind 
16,243 
1,500,000 
92 
13.0 
127 
San Diego, Cal 
16,159 
651.286 
40 
7.0 
128 
North Adams, Mass 
16,074 
1,500,000 
93 
16.0 
129 
Lima, O 
15,987 
609,371 
38 
12.0 
130 
Belleville, Ill 
15,361 
800.060 
52 
34.0 
131 
Rome, N. Y 
14,991 
2,063.648 
138 
12.0 
132 
Burlington, Vt 
14.590 
756,401 
52 
6.0 
133 
Austin, Tex 
14,476 
2,500,000 
173 
7.0 
134 
Keokuk, la 
14,101 
1,100.000 
78 
18.0 
135 
Atchison, Kan 
13,963 
600.000 
43 
17.0 
136 
Newburyport, Mass 
13,947 
400,000 
29 
9.0 
137 
Marlborough, Mass 
13,805 
347.885 
25 
8.0 
138 
New London, Conn 
13.757 
1.500,000 
109 
7.0 
139 
Rock Island, Ill 
13,634 
13,534 
1,750,000 
1.992,567 
128 
12.0 
140 
Port Huron, Mich 
147 
6.0 
141 
Woburn, Mass 
13,499 
775,963 
58 
6.0 
142 
Madison, Wis 
13,426 
535,480 
25 
11.0 
143 
Steubenville, 0 
13,394 
1,500,000 
112 
4.0 
144 
Vicksburg, Miss 
13,378 
312,625 
24 
32 0 
145 
Battle Creek, Mich 
13,197 
410.000 
31 
14.0 
146 
Paducah. Ky 
13,076 
400,000 
31 
11.0 
147 
Passaic, N. J 
13,028 
400,060 
31 
19.0 
148 
Hannibal, Mo . 
12,857 
1,130,000 
82 
11.0 
149 
Manistee. Mich 
12,812 
625,000 
49 
14.0 
150 
Dover, N. H 
12.790 
436.846 
34 
9.0 
151 
Raleigh, N. C 
12,678 
375,000 
30 
26.0 
152 
Portsmouth, O 
12.364 
1,500,000 
121 
9.0 
153 
Brookline, Mass 
12,103 
884.000 
73 
6.0 
154 
Moline, Ill 
12,000 
850.000 
71 
27.0 
155 
Bay City, Mich 
12,981 
2,708,963 
209 
8.0 
156 
Shreveport, La .• 
11.979 
1,159,115 
97 
22.0 
157 
Saratoga Springs, N. Y.16 
11,975 
3,000,000 
251 
5.0 
158 
Fort Scott, Kan 
11,943 
600.000 
42 
8.0 
159 
11,872 
1,100,000 
93 
4 0 
160 
Pensacola, Fla 
11,750 
350.000 
30 
18.0 
161 
Cheyenne, Wy. 
11,690 
1,500,000 
128 
14.0 
162 
Charlotte, N. C 
11,557 
500,000 
43 
163 
Marinette. Wis 
11.523 
600.000 
52 
ii.6 
164 
Nebraska City, Neb 
11,494 
200.000 
17 
22.0 
165 
Muscatine, la 
11,454 
400,000 
35 
29.0 
166 
11,424 
362.000 
32 
8.0 
167 
Streator, Ill 
11,414 
11,288 
500,000 
44 
22.0 
168 
Chillicothe, O 
750,000 
66 
12.0 
169 
Mahanoy City, Pa 
11,286 
400,000 
36 
b .(J 
170 
Stillwater, Minn 
11,260 
1,000,000 
500,000 
89 
19.0 
171 
Auburn, Me 
11,250 
44 
10 0 
172 
Leadville, Col 
11.212 
1,000.000 
89 
11.0 
173 
Ithaca, N. Y 
11.079 
200,000 
18 
23.0 
174 
Denison, Tex 
10,958 
450,000 
41 
16.0 
175 
Ironton, O 
10,939 
1,700.000 
155 
9.0 
176 
Janesville,Wis 
10,836 
202,705 
19 
17.0 
177 
Fresno, Cal 
10,818 
2,500.000 
23 
5.0 
178 
Michigan City, Ind 
10,776 
1,000,000 
93 
30.0 
179 
Jacksonville, Ill 
10.740 
500,000 
47 
20.0 
180 
Butte City, Mon 
10,723 
850.000 
79 
31'6 
181 
Jeffersonville. Ind 
10,666 
150,000 
14 
182 
Menominee. Mich 
10.630 
565.000 
53 
12.0 
183 
Meridian, Miss 
10.624 
800.000 
75 
17.0 
184 
185 
186 
Augusta, Me 
10.527 
10.478 
1,060,000 
200,000 
95 
19 
58'6 
El Paso. Tex 
10,338 
600,000 
58 
13.0 
187 
Cairo, III 
10.324 
800,000 
77 
15.0 
188 
Danville, Va 
10,305 
1,000,000 
97 
31'6 
189 
Alton. Ill 
10.294 
400.000 
39 
190 
Asheville, N. C 
10,235 
350,000 
34 
20.0 
191 
Freeport, Ill 
10.189 
700,000 
69 
15.0 
192 
Sioux Falls. S. Dak 
10,177 
600,000 
59 
24.0 
193 
Peabody, Mass 
10,158 
826.940 
81 
6.0 
194 
Nanticoke, Pa 
10,044 
2,000,000 
199 
8.0 
195 
Jackson, Tenn 
10,039 
725,000 
72 
13.0 
Table No. 13.-Continued. 
16 The summer population is much greater than that given in the Table. THE USE OF WATER IN DIFFERENT TOWNS. 
123 
conditions affecting the consumption of water are the character of the 
population, whether requiring much water for other than domestic 
uses ; the use of meters and other efforts to reduce waste; the source 
and mode of supply, whether from a source of unlimited capacity, 
through a proper supply and distributing system, or otherwise, and 
whether by gravity or pumping, the current expense for the latter 
sometimes tending to keep down consumption. Some of the figures 
for consumption are only approximate, but all were originally taken 
from official reports. The estimates are often indicated by their being 
an even number of millions or hundreds of thousands. 
The Use of Water in Different Towns Does Not Follow Any 
Special Law. 
The slight relation between the size of cities and their daily use of 
water per capita is more plainly shown in the summary, Table 13A, 
where the number of cities with consumption between certain limits is 
shown for cities of five different classes of sizes. While this summary 
shows a decrease in per capita consumption with the decrease in size 
Table 13A.-Average Daily Consumption of Water (Gallons) Classified by 
Amounts and by Size of City. 
Population. 
200 or 
over. 
100 to 1 
199. 
75 to 99. 
50 to 74 . 
25 to 49. 
Below 25. 
Total. 
No. 
6 
P. c. total. 
d 
P. o. total. 
o 
P. c. total. 
o 
£ 
P. c. total. 
No. 
P. c. total. 
o 
P. c. total. 
Above 100,000 
1 
4 
10 
36 
7 
25 
8 
28 
2 
7 
28 
50,000 to 100,000 
25,000 to 50,000 
15,000 to 25,000 
10,000 to 15,000 , 
1 
2 
3 
3 
8 
9 
17 
10 
34 
30 
35 
16 
2 
7 
10 
13 
8 1 
23 
21 
20 
7 
8 
8 
11 
29 
27 
17 
17 
7 
5 
9 
21 
29 
17 
19 
33 
4 
7 
8 
11 
24 
30 
48 
64 
Totals 
4 
2 
54 
28 
39 
20 
42 
22 
44 
23 
11 
5 
194 
200 or 
over. 
100 or 
over. 
75 or 
over. 
50 or 
over. 
25 or 
over. 
Population. 
d 
% 
r 
P. c. total, j 
o 
P. c. total, j 
d 
K 
f 
P. c. total, j 
No. 
r 
P. c. total, j 
? 
d 
r 
P. c. total, j 
Total. 
No. 
Above 100,000 
1 
4 
11 
40 
18 
65 
26 
93 
28 
100 
28 
50,000 to 100,000 
8 
34 
10 
42 
17 
71 
24 
100 
24 
25,000 to 50,000 
15,000 to 25,000 
1 
3 
10 
17 
33 
35 
17 
27 
56 
56 
25 
35 
83 
73 
30 
44 
100 
92 
30 
48 
10,000 to 15,000 
Totals 
2 
4 
3 
2 
12 
58 
19 
30 
25 
97 
39 
50 
36 
139 
56 
72 
57 
183 
89 
95 
64 
194 124 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
of the city, there are so many exceptions that the rule can be accepted 
only in a very general way. 
That there is a quite general increase in the population per water 
tap, with the diminution in the size of the city, is shown by Table 13 
B, but the exceptions to this rule are numerous. 
Table 13B.-Population per Water Tap* Classified by Numbers and Size of 
City. 
4 to 10. 
11 to 20. 
21 to 30. 
31 to 40. 
50 to 58. 
Population. 
6 
55 
P. c. total. 
6 
55 
P. c. total. 
6 
K 
P. c. total. 
•ON 
P. c. total. 
6 
55 
P. c. total. 
Total. 
No. 
Above 100,000 
50.000 to 100,000 
25,000 to 50,000 
15,000 to 25,000 
10,000 to 15,000 
Totals 
14 
10 
10 
15 
22 
1 ZC CO £ or 
1 O CO C: Ci CO 
7 
9 
8 
23 
26 
29 
41 
36 
51 
42 
1 
2 
3 
5 
9 
4 
9 
14 
11 
15 
1 
1 
1 
2 
8 
4 
4 
4 
5 
5 
1 
i 
4 
2 
24 
22 
22 
45 
61 
71 
41 
73 
42 
20 
11 
8 
5 
2 
1 
174 
10 or 
less 
20 or 
less. 
30 or 
less. 
50 or 
less. 
Population. 
6 
& 
P. c. total. 
No. 
P. c. total. 
6 
55 
P. c. total. 
6 
55 
P. c. total. 
Total. 
No. 
Above 100.000 
50,000 to 100,000 
25,000 to 50,000 
15,000 to 25,000 
10,000 to 15,000 
Totals 
14 
10 
10 
15 
22 
59 
46 
46 
33 
36 
21 
19 
18 
38 
48 
88 
87 
82 
84 
78 
22 
21 
21 
43 
57 
92 
96 
96 
95 
93 
23 
22 
22 
45 
60 
96 
100 
100 
100 
98 
24 
22 
22 
45 
61 
71 
41 
144 
83 
164 
94 
172 
99 
174 
* In American water-works parlance, the word "taps" denotes the number of times the street water dis- 
tribution main is " tapped " with service pipes to houses or other buildings. 
The arrangement of cities by size, in Table 13, is intended to make 
more plain the variation in consumption per capita regardless of the 
size of the cities in question. This variation is still further illustrated, 
as is the effect of meters to reduce consumption, in Table 13 C, which 
gives the average daily consumption per capita of the fifty largest 
cities in the United States, arranged in the left half by consumptions 
greatest to least, the rank of the city in size and in consumption being 
given. 
New York, the largest city in the United States, ranks twenty-third 
down the scale in water consumption per capita, while Allegheny, 
having the highest consumption, ranks twenty-eighth down the scale in 
size. There are a few cases of exact coincidence in rank of size and THE USE OF WATER IN DIFFERENT TOWNS. 
125 
Table 13 C.-Consumption of Wateb (Gallons) and Use of Metebs in the Fifty 
Labgest Cities of the United States. 
Cities arranged in order of 
Consumption, greatest to least. 
•2 5 
a 5 
Eg 
5 
£ a 
AT 
Per cent, taps 
metered. 
Population per 
tap. 
Taps metered, least to greatest. 
Consumption 
per inhabitant. 
Population per 
tap, 
* 
1 
cn 
Consumption. 
Bank in: 
Size. 
Taps metered. 
Rank in: 
Per cent, taps 
metered. 
28 
1 
Alleghany 
. 238 
0 
7 
28 
1 
Allegheny 
0 
238 
7 
11 
2 
Buffalo 
. 186 
0.2 
6.3 
49 
Camden 
131 
34 
3 
Richmond 
. 167 
1.4 
7 9 
36 
IO 
Paterson 
small 
128 
11.8 
15 
4 
Detroit 
. 161 
2.1 
5.1 
50 
-2 
Trenton 
62 
6 
14 
5 
Washington . 
. 158 
0.3 
6.5 
13 
Pittsburg (Co.) 
. small 
153 
8.2 
13 
6 
Pittsburg (Co.) 
. 153 
small 
8.2 
48 
6 
Reading 
0.1 
75 
5.8 
38 
7 
Nashville 
146 
0.8 
14.9 
7 
6 
Baltimore 
0.1 
9-1 
5.8 
13 
8 
Pittsburg (Pub.) 
. 1-44 
0.2 
13 
7 
Pittsburg (Pub.) 
0.2 
144 
2 
9 
Chicago 
. 140 
11 
7 
Buffalo 
0.2 
18( 
6.3 
35 
10 
New Haven 
. 135 
44 
7 
Wilmington 
. 0.2 
HE 
5 
3 
11 
Philadelphia 
. 132 
0.3 
6.i 
3 
8 
Philadelphia 
. 0.3 
132 
6.1 
49 
12 
Camden 
. 131 
small 
14 
8 
Washington 
. 0.3 
158 
6.5 
36 
13 
Paterson 
. 128 
small 
ii.8 
12 
9 
New Orleans 
0.4 
37 
54 
46 
14 
Troy 
. 125 
3.9 
10.5 
29 
9 
Albany 
0.4 
6.2 
43 
15 
124 
3 7 
11 9 
38 
10 
Nashville.. 
0 8 
146 
14.9 
44 
16 
Wilmington 
. 113 
0.2 
5 
26 
11 
♦Denver 
. 0.8 
9 
17 
Cincinnati 
. 112 
4.1 
8.5 
19 
12 
Jersey City 
1.2 
97 
16 
18 
Milwaukee 
. 110 
31.9 
11.1 
34 
13 
Richmond 
1.4 
167 
7.9 
10 
19 
Cleveland 
. 103 
5.8 
8.7 
15 
14 
Detroit 
. 2.1 
161 
8.7 
19 
20 
Jersey City 
. 97 
1.2 
41 
15 
Cambridge 
. 2.4 
64 
6.6 
7 
21 
Baltimore .. 
94 
0.1 
5.8 
17 
15 
Newark 
2.4 
76 
8.6 
21 
21 
Omaha 
. 94 
19 4 
24 
4 
16 
Brooklyn 
2.5 
72 
8.7 
6 
22 
Boston 
. 80 
5 
6.6 
43 
17 
Memphis 
3.7 
124 
11.9 
1 
23 
New York 
79 
20.2 
13.9 
45 
18 
Dayton 
3.8 
47 
20.1 
30 
24 
Columbus 
. 78 
6.4 
11.5 
46 
19 
Troy 
. 3.9 
125 
11.5 
17 
25 
Newark 
76 
2.4 
8.6 
9 
20 
Cincinnati 
. 4.1 
112 
8.6 
48 
26 
Reading 
. 75 
0.1 
5.8 
23 
21 
St. Paul 
• 4.2 
60 
12.7 
18 
26 
Minneapolis 
75 
6.3 
16.5 
6 
22 
Boston 
5 
80 
6.6 
29 
27 
Louisville 
74 
5.9 
11.9 
10 
23 
Cleveland 
5.8 
103 
8.7 
33 
28 
Toledo 
72 
9.4 
18.6 
20 
24 
Louisville 
5.9 
74 
11 9 
4 
28 
Brooklyn 
. 72 
2.5 
8.7 
18 
25 
Minneapolis 
6.3 
75 
16.5 
5 
28 
St. Louis 
. 72 
8.2 
11.8 
30 
26 
Columbus 
6.4 
78 
11.5 
27 
29 
Indianapolis 
. 71 
7.6 
35.6 
27 
27 
Indianapolis 
7.6 
71 
35.6 
24 
29 
Kansas City 
71 
17.6 
15.3 
5 
28 
St. Louis 
8.2 
72 
11.8 
31 
30 
Syracuse 
. 68 
14.6 
21.5 
33 
29 
Toledo 
. 9.4 
72 
18.6 
37 
31 
Lowell 
66 
22.9 
9.2 
22 
30 
Rochester 
11.4 
66 
5.4 
22 
31 
Rochester 
. 66 
11.4 
5.4 
47 
31 
Grand Rapids (Pub.) ... 
. 12 
41 
32 
Cambridge 
64 
2.4 
6.6 
31 
32 
Syracuse 
. 14.6 
68 
21.5 
50 
33 
Trenton 
62 
small 
6 
47 
33 
Grand Rapids (Co.) 
15 
8 
34 
San Francisco.., 
. 61 
41 4 
9 9 
24 
34 
Kansas City 
. 17 6 
71 
15.3 
23 
35 
St. Paul 
. 60 
4.2 
12.7 
21 
35 
Omaha , . 
. 19.4 
94 
24 
32 
36 
Worcester 
. 59 
89.4 
8.9 
1 
36 
New York 
. 20.2 
71 
13.9 
25 
37 
Providence 
48 
62.4 
9.4 
37 
37 
Lowell 
. 22.9 
66 
9.2 
45 
38 
Day ton 
47 
3.8 
20.1 
16 
38 
Milwaukee 
. 31.9 
110 
11.1 
12 
39 
New Orleans 
. 37 
0.4 
54 
8 
39 
San Francisco .. 
. 41.4 
61 
9.9 
42 
40 
Atlanta 
36 
89.6 
20 
25 
40 
Providence 
. 62.4 
4S 
9.4 
40 
41 
Fall River 
. 29 
74.6 
14.9 
40 
41 
Fall River 
74.6 
211 
14.9 
47 
Grand Rapids (Co.) 
15 
32 
42 
Worcester 
. 89.4 
59 
8.9 
47 
Grand Rapids (Pub.) 
12 
42 
43 
Atlanta 
89.6 
36 
20 
39 
Scranton (Two Co.'s) 
35 
New Haven.. 
135 
29 
Albany 
0.4 
6.2 
39 
Scranton 
26 
Denver (Two Co.'s) 
2 
Chicago 
140 
* Denver City Water Co. 
consumption, but the two columns showing percentage of taps metered 
and population per tap, Table 13C, should always be examined in 
this connection. 
The right-hand half of Table 13C, showing cities arranged in order 
of percentage of taps metered, least to greatest, illustrates the impor- 126 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tance of the water meter as a factor in cities having sewage purifica- 
tion plants.* 
The tendency of the per capita consumption of water to increase 
with the population is shown by Table 14, which gives the consump- 
tion for a few cities at scattering dates from I860 to 1890. 
Table No. 14. -Increase in Daily Consumption of Water (Gallons per capita) 
in a Number of Cities, f 
Buffalo, 
Cincin- 
Cleveland, 
Detroit, 
Jersey 
Milwau- 
Trov, 
Toronto, 
Wilming- 
N . Y. 
nati, O. 
0. 
Mich. J 
City, N. J. 
kee, Wis. 
N. Y. 
Ont. 
ton, Del. 
1860 
30 
14 
52 
77 
1864 
57 
1868 
25 
67 
1870 
58 
40 
33 
64 
84 
1874 
60 
55 
45 
87 
86 
1878 
66 
51 
113 
55 
59 
1880 
105 
75 
65 
125 
106 
58 
65 
80 
1882 
106 
76 
68 
149 
124 
71 
94 
1884 
130 
82 
144 
106 
134 
95 
96 
1886 
132 
74 
91 
178 
137 
113 
133 
96 
92 
1888 
153 
107 
210 
1890 
186 
112 
103 
161 
97 
110 
125 
100 
113 
t From a Report on Additional Water Supply, Rochester, N. Y. (1889), by A. Fteley and J. T. Fanning. Sup- 
plemented by figures from the Manual of American Water-Works for 1890-91. 
t See Table 14A. 
The increase in water consumption at Detroit from 1853 to 1892 is 
shown in detail by Table 14A, in which the consumption per family is 
the basis of comparison. The table also shows the effect of efforts to 
Table No. 14A.-Water Pumped per Family at Detroit, Mich., in Each of the 
40 Years from 1853 to 1892, Inclusive.$ 
Years. 
Families 
supplied. 
^-Water pumped, gals.-, i 
Years. 
Families 
supplied. 
<- Water pumped, gals.-, 
Total 
quantity. 
Per 
family. 1 
Total 
quantity. 
Per 
family. 
1853 
4,283 
303,531.743 
376,265.126 
70.868 1 
1873 
.... 17,019 
.... 18.853 
3,198,393,948 
3,289,872.635 
187.930 
1854 
.... 4.619 
84.450 
1874 
174,511 
1855 
5,282 
542,807.364 
102.765 
1875 
.... 19.606 
.... 20.102 
4.207.454.260 
214,660 
202.225 
1856 
.... 5.706 
692,124.305 
121.297 
1876 
4,065.134.470 
1857 .. 
6.189 
697,190,523 
112.659 
1877 
20.345 
4.213.239,790 
207.090 
1858 
... 6.474 
718.091.207 
110,919 
1878 
.... 20.603 
4.345.743.330 
210.927 
1859 
6.794 
782,112.587 
115,118 
125,185 
1879 . 
. ... 21,341 
22.465 
5,129,599.110 
5.552.965,310 
240.348 
1860 
6.750 
870,036.451 
1880 
247,183 
1861 
7,128 
895.129,423 
125.579 
1881 
.... 23,749 
6,543.127,968 
279,722 
1862 
7,275 
994.945,329 
136,762 
1882 
25.442 
6,284,000.742 
243.062 
1863 
.... 7.699 
1.035.798,043 
134.534 
1883 
27.415 
7.379.327.788 
260.170 
1864 
7.993 
1.019.390.256 
127,410 
1S84 
29,424 
8,510,614,440 
289,260 
1865 
8.351 
1.040.514.887 
1.196.317.922 
125,675 
131.622 
i 1885 
30,533 
.... 31.946 
9,970,829.580 
10.576.571,254 
326.886 
1866 
9,089 
18S6 
331,070 
1867 
10,242 
1.425.535.230 
139,184 
1887 
34,486 
13,168.859,808 
381,869 
1868 
11,541 
1,666,545,125 
144,364 
1888 
36,863 
14,380,166,670 
390,098 
1869 
.. .. 12,774 
1,946.810,325 
152.400 
! 188911 
.. .. 39.158 
12,875,334,453 
328.880 
1870 
13,722 
1,866,060,068 
136,000 
1890 
41,467 
12.120.944,532 
292,300 
1871 
14,896 
2,300,150,605 
154,414 
1891 
43,933 
12.057.261.236 
274,470 
1872 
.... 16.035 
2.782,292.578 
173,513 
1892 
46,400 
12,276,612,482 
264,582 
§ This table is taken from the report for 1892 of L. N. Case, Secretary of the Detroit Water Commissioners. 
|| Commenced metering. 
* Table 13C was originally designed to show the effect of meters unon the consumption of water, and is 
taken from the Introduction to the Manual of American Water-Works, for 1890-91, p. xxvii. This table, 
with a somewhat extended discussion of the relation between the use of meters and water consumption, may be 
found in Eng. News, vol. xxvii., p. 63 (Jan. 16, 1892). NECESSITY FOR CONSIDERING FUTURE GROWTH. 
127 
reduce a highly excessive waste of water by the use of meters, which 
were introduced in 1889, and not only at once lowered the total yearly 
water consumption, but also the consumption per family, so that the 
total yearly consumption, or pumpage, for 1892 was over two billion 
gallons, or some 14 per cent., less than in 1888. 
Iii designing sewage disposal works it will be necessary to take into 
account, the same as in designing the pipe system, the future growth 
of the town ; and by way of indicating what is now taking place in this 
particular in the United States Tables 15 and 16, derived from Census 
Bulletin No. 52,* are inserted. 
Table No. 15.-Increase tn Population in Ten Years in a Number of Cities and 
Towns of the United States with from 8,000 to 50,000 Inhabitants in 1890. 
Necessity for Considering Future Growth. 
Names of cities and towns. 
Population. 
Increase. 
1890. 
1880. 
Number. 
Per cent. 
Adams, Mass 
9,213 
5,591 
3,622 
64.78 
Adrian, Mich 
8,756 
7,849 
907 
11.56 
27,601 
16,512 
11,089 
67.16 
95 60 
Alameda, Cal 
11,165 
5,708 
5,457 
Alexandria, Va 
14,339 
13,659 
680 
4.98 
Allentown, Pa 
25,228 
18,063 
7.165 
39.67 
Alpena, Mich 
11,283 
6,153 
5,130 
83.37 
Alton, Ill 
10,294 
8,975 
1,319 
14.70 
Altoona, Pa 
30,337 
19.710 
10,627 
53.92 
Amesbury, Mass 
9.798 
3,355 
6,443 
192.04 
Amsterdam, N. Y 
17,336 
9,466 
7,870 
83.14 
Anderson, Ind 
10,741 
4,126 
6,615 
160.32 
Ann Arbor. Mich 
9,431 
8,061 
1,370 
1 4 .00 
Anniston, Ala 
9,998 
942 
9,056 
961.36 
Appleton, Wis 
11,869 
8,005 
3,864 
48.27 
Arkansas City, Kan.... 
Asheville, N. C 
8,347 
10,235 
1,012 
2,616 
7.335 
7.619 
724.80 
291.25 
Ashtabula, 0 
8,338 
4.445 
3,893 
87.58 
Athens, Ga 
8,639 
6,099 
2,540 
41.65 
Atlantic City, N. J 
13,055 
5.477 
7,578 
138 36 
Auburn, N. Y 
25,858 
21,924 
3,934 
17 94 
Augusta, Ga 
33,300 
21,891 
11.409 
52.12 
Bay City, Mich 
27,839 
20,693 
7,146 
34.53 
Bayonne, N. J .. 
19,033 
9,372 
9,661 
103.08 
Binghamton. N. Y 
35,005 
17,317 
17,688 
102.14 
Bridgeport, Conn 
Brockton, Mass 
48.866 
27,294 
27,643 
13.608 
21.223 
13,686 
76.78 
100.57 
Brookline, Mass 
12,103 
8,057 
4,046 
50.22 
Clinton, la.. 
13,619 
9,052 
4,567 
50.45 
Cohoes, N. Y 
22,509 
19.416 
3,093 
15.93 
Columbia, S. C,... 
Columbus, Ga 
15,353 
17,303 
10,036 
10,123 
5,317 
7,180 
52.98 
70.93 
Concord, N. H 
17,004 
13.843 
3,161 
22.83 
Covington, Ky 
37,371 
29,720 
7,651 
27.709 
25.74 
Dallas, Tex 
38,067 
10.358 
267.51 
Dunkirk, N. Y 
9,416 
7,248 
2,168 
3,004 
29.91 
Framingham, Mass 
9,239 
6,235 
48.18 
Gardner, Mass 
8.424 
4,988 
3,436 
68.89 
Green Bay, Wis 
9,069 
7,464 
1,605 
21.50 
Harrisburg, Pa 
39,385 
30,762 
8,623 
28.03 
Ithaca. N. Y 
11.079 
9,105 
1,974 
21.68 
Jamestown, N. Y 
16,038 
9,357 
6,681 
71.40 
Joliet, Ill 
23,264 
11,657 
11,607 
99.57 
9,025 
5,651 
3,374 
59.71 
Lansing, Mich 
13,102 
8,319 
4,783 
57.49 
Lawrence, Mass - • ■ 
44,654 
39.151 
5,503 
14.06 
* Urban Populations in 1890. April 17, 1891. 128 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 16.-Increase in Population in Ten Years in Cities of the United 
States of over 50,000 Inhabitants in 1890. 
Name of city. 
Population. 
Increase. 
1890. 
1880. 
Numbers. 
Per cent 
Allegheny, Pa 
105,287 
78,682 
26 605 
33 81 
Atlanta. Ga 
65,533 
37,409 
28 124 
75 18 
Baltimore, Md 
434,439 
332,313 
102,126 
30.73 
Boston, Mass 
448,477 
362,839 
85,638 
23 60 
Brooklyn, N. Y 
806,343 
566 663 
239 680 
42 30 
Buffalo, N. Y 
255,664 
155 134 
100530 
64 80 
Cambridge, Mass 
70,028 
52 669 
17 359 
32 96 
Camden, N. J.... 
58,313 
41 659 
16 654 
39 98 
Charleston, S. C 
54.955 
49 984 
4 971 
9 95 
Chicago, Ill 
1,099,850 
503 185 
596'665 
118 58 
Cincinnati, 0 
296,908 
255,139 
4L769 
16.37 
Cleveland, O 
261,353 
160,146 
101.207 
63.20 
Columbus, O 
88 150 
51 647 
36 503 
70 68 
Day ton, 0 
61' 220 
38 678 
22 542 
58 28 
Denver, Col 
106,713 
35 629 
71084 
)99 51 
Des Moines, la 
50 093 
22 408 
27 685 
123 55 
Detroit, Mich. 
205'876 
116 840 
89 5J- 6 
76 96 
Evansville, Ind 
50,756 
29'280 
21 476 
73 35 
Fall River, Mass ' 
74 398 
48 961 
25 437 
51 95 
Grand Rapids, Mich 
60*278 
32 016 
28 262 
88 27 
Hartford, Conn 
53^230 
42 615 
11,215* 
2(i 69 
Indianapolis, Ind 
105 436 
75 056 
30 380 
40 48 
Jersey City, N. J 
163 003 
120 722 
42'281 
35 02 
Kansas City, Mo 
132 716* 
55 785 
76 931 
137 91 
Lincoln, Neb 
55 154 
18,003 
42 151 
324 16 
Los Angeles, Cal 
50 395 
11 '183 
39 212 
350 64 
Louisville, Ky 
161.129 
123758 
37371 
30 20 
Lowell, Mass 
77.696 
59^475 
18 221 
30 64 
Lynn, Mass 
55,727 
38,274 
17,453 
45 60 
Memphis, Tenn 
64,495 
33,592 
30,903 
92 00 
Milwaukee, Wis 
204,468 
115,587 
88,881 
76.90 
Minneapolis, Minn 
164,738 
46.887 
117,851 
251.35 
Newark, N. J 
181,830 
136,508 
45,322 
33 20 
New Haven, Conn 
81'298 
62^882 
18^416 
29 29 
New Orleans, La 
242^039 
216,090 
25.949 
12 01 
New York, N. Y 
1.515,301 
1,206,299 
309,002 
25 62 
Omaha. Neb 
140,452 
30.518 
109,934 
360.23 
Paterson, N. J 
78,347 
51,031 
27^316 
53.53 
Philadelphia, Pa 
1.046,964 
847,170 
199,794 
23.58 
Pittsburg, Pa 
238,617 
156,389 
82,228 
52 58 
Providence, R. I 
132,146 
104,857 
27,289 
26 02 
Reading, Pa 
58,661 
43,278 
15,383 
35 54 
Richmond, Va 
81,388 
63,600 
17.788 
27 97 
Rochester, N. Y 
133.89(5 
89,366 
44.530 
49 83 
St. Joseph, Mo 
52,324 
32,431 
19.893 
61.34 
St. Louis, Mo 
451.770 
350.518 
101,252 
28 89 
St. Paul, Minn 
133.156 
41.473 
91,683 
221 07 
San Francisco, Cal 
298,997 
233,959 
65,038 
27 80 
Scranton, Pa 
75,215 
45,850 
29.365 
64 05 
Syracuse. N. Y 
88,143 
51,792 
36.351 
70 19 
Toledo, O 
81.434 
50,137 
31.297 
62 42 
Trenton, N. J 
57,458 
29.910 
27,548 
92.10 
Troy, N. Y 
60,956 
56,747 
4,209 
7 42 
Washington, D. C 
230,392 
177^624 
52,768 
29 71 
Wilmington, Del 
61,431 
42,478 
18 953 
44 62 
Worcester, Mass 
84.655 
58,291 
26,364 
45.23 
* Includes 13,048 population, which by recent decision of Missouri State Supreme Court, is now outside the 
limits of Kansas City. 
Table No. 15, of cities and towns with populations ranging from 
8,000 to 50,000 in 1890, includes only a portion of those given in the 
complete list in Census Bulletin No. 52. Only enough have been 
selected to indicate in a perspicuous manner the rapid increase of 
population in such towns at the present time. An analysis of the 
complete list in the Bulletin shows that of the total number of TO DETERMINE THE LAW OF INCREASE OF POPULATION. 
129 
nearly 400 such towns about 25 per cent, have more than doubled in 
population in the last decade. Moreover, the towns showing this 
large increase are situated in all parts of the country, many of them 
being in the older settled States, where it might be considered that 
fixed conditions are mostly attained. In the same way it is found 
that a considerable number of towns of the class indicated have 
increased in the period from 50 to 100 per cent. 
If we examine the list of cities of over 50,000 population in 1890, 
we find that of the 56 which are listed in Table No. 16, only 14 per 
cent, exhibit an increase of more than 100 per cent., likewise the 
number increasing from 50 to 100 per cent, is proportionately smaller 
than in the class of towns illustrated in Table No. 15. 
How to Determine the Law of Increase of Population. 
Various attempts have been made to elucidate the law governing 
increase of population in towns, but thus far none of them can be 
considered wholly satisfactory. The problem presents itself with 
new features in nearly every town, and the decision of what the popu- 
lation may be at any future period becomes largely a matter of 
judgment, based upon the special conditions. To assist the judgment, 
the census returns for each ten-year period may be tabulated as in 
Tables No. 17 and 18 following : 
Table No. 17.-Population of a Number of the Smaller Cities and Towns of 
the United States at Each Ten-Year Period from 1800 to 1890. 
Name. 
Population. 
1800. 
1810. 
1820. 
1830. 
1840. 
1850. 
1860. 
1870. 
1880. 
1890. 
Alexandria, Ya 
Akron, 0 
Auburn, N. Y 
Augusta, Ga 
Bay City, Mich 
Burlington, Vt 
Binghamton, N. Y 
Chelsea, Mass 
Chester, Pa 
Cohoes, N. Y 
Dalias, Tex 
4,971 
7,227 
8,218 
8,241 
8,459 
8,734 
3.266 
9,548 
12,652 
3,477 
10,986 
13,570 
10,006 
17,225 
13,659 
16,512 
21,924 
14,339 
27,600 
25,858 
8i5 
957 
'1^690 
L056 
' 2,iii 
' ' 657 
' 3,525 
'' si? 
6,403 
*4,27i 
' 2,390 
1,790 
10,217 
' 7,585 
' 6,701 
1,667 
4,229 
12,493 
1,583 
7,713 
8,325 
13,395 
4,631 
8,800 
15,389 
7,064 
14,387 
12,692 
18.547 
9,485 
15,357 
21,891 
20,693 
11,365 
17,317 
21,782 
14,997 
19,416 
33,300 
27,839 
14.590 
35,005 
27,909 
20,226 
22,509 
Dover, N. H 
2,062 
2.228 
2,871 
' 5,449 
' 6.458 
8,196 
' 8,502 
*9,294 
10,358 
11,687 
11,666 
12,429 
12.122 
7,650 
25,769 
12,017 
32,630 
13,063 
20,433 
12,093 
20.550 
23,339 
18.934 
38.067 
Danbury, Conn 
3,180 
3,606 
3,873 
4,331 
4.504 
5,964 
7,234 
8,753 
16,552 
22,037 
17,565 
17,201 
32,011 
23,031 
44,126 
19,791 
24,918 
13,394 
37,673 
37,718 
27,132 
Fitchburg, Mass 
Hamilton, 0 
Jacksonville, Fa ". 
1,390 
1,566 
1,736 
2,169 
2,604 
5,120 
3,210 
1,045 
7,805 
7,233 
2,118 
11,260 
11,081 
6.912 
Lancaster, Pa 
Malden, Mass 
Manchester, N, H 
Norristown, Pa 
Newport, Ky 
Steubenville, 0 
San Antonio, Tex 
Wilkesbarre, Pa 
Williamsport, Pa 
4,292 
1,059 
'"106 
835 
131 
5,405 
1,384 
"*418 
' 1,225 
344 
6,633 
1.731 
761 
827 
2,539 
755 
624 
7,704 
2,010 
877 
1.089 
715 
2,937 
' 2'232 
8,417 
2,514 
3,235 
2,937 
4,247 
' ijis 
1,353 
12,369 
3,520 
13.932 
6,024 
5,895 
6,140 
3,488 
2,723 
1.615 
17,603 
5,865 
20,107 
8,848 
10,046 
6,154 
8.235 
4.253 
5,664 
20,233 
7.370 
23,536 
10.753 
15.087 
8,107 
12,256 
10,174 
16,030 130 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 18.-Population of a Number of the Largest Cities of the United 
States at Each Ten-Year Period from 1800 to 1890. 
Name. 
Population. 
1800. 
1810. 
1820. 
1830. 
1840. 
1850. 
1860. 
1870. 
1880. 
1890. 
Baltimore, Md 
26,514 
46,555 
62,738 
80,620 
102,313 
16<»,054 
212,418 
267,354 
332,313 
434.439 
Boston. Mass 
24.937 
33,250 
43,298 
61,392 
93,383 
136,881 
177,840 
250,526 
362.839 
448,477 
Brooklyn. N. Y 
2,378 
4,402 
7,175 
12.406 
36,233 
96,838 
266.661 
396.099 
566.663 
806,343 
Buffalo, N. Y 
8,668 
18,213 
42.261 
81,129 
117.714 
155.134 
255,664 
Chicago, 111 
4.470 
29,963 
112,172 
298.977 
503,185 
1.099,850 
2,540 
9,642 
24,831 
46,338 
115,435 
161.014 
216,239 
255.139 
296.908 
Cleveland, 0 
606 
1.876 
6,071 
17,034 
43,417 
92.829 
160,146 
261,353 
Detroit, Mich 
1,422 
2,222 
9,102 
21,019 
45,619 
79,577 
116,340 
205,876 
New York, N. Y.... 
60,515 
96.373 
123,706 
197,112 
312.710 
515,547 
805.658 
942.292 
1,206,299 
847.170 
1,515.301 
Philadelphia. Pa.... 
41,220 
53,722 
63,802 
80,462 
93.665 
121.376 
565.529 
674,022 
1,046,964 
Rochester, N. Y.... 
9.207 
20.191 
36,403 
48,204 
62,386 
89.363 
133,896 
St. Louis, Mo 
10,049 
14.125 
16,469 
77,860 
160.773 
310,864 
350,518 
457,770 
Washington, D. C... 
3,210 
8.208 
13,247 
18,826 
23,364 
40,001 
61,122 
109,199 
177,624 
230,392 
Worcester, Mass.... 
2,411 
2.577 
2,962 
4,173 
7,497 
17,049 
24,960 
41,105 
58,291 
84,655 
By plotting the series for any given town, the population curve is 
approximately determined. With the census record complete from 
1800 to 1890, this curve may be usually projected from 10 to 20 years 
ahead with considerable probability of deducing results accurate 
enough to assist an engineer in determining what provision for future 
population may be reasonably made in designing works at any given 
place.* 
Fig. 5, derived from the Preliminary Report of the Chicago Drain- 
age Commission, illustrates the practical utility of such a method. 
Fig. 5.-Diagram Illustrating the Rate of Growth of City Populations. 
* For an excellent example of the analytical method of treating such a problem, see a Report 
on an Additional Water Supply for Boston, by Joseph P. Davis, city engineer, City Documents, 
No. 29, 1874. Mr. Davis there forecasts the population of Boston in 1890 as about 423,000; the 
census returns show it to be 448,477, while in 1870, the last return available at the time of mak- 
ing the computation, the population was 250,526. THE INFILTRATION OF GROUND WATER. 
131 
Generalizations. 
The tabulations here submitted, although hardly exhaustive, are 
sufficient to indicate how one may proceed in deducing the future 
population as the basis of rational design of permanent public works. 
As a rapid generalization, subject to exception in many cases, we may 
say: 
(1) That in American towns under 50,000 population, the present 
rate of increase may be taken at about 100 per cent, in from 15 to 20 
years. 
(2) That in the larger towns the increase will be say 50 per cent, in 
the same time. 
In connection with these generalizations, it is again strongly insisted 
that special studies in detail are required in each case. 
Cause of Variations in Quantity of Sewage. 
The foregoing Tables 13 to 13C showing the daily water consump- 
tion per capita, may be considered as affording an approximate indi- 
cation of the probable dry-weather flow of sewage proper in the several 
towns, except that varying proportions of the population supplied 
with public water also enjoy sewer connections. Variations in quan- 
tity from the tabulated indications will be due chiefly, in addition to 
the above, to (1) infiltration of drainage water, and (2) to leakage from 
the sewers, both of which may be expected to frequently take place. 
Of these two sources of variation infiltration will operate the most 
disastrously upon the success of disposal works, while leakage from 
the sewers, with its consequent pollution of the subsoil water, may 
injuriously affect the public health. 
The Infiltration of Ground Water. 
In reference to the amount of ground water likely to find its way 
into sewers definite information is rather scanty. In Boston, accord- 
ing to a discussion by Frederick P. Stearns, M. Am. Soc. C. E., 
chief engineer of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, the 
amount of ground water finding its way into the sewers of the main 
drainage system is about 45 gallons per inhabitant per day. The 
question of infiltration into the sewers of Boston and also into 
separate sewer systems from which storm water is excluded, is 
discussed at some length by Mr. Stearns, and it is sufficient for 
present illustration to merely point out the more important facts of 
the discussion.* It may be remembered, however, that many of the 
* Special Report by Frederick P. Stearns, chief engineer, in Report of State Board of Health 
upon the Sewage of the Mystic and Charles River Valleys, pp. 90-96. 132 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
older sewers of Boston are of such open construction as to admit of 
relatively large infiltration of ground water. Some of them, more- 
over, follow the threads of old water-courses, which further leads to 
large contributions of ground water. 
At East Orange, New Jersey, a separate system of sewers was 
carried out in 1886-88. In the latter part of November, 1893, there were 
about 33 miles of sewers in use, with 1,685 house connections. Many of 
the sewers are laid at such depths as to be over 20 feet below the level 
of the ground water. At a number of points quicksand was unex- 
pectedly encountered, and the necessity for using about 4,000 feet of 
brick sewer on account of size required at the most unfavorable loca- 
tions for making tight work, still further complicated the problem. 
The infiltration, as measured before any house connections were in 
use, was, for the vitrified-tile sewers (25 miles completed at the time of 
the measurement), 2.5 gallons per second ; for the brick sewer, 5 gallons 
per second, the total infiltration amounting at these rates to 650,000 
gallons per day. The flush-tank flow is estimated at 30,000 gallons 
per day, and the house-sewage flow from a contributing population of 
nearly 15,000 at 620,000 gallons per day. The infiltration is thus found 
to be 50 per cent, of the total quantity. . Since the above measure- 
ments and estimates were made it is stated that the infiltration of 
ground water has been decreasing. Sewage disposal works are in use 
in connection with this system of sewers, and we will further consider 
the effect of this amount of ground water in describing the methods 
of disposal used at East Orange in Part II.* 
Concluding this part of the subject, it may be noted that the results 
obtained under the extremely unfavorable conditions existing at East 
Orange of a leakage of only 2.5 gallons per second (216,000 gallons in 
21 hours) from 25 miles of vitrified tile sewers, with 66,000 joints, is 
indicative that, under favorable conditions and with careful workman- 
ship, a system of such sewers may be made nearly impervious, though 
in designing disposal works it will probably be safe to allow for an 
infiltration of perhaps 15 per cent, of the flow of sewage proper. 
Provision for Rainfall in Combined System. 
Where combined systems are in use it will be necessary in design- 
ing sewage disposal works, to provide further for a certain propor- 
tion of the rainfall, and just what proportion will be provided for 
must depend upon a number of considerations, as for instance: 
(1) Whether the outfall sewers are, or can be arranged with refer- 
* See paper on Inland Sewage Disposal, with Special Reference to the East Orange, N. J., 
Works, by Carroll Ph. Bassett, M. Am. Soc. C. E., in Trans. Am. Soc. C. E , vol. xxv., p. 
125. Mr. Bassett was engineer of the works at East Orange. PROVISION FOR RAINFALL IN COMBINED SYSTEM. 
133 
ence to storm overflows, and if so arranged whether any portion of 
the storm water will go to the disposal works. 
(2) If any proportion of the storm water is to go to the disposal 
works, then what proportion. 
(3) The proportion of the total of any given rainfall which is likely 
to reach the sewers, the amount reaching them depending upon the 
slope of the area drained, and its relative imperviousness, as whether 
fully built up and paved. 
It thus appears that when the rainfall is taken into account, the 
disposal problem is considerably complicated, and aside from the 
modifying circumstances pointed out in the chapter on The Infectious 
Diseases of Animals, the conclusion is reached that when some form 
of purification is to be provided, a separate system of sewerage appears 
preferable to the combined system by reason of not only the greater 
ease with which the more uniform flow of the separate system can be 
treated, but also by reason of the materially reduced expense of such 
treatment. 
We will consider briefly the effect on the cost of sewage disposal 
works of actually providing for treating the whole of that portion of 
the rainfall which runs off into the sewers of a combined system as 
well as the sewage proper. 
In the first place, it may be assumed that a considerable increase in 
capacity of disposal works would become inevitable in order to treat 
the rainfall, whatever the method of purification. Again, in order to 
prevent too great increase in capacity of disposal works, storage for 
the storm flow would naturally be provided with a view to extending 
the time of treatment of the excess flow of storms as much as possible. 
Without going into a discussion of the elements of the special problem 
of the proportionate amount of drainage which may be expected from 
the partially impervious areas of large northern towns, we will assume 
as sufficient for an illustration that 50 per cent, of a 24-hour rainfall 
may be expected to run off immediately ; and that in towns with com- 
bined sewerage systems a treatment of the whole flow, including the 
rainfall, would require the provision of storage for nearly one-half of 
the greatest rainfall which can be expected in 24 hours. This large 
allowance will only provide for a summer rainfall, and a winter rain 
may occur when the whole area is impervious from the effect of frost; 
if such a rain occurs when the ground is further covered with snow we 
may have, because of melting of the snow, an amount of water flowing 
from a given area even greater than the total rainfall for the assumed 
unit of time of 24 hours. A provision of storage for 50 per cent, of 
the largest 24-hour rainfall must, therefore, be considered conservative 
for our northern climates. In the South, with moderate winters of 
little or no snow, we may take the percentage flowing off as somewhat 134 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
less, say at 40 per cent. Southern towns, too, are built with more 
open space than northern, from which it follows that the impervious 
area is relatively less in proportion to the whole area, whence we de- 
rive another reason for using a smaller per cent. 
Assuming a towm with an area of 5,000 acres and maximum 24-hour 
rainfall of 2 inches, the storage required would be 136,000,000 gallons. 
If wre apply these figures to larger areas we find that in the great 
cities the quantity of water derived from the rainfall is so great that 
Table No. 19.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 
1871 to 1892, Inclusive.* 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec . 
Year. 
1871 
2.50 
.78 
.50 
1.70 
1.10 
1.02 
1.06 
.91 
.16 
1.45 
1.15 
1.41 
2.50 
1872 
.21 
.12 
.16 
.42 
.67 
1.43 
.90 
.80 
3.74 
.22 
1.05 
.21 
3.74 
1873 
1 49 
.06 
.38 
.(>2 
1.90 
.77 
2.03 
1 24 
.72 
99 
2 03 
1874 
.84 
.30 
1.04 
1.63 
1.17 
1.39 
1.56 
.57 
1.27 
1.52 
1.06 
.48 
1 63 
1875 
.43 
.45 
.48 
1.03 
2.70 
2.14 
.86 
.87 
1.35 
.83 
.34 
1.13 
2.70 
1876 
1.90 
1.07 
.85 
1.35 
1.82 
.84 
2.10 
2.71 
.77 
.54 
1.80 
.81 
2.71 
1877 
1.13 
.06 
.88 
2.92 
.36 
1.42 
.98 
1.63 
.26 
1.09 
93 
1.04 
2 92 
1878 
.83 
1.76 
.75 
1.55 
1.06 
1.23 
.94 
.32 
1.43 
1.25 
.36 
.22 
1.76 
1879 
.32 
.69 
.25 
1.58 
.80 
.93 
1 07 
1.30 
.84 
1 05 
.87 
59 
1 58 
1880 
.87 
.99 
.72 
1.26 
1.19 
1.56 
.81 
.65 
.86 
.17 
.47 
.20 
1 56 
1881 
.71 
1.01 
1.79 
.21 
1.38 
1.07 
1.32 
.49 
.70 
1.61 
.44 
.56 
1 79 
1882 
.14 
1.06 
.61 
.45 
.71 
1.36 
.66 
2.17 
.79' 
.45 
.41 
2.17 
3883 
.38 
.91 
.06 
.26 
.95 
.49 
1.17 
.16 
.89 
.67 
.75 
.31 
1.17 
1884 
.30 
.32 
.64 
1.05 
.34 
2.03 
1.44 
.41 
1.29 
.43 
.54 
.72 
2.03 
1885 
.71 
.12 
.09 
1.02 
.19 
1 81 
.85 
2.09 
1.74 
.81 
.88 
.72 
2 Oil 
1886 
.86 
.43 
.99 
.86 
.94 
.99 
.35 
1.95 
.68 
1.25 
.47 
.37 
1 95 
1887 
1.13 
.84 
1.00 
.52 
.75 
.23 
2.98 
.82 
1.14 
.89 
.32 
82 
2.98 
1888 
.35 
.15 
.50 
1.05 
.53 
.94 
1.25 
1.00 
.38 
.51 
36 
1.13 
1.25 
1889 
.37 
.36 
.32 
.80 
1 20 
1.94 
1.01 
. 52 
.32 
.20 
.68 
.45 
1.94 
1890 
1.00 
.72 
.64 
1.05 
1.25 
1.07 
1.07 
.88 
.30 
.46 
.16 
1.25 
1891 
1 23 
.47 
.88 
2 00 
1.14 
2 53 
1.44 
1.01 
.14 
93 
1.37 
.65 
2 53 
1892 
1.38 
.75 
.74 
.76 
1.55 
1 04 
.61 
2.52 
1.20 
.92 
49 
2 52 
Period 
2.50 
1.76 
1.79 
2.92 
2.70 
2.14 
2.98 
2.71 
3.74 
1.52 
1.80 
1.41 
3.74 
(From 8 p. m. to 8 p. M.) 
* Amounts are expressed in inches. 
Table No. 20.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Detroit, Michigan, 1871 to 
1892, Inclusive. 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May. 
June. 
July. 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Year. 
1871 
.85 
1.25 
1.05 
.72 
1.09 
1.05 
.21 
.41 
.60 
.46 
1.55 
1.00 
1.55 
1872 
.68 
.31 
.46 
.42 
2.06 
1.27 
.58 
1.06 
.81 
.40 
.22 
.22 
2.06 
1873 
1.61 
.40 
1.72 
.89 
.55 
1.00 
.05 
.96 
.86 
.36 
1.58 
1 72 
1874 
1.31 
.56 
.82 
.63 
1.00 
1.87 
.76 
.89 
.25 
.43 
.60 
.25 
1.87 
1875 
.22 
.60 
1.25 
.56 
2.12 
1.39 
1.44 
1.88 
1.31 
1.05 
.43 
1.01 
2.12 
1876 
.47 
2.41 
1 15 
.69 
1.65 
.38 
1.68 
1.09 
.46 
.90 
.86 
.54 
2.41 
1877 
.47 
.02 
1.13 
1.22 
.34 
1.35 
.87 
2.02 
.12 
2 02 
1.57 
.30 
2 02 
1878 
1.48 
.60 
.49 
.97 
.96 
1.16 
2.48 
1.03 
.98 
1.03 
1.19 
1.35 
2.48 
1879 
.37 
.42 
.35 
.43 
1.78 
1.03 
2.05 
.60 
3.21 
.34 
1.16 
1.09 
3.21 
1880 
.54 
.25 
1.35 
1 57 
1.61 
1.66 
1.68 
1.20 
2.08 
1.30 
1.64 
.24 
2 08 
1881 
.66 
.93 
.75 
1.09 
1.62 
2.25 
1 10 
1.38 
1.95 
1.15 
1.15 
2 25 
1882 
.53 
.66 
.93 
.45 
1.68 
.99 
.53 
1.06 
.86 
.82 
.37 
.42 
1 68 
1883 . 
43 
1 12 
75 
61 
1,20 
63 
1 31 
26 
.53 
51 
.81 
55 
1 31 
1884 
.35 
.55 
.41 
.41 
*54 
.81 
1'35 
.86 
.67 
.91 
.68 
.63 
1 35 
1885 
.58 
.68 
.24 
75 
1.28 
1.08 
.84 
1.16 
.65 
.33 
.63 
1.04 
1.28 
1886 
.45 
.34 
.47 
2 41 
.76 
69 
2.31 
.54 
.94 
.34 
.99 
.60 
2 41 
1887 
.31 
1.24 
.49 
58 
1 02 
1 51 
.66 
1 06 
1.18 
.50 
1.46 
.71 
1 51 
1888 
.50 
.70 
.71 
60 
.70 
1.27 
4.42 
.68 
1.46 
.53 
4.42 
18S9 
39 
24 
83 
2 57 
1 24 
6? 
10 
37 
61 
80 
88 
2 57 
1890 
.95 
.55 
.47 
88 
1.50 
.99 
94 
2.72 
.67 
1 29 
1.51 
.58 
2.72 
1891 
.58 
1.32 
1.00 
1.10 
.52 
.82 
tG4 
.83 
.97 
1.19 
1.43 
.54 
1.43 
1892 
.42 
.52 
.78 
.71 
2.22 
3.39 
1.07 
1.09 
2 75 
.16 
1.15 
.42 
3.39 
Period 
1.61 
2.41 
1.25 
2.41 
2.57 
3.39 
2.48 
4.42 
3.21 
2.02 
1.57 
1,58 
4,42 PROVISION FOR RAINFALL IN COMBINED SYSTEM. 
135 
to hold it in storage and treat it becomes a practical impossibility. 
As a compromise, then, we could only hope to provide for treating 
the first flow of rain water, which, as containing the bulk of the street 
washings, may be looked upon as the most important. In this view 
we would provide for perhaps 5 to 10 per cent, of the maximum 24- 
hours rainfall. 
In order to illustrate this phase of the question, several tables of 
maximum rainfalls in different parts of the country are included. 
Table No. 21.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Cleveland, Ohio, 1871 to 1892, 
Inclusive. 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May. 
June. 
July. 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Year. 
1871 
.16 
1.03 
1.20 
.24 
.64 
1.55 
1.19 
3.14 
.27 
.28 
1.05 
.55 
3.14 
1872 
1.00 
.27 
.27 
.59 
.91 
1.26 
2.32 
1.35 
1.00 
.67 
.30 
.52 
2.32 
1873 
.48 
.78 
.66 
1.23 
1.00 
2.11 
.85 
.88 
.46 
1.87 
2.11 
1874 
1.54 
1.33 
.38 
.36 
1.65 
2.13 
1.28 
1.13 
.34 
.53 
1.09 
1.65 
1875 
.45 
.26 
.91 
.61 
1.06 
1.26 
1.55 
1.87 
.80 
1.00 
.66 
1.87 
1876 
1.27 
1.66 
.65 
.43 
2.10 
1.28 
.69 
1.45 
1.53 
1.56 
.59 
.73 
1.66 
1877 
.80 
.07 
1.32 
1.04 
.25 
1.34 
1.05 
2.59 
1.40 
1.39 
.91 
.45 
2.59 
1878 
1.85 
.55 
1.13 
.70 
.82 
.44 
2.46 
1.34 
2.30 
1.23 
.72 
.70 
2.46 
1879 .... 
.71 
.64 
.59 
.58 
.54 
.90 
2.69 
2.59 
.66 
.45 
.74 
.86 
2.69 
1880 
.59 
1.32 
1.08 
1.06 
1.01 
1.86 
2.51 
.87 
.85 
.66 
1.36 
.31 
2.51 
1881 .... 
.91 
.72 
.53 
.42 
.16 
3.01 
.41 
.12 
.97 
2.45 
1.41 
1.22 
3.01 
1882... 
.74 
.87 
1.08 
.70 
1.04 
1.89 
2.06 
.83 
2.09 
.60 
.44 
.91 
2.09 
1883 
.49 
3.62 
.34 
.65 
1.40 
.93 
.74 
1.78 
.95 
1.41 
1.07 
.44 
3.62 
1884 
.39 
1.22 
.35 
.71 
1.34 
2.28 
2.02 
.82 
1.28 
.50 
.50 
.30 
2.02 
1885 
.44 
.57 
.24 
.85 
1.16 
2.12 
1.02 
1.14 
.72 
.78 
1.49 
.67 
2.12 
1886 
.89 
.46 
.43 
.74 
.36 
.27 
1.42 
.53 
1.43 
.29 
1.39 
.91 
1.43 
1887 
.30 
1.46 
.77 
.73 
.94 
.58 
.46 
1.44 
1.21 
.70 
.84 
.57 
1.46 
1888 
.84 
.54 
.86 
.84 
1.13 
1.00 
1.38 
.87 
.66 
81 
.84 
.26 
1.38 
1889 
.81 
.27 
1.42 
.60 
1.88 
.43 
1.30 
.40 
.84 
.70 
.80 
.54 
1.88 
1890 
.70 
1.28 
1.02 
.58 
1.16 
1.43 
.90 
1.95 
.84 
.97 
.33 
1.95 
1891 
.74 
1.45 
.75 
.29 
1.58 
1.39 
.47 
1.21 
1.37 
.57 
2.19 
.75 
2 19 
1892 
.73 
.71 
1.23 
.79 
1.70 
1.17 
1.28 
1.41 
.78 
.27 
.85 
.33 
1.70 
Period 
1.85 
3.62 
1.42 
1.23 
2.10 
3.01 
2.69 
3.14 
2.30 
2.45 
2.19 
1.87 
3.62 
Table No. 22.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Rochester, New York, 1872 
to 1892, Inclusive. 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
April. 
May. 
June. 
July. 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Year. 
1872 
.72 
.38 
.67 
.50 
.44 
2.28 
.79 
.59 
.55 
1.74 
.56 
.70 
2 28 
1873 
.50 
.58 
2.01 
1.15 
.86 
.62 
2.10 
1.16 
1.45 
3.77 
76 
98 
2 10 
1874 
1 37 
.91 
.53 
1.31 
1.02 
1.16 
1.75 
.26 
.90 
.62 
.53 
.49 
1.75 
1875 
.19 
.43 
.93 
.58 
.69 
69 
1 90 
1 29 
78 
68 
.59 
1 90 
1876 
.84 
1.46 
.97 
.42 
.45 
1.67 
.90 
.25 
1.30 
.21 
.29 
.31 
L67 
1877 
1.21 
.22 
.67 
.70 
.69 
2.05 
1 13 
.73 
.95 
1 15 
92 
1878 
2.11 
1.45 
1.56 
.85 
.71 
1.14 
1.14 
.30 
2.34 
1.87 
1.64 
2 34 
1879 
1.71 
.91 
.57 
.21 
.62 
1.29 
1.27 
.82 
.25 
1 46 
.67 
2 65 
1880 
.77 
1.37 
.38 
.58 
1.77 
.46 
.75 
1.75 
.88 
1.90 
.76 
.46 
1.90 
18S1 
.90 
.76 
1.52 
.60 
1.30 
.68 
.79 
.69 
.83 
.61 
67 
.88 
1 52 
1882 
.50 
.49 
.53 
.51 
1.06 
.88 
.44 
1.07 
.47 
.39 
.36 
30 
1.07 
1883 
.13 
.45 
.68 
.48 
1.92 
55 
63 
48 
1884 
1.24 
.33 
1.09 
1.00 
1.80 
1.87 
.92 
.92 
1 03 
.44 
.52 
187 
1885 
.71 
.52 
.18 
1.48 
.55 
1.67 
1.29 
.84 
.72 
.51 
.73 
1 67 
1886 
.67 
.81 
.79 
1.80 
.76 
1.56 
.25 
3.34 
.83 
.70 
1 15 
58 
3 34 
1887 
.27 
1.57 
.26 
1.40 
.68 
.42 
.73 
.56 
.29 
.34 
.27 
■52 
1 57 
1888 
.32 
.30 
.54 
.32 
.40 
1.66 
.54 
1.20 
.80 
.68 
.46 
.59 
1.66 
1889... 
.96 
.40 
.58 
1.18 
1.92 
1.49 
.92 
.63 
.78 
1 82 
1 37 
48 
1 92 
1890 
.76 
.84 
.67 
.75 
1.32 
.74 
.83 
.48 
2.10 
1.07 
2'26 
.57 
2 26 
1891 
1.18 
1.30 
1.25 
.56 
.47 
1.04 
1.42 
.70 
.39 
1.52 
.90 
1 52 
1892 
.74 
.59 
.68 
.34 
1.34 
2.00 
2.10 
1.32 
.38 
.34 
.90 
.32 
2.10 
Period 
2.11 
1.57 
2.01 
1.80 
1.92 
2.28 
2.10 
3.34 
2.10 
3.77 
2.26 
1.64 
3.34 136 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES 
Table No. 23.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Cincinnati, Ohio, 1871 to 1892, 
Inclusive. 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May 
June 
July 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Year. 
1871 
.60 
2.00 
1.40 
.80 
.50 
no data 
.90 
2.00 
1.05 
.30 
1.85 
2.50 
187-2 
.55 
.55 
.65 
1.73 
1.36 
1.58 
1.81 
.88 
.93 
1.18 
.85 
.85 
1.81 
1873 
.58 
1.53 
.55 
.61 
.95 
.65 
.92 
1.39 
1.12 
.80 
2.75 
2.75 
2.75 
1874 
1.20 
2 73 
1.47 
1.06 
.60 
.82 
1.70 
.57 
1.14 
.81 
1.82 
1.07 
2.73 
1875 
.57 
.56 
1.02 
1.00 
1.41 
1.13 
1.50 
2.03 
.35 
.81 
2.28 
1.68 
2 28 
1876 
2.95 
.66 
1.04 
1.90 
.38 
1.51 
1.43 
1.89 
.61 
2.64 
.70 
.45 
2.95 
1877 
1.09 
.39 
2.13 
.67 
.49 
1.39 
1.24 
.90 
.82 
.61 
.97 
1.41 
2.13 
1878 
1.01 
.59 
1.83 
1.19 
.86 
2.06 
.94 
1.22 
.63 
.57 
1.35 
.90 
2.06 
1879 
.66 
.95 
1.70 
.72 
2.98 
2.05 
.62 
2.68 
1.75 
.36 
1.51 
1.93 
2.98 
1880 
1.16 
1.81 
1.39 
1.93 
2.18 
3.12 
1.54 
1.88 
.73 
1.27 
1.50 
3.10 
3.12 
1881 
1.27 
1.50 
.54 
.89 
1.21 
1.90 
1.74 
.29 
.94 
2.29 
1.67 
1.60 
2.29 
1882 
1.16 
2.27 
2.54 
.56 
2.47 
1.26 
.91 
2.01 
.78 
.78 
.46 
1.10 
2.54 
1883 
.78 
1.96 
1.73 
1.32 
1.76 
.97 
.72 
.76 
.91 
3.06 
2.23 
2.60 
3.06 
1884 
.49 
2.50 
.81 
1.02 
1.43 
.69 
.61 
.87 
1.31 
.55 
.52 
1.27 
2.50 
1885 
1.69 
1.39 
.18 
.86 
.45 
.78 
.40 
2.62 
1.25 
.58 
.92 
.90 
2.62 
1886 
.99 
.55 
.70 
.58 
1.28 
1.68 
.88 
1.17 
.36 
.42 
1.39 
.71 
1.68 
1887 
.77 
2.98 
.88 
2.21 
1.00 
1.79 
.58 
.94 
.57 
.37 
.81 
.98 
2.98 
1888 
.72 
.50 
1.27 
.88 
1.06 
.57 
.97 
2.46 
1.01 
.(>3 
1.35 
.45 
2.46 
1889 
.83 
.60 
.36 
.98 
1.54 
1.14 
2.40 
.13 
1.50 
.95 
1.10 
.93 
2.40 
1890 
1.33 
1.24 
1.06 
1.09 
1.16 
1.55 
1.16 
2.66 
1.60 
1.25 
.80 
.72 
2.66 
1891 
1.81 
1.18 
1.21 
.44 
.54 
.96 
2.43 
.81 
1.57 
.75 
1.59 
.93 
2.43 
1892 
1.62 
2.83 
.53 
1.78 
1.04 
.96 
.77 
1.07 
2.02 
.17 
.54 
.68 
2.83 
Period 
2.95 
2.83 
2.54 
2.21 
2.98 
3.12 
2.40 
2.68 
2.02 
3.06 
2.75 
3.10 
3.12 
Table No. 24.-Heaviest Rainfalls in 24 Hours at Atlanta, Georgia, 1879 to 
1892, Inclusive. 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
Apr. 
May. 
June. 
July. 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Year. 
1879. 
1.28 
1.75 
1 25 
1.59 
1.42 
2.23 
1.27 
1 13 
1 04 
1 48 
1 63 
3 76 
3 76 
1889 
1.10 
2.10 
1.71 
1.78 
2.56 
1.16 
1.14 
.95 
3.17 
.76 
2.19 
1.33 
3.17 
1881 
2.35 
2.98 
3.89 
1.30 
.57 
.85 
.20 
1.54 
2.12 
2.66 
.95 
2 14 
3 89 
1882 
1.23 
1.69 
1.66 
2.11 
.65 
1.45 
1.80 
1.05 
2.30 
.55 
1 49 
1.30 
2.H) 
1883 
4.03 
.58 
.98 
3.08 
.99 
.80 
.46 
.53 
.38 
1.06 
1.89 
1 27 
4 03 
1884 
1.87 
1.22 
2.12 
2.41 
.42 
1.42 
.85 
.84 
.05 
.39 
.88 
3*74 
3 7 1 
1885 
1.56 
1.18 
1.79 
.44 
1 43 
1.58 
98 
4.22 
1 64 
1.38 
1 18 
1 25 
4 22 
1886 ! 
2.62 
.33 
7.36 
1.2 i 
1.69 
1.13 
.62 
.34 
.02 
L03 
111 
7 36 
1887 
1.05 
.81 
.50 
.85 
1.08 
.65 
3.51 
1.51 
1 86 
1 06 
.16 
1 47 
3 51 
1888 
1.24 
1.34 
1.76 
.63 
3.28 
1.87 
.73 
.90 
3.00 
1.22 
1 80 
2 60 
3 28 
1889 
1.16 
1 65 
1.18 
1.26 
1 68 
1.27 
2.32 
1.80 
2 00 
68 
1 21 
41 
o 3^ 
1890 
1.08 
.98 
1 20 
.56 
3.90 
.43 
2.17 
.76 
2.07 
2 01 
09 
1 65 
3 90 
1891 
T.61 
1.53 
2.35 
.83 
.96 
1.93 
1.61 
.59 
.61 
.02 
1 43 
.97 
2 35 
1892 
3.28 
1.28 
2.01 
3.19 
.41 
2.59 
1.06 
1.56 
2.37 
.34 
1.71 
1.57 
3.28 
Period 
4.03 
2.98 
7.36 
3.19 
3.90 
2.59 
3.51 
4.22 
3.17 
2.(6 
2.19 
3.76 
7.36 
The two following tables, Nos. 25 and 26, show the actual length of 
time of a number of heavy rainfalls at two places in the Southwest, 
where very heavy rainfalls are common. 
Table No. 25.-Rainfalls in Excess of 2.5 Inches in 24 Hours at Vicksburg, 
Mississippi, 1872 to 1892, Inclusive. 
Dates. 
Duration. 
Amount. 
From 
To 
April 2, 3, 1872 
5.40 p.m. 
9.50 a.m 
2.62 
April 5. 6, 1872 
8.40 a.ra. 
3.33 
May 23, 24, 1872 ... 
3.54 p.m. 
9.35 a.m. 
5.36 
Dec. 18, 19, 1872... 
11.40 p.m. 
1 p.m. 
5.05 
April 8, 1874 
5.30 a.m. 
4.45 p.m. 
4.46 
April 15, 1874 
6 a.m. 
6.15 p.m. 
4.18 
April 18. 19, 1874... 
3.20 p.m. 
2.30 p.m. 
4.86 
July 4. 5, 1874 
5.(0 p.m. 
4.30 p.m. 
2.73 
Sept. 25, 1874 
4.15 p.m. 
10.15 p m. 
2.95 
Jan. 23, 24, 1875... 
8.30 a.m. 
during night 
3.76 
March 31, 1875 
4.00 p.m. 
9.40 p.m. 
3.26 
April 9. 10, 1875.... 
8.30 p.m. 
2.15 p.m. 
2 63 
Sept. 17, 18, 1875... 
7.45 a.m. 
4.99 
Dates. 
Duration. 
Amount. 
From 
To 
Nov. 28, 1880... 
during night 
10.04 p.m. 
2.93 
Nov. 30. 1880.... 
.during night) 
Dec. 1. 1880 
.during night) 
2.92 
Dec. 19, 20. 1882. 
5.00 a.tn. 
12.30 a.m. 
3.78 
April 6, 1883 .. . 
8.40 a.m. 
3.45 p.m. 
4.25 
Nov. 10 & 11,1883 during night 
11.30 p.m. 
4.79 
Nov. 22, 1883.... 
12.50 a.m. 
2.55 p.m. 
4.02 
Dec. 29, 30, 1883. 
11 p.m. 
9.20 p.m. 
4.51 
Sept. 3. 1884 
1.45 p.m. 
5.10 p.m. 
2.69 
Dec. 29. 1884.... 
12.20 a.m. 
1.30 p.m. 
4.07 
Jan. 15. 16, 18S5. 
5.33 p.m. 
8.30 p.m. 
3.68 
April, 6. 7, 1S85.. 
3.15 p.m. 
7.00 a.m. 
4.29 
April 27, 28, 1886. 
7.20 a.m. 
10.20 a.m. 
2.79 THE OCCURRENCE OF MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM FLOW. 
137 
Table No. 25.-Continued. 
Dates. 
Duration. 
Amount. 
From 
To 
March 6. 1876 
11.45 a.m. 
8.00 p.m. 
2.84 
May 7, 1876 
during night 6.00 p.m. 
3.40 
Dec. 23, 24. 1876.. 
. 11.45 a.m. 
10.00 a.m. 
3.70 
April 7,8, 1877.... 
8.10 a.m. 
during night 
3.53 
Oct. 17, 18, 1877... 
11.15 p.m. 
9.40 p.m. 
2.97 
Nov. 1, 1877 
. 4.35 p.m. 
8.45 p.m. 
2.50 
Nov. 7, 8, 1877.... 
. 3.35 p.m. 
7.35 a.m. 
2.83 
March 9, 1878 
. 8.30 a.m. 
11.40 p.m. 
4.46 
April 23, 1878 
2.15 p.m. 
12 midnight 
2.63 
Sept. 1, 2. 1879.... 
8 25 a.m. 
during night 
3.97 
May 30, 1880 
durine nieht 
9.45 p.m. 
4.27 
Oct. 4, 1880 
during night 11.45 a.m. 
2.71 
Nov. 24, 25, 1880.. 
. 7.20 a.m. 
8.00 a.m. 
3.18 
Dates. 
Duration. 
Amount. 
From 
To 
Feb. 19. 20. 1887 . 
12.50 p.m. 
during night 
2.53 
Sept. 14, 15, 1881. 
during night 
6.20 a.m. 
3.85 
Oct. 27, 28. 1881.. 
10.30 a.m. 
3.10 p.m. 
6.95 
Nov. 11, 1881 
12.30 p.m. 
9.25 p.m. 
3.32 
March 3, 4, 1888.. 
8.25 p.m. 
8.00 p.m. 
2.82 
Aug. 19, 20, 1888. 
11.50 p.m. 
4.10 p.m. 
2.75 
June 11, 12, 1889. 
Unknown 
2.50 
Jan. 15, 1890 
6.50 a.m. 
4.40 p.m. 
2.53 
March 11. 12, 1890 
10.30 p.m. 
10.30 p.m. 
2.73 
May 2, 3, 1890.... 
5.30 p.m.4 
30 p.m. 
3.42 
March 7, 8, 1891.. 
during night during night 
6.47 
Nov. 21, 22, 1891. 
Unknown 
4.28 
Feb. 19,20,1892... 
Unknown 
2.70 
April 15. 1874 
3.30 p.m. 
6.15 p.m. 
3.40 
May 23. 1879 
5 38 p.m. 
6 55 p.m. 
1.42 
June 13, 1879 
7.19 p.m. 
8.15 p.m. 
1.30 
Oct. 2. 1879 
5.25 p.m. 
6.20 p.m. 
1.25 
Nov. 28, 1879 
4.00 a.m. 
5.20 a.m. 
1.81 
Aug. 17. 1889 
3.30 p.m. 
0.10 p.m. 
2.22 
Dates on which 1.00 inch or more of precipitation occurred in one hour cr less. 
Sept. 26. 1881... 
3.45 p.m. 
4.50 p.m. 
1.31 
July 17, 1888 ... 
5.00 p.m. 
6.16 p.m. 
1.38 
May 2, I860 
5.45 p.m. 
6.45 p.m. 
1.20 
Mav 3, 1890 
11.30 a.m. 
12.30 p.m. 
1.00 
July 8,1890 
3.50 p.m. 
4.40 p.m. 
1.12 
Table No. 26.-Heaviest Rainfalls, With Actual Duration, at Shreveport, 
Louisiana, 1872 to 1891, Inclusive. 
Date. 
Duration. 
Amount 
From 
To 
Jan. 5, 1872.... 
9.30 a.m. 
during night. 
3.19 
May 23, 1872... 
11.35 p.m. 
10.35 p.m. 24"* 
3.21 
Oct. 28, 1872... 
8.05 p.m. 
1.00 p.m. 29" 
2.71 
Dec. 15, 1872... 
11.15 p.m. 
8.15 a.m. 16" 
2.53 
Nov. 22. 1873 .. 
4.40 p.m. 
4.40 p.m. 23" 
4.00 
July 9, 1874.... 
10.25 p.m. 
11.50 a.m. 10" 
3.36 
Aug. 9. 1875 .. 
6.27 a.m. 
6.27 a.m. 10" 
2.62 
Sept. 17, 1875.. 
2.00 a.m. 
2.00 a.m. 18" 
7.00 
Dec. 21.1875. . 
10.50 p.m. 
10.40 p.m. 22" 
4.66 
Mar. 11,1876.. 
2.30 p.m. 
6.30 p.m. 
2.81 
Mar. 19. 1876 .. 
10.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 20" 
4.46 
May 6, 1876.... 
3.30 p.m. 
12.00 noon 27" 
7.37 
Sept. 3, 1877... 
8.30 p.m. 
11.30 p.m. 
6.87 
Mar. 8, 1878 ... 
7.00 p.m. 
10.30 a.m. 9" 
4.50 
April 15, 1878.. 
1.00 a.m. 
9 00 a.m. 
2.92 
July 23. 1878... 
12.20 p.m. 
5.00 p.m. 
2.56 
April 15, 1879.. 
2.45 p.m. 
10.30 p.m. 
4.64 
April 23. 1879.. 
1.48 p.m. 
10.40 a.m. 24" 
3.11 
Aug. 23, 1879.. 
9.53 p.m. 
8.00 p.m. 22" 
3.47 
Feb. 1. 1880.... 
5.30 p.m. 
3.00 p.m. 2" 
3.00 
April 28, 1880.. 
6.20 p.m. 
5.54 a.m. 29" 
2.55 
July 27, 1880... 
3.30 p.m. 
1.54 p.m. 28" 
5.00 
Sept. 12, 1880... 
6.35 a.m. 
9.15 p.m 
2.84 
Feb. 5, 1881.... 
1.00 p.m. 
9 00 a.m. 6" 
3.48 
May 8. 1881.... 
12.45 p.m. 
9.10 p.m. 
2.70 
Sept. 14. 1S81.. 
During night 
7.25 p m. 
4.06 
Oct. 23, 1881... 
During night 
4.50 p.m. 
2.63 
Oct. 27, 1881... 
12.30 a.m. 
6.20 p.m. 
3.80 
Date. 
Duration. 
Amount. 
From 
To 
Nov. 8, 1881 .. 
.During night 
8.15 p.m. 
2.50 
Dec. 13, 1881.. 
5.20 p.m. 
3.00 p.m. 14" 
2.55 
Dec. 19, 1881.. 
. 7.15 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 20" 
2.72 
Feb. 2. 1882... 
4.30 p.m. 
3.00 p.m. 3" 
3.12 
July 18, 1882.. 
. During night 
5.45 p.m. 
2.83 
Oct. 17, 1882.. 
. 11.00 p.m. 
12.00 p.m. 18" 
4.17 
Nov. 10, 1883 . 
8.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 11" 
4.83 
May 21, 1884.. 
. 10.10 p.m. 
8.40 a.m. 22" 
5.45 
Nov. 22, 1884 . 
. 7.12 a.m. 
7.20 p.m. 
3.13 
Dec. 27, 1884.. 
7.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 28" 
2.83 
Dec. 28, 1884.. 
. 7.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 29" 
4.08 
Dec. 29, 1884.. 
. 7.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 30" 
3.78 
Jan. 13,1885.. 
. 11.00 p.m. 
11.00 p.m. 14" 
5.71 
Jan. 14. 1885.. 
. 11.00 p.m. 
8.30 p.m. 15" 
4.27 
April 22. 18 5. 
7.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 23" 
4.16 
June 10, 1885. 
. 3.00 p.m. 
3.00 p.m. 11" 
2.59 
Sept. 5, 1885 . 
. 11.15 a.m. 
during night 6" 
2.87 
Oct. 25, 1885.. 
7.00 a.m. 
7.00 a.m. 26" 
2.98 
Mar. 26, 1886. 
8.05 a.m. 
7.30 a.m. 27" 
2.71 
Sept. 13. 1886 
. 12.20 a.m. 
11.15 p.m. 
2.73 
Oct. 23. 1887.. 
. 10.30 p.m. 
9.30 p.m. 24" 
2.92 
Nov. 24, 1887. 
8.10 p.m. 
8.10 p.m. 25" 
2.90 
Dec. 6, 1887... 
. 3.00 p.m. 
3.00 p.m. 7" 
3.18 
April 13, 1889. 
. 10.15 a.m. 
10.00 a.m. 14" 
2.68 
Nov. 6. 1889.. 
8.35 a.m. 
8.35 a.m. 7" 
2.57 
Jan. 1, 1890,.. 
. 10.30 p.m. 
10.30 p.m. 2" 
2.62 
Sept.27, 1891. 
10.40 p.m. 
2.35 p.m. 28" 
4.01 
Dec. 22, 1891.. 
8.00 p.m. 
6.30 p.m-. 23" 
4.64 
* The minute (") sign in this table indicates the day of the month when the rain stopped. 
The Time of Occurrence of Maximum and Minimum Flow. 
The foregoing tables indicate that there is a large variation in 
the flow of sewage from combined systems, by reason of irregular 
and uncertain accessions due to the rainfall. In such a system, the 
sewers, in a majority of cases presumably, will not be even approxi- 
mately impervious ; the minimum quantity of flow will occur, probably, 
in times of drought, when not only infiltration from the surrounding 
soil is at its lowest, but leakage is at a maximum. On the other hand, 138 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
in separate systems, where the sewers have been made as nearly as pos- 
sible absolutely impervious, assuming that roof water and cellar drain- 
age are excluded, the maximum flow may be expected either in hot, 
dry weather, or in extreme cold weather, at both of which times the 
maximum consumption of water for domestic purposes will be taking 
place. Separate, or more properly, modified separate systems are, for 
sanitary reasons, frequently designed with reference to taking cellar 
drainage together with the whole, or a portion, of the roof water, and 
when so arranged the amount of the special inflows should be allowed 
for. In a discussion of this kind, as has been stated, no more can be 
done than to point out the main factors controlling, and the foregoing 
are enough to indicate the leading conditions in the problem to be 
solved. 
By way of further illustrating the use of water for domestic and 
manufacturing purposes, Tables Nos. 27 and 28, showing the use of 
water in the city of Rochester, are included. 
Table No. 27.-Total Average Daily Use of Water in Gallons in the City 
of Rochester, N. Y., for the Years Indicated, the Population, etc. 
Hemlock Lake Water. 
Average 
daily use of 
Holly water, 
per head of 
population, 
in gallons. 
Total 
average 
daily use 
per head of 
population 
from both 
systems, in 
gallons. 
April 1 to April 1. 
Population. 
Total 
average 
daily use, 
in gallons. 
Average 
daily use 
per head 
of the 
population, 
in gallons. 
1876-7 
83,600* 
2,500,000 
30.5 
1877-8 
85,150 
3,280,000 
88.9 
1878-9 
86,700 
3,675,000 
42.4 
1879-80 
88,430 
4,510,000 
51.0 
1880-1 
90,930 
5,040.000 
55.4 
1881-2 
93,100 
4,925,000 
53.0 
1882-3 
95,650 
5.260,000 
55.0 
12.6t 
67.6 
1883-4 
99.850 
5.590j 100 
56.0 
12.8 
68.6 
1884-5 
104.200 
6.160,000 
59.1 
12.4 
71.5 
1885-6 
108.500 
5,990,000 
55.2 
11.2 
66.4 
1886-7 
113.900 
6.660,000 
58.5 
11.9 
70.4 
1887-8 
119,700 
6,930,000 
57.9 
12.2 
70.1 
1888-9 
126,500 
7,250,000 
57.3 
12.5 
69.8 
♦ Official population in 1875, 81,722 ; in 1880, 89.366 ; in 1S90, 133,895. No additions to territory during the 
period covered by this table. The reports for the years 1889-90, 1890-91, and 1891-92 do not give the consump- 
tion of Hemlock lake water with sufficient accuracy for inclusion here. The consumption of Holly water did not 
vary much from the above figures. 
+ Holly water in use from about January, 187-4, but no record kept previous to the year ending April 1. 18S3. 
The figures here given are based upon pump displacement with allowance for slip. 
In explanation of these two Rochester tables it may be stated that 
the water works of that city are a dual system, including a gravity 
supply for purely domestic and special manufacturing purposes from 
Hemlock lake, while for other purposes, such as additional fire pro- 
tection in the business district, street sprinkling, the furnishing of 
light power for motors, the flushing of water-closets in a few large 
blocks, watei' is taken from the Genessee river by a direct press- THE OCCURRENCE OF MAXIMUM AND MINIMUM FLOW. 
139 
Table No. 28.-Approximate Use of Water from the Hemlock Lake System, by 
Hours, on Three Different Days in 1890, as Determined by the Outflow 
from the Mt. Hope Reservoir of the Water-Works of Rochester, N. Y.* 
Hours. 
7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Satur- 
day, July 5, 1890 (12- 
hour period). 
7 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 10, 
to 7 a.m. Monday, Aug. 
11 (24-hour period). 
7 a.m. Monday, Aug. 25, 
to 7 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 
26 (24-hour period). 
Hourly out- 
flow, gal. 
Outflow 
in six hours, 
gal. 
Hourly out- 
flow, gal. 
Outflow 
in six hours, 
gal. 
Hourly out- 
flow, gal. 
Outflow 
in six hours, 
gal. 
330,563 
374,220 
394,238 
366,163 
392,583 
330,497 
373,238 
363,562 
345,789 
345,877 
341,381 
326,262 
217,907 
260,911 
277,490 
285,393 
250,098 
258,079 
248,800 
239,670 
204,907 
161,936 
212,638 
204.707 
169,426 
186,026 
151,926 
118,004 
151,505 
111,676 
67,222 
134,146 
150,757 
100,326 
217,105 
266,463 
392,041 
355,035 
389.125 
386,659 
333,590 
332,493 
348,811 
330,245 
277,078 
345,676 
292,693 
291,818 
205,479 
143,816 
170,626 
170.326 
102,063 
135,925 
135,685 
101,643 
118,485 
135,204 
185,607 
286,080 
8 9 " 
9 " ]0 " 
io " 11 " 
11 " 12 " 
12 m. to 1 p.m 
2,188,264 
1,549,878 
2,189,943 
2 * " 3 ' " 
3 " 4 " 
4 " 5 " 
5 " 6 " 
6 " 7 " 
7 " 8 " 
2,096,109 
1,272,658 
1,886,321 
8 " 9 " 
9 " 10 " 
10 " 11 " 
11 " 12 " 
12 p.m. to 1 a.m 
' 888*563 
928,235 
2 " 3 " 
3 " 4 " 
4 " 5 " 
6 " 7 " 
Totals 
936.019 
962,704 
4,284,373 
4,284,373 
4,647,118 
4,647,118 
5,967,203 
5,967,203 
* Tables Nos. 27 and 28 are from a paper by Mr. Rafter, On the Measures for Restricting the Use and Waste of 
Water in Force in the City of Rochester, N. Y., in Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., vol. xxvi., pp. 23-76. (January, 
1892.) 
ure Holly system. With this explanation the significance of table 
No. 27 will be easily understood. 
In Table No. 28 we have the use of water from the Hemlock lake 
system by hours on three different days-namely, for Saturday, Sunday, 
and Monday. The Saturday record, unfortunately for really satis- 
factory comparison, is only complete for the 12 hours from 7 A. M. to 
7 p. m. If we fill it out by comparison with the Monday record we see 
that in the summer of 1890 the use of water for all purposes from the 
Hemlock lake system was, on week days, roundly 6,000,000 gallons a 
day, or for a population of 133,896 (amount as per United States Cen- 
sus) we obtain a daily use of about 44.8 gallons. On Sunday, when 
manufacturing establishments are closed, the daily use of say 4,650,000 
is equivalent to about 34.7 gallons per head of population per day. 
This latter figure may be considered as representing, therefore, approxi- 
mately, the purely domestic use of water in the city of Rochester. 
The difference of 44.8 and 34.7, equal to 11.1 gallons per head, repre- 
sents likewise the ordinary manufacturing use. 
Examining the figures as to hourly flow we find the minimum to be 140 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
only 67,222 gallons per hour, amounting at this rate in 24 hours to 
1,613,328 gallons. The maximum hourly flow of 394,238 gallons, 
amounts for 24 hours to 9,461,712. These figures are sufficient to 
show the considerable variation from the daily mean which will 
take place at different times of the day in a system where the amount 
of sewage is approximately represented by the amount of the water 
supply. 
At the time of making these observations no water was used from 
the Hemlock lake system for either sprinkling streets or flushing 
sewers, and the figures may in consequence be taken as applying to 
the problem in hand without material correction or modification. 
Results of Sewer Gagings. 
So far as the authors are aware the most extended series of gagings 
of sewer discharges thus far made in this country are those of Samuel 
M. Gray, M. Am. Soc. C. E., at Providence, R. I. 
Table No. 29, from Mr. Gray's Providence report, gives the results 
of a number of these gagings. In reference to the variations per 
inhabitant in different parts of the city Mr. Gray states that sewers 
laid in wet localities furnish a much greater quantity of sewage per 
inhabitant connected than do those laid in the drier part of the city ; 
due, as already noted in Boston, in most localities to spring or 
ground water which thus finds its way into the sewers. 
The daily use of water per capita in Providence is about 50 gallons, 
and the new intercepting sewers are designed to carry CO gallons of 
sewage per inhabitant per day in addition to inch of rainfall per 
hour and the manufacturing wastes. The manufacturing wastes are 
estimated to flow off in ten hours ; while one half of the sewage is esti- 
mated to flow off in seven hours. 
In 1885 George S. Pierson, C. E., made a series of weir measurements 
of the flow of the Water street main sewer in Kalamazoo, Mich. 
Readings were taken on Monday, March 9, 1885, from 1 a. m. to 12 
o'clock midnight. The minimum discharge occurred at 3 a.m. and 
amounted to 224 gallons per minute. The maximum, amounting to 287 
gallons per minute, occurred at 4 P.M. The mean discharge for the 
whole 24 hours was 254 gallons per minute. Taking the mean dis- 
charge at 100, we have the minimum for the day 88 per cent, of the 
mean ; the maximum 113 per cent, of the mean.* 
In January, 1891, the flow of the main outfall sewer of the State 
Insane Hospital at Weston, W. Va., was gaged by weir measure- 
ment under the direction of Mr. Rafter for a period of 48 hours. 
This sewer is of vitrified tile, 12 inches in diameter, and probably as 
* For detail of these gagings see The Separate System of Sewage, by Staley and Pierson. RESULTS OF SEWER GAGINGS. 
141 
*< 
44 
No. Main 
Blackstone 
<4 
<4 
Pitman 
Ives 
4< 
College 
Point 
Power 
4< 
Nash 
44 
Park 
Martin 
Brook 
4« 
<4 
44 
Elm 
Street or lane. 
h 8 gi '£ 8 g i '1 
s a 
§ § 
Total present pop- 
lation. 
8.5 
7.88 
ii 
7.9 
i< 
8.5 
7.8 
*4 
<4 
<4 
7.7 
8.89 
44 
it 
7.7 
8.5 
7.7 
44 
7.7 
7.7 
7.7 
People per house. 
772 
575 
<4 
<4 
44 
1,114 
44 
44 
172 
4c 
60l> 
<< 
44 
204 
4* 
44 
108 
321 
31 
■■ 
25 
44 
21 
153 
Houses connected. 
'iss !s 
Population con- 
nected. 
Pr'S . ~ Pr3.® r3?3® p® r3® P-r3 
O = - - -g£oc. g^^gg^ggggggggS^gg^-g^ggSfe 
PPP . .PPPPPtiPPr'PPPPPPPPpPP^Pr3® pppppr3®®?' 
- 'ggggig- 
? 
Above. 
Time when flow is above or be- 
low line of average flow. 
tccj-aScccocaca _coS Sococo2 £c5so»o Sooo£ 
'ggggsgssgggssggiES 
2 
P PPPPr3. . t^p.^pppp®. pp®. pp»pp. a^oscx.-j 
S gjiSg;: SSSS® 
F PPPP®. . r>.®ppsr'PPP. ppp. Pr'r'P: Pr3?®^ 
° OOSS&' ' = - §25: S°S:&' SliSfefe 
rpprpprppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp 
SggJSgggg^Eig&^feSiSg&ggiggggSggggSgg&SgSSft 
Fr. To. Hrs. 
I 
g38a8g§3^SSg£ggSfeSgSSS£g£g2gggg£ggg£:£g 
Above. % 
Discharge while above or 
below line of average 
flow, gal. 
220,744 
284,504 
284,070 
144,612 
147,330 
140,148 
208.096 
150,200 
130,726 
92,358 
88,828 
68,328 
90.850 
96.432 
47,481 
46,312 
56.394 
56,340 
98,367 
84,780 
55,002 
33,206 
30,817 
35.473 
22,778 
18,420 
31,983 
40,248 
41,004 
6,122 
5,906 
788 
1,214 
1.056 
736 
1,027 
606 
35,615 
I 
g^SooSgSSEg^SSg^^ 
>i x £ g g si $ gscgssfegaggcgssgsgs gsggssEsgs 
^®pppp^p^ppp®SEppp~pp8pppp*p^ 
Per day. 
While above 
average 
Jine. _ 
While below 
average 
line. 
Gallons per head 
of population 
connected. 
s«!.<«,wBs8ss2saas§i§3^ 
mSBm5mmmsmU8Sm58SSm£8 
Total meas. dis- 
charge per day. 
Average discharge 
per second. 
Maximum dis- 
charge per second. 
£|?l 4$ :f 4 4^ 4 4 - ~ 4^ 
p £p ® P £ P P g ? P J* P » P." p P.® £ ? P r1 £ P P .- p r' J* " r f® 
> 
< 
9 
I 
J 
i S' 
li 
& 
Table No. 29.-Results of Weir Measurements of Flow of a Number of Outfall Sewers in Providence, R.I., in 1884.* 
* A portion of the original table has been omitted. 142 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
nearly absolutely impervious as such a sewer can be made. An exam- 
ination of the joints at a number of test pits indicated that neat or 
nearly neat Portland cement had been freely used in making the 
joints, every one examined showing the bells well tilled, with large 
wads of cement under and around the joints. 
The tributary population at the Hospital, including patients, offi- 
cers, attendants, and servants is almost exactly 1,000. In addition to 
sewage proper the sewer receives some roof water, but at the time of 
making the gagings there was neither rainfall nor melting snow to 
contribute from this source. The sewer received the water of con- 
densation from the steam heating apparatus of the Hospital, amount- 
ing in January to about 10,000 gallons per day. Aside from this 
addition the results may be taken as representing the normal amount 
of sewage of the institution. Self-closing fixtures are in use through- 
out the building, and no serious sources of leakage from the water 
fixtures could be discovered. The total mean flow for 24 hours was 
found to be 101,047 gallons ; the maximum, amounting to 6,69G gal- 
lons per hour, occurring between 9 and 10 a.m.; the minimum, of 2,079 
gallons per hour, occurred between 1 and 2 a.m. Deducting the esti- 
mated water of condensation of 10,000 gallons per day there remains 
the sewage proper, about 91,000 gallons per day, which, for a tributary 
Table No. 30.-Results of a Gaging by Weir Measurement of the Flow of 
Main Outfall Sewer of the State Insane Hospital at Weston, West 
Virginia, in January, 1891. 
Day. 
Hour. 
Rate in 
gallons 
per 
minute. 
Mean 
flow in 
gallons 
per hour. 
Day. 
Hour. 
Rate in 
gallons 
per 
minute. 
93.60 
99.45 
86.40 
93.60 
75.60 
93.60 
81.00 
93.60 
58.50 
53.55 
53 55 
44.55 
44.55 
34.65 
34.65 
39.60 
49 05 
49.05 
58.50 
70.20 
86.40 
105 30 
86.40 
86.40 
105.30 
Mean 
flow in 
gallons 
per hour. 
Wednesday 
12 M. 
1 P.M. 
2 " 
3 " 
4 " 
5 " 
6 " 
7 " 
8 " 
9 " 
10 " 
11 " 
12 " 
1 A.M. 
2 " 
3 " 
4 " 
5 " 
6 " 
7 " 
8 " 
9 " 
10 " 
11 " 
12 M.* 
78.75 
88.80 
93.00 
75.60 
75.60 
70.20 
75.60 
75.60 
70.20 
58.50 
53.55 
44.55 
44.55 
44.55 
44.55 
44.55 
44.55 
49.05 
64.80 
75.60 
86.40 
105.30 
117.90 
93.60 
93.60 
5.170 
5,616 
5,070 
4.536 
4.374 
4.374 
4,536 
4.374 
3,861 
3.361 
2.943 
2,673 
2.673 
2,673 
2,673 
2.673 
2.806 
3,415 
4,212 
4.860 
5.751 
6.696 
6,345 
5,616 
Thursday 
12 M.* 
1 P.M. 
2 " 
3 " 
4 " 
5 " 
6 " 
7 " 
8 " 
9 '• 
10 " 
11 " 
12 " 
1 A.M. 
2 " 
3 " 
4 " 
5 •• 
6 " 
7 " 
8 " 
9 •• 
10 " 
11 " 
12 M. 
5,792 
5,576 
5.400 
5.076 
5,076 
5.238 
5.238 
4.563 
3.362 
3,362 
2,943 
2,673 
2.316 
2.079 
2,228 
2.659 
2,943 
3.227 
3.861 
4.698 
5,751 
5,751 
5,184 
5,751 
Thursday 
Friday 
* Repeated. RESULTS OF SEWER GAGINGS. 
143 
population of 1,000, amounts to 91 gallons per day. Table No. 30 
gives the details of these gagings. 
In February, 1892, William B. Landreth, M. Am. Soc. C.E., gaged 
the flow of the main sewer of Schenectady, New York, for a period of 24 
hours. The main outfall sewer of Schenectady receives the drainage 
from about 15 miles of lateral sewers, of the separate system, having 
1,500 house connections. 
At the time of the gagings no roof water was flowing into the sewers, 
but they were receiving 50,000 gallons in 24 hours of flush-tank dis- 
charge and 60,000 gallons by seepage, as determined before the house 
connections were made. 
Table No. 31 gives the results.* 
Table No. 31.-Hourly Flow and Percentage of the Same of the Total Flow 
in the Main Sewer at Schenectady, New York, for 24 Hours. 
Feb. 5. 1892. 
Hourly flow, 
Per cent, of 
Feb. 5, 1892. 
Hourly flow, 
Per cent, of 
Hour. 
gallons. 
total flow. 
Hour. 
gallons. 
total flow. 
9 AM 
39.800 
4.63 
10 P.M. . 
33,884 
3.94 
10 •• 
43,352 
5.04 
11 " . 
33'884 
3.94 
11 " 
37,475 
4.36 
il2 " . . 
32,718 
3.80 
4.36 
Feb. 6. 
1 P.M 
38.632 
4.49 
2 " 
39. SOO 
4.63 
2 " 
32,718 
3.80 
8 " 
41.073 
4.78 
3 " 
32 718 
3 80 
4 " 
38,632 
4.49 
4 " . 
30,294 
3.52 
5 " 
37,475 
4.36 
5 " 
32,718 
3. SO 
6 " 
36,423 
4.23 
6 " . 
31,416 
3.65 
7 " 
36.423 
4.23 
7 " 
31.416 
3.65 
8 " 
36,423 
4.23 
8 " . 
34,014 
4.00 
9 " 
33,884 
3.94 
36,423 
4.23 
From this table it appears that the greatest flow was at 10 A.M., 
when 5.04 per cent, of the total daily flow of about 860,000 gallons was 
passing through the sewer. The minimum flow of 3.52 per cent, 
occurred at 3 A.M. 
Comparing the Schenectady gagings with those at the Weston Asylum, 
it appears that both the maximum and minimum flows occurred later at 
Schenectady than at Weston, which is probably accounted for largely 
by the greater distance which the sewage travelled at Schenectady. 
In the spring of 1891 gagings were made of the flow of sewage in 
several sewers at Toronto, Ont. The gagings extended over three 
days. The results are given in Table 31A.f 
*Eng. News, vol. xxvii., p. 305 (March 26, 1892). 
+ Eng. News, vol. xxviii., p. 499 (Nov. 24, 1892). This table originallyappeared substantially as 
here given in the report of the City Engineer of Toronto, Ont., for 1891. 144 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES, 
Table 31A.-Sewer Gagings at Toronto, Ontario, in 1891. 
Totals 
7 ft. 6 ins. diam 
3 " 6 " x 5 ft. 0 ins 
3 " 9 " x 2 " 6 " 
2 " 0 " x 3 " 0 " 
2 " 6 " x 5 " 0 " 
2 " 0 " x 3 " 0 " 
3 9 " x 2 " 6 " 
3 " 9 " x 2 " 6 " 
2 " 8 " x 4 " 0 " 
6 " 6 " x 5 •' 0 " 
(i " 6 " diam 
3 " (i " x 5 ft. 0 ins 
2 " 8 " x 4 " 0 " 
2 " 4 " x 3 " 6 " 
4 " 0 " x 5 " 6 " 
4 " 3 " diam 
Size of sewer. 
16.1*9 
2,485 
372 
360 
13 
101 
25 
350 
263 
160 
195 
7-10 
225 
271 
770 
311 
503 
Area drained above 
weir, acres. 
0T5 
15.7 
46.2 
,8.8 
44.0 
45.5 
41.8 
17.6 
42.3 
39.8 
42.4 
11.8 
I 43.7 
41.7 
9 4 
45.7 
38.3 
Per acre. 
Population.* 
। 
, 39,014 
17,186 
3,168 
572 
4,595 
1,045 
6,160 
I 11,125 
! 6,368 
| 8,268 
8,732 
9,832 
11,300 
7,238 
14.213 
19.265 
Total. 
g 
8 
278.09 
212.28 
31.30 
16.74 
I 32.65 
10.89 
57.50 
71.56 
67.20 
62.62 
82.25 
80.83 
70.94 
70.57 
117.10 
93.78 
Cubic feet per 
minute. 
Discharge in 
.200 
" & 05 oe fc o e* 
s© co ex c: on ce te 9 -i *-* 
Cubic feet per 
acre per min. 
10.27 
17.78 
11.07 
42.14 
10.23 
15.00 
13.44 
9.26 
15.19 
| 10.90 
| 13.56 
11.84 
9.04 
14.04 
11.86 
7.02 
Cubic feet per 
head per day. 
I 
£ S £-5 g £ g£ z g=55® ft 
.u o ^<7 e x cr. o. c ic o o 
Cubic feet per 
day. 
3 
1 77 
133 
83 
316 
77 
113 
101 
69 
113 
89 
102 
89 
68 
105 
89 
53 
Gallons per 
head per day. 
* Estimated from assessments of 1890 and census of 1891. 
A Year's Daily Sewage Pumping Records at Atlantic City, New 
Jebsey.* 
One of the most valuable contributions to the subject under discus- 
sion is the daily sewage pumping records in connection with the sew- 
age purification works at Atlantic City, New Jersey, given in full for 
one year and discussed in detail below. 
Daily records of pumpage and coal consumption are kept by the 
Atlantic City Sewerage Company. The pump register is read at 12 M. 
each day, allowances being made for slip and wear of the plunger. 
The diagram, Plate II., shows the pumpage of sewage for each day 
from December 1, 1891, to November 30, 1892. The diagram also 
shows the rainy days of the year, and the maximum and minimum 
temperature of each month, by dates. The figures from which the 
diagram was compiled are given to the nearest thousand in Table 31B. 
Sundays and rainy days are indicated both in Table 31 B, and the dia- 
gram, Plate II. 
For an understanding of the diagram and the accompanying tables, 
it is necessary to state that there are two seasons at Atlantic City, a 
■winter and a summer. The winter season begins about January 15, 
and is said to continue often until June 15, when the summer season 
opens. In July and August, 1892, it is said that the average popula- 
tion was 100,000. The resident population is at present about 15,000. 
* Rearranged from Eng. News, vol. xxix. pp. 123-124 (Feb. 9, 1893). Degrees Fahrenheit. 
Degrees Fahrenheit" 
PLATE II. DAILY PUMPAGE OF SEWAGE AT ATLANTIC CITY, NEW JERSEY, FROM DEC. 1, 1891, TO NOV. 30, 1892. Table No. 31 B.-Daily Pumpage of Sewage in Thousands of Gallons at 
Atlantic City, New Jersey, from Dec. 1, 1891, to Nov. 30, 1892. 
Day of month. 
December. 
January. 
February. 
March. 
April. 
May. 
1 
1,642 
1,549 
1,728 
1,940 R 
1,410 
1,998 S 
2 
1,604 
1,749 R 
1,711 
1,872 
1,229 
1,996 
3 
1,529 
1,643 S 
1,681 
1,824 
1,760 S 
2,002 
4 
1,509 R 
L625 
1,673 
1'807 
1,842 
1,997 
5 
1,638 
1,615 
1519 
1,767 
1562 
1,832 
6 
1,560 S 
1,740 R 
1.757 
1,647 S 
1,871 
1,966 
7 
1,547 R 
1,702 
1,682 SR 
1,705 
1,965 
1,897 
8 
1.670 
1,694 
1.(533 
1,740 R 
2.083 R 
1,974 S 
9 
1,698 
1,681 
1,621 
1,845 
2,012 R 
1'893 
10 
1,612 
1,722 S 
1,623 R 
1,751 R 
1,858 S 
1,710 
11 
1,662 
1,504 R 
1,651 
1543 
1,826 
2,214 R 
12 
1,598 
1,665 
1,632 
1,758 
1,822 
1,920 
13 
1'561 S 
1'794 R 
1590 
1,745 S 
1,818 
2,082 
14 
1,559 
1,649 R 
1,694 S 
1,732 
1,911 R 
1,979 
15 
1,509 
1,712 R 
1,709 
i;651 
2,057 R 
2,165 S 
16 
1,637 R 
1,751 
1,693 
1,604 
2,062 
2,515 R1 
17 
1'530 
1,728 S 
1,655 
1,67S 
2,0534 S 
2,401 
18 
1,602 
1,777 R 
1,681 
1,892 R 
1,921 
2,275 
19 
1,530 
1,739 R 
1.725 
2,328 
1,922 
2,184 
20 
1,585 S 
1,807 
1,726 R 
2,208 S 
1,847 
2'271 Rl 
21 
1,561 
1596 
1,676 SR 
1,920 
1,851 R 
2,427 R 
22 
1,542 
1,740 
1,746 
2,004 
2,451 R 
2,260 SR 
23 
1.540 
1,712 
1528 
1,932 R 
2^087 
2.382 
24 
1.503 R 
1,608 S 
1,792 
1,974 
D985 S 
2,304 
25 
1,579 
1,634 
1,765 
1,917 
1,933 
2,264 
26 
1,507 
1,830 
1,750 
1,824 R 
1,989 
2.097 
27 
1,527 S 
1,742 
1,708 
1,892 SR 
1,911 
2,191 
28 
1,563 
1.739 
1,728 S 
2,074 
1,821 
2,216 
29 
1,616 R 
1 721 
i;874 
1,933 
1^801 R 
2 132 S 
30 
1,758 R 
1,700 
1^889 
i;896 
2,029 
31 
1,623 
1,680 S 
1,824 
2,048 
Total 
49,100* 
52,748 ' 
49,556 
57,419 
56,735 
65,622 
Average 
1,584 
1,701 
1,709 
1,852 
1,891 
2,117 
Day of month. 
June. 
July. 
August. 
September. 
October. 
November. 
1 
2,116 
3,456 R 
2,925 
2.851 
3,212 
1,941 
O 
2'083 
3490 
2,979 
2,721 
2450 S 
2,087 
3 
2.064 
3,185 S 
2,999 
2,614 
2,120 
1'990 
4 
2,179 
3/138 R2 
2,862 
3,001 S 
2,208 
2,133 R 
5 
2.218 S 
3'498 
2,822 
2'897 
2408 
1,932 
6 
2,133 
34 06 
2,837 
2.797 
2,200 
2426 S 
7 
2412 
3,087 
2,880 S 
2,681 
2401 
1'928 R2 
8 
2,018 
2'995 
2,897 
2'663 
2,207 
2 059 
9 
2470 R 
2,879 
2/136 
2457 
1,949 S 
2,070 
10 
2'537 R 
2,877 S 
2,907 
2,444 
2,175 
2498 R 
11 
2,382 
2,730 
2,608 
2,517 S 
2487 
2,144 
12 
2'309 S 
2',756 
2,922 Ri 
2,475 
2419 
2,472 
13 
2 602 
2,852 
2 976 
2 477 
1'958 
2 550 S 
14 
2'416 
2,874 R 
3404 S 
2415 R 
1,947 
2,419 
15 
2J42 
2,820 
3,181 
2,486 
i'933 
2 600 R 
16 
2 509 
2,762 
3499 
2400 
1,920 S 
3.073 R 
17 
2,180 
2.865 S 
3483 
2,551 
1441 
2,999 
18 
2491 
2,927 
2,915 
2,392 S 
1,950 
2,819 R 
19 
2.214 S 
2'775 R 
2,854 
2482 
1^889 
2.358 
20 
2,293 
3,466 
2,912 
2'338 
1452 
2 374 S 
21 
2,453 
3,264 
2/168 SR 
2,347 
2.168 
2,362 
22 
2,271 
3'091 
3,147 
2,313 R 
2.037 
2 313 
23 
2,293 
2,967 
3,135 
2'391 
2,101 S 
2,332 
24 
2437 
2 955 S 
3.207 R 
2,389 
2'061 
2,343 
25 
2^355 
2,890 
3.168 R 
2,289 S 
2,069 
2,380 
26 
2,485 S 
3,153 
3.209 
2475 R 
2'020 
2,297 
27 
2,387 
2,881 
3.128 
2,244 
2 029 
2 141 S 
2S 
2,368 
2,821 
3 150 SR 
2,285 
2.074 
2,351 R 
29 
2,388 
2,811 
3,054 
2'231 
2,049 
2,009 R 
30 
2,369 R 
2,865 
2.813 
2'278' 
2'014 S 
2,019 
31 
2,998 SR 
2,820 
1,994 
Total 
68,870 
93.935 
92,997 
75,102 
64,171 
68.719 
Average 
2,296 
3,030 
3,000 
2,503 
2470 
2,291 
S = Sunday. R = Rain. R1 = Heavy rain previous night. R2 = Rain previous night. 
* Footings may not correspond exactly with totals given, as former include the odd figures omitted from hun- 
dreds column. 
145 146 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
It is stated that there are over 600 hotels and boarding-houses and 
nearly 4,000 houses in the city. 
That not all of the buildings are supplied with water, and that all 
so supplied are not connected with the sewers, is shown by the follow- 
ing figures: 
Number of taps. 
No. of sewer 
connections. 
Excess of water over 
sewer connections. 
Atlantic City 
W. W. Co. 
Consumers' 
Water Co. 
Total. 
Number. 
Per cent. 
December, 1891 
December, 1892 
2,273 
2,468 
500 
500 
2,773 
2,963 
1,849 
2,140 
924 
823 
50 
38 
The relative average daily amounts of water consumed and of sew- 
age pumped from December 1, 1891, to November 30, 1892, are shown 
in Table 31 C, the figures for the Consumers' Water Company not be- 
ing based on accurate records, but being estimated by the engineer of 
the company for use in this connection. 
These figures show that the excess of average daily water consump- 
tion over sewage pumped ranged from 11 per cent, in July to 75 per 
cent, in September, and averaged 45 per cent, for the year. As stated 
above, there were 50 per cent, more water taps than sewage connec- 
tions at the beginning of the year, and 38 per cent, at its close. The 
relative monthly consumption of water and pumpage of sewage is also 
shown graphically by the diagram, Fig. 6. 
Table 31 C. - Average Daily Water Consumption and Sewage Pumpage by 
Months, at Atlantic City, New Jersey, from Dec., 1891, to Nov., 1892. 
Month. 
Average daily consumption of water. 
Average daily 
sewage pump- 
age. 
Excess water over 
sewage. 
Atlantic City 
W. W. Co. 
Consumers' 
Water Co. 
Total. 
Amount. 
Perct. 
December 
1.863,575 
330,000 
2,193,575 
1.583,867 
609.708 
32 
January 
1,960,374 
380,000 
2,340,374 
1.701.537 
638,837 
37 
February 
2.162,669 
450,000 
2,612,669 
1.708.832 
903.837 
53 
March 
2.376.137 
470.000 
2,846.137 
1.852,237 
993.900 
54 
April 
2,543.735 
500.000 
3,043,735 
1,891,182 
1,152 553 
1.369.234 
61 
May 
3.006,077 
480,0( 0 
3,486,077 
2.116,843 
64 
J une 
2.604,730 
518.000 
3.122.730 
2.295,652 
827.078 
36 
July 
2.815.731 
550,000 
3.365.731 
3.030.156 
335.575 
11 
August 
3.550,273 
540.000 
4,090,273 
2.999,913 
1.090.360 
36 
September 
3.854.781 
535.000 
4,389,781 
2.503,404 
1,886,377 
October 
2,919,584 
520,000 
3,439.584 
2.070,024 
1,369.560 
66 
November .. 
2,232,419 
475,000 
2.707,419 
2.290.624 
416.795 
18 
Year 
3,142,682 
2,172,059 
970,623 
45 
The greatest amount of sewage pumped in any one day during the 
year was 3,937,720 gallons, which, it is interesting to note, was on July A YEAR'S PUMPING RECORDS AT ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. 
147 
5, on which date a large crowd of people generally visits the city. The 
least pumpage on one day was on April 2. The maximum and min- 
imum daily pumpage for each month in the year, with the date of the 
same, and also the variation between the two, the average for the 
Fig. 6.-Average Daily Water Consumption and Sewage Pumpage, by Months 
at Atlantic City, New Jersey. 
month, and the number of sewer connections on the first of each month, 
are shown by Table 31D. 
It will be seen by referring to the diagram, Plate II. and Table 31 B, 
showing each day's pumpage for the year, that nearly every rainy 
day was accompanied or followed by an increase in the amount of 
sewage. The foot notes to Table 31D show that for six months of 
the twelve the maximum pumpage was preceded or accompanied by 
rain, but the same was true of the minimum pump age of three of the 148 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table 31D.-Maximum and Minimum Daily Pumpage of Sewage, by Months, 
at Atlantic City, New Jersey, for the Year ending with November, 1892. 
Month. 
No. sewer 
connections 
first of each 
month. 
Average. 
Maximum. 
Minimum. 
Vari- 
ation. 
Amount. 
Date. 
Amount 
Date. 
December 
1,849 
1,583,867 
1,757,760' 
30 
1,502,5921 
24 
255,168 
January 
1,887 
1,701,537 
1,830,432® 
26 
1,563,744s 
11 
326,688 
February 
1,892 
1,708,832 
1,873,728 
29 
1,620,672 
9 
253,056 
March 
1,910 
1,852,237 
2,328,192® 
19 
1,603.584 
16 
714,608 
April 
1,912 
1,891,182 
2,450.784' 
22 
1,228,896 
2 
1.221,888 
May 
1,961 
2,116,843 
2.515,584® 
16 
1.710,112 
10 
805,472 
June 
2.001 
2.295,652 
2,601.888 
13 
2.017,728 
8 
584,160 
July 
2,035 
3,030,156 
3,937,720® 
4 
2.730,144 
11 
1,207,576 
August 
2,051 
2,999,913 
3,699,344 
16 
2,607 744 
11 
1 091.600 
September 
2,061 
2,503^404 
3,001,440 
4 
2,230.666 
29 
770,784 
October 
2,081 
2,070.024 
2.312,160 
1 
1,888,512* 
19 
423 648 
November 
2,109' 
2,290,624 
3,072'8641 
16 
1.937,584 
7 
1 145,280 
Year 
2,172,059 
3,937,720 
1,228,896 
L708^824 
1 Rain on this and preceding days. 2 Very cold. 3 Rain. 4 Rain previous day. 6 Heavy rain previous night. 
8 Rain previous night. 7 2,140 on Dec. 1, 1892. 8 Rain in night. 
twelve months, though no heavy rains are mentioned in connection with 
minimum as with maximum pumpage. The separate system of sewers 
is in use at Atlantic City, with a few roof connections, principally for 
flushing. Some leakage would be expected under the most favorable 
circumstances, and some actually occurs, as shown above. The maxi- 
mum pumpage for January occurred on a day reported in the pumpage 
records as " very cold." 
In order to see what, if any, effect temperature had upon the amount 
of sewage, the maximum and minimum temperatures of each month 
were compiled from the United States Monthly Weather Review, 
as given in Table 31E, and then plotted on the diagram, Plate II. 
Low temperatures in winter, through waste of water to keep plumbing 
from freezing, and high temperatures in summer, might be expected to 
Table 31E.-Monthly Temperatures and Precipitation at Atlantic City, 
New Jersey, for the Eleven Months ending with October, 1892. 
Month. 
Degrees F. 
Max. 
Date of 
max. 
Min. 
Date of 
min. 
Mean 
max. 
Mean 
min. 
Mean max. 
and min. 
-2- 
Precipita- 
tion, ins. 
Av. daily 
sewage* 
pumpage. 
December 
50 
4 
15 
18 
48 
34 
41.0 
8.19 
1,583.867 
January 
53 
2 
10 
21 
39 
26 
32.5 
3.02 
1'701.537 
February 
57 
8 
10 
13 
40 
29 
34.5 
1.43 
1.708.832 
March 
55 
7 
14 
15 
42 
2S 
35.0 
3.69 
1,852.237 
April 
6 
28 
12 
53 
40 
46.5 
3.05 
1,891,182 
May 
80 
16 
40 
8 
64 
51 
57.5 
5.51 
2 116.843 
June 
89 
22 
51 
11 
74 
63 
68.5 
4.44 
2,295 652 
July 
90 
28 
57 
8 
76 
64- 
70.0 
4 23 
8 030 156 
August 
86 
9 
61 
28 
79 
6S 
73.5 
3.26 
2 999 913 
September 
80 
25 
48 
27 
72 
59 
65.5 
1 08 
2.503,404 
October 
80 
1 
33 
25 
63 
47 
55.0 
0.30 
2,070,024 A YEAR'S PUMPING RECORDS AT ATLANTIC CITY, N. J. 
149 
cause an increase in the amount of sewage, and doubtless do; but the 
figures compiled and plotted have a bearing upon only two days in 
each month, and are of little or no help in the study. Unfortunately, 
the Weather Review does not give daily temperatures, which would 
be of interest and value in this connection. As showing something of 
the temperatures of the whole of each month, the mean maximum, 
mean minimum, and the half of the sum of the two, are given below for 
the year, in connection with the maximum and minimum temperatures 
and their dates. The total monthly precipitation and the average 
pumpage of sewage for each month is also given at the right. The 
figures for November were not available. 
The cold weather during the first part of January, 1893, seems to 
have had a marked effect upon the amount of sewage, the temperature 
and pumpage for each of the first 20 days of the month having been 
as follows, the thermometer and pump register being read at 12 m. 
each day : 
Temperature, 
degrees F. 
Pumpage, 
gallons. 
Temperature, 
degrees F. 
Pumpage, 
gallons. 
40 
2,179,584 
22 
2,393,168 
2 
38 
2,199,936 
" 13 
9 
2 401,344 
3 
29 
2,194,944 
14 
12 
2.497,162 
4 
18 
2,250,528 
15 
18 
2,304,960 
5 
24 
2,143,776 
16 . .. 
4 
2,295,360 
6 
24 
2J52.472 
17 
6 
2,312.352 
7 
18 
2,173,632 
18 
10 
2.343,360 
8 
22 
2,191,776 
19 
21 
2,246.208 
9 
24 
2,208,288 
20 
16 
2,264,160 
10 
14 
2,263 968 
11 
7 
2,326,272 
45,343.250 
Averages 
19 
2,267,163 
The average daily pumpage for January, 1892, was 1,701,537, against 
2,267,163 for the first 20 days of January, 1893, and 2,172,059 for the 
year ending November 30,1891. The number of sewer connections in- 
creased only about 16 per cent, between January, 1892, and January, 
1893, while the daily amount of sewage pumped in the first 20 days 
of January, 1893, was about 33 per cent, greater than the average 
for January, 1892. For the year ending November 30, 1892, the 
lightest pumpage was in the month of January. From these figures 
it appears that the cold weather of January, 1893, greatly increased 
the amount of sewage at Atlantic City, although there may have been 
other causes contributing to the increase, such as an unusually large 
number of visitors in the city, although at this season of the year the 
latter supposition seems hardly probable. CHAPTER VIII. 
GENERAL DATA OF SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 
The Constituents of Sewage. 
Ordinary city sewage contains a great variety of ingredients, as, 
for instance, urine, faeces, table droppings, and the waste water from 
kitchens, baths, laundries, and other domestic offices. In manufactur- 
ing districts it may further contain the refuse substances of various 
manufacturing processes, the whole diluted with a considerable 
amount of water, to which in rainy weather is added, in towns with 
combined systems, a large amount of sand, earth, and organic matter 
from the surfaces of the streets. With a separate system of sewers the 
street washings are excluded, and the sewage has in consequence a 
more permanent character than is found in the sewage from combined 
systems. Sewage from separate systems may be therefore considered 
somewhat more amenable to economical treatment than that from com- 
bined systems, not only because of its permanent character, but by 
reason of uniformity of quantity; both considerations leading to de- 
crease in first cost of disposal works as well as to decrease in annual 
expense of operation. 
Sewerage Systems-Separate or Combined. 
The relative advantages of the two systems of sewerage have been 
ably discussed in American sanitary literature by Eliot C. Clarke, M. 
Am. Soc. C.E., and Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C.E.,* and oth- 
ers, and the subject will be pursued no further here than to point out 
that the recent extensions of knowledge of the causation of typhoid 
fever and the other water-borne communicable diseases enforce, some- 
what, the argument for separate systems wherever they are applicable, 
by reason of the greater amenability of the sewage therefrom to puri- 
fication treatment. 
In the chapter on The Infectious Disease of Animals it has been 
shown that the excrements of animals are nearly as prejudicial as those 
* The Separate System of Sewerage. By Eliot C. Clarke, 2d An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health, 
Lunacy and Charity, Supp. 1880, pp. 25-44. 
Sewerage and Land Drainage. By Geo. E. Waring, Jr., etc., Chapter III, The System, Com- 
bined or Separate, pp. 28-53. SEWERAGE SYSTEMS-SEPARATE OR COMBINED. 
151 
of man; and with this premise admitted it would appear at first sight 
that the force of the argument in favor of separate systems is con- 
siderably modified, in consequence of the large amount of animal 
excrements which must be inevitably washed from the street surfaces 
into the clean water conduits with every rainfall. This objection has 
some force, though less than may appear at first sight. To begin with, 
paved streets are frequently cleaned, and in places where this work is 
only negligently done a more rigid administration of street cleaning 
departments may be relied upon to assist in reducing the evil. Again, 
it must be remembered that absolute immunity from danger cannot be 
hoped for; there will always be some risk, even after the best has been 
done that is possible in any given case. Moreover, so far as public 
water supplies are concerned, the true remedy lies in the direction of 
an absolutely uncontaminated source. 
In regard to the treatment of storm water, the Rivers Pollution Com- 
mission, after reciting the standards which they propose for liquids 
deemed polluting and inadmissible to any stream, say: * 
The enforcement of these standards of purity would, as we have repeatedly stated, 
inflict no serious injury upon industrial processes and manufactures, nor would the 
remedies required involve any risk to the public health; nevertheless there is, in 
the case of town sewage, a condition of things which ought, in our humble opinion, 
to be taken into careful consideration in the framing of a legislative enactment. 
The condition to which we allude is that caused by excessive rainfall, or "storm 
water," as it is technically called. To provide for the exceptional occasions when 
this condition prevails would entail in many cases an expenditure, in sewerage 
works, many times greater than that necessary in ordinary weather. We are there- 
fore of opinion that, however undesirable, it will be necessary to permit storm water 
to flow directly into rivers and streams without preliminary cleansing. Unfortun- 
ately, chemical analysis shows that storm water, so far at least as its earlier portions 
are concerned, is more polluting than dry weather sewage, owing to old deposits in 
the sewers being then swept to the outfall; and it will be very important, therefore, 
to guard against any unnecessary use of this exceptional permission. 
On the question of separation of sewage from rainfall and the rela- 
tion of such separation to purification treatment, Eliot C. Clarke writes 
as follows in his report to the Massachusetts Drainage Commission: 
So long as it was considered sufficient to put sewage as well as rain into streams 
or bodies of water, this double use of the sewers was proper and economical. When, 
however, it was thought necessary to purify the sewage by treating it in various 
ways before permitting it to escape, it was found that such operations were rendered 
very difficult when the sewage, owing to the presence of rain water, varied greatly 
both in amount and character. It is a comparatively simple matter to design works 
to purify a regular quantity of (say) one million gallons of sewage of nearly uniform 
quality. It would be almost impossible to design works to handle and purify sew- 
age liable to vary in quantity from one to fifty million gallons, and also to vary 
greatly in its chemical constituents. For this reason the proposition is generally 
accepted at present, that wherever sewage must be purified by any mode of treat- 
ment, it should be kept separate from the rainfall and conveyed in sewers which are 
used for no other purpose. In such cases, when it is also necessary to remove the 
* Third Rept., p. 55. 152 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
rainfall by means of sewers, a distinct system of such structures, devoted to that 
purpose only, must be built. Such a double system of sewerage has both advan- 
tages and disadvantages. The sewers for sewage only can be very small, and will 
cost only about two-fifths as much as do those designed for carrying rain, or say 
$6,000 to $8,000 per mile. In some places, where the removal of rain is not a 
pressing necessity, and the cost of a large system of sewers would preclude its con- 
struction, small sewers for removing sewage proper can sometimes be built for a 
sum within the means of the town. When the system for removing rain must be 
co-extensive with that for removing the sewage, the cost of the double system will 
be about two-fifths greater than that of a single one. Usually, however, the rain 
water system need not be so extensive as the other, and the rain can be discharged 
at less distant outlets into brooks traversing the town, where it would not do to put 
sewage. The first portion of a rainfall, which washes yards and streets, becomes 
very dirty ; but the filth contained by it is not considered so dangerous as ordinary 
sewage, nor, coming as it does only occasionally, is it so liable to cause nuisances. 
Notwithstanding any disadvantages, the necessity for keeping the sewage by itself, 
whenever it is to be treated in any way, is so apparent that it may be laid down as a 
rule that it should be done where practicable. 
The foregoing extract is of considerable interest by reason of em- 
bodying the views of Mr. Clarke, after he had been confronted, in his 
investigations for the Drainage Commission, with the various serious 
problems of sewage purification existing in the region which he spe- 
cially studied. 
In relation to the impossibility of treating the whole flow of com- 
bined systems at times of heavy rainfall, see Chapter VII., on Quan- 
tity of Sewage and Variation in Rate of Flow. 
The Average Composition of American Sewage. 
In American cities using from 60 to 100 U. S. gallons of water per 
capita per day, the sewage is naturally more dilute than in foreign 
cities where 30 to 50 U. S. gallons per capita is more nearly the daily 
allowance. As appositely remarked by Mr. Mills in the Special Re- 
port of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, we may say that the 
Table No. 32.-Average Composition of the Sewage experimented upon at 
Lawrence for Four Years. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Year. 
Free 
ammonia. 
Albuminoid ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Oxygen con- 
sumed. 
Bacteria per cubic 
centimetre 
Total. 
Soluble. 
Insoluble. 
1888 
1.5528 
1.8439 
1.8200 
2.2196 
.6878 
.5540 
.6862 
.7295 
.1611 
.29119 
.3805 
.3446 
.5267 
.2631 
.3057 
.3849 
5.19 
4.92 
5.45 
7.37 
3.25 
3.64 
1.000.000 
708 000 
1,085,000 
693,000 
1889 
1890 
1891 
Average-4 yrs.* 
1,8591 
.6644 
.2943 
.3701 
5.73 
3.44 
871,000 
* As may be expected in any growing town which has not yet attained approximately fixed conditions, the 
strength of the sewage is slowly increasing, the average total nitrogen for 1891 being about 25 per cent, greater 
than for 1888. RELATION OF AMERICAN TO ENGLISH SEWAGE. 
153 
sewage of an average American town will contain, when stronger than 
ordinary, say 998 parts of water, 1 part of mineral matter, and 1 part 
of organic matter. The mineral matter is not generally harmful, and 
the object of sewage purification can be stated as chiefly to get rid of 
the one-thousandth part of organic matter. 
The composition of the sewage of American towns may be taken as 
averaging fairly with the results in Table No. 32, in which is given the 
average composition of the sewage received at the experiment station 
of the Massachusetts State Board of Health at Lawrence for four years. 
The table also shows the relations of the soluble albuminoid ammonia 
to the insoluble. 
The Average Composition of English Sewage. 
Table No. 33 gives the average composition of the sewage of a large 
number of English towns, as taken from the Report of the Rivers 
Pollution Commission. This table, while containing the averages of 
the most complete series of analyses of English town sewage that has 
yet been made, is unfortunately not entirely comparable with the pre- 
vious table on account of the use of a different system of chemical 
analysis. If, however, we bear in mind (1) that free ammonia and am- 
monia, albuminoid ammonia, and organic nitrogen refer to the same 
things and (2) that the organic nitrogen is usually at least double the 
albuminoid ammonia, we are able to make comparisons which are close 
enough for ordinary purposes.* 
Table No. 33.-Average Composition of Sewage of English Towns.f 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Water-closet towns .... 
Classes of towns. 
82.4 
72.2 
Total solids in 
solution. 
4.181 
4.696 
Organic carbon. 
1.975 
2.205 
Organic nitrogen. 
p 
o co 
co zn 
Ammonia. 
6.451 
7.728 
Total combined 
nitrogen. 
11.54 
10.66 
Chlorine. 
17.81 
24.18 
Mineral. 
Suspended matters. 
21.30 
20.51 
Organic. 
39.11 
44.69 
Total. 
+ 1st Rep. Riv. Pol. Com., pp. 28, 29. 
Comparing the averages of Tables 32 and 33, with this understand- 
ing, it becomes apparent that the ordinary sewage of English towns is 
Relation of American to English Sewage. 
* This is intended as a general statement only. It is derived from the results of a number of 
comparative analyses of natural waters in which the albuminoid ammonia was determined by the 
Wanklyn process and the organic nitrogen by the Kjeldahl method, as given in paper On the De- 
termination of the Organic Nitrogen in Natural Waters by the Kjeldahl Method, by Thomas M. 
Drown, M.D., and Henry Martin, S.B., Technology Quarterly, February, 1889. No comparisons 
were made with the combustion process of Frankland and Armstrong. 154 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
considerably more concentrated than that of American towns. This 
point, let us say, is a very important one to bear in mind in the appli- 
cation of English data to American conditions. The Massachusetts 
experiments have indicated that there is a relation between the purify- 
ing capacity of different filtering materials and the amount of impurity 
to be removed from samples of sewage of varying strength. This 
point is strongly brought out by the several series of experiments. 
From all of which it follows that with high grade intermittent filters, 
prepared in accordance with the indications of the Massachusetts ex- 
periments, we may expect to filter larger volumes of average American 
dilute sewage per unit of area than has usually been found expedient 
in English practice. The use, therefore, of English intermittent filtra- 
tion data, without reference to either the quality of the filtering 
medium or the material filtered, will be likely to lead to erroneous 
conclusions. 
The Composition of London Sewage. 
If the comparison is in relation to the average sewage of London, 
somewhat different results appear. We find, indeed, that at present 
the London sewage does not differ greatly in composition from that of 
American towns. This conclusion is derived from Table No. 33A fol- 
lowing, in which are given the means of a large number of analyses of 
London sewage, as made by W. J. Dibdin in 1883, and published in 
detail in the Report of the Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage 
Discharge: 
In regard to the drainage from street surfaces, the following analyses 
of the liquid flowing from two different classes of pavements, situated 
in the centre of the city of London, may be taken as showing the 
amount of pollution which such drainage will acquire in streets with 
large traffic: * 
Character of Drainage from Street Surfaces. 
Drainage from 
Drainage from 
Composition. 
wood pavement. 
Macadam pavement. 
Appearance 
Dark color 
Slate color 
Odqr 
Strong urine 
Urine 
Chlorine... 
54.0 
24 4 
Free ammonia 
6.89 
3.54 
Albuminoid ammonia 
Oxvgen absorbed by matters in solution in 15 min- 
4.25 
2.47 
utes 
0.68 
0.38 
Oxvgen absorbed by matters in solution in 4 hours. 
4.95 
2.81 
Suspended matter T ' . ... 
1 / Loss on ignition 
952.00 
83.40 
2020.60 
77.70 
-r.. , , i Mineral. 
Dissolved solids < T ... 
( Loss on ignition 
462.10 
117.10 
178.60 
38.60 
(In parts per 100,000.) 
* From paper, Sewage Treatment and Sewage Disposal, by W. Santo Crimp, Eng. and Bld. 
Rec. vol. xxvii., p. 237 (Feb. 18, 1893). THE DATA OF HUMAN EXCREMENTS. 
155 
Table No. 33A-Means of Analyses of London Sewage made by W. J. Dibdin 
in 1883. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Number of sam- 
ples in series. 
Dissolved solids. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Suspended matter. 
Total. 
Mineral. 
Organic. 
Free. 
Albumi- 
noid. 
Total. 
Mineral. 
Organic. 
Samples from southern outfall 
109 
88.3 
60.9 
27.4 
4.16 
.523 
18.0 
37.5 
16.7 
20.7 
Samples from northern outfall 
72 
79.4 
51.6 
27.9 
5.05 
.584 
12.4 
41.6 
19.5 
22.0 
Average from both outfalls 
181 
83.9 
56.2 
27.7 
4.60 
.553 
15.2 
39.6 
18.1 
21.4 
Percentage composition 
100.0 
67.0 
33.0 
100.0 
46.0 
54.0 
It will be noticed that the drainage from wood pavement is consid- 
erably more polluted than that from the Macadam, but whether this 
is due in any degree to differences in the pavements themselves or 
entirely to variations in traffic is not stated.* 
The Data of Human Excrements. 
Tables Nos. 34, 35, and 36 furnish important data in regard to the 
amount of the solid and liquid excrements from a mixed population, 
together with the proportion of organic nitrogen and phosphates in 
the same.f 
Excrements, however, do not comprise, as -we have already seen, 
more than one-half of the total pollution in ordinary sewage; but 
even with this understanding, the variation in quality which results 
Table No. 34. -Weight in Pounds of the Solid and Liquid Excrements of a 
Mixed Population of 100,000 Persons for a Year. 
Population by sex and age. 
Faeces. 
Urine. 
Total. 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
Phosphates. 
Total. 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
Phosphates. 
37,610 men 
34,630 women .... 
14,060 boys 
13,700 girls 
Totals 
4,521,664 
1,237,040 
1,239,504 
274,736 
52,416 
28,000 
20,496 
6,270 
98.672 
30,038 
18,122 
4,032 
45,217,782 
37,458,512 
6,423,670 
5,041,344 
452,144 
297,136 
53.872 
40,320 
183,456 
151,648 
24,304 
19,152 
7,272,944 
107,182 
150,S64 
94,141,308 
843,472 
378,560 
* For discussion of the effect of different kinds of pavements upon the quality of the water 
draining off, together with the effect of much or little traffic on streets, see Report of General Board 
of Health on Metropolitan Water Supply, Appendix 3, p. 140. Professor Way, who made the 
series of analyses there discussed, has also given some of them in his paper On the Use of Town 
Sewage as Manure, in Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc., vol. xv, pp. 149-150. 
fist Rept. of Riv. Pol. Com., p. 27. From the researches of Wolff and Lehmann. 156 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 35. - Weight in Grains of the Solid and Liquid Excrements per 
Person per Day, and the Organic Nitrogen and Phosphates Contained 
Therein. 
B 
5 
cn 
§ s 
» 5 
2 
g 
o 
3 
Sex and age. 
1,273 
2,315 
694 
1,698 
386 
Total. 
Fseces. 
g 
«8S3 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
8 
c: C7t *3 o 
Phosphates. 
14,930 
23,148 
20,833 
8,796 
6,944 
Total. 
Urine. 
or 
fO 
231 
166 
73 
57 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
8 
8888 
Phosphates. 
Table No. 36.-Weight in Pounds of the Solid and Liquid Excrements per 
Person per Year. 
ft 
S3 
5 
j} 
g 
57 
° g 
/i 5 
a 
3 
K 
ft 
i 
Sex and age. 
8 
g 
120.45 
36.08 
88.33 
20.07 
Total. 
Faeces. 
c 
1.39 
0.80 
1.51 
0.46 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
u 
SHOW 
Uggs 
Phosphates. 
777.68 
1,204.5 
1,083.9 
457.7 
361.3 
Total. 
Urine. 
6.85 
12.04 
8.61 
3.79 
2.95 
Organic ni- 
trogen. 
3.20 
5.28 
4.38 
1.73 
1.40 
Phosphates. 
from differences in the amount of water supply becomes very ap- 
parent, especially when we study the question with Tables 34 to 36 
before us. 
In Tables Nos. 35 and 36 we have given the quantity of excrements per 
day and per year from average single persons, and also from 100,000 
persons of an average urban population ; and while we have already 
expressed the opinion in Chapter IV. that the theoretical values of the 
manurial constituents of sewage cannot be realized in practice, we 
nevertheless deem it desirable, for the completeness of the subject, to 
give a short discussion of fertilizers from the more recent agricultural 
point of view. 
The three elements in manures of the greatest value to plant 
life are nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash. Nitrogen and phos- 
phoric acid occur abundantly in human excrements, while potash 
occurs in somewhat smaller quantity. The following from Wolff, as 
given by Professor Storer,* shows the percentage composition of the 
leading contituents of human excrements. 
* Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 70. THE DATA OF HUMAN EXCREMENTS. 
157 
Table No. 36A.-Average Composition of Human Excrements. 
(Per cent.) 
Kind. 
Water. 
Organic 
matter. 
Nitrogen. 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Potash. 
Lime. 
Magnesia. 
Fresh human faeces 
77.2 
19.8 
1 00 
1.10 
0 25 
0.62 
0.36 
Fresh human urine 
96.3 
2.4 
0 6 
0.17 
0.20 
0.02 
0.02 
Mixture of the two 
93.5 
5.1 
0.7 
0.26 
0.21 
0.09 
0.06 
In estimating the value of human excrements for manure it must be 
further remembered that night-soil, as ordinarily procurable, is not 
nearly so valuable as fresh excrements, because of the fermentations 
and leachings to which it is usually subject. The following tabulation, 
also from Storer (loc. cit.), gives the average composition of night-soil 
as taken from vaults, and presumably not subject other than as stated 
to leaching, dilution, etc. 
Table No. 36B.-Analyses of Night-soil from Vaults. 
(Per cent.) 
Locality. 
Water. 
.2 . 
g 3 
gfs 
O S 
Nitrogen. 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Potash. 
Lime. 
Magnesia. 
Quesnoy, near Lille (?) (Girardin)* 
" from large factory* 
98.04 
2.66 
0.92 
0.33 
0.21 
99.65 
0.05 
0.18 
0.03 
0.02 
Lille, from a dwelling-house* 
99.86 
0.54 
0.67 
0.10 
0.15 
Paris, L'Hotet 
99.12 
1.28 
0.44 
0.14 
0.16 
Munich, mostly liquid 
99.51 
2.01 
0.18 
0.26 
" thick liquid 
90.52 
7.35 
0.69 
0.52 
Karlsruhe, large public vault (Nessler) 
96.00 
3.00 
0.40 
0.12 
0.17 
Cassel, public vault (Nessler) 
96.00 
1.51 
0.90 
0.17 
0.20 
Stuttgart, public vault (Wolff) 
0.43 
Groningen, average, mostly liquid (Fleischer) 
97.10 
0.29 
0.01 
0.36 
Bremen, average, solid and liquid (Fleischer) 
Average composition of night-soil from cities, mostly liquid 
31.70 
0.53 
0.51 
0.26 
2.71 
(Wolff) 
95.50 
3.00 
0.35 
0.28 
0.20 
0.10 
0.06 
* The first specimen was undiluted and contained 0.76 per cent, of ammonia; the second, which was much 
diluted with water, contained only 0.21 per cent, of ammonia ; the third, which was diluted with from twelve 
to fifteen per cent, of water, contained 0.57 per cent, of ammonia ; all of these contained traces of nitrates. 
t This specimen contained 0.52 per cent, of ammonia. The average of twelve different samples was 0.37 per 
cent, of nitrogen, the amount having ranged from 0.25 to 0.62 per cent. 
Lawes and Gilbert give the following as the amounts of different 
substances in the solid and liquid excrements of an adult male in a 
year: 
Dry substance-faeces, 23.75 pounds ; urine, 34.5 pounds ; total, 58.5 
pounds. 
Mineral matters-faeces, 2.5 pounds; urine, 12 pounds; total, 14 5 
pounds. 
Carbon-faeces, 10.0 pounds; urine, 12 pounds; total, 22 pounds. 158 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Nitrogen-faeces, 1.2 pound ; urine, 10.8 pounds ; total, 12 pounds. 
Phosphoric acid-faeces, 0.7 pound; urine, 1.93 pound ; total, 2.63 
pounds. 
According to Wolff, the amount of potash from the excrements of an 
adult male per year is : 
Pieces, 0.24 pound; urine, 2.01 pounds ; total, 2.25 pounds. 
In order to illustrate the relative manurial value of the excrements 
of different domestic animals in comparison with human, we have pre- 
pared Table No. 36C, the data for which are mostly derived from the 
researches of Wolff. 
Table No. 36C.-Comparison of Manurial Constituents of the Excrements 
of Domestic Animals and Human Beings. 
(Pounds per net ton.) 
Annual. 
Serial 
number. 
Fresh faeces. 
Fresh urine. 
Nitrogen. 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Potash. 
Nitrogen. 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Potash. 
Horse 
1 
8.8 
7.0 
7.0 
31.0 
30 0 
Cow 
o 
5.8 
3.4 
2 0 
11.6 
9.8 
Sheep 
3 
11.0 
6.2 
3 0 
39.0 
0.2 
45 2 
Swine 
12 0 
8.2 
5 2 
8 6 
1.4 
16 6 
Means of 1, 2, 3, and 4 
5 
9 4 
6.2 
4.3 
22.5 
0.4 
25.4 
Human being 
6 
20.0 
22.0 
5.0 
12.0 
3.4 
4 0 
Ratio of (5) to (6) 
2.02 
3.55 
1.16 
0 53 
8.50 
0.16 
In sewage nitrogen is usually present, either as carbonate of ammo- 
nia and in other ammoniacal salts, or as organic nitrogen in combina- 
tion with the organic matter. Phosphoric acid is present chiefly as 
either insoluble phosphates of lime and magnesia, or as soluble phos- 
phates of soda and ammonia, the latter being the more important in 
an agricultural point of view. The soluble potash of sewage is mostly 
derived from excrements, while the insoluble balance chiefly results 
from the grinding up of granite pavements, the wash therefrom pas- 
sing into the sewers. 
According to Hoffmann and Witt in their report to the Commissioners 
of the Metropolitan Drainage, the manurial constituents in an imperial 
gallon of the average London sewage of their day were as follows: 
Nitrogen, grains per gallon .6.76 
Phosphoric acid, grains per gallon 1.85 
Potash, " " " 1.03 
A net ton of sewage of this average composition would contain: 
Nitrogen 0.19 pound. 
Phosphoric acid 0.053 
Potash 0.029 THE DATA OF HUMAN EXCREMENTS. 
159 
With nitrogen at 170 per pound, phosphoric acid at 70, and potash 
at 50, the theoretical value of the fertilizing ingredients of such a sew- 
age would be per net ton, 3.85 cents. If, however, we take into account 
the various losses of the nitrogen, which is the most valuable element, 
and the expense of distribution, we reduce the value, even when applied 
to the best advantage, to not more than from 1 to 2 cents per net ton. 
When flooded upon land at all times, whether required or not, the value 
as a fertilizer may quickly become m7.* 
* Many of the cognate questions in regard to the use and utilization of human excrements are 
of the greatest interest, and the reader who cares to pursue the subject farther should consult 
Storer's Agriculture, vol. ii., p. 71, and following. Also p. 292 and following of the same volume. 
The following papers, to be found in Jour, of the Roy. Ag. Soc. of Eng., will be of interest to 
any person wishing to study the question of the use of fertilizers in all its bearings. They are a 
few only of the more important which have been published by the Roy. Ag. Soc. since the begin- 
ning of its journal in 1840. 
(1) On the Composition and Money Value of the Different Varieties of Guano. By J. Thomas 
Way, consulting chemist to the Roy. Ag. Soc. Vol. x., pp. 196-230. 
(2) On the Power of Soils to Absorb Manure. By J. Thomas Way. Vol. xi., pp. 313-379. Also 
in vol. xiii., pp. 123-143. 
(3) On Agricultural Chemistry-Especially in Relation to the Mineral Theory of Baron Lie- 
big. By J. B. Lawes and Dr. J. H. Gilbert. Vol. xit, pp. 1-40. 
(4) On Superphosphate of Lime : its composition and the methods of making and using it. By 
J. Thomas Way. Vol. xii., pp. 204-236. 
(5) On the Use of Town Sewage as Manure. By J. Thomas Way. Vol. xv., pp. 135-137. 
(6) The Atmosphere as a Source of Nitrogen to Plants ; being an account of recent researches 
on this subject. By J. Thomas Way. Vol. xvi., pp. 249-267. 
(7) On the Composition of the Waters of Land Drainage and of Rain. By J. Thomas Way. 
Vol. xvii., pp. 123-162. 
(8) On the Composition of Farmyard Manure, and the Changes which it undergoes on Keep- 
ing under Different Circumstances. By Dr. Augustus Voelcker, Professor Chemistry in the Roy. 
Ag. Col., Cirencester. Vol. xvii., pp. 191-260. 
(9) On Farmyard Manure, the Drainings of Dungheaps, and the Absorbing Properties of Soils. 
By Dr. Augustus Voelcker. Vol. xviii., pp. 111-150. 
(10) On Liquid Manure. By Dr. Augustus Voelcker. Vol. xix., pp. 519-552. 
(11) On the Changes which Liquid Manure undergoes in Contact with different Soils of known 
composition. By Dr. AugustusVoelcker. Vol. xx., pp. 134-157. 
(12) Farmyard Manure. By J. B. Lawes. Vol. xxiii., pp. 45-48. 
(13) On the Commercial Value of Artificial Manures. By Dr. Augustus Voelcker. Vol. xxiii., 
pp. 277-286. 
(14) On the Utilization of Town Sewage. By J. B. Lawes. Vol. xxiv., pp. 65-90. 
(15) Earth versus Water for the Removal and Utilzation of Excrementitious Matters. By the 
Rev. Henry Moule. Vol. xxiv., pp. 111-123. 
(16) The Money Value of Night-soil and other Manures. By P. H. Frere. Vol. xxiv., pp. 
124-131. 
(17) On the Composition and Practical Value of Several Samples of Native Guano prepared by 
the ABC Sewage Process of the Native Guano Company. By Dr. Augustus Voelcker. Sec. 
Ser., vol. vi., pp. 415-424. 
(18) On the Composition and Agricultural Value of Earth-closet Manure. By. Dr. Augustus 
Voelcker. Sec. Ser., vol. viii., pp. 185-203. 
(19) On the Composition of Waters of Land Drainage. By. Dr. Augustus Voelcker. Sec. Ser., 
vol. x., pp. 132-165. 
(20) On the Valuation of Unexhausted Manures. By J. B. Lawes. Sec. Ser., vol. xi., pp. 
1-38. 
(21) On the Amount and Composition of the Drainage Waters Collected at Rothamsted. By J, 160 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Explanations Concerning the Analysis of Fertilizers and the 
Valuation of their Active Ingredients.* 
Nitrogen is the most rare, and commercially the most valuable, fer- 
tilizing element. 
Free nitrogen is indeed universally abundant in the common air, 
but in this form its effects in nourishing vegetation are as yet ob- 
scure. 
Organic nitrogen is the nitrogen of animal and vegetable matters, 
which is chemically united to carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. Some 
forms of organic nitrogen, as those of blood, flesh, and seeds, are 
highly active as fertilizers ; others, as found in leather and peat, are 
comparatively slow in their effect on vegetation, unless these matters 
are chemically disintegrated. 
Ammonia (NH3) and nitric acid (N.2O6) are results of the decay of or- 
ganic nitrogen in the soil and manure heap, and contain nitrogen in 
its most active forms. They occur in commerce-the former in sul- 
phate of ammonia, the latter in nitrate of soda ; 17 parts of ammonia 
or 66 parts of pure sulphate of ammonia, contain 14 parts of nitrogen ; 
85 parts of pure nitrate of soda also contain 14 parts of nitrogen. 
Phosphorus is, next to nitrogen, the most costly ingredient of fer- 
tilizers, in which it always exists in the form of phosphates, usually 
those of calcium, iron, and aluminum, or in case of some " super-phos- 
phates," in the form of free phosphoric acid. 
Soluble phosphoric acid implies phosphoric acid or phosphates that 
are freely soluble in water. It is the characteristic ingredient of 
super-phosphates, in which it is produced by acting on " insoluble " 
or " reverted " phosphates, with diluted sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol). 
Once well incorporated with the soil, it gradually becomes reverted 
phosphoric acid. 
Reverted (reduced or precipitated) phosphoric acid means strictly, 
phosphoric acid that was once easily soluble in water, but from chem- 
ical change has become insoluble in that liquid. In present usage the 
term signifies the phosphoric acid (of various phosphates) that is freely 
taken up by a strong solution of ammonium citrate, which is therefore 
used in analysis to determine its quantity. " Reverted phosphoric 
acid " implies phosphates that are readily assimilated by crops. 
Recent investigation tends to show that soluble and reverted phos- 
phoric acid are on the whole about equally valuable as plant food, and 
B. Lawes, J. H. Gilbert, and Robert Warington. Sec. Ser., vol. xvii., Part I., pp. 241-279; Part 
li., pp. 311-350; vol. xviii., Part I., pp. 1-71. 
(22) On the Valuation of Unexhausted Manures. By Sir J. B. Lawes and J. H. Gilbert. Sec. 
Ser., vol. XXL, pp. 590-611. 
* From the An. Rent, of the Conn. Ag. Ex. Sta. for 1890, pp. 17-18. CONCERNING THE ANALYSIS OF FERTILIZERS. 
161 
of nearly equal commercial value. In some cases, indeed, the soluble 
gives better results on crops, in others the reverted is superior. In 
most instances there is probably little to choose between them. 
Insoluble phosphoric acid implies various phosphates not soluble 
in water or ammonium citrate. In some cases the phosphoric acid is 
too insoluble to be readily available as plant food. This is especially 
true of the crystallized green Canada apatite. Bone-black, bone-ash, 
South Carolina rock and Navassa phosphate, when in coarse powder, 
are commonly of little repute as fertilizers, though good results are 
occasionally reported from their use. When very finely pulverized 
(" floats ") they more often act well, especially in connection with 
abundance of decaying vegetable matters. The phosphate of calcium 
in raw bones is nearly insoluble, because of the animal matter of the 
bones, which envelops it; but when the latter decays in the soil, the 
phosphate remains in essentially the " reverted " form. The phos- 
phoric acid of " Thomas-Slag " and of " Grand Cayman's Phosphate " 
is freely taken up by crops. 
Phosphoric acid ... is reckoned as "anhydrous phosphoric 
acid " (P..OJ, also termed among chemists, phosphoric anhydride, 
phosphoric oxide, and phosphorus pentoxide. 
Potassium is the constituent of fertilizers which ranks third in cost- 
liness. In plants, soils, and fertilizers it exists in the form of various 
salts, such as chloride (muriate), sulphate, carbonate, nitrate, silicate, 
etc. Potassium itself is scarcely known except as a chemical curi- 
osity. 
Potash signifies the substance known in chemistry as potassium 
oxide (K„O), which is reckoned as the valuable fertilizing ingredient 
of " potashes " and " potash salts." In these it should be freely solu- 
ble in water and is most costly in the form of sulphate, and cheapest 
in the form of muriate (potassium chloride). 
The valuation of a fertilizer . . . consists in calculating the re- 
tail trade-value or cash cost (in raw material of good quality) of an 
amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash equal to that con- 
tained in one ton of the fertilizer. 
Plaster, lime, stable manure, and nearly all of the less expensive fer- 
tilizers have variable prices, which bear no close relation to their 
chemical composition ; but guanos, superphosphates, and similar arti- 
cles, for which $30 to $50 per ton are paid, depend chiefly for their 
trade-value on the three substances, nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and 
potash, which are comparatively costly and steady in price. The trade- 
value per pound of these ingredients is reckoned from the current 
market prices of the standard articles which furnish them to com- 
merce. 
The consumer, in estimating the reasonable price to pay for high- 162 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
grade fertilizers, should add to the trade-value of the above named in- 
gredients a suitable margin for the expenses of manufacture, etc., and 
for the convenience or other advantage incidental to their use. 
Theoretical Values. 
Ill order to indicate the theoretical value of the nitrogen, phosphates 
and potash of sewage, the following statement of trade values of the 
fertilizing ingredients in raw materials and chemicals, as used by the 
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station during 1892 and 
1893, is included. It is stated that the valuations obtained by the 
use of these figures will agree fairly well with the average retail price 
of standard raw materials.* 
c 
■ • p 
Nitrogen in ammonia salts 
" in nitrates 
1892. 
ts. per 
ound. 
17J 
15 
1893. 
Cts. per 
pound. 
17 
151 
Organic nitrogen in dry and fine ground fish, meat, and blood, and 
in high-grade mixed fertilizers 
16 
171 
Organic nitrogen in cotton-seed meal and castor-pomace 
" " in fine ground bone and tankage 
15 
161 
15 
15 
" " in fine ground medium bone and tankage 
12 
12 
" " in medium bone and tankage 
91 
9 
" " in coarse bone and tankage 
71 
7 
" " in hair, horn shavings, and coarse fish scraps 
7 
7 
Phosphoric acid, soluble in water 
" " soluble in ammonium citrate 
71 
61 
71 
6 
" " in fine bone and tankage 
7 
6 
" " in fine medium bone and tankage 
51 
5 
" " in medium bone and tankage 
41 
4 
" " in coarse bone and tankage 
3 
3 
" " in fine ground fish, cotton-seed meal, castor- 
pomace, and wood ashes 
5 
5 
Phosphoric acid in fine ground rock phosphate 
2 
2 
Potash as high-grade sulphate, in forms free from muriates (chlo- 
rides) , in ashes, etc 
61 
51 
Potash in kainit 
41 
41 
" in muriate 
41 
41 
Organic nitrogen in mixed fertilizers 
17 
171 
Insoluble phosphoric acid in mixed fertilizers 
2 
2 
VALUATION OF FERTILIZING INGREDIENTS IN FOODS. 
Organic nitrogen 17| 
Phosphoric acid 5 
Potash 5 j 
The authors are not to be understood as in any way implying that the 
theoretical values indicated by the foregoing table can be realized in 
sewage utilization in practice. 
*Bul. No. 52-New Series (March, 1893), Analysis of Commercial Fertilizers. N. Y. Ag 
Exp. Sta., Geneva, N. Y., Peter Collier, Director. material required for intermittent filtration. 
163 
Tables 34 to 36 inclusive are given as about the only approximately 
fixed data in sewage disposal; all the other elements being subject 
to relatively greater variations than occur in the average amount of 
excrements of a fixed population. Amount of water used per capita, 
whether the sewerage system is separate or combined, amount and 
quality of the manufacturing wastes, all these will enter into the 
problem in any given case. 
The Fixed Data of Sewage Disposal. 
The Mechanical Analysis of Soils, 
We come now to the consideration of an entirely different class of 
data, which have recently been found of fundamental importance in 
sewage disposal, namely, that derived from a mechanical analysis of 
the material to be used either for broad irrigation or intermittent 
filtration. A thorough knowledge of the mechanical properties of 
soils will, with other data derived from the Lawrence experiments, en- 
able one to determine beforehand approximately the amount of purifi- 
cation which can be attained with any given soil. 
There are a number of methods by which the mechanical ingredi- 
ents of a soil may be separated from each other, but the most impor- 
tant ones, aside from or in connection with the use of sieves, are the 
Hilgard's Elutriator, and Osburn's Beaker method. The use of these 
two niethods is only possible, however, when one has at hand a fairly 
well equipped physical laboratory, and in a practical way much may 
be learned by the mere use of a series of sieves of different degrees of 
fineness. 
The following table gives the classes into which the materials com- 
posing soils may be separated with reference to the diameters of 
the particles: 
Classification of Soil Particles. 
Grits of fine gravel with diameter 
mm. 
of 2.0 
mm. 
down to 1.0 
Coarse sand " 
66 
1.0 
6 6 
0.5 
Medium sand " 
66 
0.5 
6 6 
0.25 
Fine sand " 
6 6 
0.25 
6 6 
0.10 
Very fine sand or dust " 
66 
0.10 
6 6 
0.05 
Silt 
66 
0.05 
6 6 
0.01 
Fine silt " 
66 
0.01 
66 
0.005 
Clay 
6 6 
0.005 
6 6 
0.0001 
Quality of Material Required for Intermittent Filtration. 
Ill sewage disposal by intermittent filtration, it is necessary for suc- 
cessful purification to use material the particles of which are large 164 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
enough to allow the organic matters in suspension in the sewage to 
pass into the interstices, where they are resolved into primary elements 
through the action of nitrification. As we shall see in the discussion 
of the results of the experiments at Lawrence, in Chapter XIV., on 
Intermittent Filtration, very fine soils are less useful for sewage puri- 
fication than coarse, clean sands. In order to illustrate the differences 
Table No. 37.-Mechanical Analyses of Typical Soils from the South Caro- 
lina Agricultural Experiment Station Farms. 
(Per cent.) 
Ingredients. 
Diameter of grains. 
Spartanburg 
farm. 
Columbia 
farm. 
Darlington 
farm. 
Upland. 
Sandy. 
Sandy. 
Millimetres. 
Inches. 
Soil. 
Red 
subsoil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Grits 
Coarse sand 
Medium sand 
Fine sand 
Very fine sand 
Silt 
Clay 
Above 1 mm. 
1.0 to 0.50 
0.50 to 0.25 
0.25 to 0.10 
0.10 to 0.05 
0.05 to 0.01 
Less than 0.01 
Above 0.04 
0.04 to 0.02 
0.02 to 0.01 
0.01 to 0.004 
0.004 to 0.002 
0.002 to 0.0004 
Less than 0.0004 
11.300 
6.545 
5.541 
10.293 
37.709 
21.363 
6.956 
5.293 
4.236 
2.742 
6.123 
23.672 
45.021 
11.804 
1.276 
43.390 
23.626 
11.820 
7.875 
9.740 
1.733 
1.430 
36.486 
25.156 
14.537 
8.708 
12.473 
1.077 
2.361 
35.308 
14.222 
14.211 
22.981 
10.220 
.281 
2.565 
27.330 
10.190 
11.501 
19.1X15 
28.180 
.166 
Totals 
Per cent, of porosity 
99.707 
71.388 
98.891 
42.066 
99.460 
87.987 
99.867 
86.317 
99.584 
89.683 
99.537 
71.191 
in mechanical constituents which exist in natural soils, reference may 
be made to Tables 37 and 38, in which are included the mechanical 
analyses of a number of soils from the South Carolina Experiment 
Station Farms, as given in the Second Annual Report of the South 
Carolina Experiment Stations. 
Table No. 38.-Approximate Number of Particles in One Gram of Soil from 
the Farms of the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Stations (See 
Table 37); together with the Diameter of the Average Sized Particle in 
Millimetres. 
Ingredients. 
Average 
diameter. 
Spartanburg. 
Columbia. 
Darlington. 
Soil. 
Red subsoil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Mm. 
Grits 
1.5 
24 
10 
3 
3 
5 
5 
Coarse sand 
0.75 
112 
73 
747 
624 
606 
469 
Medium sand 
0.375 
759 
378 
8,602 
3,363 
1.951 
1,399 
Fine sand 
0.15 
22,040 
13,210 
25,370 
31,070 
30.470 
24,670 
Very fine sand.... 
0.075 
646.000 
408.800 
135,300 
149,000 
385,200 
336.400 
Silt 
0.03 
5,717,000 
12,150,000 
2.613,000 
3,333.000 
2.677.000 
7,557.000 
Clay 
0.005 
402.200.000 
687,900,000 
100,680,000 
60.900,000 
16,270,000 
9,615,000 
Total number of particles. 
408,585,935 
700,472,471 
103,463,022 
64,417,060 | 
19,365.232 
17,534,943 
Diameter of average sized par- 
ticle 
0.01209 
0.01009 
0.01911 
0.0224 
0.03337 
0.04384 MECHANICAL STUDIES OF SOILS. 
165 
Table No. 39. - Surface Area of Particles in One Gram of Soil from the 
Farms of the South Carolina Agricultural Experiment Stations (See 
Tables 37 and 38). In Square Centimetres. 
Ingredients. 
Average 
diameter 
in milli- 
metres. 
Spartanburg. 
Columbia. 
Darlington. 
Soil. 
Red sub- 
soil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Soil. 
Subsoil. 
Grits 
1.5 
1.7 
0.8 
0.2 
0.2 
0.4 
0.3 
Coarse sand 
0.75 
2.0 
1.2 
13.2 
11.0 
10.7 
8.2 
Medium sand 
0.375 
3.3 
1.6 
38.2 
18.7 
8.6 
6.1 
Fine sand 
0.15 
1.96 
9.3 
17.9 
21.9 
21.5 
17.4 
Very fine sand 
0.075 
114.2 
72.2 
23.9 
26.3 
68.0 
59.4 
Silt.' 
0.03 
161.7 
343.6 
73.9 
94.2 
75.6 
213.7 
Clay 
0.005 
316.2 
540.3 
79.1 
47.8 
12.7 
7.5 
Total surface 
618.7 
969.0 
246.2 
220.1 
197.5 
312.6 
In Table 39 is given the surface area in one gram of soil from the 
same localities.* 
Thus far, general studies of the mechanical constituents of soils have 
been carried to a somewhat greater degree of perfection at the South 
Table No. 40.- Per Cent, of Empty Space in a Number of Soils in Compar- 
ison with Average Size of Particles, Approximate Number of Particles, 
and Surface Area per Gram. 
Diameter 
Surface 
Locality. 
of 
averaged 
sized 
particles. 
Approximate 
number of parti- 
cles in 1 gram. 
Per cent, 
of 
empty 
space. 
area per 
gram, in 
square 
centime- 
in mm. 
tres. 
Illinois, " prairie soil" 
0.0067 
2,372,994,000 
55.2 
2279.1 
Sea Island, " cotton soil " 
0.0257 
42,355,000 
46.4 
186.1 
East Windsor, Conn., "clay soil" 
0.0087 
1,101,430,000 
48.3 
1406.8 
Granville Co., N. Car.. " tobacco soil " 
0.0111 
507,103,000 
32.0 
619.9 
East Windsor, Conn., " blowing sand " 
0 0124 
367,634,000 
44.7 
399.6 
Columbia, S. C., farm " soil " + 
0.01911 
103,463,000 
40.7 
246.2 
Columbia, S. C., farm " subsoil " + 
0.0224 
64,417,000 
42.4 
220.1 
Darlington, S. C., farm " soil " t 
0.03337 
19,365.000 
34.6 
197.5 
Darlington, S. C., farm " subsoil " + .... 
0 04384 
17,534.000 
39.9 
312.6 
" Coarse river sand " 
0.208 
7,980 
38.4 
10.9 
" Coarse river sand " 
0.833 
1.240 
41.0 
27.2 
Maryland, " pine barrens " 
1,692,000.000 
40.0 
495.8 
Maryland, ' ' truck " 
6,868.000,000 
45.0 
1669.6 
Maryland, " tobacco " 
8,258,000,000 
50.0 
2102.2 
Maryland, '' wheat " 
10,358,009,000 
55.0 
2602.11 
Maryland, " river terrace " 
11,684,000,000 
55.0 
2924.4 
• 
Maryland, " limestone (grass land)" 
24,653,000,000 
5573.71 
+ For detail of analyses of these samples see Tables 37, 38, and 39. 
t The number of square feet of surface per cubic foot for these soils, with large particle areas, are: 
Square feet. 
Pine barrens 23,940 
Truck 74,130 
Tobacco 84,850 
Square feet. 
Wheat 94,540 
River terrace 105,200 
Limestone 202,600 
Carolina and Maryland Agricultural Stations than at any other place 
in this country, the work at both of these. stations having been di- 
*For formulae for computing the diameter of the average sized particles, number of particles in 
a gram, surface area, etc., see 2d An. Report S. Car. Ag. Ex. Stations, Appendix, pp. 95-96. 166 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
rected by Professor Milton Whitney, whose researches in this direc- 
tion are of great theoretical value. But for practical value in connection 
with sewage purification, the studies of the mechanical composition of 
filtering materials made at the Lawrence Experiment Station, and out- 
lined, with deductions, in the Report of the Massachusetts State Board 
of Health for 1891, are first in rank. In order to further illustrate the 
differences in soils which exist at various localities, we have included 
Table No. 40, compiled from the Second Annual Report of the South 
Carolina and the Fourth Annual Report of the Maryland Agricultural 
Experiment Stations. 
In Table No. 41 are given the mechanical analyses of the material 
from a number of the experimental tanks at Lawrence,' as detailed in 
the Massachusetts report mentioned just above. 
Table No. 41.-Mechanical Composition of the Materials Used in a Number 
of the Experimental Filter Tanks at the Lawrence Experiment Station.* 
Diameter in millimetres. 
Per cent. 
No. 5. 
No. 4. 
No. 2. 
No. 9. 
No. 6. 
No. 1. 
No. 5A. 
No. 16. 
Finer than 12.6 
99 
83 
100 
100 
" " 6.2 
96 
73 
97 
95 
27 
" " 2.2 
92 
57 
85 
31 
o 
" " .98 .... 
89 
10<J 
32 
53 
4 
" " .46 
80 
100 
91 
13 
7 
2 
" " .24 
67 
100 
DO 
26 
7 
1 5 
1 5 
" " .12 
51 
85 
43 
3 
4 
0 
10 
" " .06 
33 
35 
10 
0 
2 
0 5 
" '• .03. 
16 
10 
2 
0 5 
o 
" " .01 (Organic) 
6 
1 
0 
0 
- 
- 
♦ These figures are based on the weight of the sand particles finer than the sizes given in the first column. 
The studies at Lawrence are so clearly and concisely set forth by 
Mr. Allen Hazen f that we cannot do better than to give them here 
as follows: 
Mechanical Composition of Materials Used at Lawrence. 
In making a mechanical analysis the sand is first sifted through a series of sieves, 
each, in a general way, twice as fine as the one next coarser. The sand passing the 
finest sieve is divided into several portions by beaker elutriation. Each portion is 
weighed, and the range in the sizes of its particles is determined by micrometer 
measurement in the case of the smaller particles, but the diameters of the larger 
particles can be more conveniently and accurately calculated from their weight. 
The diameters of all particles are taken at, as nearly as possible, the diameter of a 
sphere of equal volume. Of course the sand grains are irregular. With the Law- 
rence sands the average lengths of their axes, selecting the longest and taking the 
other two at right angles to it, are to each other as 4 : 3 : 2, and the mean diameter, 
taken as the cube root of the product of the three axes, 2.88. The longest diameter 
thus averages to be nearly 40 per cent, longer than the mean diameter, while the 
middle diameter, which is the width as seen by a microscope, is an approximation 
to the mean diameter. 
+ Chemist in charge of the station. 23d An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Hlth., pp. 428 et seq. COMPOSITION OF MATERIALS USED AT LAWRENCE. 
167 
The analyses of some of the materials which have been most carefully studied in 
their relations to sewage purification are shown in the preceding table (No. 41). 
The figures given show the per cent, by weight of the different materials having 
smaller diameters than the size given in the first column. These results have been 
revised by improved methods of analysis, so that in some cases the following fig- 
ures differ slightly from those given in the report upon the Purification of Sewage 
and Water. 
For study and comparison the results have been plotted, and are shown on the 
accompanying diagram (Fig. 7), the height of curve at any point showing the per 
cent, of material finer than the size indicated 
at the bottom of the diagram. The lines 
representing the diameters are spaced ac- 
cording to the logarithms of the diameters of 
the particles, as in this way materials of cor- 
responding uniformity in the range of sizes 
of their particles give equally steep curves, 
regardless of the absolute sizes of the parti- 
cles, thus greatly facilitating a comparison of 
different materials. This scale also shows 
adequately every grade of material from 
0.01 to above 10 millimetres in a small space, 
and without unduly extending any portion 
of the scale. It is assumed for the purpose 
of plotting that the particles of organic mat- 
ter (determined by the loss due to heating 
that portion of the material finer than the 
140 mesh sieve to a dull red heat) are less 
than 0.01 millimetres in diameter 
These materials may be said to include 
the whole range of sands available for sewage 
purification. Anything as fine as No. 5 * is too fine for advantageous use, while, 
at the other end, it would hardly be safe to depend upon a gravel coarser than 
No. 16 with a filtering stratum not over five or six feet in thickness. 
With the mixed materials, Nos. 5 and 6, the smaller particles fill the spaces be- 
tween the larger, and these finer portions determine the capillary attraction of the 
filter, its resistance to the passage of sewage, and, in fact, its action in every way. 
The appearance of No. 6 is coarser than No. 1, and the average size of its particles is 
greater, but its finest portion determines its character as a filter, so that it is prac- 
tically finer than No. 1. It has been found as the result of a careful study that the 
Diameter in millimeters 
Fig. 7.-Mechanical Composition of 
Sand used for Filtration at the 
Lawrence Experiment Station. 
Table No. 41A-Size and Uniformity Coefficient of Filtering Materials 
Used at Lawrence. 
Number of filter. 
Ten per cent, 
of material 
finer than 
(millimetres). 
Uniformity 
co-efficient. 
No. 5 
0.02 
9.0 
4 
0.03 
2.3 
2 
0.06 
2.3 
9 
0.17 
2.0 
6 
0.35 
7.8 
1 
0.48 
2.4 
5A 
1.40 
2.4 
16 
5.00 
1.8 
points where the curves in the diagram cut the 10 per cent, line give the best idea 
of the total effect of the various materials. By •measurements of the diagram we 
* For convenience the different materials are numbered to correspond with the filter tanks in 
which they were first used. 168 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
find that with the various materials 10 per cent, by weight of the particles are 
smaller than the sizes given in the following table. This gives as good an idea of the 
relative effect of sizes of the materials as can be condensed into a single figure for 
each. 
To obtain a definite basis of comparison of the uniformities of the sizes of the 
grains of different materials, the ratios between the diameters of the particles at 
the 10 per cent, line, as given above, and the diameters at the 60 per cent, line are 
given in the table (No. 41A,) under the heading " Uniformity Coefficient." If all 
the grains of a sand were absolutely of the same size, the coeflicient would be 1 ; 
with a majority of our comparatively even-grained sands the coefficient ranges from 
2 to 3; with No. 6 and No. 5, the figures are 8 and 9 respectively, and some ex- 
tremely uneven sands have coefficients as high as 20 or 30, but our data in regard to 
the action of such materials is as yet very limited. 
Relation Between Quality of Filtering Material and Quantity of 
Applied Sewage. 
The actual quantities of sewage which have been found to be the 
best adapted to seven of the Lawrence experimental filters under the 
most favorable circumstances, together with the size and depth of the 
filtering materials, size of dose and frequency of application are given 
in Table 41B. 
Table No. 41B.-Quantity of Sewage Applied to Different Filtering Mate- 
rials at Lawrence. 
Material. 
Diameter 
of grain, 
mm. 10 per 
cent, finer 
than- 
Depth of 
material 
(ft.). 
Size of dose. 
Number of 
doses in 
one week. 
Average 
amount 
applied 
daily, gals, 
per acre. 
Gallons 
per acre. 
Per cent, 
of volume 
of filter. 
5.00 
5 
2.800 
0.17 
500 
200.000 
1 
.48 
5 
40.000 
2.45 
18 
103,000 
G 
.35 
4 
70,000 
5.37 
6 
60'000 
9 
.17 
5 
120,000 
7.36 
6 
103,000 
2 
.06 
5 
140,000 
8.60 
3 
60,000 
4 
.03 
5 
80,000 
4.91 
3 
34,000 
5 
.02 
5 
b 
0 
Additional data under this head appears in Chapter XIV., on Inter- 
mittent Filtration. Chapter XVII., On the Temperature of Air and 
Natural Soils, also presents further data applying to broad irrigation 
and intermittent filtration. CHAPTER IX. 
DISCHARGE INTO TIDAL OR OTHER LARGE BODIES OF WATER. 
Under this head little needs to be said in addition to the prelimi- 
nary discussion in Chapter I., which has already indicated that the 
present work is not specially concerned with this particular form of 
disposal. As useful examples the sewerage of two large cities may be 
referred to. 
Early American Sewerage Systems. 
The sewerage system of the city of Chicago, designed by E. S. Ches- 
brough, C.E., in 1855, has usually been considered a model on which 
other towns could safely build. At that time the idea that the preva- 
lence of typhoid fever and many other infectious diseases was directly 
related to the presence of sewage in drinking-water had hardly been 
broached in this country, and even in England, where rational ideas of 
sanitation developed at a relatively early date, the great bulk of the 
sanitary literature which has since enriched the English language had 
at that time hardly more than began to come into being. The discus- 
sions of the fifteen or twenty years immediately preceding that period 
had, however, awakened sanitary authorities to the necessity of get- 
ting rid of waste products in some more effectual way than by turning 
into cesspools or by merely throwing into streets. The English 
sewerage systems of the period from 1850 to 1860 were chiefly con- 
structed, therefore, with reference to getting sewage first of all out of 
the houses and towns, and undoubtedly, even though the outfall emp- 
tied in many cases into the nearest small watercourse, the improve- 
ment in public health was nevertheless as a whole markedly apparent. 
Sewerage at Chicago. 
Thanks to the foresight of Mr. Chesbrough, Chicago has had, ever 
since the initiation of permanent sewer construction in 1855, a pre- 
designed system which has been systematically carried out from year 
to year. Before designing the same, Mr. Chesbrough visited England 
in order to study the state of the art of sewerage there, and we may 
conclude, inasmuch as there were at that time absolutely no models on 
which to build in this country, that the Chicago sewerage system was 170 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
made a fair epitome of current foreign practice with such modification 
as the ablest municipal engineer of the day considered desirable in 
order to fit it to the conditions of a rapidly developing American me- 
tropolis. As preliminary, then, to a short description of the Chicago 
outfall sewers, we may properly examine, though briefly, the antece- 
dent circumstances which led to considerable activity in systematic 
sewer building in England, in the fifth decade of the present 
century. 
Condition of English Towns Fifty Years Ago. 
The beginning of modern sanitary science in England is indicated 
by the first report of the Health of Towns Commission in 1844. The 
rapid and alarming increase in the death-rate in many of the English 
towns had been, it is true, the subject of partial investigation by par- 
liamentary committees previous to that time; but the earlier reports, 
while frequently voluminous, add almost nothing to the stock of 
knowledge of the evil investigated; and it was only on the publication 
of the Health of Towns Commission's Report that exact information 
as to the cause of the increase became available. The Commission's 
first report, together with the second and third of the series, revealed 
a condition of affairs in many of the English towns of that day which 
has thus far been without parallel in this country. Even New Orleans 
at its worst must have been a cleanly city in comparison with what ex- 
isted in many of the English towns in 1844. * For instance, in Liv- 
erpool it was found that a cellar population amounting to more 
than 20,000 persons was absolutely without any place of deposit for 
its refuse matter, while in houses inhabited by the working-classes 
a large proportion were in a similar predicament.! The reports 
abound in similar statements, many of them in reference to whole 
streets in populous districts, and in some cases nearly whole towns, 
where the public streets were the only places of deposit for the most 
* See vol. xix. of Tenth Census of U. S., Social Statistics of Cities, Pt. II., pp. 264-267, where 
may be found, in the article on New Orleans, a graphic presentation of the ravages of the several 
cholera epidemics at New Orleans. Chicago, however, was itself sufficiently unhealthy for the 
year immediately preceding the beginning of sewer construction in accordance with the general 
plan of Mr. Chesbrough. Indeed, it was chiefly a succession of epidemics of cholera and dysen- 
tery for several years which led, in February, 1855, to the passage of an act by the Illinois Legisla- 
ture creating the Chicago Board of Sewer Commissioners. The construction of sewers began in 
1856. It should be stated in this connection that the first public water supply was introduced in 
1840 by a company when the population was small; that more extensive works were built by the 
city in 1852-54, just at the close of the first period named directly below. In 1867 the first water 
intake tunnel was built beneath the lake, greatly improving the supply, and in 1874 a second intake 
tunnel was added. All these facts should be considered in this connection, and especially in con- 
nection with the note to the following table. From 1845 to 1S56 the mean annual death-rate had 
been 39.91 per 1,000, while from 1856 to 1870 it was only 23.97. The following table shows the 
11st Rept. Health of T. Com., vol. i., p. 128. RESULTS OF THE EARLY SEWERAGE SYSTEMS. 
171 
offensive waste products of the human economy; and into these all 
such were indiscriminately pitched, even from second-story windows 
or balconies, as the case might be.* As recently as 1861 we find it 
stated with regard to one place, that even in the centre of the town no 
accommodation of any kind is provided, and hence the adult male 
population defecate habitually in the gardens or in the road,f and so 
on ad nauseam. When we consider that the Health of Towns Commis- 
sion's Reports relate to a period only 50 years past, and the conditions 
described existed in several places less than 25 years ago, and it is 
only within 35 or 40 years that any material improvement has been 
effected in some of the worst localities, we may appreciate the enter- 
prise of the people of Chicago in sending their chief engineer abroad 
in 1855 in order that he might profit, in designing the Chicago system, 
to the fullest extent, by whatever new or useful had been developed 
under the active agitation of sanitary questions which then prevailed 
in England. £ 
Results of the Early Sewerage Systems. 
As the result of turning the house sewage of a large number of towns, 
as well as the manufacturing wastes of many rapidly developing 
manufacturing centres in various parts of the county into the streams, 
a nuisance of a new character was soon created which was quite as 
serious as the one which the construction of sewers had been more or 
number of feet of sewers built annually, the population, mortality, and the death-rate per 
1,000 for the series of years from 1856, when the first sewers were constructed, to 1870 : 
Year. 
Feet of sewer 
built. 
Population. 
Deaths. 
Death-rate 
per 1,000. 
1856 
31,794 
84,113 
2,086 
24.80 
1.857 
25,681 
93,000 
2'414 
25.66 
1858 
101'879 
84,000 
2,255 
26.84 
1859 
55,208 
96.000 
2,008 
21.36 
1860 
69,024 
109,260 
2'264 
20.70 
1861 
2,826 
120^000 
2,279 
18.99 
1862 
15,685 
137,030 
2,835 
20.69 
1863 
39,605 
150,000 
3,875 
25.83 
1864 
25^021 
161,288 
4,448 
27.57 
1865 
29,948 
178,492 
4,029 
22.57 
1866 
48,127 
200,418 
6,524 
32.22 
1867 
89,661 
225,000 
4,648 
21.17 
1868 
47,841 
252,000 
5,984 
23.74 
1869 
139,705 
280,000 
6,488 
23.16 
1870 
78,166 
299^227 
7^343 
24.53 
From 1870 to 1879, inclusive, the death-rate was 21.15. (From " Sanitary Problems of Chicago, Past and 
Present." By John H. Rouch, M.D. Reprint from Sec. An. Rept. of the Ill. St. Bd. of Health, p. 10.) 
* In verification of these statements see 1st Rept. Health of T. Com., loc. cit.; also 2d Rept. 
Health of T. Com., vol. i., p. 370; vol. ii., p. 84. Also see Repts. Med. Officer Priv. Council. 
+ 4th Rept. Health Officer Priv. Conn., 1861. 
J For more complete resume of the sanitary condition of the English towns 50 years ago, see 
Corfield's Treatment and Utilization of Sewage, 3rd Ed., Chapters i. to iii., inclusive. 172 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
less successful in relieving. Hence, sewage disposal, purification, or 
utilization, became a pressing question in the fifth decade of the cen- 
tury. A clear idea of the various views prevailing at that time may 
be obtained from either the Preliminary Report of the Sewage of 
Towns Commission or the Report of Henry Austin, On the Means of 
Deodorizing and Utilizing the Sewage of Towns.* 
Mr. Chesbrough's Chicago Report. 
The state of sewage disposal in England at about the time of Mr. 
Chesbrough's study of the English methods has been briefly presented 
in order to saliently illustrate the fact that, while no adequate concep- 
tion of the evils resulting from mixing house sewage with drinking- 
water existed at that time, even with people who had made sanitation 
a specialty, nevertheless Mr. Chesbrough must have returned from 
Europe very thoroughly permeated with the prevailing views as to the 
necessity of some form of sewage purification; and it is accordingly 
interesting to notice that the matter of ultimate disposal occupies an 
important place in his report of 1855. By reason of being, so far as 
the authors can learn, the first American report in which sewage dis- 
posal other than by discharge into the nearest water-course is touched 
at all, we derive an additional incentive for inquiring how this ques- 
tion happened to receive extended consideration in connection with 
the sewerage plans of an American city at that relatively early day. 
The preceding historical paragraphs answer the question thus raised, 
and without dwelling further on this part of the question, we may 
proceed to consider the sewerage system actually designed. 
Mr. Chesbrough's report begins, after a short introductory para- 
graph, by asking the question, What shall the sewage of the city be 
drained into f The answer is that four principal plans have been pro- 
posed, namely: 
(1) Into the river and its branches directly, and thence into the 
lake. 
(2) Directly into the lake. 
(3) Into artificial reservoirs, to be thence pumped up and used as 
manure. 
(4) Into the river, and thence by the proposed steamboat canal into 
the Illinois river. 
* The Sewage of Towns Commission, the commission of which bears date January 5, 1857, 
were directed under its terms " to inquire into the best mode of distributing the sewage of towns 
and applying it to beneficial and profitable uses." Their first report was issued in 1858. The 
Report of Henry Austin, C.E., was presented to the President of the General Board of Health in 
1857. In these two reports may be found a fair summation of the various methods of sewage dis- 
posal of that day, the Report of the Sewage of Towns Commission treating the question mostly 
from the point of view of utilization by agriculture, while the Report of Mr. Austin presents the 
side of the chemical purificationists of 35 years ago. THE CHICAGO RIVER. 
173 
In order, according to the report, to take advantage of the natural 
facilities of the site at a minimum of expense, the first plan as given 
above was adopted ; that is, the sewage of the city was from economic 
considerations discharged by way of the river into Lake Michigan. 
The objections to the third plan as stated in the report were: 
(1) The great uncertainty about there being a demand for the sew- 
age after it is pumped up, sufficient to pay for distributing it. 
(2) The great evil that would necessarily result from a failure of the 
reservoirs through insufficiency of capacity, especially if the system of 
sewers leading to them should have their outlets too low to empty 
into the lake or river. If the reservoirs should be made so large as to 
place them beyond all doubt of having sufficient capacity, they would 
be very expensive, both on account of the labor and material required 
in their construction and the ground they would occupy. 
(3) There would be danger to the health of the city during the prev- 
alence of winds from the quarter in which the sewage might be used 
as a manure, especially if only a few miles distant and spread over a 
wide surface. 
Mr. Chesbrough's third objection to the use of sewage has been 
found by the more extended experience of later years to be mostly 
without foundation for fairly well-managed sewage farms. 
Mr. Chesbrough remarks that should the time ever arrive when the 
value of the sewage would be so great as to permit of saving it for this 
purpose, the sewers as designed would still serve their purpose as 
conduits for surface water, while a system of small pipes to take house 
sewage, only, could be laid down at a minimum expense. 
With regard to the fourth plan of draining into the proposed steam- 
boat canal, and thence into the Illinois river, Mr. Chesbrough also 
remarks that this is too remote a contingency to be relied upon for 
present purposes. We shall see, however, in Part II., that a partial 
application of this method by utilization of the Illinois and Michigan 
canal has been in use more or less continually since 1865.* 
The Chicago River. 
The Chicago river, before its enlargement through the city for 
purposes of navigation, was a small stream of sluggish flow with a 
total drainage area of perhaps 300 square miles. It divides in the 
central part of the city, at a point about a mile from the lake, into two 
branches, the North branch and the South branch, the North branch 
being about 30 miles in length, and the South branch about 5 
miles. Both run nearly parallel to the lake shore, and only a short 
* For complete text of Mr. Chesbrough's Chicago Report, see Eng. News, vol. ii. (1875), pp. 42, 
55, and 79. 174 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
distance from it. The enlarged river now comprises the inner harbor, 
which had, according to data collected in 1887,* a total dock frontage, 
including slips, of 20.7 miles, and an area of 406.0 acres. The inner 
harbor is estimated to contain over 60,000,000 cubic feet of water. In 
dry weather it receives only a small amount of water from the re- 
stricted drainage area of the river from which it is formed, and what 
it does receive is contaminated before reaching Chicago. Into such a 
broad area of already contaminated water is poured daily, except as 
noted below, the sewage of a large portion of the city, amounting in 
1890 to at least 22,000,000 cubic feet daily. Hence the daily inflow of 
sewage is about one-third of the total contents of the harbor. This ex- 
treme pollution of the river-harbor was first relieved in 1865 by forcing 
a large amount of water from the river into the Illinois and Michigan 
canal, thereby causing a flow of water from Lake Michigan through 
the city into the canal, and so on to the Des Plaines river at Joliet. 
This, however, only partially relieved the South branch. For the re- 
lief of the North branch, a tunnel 12 feet in diameter was built beneath 
Fullerton avenue and extended into Lake Michigan. This tunnel was 
first operated in 1880. Two screws capable of forcing 15,000,000 cubic 
feet per day at ordinary speeds furnish a motive power by which a 
current may be sent either from the river into the lake, or by reversal 
of the machinery from the lake into the river, as may be found most 
desirable at different stages of the two bodies of water. 
Fig. 8, from the Report of the Chicago Drainage Commission, shows 
the relative proportions of sewage and lake water in the Chicago 
river and its branches. 
For the more complete relief of the South branch, pumping ma- 
chinery of a nominal capacity of 60,000 cubic feet per minute was pro- 
vided at Bridgeport, the point where the Illinois and Michigan canal 
connects with the Chicago river, in 1883. A brief description of these 
works, together with one of the Fullerton Avenue conduit, is given in 
Part II. In 1893 improvements were in progress designed to increase 
the capacity of the Bridgeport works to 100,000 cubic feet per minute, 
or over 1,000,000,000 gallons per 24 hours, against 6 ft. head. 
The continual rapid increase of the population of Chicago has, how- 
ever, produced such further fouling of the river as to lead to a revival 
in the last few years of the project of a large navigable canal from 
Lake Michigan to the Illinois river drainage at Joliet, through which 
enough water can be sent each day to not only entirely relieve the 
river of its present visible pollution, but which will, it is hoped by the 
projectors, also so far dilute its waters as to render the Chicago sew- 
age in effect harmless to the Illinois river communities who derive 
* The Lakes and Gulf Waterway as related to the Chicago Sanitary Problem. By L. E. Cooley, 
C.E., p. 23. THE CHICAGO RIVER. 
175 
Cubic feet per MiNuft 
Fig. 8-Proportions of Sewage and Lake Water in the Chicago River and its Branches. 
Stock Yard and Packing House Refuse. 
Ordinary Sereage 
Lake Wafer 
(Numbers in brackets represent proportions of sewage and lake water at points indicated.) 
SOUTH BRANCH 
When entire Nov) is'intothe Illinois (Michigan Cana! 
NORTH BRANCH. - 176 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
their water supplies from that river. A complete description of the 
project in all its bearings would extend beyond the limits of this chap- 
ter, where the only object is to call attention to some of the difficulties 
which have attended sewage disposal at Chicago; but it should be 
added that work is now in progress, under the direction of the Trus- 
tees of the Sanitary District of Chicago, on a drainage canal designed 
to have a capacity of at least 300,000 cubic feet per minute. In rock 
cut the capacity of the canal will be 600,000 cubic feet. Brief consid- 
eration of the relations of the discharge of a considerable portion of 
the sewage of the city in such manner as to finally find its way into 
Lake Michigan, from which the water supply of the city is also drawn, 
may be properly made. In favor of the present project of discharging 
to the Des Plaines river it is urged that in prehistoric times there ex- 
isted a channel to the south through which at any rate a portion of the 
waters of Lake Michigan originally discharged to the Illinois and 
finally to the Mississippi river. 
Tiie Chicago Water Supply. 
The present water supply of the city is derived from Lake Michigan 
through tunnels and intake pipes. The first two tunnels were con- 
structed in 1864-67 and 1872-74, respectively. They are parallel, 46 
feet apart, and are driven through clay about 30 feet below the lake 
bottom to a distance of two miles from the shore, where they terminate 
in timber cribs, inclosing shafts. The first tunnel is 5 feet wide by 5 
feet 2 inches high, and lined with substantial brick masonry; the second 
is of the same material and 7 feet in diameter ; it extends under the city 
for four miles, passing under the river and South branch to the West 
side pumping station. A third tunnel was constructed in 1887-92, 
which extends into the lake a distance of four miles; it also extends 
under the city a distance of H miles to connect with the new Central 
and Fourteenth street pumping stations, and also with the old 
tunnel. The lake section was started with a diameter of 8 feet, but the 
unfavorable material encountered necessitated two 6-foot tunnels for a 
good part of the distance. A tunnel 6 feet in diameter and 1| miles long 
also forms a part of the Chicago water-works. It was built jointly by 
Hyde Park and Lake, which towns were annexed to Chicago in 1889. 
The former town of Lake View, also annexed to Chicago in 1889, was 
until quite recently supplied through several iron intakes, but a tunnel 
6,500 feet long now takes the place of these intakes; this tunnel is be- 
ing extended to a length of 10,000 feet. On March 1, 1893, the total 
daily capacity of the several tunnels was officially reported as being 
504,000,000 gallons and the total pumping capacity of the city water- 177 
EARLY SEWERS OF BOSTON. 
works as 356,000,000 gallons. The average daily water pumpage for 
the year 1892 was 195,000,000 gallons.* 
Contamination of the Chicago Water Supply. 
At various times the evidence of sewage contamination about the 
water supply intakes has been unmistakable, and it is generally con- 
ceded that the water supply is ordinarily more or less polluted by the 
sewage which finds its way into the lake. The increase in the death- 
rate from typhoid fever has been considerable in the last few years (see 
Table No. 3), a fact which, with our present views as to the causation of 
typhoid, can hardly be satisfactorily explained except by assuming an 
increasing contamination of the water supply ; we may, therefore take 
Chicago as an illustration of the force of the statement of the opening 
chapter, that sewage ought not to be discharged into any body of water 
also used as the source of a public water supply at any point within 
the influence of the sewage. 
The Boston Main Drainage. 
The most elaborate system of disposal by special appliances for dis- 
charge into tide-water yet carried out in this country is that of the 
city of Boston, the Main Drainage Works of which, as completed in 
1884 may be justly regarded a model work of the kind ; before describ- 
ing the Main Drainage we will briefly discuss the antecedent conditions 
which rendered the works a necessity.! 
Early Sewers of Boston. 
The first sewers of Boston were undoubtedly constructed in the lat- 
ter part of the 17th century, as we find that at the town meeting- of 
September 22, 1701, it was ordered "that no person shall thenceforth 
dig up the ground in any of the streets, lanes or highways in this 
town, for the laying or repairing of any drain, without the leave or ap- 
probation of two or more of the selectmen." These early sewers were 
probably built on the co-operative plan. Several neighbors, needing 
drainage, joined together and constructed a sewer by the shortest line 
to tide-water. The expense was divided between the interested parties 
who owned the drain in common. Any party outside of the original 
owners who desired to connect was obliged to pay for the privilege 
* For the latest detailed information regarding the Chicago water supply and sewerage systems 
and the quality of the water, see the 17-page account in the London Lancet, Apr. 8, 1892, or an 
extended abstract in Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 438-9 (May 11, 1893). 
+ The following account of the sewers of Boston and the Main Drainage Works is abstracted 
from Eliot C. Clarke's Main Drainage Works of the City of Boston. 178 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
whatever they saw fit to charge. The expense of repairs was divided 
between the parties using the drain when the repairs were made. 
The Massachusetts Sewer Act of 1709. 
This method, while answering the purposes for the construction of 
the first drains, was found unsatisfactory when extended, and in 1709 
the Colonial Legislature passed an act regulating the construction of 
drains and sewers. This act of 1709 is the foundation of the present 
system of sewer assessments in most of the New England as well as 
some of the other States, and its provisions may be properly cited at 
some length. It is entitled : An Act passed by the Great and General 
Court or Assembly of Her Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts 
Bay, for Regulating of Drains and Common Shores,* for Preventing 
Inconveniences and Damages by frequent breaking up of Highways 
. . . and of differences arising among Partners in such Drains or 
Common Shores about their Proportion of the Charge for Making and 
Repairing the same. 
The act provides (1) a penalty for breaking up the ground in any 
highway within any town for laying, repairing, or amending any com- 
mon shore, without the approbation of the selectmen ; (2) that all such 
structures, for the draining of cellars, shall be substantially done with 
brick or stock (3) that it shall be lawful for any inhabitant of any 
town to lay a common shore or main drain for the benefit of themselves 
and others who shall think fit to join therein, and every person who 
shall afterward enter his or her particular drain into such main drain, 
or by more remote means receives benefit thereby, for the drainage of 
their cellars or lands, shall be obliged to pay unto the owner or owners 
a proportionate part of the charge of making or repairing the same, or 
that part of it below where their particular drain enters. Disputes 
were settled by references to the selectmen, who decided the amount 
each person should pay. An appeal from the selectmen's decision 
could be taken to the courts. 
The sewers of Boston were built, repaired, and owned under the pro 
visions of this act until 1823, when a new charter was obtained. One 
of the first acts of the new city government was to assume control of 
all existing sewers and of the building and care of new ones. 
In regard to the sewers built by private enterprise between the years 
1709 and 1823, little can be said in their praise, although the greater 
part of Boston of that day was thus sewered by private enterprise. 
The contents of privies were excluded, but they received the wastes 
from pumps and kitchen sinks, and also rain-water from roofs and 
yards. That much refuse got into them is proved by their frequently 
* Sewers. 
+ Stone. THE LIMITS OF ORIGINAL BOSTON. 
179 
filling up. This difficulty led to disputes about payments for repairs, 
so that in 1763 the act of 1709 was amended in such manner as to 
provide for assessment of cost of repairs on all persons benefited. 
In 1824 Mayor Josiah Quincy, in referring to the old sewers, said: 
No system could be more inconvenient to the public or embarrassing to private 
persons. The streets were opened with little care, the drains built according to 
the opinion of private interest or economy, and constant, interminable, vexatious 
occasions of dispute occurred between the owners of the drain and those who en- 
tered it, as to the degree of benefit and proportion of contribution. 
Since 1823 the sewers have all been built by the city, with varying 
proportions of the expense, as before, charged to the estates benefited, 
but apportioned with reference to their assessed valuation. Previous 
to 1838, a small variable portion of the cost was generally assumed by 
the city in consideration of its use of the sewers for the removal of 
storm water from the streets; in that year the city decided to assume 
one-quarter of the gross cost.* 
The Limits of Original Boston, 
The original city of Boston, by reason of being a town on hills, with 
quick descent to the water in all directions, was comparatively easy to 
sewer, but the changes which have taken place through the reclaiming 
and filling of the tidal areas bordering the old limits have transformed 
it into a city presenting many obstacles to the construction of efficient 
sewerage. 
This will be understood by examining Fig. 9, on which the shaded 
portion represents very nearly the area of the city in 1823. The un- 
shaded portion consists entirely of reclaimed land, filled to such an 
extent that the streets of the reclaimed district are seldom over seven 
feet above mean high water. A large proportion of the house base- 
ments and cellars are lower than high water, and frequently but from 
five to seven feet above low-water mark, the mean rise and fall of the 
tide being ten feet. Most house drains are under the cellar floors, and 
fall in reaching the street sewers, while the latter, in their turn, fall 
towards their outlets, which are rarely much above low water. As a 
consequence the contents of the sewers were dammed back by the tide 
during the greater part of each twelve hours. Salt water was excluded 
from many of them by tide-gates, which closed as the sea rose, also at 
the same time shutting in the sewage, which accumulated, and, being 
without currents, deposits occurred. 
At about the time of low water the tide-gates opened and the sewage 
escaped, to be met almost immediately by the incoming tide and 
* Since the above was put in type the Report of the Superintendent of Streets of Boston for 
1893 has come to hand, in which is a resume of all the various forms of assessments, with a dis- 
cussion of recent changes. 180 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
brought back by it to form deposits upon the fiats and shores about 
the city. Stony brook, Back bay, and South bay are the localities 
where the greatest nuisances were created in this way. 
The position of the principal original sewer outlets is indicated on 
Fig. 9, where are also shown the lines of the intercepting sewers which 
were finally designed as a remedy for the difficulty. 
The Boston Sewerage Commission of 1875 
Ill March, 1875, a commission consisting of Messrs. E. S. Ches- 
brough, M. Am. Soc. C.E., Moses Lane, M. Am. Soc. C.E., and Chas. F. 
Folsom, M.D., were appointed by the mayor to report upon existing 
sewerage, and to present a plan for outlets and main lines of sewers 
for the future wants of the city. Their report contained a compre- 
hensive and exhaustive statement of the defects in the existing system 
and of the causes which had led to it, and recommended a well consid- 
ered plan for remedying the existing defects and providing for future 
needs. 
The following extract from the report gives some of the more inter- 
esting points: 
The point which must be attended to, if we would get increased comforts and 
luxuries in our houses, without doing so at cost of health and life, is to get our 
refuse out of the way, far beyond any possibility of harm, before it becomes danger- 
ous from putrefaction. In the heat of summer this time should not exceed twelve 
hours. We fail to do this now in three ways : 
(1) We cannot get our refuse always from our house-drains to our sewers, be- 
cause the latter may not only be full themselves at high tide, but they may even 
force the sewage up our drains into our houses. 
(2) We do not empty our sewers promptly, because the tide or tide-gates pre- 
vent it. In such case the sewage becomes stagnant, a precipitate falls to the 
bottom, which the slow and gradual emptying of the sewers, as the tide falls, does 
not produce scour enough to remove. This deposit remains with little change in 
some places for many months. 
(3) With our refuse, which is of an especially foul character, once at the outlets 
of the sewers, it is again delayed, there to decompose and contaminate the air. 
As a result of this failure to carry out the cardinal rule of sewerage, we are obliged 
to neglect the second rule, which is nearly as important, namely, ventilation of the 
sewers; for the gases are often so foul that we cannot allow them to escape without 
causing a nuisance ; and we compromise the matter by closing all the vents that we 
can, with the certainty of poisoning the air of our houses. 
In the opinion of the commission there are only two ways open to us. The 
first, raising more than one-half of the superficial area of the city proper (exclud- 
ing suburbs), is entirely out of the question, from the enormous outlay of money 
which would be required-more than four times as much as would be needed for 
the plan which we propose, and which consists in intercepting sewers and pumping. 
There are in use now in various parts of the world three methods of disposing of 
the sewage of large cities, where the water-carriage system is in use : 
(1) Precipitation of the solid parts, with a view to utilizing them as manure, and 
to purifying the streams.' 
(2) Irrigation. 
Neither of these processes has proved remunerative, and the former only clarities 
the sewage without purifying it; but if the time comes when, by the advance in THE BOSTON SEWERAGE COMMISSION OF 1875. 
181 
Fig. 9.-Map Showing the Original Boston, old Sewer Outlets, new Intercepting Sewers, and the Outfall Sewer 
to Moon Island. 182 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
our knowledge of agricultural chemistry, sewage can be profitably used as a ferti- 
lizer, or if it should now be deemed best to utilize it, in spite of a pecuniary loss, 
it is thought that the point to which we propose carrying it will be as suitable as 
any which can be found near enough to the city, and at the same time far enough 
away from it. 
(3) The third way is that adopted the world over by large cities near deep water, 
and consists in carrying the sewage out so far that its point of discharge will be 
remote from dwellings, and beyond the possibility of doing harm. It is the plan 
which your Commission recommend for Boston. 
Fig. 9 shows the main and intercepting sewers as finally worked out 
in detail for Boston proper and South Boston, in accordance with the 
recommendation of the commission. Their report also included a 
separate line of interception for East Boston and the territory to the 
North of the Charles river, which, however, was not adopted at that 
time.* 
Description of the Boston Main Drainage. 
A description of the improved system, as actually carried out, 
divides naturally into four parts : 
(1) The intercepting and main sewers which carry the sewage by 
gravity to the pumping stations. 
(2) The pumping station where the sewage is raised to a sufficient 
height to permit it to How by gravity through a tunnel under Dor- 
chester bay to Moon island. 
(3) The deposit sewers leading from the pumping station to the tun- 
nel shaft and the tunnel itself under the bay. 
(4) The reservoir at Moon island in which the sewage is stored, and 
the appliances for discharging the same during ebb tide. 
The plan included lines of intercepting sewers, by means of which 
nearly all the original outfalls were cut off and the sewage diverted to 
the pumping station at Old Harbor point, the most easterly portion 
of the calf pasture in Dorchester. The main sewer leading to this 
point is about 3.25 miles long. Beginning at the junction of Hunting- 
ton avenue and Camden street, its inclination throughout its whole ex- 
tent is 1 in 2,500. At the pumping station the water line of the invert 
is about 14 feet below mean low tide, where also the diameter is 10.5 
feet, a dimension which holds until the point of junction of the South 
Boston intercepting sewers is reached in a distance of about a mile. 
Above the point where the South Boston intercepting sewers join the 
main sewer, the latter is reduced to nine feet in diameter, and continues 
of that size to Albany street where the intercepting sewer for the east 
* The sewerage of this latter territory is now in process of construction under the Metropolitan 
Sewerage Commission. For accounts of the engineering features involved see (1) Mr. Clarke's 
Report to the Massachusetts Drainage Commission (1886); and (2) a Report of the State Board of 
Health upon the Sewerage of the Mystic and Charles River Valleys (1889). DESCRIPTION OF THE BOSTON MAIN DRAINAGE. 
183 
side of old Boston joins. Beyond this the main sewer is again re- 
duced in size to 8 feet 3 inches high, which dimension holds until the 
end of the main sewer is reached at Huntington avenue, where the in- 
tercepting sewer for the west side begins. 
The first intercepting sewer from the pumping station is, as already 
stated, that for South Boston, which by its two branches is intended 
to encircle the peninsula on which South Boston is situated, and inter- 
cept the sewage which had been hitherto discharged at 19 outlets. At 
the point of junction the grade of this intercepting sewer is 1.5 feet 
higher than that of the main sewer, this rise in grade insuring (1) that 
the sewage in the former will not be dammed back, and (2) that the 
established rate of inclination of the surface in both sewers will be 
maintained at the time of maximum discharge. This intercepting 
sewer is six feet in diameter up to the point where it divides, with an 
inclination throughout the greater portion of 1 in 2,000. The diameters 
and sections of the two branches are varied to suit local conditions. 
The second large intercepting sewer which enters the main sewer is 
that for the east side, connecting at East Chester park and Albany 
street. Stony brook intercepting sewer connects at Tremont street; 
and the intercepting sewer for the west side at Huntington avenue 
and Camden street. These intercepting sewers are generally laid at a 
grade of 1 in 2,000, though in a few places a somewhat more rapid 
gradient was used. The total length of intercepting sewers now in 
use is about 12.75 miles, making with the main sewer about 15 miles in 
all. The size of the intercepting sewers varies from about 5.5 to 6 feet 
in diameter, at their junctions, to 3 to 4 feet and smaller at the extreme 
ends, according to the needs of the different localities. 
The flowing sewage, on its arrival at the pumping station, first 
passes through a filth-hoist, where all floating objects liable to inter- 
fere with the action of the pumps are intercepted and at stated 
intervals removed. The sewage then passes on to the pumps, by 
which it is lifted about 35 feet into the deposit sewers, which are 
nearly a quarter of a mile in length. These consist of two parallel 
conduits 8 feet wide and 16 feet deep ; they are dammed at their lower 
ends to maintain a depth of 8 to 10 feet, in order that the flow through 
them may be very sluggish, so that suspended matter will be deposited 
before reaching the tunnel; they are provided with the necessary 
arrangements for draining and cleaning. 
In Table No. 42 is given the amount of sewage passing through the 
deposit sewers in each month of the year 1887, and the amount of 
sludge removed from them in the same time, also by months. 
From Table No. 42 we derive the fact that the deposited matter 
amounts to 0.31 cubic yard per 1,000,000 gallons of sewage passing 
through the sewers. 184 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 42. 
Month. 
Amount of 
sewage 
pumped, 
gallons. 
Amount of 
sludge 
removed, 
cubic yards. 
Month. 
Amount of 
sewage 
pumped, 
gallons. 
Amount of 
sludge 
removed, 
cubic yards. 
January, 1887 
1,818,101,430 
69.9 
August, 1887 
1,205.322,183 
512.4 
February 
1,507478^534 
* 
September 
1'073,328^655 
672 6 
March 
1.638,591.404 
139.7 
October 
1457^233,278 
605 3 
April 
1,512,945,916 
482.9 
November 
1,114,037,646 
523 0 
May 
1,122,655.791 
368.2 
December 
1,353,478,600 
601.6 
1.218 930 586 
505.3 
July 
1,183,342^262 
496.6 
Totals 
15,905,146,275 
4977.5 
* Nothing removed during this month. 
At the farther end of the deposit sewers is a masonry chamber, built 
about the tunnel shaft and connecting with it. At this shaft chamber 
are two waste sewers through which, in case of emptying the tunnel 
for inspection, etc., the sewage can be temporarily discharged into 
Dorchester bay. 
The shaft at the end of the deposit sewers is 149 feet deep. From 
its foot there are 6,088 feet of nearly horizontal tunnel leading to the 
east shaft, beyond which there are 923 feet of inclined tunnel leading to 
the end on Squantum neck. From Squantum to Moon island an em- 
bankment, one mile long, 20 to 30 feet high, 20 feet wide on top and 
120 feet at its base, in which to construct the outfall sewer, was built. 
About 4,100 feet of the site of this embankment consisted of beds of 
mud from 10 to 40 feet deep. After the bank was completed, slight 
settlement occurring, it was deemed prudent to postpone building 
a masonry structure for some years, until the bank has assumed a 
condition of permanent stability. Hence a wooden flume was con- 
structed, 200 feet to the south of the embankment, for temporary use. 
It consists of a wooden box six feet square, supported on bents of 
three piles each ten feet apart. 
The reservoir, at present covering an area of about five acres, is so 
built that extension can be made readily at the south side, as required 
in the future. In this reservoir the sewage is received as it Hows from 
the temporary flume just described, where it is retained until after the 
turn of the tide, when it is discharged by opening a series of gates 
which permit the whole contents of the reservoir to flow out in about 
20 to 30 minutes. A description of how this is accomplished, with full 
details of other portions of the work, are given by Mr. Clarke, and the 
reader is referred to his book for a more extended account. 
A view of the reservoir is shown by Fig. 10. 
The velocity of the ebb tide from Moon island outward is about two 
miles an hour; on account of this velocity and the commanding posi- DESCRIPTION OF THE BOSTON MAIN DRAINAGE. 
185 
Fig. 10.-View of Moon Island Storage Reservoir, Boston Main Drainage. 186 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tion of the island, it results that all visible traces of the sewage are so 
completely lost in the vast body of water in less than two miles flow 
as to be indistinguishable by chemical tests. The Boston Main 
Drainage Works therefore satisfy the conditions laid down in Chapter 
IV., on The Self-Purification of Bunning Streams and the Rational 
View in Relation to the Disposal of Sewage by Discharge into Tide- 
Water ; indeed, these works may be considered a good illustration of 
the correct principle governing the discharge of sewage into tide-water. CHAPTER X. 
ON NITRIFICATION AND THE NITRIFYING ORGANISM.* 
The Fundamental Principle of Nitrification. 
The necessary essential for the resolution of organic matter into more 
primary forms of matter through the operation of nitrification is that 
the nitrifying organism shall be present in conjunction with an alka- 
line mineral base. The value of an alkaline base has been practically 
known for at least 2,000 years, as exemplied by the Greeks, the Gauls, 
and the Britons liming the land which they cultivated. Varro states 
that he saw laborers on the banks of the Rhine fertilizing their land 
with white marl. 
Puvis, in his Treatise on Manures, mentions the excellent results in 
the Department du Nord, where the custom of using calcareous ma- 
nures has been followed for centuries. Nevertheless the real action of 
the lime on the soil has only been recently understood, and we may 
profitably review a few of the more interesting investigations of nitri- 
fication which have been made in the last 150 years. 
In 1749 Piertsch, in a short treatise addressed to the Academy of Sci- 
ences at Berlin, stated the circumstances which he considered most fa- 
vorable to nitrification, as follows: (1) The presence of calcareous 
matter; (2) considerable porosity of the earth to offer a free passage 
to the air ; (3) the putrefaction of animal or vegetable substances; 
(4) heat and humidity. 
In 1778 Clouet and Lavoisier proved that the lime of Touraine and 
that of Saintonge nitrify very readily. 
In 1782 Thou venal, in an essay which gained a prize from the Paris 
Academy of Science, remarked that a basket of chalk placed over blood 
in a state of putrefaction produced a considerable quantity of saltpetre. 
In 1784 Cavendish demonstrated that nitrification requires the con- 
tact of an alkaline solution. 
In 1785 Rozier, in his " Course of Agriculture," said : " Stratifying the 
dunghill with lime decomposes the air contained in the manure and 
converts it into nitre, which gives to the soil an extraordinary fertility." 
* The preliminary discussion of this chapter has been abstracted mostly from a paper on Nitri- 
fication of the Soil, by M. P. Bortier, Mem. Roy. Ag. Soc., in Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc. of Eng., vol. 
xxiii. (1862), pp. 354-357. 188 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Subsequently a number of chemists demonstrated that the effect of 
atmospheric air acting upon a manure-heap is to nitrify it by degrees. 
Warington's Paper Before the Society of Arts in 1882. 
Coming down to more recent times, so far as the English .literature 
of the subject is concerned, the most exhaustive papers explaining 
the conversion of ammonia and the nitrogen of organic substances into 
nitrates in the soil are those of Robert Warington. In his paper be- 
fore the Society of Arts * in 1882 the theory of the purification of sew- 
age is so clearly set forth that we may quote from it at length: 
Dilute solutions of urine, or of ammonium salts, containing the essential constitu- 
ents of plant food, undergo no nitrification, though freely exposed to the air, if 
only they have been previously boiled and the air supplied to them is filtered 
through cotton wool. If to such sterilized solutions a small particle of fresh soil 
is added, no action at first appears, but after a while nitrification sets in and the 
ammonia or urea is converted into a nitrate. For the production of nitric acid it is 
necessary that some base should be present with which the nitric acid may com- 
bine. The action proceeds best in the dark. When a solution has thus undergone 
nitrifacation, a drop of it suffices to induce nitrification in another solution, which, 
unless thus seeded, would have remained unchanged. Boiling the soil, or the solu- 
tion that has nitrified, entirely destroys its power of causing nitrification. The 
presence of antiseptics also prevents nitrification. Lastly, nitrification is confined 
to the same range of temperature which limits other kinds of fermentation. The 
production of nitrates proceeds very slowly near the freezing-point, but increases 
in rapidity as the temperature rises, reaching its maximum of energy, according to 
Schljesing and Muntz, at 37° C. (99° Fahr.). At higher temperatures the rate of 
nitrification rapidly diminishes; it almost ceases, according to the same observers, 
at 50° C. (122° Fahr.), and at 55° C. (131 Fahr.) no change occurs. It thus appears 
that nitrification can only be produced in the presence of some nitrified or nitrify- 
ing material, and the whole course of the action is limited to the conditions suitable 
to the activity of a living ferment. The French chemists claim to have isolated the 
ferment by systematic cultivation ; it belongs to the family of bacteria. 
The purifying action of soil on sewage is probably due to three distinct actions : 
1. Simple filtration, or the separation of suspended matter. 2. The precipitation 
and retention by the soil of ammonia and various organic substances previously 
in solution. 3. The oxidation of ammonia and organic matter by the agency of 
living organisms. The last mode of action is undoubtedly the most important, as 
without oxidation the sewage matter must accumulate in the soil and the filter bed 
lose its efficacy. The filtering power of a soil will depend entirely upon its me- 
chanical condition. The precipitating power of soil is, on the other hand, a chem- 
ical function, in which the hydrated ferric oxide and alumina and the silicates of 
soils probably play the principal part. The oxidizing power of a soil will depend 
partly on its mechanical, partly on its chemical, and partly on its biological condi- 
tion. It was formerly supposed that the oxidizing power of a soil depended solely 
on its porosity, oxidation being assumed to occur by simple contact with air in the 
pores of the soil. We now know that a porous medium is by no means essential 
for nitrification ; sewage may, indeed, be nitrified in a glass bottle, or when passing 
over polished pebbles. Though, however, porosity is by no means essential to 
the nitrifying power of a soil, it is undoubtedly a condition having a very favorable 
influence on the rapidity of the process; a porous soil of open texture will present 
an immense surface, covered with oxidizing organisms, and generally well supplied 
with the air requisite for the discharge of their functions. It is doubtless owing 
to this fact that nitrification takes place with so much greater rapidity in a soil 
*Jonr. Soc. Arts, April, 1882. warington's paper of 1884. 
189 
than in a liquid. The sewage will itself supply the substances required for the 
nourishment of the oxidizing organisms. One material essential to nitrification 
may, however, sometimes be deficient, namely, the base with which the nitric acid 
is to combine ; without the presence of this salifiable base, nitrification will speedily 
come to a stand-still. In the case of towns supplied with hard water, the sewage 
may contain as much carbonate of calcium in solution as will suffice for its subse- 
quent nitrification in the soil; but in case of towns supplied with very soft water, this 
can hardly be the case, and the presence of a considerable amount of lime in the 
soil itself will become essential for efficient nitrification. The organisms which 
effect the oxidation of organic matter are abundantly present in surface soils, but 
are probably absent, or nearly so, in subsoils ; in surface soils they will probably 
be abundant in proportion to the richness of the soil in organic matter. Sewage 
also contains the organisms necessary for its own destruction, and under favorable 
conditions these may be so cultivated as to effect the purpose. A filtering medium 
of pure sand and limestone, treated intermittently with sewage, will, after a time, 
display considerable purifying powers, the surfaces becoming covered with oxidiz- 
ing organisms derived from the sewage. No such medium will, however, equal in 
effect a porous soil rich in organic life. It will be gathered from the observations 
now made that it would be possible to construct a filter-bed having a greater oxi- 
dizing power than would be possessed by an ordinary soil and subsoil. Such a bed 
would be made by laying over a system of drain-pipes a few feet of soil obtained 
from the surface (first 6 inches) of a good field, the soil being selected as one 
porous, and containing a considerable amount both of carbonate of calcium and 
organic matter. A filter-bed thus prepared would be far more porous than a nat- 
ural soil and subsoil, and would possess active oxidizing functions throughout its 
whole depth. The oxidizing power of soil must always be considerably greater 
in summer than in winter. The favorable influence of the warmer seasons of the 
year is apparently seen in several of Frankland's experiments on the intermittent 
filtration of sewage; the same influence of temperature will be plainly shown in 
some of the Rothamsted results. When we turn, however, to the analyses of the 
effluent water from irrigated land, the fact is not always manifest. We must recol- 
lect, however, that a considerable part of the nitrates produced in summer will be 
assimilated by the growing crops, and will therefore not appear in the drainage 
water. The oxidizing power of a soil may also be in excess of the work provided 
for it, so that even with a low temperature the usual amount of purification may be 
attained. A low temperature will also affect only the oxidizing functions of the 
soil, its power of precipitating and retaining sewage matter will remain unchanged. 
One more point may be worth notice. We have already referred to the fact that 
nitrification, like all other kinds of fermentation, ceases in the presence of anti- 
septics ; the refuse of chemical works may thus sometimes prove a great hindrance 
to the purification of sewage by soil. 
Warington's Paper of 1884 
In 1884 Mr. Warington read a paper before the British Association 
for the Advancement of Science * in which he somewhat extended the 
views of nitrification which he had expressed in the paper before the 
Society of Arts in 1882. The following extracts from the paper in 1884 
may be made: 
The evidence for the ferment theory of nitrification is now very complete. Nitri- 
fication in soils and waters is found to be strictly limited to the range of tempera- 
ture within which the vital activity of living ferments is confined. . . . Nitrifica- 
tion is also dependent upon the presence of plant food suitable for organisms of low 
character. Recent experiments at Rothamsted show that in the absence of phos- 
phates no nitrification will occur. Further proof of the ferment theory is afforded 
* Report of 54th Meeting Brit. Assn, for the Adv. Sei., Montreal, 1884. 190 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
by the fact that antiseptics are fatal to nitrification. In the presence of a small 
quantity of chloroform, carbon bisulphide, salicylic acid, and apparently also 
phenol, nitrification entirely ceases. The action of heat is also equally confirma- 
tory. Raising sewage to the boiling-point entirely prevents it undergoing nitrifi- 
cation. The heating of soil to the same temperature effectually destroys its 
nitrifying power. Finally, nitrification can be started in boiling sewage, or in 
other sterilized liquid of suitable composition, by the addition of a few particles of 
fresh surface soil, or a few drops of a solution which has already nitrified ; though 
without such addition these liquids may be freely exposed to filtered air without 
nitrification taking place. . . 
Small quantities of soil were taken, at depths varying from two inches to eight 
feet, from freshly-cut surfaces on the sides of pits sunk in the clay soil at Rotham- 
sted. The soil removed was at once transferred to a sterilized solution of diluted 
urine, which was afterward examined from time to time to ascertain if nitrification 
took place. From the results it would appear that in a clay soil the nitrifying 
organism is confined to about 18 inches of the top soil; it is most abundant in the 
first 6 inches. It is quite possible, however, that in the channels caused by worms 
or by the roots of plants, the organism may occur at greater depths. In a sandy 
soil we should expect to find the organism at a lower level than in clay, but of this 
we have as yet no direct evidence. 
The later investigations show the presence of the nitrifying organ- 
ism at as great depths in porous soils as four feet. 
The Massachusetts Investigations. 
The work of the Massachusetts State Board of Health on nitrifica- 
tion, as published in Part IL of the Special Report, furnishes us 
with a large amount of recent information, and we may conclude 
the theoretical part of this chapter by quoting some of the more impor- 
tant portions of the discussion: * 
The oxidation of the nitrogen of ammonia, and its ultimate conversion into nitric 
acid, is called nitrification. This change is especially active in soils near the" sur- 
face, where nitrates are formed abundantly from percolating waters which contain 
much nitrogenous matter. 
This phase of nitrification, the formation of nitrates in porous soil, has been at- 
tentively studied. But less attention has been given to the process of nitrification 
as it goes on in surface waters, such as streams and ponds ; and it is to this side of 
the question, namely, nitrification as it occurs in natural waters, that our study has 
been chiefly directed. 
Some eighty samples of water, selected from two hundred and forty coming each 
month to the laboratory of the State Board of Health, were examined at intervals 
of from two to seven days for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. These samples were 
received from all parts of the State, and included all classes of surface water, 
rivers, ponds, and reservoirs. They were examined repeatedly during the months 
of June, July, and August, 1888. 
The results may be briefly stated as follows : The organic matter in suspension 
decays in about seven days, as shown by the increase in " free ammonia." In 
about fourteen days this " free ammonia " has disappeared, and nitrite has taken its 
place, reaching a maximum in about twenty-one days. Later the nitrite, too, dis- 
appears, and in twenty-eight days or more all the nitrogen has been converted into 
the form of nitrate. When the suspended matter is removed by filtration through 
paper or by precipitation with alumina, no change occurs unless free ammonia were 
* Investigations upon Nitrification and the Nitrifying Organism, by Edwin O. Jordan and 
Ellen H. Richards. Special Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health, Part II. (1890). THE MASSACHUSETTS INVESTIGATIONS. 
191 
present at the outset. ... It has long been known that the first step-the de- 
composition of nitrogenous matter and consequent production of ammonia-is due 
to the vital activity of bacteria. The early experiments of Schwann and Schultze 
(1839), and the later and thoroughly conclusive work of Pasteur, showed that 
putrefaction of organic matter is brought about solely by the small vegetable 
organisms known as bacteria. Even after this fact became generally known, it was 
some time before the importance of the complete range of this discovery was sus- 
pected. It was still maintained that the process of nitrification proper-the oxi- 
dation of ammonia to nitric acid-was of a purely chemical nature, although the 
burdien of proof was soon thrown on those who upheld this view. The close 
dependence of nitrification upon a rather narrow range of temperature, the cessa- 
tion of the process on the addition of antiseptics, the operation of "seeding" one 
solution with another, the impossibility of effecting rapid nitrification by chemicals, 
the analogous phenomena of putrefaction-all pointed clearly to the fact that 
nitrification depends on the presence of living organisms. 
The first conclusive proof that such was the case, however, came from the work 
of Schloesing and Muntz in 1877. The work of these observers rendered it practi- 
cally certain that living organisms of some kind are the true agents of nitrification. 
" It now remains for us," they said, " to discover and isolate the nitrifying organ- 
isms." Schloesing and Muntz, in their subsequent investigations, believed that 
they had succeeded in making this discovery ; but in view of the facts of modern 
bacteriology we are unfortunately unable to assign much value to this part of their 
work. It is not easy to satisfy one's-self that Schloesing and Muntz ever worked 
with really pure cultures of isolated species. While the work of these investi- 
gators established beyond all question the fact that nitrification, like the analogous 
phenomena of fermentation and putrefaction, is caused by living organisms, it left 
entirely open the precise nature of these organisms. 
The first experiments with species of bacteria isolated by modern methods, and 
therefore undoubtedly pure cultivations, are those recorded by Heraeus. Heraeus 
experimented with fourteen well-known species of bacteria, and with about as 
many others freshly isolated by himself from water and soil. He cultivated these in 
an ammoniacal solution, and obtained in the case of several familiar species good 
qualitative tests for nitrous acid. Among these species were Bacillus prodigiosus, 
the Finkler-Prior bacillus, the bacillus of typhoid fever, the anthrax bacillus, and 
others. Heraeus conchides that all these organisms possess oxidizing powers, since 
they are thus apparently able to oxidize ammonia to nitrous acid. 
The work of Adametz and Frank, on the other hand, did much to offset this posi- 
tive result reached by Heraeus. They found, as other investigators had found be- 
fore them, that the introduction of a small quantity of garden soil into an ammoni- 
acal solution would produce rapid nitrification. The various species of bacteria, 
however, which they isolated from this soil, and introduced as pure cultures into 
sterilized ammoniacal solutions, refused to nitrify. In no case was more than a trace 
of nitric acid observed. Frank was so influenced by his continued negative results 
that at a later date he went so far as to deny that living organisms had anything 
whatever to do with nitrification. This sceptical attitude seemed for a time to be 
fully justified by the experiments of Celli and Zucco. It was soon, however, 
demonstrated again by several skilful investigators that nitrification could not be 
accounted for by purely chemical influences. There was, nevertheless, no cessation 
in the publication of negative results. The work of Heraeus was extended and 
elaborated by P. F. Frankland and by Warington. Frankland failed entirely to 
obtain any evidence of oxidation of nitrogen by individual species of bacteria, and 
on this point came into direct conflict with Heraeus. 
Not only is the nitrifying organism present in Boston tap-water, . . . but it 
appears to be equally common in water from all parts of the State of Massachusetts. 
So far as our experience has gone, any natural water containing the ordinary 
amount of free or albuminoid ammonia contains also the nitrifying organism, as is 
shown by our long series of tests. In these natural waters the nitrifying organism 
seems to be under wholly normal conditions, and to be abundantly able to effect the 
oxidation of the small quantities of nitrogen usually present in these waters. 192 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Waters that contain high "albuminoid ammonia," in cases where this "ammonia" 
comes from the nitrogen in infusoria, alga1, etc., go through the same changes as 
those which contain " free ammonia," but more slowly. The organisms in time die, 
the bacteria set free the nitrogen of their bodies, forming free ammonia, and then 
in turn nitrites and nitrates. 
It might, perhaps, be reasonably expected that, since the nitrifying organism is 
undoubtedly present in all these waters, an examination of gelatin plate cultures of 
these waters would reveal some particular kind or kinds of colonies common to all, 
and in that way aid in sifting out the nitrifying organisms. Our experience has 
shown, however, that such a hope is unfounded. So far as the inspection of gelatin 
plate-cultures enables us to judge, no one kind of colony is common to all these 
waters. This fact, on the surface, seemed to favor the view that the power of nitri- 
fication was not the property of any particular organism, but was very likely pos- 
sessed in common by a number of kindred species. . . . 
There was . . . one possible explanation of our failure to reach consistent 
positive results by the use of species of bacteria isolated by the method of gelatin 
plate-culture. It might be that the nitrifying organism did not grow on gelatin. 
Everything seemed to point in this direction, and the belief was further 
strengthened by a very significant fact observed about this time. We had known 
for some time that in the history of the filter-tanks at the Lawrence Experiment 
Station speedy nitrification was always coincident with a marked decline in the 
numbers of bacteria. The effluents discharged from the filter-tanks, although high 
in nitrates, were low in bacteria; and, moreover, the more complete the nitrifica- 
tion, the fewer were the bacteria in the effluent. 
We also observed that, in an ammoniacal solution which is seeded with ordinary 
pond-water containing several species of bacteria, there is during the first few days 
a rapid multiplication of the contained germs. Nitrification, however, does not as 
a rule begin until from ten to fourteen days have elapsed. By the time nitrification 
begins, the numbers of bacteria, as shown by gelatin plate-cultures, have begun to 
decline; and, while the nitrogen in the form of nitrites in the solution is increas- 
ing, the numbers of bacteria are as steadily diminishing. Thus, in one instance, 
an ammoniacal solution, four days after its inoculation with a cubic centimetre of 
Cochituate water, contained 3,762,000 bacteria per cubic centimetre. Nitrification 
had not yet begun. When the first signs of increasing nitrites appeared, the num- 
bers of bacteria had sunk to 19,200; and when the nitrites reached their maximum, 
the bacteria, shown by gelatin plate-cultures, were only 9,454. It was certainly 
difficult to understand why nitrification, a process apparently dependent upon the 
life and activity of bacteria, should seem to flourish best under conditions in which 
bacteria were perishing. If, however, it were assumed that the nitrifying organism 
could not grow in the usual gelatin media, all the perplexing results above recorded 
could be more easily explained. Under these circumstances it was natural for us 
to make such an assumption. 
There was, of course, the possibility that the nitrifying organism, by its growth 
on gelatin, had lost its peculiar property ; but it did not seem to us likely that so 
fundamental a property could be parted with in so short a time. However that 
might be, we determined to test the other hypothesis first, since we believed it to 
be the more probable of the two. Accordingly experiments were begun to attempt 
to isolate the nitrifying organism by the method of dilution. This is the method 
that was commonly used by investigators in bacteriology before the invention of 
solid culture-media. It has, as is well known, serious practical as well as theoreti- 
cal drawbacks. In our practice a small portion of an actively nitrifying solution 
is transferred on the loop of a sterilized platinum needle to a sterilized ammoni- 
acal solution, and when nitrification is thus induced in the second solution a fresh 
transfer is made from this to a third, and so on. Rigid precautions have been 
taken to avoid the introduction of foreign germs. 
Hardly were these experiments well under way before our interest in this 
method of procedure was stimulated by the publication of communications by 
Percy F. Frankland, and Grace Frankland, and by Robert Warington.* 
* The Chemical News, vol. Ixi., p. 135, March 21, 1890. THE MASSACHUSETTS INVESTIGATIONS. 
193 
The Franklands, having reached a conclusion similar to our own regarding the be- 
havior of the nitrifying organism in gelatin, had also attempted to isolate the nitri- 
fying organism by the dilution method, and had succeeded in the attempt. They 
state, in their abstract of the paper read before the Royal Society, that " after a very 
large number of experiments had been made in this direction, the authors at length 
succeeded in obtaining an attenuation consisting of about 1-1,000,000th of the origi- 
nal nitrifying solution employed, which not only nitrified, but on inoculation into 
gelatin-peptone, refused to grow, and was seen under the microscope to consist of 
numerous characteristic bacilli, hardly longer than broad, which may be described 
as bacillococci." 
Warington's communication entirely confirms that of the Franklands, in so far as 
it relates to their earlier and negative results. He had not, however, at the time 
of writing, succeeded in isolating the nitrifying organism. 
A paper by Winogradsky followed soon after. He appears to have discovered 
independently a nitrifying organism, and attributes his success largely to his mi- 
croscopic examinations of the nitrifying solutions, and to his use of solutions de- 
void of organic matter. The following is the composition of the liquid finally 
adopted by him: 
Grammes. 
Ammonium sulphate 1 
Potassium phosphate 1 
Water from the lake (at Zurich, 11 tres pure") 1,000 
Each portion of 100 cubic centimetres received in addition .5 to 1 gm. of basic 
magnesium carbonate, suspended in distilled water. Winogradsky found that this 
layer of magnesium carbonate at the bottom of each flask afforded an excellent 
gathering place for flocks of the nitrifying organism. The "nitric ferment" does 
not, as the Franklands had already shown, grow well upon ordinary gelatin plate- 
cultures ; and this is probably the cause of the failure of all previous experimenters 
to isolate the special ferment. For Winogradsky's detailed description of the nitric 
ferment, and for a statement of his peculiar views concerning its function, " de 
regularise?' la circulation du carbone sur notreplanete," we must refer to his original 
papers.* 
Before receiving Winogradsky's paper, in the spring of 1890, we had been using 
in our work, at the suggestion of Mr. Allen Hazen, an ammoniacal solution of the 
following composition : 
Grammes. 
Ammonium chloride (resublimed) 1.9070 
Sodium carbonate 3.7842 
Sodium phosphate 2000 
Potassium sulphate 2000 
Proceeding with this solution by the method of dilution, we at length succeeded 
in isolating a nitrifying organism. A flask was first inoculated with a few grains of 
sand from Tank No. 13, at the Lawrence Experiment Station, and when nitrification 
was at its height in this solution a small portion was transferred from this to a 
second flask, and so on. After a large number of unsuccessful attempts, two solu- 
tions were finally obtained which nitrified well, but gave no growth upon ordinary 
gelatin plate-cultures, although the plates were allowed to stand for seven days. 
Microscopic examination of these solutions showed them to be inhabited by a par- 
ticular form of bacillus, and apparently by that alone. These bacilli are short, of 
a slightly oval shape, and vary from 1.1 to 1.7/i in length ; they are about 0.8 p. to 
0.9 p. broad. They are grouped very characteristically in irregular clumps, and aro 
held together by a jelly-like material. Each aggregation is indeed a typical 
zodgloea. The aggregations of bacteria were found chiefly on the bottom of the 
flasks, as was also the case with the organism described by Winogradsky. These 
masses of zoogloea obtained as a pure culture from a nitrifying solution, resemble 
significantly the zodgloea discharged in considerable quantities from the filter-tanks 
at Lawrence. . . . The bacilli stain with some difficulty with the usual aniline 
dyes. We have not observed independent movement. Owing to the lack of the 
* Annalesde 1'Institut Pasteur, Tome iv., 1890, No. 4, p. 213 ; No. 5, p. 257. 194 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
usual means of diagnosis, it is difficult to determine in a short time whether this 
species is the same as the one described by the Franklands and by Winogradsky. 
On one important point there appears to be a difference between our results and 
those reached by the above-mentioned investigators. The organism discovered by 
them oxidizes ammonia to nitrite, but carries it no further. Our own flasks give 
complete oxidation to nitrate. Whether this be due to a difference of conditions, 
a difference in the virility of the organisms, or a specific difference in the bacteria, 
we are not at present prepared to say. The short time at our disposal has made it 
impossible to settle this and many other questions to our own satisfaction. We are 
not even prepared to say that there may not have been a mixture of two or more 
species in our flasks, all agreeing closely in morphological characters, and in giving 
no growth on gelatin, but differing in important physiological respects. Further 
investigation is necessary to settle this and other important points regarding the 
relations of this organism to the process of nitrification. 
Whether or not we accept the views of Winogradsky, it is certainly worthy of 
remark, as he observes, that an organism should exist, which, without chlorophyll 
and in the apparent absence of organic nitrogen and of organic carbon, should be 
able to multiply and thrive upon wholly inorganic compounds. It may well be 
doubted, we think, whether this is really the case. It seems more reasonable to 
suppose that exceedingly minute quantities of organic nitrogen and carbon are 
actually present, and escape detection by our present methods of chemical analysis, 
although in reality sufficient to nourish generations of bacteria. 
Our own experience, as well as that of previous investigators, seems to be a warn- 
ing against a too confiding use of the gelatin plate-culture in bacteriological work, 
since in this instance such confidence has left us for a long time in ignorance of a 
common and widespread as well as highly important organism. 
Disappearance of a Portion of the Nitrogen. 
In the practical working of intermittent sand-filters at Lawrence, it 
has been found (1) that during the first few weeks of service much less 
nitrogen came away in the effluents than was applied in the sewage ; 
(2) that nitrification is usually somewhat more active in the spring 
and early summer than at any other season, there being at this time 
frequently an excess of nitrogen in the effluent over that applied in 
the sewage, caused by the oxidation of organic matter stored in the 
filter; (3) that as a whole less nitrogen flows away in the effluent 
than is applied in the sewage. The Report of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health for 1891 states that Filter No. 1 stored fifteen 
per cent, of the nitrogen applied in four years of service, and 
other filters even more. The storage of nitrogen seems to decrease 
from year to year, but the observations have not been sufficiently ex- 
tended to determine whether the storage would cease before the filter 
became too much clogged for use. The experimental sand-filters at 
Lawrence possess the power of self-cleansing and continue to act effi- 
ciently for a long time, but to obtain the best results it is probable 
that the surfaces of such filters require raking over at convenient in- 
tervals, while after two or three years, at least, the top portion of the 
sand should probably be removed.* With ample filtering areas, the 
beds may be given a long rest, instead of removing the sand. 
* For extended discussion of this point see Chapter XIV. PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
195 
Practical Experiments. 
In the course of the work at Lawrence a number of experiments 
were made in regard to the effect of different substances upon nitrifi- 
cation. The following is a brief account of the more important : 
(1.) In April, May, and June, 1889, instead of sewage, there was ap- 
plied daily to Tank No. 12 (one of the small tanks) 11 gallons of water, 
to which had been added enough baked and pulverized egg albumin 
to make 2.8 parts of nitrogen per 100,000. The first application of this 
mixture was made April 18th. 
Egg albumin is nearly insoluble in water, and the object of this ex- 
periment was chiefly to determine to what extent it would be rendered 
soluble and converted into free ammonia, or carried another step and 
become nitrified, in passing through the filter. The experiment was 
interrupted before completion, and the results in consequence are 
somewhat uncertain. The indications are, however, that about 61 
per cent, of the total nitrogen contained in the albumin applied was 
rendered soluble and converted into nitrates. There are no means 
of determining how much of the insoluble nitrogenous matter was 
stored in the sand, though comparing with results obtained with sew- 
age, it appears probable that but little was stored. 
This experiment was repeated from July 10 to August 7, 1889, when 
there was applied three gallons of water per day, containing baked 
and pulverized blood albumin sufficient to supply 1.04 part of nitro- 
gen per 100,000. This experiment was also somewhat uncertain as to 
the actual results obtained, though the indications are that about 
90 per cent, of the total nitrogen of the mixture appeared as nitrates 
in the effluent. 
(2.) We have already referred, in Chapter I., to the experiments 
upon the passage of Bacillus prodigiosus through the sand-filters, and 
we will now describe some further phenomena developed by that ex- 
periment. 
In order to apply Bacillus prodigiosus a litre of bouillon, containing a 
pure culture of many millions, was mixed with water and applied to 
Filter No. 12 on the morning of August 7, 1889. On the morning of 
August 8th. the number of bacteria found in the effluent was 60 per 
cubic centimetre. At 1 p.m. of the same day the number was 13,440; 
two hours later the number was 58,000 ; at 5 P.M. the number had in- 
creased to 81,700; and at 9 p.m. the count gave 108,100. On August 9th 
the number of bacteria was high in the forenoon, reaching 12,964 at 
noon, and decresaing to 494 at nine in the evening. At 9 p.m. on Au- 
gust 10th the number was 3, and three counts on August 11th aver- 
aged 4. 196 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
We have here a large increase in the amount of the food material 
added to the tank, followed by, apparently, a great increase in the 
number of bacteria in the tank, as indicated by the increase of number 
in the effluent. The time, however, of such increase was quite short, as 
the effect of adding the extra food material appears to have spent it- 
self on August 10th. 
The bouillon employed in this experiment consisted of beef-tea en- 
riched with peptone, as ordinarily prepared for a culture-medium by 
bacteriologists. Peptone, the principal nutritive constituent, is sol- 
uble and therefore specially available as bacterial food. It is proba- 
bly superior in nutrient value to most of the substances found in 
sewage. 
On September 20,1889, the same quantity of bouillon, as previously 
used on August 7th, was again applied. The bouillon of this second 
experiment was of the same quality as that used on August 7th, except 
that it was sterilized so that it contained no bacteria. On September 
18th, 19th and 20th, before applying the bouillon, the average number 
of bacteria in the effluent was 199; on the morning of September 21st 
the number was found to be 54,600; at 1.55 P.M. of the same day the 
number counted was 57,600 ; at 9 P.M. it was 26,400. The greatest num- 
ber on September 23d was 4,485. On September 26th the number at 
the time of greatest flow was 1,820; on October 2d the number at the 
same time was 736. 
In addition to the experiments with bouillon and peptone mixture 
just described, experiments had also been previously made in the 
month of March, 1889, by the application of a solution of peptone alone 
to Tank No. 11. The results were essentially the same as those found 
later with Tank No. 12. In every case the application of the nutrient 
mixture was first followed by a considerable increase in the number of 
bacteria appearing in the effluent, followed later by a decrease in the 
bacteria in the effluent with increased nitrification. 
The effect of applying a nutrient mixture to an intermittent filter is 
summarized in the Special Report (page 856) as follows : 
At first there is an increased discharge of bacteria and an incomplete oxidation, but 
this condition gradually changes to one of almost complete oxidation, and the dis- 
charge of very few, if any, bacteria. This series of events appears to be due to the 
temporary over-feeding of the filter, and consequent increase of the bacteria, fol- 
lowed by a new balance of supply and demand. It follows also that peptone is 
readily and completely oxidized by micro-organisms. 
(3.) Filter Tank No. 13 received sewage for nearly a year previous to 
January 14, 1889, at the rate of 60,000 gallons per acre per day. Be- 
ginning on that date, at which time the tank was giving a perfectly 
nitrified effluent, a solution of ammonium chloride in water, containing 
1 part ammonia per 100,000, was substituted for the sewage. Enough PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
197 
sodium carbonate was mixed with this solution to combine with the 
chlorine of the ammonium chloride, and also with the nitric acid equiv- 
alent to the ammonia. Nitrification was complete from the first, the 
effluent being not only almost free from ammonia, but containing nearly 
all of the nitrogen applied as nitrates. 
The strength of the solution was increased from time to time, until 
on April 22d it contained 34 parts per 100,000 of ammonia. 
After increasing the amount applied complete nitrification was not 
at once obtained, but the effluent contained ammonia and nitrites. 
Later the ammonia disappeared from the effluent, to be followed by the 
nitrites, while increased development of the nitrates went on, until 
finally a nearly complete nitrification was obtained. 
The effect of an excess and deficiency of alkali was also experimented 
upon with Tank No. 13. From July 2 to August 5, 1889, the propor- 
tionate parts of the mixture added to this tank was 4 ammonium chloride 
to 5 of sodium carbonate. This gave sodium carbonate in excess of 
the amount required to neutralize the ammonium chloride. Nitrifica- 
tion was not in the least interfered with. The excess of sodium car- 
bonate passed through without change, with no other result than to 
increase the alkalinity of the effluent. 
Beginning October 8th, the proportion added was 4 of ammonium 
chloride to 3 of sodium carbonate, in which there was a deficiency of 
alkali. The result was an almost total stoppage of nitrification, which, 
however, after a time began again, but did not become complete. 
An unexpected result of the experiment with deficiency of alkali, 
was the production of an enormous quantity of nitrites. 
It appears, then, from these experiments that an excess of alkali is 
without effect upon nitrification, but on the other hand, with an insuffi- 
cient quantity nitrification is incomplete, the effluent containing ammo- 
nia and nitrites, the latter often in large quantities. 
(4.) The effect of acid upon nitrification was experimented upon with 
Tank 15 A, which is one of the small tanks, filled with very coarse 
gravel, the stones ranging between f and 1| inch in diameter. Before 
placing in the tank the gravel was carefully washed in order to remove 
any sand, earth, or organic matter which might otherwise remain at- 
tached to the stones. The empty space in this tank amounted to about 
37 per cent, of the whole. In October, 1889, this tank was puri- 
fying sewage at the rate of 20,000 gallons per day with fair nitrifi- 
cation. Beginning October 22d, sulphuric acid was added to the 
sewage, in quantity equal to 22.54 parts per 100,000 of sulphuric acid 
in the solution. The result of this treatment was a great increase of 
free ammonia, with fluctuation of the albuminoid ammonia and 
decrease of nitrates in the effluent. The treatment was continued for 
four months, during all of which time some nitrification continued, 198 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
although gradually decreasing in amount. Summarizing the result of 
this experiment, Mr. Mills says (Special Report, page 563): 
We learn from this experiment that sewage containing a large percentage of 
sulphuric acid may have a large part of its organic matter removed by intermittent 
filtration for a considerable time ; so that we may not expect an unfavorable result 
if sewage having an excess of acid be occasionally applied to a filtration area; but, 
if it is constantly applied, it should be neutralized by lime or some alkali. 
The effect of using limestone to counteract the acidity of the sewage 
was subsequently further experimented upon in Filter No. 17 A, in 
which a little limestone was mixed with the upper layers of the filter- 
ing material, and strong lye and sewage applied for over a year. The 
effluent showed results comparable with those from normal sewage 
filtered, under similar conditions, through sand without limestone. 
(5.) The effect of saltpetre upon nitrification was also experimented 
with in Tank No. 15 A. The result was that when saltpetre was dis- 
solved in the sewage to the amount of 72 parts of nitrogen per 100,000, 
the quantity of nitrates in the effluent increased from 2.01 parts per 
100,000 two days before the saltpetre was applied, to 64 parts per 
100,000 four days after the application. The saltpetre was discon- 
tinued after five days, and in twelve days from the first application 
the nitrates had fallen to 15 parts per 100,000. 
(6.) Experiments were made as to the effect of common salt upon 
nitrification in Tank No. 11, which, as already stated, had been used 
for the experiments with the peptone solution. Beginning July 2, 
1889, a solution of ammonium chloride with a suitable amount of 
sodium carbonate in water was applied to this tank, the solution con- 
taining 2 parts of nitrogen per 100,000. At the end of a month the ef- 
fluent contained nearly all the nitrogen applied. On August 8th, com- 
mon salt was added in such quantity that the charge contained 1,200 
parts of chlorine per 100,000. Nitrification was checked and the 
solution passed through the filter almost unchanged. August 27th, the 
addition of salt was suspended, the charge from that time until Sep- 
tember 9th being the same as previous to the addition of the salt. On 
September 9th nitrification was again complete. Salt was again added, 
but in much smaller quantities than before; such addition being 
followed by a decrease of the nitrates in ten days from 2.08 parts per 
100,000 to 0.15 part. Upon continuing the same solution eight days 
longer the nitrates increased 1.34 part per 100,000. The chlorine at 
this time was 127.1 parts. 
The quantity of salt in the daily application was then increased for 
three weeks, until the chlorine amounted to 367.0 parts; during this 
time the nitrates decreased to 0.2 part; upon again gradually in- 
creasing the quantity of salt the nitrates also increased. On December PRACTICAL EXPERIMENTS. 
199 
14th chlorine reached 1,306.0 parts and the nitrates were 1.0 part per 
190,000. 
In regard to the practical bearings of this experiment Mr. Mills says : 
By gradually increasing the amount of salt in the solution to a little more than 
was applied in August at once, without time for a gradual adaptation of the filter 
to the work required of it, we find a very different result. In August the same 
quantity of salt caused nitrification to cease, and allowed the ammonia to come 
through the filter nearly unchanged. By the gradual application of the salt in in- 
creasing quantities, we now find that, when the same quantity is applied, the am- 
monias are reduced to about 12 per cent, of those which came through in August; 
and the nitrates, which were zero, are now equal to one part per 100,000. From 
this we see that by properly preparing the filter, a solution of ammonia may be 
quite satisfactorily purified by nitrification, even when it is as salt as ordinary sea- 
water. Upon rapidly increasing the amount of salt, from December 14,1889, to Jan- 
uary 8,1890, to about four times that which it contained on December 14th, so that it 
was nearly three times as salt as ordinary sea-water, the nitrates were very much 
reduced. Obtained in the usual way they amounted to .0600 part; but it is to be 
noted that the method of determining nitrates, when the solution contains these 
very large amounts of salt, gives results which are too low. From these results we 
may conclude that quite satisfactory nitrification may result when applying to a 
filtration area sewage containing a very large amount of salt, if only it be applied 
with reasonable regularity. 
(7.) The effect of sugar upon nitrification was experimented with in 
Tank No. 12, which had also been used for filtration of sewage in the 
experiment with egg-albumin and water. Beginning October 23,1889, 
and continuing to December 8th, three gallons of city water contain- 
ing granulated sugar equal to 100 parts per 100,000 of the solution 
were applied daily. The result was that nitrification decreased im- 
mediately. The greater part of the sugar passed through the tank un- 
changed and in six weeks' time the effluent contained three-fourths of 
the applied sugar. 
On December 9th, three gallons of sewage were applied daily, with- 
out any sugar. Nitrification was resumed at once, and in five days' 
time the nitrates amounted to 0.22 part. During this period the tem- 
perature of the effluent varied from 49° to 40° F. In twelve days 
the nitrates amounted to 0.86 part. 
Beginning January 1, 1890, sugar was applied to the sewage to the 
amount of 10 parts in 100,000 ; on the 13th, this amount was increased 
to 20 parts. The effect was to slowly reduce the amount of nitrates in 
the effluent to 0.08 part on January 31st, without any increase of am- 
monias. From this time the nitrates increased, until they reached 1.1 
part on February 28th, the effluent then contained less than one per 
cent, of the amount of sugar applied, while in November and the early 
part of December, from one-third to three-fourths of the amount 
applied passed through. 
From this experiment it appears that a considerable quantity of 
sugar, when first applied to intermittent sand-filters, will cause a de- 
crease of nitrification without increase of ammonias. If, however, such 200 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
a filter can be gradually adapted to the special work of nitrifying 
sugar, the nitrates are formed about as completely as when sugar is 
absent. 
In the special case under consideration after the adaptation of the 
filter to the work during the low temperature of winter, a satisfactory 
purification was finally attained of GO,000 gallons of sewage applied 
per acre daily. 
(8.) The effect of an amount of free oxygen upon nitrification was also 
experimented with in Filter Tank No. 14, which was a small tank filled 
with sand of the same quality as that in Tank No. 1. This tank had 
been used, previous to the special experiment, for sewage filtration in 
the ordinary way for about a year. 
For the special experiments on the effect of free oxygen upon nitri- 
fication, the tank was fitted with a trap at the bottom, and a cover to the 
top, with mercury seal, which made it air-tight. A pressure-guage 
was connected with a small faucet. The daily application of sewage 
was put in through a large funnel, with a stop-cock to prevent the ad- 
mission of air, and a perforated plate under the cover distributed the 
sewage over the surface. The trap at the bottom allowed the effluent 
to flow away, but prevented the ingress of air to the tank with ordi- 
nary pressures. From February 21st to 28th, nine gallons of sewage 
were applied daily. During this time there were a number of leaks, and 
there must have been a good supply of air. Nitrification was nearly 
stopped. On March 1st, the tank was shown, by the pressure-guage, 
to be perfectly tight. The same daily application of sewage was con- 
tinued and in a week nitrification had stopped, and the effluent flowed 
away little better than crude sewage. On March 16th, the cock for ad- 
mitting sewage was left open in order to ventilate the top of the tank. 
The effluent still remained the same, and on March 27th the cover was 
taken off. This still did not afford sufficient air, the tank having 
become clogged by the organic matter which had accumulated during 
the time when the air was excluded. On April 2d, one-half inch of the 
accumulation was removed from the surface ; and an aspirator attached 
to one of the side faucets, near the bottom. Thereupon the effluent 
rapidly improved, and in two weeks nitrification was again nearly com- 
plete. During April and the following months a number of different 
experiments were made as to the effect of free oxygen upon nitrifica- 
tion with this tank. The net result of the whole series is to enforce the 
proposition that nitrification cannot take place in sand-filters without 
the air in the spaces of the filter contains oxygen. The experiments 
also show that a small amount of oxygen, in the air in the spaces of 
the filter, is nearly as effective as a larger quantity, provided the air is 
changed often enough to insure the presence of some oxygen at every 
point. denitrification. 
201 
Present Theory of Nitrification. 
We have now exhibited some of the more interesting points in con- 
nection with nitrification in its application to sewage disposal. By 
way of presenting the present theory in a concise form it may be 
stated that the ascertained facts indicate that nitrification takes place 
in two stages, each characterized by a distinct organism. The office 
of one of these is to convert ammonia into nitrite ; while the other 
converts nitrite into nitrate, whence we have the nitrous and nitric or- 
ganism or ferments.* Both are present in ordinary soils in enormous 
numbers; they are also present or quickly develop in sewage, which 
may be considered a nutrient medium for them by reason of contain- 
ing a large amount of their natural nitrogenous food. 
As to which organism will develop in any particular case in the 
greater quantity will depend upon the existence of a number of special 
conditions, some of which are not yet well understood. In the mean- 
time what we do definitely know indicates that the two organisms may 
be, according to Warington, separated by " successive cultivations in 
solutions of special composition favoring the development of either." 
By employing a solution containing potassium nitrate, but no am- 
monia, we may obtain the nitric organism alone ; or by employing an 
ammonium carbonate solution a few cultivations give us the nitrous 
organisms in a pure state. The significance of these facts in relation 
to sewage purification is partially exhibited in the Lawrence experi- 
ments already given. 
Denitrification. 
AVe have seen from what has preceded that soil possesses the power 
of nitrification in the highest degree. Under certain circumstances, 
however, it possesses the power of rapidly destroying nitrates, and as 
such destruction may have its bearing on the results of sewage purifi- 
cation it becomes of importance to understand the circumstances un- 
der which it takes place, especially in view of the fact that sewage 
itself will destroy nitrates in waters containing them, as first observed 
by Dr. Angus Smith in 1867, who also pointed out that the nitrogen of 
the nitrate was, in the case of denitrification, by sewage, evolved as gas. 
AVe have then, as the first condition for denitrification, the presence in 
solution of nitrates together with oxidizable organic matter. The 
power of nitrification is, however, not lost when denitrification has 
* For photographic illustrations of the nitrous and nitric organisms see Experiment Station 
Bulletin, No. 8, Lectures on the Investigations at Rothamsted Experimental Station, by Robert 
Warington, F.R.S., delivered before the Assn, of Am. Ag. Colleges and Ex. Stations at Wash- 
ington, Aug. 12-18, 1891, Plates VI., VII., and VIII. 202 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
taken place through the action of organic matter; in due course the 
organic matter disappears and nitrification again proceeds. 
Denitrification is not in any sense a chemical reaction; on the con- 
trary, like nitrification, it can only take place in the presence of a liv- 
ing organism. The effects of micro-organisms upon solutions contain- 
ing a nitrate and organic matter have been studied by a number of 
observers in the last few years. The result is the determination of 
from 20 to 30 species of bacteria which produce some kind of a reduc- 
ing effect, although only two species, Bacterium denit rijicans a and 
have been found to certainly possess the property of reducing nitrates 
to nitrogen gas. The most common form of reduction is from nitrates 
to nitrites. 
Denitrification may also be made to take place by the simple pro- 
cess of excluding oxygen, as, for instance, by saturating a soil with 
water. 
In the foregoing we have set forth some of the more important facts 
relating to the subject of nitrification. In the chapter on Intermit- 
tent Filtration the necessary conditions for nitrification in its applica- 
tion to sewage purification are more fully discussed.* 
* In addition to the papers cited in the chapter, the following partial list of " Rotham sted " 
papers on nitrification and allied subjects, as given by Mr. Warington in his Washington lectures, 
loc. cit., may be consulted: 
On Nitrification.-Jour. Chern. Soc., 1878, 44. 
On Nitrification, Part IL - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1879, 429. 
On Alterations in the Properties of the Nitric Ferment by Cultivation.-lieport British .4sso- 
ciationfor the Advancement of Science, 1881, 593. 
On the Determination of Nitric Acid by Means of its Reaction with Ferrous Salts, Part I.- 
Trans. Chern. Soc., 1880, 468; Part II., ibid., 1882, 345. 
On the Determination of Nitric Acid in Soils. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1882, 351. 
Determinations of Nitrogen in the Soils of some of the Experimental Fields at Rothamsted, 
and the Bearing of the Results on the Question of the Sources of the Nitrogen of our Crops.- 
Report American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1882. 
New Determinations of Ammonia, Chlorine, and Sulphuric Acid in the Rain Water Collected 
at Rothamsted.-Jour. Roy. Ayr. Soc., 1883, 313. 
The Nitrogen as Nitric Acid in the Soils and Subsoils of some of the Fields at Rothamsted.- 
Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc., 1883, 331. 
On Nitrification, Part III. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1884, 937. 
On the Action of Gypsum in Promoting Nitrification. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1885, 758. 
On some Points in the Composition of Soils, with Results Illustrating the Sources of the Fer- 
tility of Manitoba Prairie Soils. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1885, 380. 
On the Distribution of the Nitrifying Organisms in the Soil. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1887, 118. 
A Contribution to the Study of Well Waters. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1887, 500. 
The Chemical Actions of some Micro-organisms. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1888, 727. 
On the Present Position of the Question of the Sources of the Nitrogen of Vegetation, with 
some New Results and Preliminary Notice of New Lincs of Investigation.-Phil. Trans. Roy. 
Soc., 1889, B. 1. 
The History of a Field Newly Laid Down to Permanent Grass.-Jour. Roy. Agr. Soc, 
1889. 
The Amount of Nitric Acid in the Rain Water at Rothamsted, with Notes on the Analysis of 
Rain Water.-Trans. Chern. Soc., 1889, 537. 
On Nitrification, Part IV. - Trans. Chern. Soc., 1891, 484. CHAPTER XI. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION. 
Definition of the Process. 
If we refer to Table No. 32, on page 152, we observe that a portion 
of the organic matter of sewage is in suspension only. When sewage 
is allowed to stand for a few hours a part of the suspended matter will 
be deposited at the bottom, through the action of sedimentation; but 
such action is ordinarily quite restricted in its range and cannot be 
relied upon by itself to effect the efficient purification of sewage. If, 
however, certain chemicals are added to the sewage, an insoluble pre- 
cipitant is formed, which, under favorable circumstances, may carry 
down with it all the suspended matter, as well as a portion of the dis- 
solved organic matter. The addition of the chemicals, together with 
the working of the various appliances for grinding and mixing of the 
same, the decanting of the effluent and the caring for the sludge, all 
constitute what is known as the chemical treatment of sewage, the 
complete process being, in reality, partly chemical and partly me- 
chanical. 
Reagents. 
An enormous number of chemical agents have been, at various times, 
proposed for this purpose; but experience has apparently narrowed 
the really useful ones down to three, the others having proven either 
worthless or too expensive for general use. Those chiefly used at the 
present time are lime, sulphate of alumina, and ferrous sulphate. Fer- 
ric sulphate has also been experimented with at the Lawrence Experi- 
ment Station, and found to be, in certain particulars, superior to the 
others; but as yet this salt has not been extensively used in actual 
practice. The chemical reagents are used, either singly or in combi- 
nation, as may be required to fit the case of each particular sewage 
undergoing treatment. 
Theory of Precipitation. 
The action of these various substances in causing a precipitation of 
the organic matter is not definitely understood, though, in a general 204 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
way, we may say that the precipitating effect is exerted in accordance 
with the following: 
In the case of lime there is (1) a combination of some of the lime with 
free and partially combined carbon dioxide to form an insoluble car- 
bonate of lime; and (2) there is probably a further combination of an 
additional part of the lime with a portion of the organic matters in 
solution. The insoluble substances so formed sink to the bottom, car- 
rying with them the major portion of the suspended matter in the 
sewage in the form of sludge. 
Sulphate of alumina exercises a precipitating effect by virtue of (1) 
a combination of the sulphuric acid with lime and other bases in the 
sewage, whilst (2) alumina hydrate, forming a flocculent precipitate, 
entangles and carries down the suspended organic matters. Most of the 
recent authorities have recommended a combination lime and sulphate 
of alumina treatment, the proportion in which they are used to be 
such as to yield as nearly as possible a neutral effluent; we shall learn, 
however, from the results of the Lawrence experiments that a combi- 
nation lime and sulphate of alumina treatment has little to recommend 
it. Theoretically frequent tests should be made of the quality of the 
sewage as delivered at the disposal works, and the chemical treatment 
adapted to the varying conditions of flow. Practically, also, this has 
been found to be the best method of procedure, and at Worcester such 
tests are made and the application of the chemicals gaged, in ac- 
cordance with results thereof, at times as often as once every half hour. 
An extended account of such tests is given in Chapter XXVII., descrip- 
tive of the Worcester Disposal Works, to which the reader is referred 
for further information on this point. 
When iron salts are added to sewage which is either naturally alka- 
line or to which an alkali, as lime, has been artificially added, a floccu- 
lent hydrated oxide is formed as a precipitate, which carries down with 
it the suspended organic matter, as well as a portion of the dissolved. 
Conditions Essential for Success. 
The conditions which insure the best results from chemical treatment 
may be stated as : 
(1) That the sewage be treated while fresh. 
(2) That the chemicals be added to the flowing sewage and thor- 
oughly mixed with it before it passes into the settling tanks. 
(3) That there be a liberal amount of tank space. 
(4) That the arrangements for removing the sludge be such as to in- 
sure its frequent removal, for if left in the tanks until putrefaction sets 
in the sludge is likely to rise to the surface, giving off foul odors. capacity of precipitation tanks. 
205 
Classification of Chemical Treatments. 
Leaving out of account the different methods of combining the chem- 
icals we may classify chemical treatments as follows: 
(1) Intermittent treatment in shallow tanks from 5 to 8 feet deep, 
in which, after the addition and incorporation of the chemicals, the 
sewage is allowed to remain undisturbed until the completion of the 
process. 
(2) Continuous treatment in a series of tanks through which, after 
the addition and incorporation of the reagents, the sewage is allowed 
to flow slowly; crude sewage, with freshly added chemicals passing in 
at one end, and purified effluent passing out at the other. 
(3) Vertical tanks, through which, after the addition of the chemi- 
cals, the sewage rises slowly. 
Fig. 11.-Floating Arm for Decanting Effluent from Tanks. 
There are a number of variations of these three systems, but none 
of them are important enough to justify further subdivision into 
classes. 
In England, where chemical treatment was first developed, the sys- 
tems of intermittent and continuous treatment in shallow tanks are 
used exclusively. Tanks of both systems possess certain features in 
common, as, for instance, such arrangement of a gang of tanks as will 
admit of cutting out any one of the series for cleaning and repairs 
without interfering with the balance of the gang. 
Capacity of Precipitation Tanks. 
In operating precipitating tanks intermittently, it is necessary to 
observe certain principles, namely, the amount of tankage should be 
sufficient to allow the sewage to stand at least one hour, in order to 
insure fairly thorough precipitation. With some treatments the time 
required for complete precipitation is longer than one hour; hence it is 206 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
desirable before deciding in any given case the amount of tank ca- 
pacity to ascertain what form of treatment is best suited to the par- 
ticular sewage in hand. The Lawrence experiments on chemical 
purification furnish a large amount of useful information on this 
point. In computing the total tank capacity it is necessary to take 
into account the time required for filling, precipitating, and emptying, 
the maximum flow of sewage to be expected being taken as the basis 
of the computation. This portion of the subject still lacks scientific 
treatment, no good generalization of the relation between the quantity 
of sewage to be treated and amount of tank capacity required having 
yet appeared. 
As an empirical statement, based on practice, we may say the total 
tank capacity for disposing of the sewage, from systems which are 
arranged with reference to receiving a portion of the rainfall, should 
be nearly 50 per cent, of the average daily How, an allowance of this 
amount giving some leeway for contingencies when required. For 
further information on this point see Chapter VII., on Quantity of 
Sewage and Variations of the Rate of Flow. In any case, it is neces- 
sary to provide enough tanks, so that when required one or more 
may be out of service for cleaning or other purposes, without crowd- 
ing the precipitation in the balance of the tanks. 
Table No. 43. - Tank Capacity in Relation to Population and Quantity of 
Sewage at Three English Towns. 
Place. 
Treatment. 
Popula- 
tion. 
No. of 
tanks. 
Flow of sew- 
age in 24 
hours, gal- 
lons. 
Gallons per head of 
population in 24 
hours. 
Total capac- 
ity of tanks, 
gallons. 
Tank capacity per 
head of popula- 
tion, gallons. 
Per cent, of tank 
capacity to daily 
flow. 
Bradford 
Intermittent 
Intermittent 
225,000 
) 
34 
8,000,000 
85 
612,000 
2.7 
7| 
Coventry 
and 
continuous 
< 48,000 
8 
2,200,000 
46 
1,000,000 
20.8 
45 
Leyton 
Continuous 
40,000 
4 
1,500,000 
37 
1,000,000 
25.0 
67 
When tanks are operated continuously the sewage should be thor- 
oughly screened, in order to intercept any large masses of matter 
before passing into the tanks. Tanks operated on the continuous 
principle should be so designed as to readily admit of emptying when- 
ever it is necessary to clean them, or to remove sludge. 
Vertical Tanks. 
The system of vertical tanks was developed in Germany, and, so far 
as the authors are aware, have never been used in England or the Uni- METHODS OF SLUDGE DISPOSAL. 
207 
ted States, except at the Chicago Exposition, where this form of tank 
has been adapted for the sewage purification works. They present 
the theoretical anomaly of continuous upward movement of the sew- 
age and a downward movement of the sludge. They are, nevertheless, 
stated to produce an efficient purification. It is found in practice that 
there is, in vertical tanks, what may be termed a neutral plane of pre- 
cipitation. Any organic matter which may happen to pass above this 
plane, as it is more thoroughly acted upon by the chemicals, slowly 
falls back in opposition to the upward current, to the neutral plane. 
The flocculent matter collecting there forms a sort of filtering medium, 
which assists in arresting other matter which is floating upward. 
When a considerable mass has collected the whole finally falls to the 
bottom, and the process of collection at the neutral plane again takes 
place. In upright tanks the sludge is generally withdrawn from the 
bottom, without interfering with the regular operation of the tanks; in 
effecting this a number of devices are applied, to ■which it is unneces- 
sary to refer here. Tanks of this form possess the merit of large ca- 
pacity on small ground space, and may be of use in localities where 
limited areas only are available. 
Methods of Sludge Disposal. 
Practicable methods of disposing of sludge may be classified as: 
(1) The sludge may be allowed to flow or may be pumped into 
sludge basins, from which it is subsequently conveyed, either by 
gravity or steam power, to adjacent areas, to be utilized as an agricult- 
ural fertilizer. 
(2) The sludge may be deposited in large open basins, surrounded 
by embankments, where it is allowed to remain until the larger por- 
tion of the water has evaporated or drained away, after which it is re- 
moved by carts or other conveyance, either for use as a fertilizer, or to 
some other point for final disposal, as in filling in low land. 
(3) Liquid sludge may be run directly on to agricultural areas, and 
efficiently disposed of by ploughing into the soil as soon as possible. 
(4) Sludge, either in the liquid state or after partial desiccation, may 
be mixed with combustibles, such as peat, tanbark, and sawdust, and 
disposed of by burning. 
(5) Sludge may be mixed with earth, rubbish, vegetable mold, marl, 
gypsum, stable manure, leaves, or other suitable materials, to form 
compost heaps, and in this manner finally utilized as manure. 
(6) Liquid sludge may, when disposal works are situated within 
reach of a large and deep body of water (and for this purpose tide- 
water is preferable), be disposed of by running into dumping scows 
which convey it to deep water where it may be dumped. The 208 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
minimum distance at which this operation may be safely performed in 
large bodies of fresh water, like the great lakes, 'which are also the 
source of public water supplies, is as yet entirely unknown. 
(7) Sludge may be burned in a furnace of form similar to a garbage 
destructor, or in a garbage destructor in connection with garbage, as at 
Coney Island, N. Y. 
(8) Sludge may be compressed by a filter press into solid cakes, in 
which form it may be handled and conveniently transported for use as 
a fertilizer. 
The use of the filter press has considerably simplified the handling 
of sludge, which, previous to its introduction, was a source of great 
difficulty at nearly all precipitation works. At present filter presses 
are in use at only two places in this country, namely, at East Orange 
and at Long Branch.* For a statement of some of the results at East 
Orange, the reader is referred to Chapter XXIV., treating of the works 
at that place.f 
Sludge, as it ordinarily comes from settling tanks, operated by 
either the intermittent or continuous system, contains from 90 to 95 
per cent, water and from 5 to 10 per cent, solid matter. In upright tanks, 
from which the sludge is removed by pumping without interfering 
with the operation of the tanks, a sludge may be obtained with only 
70 to 90 per cent, of water. 
Methods of Mixing Chemicals. 
Various methods of mixing the chemicals with the sewage are 
resorted to. When sewage is delivered to purification works by grav- 
ity, a salmon way, formed by placing battle boards in the conduit, is a 
convenient way of obtaining a thorough mixing. When this device is 
employed, the chemicals, after being first thoroughly ground and 
mixed with water, or otherwise prepared in special small tanks, are 
added to the flowing sewage just before it reaches the salmon way. 
This method of mixing the chemicals with the sewage is illustrated in 
the plans of the works at Worcester and East Orange, in Part II. 
* Since the above was written a filter press has been put in operation at Canton, O. 
+ For detailed information in regard to disposal of sludge by the use of filter presses, etc., 
see- 
(1) On the Disposal of Sewage Sludge. By Christopher Clarke Hutchinson. Jour. Soc. Chern. 
Industry, Feb. 4,1884. 
(2) Composition and Manorial Value of Filter Pressed Sludge. By J. M. H. Munro. Jour. 
Soc. Chern. Industry, Jan. 29, 1885. 
(3) Papers on Disposal of Sewage Sludge. By J. W. Dibdin and W. Santo Crimp. Trans. 
Inst. C. E., vol. Ixxxviii., Ses. 1886-1887, Part TI. 
(4) Sewage Disposal Works, Crimp, Chapter VIII. 
(5) Sewage Treatment and Sludge Disposal. By W. Santo Crimp, Eng. and Bldg. Reed., vol. 
xxvii., pp. 237-238; pp. 256-257; pp. 277-278 (Feb. 18 and 25, and Mar. 4, 1893); also ab, 
stractedin Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 198-9. (March 2, 1893). cost of chemicals. 
209 
A pump may also be made to do the work of mixing when re- 
quired in lifting the sewage for treatment. This method is illustrated 
in the plans of the Mystic Valley Works, in Part II. Mixing wheels, 
driven either by the flowing sewage or by independent power, may also 
be used. 
The Massachusetts Experiments on Chemical Purification. 
Our scientific knowledge of the chemical purification of sewage has 
been largely extended by a series of experiments made by Mr. Allen 
Hazen, chemist in charge at the Lawrence Experiment Station, during 
the year 1889. The precipitants experimented with were lime, sul- 
phate of alumina, ferrous sulphate or copperas, and ferric sulphate. 
Cost of Chemicals. 
Mr. Hazen states that lime, containing 70 per cent, available calcium 
oxide, can be bought (presumably at Lawrence) for $9 per net ton; 
ferrous sulphate or copperas, containing 26 per cent, ferrous oxide, at 
$10 per net ton; and alumina sulphate, containing 14 per cent, 
alumina, at $25 per net ton. A ferric salt can be made by oxidizing 
copperas with chlorine, or with sulphuric acid and nitrate of soda. 
The approximate cost of the oxides in solution is stated as follows: 
Aluminum oxide 9 cents per pound. 
Ferric oxide 3 cents per pound. 
Ferrous oxide 2 cents per pound. 
Calcium oxide £ cent per lb. 
In the experiments, the results are generally stated in the form of 
annual cost per inhabitant, a daily flow of sewage of 100 gallons for 
each inhabitant being assumed as the basis of the computation. The 
cost of chemicals has been calculated from the foregoing price per 
pound for the oxides. In regard to the prices used, the authors are of 
the opinion, after some correspondence with manufacturers and 
dealers, that the price of $10 per ton for copperas, as an average price 
for use in this country, is somewhat low, $15 being nearer correct. 
The most of the crude copperas of commerce consumed in the United 
States is a bye-product from rolling-mills. Much of it comes from 
the Cleveland Rolling Mill Co. and the Ferric Chemical & Color Co., 
of Worcester, Mass., which takes wastes from the Washbume & Moen 
wire shops. 
Crude sulphate of alumina is worth at the present time, on board in 
New York, Boston, and Philadelphia, from $20 or under to $25 per ton, 
the exact price depending upon quality. The cost of sulphate of 210 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
alumina is largely increased by the process of refining. Manufacturers 
state that if a product with a little iron in it, say four per cent., could 
be used it could be produced and sold at a little less than a cent a 
pound. If there was a steady demand for the chemical in car load 
lots it seems probable that in time this price would be still further re- 
duced. With ordinary sewage the iron in the alumina would certainly 
not be an objection and might be an advantage. As a matter of fact 
iron is used in the " alumino - ferric " process in connection with 
alumina.* 
In regard to the prices used, Mr. Hazen remarks that considering 
the cheapness of the raw materials, it seems probable that the cost of 
both sulphate of alumina and ferric sulphate might be materially de- 
creased from the prices given, in case there should be a considerable 
demand for them. Lime and copperas, Mr. Hazen remarks, have al- 
ready a large sale, and could not probably be obtained at lower 
prices, by reason of increased consumption. 
The authors' opinion, as indicated in the foregoing, is that for the 
present the prices which Mr. Hazen has used are, as an average for 
the whole country, somewhat low, although for points in the state of 
Massachusetts they are undoubtedly approximately right. For other 
localities they may be easily corrected by ascertaining the cost on 
board at the place of manufacture. 
Detail of the Experiments. 
In all, three series of experiments were made: the first, in a tank 
45 feet long, 30 inches wide, and 10 to 12 inches deep, with a capacity 
of about 700 gallons. The chemicals in solution were added to the 
sewage as it flowed by gravity, through a trough, into the tank, where 
it was allowed to settle. In one experiment, on June 1st, when the 
tank was full, the sewage was allowed to overflow at the opposite end 
from that at which it entered, the sewage with the chemicals flowing 
in continuously. The relation of inflow to tank capacity was such 
that the average length of time for the sewage to settle in passing 
through the tank was 90 minutes. In all the other experiments of the 
first series the inflow of sewage was stopped when the tank was filled, 
* See the trade pamphlet, Practical Sewage Purification, with a Description of the Alumino- 
ferric Process, Invented and Patented by Peter Spence & Sons, Manchester, England. 
The alumino-ferric is prepared in soluble cakes, which may be placed in the sewage in cages of 
dift'erent heights so that the amount dissolved will vary with the volume of the sewage ; or it may 
be dissolved in a separate tank of either sewage or water and so that the solution will be of any de- 
sired strength and the solution admitted to the precipitation tanks as desired. According to 
figures in W. Santo Crimp's Sewage Disposal Works (p. 217) alumino-ferric is composed of 14 per 
cent, of soluble alumina (equal to 46.08 per cent, of sulphate of alumina) ; 0.75 per cent, of per- 
chloride of iron ; 33.81 per cent, of sulphuric acid in combination with the above bases; and 51.44 
per cent, of water. DETAIL OF THE EXPERIMENTS. 
211 
and the time of settling reckoned from the time when the tank was 
full. A summary of the results of the first series is given in Table No. 
44, in which the column of the cost of chemicals per year per inhabi- 
tant has been added by the authors. 
Table No. 44.-Summary of Results of Chemical Treatment in Large Tank 
at Lawrence. 
Date. 
Chemicals per 1,000,000 gallons. 
Cost of chemi- 
cals per year 
per inhabi- 
tant. 
Organic matter removed, 
per cent. 
Settled, 
hours. 
Loss on 
ignition. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
May 1 .. 
" 3 .. 
1,000 lbs. of lime 
$0.16 
32 
62 
20 
2.0(H) " " 
0.33 
38 
30 
3 
" 7 .. 
2,000 " " 
0.33 
56 
52 
4 
•• 9 .. 
2,000 " " 
0.33 
57 
43 
4 
" 14 .. 
1,600 •• " 
0.27 
41 
25 
27 
" 16 .. 
2,100 " " 
0.35 
18 
32 
20 
Average.. 
1,800 " " 
0.30 
40 
42 
June 1 .. 
500 lbs. of alum 
0.23 
13 
35 
IX 
" 1 .. 
500 " " and 800 pounds of lime.... 
0.36 
43 
38 
ix 
" 18 .. 
500 " " and 800 " 
0.36 
20 
26 
1 
" 14 .. 
500 lbs. of copperas and 600 lbs. of lime ... 
0.19 
60 
22 
1 
The first series, while approximating closely to precipitation in a 
sewage purification plant, did not prove satisfactory, by reason of not 
giving comparative results as with the same sample of sewage. A 
large number of analyses have shown that there is not only a great 
difference in the composition of the sewage on different days, but also 
between different portions of sewage required to fill the same tank. In 
order, therefore, to get results which were strictly comparable, it was 
decided to make parallel experiments on the same samples. To 
accomplish this, barrels were so set that they could be filled from one 
of the large measuring tanks at the station. The measuring tank was 
filled, thoroughly mixed, and while still being stirred, the barrels filled 
from it and chemicals added as desired. In order to show the effect 
of simple sedimentation, one barrel was left in each case to settle with- 
out chemicals. The barrels were 30 inches high and held about 50 
gallons each. A computation was made of the amount of the precip- 
itant per 1,000,000 gallons required for each barrel. 
The chemicals were mixed in each barrel and the contents allowed 
to stand until thorough precipitation had taken place, after which a 
sample of the effluent was drawn from a tap about 10 inches above 
the bottom, the liquid first running freely for a minute, so that a 
sample fairly represented the contents of the barrel above the sludge. 
In this way a series of about 70 experiments were made in the months 
of May, June, and September, with the final one of the series on Oc- 
tober 1, 1889. 
Beginning October 2, 1889, a third series of experiments, much more 212 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 45.-Summary of Mr. Hazen's Second Series of Experiments on 
Chemical Treatment at Lawrence. 
Chemicals per 1,000,000 gallons of sewage. 
Cost of 
chemicals per 
inhabitant 
annually. 
Number of 
experi- 
ments. 
Per cent, 
loss on 
ignition 
removed. 
Per cent, 
albuminoid 
ammonia 
removed. 
Sewage after settling (sediment merely) 
§0.00 
0.11 
10 
30 
26 
Effluent with 700 lbs. of lime 
5 
39 
33 
Effluent with 500 lbs. of lime 
0.23 
2 
27 
40 
Effluent with 500 lbs. alum and 700 lbs. lime 
0.34 
5 
37 
48 
Effluent with 500 lbs. copperas 
0.09 
1 
36 
21 
Effluent with 500 lbs. of copperas and 700 lbs. of lime ... 
0.20 
0 
48 
50 
Effluent with 120 lbs. ferric oxide 
0.13 
2 
64 
33 
Effluent with 120 lbs. of ferric oxide and 700 lbs. of lime. 
0.24 
3 
57 
51 
elaborate than the previous ones, was made in order to determine more 
definitely the best proportion of the various chemicals and their re- 
spective merits. These experiments were also made in barrels, the 
same as already described for the second series. In the first and second 
series precipitation had been in some cases continued longer than one 
hour, but in the third the time of settling was taken uniformly at one 
hour. In regard to this Mr. Hazen says a slightly better result would 
be obtained by waiting longer before taking the samples; but a few 
experiments indicated only a slight difference between 1 and 4 hours' 
settling, and in comparative experiments on sewage the advantage of 
making the experiments and completing the analyses on the same day 
is very great. It was also thought that an hour's settling in a tank 30 
inches deep may be equivalent to 2 or 3 hours' settling in a tank 6 feet 
deep. 
Experiments with Lime. 
Before giving the detail of the third series of experiments, Mr. Hazen 
describes the method of the analyses of sewage which has been em- 
ployed. In regard to precipitation with lime it is stated: 
The quicklime of commerce does not have a constant composition. It has been 
thought best, for the purpose of these experiments, to take an arbitrary amount of 
calcium oxide in solution, as lime water, to represent a ton of lime, rather than 
weigh out lime for experiment. This method will give strictly comparable results, 
while, if the lime was weighed out, there would always be uncertainty as to the 
composition of the portion used, as different lumps of lime from the same barrel, 
and even different portions of the same lump, may differ widely from each other in 
composition. If pure calcium oxide is dissolved in distilled water at the rate of one 
ton per million gallons, it will have an acid number of alkalinity of 0.86 ; i.e., it 
will require 0.8G cubic centimetres of normal sulphuric acid, 49 grammes per litre, to 
neutralize 100 cubic centimetres. But quicklime only contains, on an average, 
perhaps 80 to 85 per cent, of uncombined calcium oxide, and a portion of this is 
difficultly soluble, so that it is impossible to make a lime water which represents 
the full theoretical strength of the lime. In a few experiments in dissolving lime 
in sewage, 10 to 15 per cent, of the lime proved to be not easily soluble. From 
these experiments I have assumed that lime will on the average yield 70 per cent, 
of its weight of calcium oxide in solution. This is believed to be a fair estimate, EXPERIMENTS WITH LIME. 
213 
which can be obtained in practice. This corresponds nearly to an acid number of 
0.60 for one ton per million gallons, and I have taken that as a basis for computing 
the amount of lime used in each experiment. The lime is slaked with a large 
amount of sewage, and, after settling, the acid number is obtained by titration. 
From this is calculated the amount of lime water to be added to the sewage. 
By treating sewage with a large excess of milk of lime the undissolved calcium 
hydrate in settling carries down the insoluble organic matter almost completely, 
and in a very short time. 
On May 10 an experiment was made as follows : A weighed portion of lime was 
slaked in a barrel and the barrel filled with sewage. After settling for a few min- 
utes the cleared liquid was drawn off and the barrel again filled with sewage. This 
was repeated until the lime was exhausted. In all 480 gallons of sewage were treated. 
The lime used was at the rate of 6,600 pounds per 1,000,000 gallons; 4.8 gallons of 
sludge were left, having 4 per cent, of solid matter. This process could not be used 
on a large scale owing to the amount of lime required and the excess of lime left in 
solution, which would slowly precipitate out on exposure to the air. The com- 
pleteness with which the bacteria are removed or killed, and the large volume of 
liquid which can be treated in a small tank, might render it of use in some cases for 
disinfection. The results were as follows : 
Table No. 46.-Results of Precipitation ■with Large Excess of Lime. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
May 10, 1889. 
Total solids. 
Loss on 
ignition. 
Fixed 
residue. 
Free 
ammonia. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Bacteria per 
cubic cen- 
timetre. 
-Original sewage 
43.2 
17.6 
25.6 
1.48 
0.36 
5.24 
1,881,400 
Filtered through paper 
38.8 
13.2 
25.6 
1.48 
0.22 
Effluent with lime after 5 minutes 
113.4 
11.8 
101.6 
1.48 
0.18 
5.35 
12 
Effluent after one hour. 
95.8 
8.0 
87.8 
1.48 
0.19 
5.26 
17 
Effluent after 24 hours 
93.4 
10.2 
83.2 
1.37 
0.18 
5.31 
5 
Effluent from another sewage, 5 minutes 
155.2 
17.2 
138.0 
1.92 
0.29 
5.70 
774 
Sludge representing 100 times its volume of sewage 
4.067.0 
414.0 
3,653.0 
3.60 
21.40 
6.56 
100 
The action of smaller amounts of lime is quite different. Calcium carbonate is 
then formed with the carbonic acid of the sewage,-and it is thus the carbonate in- 
stead of the hydrate which clarifies the sewage. Calcium carbonate is somewhat 
soluble in water or sewage containing carbonic acid. To obtain a precipitate it is 
necessary to add enough lime to combine with the greater part of the carbonic acid. 
The report gives the details of four experiments with different 
amounts of lime. In each case seven barrels were filled from the same 
tank of sewage and varying amounts of lime added. From the tabula- 
tions and diagrams of the results it appears that, with increased 
amounts of lime, there is a regular improvement in the effluent, until 
the point is reached where the lime is equal to the carbonic acid ; 
beyond this point the addition of a larger amount of lime does not 
usually remove any more organic matter. A further increase does, 
however, kill bacteria, as shown by the results in Table No. 46. A 
quantity of lime, equal or nearly equal to the carbonic acid, may 
therefore be taken as the practicable limit of efficiency in a simple 
lime treatment. What may be accomplished by such a treatment is 
fully indicated in Table No. 47. 214 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 47.-Results of Precipitation when the Lime Used was Equal 
OK NEARLY EQUAL TO THE CARBONIC ACID. 
Oct. 2. 
Oct. 4. 
Oct. 8. 
Oct. 9. 
Average. 
Amount of lime used, pounds 
1,500 
1,600 
1,600 
1,800 
1,625 
Albuminoid ammonia of sewage 
0.85 
0.72 
0.56 
0.90 
0.76 parts per 100.000 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
47. 
53. 
50. 
55. 
51. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
34. 
44. 
44. 
44. 
41. per cent. 
Loss on ignition of sewage 
24.2 
23.6 
22.0 
44.8 
28.6 parts. 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
50. 
61. 
60. 
70. 
61. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
50. 
56. 
49. 
50. 
51. per cent. 
Turbidity of sewage 
1.00 
0.50 
0.50 
0 60 
0.65 parts. 
Remaining after precipitation 
23. 
26. 
28. 
20. 
24. per cent. 
Bacteria of sewage 
196,000 
1,572,000 
1,364,000 
1,044.000 
Remaining after precipitation 
6.2 
0.73 
0.55 
2.5 per cent. 
- 
- 
- 
This table shows that by the use of an amount of lime correspond- 
ing to the carbonic acid in the sewage, all of the suspended organic 
matter has been removed, together with 20 per cent, of the soluble 
albuminoid ammonia, 15 per cent, of the soluble loss on ignition, 97 
per cent, of the bacteria, 70 per cent, of the turbidity, at a cost for 
chemicals of $7.31 per million gallons, or 27 cents per inhabitant an- 
nually. 
Lime and Copperas. 
The second series of experiments had indicated that it was necessary 
to add lime with copperas, in order to get the best result from a 
copperas treatment. Additional experiments were carried out in the 
third series to ascertain how much lime is required, the effect of 
different amounts of copperas, and whether the sewage shall first be 
mixed with the lime or with the copperas. 
The experiments with copperas show clearly that when copperas is 
added to sewage alone, the result is on the whole no better than may 
be obtained from simple sedimentation. In order to produce precipi- 
tation it is necessary to add lime enough to combine with the excess of 
the carbonic acid over the amount required to form bi-carbonates and 
to combine with the sulphuric acid of the copperas. When the proper 
amount of lime is added, the acid number with phenolphthalein will 
be zero. To insure rapid action, lime should be added slightly in 
excess, but no better result will be obtained when more than a slight 
excess of lime is used. If much less than the proper quantity is used, 
the iron will not be precipitated, and the result will be the same as in 
simple sedimentation without chemicals. 
The test with phenolphthalein shows instantly whether enough lime 
has been added, and it can be used bv any one. If enough lime is 
present in the sewage, to which a few drops of a solution of phenol- LIME AND COPPERAS. 
215 
phthalein in alcohol is added, it will be turned blood-red, while, if the 
amount is too small, the sewage will remain uncolored. 
Mr. Hazen states that this reaction is equally useful in the precipi- 
tation by lime of acid sewage containing iron from manufacturing 
wastes. In this case, the copperas is already carried by the sewage, 
and the addition of lime is required to neutralize the acid, thus pre- 
cipitating the iron and rendering it available. An elegant application 
of this principle has been made in the chemical treatment of the sew- 
age of the city of Worcester, which is an acid sewage containing large 
quantities of iron manufacturing wastes. For further discussion of 
this part of the subject, the reader is referred to Chapter XXVII. de- 
scriptive of the Worcester disposal works. 
A series of experiments were made for the purpose of determining 
the effect of different amounts of copperas when used with the proper 
amount of lime, as indicated by the phenolphthalein reaction. The 
results, with amounts of lime best adjusted to the given amount of 
copperas, are indicated in Tables 48 and 49. 
Summarizing the results of these two tables, it is found that with 
500 pounds of copperas per 1,000,000 gallons of sewage, and an amount 
of lime best adjusted to the copperas, there will be removed all of the 
suspended organic matter, 13 per cent, of the soluble albuminoid am- 
monia, 14 per cent, of the soluble loss on ignition, 65 per cent, of the 
turbidity, and 88 per cent, of the bacteria, with a cost for chemicals of 
$5.44 per million gallons, or 20 cents annually per inhabitant. 
With 1,000 pounds of copperas per 1,000,000 gallons of sewage, and 
an amount of lime best adjusted thereto, there was removed all of the 
suspended organic matter, 39 per cent, of the soluble albuminoid 
ammonia, 39 per cent, of the soluble loss on ignition, 75 per cent, of 
Table No. 48.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with about 500 Pounds of 
Copperas for 1,000,000 Gallons, and an Amount of Lime best adjusted 
to the Copperas. 
Oct. 11. 
Oct. 18. 
Oct. 22. 
Average. 
Amount of copperas used 
500 
400 
500 
467 pounds. 
Amount of lime used 
800 
680 
650 
693 pounds. 
Albuminoid ammonia, sewage 
0.79 
0.67 
0.66 
0.71 parts per 100,000 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
54. 
60. 
68. 
61. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
39. 
60. 
60 
53. per cent. 
Loss on ignition of sewage 
25.8 
21.2 
23.8 
23.6 parts. 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
67. 
75. 
71. 
71. percent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
57. 
73. 
53. 
61. per cent. 
Turbidity of sewage... 
0.50 
0.50 
0.60 
0.53 
Remaining after precipitation 
30. 
40. 
36. 
35. per cent. 
Bacteria of sewage 
176.000 
322.400 
507,800 
335.000 
Remaining after precipitation 
32. 
2. 
3. 
12. per cent. 216 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 49.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with 1,000 Pounds of 
Copperas per 1,000,000 Gallons, and an Amount of Lime best adjusted to 
the Copperas. 
Oct. 16. 
Oct. 18. 
Oct. 22. 
Average. 
Amount of copperas used 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 
1,000 jtounds. 
Amount of lime used 
800 
800 
800 
800 pounds. 
Albuminoid ammonia of sewage 
0.94 
0.67 
0.66 
0.76 parts per 100,000 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
70. 
60. 
68. 
<Mi. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
35. 
43. 
41. 
40. per cent. 
Loss on ignition, sewage 
29.2 
21.2 
23.8 
24.7 parts. 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
77. 
75. 
71. 
74. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
30. 
57. 
47. 
45. per cent. 
Turbidity of sewage 
0.65 
0.50 
0.60 
0.58 parts. 
Remaining after precipitation 
18. 
30. 
28. 
25. per cent. 
Bacteria of sewage 
322,400 
507,800 
415,000 
Remaining after precipitation 
*• 
*• 
2. per cent. 
- 
- 
the turbidity, and 98 per cent, of the bacteria, with a cost for chemicals 
of $8.60 per million gallons, or 31 cents per inhabitant annually. 
Ferric Sulphate. 
Mr. Hazen states that ferric salts have the advantage over ferrous 
salts, in that ferric hydroxide is more readily precipitated and more 
completely insoluble than ferrous hydroxide. 
A number of experiments were made to determine whether it was 
necessary to add lime in order to obtain the best results with ferric 
salts, and, if so, how much should be used; also to ascertain the effect 
of different amounts of ferric salts when used alone. 
As already stated, the ferric salt used for the experiments was ferric 
sulphate, but Mr. Hazen says there is every reason to suppose that 
exactly the same results would be obtained with ferric chloride con- 
taining an equal amount of iron. 
The experiments, with a combination treatment of lime and ferric 
sulphate, show that the influence of the lime is very small. With an 
amount of ferric sulphate equivalent to 200 pounds of ferric oxide, 
the result was slightly better, when 800 pounds of lime were used. 
With the equivalent of 400 pounds of ferric oxide, in combination (1) 
with 500 pounds of lime and (2) with 1,000 pounds of lime per 1,000,000 
gallons treated, the results show that the lime had almost no influence. 
With 300 pounds of ferric oxide, no better result was obtained by 
mixing the sewage with 1,000 pounds of lime before adding the ferric 
sulphate ; when the lime was added to the sewage after the ferric sul- 
phate, the result was not quite so good as when no lime was used. 
The conclusion is, therefore, that the best results will be obtained 
from the ferric sulphate when used alone. ALUMINUM SULPHATE. 
217 
Table No. 50.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with Ferric Sulphate. 
Nov. 5. 
Nov. 6. 
Nov. 6. 
Nov. 5. 
Nov. 6. 
Ferric oxide used as ferric sulphate 
200 
200 
300 
400 
400 pounds. 
Albuminoid ammonia, sewage 
0.57 
0.52 
0.52 
0.57 
0.52 parts per 100,000 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
56. 
69. 
69. 
56. 
69. per cent. 
Kemaining after precipitation 
59. 
33. 
33. per cent. 
Loss on ignition, sewage 
22.8 
22.4 
09 4 
22 8 
22.4 parts. 
Kemaining after filtering through paper 
70. 
76. 
76. 
70. 
76. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
36. 
42. 
13. 
18. 
13. per cent. 
Bacteria in sewage per cubic centimetre 
218,960 
1,398,600 
1,398.600 
218. <160 
1,398,600 
Kemaining after precipitation 
14. 
14. 
9. 
3. 
5 per cent. 
Suspended organic matter removed 
All. 
All. 
All. 
All. 
AH. 
Soluble albuminoid ammonia removed 
20. 
48. 
41. 
52. per cent. 
Soluble loss on ignition removed 
0. 
21. 
50. 
43. per cent. 
Turbidity removed 
64. 
58. 
87. 
87. ]>er cent. 
Bacteria removed 
86. 
86. 
91. 
97. 
95. per cent. 
Cost per inhabitant annually for chemicals ... 
22 cents. 
22 cents. 
33 cents. 
44 cents. 
44 cents. 
Table No. 50 gives the results of the experiments in which only 
ferric sulphate was used. 
Aluminum Sulphate. 
The next series of experiments were with aluminum sulphate, the 
action of which upon sewage is analogous to the ferric sulphate. Mr. 
Hazen remarks that there is every reason to suppose that aluminum 
chloride containing the same amount of alumina will give exactly the 
same results as the sulphate. 
The first experiments with this salt were made for the purpose of 
determining (1) whether lime could be used advantageously with sul- 
Table No. 51.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with Aluminum Sulphate. 
Nov. 1. 
Oct. 29. 
Nov. 1. 
Average. 
Alum used per 1.000,000 gallons, pounds 
500 
1,000 
1,000 
With 1,000 pounds. 
Albuminoid ammonia, sewage 
0.45 
0.67 
0.45 
0.56 parts per 100,000 
Remaining after filtering through paper 
71. 
58. 
71. 
64. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
64. 
24. 
44. 
34. per cent. 
Loss on ignition, sewage 
27. 
30.4 
27.0 
28.7 parts. 
Remaining after filtering through paper... 
50. 
56. 
50. 
53. per cent. 
Remaining after precipitation 
52. 
29. 
66. 
47. per cent. 
Turbidity of sewage 
0.40 
2.00 
0.40 
1.20 
Remaining after precipitation 
32. 
Y, 
27. 
17. per cent. 
Bacteria in sewage, per cubic centimetre 
Remaining after precipitation 
361,328 
835.200 
361.328 
598,264 
3. 
1. 
17. 
9. per cent. 
Suspended organic matter removed 
Nearly all. 
All. 
Nearly all. 
Soluble albuminoid ammonia removed .. 
10. 
59. 
38. 
47. per cent. 
Soluble loss on ignition removed... 
0. 
48. 
0. 
24. per cent. 
Turbidity removed 
68. 
93. • 
73. 
83. per cent. 
Bacteria removed 
97. 
99. 
• 83. 
91. per cent. 
Cost of chemicals per 1,000.000 gallons 
Cost for chemicals per inhabitant annually .... 
$6.25 
0.23 
$12.50 
0.45 218 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
phate of alumina; and (2) the effect of different amounts of the same. 
The results indicate that, as with ferric sulphate, lime has little or no 
effect. The precipitation is a little more rapid when lime is used, but 
the short gain in time will hardly compensate for the extra cost. 
Table No. 51 gives the results of three experiments, in which sulphate 
of alumina only was used as a precipitant. 
The three series of experiments, outlined in the foregoing, indicate 
the following: 
(1) That with a given quantity of sewage, a certain definite amount 
of lime gives as good or better results than either more or less. 
(2) That in general, the more copperas, ferric sulphate, or aluminum 
sulphate used, the better the result. 
(3) That ferric sulphate and aluminum sulphate usually require no 
lime for completing precipitation. 
(4) That with copperas a definite amount of lime must be used. 
Results With Different Amounts of Chemicals but of Equal 
Value. 
In order to compare the results obtained with the best amount of 
lime with equal value of the other chemicals, when used under the 
most favorable conditions on the same sample of sewage, two ad- 
ditional experiments were made, the second being, presumably, for 
the purpose of checking the first. The results of the first set are 
given in Table No. 52. Table No. 53 gives the per cent, of soluble 
organic matter removed by chemicals of equal value, as determined by 
the two final sets of experiments. 
Taking the percentage of albuminoid ammonia removed to repre- 
Table No. 52.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with Equal Values of 
Different Chemicals (Nov. 22, 1889). 
Cost of 
chemicals.* 
Turbidity. 
Total solids. 
Loss on 
ignition. 
1 Fixed 
residue. 
Free 
ammonia. 
I Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
। Bacteria per I 
cubic centi- 
metre. 
. Yeast cells 
per cubic 
centimetre. 
Original sewage 
0.40 
43.0 
18.0 
25.0 
1.25 
0.40 
4.86 
25.840 
20,700 
Filtered through paper 
34 8 
11.2 
23.6 
1.25 
0.26 
After settling 1 hour 
Effluent with 1,800 pounds of lime per 
0.30 
38.S 
13.6 
25.2 
1.25 
0.28 
4.82 
10,920 
16,700 
1,000.000 gallons of sewage 
Effluent with 1,000 pounds of cop- 
$0.30 
0.08 
45.6 
10.2 
35.4 
1.25 
0.19 
4.83 
1,911 
1,650 
)>eras and 700 pounds of lime 
0.30 
0.12 
46.4 
9.2 
37.2 
1.25 
0.17 
4.80 
16,044 
400 
Effluent with 270 pounds of ferric oxide 
0.30 
0.08 
38 0 
8.0 
30.0 
1.25 
0.18 
4.92 
2.047 
1,000 
Effluent with (150 pounds of alum . .. 
0.30 
0.10 
34.4 
8.0 
26.4 
1.50 
G.19 
4.88 
2,475 
3,700 
Effluent with 360 pounds of ferric oxide 
0.40 
0.07 
37.6 
5.8 
31.8 
1.25 
0.15 
4.96 
1,980 
1,000 
Effluent with 870 pounds of alum .... 
0.40 
0.09 
38.2 
9.6 
28.6 
1.25 
0.19 
4.81 
1,800 
2,200 
* Per inhabitant annually. DEDUCTIONS. 
219 
Table No. 53.-Per Cent, of Soluble Organic Matter Removed by Chemicals 
of Equal Value, etc. 
Yearly cost. 
Thirty cents. 
Forty cents. 
Chemicals used. 
Lime. 
Copperas 
and lime. 
Ferric 
oxide. 
Sulphate 
of ahi- 
Ferric 
oxide. 
Sulphate 
of alu- 
minum. 
minum. 
Nov. 22 ■ 
27 
35 
31 
27 
42 
27 
Soluble albuminoid ammonia removed 
Nov. 26 • 
17 
24 
34 
14 
41 
31 
Average. 
22 
29 
32 
20 
41 
29 
Nov. 22 . 
9 
18 
29 
29 
48 
14 
Soluble loss on ignition removed 
Nov. 26. 
0 
24 
26 
30 
41 
26 
Average. 
4 
21 
28 
30 
45 
20 
Nov. 22 . 
SO 
70 
80 
75 
S3 
78 
Turbidity removed 
Nov. 26. 
74 
70 
82 
78 
82 
76 
Average. 
77 
70 
81 
77 
83 
77 
93 
38 
92 
91 
93 
93 
92 
98 
95 
82 
95 
90 
1,000 
Amount of chemicals per 1.000,000 gallons in lbs. 
1,800 
and 
270 
650 
360 
870 
700 
Cost of chemicals per 1,000,000 gallons treated... 
$8.13. 
$10.85. 
sent organic matter, it is shown that in addition to all suspended mat- 
ter, the following amounts of soluble organic matter have been 
removed: 
With lime costing 30 cents per inhabitant annually 22 per cent. 
With copperas and lime costing 30 cents -29 per cent. 
With ferric sulphate costing 30 cents 32 per cent. 
With aluminum sulphate costing 30 cents 20 per cent. 
With ferric sulphate costing 40 cents 41 per cent. 
With aluminum sulphate costing 40 cents 29 per cent. 
With lime costing 27 cents per inhabitant, annually 20 per cent. 
With copperas and lime costing 20 cents 13 per cent. 
With copperas and lime costing 31 cents 39 per cent. 
With ferric sulphate costing 22 cents 17 per cent. 
With ferric sulphate costing 33 cents 48 per cent. 
With ferric sulphate costing 44 cents 46 per cent. 
With aluminum sulphate costing 23 cents 10 per cent. 
With aluminum sulphate costing 45 cents 47 per cent. 
Deductions. 
The following conclusions may be drawn from Mr. Hazen's experi- 
ments : 
(1) The first series in large tanks (Table No. 44) made between May 1, 
and June 14, inclusive, may be considered as approximating more 
nearly to the actual conditions at sewage disposal works in operation 
than any of the others; and the variation in the results are such as 
may be fairly expected from day to day due to changes in the com- 
position of the sewage. The results, however, are not comparable 220 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
one with another by reason of using samples of varying composition 
taken on different days. 
(2) Mr. Hazen does not consider the second series in barrels as re- 
liable as the latter ones, by reason of some of the anaylses not being 
made until the day following the experiment. He therefore considers 
it probable that changes had occurred which affect the results. 
(3) It may be said of all the experiments in barrels that (a) the 
quantity treated was rather small; tanks holding from 300 to 600 gal- 
lons would have been preferable, although the use of such would have 
required more time and additional apparatus, in the way of special 
appliances for mixing; and (6) that probably by reason of the small 
volume experimented upon the mixing was more thorough than 
usually occurs in practice. To obtain the same results on sewage of 
the same composition in actual practice will therefore necessitate the 
use of amounts in addition to the quantities indicated by the exper- 
iments, of perhaps 5 to 10 per cent. 
(4) With lime largely in excess, as in the experiment of May 10, sew- 
age can be treated on a small scale in such manner as to remove very 
nearly all the bacteria, the result being that with an original sewage 
containing 1,881,400 bacteria per cubic centimetre, the number found 
in the effluent of 5 minutes time was only 12; after 1 hour 17 ; and at 
the end of 24 hours 5. This process, however, could not be used on a 
large scale, owing to the large amount of lime required and the ex- 
cess of lime left in solution, which would slowly precipitate out on 
exposure to the air. 
(5) The best practical results with lime were obtained when the 
amount used was equal or nearly equal to the carbonic acid of the 
sewage. To produce this condition a definite quantity is required for 
a given sewage. 
(6) The use of copperas alone is without much useful effect in the 
treatment of an ordinary sewage; the result being very little better 
than may be obtained by simple sedimentation. It is necessary to 
add enough lime, when copperas is used, to combine with the excess 
of carbonic acid over what is required to form bicarbonates, and to 
combine with the acid of the copperas, as the necessary conditions for 
precipitation. In general terms we may say that with a lime and 
copperas treatment there is a definite amount of lime that will give 
the best results. 
(7) In using lime and copperas, the lime should be added first. 
(8) For a given sewage treated with lime and copperas, the proper 
proportion of each should be determined by experiment. Up to one- 
half ton per 1,000,000 gallons, using in each case a suitable amount of 
lime, the more copperas used the better the result; beyond that limit 
the improvement is not commensurate with the cost. DEDUCTIONS. 
221 
(9) Other things being equal, ferric salts are preferable to ferrous 
salts by reason of quicker action and more insoluble precipitate. 
(10) Lime is of almost no value for use with ferric sulphate, espe- 
cially when treating a sewage which is already alkaline. 
(11) Within limits, we may say the more of either ferrous or ferric 
sulphate used the better the result. 
(12) For the sewage experimented upon, the use of lime with sul- 
phate of alumina is of very little effect over what may be accomplished 
by the use of the alumina alone. The chief effect of the lime is to in- 
crease somewhat the rapidity of action, but the gain in time hardly 
compensates for the increased cost. 
(13) The results in Tables 52 and 53 are probably the safest for 
comparison, subject to the limitations indicated in (3). 
(14) The removal of bacteria is due partly to the mechanical action 
of the flocculent precipitates in which they are entangled and carried 
down, and partly to the action of the reagent as a germicide ; but even 
the best of the various chemical treatments leave a relatively large 
number of bacteria in the effluent, together with such quantities of 
organic matter as may lead in a short time to the development of as 
many as were present in the original sewage. If any so left are 
disease germs the effluent may be nearly as dangerous to public health 
as the original sewage. 
(15) The microscopical determination of the yeast may be considered 
a useful method of ascertaining whether or not the suspended organic 
matter is really all removed. 
(16) The effluents from treatment with iron salts are slightly colored, 
which, however, Mr. Hazen does not consider an objection to the 
treatment. 
(17) The practical difficulties of working the lime process renders 
the results in general inferior to those which may be obtained at the 
same cost in other ways. 
(18) Copperas and lime treatment is difficult in practice owing to 
the necessity for adjusting the quantity of lime, although when such 
adjustment is properly made a good result is obtained. 
(19) Ferrous hydroxide is more soluble than ferric hydroxide, from 
which results a larger amount of iron in the effluent from copperas 
treatment than from a ferric salt. 
(20) The advantage of both ferric sulphate and aluminum sulphate 
is that their addition in concentrated solution can be accurately con- 
trolled without reference to the adjustment of any chemical to the 
sewage. 
(21) The results with ferric sulphate have been on the whole more 
satisfactory than those with aluminum sulphate. 
(22) By reason of (a) variations in the composition of sewage at dif- 222 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ferent places ; and (?>) changes in prices of the reagents it is impossi- 
ble to say that one treatment is universally better than another. 
(23) An acid sewage containing iron may be properly treated with 
lime. 
(24) By the use of a proper amount of either an iron or aluminum 
salt, from one-half to two-thirds of the organic matter of sewage may 
be removed by chemical precipitation. With the process carried out 
in detail the effluent can be discharged into a running stream without 
producing a nuisance. 
(25) The incompleteness of the purification in comparison with the 
cost of the process will be likely to confine the application of chemi- 
cal purification to narrow limits. 
(26) There is nothing in these experiments to indicate that the efflu- 
ents from chemical treatment are fit to drink. 
Purification of Sewage by Aeration. 
Iii Table No. 53A are given the results of a series of experi- 
ments on the treatment of sewage by aeration made for the 
Metropolitan Board of Works (London), by Dr. A. Dupre and W. J. 
Dibdin. In each case 1,000 gallons of raw sewage was first treated 
with 5 grains per gallon of lime as lime-water, and the same amount of 
copperas. Series (1) and (2) show the means for 10 samples of raw 
sewage and the effluents from the same. Series (3) shows (2) corrected 
for the lime-water, of which 72 gallons was added in each case. Series 
Table No. 53A.-Results of Treatment of Sewage with Lime and Copperas, 
Followed by Aeration of Effluent. 
(Grains per Imperial gallon.) 
Serial number. 
Raw sewage 
Effluent from (1)......... 
Corrected effluent* 
Effluent before aeration.. 
After aeration (4) 
Description of sample. 
c© c©c o o 
Number of experiments 
of which mean is taken. 
O' O' O' P 
w >u <-* co co 
Total. 
Dissolved solids. 
42.40 
34.34 
36.80 
34.74 
31.31 
Mineral. 
21.07 
13.88 
14.88 
20.04 
22.31 
Organic. 
3.942 
3.549 
3.803 
4.575 
3.250 
Free. 
Ammonia. 
0.5205 
0.3847 
0.4122 
0.5408 
0.5480 
Albuminoid. 
SS5K 
Chlorine. 
11.36 
6.50 
6.96 
1.28 
3.35 
Total. 
Suspended mat- 
ter. 
4.84 
5.38 
5.76 
0.89 
2.04 
Mineral. 
J- p p 
co co io '-1 O' 
»-» 75 *3 *3 to 
Organic. 
0.853 
0.587 
0.629 
0.710 
0.621 
5 minutes at 80° 
F. 
Oxygen ab- 
sorbed. 
3.016 
2.274 
2.300 
2.437 
2.292 
4 hours nt 80° 
F. 
* In these experiments 1,000 imperial gallons were used in each ease. This quantity of sewage was diluted 
with 72 gallons of clear lime-water added to each 1,000 gallons of sewage; therefore, to compare the effluent 
with the sewage, it is necessary to correct the results of the analyses for that degree of dilution with clear 
1.000 „ , result obtained . . T ... .. , ... . 
water, thns :- -= 0.933 ; hence corrected result. In this way the results of (2) have 
1,0 <2 U.Ooo 
been corrected, making (3). chemical precipitation. 
223 
(4) is the mean of 8 effluents which were treated by aeration with the 
result indicated in (5). In studying the results it must be borne in 
mind that (4) and (5) are different series from (2) and (3).* 
By comparing series 4 and 5 of Table 53A it will be seen that aera- 
tion had but little effect upon the sewage. The same conclusion was 
reached in some experiments with diluted sewage by Mr. S. K. Hine.f 
Dr. T. M. Drown in experiments with natural waters and with water 
to which a small amount of sewage had been added, concludes that 
" The oxidation of organic matter in water is not hastened by vigor- 
ous agitation with air or by air under pressure."^ 
In considering the significance of these new view's we must not for- 
get that the presence of oxygen is still imperative in order to secure 
the operation of the living agents. Moreover when large quantities of 
organic matter are present it is still permissible to assume some 
degree of direct oxidation, and it is in this latter view that we have 
discussed the matter in the beginning of Chapter V. 
Chemical Precipitation by the Use of Manganate of Soda and 
Nitre. 
As we have seen, the tendency of the effluents from chemical proc- 
esses, especially those dependent upon lime, is on the whole toward 
putrefaction, even when considerably diluted after discharge into run- 
ning streams. This result is due primarily to a deficient supply of 
oxygen, whereby the microbes of nitrification may develop in suf- 
ficient quantity to complete the resolution of the organic matter still 
remaining in the effluent. If, then, the chemical purification is effected 
by some reagent which leaves a considerable quantity of oxygen in 
the effluent, we may expect an improvement in this particular. 
* Table No. 53A is derived from Appendix D H of the Report of the Roy. Com. on Met. Sew. 
Dischg., p. 201. 
+ Recounted in a paper entitled "Note on the Direct Oxidation of Organic Matter in Water," 
by Professor W. P. Mason and S. K. Hine, Jour. Am. Chern. Soc., vol. xiv., no. 7. The experi- 
ments were made by Mr. Hine and the results presented as a graduating thesis at the Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute in June, 1892. Varying proportions of sewage and water were placed in a 
tin can or in a glass stoppered bottle, mostly in the latter, the receptacle being not over half full. 
The can or bottle was then fastened to the connecting rod of a horizontal steam-engine of 10-in. 
stroke and the engine run at 75 revolutions per minute, so that in an hour the receptacle was 
shaken 9,000 times and travelled about 1.25 miles. The samples were shaken from 13 to 60 hours 
and 24 samples were tried, analyses being made before and after shaking. The paper states that: 
An examination of the results shows that the amount of oxidation which took place during the 
agitation of the water was very trifling, a finding entirely in accordance with Professor Leeds' ob- 
servations of the water of the Niagara river before and after passing Niagara Falls. Direct oxida- 
tion does not seem to be a factor of any considerable importance in the purification of polluted 
water. 
f " The Effect of the Aeration of Natural Waters," by Dr. Thomas M. Drown, chemist of the 
Board. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. of Health for 1891. Also in Jour. New Eng. W. Wks. Assn., 
Dec., 1892, and Eng. News, vol. xxviii, pp. 183-4 (Aug. 25, 1892), 224 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Working in this direction Mr. W. E. Adeney, curator in the Royal 
University of Ireland, and Mr. W. Kaye Parry, of Dublin, have ex- 
perimented on the use of manganate of soda and nitre. Their results 
are given in two papers read before the British Institute of Public 
Health at the 1892 meeting in Dublin. 
The theory upon which they have proceeded is that when nitre is 
added to sewage containing aerobian forms of bacteria it is readily 
decomposed into nitrogen, oxygen, nitric oxide, and potash, and thus 
furnishes the oxygen necessary for their growth. To secure such re- 
sults the sewage is first cleared of suspended solids by a process of 
sedimentation, after which it is treated with from two to five grains 
per gallon of manganate of soda. This reagent effects the oxidation 
of a considerable portion of the organic matter, and becoming con- 
verted into the brown oxide of manganese, falls to the bottom, carrying 
with it a portion of the lighter particles which have not been removed 
by the previous sedimentation. The sewage is now partially purified, 
and it is claimed that the addition of two to three grains to the gallon 
of the nitre at this stage so stimulates the growth of aerobian forms 
as to either quickly complete the purification, or so far complete it 
that the effluent may be innocuously discharged into running streams. 
As to the time required for the completion of the process, it is be- 
lieved that less than 24 hours will bo sufficient, although at Dundrum 
Lunatic Asylum (Ireland), where the process is now in operation, the 
time consumed is about 25 hours, that being the length of time re- 
quired to completely fill the tank space which has been provided. 
The effluent after this time is stated to be clear and bright and abso- 
lutely non-putrefactive. 
In regard to the cost of the process, it is stated that all the man- 
ganese is recovered and can be reconverted at about half the original 
cost. The length of time required for the completion of the process 
will, however, lead, with allowances for contingencies, to a tank capac- 
ity somewhat in excess of the daily flow; and this fact will be likely 
to limit the application of the process, whatever its other merits may 
be, on account of expense.* 
* For more extended account see Purification of Sewage by Microbes. Eng. and Bldg Rec., vol 
xxvii, p. 380 (Nov. 12, 1802). CHAPTER XII. 
BROAD IRRIGATION. 
Special Applications of Broad Irrigation in the United States. 
The opinion has been expressed frequently that broad irrigation will 
not, by reason of the large amount of labor required and the relatively 
high price of the same, be generally used in this country. There will, 
however, be some exceptions to this in especially favorable localities, 
and in the case of such public institutions as asylums, alms houses, 
and reformatories, where labor may be furnished by the inmates 
without expense, or in .the West, where all available water is needed 
for application to crops to make up for a deficient rainfall, such use, 
combined with a desire for sewage purification, being described at 
length in Chapter XLIV., on The Use of Sewage for Irrigation in the 
West. 
Broad irrigation is specially adapted for the use of hospitals for the 
treatment of the harmless insane, all the authorities now agreeing that 
light out door employment is the best remedy for such cases that can 
be applied. Some account of broad irrigation is therefore imperative 
in a volume professing to treat of sewage disposal with reference to 
the special conditions obtaining in the United States. Many phases 
of the question, which have been thoroughly treated elsewhere, will be 
left untouched, the space assigned to the subject being mostly taken 
up with a discussion of some points which the authors deem of rela- 
tively more importance for American readers. Such short discussion 
of irrigation as is made will be with reference to the utilization of sew- 
age only. 
PrEPARATION OF LAND-PlPE AND HYDRANT SYSTEM OF DISTRIBUTION. 
In broad sewage irrigation areas of land are suitably prepared for 
the distribution of sewage with reference to utilizing the manurial in- 
gredients in raising crops. For this purpose a number of methods of 
distribution of sewage and preparation of irrigated area are employed 
which we may describe a little in detail, the pipe and jet mode of dis- 226 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tributing sewage first claiming our attention.* In this method a series 
of pipes is laid according to a system depending upon the topogra- 
phy. At such points as will permit of conveniently reaching all parts 
of the field stand-pipes or hydrants are placed, fitted with the usual 
coupling for connecting hose. The sewage is forced through these 
Fig. 12.-Plan and Section of Ridge and Furrow System 
either by steam power or by gravitation and is distributed to the sur- 
face of the field by means of the hose, and when necessary by the use 
of a jet-the rapidity of the distribution depending upon the size of 
mains and amount of power applied. 
With gravitation the power will of course be fixed by the height of 
the receiving tank, into which the sewage is first collected, above the 
area to be irrigated ; but in a pumping system the power can be va- 
ried the same as in any other application of pumping. The detail of 
arranging either system will readily present itself to any skilful en- 
gineer with all the facts before him. In England a large number of 
pipe distribution systems are to be met with, while in this country the 
distribution at the Pullman, Illinois, sewage farm is effected in the 
same manner. (See Chapter XXX.) As a very complete system of 
this kind the reader is referred to the description of a sewage farm at 
Rugby, England, laid out on this system, as given by Mr. R. Scott 
Burn.f 
In systems of gravity distribution by carriers there are two methods 
* See Outlines of Modern Farming, Part V., Utilizing of Town Sewage, Irrigation, etc. By Robert 
Scott Burn, 6th ed., 1888. 
+ See also Reporton the Means of Deodorizing and Utilizing the Sewage of Towns. By Henry 
Austin, C. E. (1857). RIDGE AND FURROW SYSTEM. 
227 
in common use, namely, (1) the ridge and furrow or bed-work system, 
shown by Figs. 12 and 13 ; and (2) the catch work system, shown by Fig. 
14. Which of these to use in any given case will depend upon the 
topographical features of the area to be irrigated. 
The ridge and furrow system is specially applicable to level or 
nearly level land ; while the catch work system will be used preferably 
in irregular, steep, or hilly ground. 
Ridge and Furrow System. 
In ridge and furrow work the land is laid out in a series of beds 
along the top of which the irrigating channels are led, and from which 
the water flows over the sloping sides. The ridges are laid out in 
couples, with slopes varying from 1 in 50 to 1 in 150. The amount of 
slope to be given in any particular case is a matter of judgment, in the 
decision of which the controlling factor is porousness of the ground to 
be irrigated. Common dimensions of the bed are a total breadth of 
from 30 to 40 feet, that is a breadth of slope on each side of the ridge 
of from 15 to 20 feet, although in exceptional cases the breadth may 
by made considerably greater. The land may be underdrained in ac- 
cordance with the rules for underdraining in ordinary farming, the 
same rules applying in both cases.* In deciding whether or not 
to fully underdrain any given area, it may be remembered that 
the porousness of the soil is always increased by drainage. The 
Fig. 13.-Ridge and Furrow Beds with Cropping. 
length of the beds may be anywhere from 100 to 200 feet, according to 
circumstances. The distribution channels along the ridge should be 
executed with care in order that when full the sewage may flow in a 
thin film over the edge at both sides and so on in a broad sheet 
* For rules of underdraining see (1) Waring's Draining for Profit and Draining for Health; 
and (2) French's Farm Drainage. 228 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
over the whole field. At the foot of the slopes the furrow receives 
whatever water has not been absorbed in the passage over the 
bed and conducts it away to another and lower series of beds or to the 
outfall, as the case may be ; though ordinarily the surplus water should 
pass over several areas, especially if constructed with about the di- 
mensions given in the foregoing. In order to insure thorough re- 
moval of the water at the foot of the slopes, and to prevent the land 
there becoming water-logged, the furrow should be made of about the 
same size as the feeder on the ridge and with enough fall to produce 
quick drainage. Fig. 12 shows in plan and section the arrangement 
Fig. 14.-Catchwork System of Irrigation. 
of a ridge and furrow system of irrigation. Fig. 13 is a general view 
of a ridge and furrow system in crops. 
Catchwork System. 
In the catchwork system, which as stated is specially adapted to 
steep and irregular land, the liquid is delivered at the highest point 
of the area, the same as with ridge and furrow. A main carrier is led 
along the highest contour, and the irrigation water caused to overflow 
the edge by damming at various places. At some distance lower COST OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS. 
229 
down a catch-gutter is formed also on the contour, into which the 
unabsorbed overflow of the main carrier is caught as it flows down- 
ward over the surface. The damming at suitable intervals of the first 
catch-gutter causes it again to overflow to a second, and so on down to 
the lowest contour of the area irrigated. The detail of this operation 
may be illustrated by Fig. 14, in which a catchwork system is shown 
in section by the upper portion, and in plan by the lower. Let A rep- 
resent the main carrier at the highest point of the area to be irrigated, 
with just fall enough to enable the stream to flow gently from left to 
right. The relative position of the gutters on the down-hill side are 
clearly shown by the plan and elevation. The damming of AA at 
various points will cause the water to flow over the edge, down the 
slope b to the gutter CC; and so on until the lower gutter JJ is finally 
reached. The fall of the main carrier should be about 2 inches to 100 
feet, its breadth from 18 to 24 inches and its depth from 8 to 10 inches. 
The gutters are made level throughout their length, and on very 
irregular ground a considerable degree of skill is required in order 
to secure such arrangement as will insure that all parts of the area 
receive their due proportion of water. 
As a further refinement of this system of irrigation in the way of 
securing a more uniform distribution of the water over the area, 
immediately below the main carrier a series of tapering carriers are 
cut in the line of the greatest descent, as indicated by the arrows on 
the plan at Fig. 14. These may also be continued below the gutters 
when necessary to assist the distribution on very irregular ground. 
Cost of Distribution Systems. 
In reference to the relative cost of the three systems of irriga- 
tion which have been described, it may be remarked that distribution 
by pipes will be fairly economical. In England a number of such 
systems have been carried out with the distribution pipes of iron, but 
at Pullman vitrified tile pipes have been used with good results.* The 
advantage of pipe distribution is that it admits, when the hydrants 
are placed at short intervals, of a more thorough control of the amount 
of sewage distributed to any given portion of the area than can be 
obtained by any other method. No general estimate of the cost of 
distribution by this system per acre can be given, because the items 
will vary greatly for every different case, but as the use of it does not 
involve any unknown conditions, an accurate estimate can be easily 
* See Paper, The Pullman Sewerage, Jour, of the Assn. of. Eng. Socs., vol. i. (June, 1882), p. 
311. By Benezette Williams, C. E. 
The most of the pipe distribution systems in England have been made rather expensive by the 
use of cast-iron distribution mains, etc., the cost reaching frequently as high as $40 to $60 per 230 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
prepared in each case after a topographical map of the area to be 
irrigated has been made. 
The original cost of preparation of ridge and furrow work in Eng- 
land has been from $100 to $250 per acre, English prices, which, car- 
ried into American prices for labor, would be approximately from $175 
to $450 per acre. The latter figure has, however, included the cost of 
expensive main carriers of masonry or iron, and some other items 
which are not considered essential to the success of sewage irrigation 
at the present day. It must be borne in mind, as a fundamental maxim 
of sewage irrigation, that whatever system of irrigation is adopted the 
arrangements must be such as to absolutely prevent putrefying sew- 
age from standing in puddles on the ground.* 
acre served, American values. With the experience which has been gained there they can, how- 
ever, be made at the present time at a somewhat less figure. 
The necessity for economizing water in ordinary irrigation operations has led to a considerable 
use of pipe systems of distribution in a number of localities in the West, as for instance at Los 
Angeles and vicinity in Southern California, where cement concrete, vitrified tile, and light 
wrought-iron pipes have been extensively used for this purpose. The cost of these systems has 
ranged in California from $15 to $50 per acre, depending upon the area served, topographical con- 
ditions, etc. The hose and jet are not, however, used, except incidentally, in the common irriga- 
tion practice in the West, the cost of the additional labor prohibiting such use. The distribution 
is effected from a cheap form of cast-iron hydrant designed specially for irrigation practice. As 
an example of such a device which has come to the authors' notice, the California irrigation 
hydrant manufactured at Los Angeles may be mentioned. 
* Rawlinson's Suggestions contain a number of useful hints on the preparation of irrigation 
areas, some of which may be quoted : 
In preparing land to receive sewage the greatest economy should be used. . . . Costly 
brick or earthenware carriers need not be made for towns below 10,000, but main carriers can be 
constructed, in concrete, while tributary carriers can be formed with a spade or be ploughed into 
shape. Main carriers should be in level lengths, as any required fall can be obtained by vertical 
steps. On some sewage farms more money has been expended per acre in surface forming and 
levelling than the first cost of the land, in this way more than doubling the rent without giving an 
equivalent benefit to the land. In some other cases nothing has been done to the land but to 
bring the sewage and flood it on in a slovenly way-growing weeds rather than grass-both ex- 
tremes are to be avoided. Crude sewage may be taken to land in cheap conduits, and may be 
applied direct in thin films from contour grips, so as to flow regularly and evenly on to the land, 
where it will be absorbed at once without being any cause of nuisance. 
Tanking sewage to deposit solids, and straining sewage through material of any sort or under 
any arrangement of screens, only abstracts the grosser portions of the solids and flocculent matters. 
Sewage may. however, be deprived of much of its noxious matter in tanks, as also by passing it 
through what are termed filters; but the fluid remains unpurified, and is only in an improved state 
to be used in irrigation over heavy land ; or to be passed on to a prepared deep-drained land-filter; 
light free soils will receive crude sewage without causing nuisance. 
The best land for a sewage farm will have a free loamy soil and open subsoil; the surface will be 
tolerably even, having a southern aspect gently sloping to the south. 
Clay land will require deep draining and to have the surface well broken up, either by spade 
labor or by deep steam-ploughing ; the drains must be so laid and protected as to remove subsoil- 
water after filtration, and not unfiltered surface water or sewage through cracks direct to the 
drains. 
Every area, however rough or uneven, may have level contour lines set out over its entire sur- 
face, so that by forming conduits on these contour lines the surface may be irrigated. It will not 
therefore be necessary to spend large sums of money to lay a sewage farm out like a bowling- 
green. 
Land having an irregularly and steeply sloping surface may have sewage-intercepting drains and 
carriers so arranged as to intercept the sewage from the upper areas and bring it over the lower 
areas a second or third time, by such means more effectively purifying the sewage. 
When land has been properly prepared for the reception of sewage, it may be irrigated in all 
weathers, so as to purify the sewage. COST OF DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS. 
231 
The catchwork system has ordinarily cost, for original preparation 
of area, from $10 to $30 per acre, English prices. 
In Fig. 13* is illustrated a ridge and furrow system with main carrier 
AA constructed of concrete masonry. Distribution carriers on the 
ridge are shown at D and D, with a catch-furrow at I. The main 
carrier is dammed by closing the gate F and the flow deflected to the 
distribution carriers by opening the gates G and G; from these the 
flow is again deflected over the slopes by the gates D and D, the por- 
Fig. 15.-Distribution System Applicable to Land with Uniform Slope 
tion which is not absorbed finally finding its way into the catch-fur- 
row I. 
Fig. 15 illustrates a system which may also be employed on land 
with a gentle slope in one direction only. By it the sewage flows 
A wet season does not necessarily injure a sewage farm, if the means of removing and consum- 
ing the produce are equal to the growth of the crops. 
One {Imperial} gallon of sewage weighs 10 lbs.; 224 gallons, or 2,240 lbs., are one ton ; 22,400 
gallons, or 224,000 lbs., are 100 tons-equal to one inch in depth over one acre of land. Ten 
inches equals 1,000 tons, and 12,000 tons per acre per annum equals 120 inches in depth, and this 
volume may be used on well-prepared land without swamping it, as land will filter several inches 
in depth per day when the sewage is equally and evenly distributed. 
Italian rye grass will dispose of most sewage and give heavy crops if the roots are young. The 
greatest producing-power will be in the first year's growth. A second year is probably the utmost 
length of time it should be in the ground. 
No larger area of Italian rye grass should be sown than the grass upon it can be disposed of in 
the district, as it will not keep nor bear distant carriage. Sewage-grown grass will make good and 
wholesome hay if the season will permit, or if the grass can be artificially dried. (See chapter on 
Use of Silo.) 
To give a sewage farm the chance of paying, the land must be obtained at a reasonable price and 
the costs of preparation must be moderate; there must also be reasonable skill in cropping, in culti- 
vation, and in management, under which conditions land irrigated with sewage ought to pay a rea- 
sonable rent. If steam-power has to be used for pumping the sewage, this of course must be paid 
for in addition. 
* From "th Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health. 232 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
under control through secondary carriers along the line of greatest 
descent; it is deflected from these by gates into the minor carriers 
which lead from the secondary carriers at right angles across the line 
of greatest descent, and overflowing the edges, spreads over the sur- 
face of the beds from above downward. 
Fig. 16 illustrates a method of distribution which may be used in a 
field with a ridge running through it. 
With regard to secondary carriers, 
the present practice is to make them as 
simple as possible and, so far as may be, 
of a temporary character by use of spade 
or plow, the advantage of this treatment 
being that when fouled by the subsid 
ence of suspended matter they may be 
purified by simply filling with clean 
earth and digging others to take their 
place. 
A modification of the pipe and open 
• carrier system, suitable for mild climates, 
is shown in Fig. 17. 
The use or omission of these various refinements will materially in- 
fluence the first cost in any given case, and clearly much must be left 
to the judgment of the designing engineer.* 
Fig. 16.-Distribution System 
Applicable to a Field In- 
tersected by a Ridge. 
U NDERDR AINING. 
In discussing the preparation of ridge and furrow irrigation beds in 
the foregoing, it has been remarked that the ordinary rules of under- 
draining may be followed. In the case of heavy clay lands, however, 
an exception to this rule maybe noted. Such soils possess the prop- 
erty of cracking in dry weather by reason of the contraction of the clay 
* The practical detail of laying out irrigation areas has been discussed at various times in the 
Jour, of the Roy. Ag. Soc. of Eng., and the following papers contained therein may be con- 
sulted : 
(1) On the Theory and Practice of Water-Meadows. By Ph. Pusey, M.P., vol. x. (1849), p. 
462. In this paper the methods of forming both ridge and furrow, and catchwater systems are 
given. 
(2) Some Account of the Formation of Hill-side Catch-Meadows at Exmoor. By Robert 
Smith, vol. xii. (1851), p. 139. 
(3) On an Improved System of Irrigation. By John Bickford, vol. xiii. (1852), p. 162. 
(4) On an Improved and Cheaper System of Laying-out Catch-Meadows. By Sir Stafford 
Northcote, Bart. vol. xiii. (1852), p. 172. 
(5) Review of "Italian Irrigation," by R. Baird Smith, Captain of Engineers, etc. By P. H. 
Frere, vol. xxiv. (1863), p. 173. 
Bums' Outlines of Modern Farming, PartV., contains the detail of preparation of sewage irri- 
gation areas. UNDERDRAINING. 
233 
as it loses water; hence the thorough draining of clay soils is likely 
to result in an intensification of the tendency to crack. This will be 
appreciated by considering that undrained clay frequently shows 
cracks at least an inch in width, and of considerable depth. When 
Fig. 17.-Combined Pipe and Open Carrier Systems of Distribution. 
such soil is underdrained the cracking is so increased that the applied 
sewage will at times pass directly down to the drains without any 
purification at all. This practical difficulty renders the use of heavy 
clay soils undesirable for sewage irrigation when any other soil can 
be obtained. 
In some cases, unfortunately, heavy clays are the only soils avail- 
able, and their utilization becomes in such cases a question of con- 
siderable importance. 
At the Wimbledon Sewage Farm near London, where heavy clays 
are successfully irrigated, the following system has been adopted for 
portions recently laid out, as described by Mr. Crimp: * 
The surfaces were very carefully levelled to prevent any ponding ; the land was 
divided into plots of about 4 acres by means of roads 12 feet in width; under the 
centre of each road a drain was laid at a depth of about 6 feet; the surface, prior to 
being cropped, was ploughed to a depth of about 9 inches, and while in a rough 
condition, a thick coating of screened town ashes was placed upon it; the ordinary 
agricultural operations followed, and, as a result, a porous surface of upward of a 
foot in thickness has been obtained, through which the sewage passes in a lateral di- 
rection. As the ground is ploughed every other year, the porosity of the surface is 
maintained, and the results have hitherto been satisfactory ; certainly the troubles 
experienced in the older parts of the farm have been altogether wanting on the 
newer portions. The farm manager, Mr. Snook, recommends occasional subsoil- 
ing, in addition to deep ploughing, for clay soils. These disturbed surfaces will ab- 
sorb large quantities of sewage, and if the liquid be carefully and intermittently 
applied, " lateral filtration " will occur with satisfactory results ; the quantity ap- 
plied per acre per day should not exceed 20,000 gallons, and with that quantity 
properly applied it is doubtful if any water will escape that has not been in actual 
contact with the soil. The volume might appear to be large, seeing that 40 gal- 
lons of sewage per head per day, 500 persons per acre w'ould be the unit, but it is 
rarely the case that more than one-fifth of a sewage farm is under irrigation at any 
one period. 
* Sewage Disposal, p. 106. 234 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Irrigation Practice. 
The process of sewage irrigation consists in allowing the sewage to 
flow intermittently over the surface of the land, for a few hours at a 
time; the interval between periods of flow being regulated by the 
necessities of the crops raised. Some crops, as for instance vegetables, 
will take considerable amounts of sewage at certain periods of growth, 
while later on, when maturing, the sewage needs to be kept entirely 
offi This principle, moreover, is not applicable to sewage irrigation 
alone, but applies to any kind of irrigation whatever. Thus the Cali- 
fornia fruit growers have learned as the result of experience not to ir- 
rigate orchards after the period of rapid growth has taken place; they 
find, by stopping the irrigation when maturity begins that the final 
result is a hard, crisp, juicy fruit, as finely flavored as that grown in 
the most favored regions, where irrigation is unnecessary. 
Sewage Irrigation Fallacies. 
This experience of the California fruit growers is specially referred 
to because there are some fallacies in regard to sewage farming float- 
ing about, which, while exploded many years ago in England, where 
they mostly had birth, are occasionally cropping up in this country 
with as much vigor as though they were new discoveries. One of 
these is that vegetables from sewage-irrigated farms are of necessity 
watery ; another is that cows fed on sewage-grown grass give less 
rich milk than those fed on ordinary grass; and a third, which may be 
considered a corollary to the first two, that sewage-grown products 
are less healthful than those from an ordinary farm. In regard to all 
these points the English experience is amply sufficient to demonstrate 
that, with proper management of the irrigated areas, no difficulty will 
be found in securing products which are fairly equal to those from or- 
dinary farming. In considering the real significance of much of the 
popular discussion of the value of sewage-grown produce which has 
taken place in England, it must be remembered that in the early days 
of sewage purification very extravagant views were entertained in re- 
gard to the value of the sludge to be obtained from chemical purifica- 
tion processes for manurial purposes. The difficulty of so utilizing the 
manurial elements of untreated sewage in farming operations as to re- 
turn a commercial profit was realized at an early day, and large 
amounts of capital were embarked in chemical processes, nearly all of 
which were either secret or patented. The irrigation processes, on 
the contrary, were unprotected by patents, and in the fierce commer- report of the sewage qf towns commission. 
235 
cial competition which ensued many statements in regard to their 
utility passed current for a time, which are not substantiated in the 
light of later experience. 
Report of the Sewage of Towns Commission. 
Questions in relation to the benefits which may be derived from 
properly conducted sewage irrigation were probably more thoroughly 
discussed in the three reports of the Sewage of Towns Commission 
than in any other place.* This Commission, as originally constituted, 
consisted of the Earl of Essex, Henry Ker Seymer, Robert Rawlinson, 
Professor Way, J. B. Lawes, Dr. Southward Smith, John Simon, and 
Henry Austin. Mr. Brunell was also appointed on the Commission, 
but was subsequently relieved from serving on request. The Commis- 
sion begin in their first report by giving a resume of the more salient 
questions of sewage purification of the day, as the result of which they 
state that they have arrived at the following conclusions : 
1. That the increasing pollution of the rivers and streams of the country is an 
evil of national importance, which urgently demands the application of remedial 
measures; that the discharge of sewage and of the noxious refuse of factories into 
them, is a source of nuisance and danger to health ; that it acts injuriously not 
only on the locality where it occurs, but also on the population of the districts 
through which the polluted rivers flow ; that it poisons the water, which in many 
cases forms the sole supply of the population for all purposes, including drinking; 
that it destroys the fish, and generally that it impairs the value and the natural 
advantages derived from rivers and streams of water. 
2. That this evil has largely increased with the growing cleanliness and internal 
improvements of towns as regards water-supply and drainage ; that its increase will 
continue to be in direct proportion to such improvements ; and that as these im- 
provements are yet very partial, the nuisance of sewage, already very sensibly felt, 
is extremely slight as compared to what it will become when sewage and drain- 
age works have been carried into full effect. 
3. That in many towns measures for improved water-supply and drainage are 
retarded, from the difficulties of disposing of the increased sewage which results 
from them ; that the law which regulates the rights of outfall is in an anomalous 
and undefined condition ; that judicial decisions of a conflicting character have 
been arrived at in different instances, and that consequently the authorities of 
towns have constantly before them the fear of harassing litigation. 
4. That the methods which have been adopted with the view of dealing with 
sewage are of two kinds : the one being the application of the whole sewage to 
land, and the other that of treating it by chemical processes, to separate its most 
offensive portions ; that the direct application of sewage to land favorably situated, 
if judiciously carried out and confined to a suitable area exclusively grass, is prof- 
itable to persons so employing it; that where the conditions are unfavorable, a 
small payment on the part of the local authorities will restore the balance. 
5. That this method of sewage application, conducted with moderate care, is 
not productive of nuisance or injury to health. 
6. That when circumstances prevent the disposal of sewage by direct application 
to land, the processes of precipitation will greatly ameliorate, and practically ob- 
viate, the evils of sewage outfalls, especially where there are large rivers for the 
discharge of the liquid ; that such methods of treating sewage do not retain more 
* 1st, 2d, and 3d Repts. Sew. Towns Com., 1858-1861-1865. 236 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
than a small portion of the fertilizing matter, and that although in some cases the 
sale of the manure may repay the cost of production, they are not likely to be suc- 
cessful as private speculations. 
7. That, considered merely as the means of mitigating the nuisance, these pre- 
cipitating processes are satisfactory; that the cost of them in any case is such as 
town populations may reasonably be called upon to meet; that the necessary works 
need not, if properly conducted, be a source of nuisance ; and that, by modifica- 
tions of the existing methods, even the slightest risk of nuisance may be entirely 
obviated. 
8. That the employment of the one or other method of disposing of sewage, or 
of both conjoined, must depend upon locality, levels, markets, and a variety of 
other circumstances, and that the case of each town must be considered upon its 
own peculiarities. 
9. That there is good ground for believing that the methods yet proposed for 
dealing with sewage are not the best that can be devised, and that further investi- 
gation will probably result in the discovery of processes more thoroughly equal to 
the suppression of the nuisance, and at the same time calculated to give more val- 
uable products. 
10. That the magnitude of a town presents no real difficulty to the effectual 
treatment of its sewage, provided it be considered as a collection of smaller towns. 
In their second Report the Sewage of Towns Commission state 
that a committee of members of the Commission personally visited 
and examined a number of rivers amt streams which are reported as 
seriously polluted. They also state the result of examining various 
chemical processes of purification, together with statement in detail of 
the results, to the date of the second Report, of the series of experi- 
ments carried out by J. B. Lawes at Rugby, by order of the Commis- 
sion. 
The object of these experiments is stated as being to determine so 
far as possible : 
1. The amount and composition of the produce in relation to the volume of 
water supplied to the land by irrigation, to the amount of manurial constituents 
so applied, and to the population contributing the manurial constituents of the 
water. 
2. The most profitable method of applying the produce, that is, whether it should 
be used in the green state or as hay ; whether for the production of milk or as 
meat; and whether it should be consumed alone or in conjunction with other food. 
For the purpose of the experiments, two fields of five acres and ten 
acres area, respectively, were selected, and each divided into four 
equal parts. The four plots of each field -were treated as follows: 
Plot 1, without sewage; Plot 2, with 3,000; Plot 3, with 6,000; and 
Plot 4, with 9,000 (long) tons of sewage per acre per annum. 
In Tables Nos. 54 and 55 are given some of the results of the experi- 
ments on the tw'o fields. Table No. 54 shows the amount of grass 
raised on each of the four plots for the years 1861-1863. Table No. 
55 is self-explanatory. Table 56 gives the results of a series of experi- 
ments in feeding sewage grass to milch cows. The figures in Table 
54 have been reduced, from long tons, hundredweight, quarters, and 
pounds, to an equivalent in pounds, for convenience. REPORT OF THE SEWAGE OF TOWNS COMMISSION. 
237 
Table No. 54. - Results of Three Years' Experiments at the Sewage-Farm 
in Rugby, England. 
Year. 
Five-acre field. 
Ten-acre field. 
Without 
sewage. 
With sewage. 
Without 
sewage. 
With sewage. 
Lot 1 
Lot 2 
Lot3 
Lot 4 
Lot 1 
Lot 2 
Lot 3 
Lot 4 
1861 
1862 
1863 
Average 
20,814 
18,294 
11,069 
33,244 
62,514 
49,851 
60,602 
77,299 
78,231 
73,564 
71,766 
80,941 
19,951 
36,985 
18.023 
35,478 
61,732 
56,596 
51,028 
71,946 
68,500 
59,792 
70,832 
78,337 
16,725 
48,536 
72,044 
76,424 
24,986 
51,268 
65,825 
69,654 
Table No. 55.- Per Cent, of Dry Substance in Crops Raised on Experimen- 
tal Fields. 
Number of crop. 
Five-acre field. 
Ten-acre field. 
Without 
sewage. 
With sewage. 
Without 
sewage. 
With sewage. 
1 
2 
3 
4 
1 
* 
3 
4 
1861. 
1 
27.9 
30.5 
26.9 
27.7 
22.0 ' 
23.3 
21.4 
18.4 
2 
24.4 
19.8 
14.2 
13.3 
26.9 
17.1 
15.1 
16.1 
3 
13.4 
13.7 
12.9 
12.6 
7.3 
14.4 
4 
15.4 
9.6 
16.9 
15.1 
17.8 
Mean 
26 2 
21.2 
17.6 
15.9 1 
24.5 
17.5 
14.7 
16.7 
1863. 
1 
26.7 
22.8 
14.4 
15.3 
26.9 
19.5 
13.<5 
13.1 
2 
22.8 
14.3 
16.4 
19.4 
17.9 
16.2 
19.0 
16.7 
3 
18.2 
12.9 
14.2 : 
14.5 
14.4 
15.8 
4 
33.8 
33.8 
Mean 
24.8 
18.4 
14.6 
16.3 
22.4 
16.4 
15.6 
15.2 
1863. 
1 
36.1 
21.5 
17.6 
16.3 
, 39.8 
18.2 
18.6 
20.0 
14.6 
2 
34.4 
18 5 
14.9 
17.8 
17.7 
16.3 
18.8 
3 
17.7 
10.9 
17.6 
12.4 
14.6 
15.2 
4 
15.8 
13.0 
12.3 
13.9 
13.6 
5 
15.3 
i "" 
Mean 
35.3 
18.4 
14.1 
15.9 
, 29.0 
16.2 
16.2 
15.6 
In the third report the discussion of these experiments is con- 
tinued, and the Commission gives in detail the results obtained from 
definite areas treated, under the following heads : 
1. Quantities of sewage applied and of green produce obtained. 
2. Experiments with Italian rye-grass. 
3. Experiments with fattening oxen. 
4. Experiments with milking cows. 
5. Composition of the Rugby sewage water. 
6. Estimated composition of Metropolitan sewage. 
7. Composition of the Rugby drainage water. (Effluent.) 238 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 56.-Results of Feeding Unsewaged and Sewaged Grass to Milch 
Cows. 
Cows fed on 
grass alone. 
Cows fed on grass and oil- 
cake. 
Unsewaged, 
mean of 
nine samples. 
Sewaged, 
mean of 
ten samples. 
Unsewaged, 
mean of 
four samples. 
Sewaged, 
mean of 
four samples. 
Caseine 
3.2-16 
3.241 
3.352 
3,423 
Butter 
3.604 
3.430 
3.657 
3.707 
Sugar of milk, etc 
4.405 
4.218 
4 561 
4.689 
Mineral matters 
0.153 
0.776 
0.740 
0.771 
Total solids 
12.008 
11.665 
12.310 
12.050 
Water 
87.992 
88.335 
87.690 
87.950 
Total. 
100. 
100. 
100. 
100. 
(Parts per 100.) 
8. Composition of the unsewaged and sewaged grass. 
9. Effects of sewage on the mixed herbage of grass-land in developing the more 
freely growing at the expense of the less freely growing plants. 
10. Composition of the milk yielded from the unsewaged and sewaged grass. 
11. Experiments of the application of sewage to oats in 1863. 
12. Miscellaneous results obtained in 1864. 
All the questions formally enumerated in the foregoing are dis- 
cussed in the Report in detail, finally followed by a summary in which 
the main points in the discussion are saliently presented. The report 
as a whole furnishes the most complete information on the subject 
treated that has thus far been given. The more useful portions of the 
summary are as follows: 
1. As there is a daily supply of sewage the year round, which, on sanitary and 
engineering grounds, it is essential to dispose of as soon as it is produced, and as 
passing it over land is the best mode both of purifying and utilizing it, it should 
be employed for purposes of irrigation, and be applied in winter, when of compar- 
atively little value, as well as in summer, when of more. 
RESULTS OBTAINED ON THE APPLICATION OF SEWAGE TO MEADOW AND ITALIAN RYE- 
GRASS. 
2. By the application of sewage to grass land during the winter months a very 
early cut or bite of green food may be obtained, but the amount of increased pro- 
duce due to the winter application is comparatively small for the amount of sewage 
employed. 
3. By means of sewage irrigation the period during which an abundance of green 
food was available was extended considerably at the end as well as at the begin- 
ning of the season, and the more so the larger the quantity of sewage applied, al- 
most up to the highest amount employed-namely, 9,000 tons per acre.* 
4. One of the experimental fields gave much less produce per acre without sew- 
age than the other, and analysis showed its soil to be much less naturally fertile; 
but it. gave fully as much produce per acre under the influence of liberal dressings 
of sewage as the naturally much more fertile soil. 
* It will be understood that in this quotation long tons (2,240 pounds) are meant. EEPOUT OF THE SEWAGE OF TOWNS COMMISSION. 
239 
5. Taking the average over three years, and in the two fields, the amount of pro- 
duce obtained without sewage was about 9| tons of green grass per acre per 
annum, equal about 3 tons of hay ; and with 3,000, 6,000, and 9,000 tons of sewage 
per annum the amounts were, respectively, about 22£, 30|, and 32| tons of green 
grass-equal respectively (reckoned according to the percentage of dry substance 
in each) about 5, 5f, and 6| tons of hay. 
6. The largest quantities of produce per acre were obtained in the third year of 
the experiments, and with 9,000 tons of sewage per acre per annum ; namely, in one 
field 35 tons, and in the other 37 tons of green grass, equal respectively about 6 
tons 12f cwts., and 7 tons 1 cwt. of hay. 
7. The average increase obtained for each 1,000 tons of sewage was-when 3,000 
tons per acre per annum were applied, about 5 tons of green grass; when 6,000 tons 
were applied, 4 tons 2£ cwts.; and when 9,000 tons were applied, 3 tons 3| cwts. of 
green grass. 
8. The amount of produce per acre was the greater, the greater the quantity of 
sewage applied, up to 9,000 tons per acre; but the amount on increase of produce 
obtained for a given amount of sewage was the less where the greater amounts were 
applied. 
9. Experiments with rye-grass were made in one season only, sewage was not ap- 
plied until the end of April, and comparatively small quantities were put on. The 
results so obtained indicated much about the same amount of increase of produce 
for a given amount of sewage as with meadow grass. 
RESULTS OBTAINED WITH FATTENING OXEN. 
10. When cut and given to fattening oxen tied up under cover, more sewaged 
than unsewaged grass, reckoned in the fresh or green state, was both consumed by a 
given weight of animal within a given time, and required to produce a given weight 
of increase ; but, of real dry or solid substance, less of that of the sewaged than of 
the unsewaged grass -was required to produce a given effect. 
11. When cut grass was given alone the result was very unsatisfactory; but when 
oilcake was given in addition the amount of increase upon a given weight of animal 
within a given time, and for a given amount of dry substance of food consumed, 
was not far short of the average result obtained when oxen are fed under cover 
on a good mixed diet. 
12. The money return, whether reckoned per acre or for a given amount of sew- 
age, was much less with fattening oxen than with milking cows. 
RESULTS OBTAINED WITH MILKING COWS. 
13. When cows were fed on unsewaged, or sewaged grass, as much as they chose 
to eat, a given weight of the animal was more productive, both of milk and in- 
crease, but especially of milk, on the unsewaged than on the sewaged grass. 
14. From a given weight of unsewaged grass, reckoned in the fresh or green 
state, more milk was produced than from an equal weight of fresh sewaged grass ; 
but a given weight of the dry or solid substance supplied in sewaged grass was on 
the average more productive than an equal weight supplied in unsewaged grass. 
15. The milk-producing quality of the grass was very different in different 
seasons, and at different periods of the same season. It was very inferior in the 
wet and cold seasons of 1862, and toward the close of the seasons as compared 
with the earlier periods. It appears probable that Italian rye-grass deteriorates 
less toward the end of a season than meadow grass. On the average, about six 
parts by weight of fresh grass yielded one part by weight of milk. 
16. By the aid of sewage, the time that an acre would keep a cow, and the 
amount of milk yielded from the produce of an acre, w7ere increased between three- 
and four-fold. 
17. So far as the results of the experiments afford the means of judging, it is 
estimated that with an application of about 5,000 tons of sewage per acre per 240 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
annum to meadow land, an average gross produce of not less than 1,000 gallons of 
milk per acre per annum may be expected. 
18. In experiments conducted with Italian rye-grass (but in one season only), 
more milk was obtained by the use of a given amount of sewage applied to it than 
meadow grass. 
19. With an application of about 5,000 tons of sewage per acre per annum, an 
average gross return of from 306 to 356 per acre, in milk at 8d. per gallon, may be 
anticipated. 
20. The mean of 93 analyses, of as many samples, of the Rugby sewage, collected 
over a period of 31 months, shows 6| grains of ammonia, and 874 grains of total 
solid matter, per gallon ; equal to 207$ lbs. of total solid matter per 1,000 tons. 
Or, taking the mean of the average composition fixed by the analyses for each of 
the 31 months, instead of the direct mean of the total 93 analyses, the average con- 
tents would be almost exactly 7 grains of ammonia, and 924 grains of total solid 
matter per gallon ; equal to 224 lbs. or 2 cwts. of ammonia, and 2,960 lbs., or about 
26| cwts. of total solid matter, per 1,000 tons. 
21. Although each sample analyzed was the mixture of portions taken every two 
or three hours for several days together, the variation in composition at different 
times was very great; the amount of ammonia varying in the different mixed sam- 
ples from 2| to about 15| grains per gallon, or from 81| to 500| lbs. per 1,000 tons, 
whilst the total solid matter varied from about 37| to about 270 grains per gallon, 
or from 1,203 to 8,637 lbs. per 1,000 tons. 
22. 1,000 tons of the average sewage of Rugby represent the excretal and other 
matters of from 17 to 18 average individuals of a mixed population of both sexes 
and all ages for a year, and contain ammonia equal to that in from 11 to 12 cwts. of 
Peruvian guano ; or about 1,700 tons of such sewage would contain nitrogen reck- 
oned as ammonia equal to that in 1 ton of Peruvian guano. 
23. It is estimated that there are at Rugby, including rainfall, etc., on the aver- 
age from 55 to 60 tons of sewage per head of the population per annum. 
24. Judging from the average composition of the Rugby sewage and of various 
crops, it is concluded that potash would be more likely than phosphoric acid to be- 
come deficient where town sewage was applied constantly to grass land, while phos- 
phoric acid would be more likely to become deficient than potash if it were applied 
to the ordinary crops of rotation. 
COMPOSITION OF THE RUGBY SEWAGE. 
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF THE GRASS. 
35. The sewaged meadow grass, as cut and given to the animals, contained a less 
proportion of dry or solid substance than the unsewaged ; and the grass cut during 
the later portions of the season (both unsewaged and sewaged) contained less solid 
matter than that cut during the more genial periods of growth. 
36. Italian rye grass, in the condition as cut, was also found to be more succu- 
lent and to contain less solid matter when grown with sewage than without it; but 
the proportion of dry substance diminished less as the season advanced in its case 
than in that of the meadow grass. 
37. The proportion of nitrogenous substance (and also of impure waxy or fatty 
matter) was much greater in the solid matter of the sewaged than in that of the 
unsewaged grass. The proportion of nitrogenous substance was also much higher 
in the solid matter of the grass grown toward the end than earlier in the season. 
The proportion of indigestible woody fibre was much about the same in the dry 
substance of the unsewaged and of the sewaged grass. It progressively diminished 
as the season advanced, and was generally lower in the dry substance of the Italian 
rye than in that of the meadow grass. 
38. A given amount of the dry substance of grass grown in a cold and wet sea- 
son, or during the cold and wet periods of the year, generally contains more nitroge- REPORT OF THE SEWAGE OF TOWNS COMMISSION. 
241 
nous substance, but is less productive than that of grass grown in more genial 
weather. 
39. The greater productiveness in milk and increase of a given amount of the 
solid matter of the sewaged grass appears to depend more on a favorable condition 
of maturation, digestibility, and assimilability of the constituents than on the 
actual percentage amount of any of those determined and above enumerated. 
EFFECTS OF SEWAGE ON THE MIXED HERBAGE OF GRASS LAND. 
40. The effect of sewage irrigation on the mixed herbage of grass land is to de- 
velop the graminaceous plants chiefly, nearly to exclude the leguminous, and to 
reduce the prevalence of miscellaneous or weedy plants, but much to encourage in- 
dividual species. 
41. Among the grasses which have been observed to be the most encouraged by 
sewage are (according to locality or other circumstances) rough meadow grass, 
couch grass, rough cock's foot, woolly soft grass, and perennial rye grass ; two or 
three only remaining in any considerable proportion after sewage has been liberally 
applied for some years. 
42. The produce of sewage-irrigated meadows being generally cut or grazed very 
young, the tendency which the great luxuriance of a few very free-growing grasses 
has to give a coarse and stemmy later growth is not an objection, as in the case of 
meadows left for hay ; a given weight of the dry or solid substance of the more 
simple sewaged grass being, when consumed green, more productive than an equal 
weight of that of the more complex unsewaged herbage. 
COMPOSITION OF THE MILK FROM THE UNSEWAGED AND THE SEWAGED GRASS. 
43. Although more milk was obtained from a given weight of the dry or solid sub- 
stance of sewaged than of unsewaged grass, there was comparatively little difference 
in the composition or richness of the milk from the two kinds of grass. That from 
the sewaged grass was, however, slightly the less rich, containing somewhat less of 
casein, butter, sugar, and total solid matter (though more mineral matter) than 
that from the unsewaged. 
44. When oil-cake was given with the grass (whether sewaged or unsewaged), the 
richness of the milk was notably increased. 
RESULTS OBTAINED ON THE APPLICATION OF SEWAGE TO OATS. 
45. In an experiment with oats, in which 135| tons of sewage were applied per 
acre, the gross value of the increased produce amounted to more than 5d. per ton 
of the sewage employed, or to about three times the market value of the constitu- 
ents of the sewage, supposing them to have been extracted and dried ; and in 
another experiment, in which 510 tons were applied per acre, the gross value of the 
increased produce amounted to about per ton of the sewage employed. 
46. In the experiment with the smaller quantity of sewage the supply of water 
was equivalent to something under an additional 1| inch of rain at the critical 
period of growth, and in that with the larger amount to about 5 inches, which 
proved to be a great excess at the period of the season at which it was applied, 
there being an over-production of straw, and the crop being much laid. Both ex- 
periments were made in the unusually productive season of 1863, and with sewage 
of about double the average strength of that of the Metropolis, which was applied 
during a period of very dry weather. It is obvious, therefore, that the results were 
quite exceptional, and cannot be taken as indicating what might be expected from 
the application of small quantities of sewage to corn crops on different soils and 
on the average of seasons. 
47. It is probable that 500 tons of sewage per acre is more than would be appro- 
priate to arable land otherwise treated in the ordinary way, taking the average of 
soils and seasons; and it is certainly more than would be appropriate for heavy 
lands and for wet seasons. 242 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS. 
48. To obtain a maximum amount and gross value of produce from a given 
amount of sewage, it should be applied in small quantities per acre and in dry 
weather; but the great dilution of town sewage, its large daily supply at all sea- 
sons, and its greater amount in wet weather, when the land can least bear, or least 
requires, more water, render it quite inappropriate for application on a compre- 
hensive scale to arable land for corn and other ordinary rotation crops. 
49. Supposing arrangements were made for distributing sewage over a suffi- 
ciently large area to command a full value, both as manure and as water, at the most 
favorable periods of the year, the cost of main distribution would be very great; the 
application to the arable land would require to be chiefly by the expensive means 
of piping and hose and jet, instead of open runs, and but a small proportion of the 
total sewage could be so used, leaving the remainder to be applied in large quanti- 
ties to grass land, at the less favorable periods of the year, and of course to real- 
ize a much lower value. 
50. Having regard to the cost of distribution, it is probable that the most profit- 
able mode of utilization would be to limit the area by specially adapting the 
arrangements for the application of the greater part, if not the whole, to permanent 
or other grasses laid down to take it the year round, trusting to the occasional use 
to other* crops within easy reach of the line or area so commanded, but relying 
mainly on the periodically broken up rye-grass land and on the application to 
arable land of the solid manure resulting from the consumption of the sewaged 
grass for obtaining other produce than milk and meat by means of sewage. 
51. It is probable that about 5,000 tons of sewage per acre, judiciously applied 
to grass land properly laid down to receive it, would, in a great majority of cases, 
secure the most profitable utilization. 
52. Supposing an application of 5,000 tons of sewage per acre per annum to 
grass land, the purification of the water would doubtless be sufficient to admit of 
the drainage being turned into the rivers without fear of detriment to fish ; while 
any streams receiving such drainage, instead of that direct from the towns, would 
at any rate be vastly improved from their previous condition as a water-supply: 
but whether the purification would be sufficient with such an application is a 
question which requires further experience and investigation to answer satisfac- 
torily, and which v'ill probably receive a different answer in different cases. 
53. Assuming that the average dilution of the Metropolitan sewage, including 
rainfall and subsoil water, will amount to 100 tons per annum, 5,000 tons would 
represent the excretal and other matters of 50 average individuals ; and a popula- 
tion of 3,000,000 would require about 60,000 acres constantly under irrigation. 
54. The only records of exact quantitative results obtained on the application of 
town sewage to corn crops are those of the experiments of the Earl of Essex on 
wheat, and those of the experiments with oats at Rugby, given in this Report, and 
in both cases the increase of produce represented a very high gross money return 
per ton of sewage employed. The circumstances of the experiments at Rugby 
were, however, quite exceptional; and, where the most extensive trials of the appli- 
cation of sewage to corn crops have been made with a view to profit-namely, at 
Watford, Rugby, and Alnwick-the practice has been abandoned ; while neither at 
Edinburgh, nor Croydon, where the best results have been obtained with grass, 
does the application to corn and other rotation crops constitute a part of the gen- 
eral system adopted. 
55. Judging both from the results of the experiments, and from the experience 
of common practice, it is considered that the most profitable utilization of town 
sewage will in most cases be attained by the application of about 5,000 tons per 
acre to meadow or Italian rye grass, but that the farmer would not pay id., and 
probably not id., per ton, the year round, for sewage of the average strength of 
that of the Metropolis (excluding storm water), delivered on his land. 
The experiments of the Sewage of Towns Commission indicate 
varying amounts of sewage as applicable to different crops, the quan- 243 
the royal agricultural society. 
tity necessary for efficient results ranging from less than 500 gross 
tons per acre per annum on heavy land, in wet seasons, to about 9,000 
tons per acre on grass lands. Assuming, for American conditions, a 
daily average of 80 U. S. gallons per head, the sewage of each person 
amounts to 97 gross tons per annum ; whence we derive that the 
application per acre per annum will, according to the Sewage of 
Towns Commission, vary from the sewage of 5 persons to 93. If we 
include some additional sewage which the land may be made to clarify 
without reference to the results of cropping, we may take from 50 to 
150 persons per acre as the average for the whole year, though the 
quality of the soil and the amount of dilution of the sewage will both 
influence the result. With unfavorable soils and a large dilution, 50 
persons per acre will be sufficient; while, with favorable soils and a 
concentrated sewage, we may go as high as from 150 to 200 persons to 
the acre. The proper solution in each case will depend entirely upon 
the local conditions. * 
The Royal Agricultural Society's Sewage Farm Competition. 
In 1879 the Royal Agricultural Society of England offered two prizes 
each of the value of £100 for the best-managed sewage farms in Eng- 
land and Wales.f Messrs. Baldwin Latham, Clare Sewell Read, and 
Thos. H. Thursfield were designated as the judges to make the award. 
In the first class the following sewage farms were entered: Aider- 
shot, Bedford, Guisborough, and Wrexham; in the second class, 
Birmingham, Croydon, Doncaster, Reading, and Leamington. The 
report of the judges contains full information in regard to the area, 
cost of operation, population contributing sewage, and various other 
items necessary to a full understanding of the relative efficiency of 
the several different farms. A tabulation is also given of the chief 
physical properties of the soils of the different farms, the whole fol- 
lowed by a statement in detail in regard to kind of crops, acreage, and 
various other items for each competing farm. Many of these tabula- 
lations are of great interest and value, but their length precludes in- 
troducing them here. 
In class 1 the judges decided that the sewage farm of the Corpora- 
tion of Bedford and that of Wrexham were equal in merit. The first 
prize was therefore adjudicated to them jointly. 
* In the 19th An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health (1888) it is stated, p. 38, that, on an ordinary farm 
in Mass., 2,500 gals, per acre per day are as much as could be applied to any valuable grass crop, 
and there would be required 400 acres of irrigation ground for each 1,000,000 gallons of sewage ; 
from which it is concluded that irrigation alone cannot be depended upon in the more thickly 
settled portions of that State for preventing the pollution of streams. 
t See Rept., in vol. xvi., Sec. Ser. (1880), pp. 1-80. 244 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Ill class 2 the prize was awarded to the Leamington sewage farm. 
The judges, however, say they are strongly of the opinion that a 
second prize should be awarded in this class to the Doncaster sewage 
farm, which they deem an admirable example of thrifty management, 
also showing how sewage can be applied in general farming. A study 
of this report will be of use to any one interested in sewage farming. 
In regard to the crops raised, the report shows that almost any crop 
which can be raised in ordinary farming in England can be cultivated 
on properly managed sewage farms with good effect. At the Leam- 
ington farm, cropping for 1879, and the area into each crop were as 
follows: 
A. 
R. 
P. 
Italian rye grass, . . . . 
. . . 49 
0 
37 
Seeds, 
. . . 16 
23 
Pasture, 
. . . 86 
14 
Potatoes, 
... 4 
0 
0 
Oats, 
... 18 
0 
.3 
Mangolds, 
... 23 
3 
34 
Carrots, 
3 
0 
A. R. P. 
Cabbage, 
.... 60 0 
Barley, 
18 2 0 
Parsnips, 
6 3 17 
Beans, 
45 2 9 
Turnips, 
23 3 24 
Wheat, 
68 2 35 
Rhubarb, 
0 2 0 
371 0 38 
The following details in regard to the crops raised at Leamington 
in 1879 are also given : 
Rye grass.-This crop is grown both for sale and home consumption. It is not 
allowed to stand longer than two years, and about 25 acres are sown every year- 
usually in the autumn, at the rate of three bushels of seed per acre. A crop sown 
in September, 1877, was cut eight times in 1878 and twice in 1879, and then 
ploughed up ; the land was pressed, sewaged, and sown on the flat broadcast on 
the 15th of June, 1879, with green-top turnips and swedes, which looked well and 
promising at the time of our visit in August. In 1878 the cutting of rye grass com- 
menced on the 2d of February. In 1879 it commenced on the 7th of April, having 
been sown in September, 1878. The first cutting yielded 4 tons per acre of green 
grass; the second, on the 4th of June, yielded 16 tons of grass per acre; the 
third cutting, on the 8th of July, 14 tons of grass per acre ; fourth cutting, on the 
14th of August, 8 tons ; fifth cutting, on the 12th of September, 6 tons; sixth 
cutting, on the 6th of October, 5 tons ; seventh cutting, in November, 2 tons 
per acre. A field of rye grass was seeded as an experiment with 10 lbs. per 
acre of trifolium ; but it did not answer. Rye grass is occasionally made into hay ; 
but when this is the case, it is carted on to the meadows to finish the drying pro- 
cess. This crop receives enormous dressings of sewage during the period of its 
growth, as will be seen on reference to the tables showing the quantities of sewage 
that have been applied to the land. 
Mangolds.-This is a crop largely grown on this farm. It is drilled on the flat, 
the drills being 26 inches distant, and the plants are hoed out to 10 inches distance 
in the rows. Sewage is not applied to the crop until the plants begin to bulb. 
They are then irrigated. This crop in 1878 received 21 dressings of sewage while 
under cultivation, or 8,265 tons of sewage per acre, equivalent to an irrigating 
depth of 81.8 inches of water in addition to the rainfall. The mangolds of 1878, 
when examined in the spring of 1879, we found to be sound and good, but not 
equal in weight and bulk to those grown on the Reading sewage farm. One field 
of mangolds was poor and stunted ; but on the higher and light land they were a 
capital crop, and in all cases were clean, and the plants regular but late. 
Cabbage.-Ordinary cabbages for market are planted on the level in rows 22 
inches distant, and the plants are 17 inches apart in the rows. Savoys are planted 
in a similar manner. Drumhead cabbages are also planted on the flat, 26 inches THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
245 
distant, in rows, and 24 inches from plant to plant. All the cabbages are irrigated 
during the period of growth, and in 1878 this crop on one field received 17 dress- 
ings of sewage, or about 6,102 tons per acre, equal to an irrigating depth of 60.4 
inches. 
Parsnips.-This crop is grown on the level. Six lbs. of seed per acre is drilled in 
rows 14 inches distant, and hoed out to six inches in the rows. The crop is not 
irrigated, but usually succeeds cabbage or the second year's rye-grass, which has 
been sewaged. The crop was clean, and promised to be a fair one. 
Carrots.-These are drilled in rows on the level, at 14 inches distance, and are 
hoed out to from 4 inches to 6 inches in the rows. Six lbs. of seed per acre are 
sown. This crop was not good, nor was it looking well, although it was clean. It 
is not directly irrigated with sewage, but, like parsnips, succeeds, either directly or 
after two years, a crop that has been heavily dressed with sewage. 
Potatoes.-The varieties grown were "Myatt's Early Rose" and "Victoria." 
They are planted in drills from 24 inches to 26 inches apart, and 12 inches from 
plant to plant in the rows. The crop of 1879 was planted on the 9th of April, and 
succeeded rye-grass that had been cut four times the previous year. It was then 
sewaged, broken up, and sown at the end of July with turnips, which were fed off 
on the ground with sheep. This year the potato crop had been sold at the time of 
our visit in August at £17 10s. per acre, the buyer having to raise the crop and take 
all risk. Potatoes are not directly sewaged during the period of their growth, and 
the crop of 1879 was not so good as usual. 
Rhubarb.-At Leamington, as on most sewage farms, this is one of the perma- 
nent crops. It costs about £50 per acre to purchase roots, prepare the ground, and 
plant out; and the crop realizes about £40 per acre every year. The roots, how- 
ever, require to be taken up every three years, to be divided and replanted ; they 
are planted 30 inches apart, and are irrigated with sewage during the period of 
growth. After the pulling for market is finished, no further use is made of the 
crop. The purchaser of the crop pulls and markets the produce. 
Wheat.-A large acreage of this crop is grown on the farm, but as a rule not 
under the influence of sewage. Taking the fields of wheat grow n during 1879, we 
found in the first example that the previous crops had been bare fallow in 1878, 
wheat in 1877, beans in 1876, oats in 1875, wheat in 1874, beans in 1873, w'heat in 
1872, permanent pasture and mangolds in 1871, and none of these crops were irri- 
gated. The second example was immediately preceded by barley in 1878, turnips 
in 1877, wdieat in 1876, beans in 1875, wheat in 1874, mangolds in 1873, wheat in 
1872, and swedes and peas in 1871. The turnip crop preceding barley was irri- 
gated in 1877. The wheat stubble was irrigated in 1874 and the bastard fallow for 
wheat in 1872. The third example wTas immediately preceded by beans in 1878, 
and before that by grass in 1877, mangold, cabbage, etc., in 1876, parsnips and 
potatoes and carrots in 1875, parsnips and potatoes in 1874, wheat in 1873, Italian 
rye-grass in 1872, and Italian rye-grass in 1871. Mangolds were sewaged in 1876, 
cabbages, etc., in 1875, bastard fallow was sewaged in 1874, and rye-grass in 1872. 
The wheat crop of the present year was sowm at the rate of two bushels of seed per 
acre, about the middle of October, 1878. The wheat was seeded with one peck of 
rye-grass, 10 lbs. of red clover, 5 lbs. of trefoil and alsike mixed. The plant 
looked well, especially the " thick set " or square-headed wheat, which promised a 
good if not a heavy yield. The Browick wheat was also good. 
Oats.-Oats were heavy and lodged. The land was sown on the 22d of April at 
the rate of 4 bushels of seed per acre. This crop, like the wheat, is not directly 
irrigated. This year's crop succeeded Italian rye-grass, which had been 
grown on the farm the two preceding years, and had been heavily dressed with 
sewage. 
Beans.-The winter beans were drilled on the 23d of October, 1878, and were a 
poor plant. The spring beans, however, drilled on the 10th of March, 1879, were 
a capital crop. This crop is not directly irrigated with sewage. The seed is 
drilled in rows at intervals of 15 inches, and 3 bushels per acre are used. The pre- 
ceding crops vary very much; for example, beans in 1879 were preceded in one case 
by wheat both in 1878 and 1877, clover in 1876, oats in 1875, mangold in 1874 and 
1873, beans in 1872, and oats in 1871. The only sewage applied to these crops was 246 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
to the mangold in 1874. Another field of beans in 1879 was preceded by wheat in 
1878, seeds in 1877, oats in 1876, mangolds and swedes in 1875, oats in 1874, wheat 
in 1873, beans in 1872, and wheat in 1871. The only sewage applied was to the 
mangolds in 1875. A third field of beans in 1879 was preceded by Italian rye- 
grass in 1878 and 1877, wheat in 1876, beans in 1875, grass in 1874 and 1873, wheat 
in 1872, and swedes in 1871. The crop was irrigated with sewage in 1878, 1877, 
1876, 1874, 1873, and in 1872. 
Barley.-Barley was a fair standing crop. It was sown at the rate of two 
bushels per acre on the 22d of April. The crop is not irrigated directly with sewage. 
Of two fields of this crop in 1879, one was preceded by turnips and parsnips in 1878; 
parsnips, cabbage, and turnips in 1877 ; potatoes, carrots, etc., in 1876 ; mangolds 
in 1875; Italian rye-grass in 1874 and 1873; barley in 1872; and swedes in 1871. 
Of the above crops the cabbage in 1877, fallow in 1876, fallow for mangolds in 1875, 
Italian rye-grass in 1874 and 1873, and fallow for grass in 1872, were irrigated with 
sewage. A second field of barley in 1879 was preceded by turnips in 1878, barley 
in 1877, wheat in 1876, clover in 1875, barley in 1874, swedes in 1873, and wheat in 
1872. The clover and seeds in 1875 were the only crops previously occupying the 
ground that were irrigated. 
Turnips and swedes.-Green-top turnips are usually sown broadcast at the rate 
of 3 lbs. of seed per acre, and are fed off on the ground by sheep. Swedes are also 
grown on this farm. They are drilled on the flat at 16 inches distant, and the bulbs 
are hoed out to 9 inches apart in the rows. Two lbs. of seed were drilled per acre. 
The crop is irrigated with sewage to a moderate extent. Turnips and swedes 
usually follow a straw crop of either wheat, barley, or oats, and occasionally green- 
top turnips are cultivated, chiefly after Italian rye-grass. 
Seeds are usually sown with the straw 
crops. The variety and quantity of seed 
sown has already been given under the 
head of wheat. Clover is occasionally 
irrigated in dry seasons with moderate 
dressings of sewage. By reference to the 
returns, however, we find that seeds have 
not been sewaged since the year 1875. 
Prickly comfrey. - This is a crop 
which has been grown upon this farm 
for two years, and has been given up, as 
it was found that the horses and cattle 
would not eat the produce by choice. 
It appears, however, that the crop, when 
once planted, is difficult to eradicate 
from the ground, as upon the plot upon 
which it had been grown during the 
present year a number of young plants 
had made their appearance. 
Ill referring to these crops it 
will be noticed that all of them 
are crops common to American 
farming, except Italian rye-grass, 
Lolium I tali cum, shown by Fig. 18, 
which, while not yet cultivated to 
any very great extent in this coun- 
try, is still one of the best known 
grasses in Europe. It is suited 
above all other grasses for irrigation, and in Italy, Scotland, and 
elsewhere yields on sewage-irrigated meadows prodigious crops of 
Fig. 18.-Italian Rye-grass. A NEW PHASE OF SEWAGE FARMING. 
247 
forage of the best quality. It is extensively grown in Italy, and the 
peculiar excellence of the cheese of that country is said to be due to 
the quality of this grass, which is the chief food of the cattle. It is 
stated as not only adding to the flavor of butter and cheese, but as 
also increasing the flow of milk. With sewage irrigation it has yielded 
at times over 60 tons of green forage per acre.* 
There are a number of other grasses which may be utilized in sewage 
irrigation, although the rye-grass properly heads the list. Osiers are 
also one of the most useful crops in sewage irrigation by reason of the 
large quantities of liquid which they can appropriate without detri- 
ment during the growing season. 
Table No. 57.-Statistics of Foreign Sewage Irrigation and Filtration.! 
Locality. 
Nature of the soil. 
Remarks. 
Volume of sewage. 
Average depth of 
sewage per an- 
num, feet. 
Date. 
Per acre per 
annum, 
tons. 
Per acre per 
day (yearly 
average), 
cubic feet. 
Berlin, Malchow 
Heavy. 
Irrigation. 
MM 
2SS 
2.41 
1884-85 
•• 
3,514 
346 
2.90 
1886-S7 
Doncaster 
Sand or gravel. 
• • 
4.016 
395 
3.31 
1S78 
Berlin. Falkenburg . 
Heavy. 
4,907 
483 
4.04 
1886-87 
Leamington 
Mostly gravel. 
* * 
5,553 
546 
4.58 
1878 
Berlin, Osdorf 
Sandy. 
** 
6,261 
616 
5.16 
1886-87 
Beilin, Grossbeeren 
*• 
6,511 
640 
5.37 
1886-87 
Paris, Gennevilliers 
Sand and gravel. 
Market gardening. 
13,270 J 
1,305 
10.94 
1875-83 
• * «« 
Filtration and cnl- ( 
tivation. ) 
19.4S3 
1,916 
16.06 
18S3 
44 < 4 
Experiments. 
19,905 
1,953 
16.40 
" 4* 
It 
Filtration without| 
cultivation. f 
36,763 
3.616 
30.30 
1881-82 
Croydon, Beddington 
Gravel. 
Broad irrigation. 
39,243 
3,860 
32.34 
1878-79 
Paris 
Sand and gravel. 
Maximum limit. 
39.809 
3,915 
32.81 
1884 
- 
- 
- 
. 
t Compiled by Chas. S. Swan, M. Am. Soc. C.E. See paper, Notes on European Practice in Sewage Disposal, 
in Jour. Assn, of Eng. Socs., vol. vii., No. 7, pp. 248-357 (July, 1888). 
t Working average for the series of years 1875-1883. 
Table No. 57 may be taken as showing, subject to the limitations in- 
dicated, the amount of sewage which can be applied in broad irrigation 
to various soils. 
A New Phase of Sewage Farming. 
The Rugby experiments of the Sewage of Towns Commission indi- 
cated that sewage-grown grass when made into hay was especially 
valuable food for milch cows, hence the practical deduction is to, so far 
as possible, operate sewage farms as dairy farms. Until recently, how- 
ever, there has been a practical difficulty in the way of realizing the 
conclusion to which the commission arrived over 25 years ago, namely, 
the apparent impossibility of curing into hay the heavy crops of grass 
*For more complete account of Italian rye-grass and its adaptability to American conditions, 
see Bull. No. 73, N. Carolina Ag. Expt. Sta. (Oct. 15, 1890), p. 30. 248 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
raised during the growing season in order to provide fodder for winter 
use. The sewage-irrigated grass crops have been mostly disposed of 
green, which has again considerably complicated the management of 
sewage farms. Italian rye-grass, the most valuable grass for sewage 
Fig. 19.-View of Sewage Farm at Bedford, England; Field beyond 
Bushes is Used for Irrigation. 
irrigation by reason of its capacity to receive large doses of irrigation 
without injury, is, further, the grass which has been found the most 
difficult to cure into hay, especially in seasons which are at all wet. 
The extensive use in the last few years of silos has developed an en- 
tirely new phase to this question and may possibly, by putting it in the 
power of sewage farmers to make a specialty of dairying for the whole 
year, assist in securing an adequate commercial return on the whole 
investment in sewage farming operations. At any rate the subject 
appears of importance enough to justify a chapter On Silos and Their 
Use in Sewage Farming, ami to that chapter the reader is accordingly 
referred for further information on this branch of the subject. 
Exploded Objections. 
The objection has been frequently urged against sewage farming 
that the fields are likely to become exceedingly offensive from the 
production of an effluvium nuisance. It is true when improperly or 
carelessly managed they are likely to be at times open to this objec- EXPLODED OBJECTIONS. 
249 
tion. The same is also true of neglected barnyards, although in the 
present state of agricultural development no one would seriously pro- 
pose to abolish all barnyards because of this patent truth ; neverthe- 
less it is exactly what is proposed in the case of sewage farms. That 
such farms are not necessarily offensive as managed in the present 
time in England is abundantly shown by Figs. 19 to 21, illustrating a 
number of sewage-irrigated fields and showing clearly their proximity 
to a good grade of residential property. It is stated by Mr. Clarke, 
from whose report these views are taken, " that in none of these cases 
Fig. 20.-View of Sewage Farm at Wimbledon, England, with Precipitation 
Tank in Foreground; the Fields are Occasionally Used for Irrigation. 
did the farms cause any nuisance, and that the neighboring property 
was not depreciated in value." * 
In the discussion of Mr. Allen's paper on Sewage Disposal, read be- 
fore the American Society of Civil Engineers, in 1888, the question of 
the production of bad odors from sewage farms was discussed, and a 
number of American engineers who had examined the English and 
other foreign sewage farms gave their experience on this point at 
length. The discussion is too long to quote here. Its chief interest 
centres in the pertinent illustration which it affords of the widely 
varying views which different people will obtain of the same ques- 
tion.f 
* Rept. of Eliot C. Clarke to Mass. Drain. Com. (1885), p. 128. 
f Trans. Am. Soc. C. E., vol. xvii., pp. 29-34. 250 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IX THE UNITED STATES. 
In a paper read before the British Medical Association in 1888, Dr. 
Alfred Carpenter, of Croydon, England, who has for years watched 
closely the operation of the Beddington sewage farm, said : 
(1) That the application of the sewage of a water-closet town io land in close 
proximity to dwelling-houses is not injurious to the health of the inhabitants of 
those houses provided the sewage be fresh ; that it be applied in an intermittent 
manner, and the effluent be capable of rapid removal from the irrigated fields. 
(2) The judicious application of sewage to soil of almost any kind, if it be mainly 
inorganic, will satisfactorily cleanse the effluent water, and fit it for discharge into 
Fig. 21.-View of Sewage Filtration Fields, Mitcham, England. 
any ordinary stream, provided the area treated is not less than an acre for each 250 
persons. 
(3) That vegetable products grown upon fields irrigated by sewage are satisfac- 
tory and safe as articles of food for both animals and man. 
(4) That sewage farms, if properly managed, do not set up either parasitic or 
epidemic disease among those working on the farm or among the cattle fed upon 
its produce. 
(5) That this immunity exists because the conditions necessary for the propa- 
gation and continuance of those disease germs which affect man and animals are 
absent; the microbic life on sewage farms being antagonistic to the life of disease 
germs, the latter, therefore, soon cease as such to exist. 
(6) That sewage farms may be carried on in perfect safety close to populations. 
It is not, however, argued that the effluent water is safe to use for dietetic pur- 
poses. 
(7) That there is an aspect in sewage farming which shows that it is a wise 
policy for the nation to encourage that form of utilization from a political economy 
point of view. 
(8) That to be financially successful such farms require that the rainfall be EXPLODED OBJECTIONS. 
251 
separated from the sewage; the area large enough for alternate cropping, and 
the capital employed sufficient to insure a continuous and rapid consumption of 
the crops produced. 
(9) That, if practicable, sewage utilization by surface irrigation should be, for 
financial reasons, within the area of its own watershed and close to the populations 
producing the sewage; but it is not a necessity that it should be so, provided it be 
applied to the land within a few hours-not more than twelve-of its discharge, 
and that there is no arrest of movement for more than very short periods before it 
is so utilized. 
From all the evidence now at hand it may be concluded that prop- 
erly managed sewage farms will not render the neighborhood in which 
they are situated specially objectionable for residence by reason of the 
production of offensive effluvium nuisances. 
Another question which is cognate to that of effluvium nuisance is 
in relation to the effect of sewage farming as a whole on health. 
Obviously, if sewage farms are so managed as to prevent any serious 
pollution of the air in their neighborhood, one chief source of objec- 
tion is removed. It is, however, possible that wells in the vicinity may 
be affected, though the arrangement of the underdrainage with refer- 
ence to the natural direction of flow of the ground-water will reduce 
this danger to a minimum. When imperfectly purified sewage flows 
over the surface into streams some pollution may also result. For 
this latter, when a high degree of purity of effluent is essential, the prop- 
er remedy is to prepare area enough to insure the required degree of 
purity. With regard to the danger to wells, the Berlin sewage farm 
of about 19,000 acres may be cited, where a large population of labor- 
ers live permanently on the farm and draw their entire water supply 
from wells sunk wherever required throughout the fields. It is stated 
that no bad effects on health have thus far been observed. In the Re- 
port of the judges appointed by the Royal Agricultural Society in 
the sewage-farm competition already referred to, it is stated-that " the 
results . . . show that sewage farming is not detrimental to life 
or health." A large amount of authoritative opinion substantiating 
this view can be quoted, but the foregoing may be deemed sufficient 
for the present purpose.* 
* Probably the best example of successful sewage farms on a large scale are those of the city of 
Berlin, where about 19,000 acres have been purchased by the city for sewage irrigation. Of this 
area only about 11,000 acres had been used for sewage irrigation at the four original farms of 
Osdorf, Gross Beeren, Falkenberg, and Malchow to March 31, 1890. Sewage irrigation was begun 
at Osdorf in January, 1876; Gross Beeren in July, 1882; Falkenberg in March, 1879; and at 
Malchow in October, 1882. Additional areas not in use in 1890 have been purchased at Schenken- 
dorf, Sputendorf, Klein Beeren, Blankenfelde and Hellersdorf. At the four original farms a 
portion of the area was still without special preparation in 1890, at which date about 8,000 acres 
had been specially prepared. The population of Berlin in December, 1890, was 1,578,790, whence 
the number of inhabitants per acre of specially prepared area was roundly 198. The quantity of 
sewage averages about 31 U. S. gallons per head of population per year. The special areas are 
added to from year to year. 
The most complete account of the Berlin sewage farms in English engineering literature is that 252 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
There is, moreover, some reason for believing that well-managed 
sewage farms are not only not unhealthful to the neighborhood in 
which they are situated, but that they may be even in some degree the 
source of an increased healthfulness of the region immediately sur- 
rounding them. This apparently paradoxical conclusion is derived 
primarily from the statistics of mortality among those employed and 
living on sewage farms, from which it appears that sewage-farm lab- 
orers are as a class quite as healthful as a similar class elsewhere. 
The following figures in illustration of this point are from the report 
of the Judges in the sewage farm competition: 
Name of farm. 
Number of 
years in 
operation. 
Persons em- 
ployed or liv- 
ing on farm. 
Children liv- 
ing on farm. 
Number of 
deaths oc- 
curring. 
Aldershot 
15 
25 
12 
0 
Bedford 
11 
28 
6 
0 
Birmingham 
12 
28 
9 
2 + 
Croydon 
18 
94 
30 
5 i 
Doncaster .... 
6 
44 
22 
0 
Guisborough 
9 
Q 
4 
0 
Leamington 
8 
46 
14 
2 
Reading 
4 
88 * 
32 
1 
Wrexham 
10 
19 
8 
0 
Totals 
93 
380 
137 
10 
* These figures do not include the men engaged in laying out additional land for sewage purposes. 
+ These deaths occurred in connection with sewage tanks and not sewage farm. 
f These deaths have occurred within the last 10 years. 
As stated by the judges, " An examination of this table will show that 
the rate of mortality on an average of the number of years these farms 
have been in operation does not exceed 3 per annum." 
If we consider that during the growing season the vegetation on a 
well-managed sewage farm is three or four times as luxuriant as in or- 
dinary agricultural regions, we have a good explanation of why the 
irrigated areas are not necessarily more unhealthy than other similar 
agricultural regions without irrigation. The office of growing plants 
in converting carbon dioxide, on the one hand, into carbonaceous sub- 
of H. A. Roechling, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E., as given in his paper, The Sewage Farms of Berlin, 
in Proc. Inst. C. E., vol. cix., Ses. 1891-92., Part III. Mr. Roechling has there presented the 
complete statistics and details of management of these extensive sewage farms. The paper came 
to hand too late to make extended extracts, but to give an idea of its contents the heads dis- 
cussed are included as follows : 
Area and General Statistics of Berlin ; Sewerage of Berlin; Sewage Farms; Purchase of Sew- 
age Farms ; Distribution of the Sewage ; Application of Sewage-water to the Land ; Laying out 
of the Farms ; Productive and Unproductive Acreage ; Drainage of the Plats ; Capital Expendi- 
tures on Farms; Management of the Farms; Labor on the Farms; Cattle kept on the Farms; 
Meteorological Conditions Prevailing on the Farms ; Results Obtained from the Working of the 
Farms ; Quantity of Sewage Treated on the Farms ; Crops ; Sewage Irrigation during the Winter 
Months ; Letting of Sewage-treated Land ; Harvest Returns; Financial Returns; Degree of 
Purification Attained ; Comparison of the Berlin Results with those of English Sewage Farms ; 
Alleged Liability of the Land to become Sewage-choked ; Utilization of the Manorial Elements 
of Sewage ; Quantity of Effluent Water ; Sanitary Condition of the Berlin Sewage Farms. EXPLODED OBJECTIONS. 
253 
stances (carbohydrates, etc.), which go to make up the structure of 
the plant, and, on the other, into free oxygen, which passes into the 
general stock in the atmosphere,* is well known. The increase in 
energy of these natural purifying agencies may be considered suffi- 
cient to render the quantity of oxygen in the air in the vicinity of 
sewage farms somewhat greater than in average agricultural districts ; 
thereby counterbalancing any possible slight unhealthful tendency 
by reason of the presence of large quantities of sewage, some of which 
may be decomposing. 
This view is further supported by the researches of Dr. Daubeny, 
late Professor of Botany, etc., at Oxford, who has shown that growing 
plants not merely evolve oxygen, but evolve it in the form of ozone.f 
* Sachs' Physiology of Plants, Part III., Nutrition ; Lecture XVII., Source of the Nitrogen in 
Growing Plants-Source of the Carbon ; Lecture XVIIL, Evolution of Oxygen, etc. 
t Jour. Chem. Soc., Jan., 1867. CHAPTER XIII. 
ON SILOS AND THEIR USE IN SEWAGE FARMING. 
The object of this chapter is to call attention to a system of preserv- 
ing forage crops which is likely to materially influence the future de- 
velopment of sewage farming, and to indicate some of the sources 
from which more detailed information can be obtained. 
Definition of Tebms. 
The terms silo, silage, and ensilage will be used, so far as the con- 
fusion which exists will permit, in accordance with the following defini- 
tions: 
(1) Silo, the theoretically air-tight structure in which fodder is pre- 
served. 
(2) Silage, the fodder or material preserved in silos. 
(3) Ensilage, the process of preservation. 
How Silage is Pboduced. 
In order to produce silage it is necessary to prepare a pit or chamber 
either in the ground, with a brick or stone impervious lining, or by build- 
ing the same above the surface. The object to be gained is the depositing 
of the green crop in an air- and water-tight receptacle under conditions 
admitting of subjecting it to considerable pressure, by which nearly all 
the contained air is forced out. This is effected in a variety of ways, 
as : (1) By treading the green crop as it is deposited, and covering with 
a couple of feet of well-packed earth ; (2) by constructing the silo with 
a movable covering arranged with chains and rollers for raising and 
lowering, which, after the crop is placed in the silo, is lowered and 
weighted to the extent of about 85 to 125 pounds per square foot of sur- 
face ; (3) silage is sometimes made in stacks either in the open air or 
under sheds open at the sides, the partial decay of a portion of the 
material on the outside furnishing the necessary impervious coating. 
Salt is sometimes added as the crop is placed in the silo, to assist the 
process of preservation. Closed silos are kept sealed until opened 
for use. THE MODERN USE OF SILOS. 
255 
Early Use of Silos. 
In its original sense a silo was neither more nor less than a cellar 
used for storing grain, for which purpose underground pits have been 
used in eastern countries since a very early period, instead of placing 
it in granaries above ground. Such pits are stated to have been used 
by the nomadic tribes of Arabia, in order to prevent victorious enemies 
from obtaining possession of their food supplies. The Spaniards 
learned the art from the Moors, and in Spain it acquired a new use for 
the purely commercial object of storing up grain in times of plenty and 
low prices in order to preserve it to times of scarcity and high prices. 
From Spain the silo found its way into France and Germany, from 
whence its use finally extended to England and this country. * 
The first record of the modern use of the silo in France is about 1820 
and 1821, when the proprietor of an estate in the Puy de Dome stored 
his grain harvested in those years in silos constructed for the purpose 
and kept it until 1828, when prices having risen to double the figure of 
seven years before, the silos were opened, and with the exception of a 
thin layer at the top the grain was found perfectly preserved. 
The Modern Use of Silos. 
The use of silos for preserving fodder crops has, however, grown up 
in England and this country mostly since about 188O.f 
* A French work on agriculture, the first edition of which was published in 1600, contains the 
following description of what we now call the silo : 
There remains for me to speak about another sort of granary, as novel as any I have seen, as there 
seems reason to disbelieve the experience of good found in their use. They are used in La Gascoyne 
and La Guyenne, where they employ these granaries more than in any other province of this 
kingdom. They are deep pits dug in the ground, called " eros," into which one descends with 
ladders for bringing in or carrying away the fodder, etc. Pliny considered such pits to be the best 
way of preserving corn, etc., as was practised in his time in Thrace, Cappadocia, Barbary, and 
Spain. Varro was also of his opinion, asserting that wheat can be kept sweet and entire 50 years, 
and millet 100 ; at the same time stating, so as to strengthen his opinion, that when Pompey the 
Great was sweeping the sea of pirates, there was found at Ambratia a large supply of beans (in good 
and sound condition), in a cavern where they had remained stored away since the time when King 
Pyrrhus was fighting in Italy, and nearly 120 years had then passed. 
In the edition of the same work of 1804 it is stated: 
In 1707 there was discovered in the citadel of Metz a large quantity of corn, placed there in 1528, 
in one of the underground rooms, where it was so well preserved that the bread which was made 
from it, two centuries after it had been placed there, was found very good. There exists now (1804) 
at Andres, department of the Pas de Calais, one of these underground places made by the Romans. 
+ Professor J. F. W. Johnson described the German system of silos for sour fodder or sour grass 
in the Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society in 1843. His paper is a clear account 
of ensilage as practised at that time, and may be partly reproduced here as a useful contribution to 
the English literature of the subject. 
A method has lately been tried in Germany, which, by the aid of a little salt, seems in a great 
measure to attain this object (i.e., to preserve the feeding properties of grass more completely than 
by the process of haymaking). Pits are dug in the earth from 10 to 12 feet square, and as many 
deep ; these are lined with wood, and puddled below and at the sides with clay. They may ob- 
viously be made of any other suitable dimensions, and may be lined with brick. Into this pit the 256 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
In Hungary, sour grass has been in use for many generations, but 
the modern practice of preserving green fodder as sweet silage appears 
to have been used there for only about the last 40 years. In Germany 
Herr Reihlen, of Stuttgart, described his appliances in 18G2; while in 
France the use of the silo for preserving green fodder apparently dates 
from 1870, although, as stated above, used long before that time for 
preserving grain.* 
The Value of Ensilage in Sewage Farming. 
The chief value of the process of ensilage in its application to sew- 
age farming lies in the fact that the large forage crops which are pro- 
duced by sewage irrigation may be successfully preserved for feeding 
during the winter, especitdly in wet seasons, when the making of hay 
is more difficult than in dry. A succession of wet seasons in England 
green crop of grass, clover, or vetches is put just as it is cut. Four or 5 cwts. are introduced at 
a time, sprinkled with salt at the rate of 1 lb. to each cwt., and if the weather and consequently' 
the crop be dry, two or three quarts of water to each cwt. should be sprinkled over every successive 
layer. It is only when rain or a heavy dew has fallen before mowing that, in East Prussia, this 
watering is considered unnecessary. Much, however, must depend upon the succulency of the 
crop. Each layer of 4 or 5 cwts., as spread evenly over the bottom, is well trodden down by five or 
six men, and, especially, is rammed as close as possible at the sides with the aid of wooden 
rammers. Each layer is thus salted, watered if necessary, and trodden in succession till the pit is 
perfectly full Much depends upon the perfect treading of the grass for the exclusion of the air, 
and, therefore, for a pit of 10 feet square, 4 cwts. are as much as ought to be put in for each layer. 
Between each layer may be strewed a few handfuls of straw, in order that, when emptying the pit 
afterwards for the daily consumption of the stock, the quantity taken out may be known without 
the necessity of a second weighing. When the pit is full, the topmost layer is well salted, the whole 
then covered with boards or a well-fitting lid, and upon these a foot and a half of earth, for the 
more perfect exclusion of the air. A pit 10 feet square, and as many deep, will hold about 5 tons of 
fresh grass, and each pit should, if possible, be filled in not less than two days. 
When covered up, the grass speedily heats and ferments, and after the lapse of about six days, 
when the fermentation has ceased, the whole has sunk to about one-half of its original bulk. The 
lid must be examined during the fermentation at least once a day. and the earth, as it sinks, care- 
fully replaced wherever crevices appear ; for, if the air be allowed to gain admission, a putrefactive 
fermentation will come on, which will impart a disagreeable odor to the fodder, though it will not 
preventit from being readily eaten by the stock. When the first fermentation has ceased, the lid 
may be removed, the pit again tilled with fresh grass, trodden in, salted, and covered as before. A 
pit 10 feet square, when perfectly full of this fermented grass, will contain nearly 10 tons-equal 
to 2 or 3 tons of dry hay. The grass, when thus fermented, has the appearance of having been 
boiled, has a sharp acid taste, and is greedily eaten by the cattle. The pits should be kept cov- 
ered for at least six weeks, after which they may' be opened successively as they are required, and 
may be kept open till their contents are consumed by the cattle without suffering any injury from 
the contact of the atmospheric air. Of the feeding qualities of this salted fodder, one experi- 
menter says that, by giving only 20 lbs. a day of it, along with chopped straw, be kept his cows in 
condition during the whole winter. His green crop was vetches, and the twenty pounds of salted 
fodder were equal to or would have made less than four pounds of vetch hay. Another experi- 
menter says that on a daily allowance of 28 lbs. of his salted fodder his cows gave a rich and well- 
tasted milk. 
This method of salting and preserving green crops in their moist state appears to afford an 
answer to the first question which is naturally' asked when we are told of the difference in feeding 
value between the same grass when first cut and when dried into hay'. It is probable that the fer- 
mentation which takes place in the pit may in some degree diminish the nutritive value of the 
grass, but the likelihood which exists that a very large proportion of this value will be retained 
renders the method of salting in this manner well worthy the attention of our more skilful agri- 
culturists. It would greatly benefit both theory' and practice also were careful series of experi- 
ments to be made in different localities, with the view of determining the true relative value in 
feeding of stock of the grass of the same field when newly cut and when salted and preserved in the 
manner above described. 
* The foregoing account of the early history of the use of silos is abstracted from a Report on 
the Practice of Ensilage at Home and Abroad, in the Jour, of the Roy. Ag. Soc. of Eng., vol. xx. 
sec. ser., p. 126. By H. M. Jenkins, Sec. of the Soc. SOURCES OF INFORMATION. 
257 
during the last few years, where the practice of ensilage is very com- 
mon, have demonstrated that even when made in open stacks the 
forage, by taking the proper precautions, can be quite successfully 
preserved.* 
Ensilage in the United States 
Having given in the preceding paragraphs some of the main facts in 
the early history of ensilage, we may now consider the present state 
of the art as it exists in the United States. A number of the Agricult- 
ural Experiment Stations have experimented on the various methods 
of preserving forage in silos which have been proposed, and conducted 
various investigations as to the philosophy of the process and the best 
methods of using it in our climate. 
At the Illinois Agricultural Experiment Station, Professor T. J. 
Burrill has studied the biology of the process in considerable detail. 
His paper thereon may be consulted for a good presentation of the 
present views in regard to the changes taking place in the silo, but its 
length precludes giving more than the summary as follows: f 
Ensilage is a very variable product. The variations are due to so many factors- 
including differences in the original material, in the states and conditions of the 
weather, and in the construction of the storage bins-that great care and much 
knowledge must be required to secure reasonably uniform results. 
Ensilage is never truly preserved fodder, but is more nearly such when the mass 
has been very hot for a time and then has the air most thoroughly excluded by 
the proper construction of the silo and the densest attainable condition of the ma- 
terial. The initial high temperature is probably mostly serviceable by causing 
this closer packing of the mass rather than by killing the germs or other ferments. 
No appreciable alcoholic fermentation occurs. The very high temperature often 
attained is due to two or more species of rod-like bacilli, which appear to cause 
butyric fermentation and its allies. 
Lactic fermentation is most abundant in the earlier transformations of ensilage 
not originally rising to a high temperature. 
Acetic fermentation only occurs when the temperature sinks below 35° C. (95 
F.). A large proportion of water is favorable to this change, and the sharply acid 
material is much less likely to be attacked by decomposing agents (other bacteria 
and mould fungi). Except for the difference in density of the material, that origi- 
nally hot subsequently sours nearly as rapidly as that less heated at first. 
The best results are obtained by the most nearly perfect exclusion of air. For 
this purpose uniform distribution upon filling the silo is of more importance than 
persistent tramping, because the pressure of the mass must be mostly relied upon. 
Sources of Information. 
In regard to the construction of silos, the paper in the Journal of 
the Royal Agricultural Society for 1884 contains descriptions of 
* Experiments in Making Ensilage daring the Wet Season of 1888. Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc. of 
Eng., vol. xxv., sec. ser., p. 280. By H. Kains-Jackson. 
+ The Biology of Ensilage. By T. J. Burrill. Bull. No. 7, Nov., 1889, Univ. Ill. Ag. Ex. Sta 258 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
nearly every form of silo that has been used abroad. The matter is 
there treated under the following heads : 
(I.) Silo without roof. 
(II.) Roofed silos with portable weights. 
a. Silage unchopped. 
b. Silage partly chopped. 
c. Silage entirely chopped. 
(III.) Silos with mechanical means of compression. 
(IV.) Foreign silos. 
a. France. 
b. The Netherlands. 
The author of the paper states that he has refrained from giving 
details of American practice, in consequence of differences in climate 
rendering it an uncertain guide to English farmers. It is clear, how- 
ever, in the light of the more extended experience of the present day, 
that generally the results of English and French practice are applica- 
ble here, and the paper may be accordingly referred to for excellent 
illustrations of many useful forms of silos. 
The construction of silos has, however, been discussed at length 
during the last 8 to 10 years in nearly all the American agricultural 
journals, and experiments as to the best form for American conditions 
made by some of the Agricultural Experiment Stations. A reference to 
the bulletins of the several stations, and Reports of State Boards of 
Agriculture, will furnish the necessary information to anyone propos- 
ing to build silos, or in pursuit of information in regard to the use of 
silage for feeding stock.* 
Experiments with Rye-grass. 
In the chapter on Broad Irrigation it was remarked that one chief 
difficulty in the way of making sewage farming return a commercial 
profit has thus far been the impossibility of preserving the large 
forage crops of Italian rye-grass for use in winter. Experiments have 
been made in England in reference to preserving the rye-grass in silos, 
with the result of indicating that superior silage may be made from 
rye-grass by this process. Further, the ease with which corn forage 
crops may be grown after ordinary grain crops are harvested in July, 
* The following Reports and Bulletins of the Agricultural Experiment Stations, Agricultural 
Boards, etc., may be consulted : 
(1) Illinois (University of) Ag. Ex. Sta., Bull. No. 2, Aug., 1888. Ensilage. By Thomas J. 
Hunt. Gives an account of the filling of a silo, with statement of conditions of contents when 
opened 6X months after filling, with feeding experiments, etc. 10 pp. 
(2) Maine (State College) Ag. Ex. Sta., An. Rept. for 1889. Discusses composition of silage; 
digestible matter of, compared with hay; digestibility of, compared with corn fodder, etc., pp. 
46-80. 
(3) Michigan Board of Agriculture Repor-ts for the years 1885, 1887, 1888, 1889, and 1890. 
In the 24th An. Rept (1885) is given an account of experiments with " ensilage " made in 1881-2 EXPERIMENTS WITH RYE-GRASS. 
259 
and forced forward during the warm weather of that month and 
August and the early part of September by judicious sewage irriga- 
tion, and when mature preserved by ensilage, gives sewage irrigation 
and 1882-3, including cost of constructing silo, feeding same, etc., with results of feeding ex- 
periments, pp. 100-120. 
In the 26th An. Rept. (1887) is given a discussion on Ensilage at the Fremont Institute, Feb. 
3, 1887, pp. 379-382. 
In the 27th An. Rept. (1888) information is given in regard to cost of new silo built at the 
college farm the previous year, etc. 
In the 28th An. Rept. (1889) under the head Silos and Ensilage the following special points are 
discussed : 
I. Seven years' experience with Silos and Ensilage at the College Farm. 
II. Views of Prominent farmers of Michigan on Ensilage. 
III. Experiments with Ensilage vs. Corn harvested in the ordinary manner. 
IV. Comparative test of varieties of Ensilage Corn. 
V. Forage plants, Lucerne. On hard grass. Pp. 252-272. (Reprint of Bull. No. 47.) 
The chemical composition of ensilaged corn is given in Bull. No. 49, reprinted in An. Rept., pp. 
296-300. 
Professor A. J. Cook also discusses " Silo and Ensilage" in the Report, being a lecture at the 
Centreville Institute, Feb. 19, 1889. 
In the 29th An. Rept. (1890) Professor A. J. Cook contributes a paper, The Silo, in which the 
main heads are: 
I. Importance of the Silo. 
II. The best crop for Silage. 
III. How shall we plant ? 
IV. Location of the Silo. 
V. Building a Silo. 
VI. Size of the Silo. Pp. 420-424. 
In the same Rept., pp. 136-138, Dr. R. C. Kedzie presents tabulated analyses showing the 
changes which take place in the silo. 
(4) Minnesota (University of) Ag. Ex. Sta., Bull. No. 8 (July, 1889). Short account of an ex- 
periment in ensilaging clover. 
(5) New Hampshire Ag. Ex. Sta., Bull. No. 1 (April, 1888), on " Ensilage. " Bull. No. 3 (July, 
1888), "Ensilage " in Dairy Farming. 
(6) New York State Ag. Sta. at Geneva, An. Reports for 1885, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890. 
The 6th and 7th An. Reports, 1887 and 1888, contain an account of a successful experiment in 
preserving Silage in the open air. (6th Rept. pp. 73-75. 7th Rept. pp. 326-330.) 
Analyses and results of experiments on digestibility of silage are given in the 8th An. Rept. 
(1889), pp. 93-94. 
A number of comparative feeding experiments are given in the 9th An. Rept. (1890). 
(7) Pennsylvania State College Ag. Ex. Sta. Reports for 1889 and 1890, contain the results of 
a number of comparative experiments. See Rept. for 1889, " Comparison of Ensilage and Field- 
Curing for Indian Corn," pp. 113-137; Rept. for 1890, " Ensilage and the Corn Crop," pp. 43- 
123; Bull. No, 9 (Oct., 1889), on Digestibility of Corn Fodder and Silage, may be also consulted. 
(8) Vermont 11th An. Rept. State Bd. Agriculture, 1889-90, " Corn Fodder and Ensilage." By 
Homer W. Vail, pp. 251-324. See also 3d and 4th An. Repts. State Ag. Ex. Sta., 1889 and 1890. 
(9) Wisconsin Ag. Ex. Sta., 6th and 7th An. Repts. (1889 and 1890). In the 6th An. Rept. 
(1889), " Experiments with Fodder Corn and Ensilage," pp. 123-145. In 7th An. Rept. (1890), 
"Corn Silage vs. Dry Fodder Corn for Milk and Butter Production," pp. 80-97; also "Compari- 
son of Siloing and Field-Curing of Indian Corn," pp. 215-237. 
Bull. No. 28 (July, 1891), "The Construction of Silos," may be consulted for many details of 
recent silo construction in this country. 
The foregoing list of recent American literature of the silo and process of making silage makes 
no claim to completeness. It merely represents what the authors have been able to get together 
without special effort. The subject is discussed in several reports and bulletins of the Agricult- 
ural Experiment Stations not referred to here. In addition a number of special treatises have 
been published. 260 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
farmers a command of the situation which they have not previously 
had. The following from the paper in the Journal of the Royal Agri- 
cultural Society of England, from which we have already quoted, will 
serve to show the certainty with which even the rye-grass may be 
made into silage.* 
The silo is 14 feet long, 13 feet deep, and 6 feet wide, and is above ground, being 
constructed of 14-inch brick-work with a floor of 5-inch cement concrete, in the end 
of a barn. Its cost was about 18Z. 4s. 3<Z. ($92), and it will last probably as long as 
we can look forward to. It was filled in July, and we purpose beginning again in 
June, 1884. 
The pitted material was sewaged Italian rye-grass, about 4| acres, and when cut 
to put in the silo was more than ripe. It was chopped into J of an inch lengths 
by steam, Maynard's chaff-cutter being used. Salt was added only to preserve it. 
The silo was filled in two days of 5 hours each, and every layer of about six 
inches was well rammed, 22 lbs. of salt being added to each. The fodder was 
covered with boards closely placed and weighted with bags of sand ; no mechani- 
cal contrivance was used. 
The silo contains from 10 to 12 tons fit for use. The covering with old waste 
boards and sand cost about 2Z., and the expense of filling was 5Z. 3s. 6d. 
By this system the land can be cleared much quicker, cheaper, and with less 
waste than by trying to make sewage-grass into hay. Indeed, for two or three 
years, we have found it impossible to get such Italian rye-grass dry enough to pre- 
vent it destroying itself by heat, on account of the juices and fat contained in the 
grass. With regard to keeping qualities, as this is the first silo we have filled, we 
can only say that we opened it on December 18, 1883, and have continued using 
some of it every day since then up to this date, 11th January, 1884, and it is not in- 
juriously affected by the atmosphere being let into it. Horses, cattle, and sheep 
eat the silage from the silo with great avidity, and I should think from the little 
experience I have had in feeding with silage it is best and most effective and valua- 
ble when mixed with straw, or corn-chaff, or any other ordinary food that requires 
something to increase its feeding value and make it palatable. 
Iii regard to the quality of the rye-grass silage the author of the 
report states that on account of the interest attaching to this attempt 
to preserve sewage-grass by means of ensilage, he visited the silo in 
question on December 18,1883. Evidently the grass had been allowed 
to get dead-ripe before filling, and the consequence was that the silage 
was singularly dry. Fermentation had, however, taken place, but there 
was a considerable amount of mould near the outside wall. A sample 
taken from the interior on January 2, 1884, was found to contain only 
55 per cent, of water. This sample, both in a box and bottle, was still 
perfectly good in the middle of March, retaining to the full its aroma. 
Mr. Jenkins ventures the opinion that the result of this experiment is 
very encouraging, and suggests a better outlook for sewage farms. 
Experiments on making silage from rye-grass and on the feeding 
of cattle with the same have been conducted at the Crewe (England) 
sewage farm, with the result that the increase in weight of cattle fed 
on silage for a given time was considerably in excess of the increase of 
weight in those fed on hay alone for the same length of time. 
* From description of silo, etc., of Mr. Garrett Taylor, Rept. on Practice of Ensilage at Home 
and Abroad, loc. cit. pp. 187-188. CHAPTER XIV. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
Origin of Intermittent Filtration. 
The first mention of intermittent downward filtration, as a process 
of sewage purification, to be found anywhere, is in the First Report of 
the Rivers Pollution Commission, made in 1870, where is recorded a 
series of experiments on the filtering capacity of different soils as car- 
ried out in the laboratory of the Commission.* 
In discussing intermittent filtration the Commissioners say that the 
purification of sewage by filtration through sand, gravel, chalk, or 
certain kinds of soil, if properly carried out, is the most effective 
means for the purification of sewage of any to which reference has 
been made (in their report); it is further stated that irrigation owes 
no inconsiderable amount of its success to the contemporaneous effect 
of the filtration of the sewage through the soil of the irrigated fields. 
These statements seem trite enough now, although in 1870 they were 
somewhat in advance of the current views on the subject. 
The Commissioners begin their discussion by an account of some 
experiments on the continuous upward filtration of sewage through 
sand, and conclude that that form of filtration " is inefficient in the 
purification of sewage from soluble offensive matters." These exper- 
iments also showed that nitrification took place only so long as the 
pores of the sand still contained the air with which they were filled at 
the beginning of the experiment. 
Experiments were also made upon various kinds of material with 
the sewage flowing intermittently down through the same ; hence 
intermittent downward filtration in contradistinction to continuous 
upward filtration. In the first place the effect of downward filtration 
through 15 feet (1) of sand, and (2) of sand and chalk was determined, 
after which the effect of filtration through about 5 to 6 feet of different 
soils was studied. In these latter experiments the first soil tried was 
a very porous gravel taken from the field at Beddington, near Croydon, 
which had been under sewage irrigation for five years. This soil gave 
a satisfactory purification when filtering at the rate of 7.6 Imperial, or 
about 9.1 U. S. gallons of sewage per cubic yard of filtering material 
* 1st Rept. Riv. Pol. Com., pp. 60-70. Also see p. 128 of same report. 262 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
per diem ; but when the rate was doubled nitrification ceased, the pores 
of the soil becoming blocked up so that they would no longer transmit 
the whole volume of sewage supplied and also afford time for aeration. 
Analyses showing the degree of purification reached with different 
quantities of sewage applied are given in the report. 
Various other soils were experimented upon at length, but the re- 
sults now have historical value, chiefly. 
Definition of Intermittent Filtration. 
Rather singularly the Rivers Pollution Commission, while originat- 
ing intermittent downward filtration, did not propose a complete 
definition of it as a process of sewage purification. This deficiency is, 
however, fully supplied by the Royal Commissioners on Metropolitan 
Sewage Discharge, who define the difference between broad irrigation 
and intermittent filtration as follows : * 
Broad irrigation means the distribution of sewage over a large surface of ordinary 
agricultural ground, having in view a maximum growth of vegetation (consistently 
with due purification) for the amount of sewage supplied. Filtration means the 
concentration of sewage at short intervals, on an area of specially chosen porous 
ground, as small as will absorb and cleanse it; not excluding vegetation, but mak- 
ing the produce of secondary importance. The intermittency of application is a 
sine qua non even in suitably constituted soils, wherever complete success is aimed at. 
The Theory of Intermittent Filtration. 
The foregoing definition, while sufficiently comprehensive for a 
working statement of what intermittent filtration is, can hardly be con- 
sidered applicable in the broader sense of how the purification of 
sewage is effected through its means. This we have already seen is 
through the agency of nitrification; but in order to obtain a clear idea 
of how nitrification proceeds in the filter we may consider the theory 
of intermittent filtration from different points of view a little in detail, 
using as a basis for this purpose the discussion in the Massachusetts 
Special Report, Part II., pp. 859-862, and further information from the 
report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1891, p. 425 et 
seq. The working of a filter may be considered as explained in three 
ways, namely, that its action is either mechanical, chemical, or biolog- 
ical. The old view was that filters are merely strainers ; this is so 
familiar that the word filter has come to mean ordinarily a more or 
less perfect strainer. This, however, cannot apply to intermittent 
filtration. An area of sandy soil may, it is true, be a very effective 
strainer, but if worked intermittently it is much more than this. A 
strainer soon chokes and must be cleaned, but an intermittent filter 
* Sec. Rept. (1885) p. 46. THE THEORY OE INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
263 
lias, in a large degree, self-cleaning properties, a phenomenon actually 
shown at the Lawrence Experiment Station, where, after over four 
years of use, the material of some of the filters was still clean enough 
to do good service, although the 1891 report states that organic mat- 
ter does accumulate in the filtering tanks, so that probably some arti- 
ficial aid to cleansing must eventually be employed. The results of 
analysis and a comparison of the chemical composition of the Law- 
rence affluent with that of the effluent disproves the mechanical theory 
of the filter's action. There is, indeed, in the life-history of an inter- 
mittent filter a period at the very beginning when the purification is 
but little if anything more than mechanical, but under the best con- 
ditions there speedily begins a change of the profoundest significance. 
The dissolved organic matters no longer pass out as they came in. 
The suspended matters mostly cease to accumulate; both appear in 
the effluent under other forms. Mechanical processes alone could not 
effect the changes which occur under conditions excluding the purely 
mechanical hypothesis. 
A striking example is to be found in the operation of Tank 16 A, as 
described at pages 563-567 of the Special Report, Part II. This tank 
is composed of small stone, the spaces between which are, as compared 
with much of the organic matter of sewage, of infinitely large size; 
yet the changes wrought by this filter are far more extensive, the puri- 
fication far more complete, than in filters of peat or garden soil, which 
are mechanically nearly perfect strainers. It would be hard to find a 
better example of the possibilities of sewage filtration than this tank 
supplies, yet it testifies in the clearest manner to the absolute insig- 
nificance of any merely mechanical factor in the purification of sewage 
by intermittent filtration. 
The theory that the action of the filter is fundamentally chemical is 
much more reasonable. The powers of intermittent filters to effect 
chemical changes are abundantly testified to by the detailed investiga- 
tion recorded in the Massachusetts Special Reports. Moreover, the 
transformations effected are so thorough that purification by fire 
readily occurs as an analogous transformation which is purely chemical 
in its operation. The view, however, that an additional factor in inter- 
mittent filtration must exist, was recognized at the very beginning of 
experiments upon intermittent filtration. Thus Frankland, although 
insisting, in his original discussion in the first report of the Rivers 
Pollution Commission, upon the chemical character of the purification 
obtained, referred to the process as an act of respiration, adding, almost 
unconsciously, the vital to the purely chemical idea. Frankland says : 
From all these experiments, then, it appears that the action of the filter must not 
be considered as merely mechanical. The process carried on in it is also chemical. 
Filtration, properly conducted, results in the oxidation and transformation of offen- 264 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
sive organic substances in solution, as well as in the mere mechanical separation of 
the suspended solid matters which, when in motion, sewage conveys with it. If the 
process could be carried one step further, and those harmless inorganic salts, which 
are carried off by the effluent water of a perfect sewage filter, in too dilute a solu- 
tion to be profitably extracted, could be converted into something positively useful, 
the remedy would be complete. We should have succeeded in not only abating an 
injurious nuisance, but in realizing a product which would help to refund expenses. 
This further step is possible in the great majority of cases, and it is to the plan of 
using sewage in irrigation, as being in reality a filtration of the best kind, plus a 
conversion of its filthy contents into valuable products, that we have now to direct 
attention. . . . 
But a filter, as has been already shown, is not a mere mechanical contrivance. 
It is a machine for oxidizing, and thus altogether transforming, as well as for merely 
separating the filth of dirty water. And in this respect especially irrigation neces- 
sarily includes filtration. Sewage traversing the soil undergoes a process to some 
extent analogous to that experienced by blood passing through the lungs in the act 
of breathing. Afield of porous soil irrigated intermittently virtually performs an act 
of respiration, copying on an enormous scale the lung action of a breathing animal; for 
it is alternately receiving and expiring air, and thus dealing as an oxidizing agent with 
the filthy fluid which is trickling through it. And a whole acre of soil, 3 or 4 feet deep, 
presenting within it such an enormous lung surface, must be far superior as an oxidizer, 
for dealing with the drainage of 100 people, to any filter that could be practically worked 
for this purpose.* 
To this item in the character of both irrigation and filtration as chemical proc- 
esses there must be added another cleansing agency, also of a chemical kind, in 
which the former has very greatly the advantage. We refer to the actual appetite 
for certain dissolved impurities in filthy water which soil, whether in a tank or 
covering a field, owes both to general surface attraction and to the chemical afliui- 
ties which some of its ingredients possess. This appetite is doubtless very limited 
in its amount, but it is directly proportional to the quantity of material exercising 
it. The superior capability of this kind which the soil of a field possesses, in com- 
parison with that in a limited filtration tank, depends partly on the immensely 
greater quantity of cleansing material which an acre drained perhaps 4 feet deep 
necessarily brings to bear upon the filthy fluid; but also and especially on the fact 
that in the former case this is, except in winter time, always kept alive and fresh by 
the action of plant growth in constantly removing the deposited impurities, and re- 
building them into wholesome organic structures. 
We see, then, that Dr. Frankland, although strenuously insisting 
upon the chemical nature of the purification obtained in intermittent 
filtration, nevertheless, in the portion which we have italicized, defined 
conditions which we now know can only be satisfied by assuming that 
micro-organisms are an indispensable element in the constitution of a 
successful intermittent filter, hence the final view is that the operation 
of such a filter is essentially biological rather than either mechanical 
or chemical. 
Biological phenomena, however, depend upon chemical phenomena, 
and in order that Dr. Frankland's act of respiration can take place, the 
presence of a small but sufficient quantity of free oxygen is indispen- 
sable. This is well established by the experiment upon Filter Tank No. 
14, as detailed at pages 144, IGO, 730, and 734 of the Massachusetts 
Special Report, Part II. Again, the biological theory demands the 
presence and activity of living micro-organisms. In the chapter on 
*As enforcing this point refer to Tables 37-41 B in Chapter VIII., pp. 164-1(58. the new thesis of intermittent filtration. 
265 
Nitrification and the Nitrifying Organism, we have detailed some of 
the difficulties which have been met by biologists in their endeavors 
to isolate and identify the particular kinds which appear indispensable 
to the process of nitrification; and although the problem has been 
hedged about by extraordinary difficulties it is believed that the essen- 
tial organism of nitrification has been successfully isolated. The chief 
points established are: (1) That the best results are obtained in filters 
which are mature, and have thus become adapted to their work; (2) 
that a distinct regimen is essential to success; (3) that free oxygen is 
indispensable; (4) that the sewage is best purified when held in thin 
films upon or between sand grains and gravel stones ; and (5) that the 
period of greatest destruction of the ordinary sewage bacteria corre- 
sponds closely with the time of most active nitrification. 
The experiments on intermittent filtration which the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health has carried out in the last four years, from 
which the foregoing views as to the present understanding of the 
theory of intermittent filtration are drawn, are the most extensive that 
have ever been made.* 
In the Nineteenth Annual Report, at page 43, the Massachusetts 
State Board describes the arrangements at the experimental station 
at Lawrence, and gives in detail the method of preparing the material 
in the several large tanks used in the experiments. 
The New Thesis of Intermittent Filtration. 
In the Twentieth Annual Report, page 32, the Board gives some of 
the results of the first year's work and states the new thesis of inter- 
mittent filtration, namely : (1) That sewage can be more efficiently fil- 
tered through open sand than through sand covered with soil; and (2) 
that the upper layers of intermittent filtration areas should be com- 
posed of open sand, through which the sewage will rapidly disappear, 
leaving room for air to enter and come in contact with the thin laminae 
of liquid covering the particles of sand. 
In the Special Report, Part II. (1890), on the Purification of Sewage 
and Water, etc., the results of two years' work in the filtration of sewage 
through various grades of sand are discussed in detail generally, by 
Hiram F. Mills, C.E., while the biological results are discussed by 
* Professor Henry Robinson, whose right to speak with authority will be conceded, in a paper 
on Sewage Disposal with reference to River Pollution and Water Supply, read in 1891 at the Lon- 
don Congress of Hygiene and Demography, said : 
The action that has been taken by the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, to protect the 
purity of inland waters, deserves to be specially commended as .an example of broad and wise policy 
in instituting the systematic investigation by engineers, chemists, and biologists of all that bears 
upon the purification of sewage and on the filtration of water. . . . The exhaustive reports 
under these different heads may be fairly stated to be far in advance of anything that has been 
fairly attempted in this country (England). 266 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Professor Win. T. Sedgwick and his assistants. Nearly every possible 
phase of sewage purification by filtration is touched upon, and who- 
ever would compass the subject as it stands to-day must study the 
original report, and also its continuation in the Annual Report of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health for 1891. Without going exten- 
sively into the detail here, we will present a brief digest of some of the 
Fig. 22.-View of Large Tanks at the Lawrence Experiment Station. 
results, together with a summary, the same as already done for the 
work on chemical purification. The large experimental tanks used at 
Lawrence are shown by Fig. 22. 
Results with Tank No. 1. 
In the chapter On Nitrification and the Nitrifying Organism the 
main points in the theory of nitrification of organic substances have 
been set forth. From various studies made abroad it had been con- 
cluded that nitrification was almost entirely a summer process, which 
nearly ceased on the approach of cold weather. The Lawrence experi- 
ments, however, show that by due attention to details a fairly efficient 
nitrification may be obtained in winter as illustrated by Table No. 58, 
giving the results of nitrification in Tank No. 1, the filtering material 
in which is "five feet in depth, of very coarse, clean mortar sand taken 
from a depth of six or eight feet." RESULTS WITH TANK NO. 1. 
267 
In studying the results embodied in Table No. 58, it is important to 
remember that the percentage of nitrification attained during any 
Table No. 58.-Percentage of Nitrogen Applied in the Sewage that Appears 
in the Effluent as Nitrates. 
Date. 
Nitrogen 
applied in 
sewage. 
Nitrates in 
effluent 
corrected for 
quantity. 
Per cent, 
of applied 
nitrogen. 
Average 
daily 
quantity, 
gallons. 
Temperature, F°. 
Sewage. 
Effluent. 
May 
1888. 
3.0238 
1.974 
65 
156* 
47 
52 
June 
1.7568 
0.879 
50 
217 
63 
64 
July 
2.0247 
1.040 
51 
283 
69 
71 
August. ... 
3.9618 
1.319 
33 
303 
72 
73 
September. 
4.8287 
1.021 
21 
325 
69 
68 
October ... 
2.4970 
1.096 
44 
313 
49 
55 
November. 
2.3837 
1.125 
47 
304 
45 
49 
December . 
1.4652 
0.794 
54 
288 
45 
41 
January. .. 
1889. 
1.4772 
0.737 
50 
283 
45 
40 
February.. 
1.4864 
0.797 
54 
290 
45 
38 
March 
2.0855 
1.148 
55 
294 
37 
38 
April 
2.4395 
1.968 
81 
299 
45 
46 
May 
2.3517 
2.125 
90 
262 
60 
59 
June 
2.9514 
1.842 
62 
243 
66 
66 
July 
3.1160 
1.785 
57 
293 
72 
70 
August 
2.5490 
2.024 
79 
287 
71 
69 
September. 
3.2989 
1.470 
45 
286 
68 
67 
October .... 
2.9411 
1.595 
54 
293 
53 
56 
* Tank No. 1 has an area of one two-hundredths of an acre. 
given period does not represent the total amount of nitrogen removed. 
The experiments indicate that sand filters have considerable capacity 
for storing the nitrogenous matter at one period and later on convert- 
Table No. 59.-Number of Bacteria Found in the Sewage Applied to the 
Coarse Sand Filter Tank No. 1 and in the Effluent therefrom on 
Given Dates, together with the Amount Applied, Amount of Effluent, 
and the Temperature of Sewage and Effluent. 
Date. 
Quantity applied, 
gallons per acre 
per day. 
Quantity of 
effluent, gallons 
per acre per day. 
Bacteria in : 
Temperature, F°. 
Sewage, per 
c.c. 
Effluent, per 
c.c. 
Sewage. 
Effluent. 
1888 
October 2... 
60,000 
79,400 
167,327 
2,122 
53 
61 
" 11 
60,000 
56,800 
313,420 
88 
49 
57 
" 25 
60,000 
62,000 
840,000 
110 
45 
51 
November 28 
60,000 
64,200 
1,762,950 
3.799 
44 
34 
December 21 
60,000 
53,800 
409,500 
27 
46 
40 
1889 
January 2 
120,000 
117,600 
355,000 
11,020 
45 
40 
February 19 
60,000 
57,200 
137,550 
30 
44 
38 
March 12 
60.000 
59,000 
251,300 
66 
33 
37 
April 16 
60.000 
54,600 
3,963,000 
74 
46 
46 
May 14 
60,000 
60,000 
1,679,200 
37 
64 
59 
June 18 
120.000 
97,800 
653,800 
146 
69 
67 
ing it into nitrates. There is also a considerable loss of nitrogen, or, 
at any rate, a considerable portion which does not appear in the effluent, 
but which has been clearly removed as determined by complete analy- 268 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 60.-Mineral Analysis of Samples of Sewage Applied to Tank No. 
1 and of its Effluent. 
(Parts per 100,000 of the original liquid.) 
Sewage, 
Dec. 11, 
18S8. 
Effluent, 
Dec. 15, 
1888. 
Sewage, 
Dec. 11, 
1888. 
Effluent, 
Dec. 11, 
1888. 
Total solids 
48.4 
24.6 
Aluminium oxide 
0.17 
0.18 
Loss on ignition 
18.6 
1.6 
Ferric oxide 
0.01 
0.01 
Fixed residue 
29.8 
23.0 
Manganic oxide 
0.56 
Sodium oxide 
5.18 
5.24 
Nitrogen as nitrate 
6.70 
Potassium oxide 
1.96 
1.46 
Chlorine 
4.98 
4.56 
Calcium oxide 
3.86 
2.9S 
Sulphuric acid 
1.57 
2.11 
Magnesium oxide 
0.84 
0.86 
Silica 
1.86 
1.42 
These substances may be combined as follows: 
Potassium nitrate 
3.04 
Magnesium carbonate 
1.76 
0.48 
Potassium chloride 
3.10 
Calcium carbonate 
6.00 
5.32 
Sodium chloride 
5.76 
5.69 
Alumina 
0.17 
0.18 
Sodium nitrate 
2.28 
1.61 
Ferric oxide 
0.01 
0.01 
Sodium sulphate ... 
3.74 
Manganic oxide 
0.56 
Sodium carbonate 
1.52 
Silica 
1.86 
i.42 
Magnesium chloride 
1.49 
sis of the crude sewage. This phase of the subject is farther illus- 
trated by Tables Nos. 61 and 62 following. 
The results of purifying sewage with coarse sand filters, so far as 
nitrification is concerned, is exhibited by Table No. 58, and inasmuch 
as such filters possess some advantages over those of finer sand, we 
may consider their construction a little in detail. 
In the first place, it has already been indicated that in all soil puri- 
fication nitrification plays a leading part in resolving the objection- 
able organic constituents of sewage into inert and harmless inorganic 
compounds. A study of sewage purification by means of intermittent 
filtration is therefore in reality mostly a study of the process of nitrifi- 
Table No. 61.-Percentage of the Ammonias in the Crude Sewage Applied to 
Tank No. 1, which Appeared in the Effluent, in Comparison with the Per- 
centage of the Total Nitrogen in the Effluent for the Months Indicated, 
etc. 
Month. 
Percentage of the ammonias of the sewage, 
appearing in the effluent. 
Percentage of to- 
, tai nitrogen of 
the sewage ap- 
pearing in the 
effluent. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Sum. 
1888. 
1889. 
1888. 
1889. 
1888. 
1889. 
1888. 
18S9. 
May 
June 
July 
August 
October 
Average 
4.8 
0.1 
0.2 
0.8 
1.5 
6.5 
2.7 
1.5 
0.2 
0.2 
3.1 
4.6 
0.8 
3.8 
4.6 
2.0 
1.6 
6.1 
8.2 
5.8 
2.6 
2.9 
3.5 
3.5 
2.7 
0.9 
1.0 
1.1 
1.5 
6.4 
3.7 
2.3 
0.8 
0.9 
3.2 
4.3 
65 
52 
52 
33 
20 
42 
44 
90 
63 
57 
80 
46 
54 
2.3 
2.0 
3.1 
4.4 
2.3 
2.5 
65 RESULTS WITH TANK NO. 1. 
269 
Table No. 62.-Summary of Total Nitrogen Applied to Tank No. 1, the Amount 
Appearing in the Effluent, the Amount Stored in the Tank, and the Un- 
accounted for Balance, in Pounds. 
Dec., 
1888. 
Feb., 
1889. 
June, 
1889. 
Nov., 
1889. 
April 16, 
1890. 
June 18, 
1890. 
Nov. 24, 
1890. 
Mar. 25, 
1891. 
June 29, 
1891. 
Nov. 9, 
1891. 
Total nitrogen ap- 
plied to date 
16.62 
18. S3 
24.96 
35.63 
42.93 
46.41 
63.05 
73.66 
84.85 
104.47 
Amount in effluent 
to date 
6.63 
7.90 
12.66 
19.19 
23.59 
26.72 
34.38 
41.42 
47.78 
57.93 
Amount stored in 
sand to date 
4.27 
5.49 
4.05 
5.81 
6.40 
5.40 
10.10 
12.80 
13.00 
16.00 
Amount lost to date. 
5.67 
5.44 
8.25 
10.63 
12.94 
14.29 
18.57 
19.44 
24.07 
30.54 
Per cent, stored 
26. 
29. 
16. 
16. 
15. 
12. 
16. 
17. 
15. 
15. 
Per cent, lost 
34. 
29. 
33. 
30. 
30. 
31. 
29. 
26. 
28. 
29. 
cation, and the thing to be found out is chiefly the conditions most fa- 
vorable to the action of the nitrifying organism. These are : (1) The 
presence of oxygen; (2) of moisture ; (3) of an alkaline basic salt; and 
(4) of a temperature somewhat above freezing. In reference to temper- 
ature it may be said that nitrification is more active at from 60° to 
70° F. than it is at materially lower temperatures, but once thoroughly 
started it will continue active for some time with temperatures only 
5° to 10°above freezing. 
In the later experiments at Lawrence it has been found that oxygen 
and time are the more essential elements in intermittent filtration, or, 
as expressed by Mr. Hazen : * 
The purification of sewage by intermittent filtration depends upon oxygen and 
time ; all other conditions are secondary. Temperature has only a minor influence ; 
the organisms necessary for purification are sure to establish themselves in a filter 
before it has been long in use. Imperfect purification for any considerable period 
can invariably be traced either to a lack of oxygen in the pores of the filter, or to the 
sewage passing so quickly through that there is not sufficient time for the oxidation 
processes to take place. Any treatment which keeps all particles of sewage distrib- 
uted over the surface of sand particles, in contact with an excess of air for a suffi- 
cient time, is sure to give a well-oxidized effluent, and the power of any material to 
purify sewage depends almost entirely upon its ability to hold the sewage in con- 
tact with air. It must hold both sewage and air in sufficient amounts. 
In Filter Tank No. 1, of the Lawrence experiments, the following 
are the elements: Total amount of sand, 9,000 gallons ; amount of 
water contained when saturated, 3,240 gallons; when drained there 
remained 1,040 gallons of water, and in the place of the water drained 
away there had presumably entered into the voids the difference be- 
tween the 3,240 gallons of water originally required to fill them, and 
the amount of 1,040 gallons which did not drain away, or 2,200 gallons 
of air. 
This sand is so open that when all the water has drained away that 
will run from it, air can pass freely up through the five feet of sand 
* 23d An. Rept. Mass. St. Bd. of Health, Filtration of Sewage, p. 428. 270 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
from the bottom to the top, and in addition the air in the sand is 
forced out through the underdrains by covering the surface with 
water. Fine sands, on the contrary, may be entirely saturated in the 
lower portion, while the upper layers are open and contain air. When 
therefore a filter composed of fine sand is covered with water on the 
surface, the free circulation of air through the voids is, under these 
conditions, cut off and the circumstances affecting nitrification and the 
life of organisms contained in the sewage passing through, materially 
changed. The effect of these changes may be recognized in two ways, 
(1) the coarse-sand filters may be made to purify a much larger quan- 
tity of sewage in a given time than those of fine sand; (2) the puri- 
fication effected by the fine-sand filters on the smaller quantities 
purified by them under the conditions of ordinary operation will be 
somewhat superior to that effected by the coarse-sand filters, even 
when operating on quantities not much greater than the average for 
the fine sands. This phase of the subject will be further touched upon 
as we proceed. 
Tank No. 2. 
The foregoing discussion of intermittent filtration, so far as it re- 
lates to coarse-sand filters, is drawn from the data and tabulations in 
reference to Tank No. 1. In Tank No. 2 a clean fine sand of even 
grain was used, and the results with this tank indicate a somewhat 
higher degree of purification attained, though for smaller quantities 
of sewage applied per unit of area. 
In the effluent the number of bacteria has been, after the begin- 
ning of nitrification, materially less than in the effluent of Tank No. 1. 
For a portion of the time they were less than 100 per cubic centimetre, 
and for a year averaged only 21. In five months of the year they 
averaged but 7. 
The number of bacteria present in the sewage may be seen by re- 
ference to Table No. 59, including results of Tank No. 1. 
Table No. G1 exhibits in compact form the results obtained with 
this tank after nitrification had fully begun. 
Experiment with Trenches. 
The soil of the field adjoining the experimental tanks at Lawrence 
is of fine river silt, somewhat finer than the sand used in Tank No. 
2. In order to test the filtering qualities of such material in situ 
an area of about one-third of an acre was prepared by partially under- 
draining with drains 60 feet apart to catch samples of the effluent. 
These underdrains have been found of little use. Usually the liquid 
passes by them directly down to the water table, which is below them EXPERIMENT WITH TRENCHES. 
271 
a varying distance, depending upon the stage of water in the Merri- 
mac river, which flows near by. 
At the location selected the surface slope is about 1 foot in 10 in 
one direction and about 1 in 100 in the other. 
A series of shallow trenches which follow the surface of the field, 
and are shown in plan and section by Fig. 23, were excavated in the 
original material in slopes, 1 foot in 30, 1 foot in 50, and 1 in 100. 
They were mostly made one foot wide, top and bottom, and of varying 
depths from six inches to three feet, and filled in with coarse mortar 
sand same as used in Tank No. 1. These trenches are made five feet apart 
and generally have the surface of the coarse filled-in sand four inches 
below the adjacent original surface, except at their lower end, where 
in 50 feet it increases to ten inches below. The length of each is about 
200 feet, and except at the lower end the width is one foot, as stated. 
Fig. 23.-Plan and Section of Filter Trenches at Lawrence. 
The distance which sewage will flow along the surface depends 
upon : (1) The amount applied, and (2) upon the amount of sedi- 
ment upon the surface; and this again varies with the quality of 
the sewage, the completeness of nitrification, and the time elapsed 
since the surface was cleaned. Sewage was applied to these trenches 
beginning in May, 1888, the quantity varying from 500 gallons a day 
for six days in the week, to 1,500 gallons daily, this latter quantity 
being applied to some of the trenches, 500 gallons at a time, at 9:30 
A.M., 2 P.M., and 4:30 P.M. 
After applying sewage in this way for from one to three months, 
the surface becomes so coated that a slight cleaning is desirable. This 
is effected by scraping off one-quarter of an inch in depth from the 
surface of the coarse sand filled into the trench. 
In order to protect the trenches from frost, in the winter of 1888-9 
they were covered with boards, and the process of purification having 
been found to proceed as readily under these conditions during the 
next spring as when exposed to air, the boards were allowed to 
remain. 272 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The quantity of land through which the sewage applied to these 
trenches filters varies with the condition of the surface, and this again 
depends upon the frequency with which they are cleaned. During 
the fall of 1888 they were cleaned once a month, during the winter of 
1889 once in two months, and in summer of 1889 once in four or five 
months, the board coverings having been added late in the fall of 
1888. After a cleaning, the time before 500 gallons of applied sewage 
will reach the lower end varies from one to three months. 
In material of the kind here used it appears probable that 50,000 to 
60,000 gallons of sewage per day per acre may be efficiently purified 
with a renewal of the sand in the trenches not exceeding two inches 
annually. The expense of doing this will be considered further on. 
Experiments with Fine Soil. 
The experiments at Lawrence have also included an investigation of 
the filtering capacity of fine soil, and of areas of sand covered with 
soil. Filter Tank No. 5, in which the experiments on garden soil were 
conducted, had the bottom about the underdrains covered with coarse 
gravel, this again with finer gravel and coarse sand, making a depth 
of about seven inches, above which was a depth of five feet of fine gar- 
den soil. 
From January, 1888, to October, 1889, inclusive, sewage was applied 
to this tank at varying average rates per month, from 19,200 gallons 
per acre per day in January, 1888, to 30,100 gallons per acre per day 
in April, 1888, after which the monthly average was gradually lessened 
to 3,800 gallons per acre per day in February, 1889, then rising to an 
average of 8,400 gallons in August, 1889. 
During April, 1888, when sewage was applied at the rate of 30,000 
gallons per acre per day, this amount disappeared from the surface 
within six hours after its application ; but in the latter part of May, it 
did not always disappear in 24 hours. In June the quantity was re- 
duced to 20,000 gallons per acre per day, and still accumulated on the 
surface. For a week, in July, no sewage was applied, and some of 
the accumulation remained upon the surface five days. 
The result of the experiments with Filter Tank No. 5, shows that gar- 
den soil is entirely uiiadapted to the purification of sewage by filtra- 
tion, even in small quantities. During the six months, from May to 
October, 1889, sewage was applied at the rate of only 7,500 gallons per 
acre per day. During this time there was no nitrification, and the 
albuminoid ammonia of the effluent was 82 per cent, of that of the 
sewage. experiments with sand covered with soil. 
273 
Experiments with Sand Covered with Soil. 
Iii Filter Tank No. 7, the lower four feet was composed of the usual 
seven inches of gravel and sand, around and above the underdrains, 
with a mixture above of fine gravel and coarse and line sand. Above 
this four feet of gravel and sand there is in addition six inches of 
brown soil. 
In May, 1888, sewage was applied at the rate of 30,000 gallons per 
acre per day, except on six days when none was applied. In the early 
part of June this quantity did not all disappear in twenty-four hours; 
after June 14 the quantity was reduced to an average of 13,800 gallons 
per acre per day to the end of the month. During this time 9,000 gal- 
lons per day came through, the remainder evaporating and accumu- 
lating on the surface. From July 1 to 11 an average of 9,000 gallons 
a day was applied ; at the same time the effluent averaged 4,400 gal- 
lons. After July 11, the application was discontinued until July 25. 
During this time the sewage remained upon the surface for 12 days, 
finally disappearing July 24th. 
On July 25, | inch in depth of the surface was removed, and sewage 
applied at the rate of 20,000 gallons per acre per day. With a fresh 
surface this quantity disappeared in 53 minutes. The same amount 
was applied daily for six weeks. In ten days it required an hour and 
a half to entirely disappear from the surface. After August 16 the 
sewage disappeared much more slowly, and some days not at all. After 
September 8, the quantity was reduced to an average of about 13,000 
gallons per acre per day, or exactly 90,000 gallons per week, applied 
three times a week, 30,000 gallons at a time. In October sewage grad- 
ually accumulated on the surface, and the application was in conse- 
quence reduced in November to a total of 60,000 gallons per acre per 
week, applied 20,000 gallons at a time, on three days in the week. 
During this time the effluent amounted to 10,800 gallons per acre per 
day. 
The experiments on Tanks Nos. 5 and 7 indicate a marked decrease 
in the nitrification as soon as the sewage accumulates to any consid- 
erable extent on the surface. When allowed to accumulate upon the 
surface long enough to completely exclude air from the interstices of 
the filter, the nitrification either nearly, or completely ceased. Dis- 
continuing the application of sewage, until the surface cleared itself 
was followed in every case by an increase in nitrification. 
The experiments on these two tanks have therefore illustrated one 
of the chief differences between continuous and intermittent filtra- 
tion. 274 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The following is the summary of advantages and disadvantages of 
soil on the filter area, as given by Mr. Mills : 
The experiments have been limited to tine soils, quite retentive of water. 
With a depth of 5 feet of soil no purification by nitrification occurred when the 
quantity filtered was only 7,500 gallons per acre per day ; and the organic nitroge- 
nous matter in the effluent was nearly as great as in the applied sewage. It is 
known, however, that for several months the average number of bacteria in the 
effluent was only one in 25,000 of the number applied to the filter; and it is prob- 
able that none lived to pass through the filter. 
With the ordinary depth of soil resting on yellow loam, as it is often in this 
State, and this underlaid by four feet of good filtering sand, we find that only 
about 9,000 gallons of sewage may be filtered upon an acre daily, with the result 
of removing 99.5 per cent, of the organic matter, and probably removing all of the 
bacteria ; while if the soil and loam be removed, the underlying sand may be able 
to filter three times as much, or 30,000 gallons per acre per day, giving an effluent 
as pure, chemically, as when covered with soil, but not removing so completely 
the bacteria-allowing, ordinarily, a small fraction of one per cent, to pass through 
the filter. 
For filtering sewage upon the margin of a drinking-water stream, a large area 
covered with fine soil, or a smaller area of very fine sand, would be preferable to a 
much smaller area of coarse sand or a mixed sand and gravel, in that the former 
could be so managed that no bacteria could pass through. For filtering sewage 
on any land that does not drain into a drinking-water stream, the covering of fine 
soil is a disadvantage. The quantity applied to it must be kept very small, or 
nitrification and purification will be prevented. The smaller areas of sand can be 
made to give as good an effluent, chemically, with all the reduction in the number 
of bacteria that is necessary. 
Experiments with Peat, Loam, etc. 
Iii addition to the experiments upon the filtering capacity of fine 
retentive soils, an extended series were also made upon peat and 
loam, and peat mixed with sand, clay, etc., in various proportions. 
The tanks devoted to these experiments with peat were Nos. 3, 15, 16, 
17, and 18. 
Tank No. 3 was one of the large tanks with an area of one two-hun- 
dredth of an acre. The underdrains were laid in the usual depth of 7 
inches of gravel and coarse sand, above which was five feet of peat, 
consisting of nearly all vegetable matter, except that it contained a 
little mud. The top of the original bed, from which this peat was de- 
rived, had been cultivated. The cultivated top layer was removed and 
the tank filled with selected material to the depth of four feet from 
the undisturbed lower layers; after which one foot in depth of the 
cultivated upper layer was added to the peat. 
Without going into the detail of the experiments with this peaty 
material, it is sufficient to say, the results indicate that such an area is 
" entirely worthless for the filtration of sewage." 
Tanks Nos. 15, 16, 17 and 18 were small tanks, placed within the 
building, and each having an area of one twenty-thousandth of an acre. 
Coarse gravel and coarse sand to the depth of about six inches were EXPERIMENTS WITH COARSE GRAVEL. 
275 
placed in the bottom of each tank, and served as underdrains to the 
filtering material. 
In Tank No. 15, the filtering material consisted of 2^ feet of peat 
overlying peaty sand and sand. 
In Tank No. 16, the lower 3^ feet of filtering material was peaty 
sand, and clear sand, with a depth of feet of peat above. 
Tank No. 17 contained 3| feet of peat, underlaid with peaty sand 
and sand. 
Tank No. 18 contained five feet in depth of peat, mixed with some 
very fine sand and some clay. 
In regard to the results of experiments with Tanks Nos. 15, 16, 17, 
18, filled with peaty materials, Mr. Mills says: " These materials were 
all found to be quite worthless for the filtration of sewage." 
Experiments on mixed sand and gravel further indicate the utility 
of an open material. 
Experiments with Coarse Gravel. 
Probably as interesting and useful experiments as any are those on 
filtration through clean gravel. In this direction, two series have been 
made : (1) Those on very coarse, clean gravel; and (2) those upon fine 
clean gravel. We will briefly refer to the second series, where the 
filtering material was composed exclusively of five feet in depth of 
gravel stones of the size of beans. The sand was screened out and the 
stones washed clean before putting into the tank. The voids were 
Table No. 63.-Daily Quantity of Effluent in Gallons per Acre ; the Aver- 
age Amounts of Ammonia, Nitrates, and Bacteria in the Effluent ; and 
THE TIME OF PASSING THROUGH ONE FOOT FOR THE MONTH INDICATED. TANK 
No. 2, Clean Fine Sand. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
1888. 
November 
December 
1889. 
January 
February 
March 
April 
May 
June 
July 
August 
September 
October 
is 
Daily quantity of 
effluent, gallons 
per acre. 
oooooooooo oo 
HfMliiii ii 
Free. 
Ammonia. 
oooooooooo oo 
iHiMHIi il 
Albuminoid, 
moommooo oo 
N itrates. 
Per cent, of nitro- 
gen applied com- 
ing off as ni- 
trates. (Correct- 
ed for quantity.) 
Number of bacteria 
per 
cubic centimetre. 
11.0 
13.0 
10.7 
13.0 
6.0 
4.0 
5.5 
6.6 
5.7 
6.0 
4.5 
4.0 
Time of passing 
through one foot 
of saturated lay- 276 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 64.-Average Quality of the Effluent from a Fine-gravel Fil- 
ter in Comparison with the Original Sewage when Filtering at the 
Rate of 108,500 Gallons per Acre per day (Sewage Applied 14 Times a 
Day for Six Days in the Week). 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
1889. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen as 
Bacteria 
per cubic 
centi- 
metre. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Sum of. 
Nitrates. 
Nitrites. 
Sept. 2-1-Oct. 24.... 
Sewage... 
Effluent.. 
1'er cent. 
2.0559 
0.0068 
0.3 of 1 
0.6453 
0.0325 
5. 
2.7012 
0.0393 
1.5 
5.55 
6.42 
0.0 
1.5700 
0.0. 
0.0003 
3,034,000 
11,592 
0.4of 1 
fully one-third of the total space, as in the sand filters already de- 
scribed. Tables Nos. 64 and 65 exhibit the results obtained by such a 
material, the tanks being protected from snow and exposure to cold 
during winter weather. 
In concluding the discussion of the results of the Lawrence experi- 
ments we can hardly do better than to quote the remarks of the 
Massachusetts Board in the Twenty-second Annual Report in ref- 
erence to the results of intermittent filtration through gravel stones, 
namely: 
These results show more definitely than any others the essential character of 
intermittent filtration. We see that it is not a straining process. By the applica- 
tion of small quantities of sewage over the whole surface of the tank each hour, 
each stone in the tank was kept covered with a thin film of liquid, very slowly 
moving from stone to stone from the top toward the bottom, and continually in 
contact with air in the spaces between the stones. The liquid, starting at the top as 
sewage, reached the bottom within twenty-four hours, with the organic matter 
nearly all burned out. The removal of this organic matter is in no sense a mechani- 
cal one of holding back material between the stones, for they are as clean as they 
were a year ago ; but it is a chemical change, aided by bacteria, by which the or- 
ganic substances are burned, forming products of mineral matter, which pass off 
daily in the purified liquid. 
Table No. 65.-Average Quality of the Effluent from a Fine-gravel Fil- 
ter in Comparison With the Original Sewage, After Filtration Had 
Taken Place at Rate of 70,000 Gallons per Acre per day for Seven 
Months, etc. (Sewage Applied 9 Times a Day for Six Days in the Week). 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
1889. 
Ammonia. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen as 
Bacteria 
per cubic 
centi- 
metre. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Sum of. 
Nitrates. 
Nitrites. 
May 23-June22.... 
Sewage.. 
1.9919 
0.6031 
2.5950 
5.16 
0.0 
0.0 
10,305 
Effluent. 
Per cent. 
Sewage.. 
0.0031 
0.2 of 1 
2.2500 
0.0375 
(I 
0.0406 
1 5 
6.00 
2.0700 
0.0002 
June 23-July 22.... 
0^7255 
2.9755 
7.46 
0.0 
0.0 
1,813,500 
Effluent . 
Per cent. 
0.0050 
0.2 of 1 
0.0354 
5. 
0.0404 
1.3 
9.01 
2.2500 
0.0004 
13,523 
0.7 of 1 ON THE USE OF THE EFFLUENTS FOR DRINKING WATER. 
277 
The liquid flowing out at the bottom is a clear, bright water, comparing favor- 
ably, in every respect that can be shown by chemical or biological examination, 
with water from some of the wells on the streets of our cities that are used for 
refreshing draughts by the public during the summer. 
On the Use of the Effluents for Drinking Water. 
In regard to the use of the effluent from sand filters for drinking, 
Mr. Mills writes as follows : 
We now come to the important question of the character, as regards healthful- 
ness, of the effluents obtained by filtering sewage intermittently through five feet in 
depth of sand, after the sand has filtered sewage for a year or more without being 
cleaned. 
We have found that the sum of ammonias, which have been taken to indicate the 
amount of nitrogenous organic matter, has been reduced to about one-half of one 
per cent, of those in the sewage, and is less than the sum of ammonias of most of 
the public drinking-water supplies of the State. 
The chlorine and nitrates are higher than in the public drinking waters. They 
indicate in these effluents, as their excess above the normal does in the drink- 
ing waters, that the water which contains them came from sewage; but, in the 
absence of the ammonias, they indicate that, though the water came from sewage, 
the organic impurities have been destroyed, and these are merely mineral constit- 
uents which remain after that destruction. They are principally common salt and 
saltpetre, which, in the quantities found in any of the effluents, are regarded as 
entirely harmless. 
Judging by the chemical analyses, there is nothing in the effluents known, or 
even suspected by chemists, to be harmful. 
Although nearly all of the bacteria that were in the sewage did not live to pass 
through the filters, there have been found in the effluents from filters of coarse sand 
more bacteria than are found in the public drinking supplies, and some of these 
evidently come from the sewage; and, until we learn that disease-producing bac- 
teria are not among those that come through, we must assume that they may be 
among them; and, although reduced in numbers to such an extent that they may 
do no harm, we yet know that bacteria in general increase with enormous rapidity 
when under favorable conditions, and we do not yet know enough to allow us to 
assume that the very small number of one or two in a thousand of the number in 
the sewage that come through may not increase in the human body or under other 
conditions to such numbers as to be harmful. 
From this cause we are not able to assume that the effluent from the coarse-sand 
filters five feet in depth is suitable for drinking water. 
The effluent from the extremely fine sand filter, No. 4, and that from the soil- 
covered filter, No. 7, and a part of the time from the fine sand, No. 2, we have 
strong ground for concluding contained no bacteria from the sewage. The num- 
bers that were found in the effluents were smaller than are usually found in public 
drinking supplies ; and we have good reason for concluding that they all grew in 
the gravel and underdrains beneath the filters. If these conclusions are correct, 
there is no known reason why these effluents may not be used with safety for drink- 
ing. 
The effluent from No. 2 has been frequently used for drinking by a number of 
people, without any noticeable effect; but none of them have been used contin- 
uously by a large number sufficiently to prove their safety. In the absence of such 
positive evidence, we have made the following comparisons. 
The city of Lawrence is provided with a public water supply from the river ; but 
there are a dozen or more wells scattered about the city, on the sides of the streets, 
that have been used for many years for watering horses, and are still used for this 
purpose, or for supplying drinking water to families in the neighborhood, and par- 
ticularly are used by the public for a cool draught of water in summer, when it is 
much more refreshing than the city reservoir water. 278 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The water from ten of these wells has been analyzed and examined for bacteria, 
and the results obtained from seven of them are arranged below (Table No. 66), with 
the average result obtained by analysis of the filtered sewage from six of our filters, 
covering from two to eight months, after most of them had been in use a year or 
more. 
Table No. 66.- Comparison of the Effluent from Several of the Experi- 
mental Filters with Water from Wells in the City of Lawrence in Com- 
mon Use. 
Average effluent from 
Ammonias. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen as 
Bacteria per cubic 
centimetre. 
Free. 
| Albuminoid. 
•tung 
Nitrates. 
। Nitrites. 
Tank No. 1, for two months 
0.0313 
0.0272 
0.0585 
4.83 
1.78 
0.0008 
549 
Well water, Atlantic street 
.1410 
.0155 
.1565 
8.08 
2.37 
.0024 
4,370 
Tank No. 13. for six months 
.0011 
.0105 
.0116 
7.28 
1.25 
.0004 
76 
Well water, Hampshire street 
.0078 
.0118 
.0196 
7.51 
2 00 
.0007 
128 
Tank No. 6, for 3 months 
.0036 
.0104 
.0140 
4,98 
1.66 
.0002 
678 
Well water, Andover street 
.0184 
.0046 
.0230 
2.79 
1.50 
.0018 
46 
Tank No. 6, for six months 
.0014 
.0074 
.0088 
4.51 
1.11 
.0001 
319 
Well water, Mechanic street 
.0016 
.0076 
.0092 
5.29 
4.20 
240 
Tank No. 4, for two months 
.0025 
.0108 
.0133 
3.72 
0.75 
.0002 
20 
Well water, Salem street 
.0070 
.0086 
.0156 
7.67 
1.40 
.0014 
447 
Tank No. 2, for four months 
.0007 
.0065 
.0072 
3.98 
0.75 
17 
Well water, Lowell street 
.0012 
.0070 
.0082 
7.11 
2.10 
27 
Tank No. 7, for eight months 
.0014 
.0063 
.0077 
4.04 
1.06 
7 
Well water, Haverhill street 
.0022 
.0050 
0072 
2.44 
0.55 
.0016 
344 * 
- 
- 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Here we find, for each of the filters filtering sewage, a well the water of which is 
used for drinking by many people, but is in fact sewage not so well purified as the 
effluent from the filter with which it is associated. This is not presented to show 
that the effluent from the filters is good for drinking, for we have no reason to so 
regard those at least in the upper half of the table, and we should without hesita- 
tion pronounce the well waters in the upper half of the table as unsafe to drink ; 
but we present this comparison to show that waters in every way as impure, and as 
certainly derived from sewage as the effluents from the several sewage filters, are 
being used daily, and have been used for years by multitudes of people, without 
their knowing that they were harmed by them. 
Every one of these wells should be regarded as unsafe, some of them dangerous, 
in their present condition, and others unsafe because of what they may change to 
from day to day. 
If these wells contained unpolluted water, the chlorine would be about 0.36, 
while it is from seven to twenty-two times this amount; the nitrates would be 
about 0.01 or 0.02, while they are from 0.55 to 4.20. 
The latter show that a large amount of organic matter, generally more than there 
is in sewage in a sewer, has been burned out of these waters, and the high chlo- 
rines show that this organic matter was of the same character as that in sewage. 
From the amounts in most of these well waters we must conclude that their previ- 
ous condition was worse-that is, more polluted-than ordinary sewage in sewers, 
and that on its way to some of the wells it has by intermittent filtration through 
the ground been purified to such an extent that they may not in their present con- 
dition be harmful ; and, where the numbers of bacteria are continually small and 
the ammonias low, they probably are not harmful ; but, where the numbers of permanency of filters and renewal of sand. 
279 
bacteria are large and the ammonias are large, although the waters have been pre- 
viously much worse than at present, and have to a considerable degree been puri- 
fied, their present condition indicates that the material through which they have 
filtered has not been able to exclude bacteria nor to burn up all of the food they 
live on ; hence, if disease germs get into their source, some of them will probably 
get into these wells. Such of the wells as are included in this latter class should 
be filled with earth, and never used again. Others, if examined from time to time 
and always found with low ammonias and small number of bacteria, would probably 
be harmless; and we should have the same ground for concluding that the effluent 
from sewage at those fine sand oi' soil-covered filters, through which no bacteria 
come from the sewage, would also be harmless for drinking. 
Permanency of Filters and Renewal of Sand. 
In the Twenty-third Annual Report of the Massachusetts State 
Board of Health, pp. 449-55, the permanency of sand filters is dis- 
cussed, and the fact brought out that while some of the experimental 
tanks at Lawrence were doing good work after four years of continu- 
ous service, yet others had stored so much organic matter as to 
" seriously cripple " them. The report then discusses, as two methods 
of obviating this difficulty, either turning under or removing the 
clogged layers. Turning under the upper portion of the filtering ma- 
terial has given good results in the way of reducing the stored or- 
ganic matter, but it is suggested that while receiving fresh doses of 
sewage the bacteria will not do their best work upon the insoluble 
matter, as the stored substances have been found to be, largely. Mr. 
Hazen's discussion of this point, and the amount of sand necessary to 
be renewed, is as follows : 
The fact of continually increasing storage in the large out-door filters is sufficient 
evidence that they do not afford conditions favorable to the oxidation of this mate- 
rial. On them we have applied as much sewage as was possible with good results, 
and much more than is usually applied in practice. In a majority of cases-al- 
ways with the fine materials, and often with the coarser ones-this has meant as 
much sewage as could be oxidized by the air in the filter. All the air available has 
been required to oxidize the more decomposable matters; the more stable insoluble 
matter, we may believe, can only receive the attention of the bacteria when there 
is an excess of air. Filters do their maximum work when the volume of sewage 
applied is so large that there is no considerable excess of air, when the supply ex- 
actly meets the present demand, oxidizing only the less stable matters and prevent- 
ing their passage into the effluent. There may also be a question as to whether the 
bacteria will do their best work upon this insoluble matter while they are receiving 
a daily dose of fresh sewage, with its rich supply of food for them. 
If the fresh sewage were entirely cut off, would not the bacteria turn their atten- 
tion to the sludge? If the upper layer were removed entirely and piled up by 
itself, would it not purify itself much more rapidly than anywhere in a filter where 
it is continually wet with new sewage ? If this clogged material is removed, the 
filters will be able to continue doing the large amount of good work which they 
have done in the past; they may do even more in some cases. The removed mate- 
rial may so purify itself in time as to again allow its advantageous use for filtration, 
but, if not, fresh sand must eventually be supplied. In actual practice with ample 
areas of filtering material a simple -way of applying these ideas would be to abandon 
for a time an old area, after it had become clogged, without removal of the surface. 280 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
How long a time would be required for such an area to regain its power of sewage 
purification, and what treatments would hasten the result, are subjects for further 
research. 
NATURE OF THE SLUDGE. 
It may be queried whether piling up sand containing large amounts of organic 
matter stored from the sewage will not create a nuisance. To this we can answer 
no. The stored matters are the most stable portions of the sewage; they have re- 
sisted strong oxidizing action, and are incapable of rapid or objectionable decom- 
position. The matters which would have caused trouble had they been stored are 
just the ones which have been oxidized. The material should be so placed that a 
change of air in its pores will be possible, and no offence need be anticipated. 
AMOUNT OF SAND NECESSARY TO BE RENEWED. 
Filter No. 6 in four years' use has filtered 310,000 gallons of sewage, the equiva- 
lent of 62,000,000 gallons per acre. The upper 2| inches of material now contain 
about 70 parts per 100,000 by weight of albuminoid ammonia, and the next 3 inches 
about 20 parts. To fully restore the filter to good working order we should re- 
move the upper 2| inches, or 1.68 cubic yards for the filter, or 5.4 yards per million 
gallons of sewage treated. In July, 1891, when Filter No. 1 commenced to be 
seriously clogged, the layer with excessive organic matters was not more than 3 
inches deep, although more than 400,000 gallons of sewage (800,000,000 gallons per 
acre) had passed. In this case the removal of two yards, or at the rate of 5 yards 
per million gallons of sewage treated would have sufficed. In June, 1891, the sur- 
face of Filter No. 2 was clogged not more than two inches deep after filtering 
230,000 gallons (46,000,000 gallons per acre), corresponding to 5.8 yards per million 
gallons. The sand below this upper layer contains some stored matter, which 
would be carried forward to the next account, and might eventually raise the 
amount of sand to be removed to eight or even ten yards per million gallons. On 
the other hand, so far as this sand regains its power of purifying sewage this 
amount will be reduced. If the sewage contained more or less suspended matter, 
correspondingly more or less new sand would be required, and if the suspended 
matter was first removed from the sewage by settling, we may believe that the 
amount of sand to be removed would be very small. Experiments are now in 
progress to determine this point. 
The Effect of Frost and Snow Upon Intermittent Filtration at 
Lawrence. 
As has already been intimated in this chapter, frost checks nitrifica- 
tion, but its bad effects may be guarded against so effectually as to 
make it no serious obstacle in the way of intermittent filtration. 
Aside from the winter application of sewage to covered trenches, 
at the Lawrence Experiment Station other experiments have been 
made to determine the effect of frost upon filter beds. The results of 
these experiments are outlined by Mr. Hazen in the Twenty-third 
Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health, pp. 441-7, 
from which the following is taken: 
During the first winter, 1887-88, the various filters were exposed to the weather 
without protection, and no nitrification was obtained until the temperature began 
to rise in the spring. The result might have been different if the filters had been 
nitrifying well before cold weather. During the two following winters the filters EFFECT OF FROST AND SNOW UPON INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
281 
were protected from snow, and to a certain extent from cold, by canvas covers. It 
was found that when the filters were so protected, almost, if not quite, as good re- 
sults were obtained in the winter as during the warmer months, and it was estab- 
lished, as stated in the special report upon Purification of Sewage and Water 
(pages 29 and 255), that intermittent filtration is entirely practicable in this cli- 
mate, if snow is kept from the filtering area. 
We had no satisfactory information, however, as to what results could be ob- 
tained from unprotected filters. Accordingly, in the winter of 1890-91 the out- 
door filters were left exposed to the weather. Filters 1, 2, 4, and 6 were receiving 
from 34,000 to 103,000 gallons of sewage per acre daily, and were free from com- 
plications, so that they furnish the best data in regal'd to frost. . . . 
CARE OF THE FILTERS IN WINTER. 
When sand is frozen solidly after draining there still remain open pores through 
which the sewage easily finds its way, thawing to some extent the frost as it pro- 
ceeds. After the sewage has drained away, the portion which remains in the sand 
again freezes, but open pores are still left which allow the passage of the next por- 
tion of sewage. If, however, the sewage settles away very slowly, it will freeze 
before the sand drains, and in this case no pores are left, and the next application of 
sewage will remain upon the surface and freeze solidly, if the weather is cold enough. 
If snow is upon the surface of the sand and sewage is applied uniformly to it, it is 
at once chilled to the freezing point, and has then no power of thawing the frost 
in the upper layers of sand; and if the weather is cold the whole will solidify on 
the surface, effectually closing the filter. The two essential conditions to the pas- 
sage of sewage through the filters in winter are that sewage shall never be put into 
snow, and that the filtering material shall be open enough to absorb its dose rap- 
idly* 
Sewage was applied uniformly at a temperature of from 44° to 46°, or the average 
sewer temperature in winter. . . . All snow was promptly removed from the 
filters by shovels. Each week the surface was disturbed. If the sand became suf- 
ficiently thawed at any time when it was not sewage covered, it was then raked. 
When there was no such opportunity for raking, the surface was disturbed with a 
pick in numerous places. During December no record was kept of the exact time 
required for this work on the several filters ; it was about the same as for January. 
For January, February, and March it was as follows, in hours' work for one man 
on one two-hundredth of an acre : 
Filter. 
January. 
February. 
March. 
Total.t 
No. 1 
9 
3 
3 
15 
2 
7 
3 
3 
13 
4 
4 
IX 
IM 
6M 
6 
4M 
3X 
2M 
10M 
t This column has been added by the authors. These results cannot be taken as in any degree indicating what 
will be obtained in actual practice, where, if it became necessary to remove snow and stir up the sand from day 
to day, as was done in the experiments, it could be accomplished at far less expense by the use of mechanical 
appliances. Apparently, a somewhat more rational treatment of this problem is indicated in Chapter XVII. 
Certainly the use of from 1,500 to 3,000 days' labor per winter for hand removal, as indicated by Mr. Hazen's 
statistics, or any amount of labor approximating thereto, would be impracticable. Though it should not be 
overlooked, in considering Mr. Hazen's results, that while they indicate nothing as to cost of removing snow in 
actual practice, they do still indicate the extent of winter purification under the special conditions. 
RESULTS. 
As soon as frost began to form freely in the various filters a marked change 
was noticed in the chemical composition of the effluents ; the free ammonia in- 
* It should be said that with the conditions which obtain in actual practice with regard to the 
method of applying sewage, no serious difficulty has been experienced in Massachusetts in dispos- 
ing of sewage in winter on porous ground. 282 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
creased, and soon the nitrates decreased. The organic matters, as shown by the 
albuminoid ammonia and by the oxygen consumed from permanganate, also in- 
creased, but not to an extent corresponding with the fee ammonia. During the 
colder months nitrification was much checked; ammonia, instead of nitrates, was 
largely the end product of the oxidation, so far as nitrogen was concerned. The 
first stage of purification, namely, the oxidation to ammonia and carbonic acid, was 
not affected to the same extent. 
A table introduced at this point (p. 443 of the report) shows the aver- 
age albuminoid ammonia in the applied sewage and the effluents from 
the four experimental filters. These same figures, put in the form of 
percentages of organic matter remaining in the effluent after filtration, 
are quoted from the report as follows, the tanks being arranged in 
order of fineness of material, No. 1 being very coarse sand, No. 6 coarse, 
No. 2 of fine, No. 4 very fine sand: 
Table 66A. - Percentages of Organic Matter in Effluents from Experi 
mental Filters in Winter. 
Average 
temperature 
of 
effluents. 
Deg. Fahr. 
Per cent, of organic matter remaining in. 
No. 1. 
No. 6. 
No. 2. 
No. 4. 
October, 1890 
58 
3.5 
2.6 
1.3 
1.9 
November, 
47 
4.6 
2.1 
1.0 
1 2 
December. " 
40 
15.5 
2.9 
1.7 
1.7 
January, 1891 
37 
20.0 
8.9 
4.8 
3 0 
February, *• 
36.5 
11.0 
12.0 
5.0 
5 0 
March, 
38 
5.0 
5.4 
4.4 
4 3 
April, ** 
45 
4.7 
4.4 
3.2 
4.7 
May, " 
54 
3.7 
2.9 
2.7 
1.7 
Quoting again from the report: 
During the colder months of the year there was a period with each filter of about 
three months, during which purification was much less complete than at higher 
temperatures. The time of this period varied in the different cases : the coarse 
materials were the first to suffer; the finer sands were not so soon affected, but the 
period was as long, extending into warmer weather. With No. 1 a marked improve- 
ment occurred while the temperature of the effluent was still decreasing. With Nos. 
2 and C> the highest organic matter was coincident with the lowest temperature, while 
No. 4 followed some weeks later. During December the frost was particularly trouble- 
some in Filter No. 1, and the distribution of sewage was imperfect, most of it going 
down through limited unfrozen areas. Later the frost was broken with picks, and 
better distribution was obtained. This explains probably, in a large measure, why 
the worst results were obtained so early in the season. It is also possible that the 
filter became in some way adapted to the frost; that, after a few weeks of use, the 
portions of the filter below the frost did their work more thoroughly than at first, 
regardless of temperature, for the same reason that any filter gives its best result 
after it has been used for a time. 
The average numbers of bacteria per cubic centimetre by months were as fol- 
lows : EFFECT OF FROST AND SNOW UPON INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
283 
Table No. 66 B.-Bacteria in Effluents from Experimental Filters in 
Winter. 
October, 1890 
November, " 
December, " 
January, 1891 
February, " 
March, " 
April, 
May, " 
Month. 
58 
47 
40 
37 
36.5 
38 
45 
54 
Temperature, 
degrees, Fahr. 
CO W C3 CO X- OC X- 
O Ui Jo J- "3 
c: o'er © olu lib 
OQQOQOGO 
o o o oo ooo 
Sewage bacteria. 
O' O' IC k-^ 
k-'itCX^Ok-'GCX*-C. 
gggg|ggO 
oooooooc 
Bacteria. 
Filter No. 1. 
.64 
2.07 
6.60 
11.20 
3.00 
.78 
^80 
Per cent. 
13,000 
9.000 
8,400 
27.000 
20,000 
(>,000 
4 500 
4,700 
1 
Bacteria. 
Filter No. 6. 
.52 
.78 
.96 
5.90 
6.70 
1.10 
1.20 
.34 
Per cent. 
17 
36 
284 
822 
78 
37 
50 
44 
Bacteria. 
Filter No. 2. 1 Filter No 4. 
.0007 1 39 
.0031 | 45 
.0280 ! 35 
.1800 19 
.0260 | 179 
.0066 i 15 
.0130 28 
.0032 ; 6 
1 
Per cent. 
Bacteria. 
.0016 
.0040 
.0040 
.0042 
.0590 
.0026 
.0074 
.0004 
Per cent. 
The albuminoid ammonia and bacteria in the effluents, in percentages of those of 
the sewage for the worst month, worst three months, and for a period in warm 
weather as nearly as possible comparable, are as follows : 
Filter No. 1. 
Filter No. 6. 
Filter No. 2. 
Filter No. 4. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Bacteria. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Bacteria. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Bacteria. 
Albuminoid 
ammonia. 
Bacteria. 
Worst month 
20.0 
15.5 
5.0 
3.1 
11.20 
7.30 
1.20 
6. 
12.0 
8.8 
2.6 
3.3 
6.70 
4.60 
.77 
6. 
5.0 
4.7 
1.6 
2.9 
.18 
.078 
.003 
26. 
5.0 
4.7 
1.5 
3.1 
.059 
.022 
.008 
3. 
Worst three months 
Warm weather 
Ratio, warm weather to worst three months 
With the sub-surface application of sewage on Filter No. 7, which has a distribut- 
ing pipe eighteen inches below the surface, no bad effects from the cold weather 
have been observed. The effluent during the months, January to July, 1891, was 
not of as good a quality as at other times, but it is believed that this was due entirely 
to over-dosing, and not to the temperature. This view is confirmed by the results 
during the succeeding winter, when, with a smaller dose, uniformly good purifica- 
tion was obtained, and the fluctation in the free ammonia bore no relation to the 
weather. 
To resume : We have found that frost checks both purification and nitrification, 
although the removal of the organic matter is more complete than the oxidation of 
ammonia. The principal disturbance from cold weather did not last more than 
three months, although nitrification was more or less incomplete for a longer period. 
During those three months the effluents from the different filters contained, in each 
case, about three times as large a proportion of the organic matters of the applied 
sewage as the effluents from the same filters contained under comparable conditions 
in warmer months. 
During the winter months the filters removed : 
Albuminoid ammonia. 
Bacteria. 
Per cent. 
Per cent. 
Filter No. 1, very coarse sand 
84 
9.3 
' ' 6, coarse sand 
92 
95 
" 2, tine sand 
95 
99.92 
" 4, very fine sand... 
95 
99.98 284 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
These results are good, although less perfect than those obtained in the warmer 
months. With the fine materials the purification is most complete, but even with 
the coarsest, No. 1, the result is far better than could be obtained by any process 
of chemical precipitation. 
Frost and Snow at the Filter Beds at South Framingham, Mas- 
sachusetts. 
It has been found in actual practice at South Framingham, Mass., 
that snow serves as a protection to the filter beds, allowing the sewage 
Fig. 24.-Snow-covered Sewage Fit,ter Bed at South Framingham, Mass. 
to spread over the beds, beneath it, without freezing. The following 
account of the application of sewage to frozen and snow-covered beds 
is of special interest in this connection, as is also the accompanying 
view, Fig. 24. 
During the cold weather of January, 1893, some observations of the 
effect of frost on filter beds were made by the Sewer Commissioners 
of South Framingham, Massachusetts, at the suggestion of Mr. Allen 
Hazen. The results were published in the Framingham Gazette, from 
which the following has been abstracted : 
A filter bed with an area of seven-eighths of an acre received no 
sewage from some time in September until Jan. 9. On this date there 
were 18 inches of frost in the bed and 10 inches of snow upon it, the SNOW ON THE FILTER BEDS AT SUMMIT, N. J. 
285 
thermometer reaching 6° F. below zero. Jan. 9, 300,000 gallons of 
sewage were applied to the bed, and on Jan. 10,150,000 gallons. It is 
said that the effluent appeared in the underdrain in six hours after 
the application of the sewage. On Jan. 11 the frost was, in places, out 
of the bed for its whole depth, and on Jan. 12 it was nearly all gone 
and the sewage had disappeared from the surface. The temperature 
of the applied sewage was 50° F. 
On Jan. 16, 17 and 18 observations were made on another bed, with 
an area of one acre. The frost in this bed was from 20 to 30 inches 
deep, and there were 15 inches of snow upon it. On Jan. 16 the ther- 
mometer indicated 6°, on Jan. 17, 20°; and on Jan. 18, 4° F. below 
zero. On Jan. 16, 500,000 gallons of sewage, at a temperature of 49° 
F., were pumped upon this bed, and on Jan. 17, 175,000 gallons. The 
underdrain started in seven hours after beginning the application of 
sewage. On Jan. 18, the frost was out of the ground in places, and on 
Jan. 19 nearly all out, while the sewage had entirely disappeared from 
the surface. 
At the South Framingham pumping station an underground reser- 
voir provides storage for about 430,000 gallons of sewage, which, with 
the sewage delivered during pumping, would allow the application of 
500,000 gallons of sewage to one bed in about six hours. This amount 
of sewage was applied to one of the beds, with an area of one acre, in 
one day, and 175,000 gallons additional on the following day. The 
application of so large a volume of sewage at a temperature of about 
50° F. in so short a time was certainly favorable to the passage of the 
sewage, but the presence of 15 inches of snow was decidedly unfavor- 
able.* 
A view of one of the South Framingham beds covered with snow is 
shown by Fig. 23. The bed has an area of about seven-eighths of an 
acre. It received no sewage from the middle of October, 1892, until 
Feb. 12,1893. On the latter date there was from 30 to 36 inches of frost 
in the ground and 30 inches of snow on top of it. From Feb. 12, to 
March 1, when the view was taken, about 50,000 gallons of sewage per 
day was applied to the bed, going beneath the snow, as can be seen in 
the view. 
Snow on the Filter Beds at Summit, New Jersey 
In the winter of 1893 an unusual amount of snow fell at Summit, 
New Jersey, which is a short distance from New York City. The ground 
having been covered with snow for many weeks, the writer visited the 
Summit filter beds on March 6. Most of the beds were entirely cov- 
* Eng. News, vol. xxix., p. 174 (Feb. 28, 1893). 286 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ered with snow and ice, and all partially so. Sewage was being ap- 
plied to several beds and finding its way beneath the snow. The 
attendants stated that the snow had not stopped the filtration, although 
it had required unusual care to prevent some of the beds from filling 
and overflowing.* 
The special subject of winter management of filter areas is treated 
at length in Chapter XVII. 
Summary. 
We may now pass to the summary.! 
(1) Intermittent filtration through coarse sand is not a process of 
straining at all, but is, on the contrary, a biological process in which 
the nitrifying organism, with the assistance of oxygen from the air and 
the minerals naturally in solution in sewage, resolves the organic 
matter of sewage into soluble mineral nitrates and probably free nitro- 
gen gas, the whole process, when properly conducted, taking place 
essentially without the production of odor. 
(2) The conditions for successful treatment are: (a) Intermittency 
of application, and (6) open spaces between the particles of the filter 
(the voids) to which air easily gains access. 
(3) In sand filtration areas the relations of the spaces occupied by 
sand, liquid, and air will vary for different qualities of material, with 
the result of producing variations in the quality of the effluents. The 
experiments, however, enable one to decide approximately : (a) What 
degree of purification may be obtained with a given material; and (/>) 
the unit quantity of sewage that may be purified within limits to any 
required standard with a given material. We may therefore say that 
sewage purification by this process now has not only a scientific basis, 
but, in general terms, is amenable to computation in reference to what 
may be accomplished by it under given conditions. 
(4) As a detail of practical management, Mr. Mills says that while 
with a filter of coarse open sand some bacteria may pass through the 
filter, nevertheless with the underdrains as deep as practicable and as 
far apart as will serve to drain the quantity of sewage to be applied, 
if the sewage be applied in small quantities at a time, rather than in 
large quantities, and more frequently than with large quantities, the 
number of bacteria passing through will be less than if the whole daily 
application is made at one time. 
These deductions are based on the Special Report, covering the 
* Further details regarding this visit can be found in Eng. News, vol. xxix. (Mar. 16, 1893), p. 248. 
+ The intention here, as in the previous case of the Massachusetts experiments on chemical 
purification, is, whatever the form of language used, to assume the responsiblity of the views 
expressed in the summary. This is only just when an attempt is made to condense several hun- 
dred pages into three or four. SUMMARY. 
287 
years 1888 and 1889. In 1890 and 1891 Tank No. 1, in use since 
1888, filtered sewage at the rate of 85,920 gallons per acre daily for 
every day of the time, removing 94^ of the organic matter, as deter- 
mined by the albuminoid ammonia, and 98^ of the bacteria. 
(5) The general result with clean, sharp, coarse sand filters, as deter- 
mined by experimenting with four such filters, is : (a) That 60,000 gal- 
lons per acre per day may be filtered, with the result of removing from 
97 to 99 per cent, of the organic matter, and giving an effluent always 
colorless, generally clear, and with very little or no sediment ; (6) 
larger quantities up to 180,000 gallons a day may be filtered, and 97 
per cent, of the organic matter removed for several months at a time ; 
and (c) when filtering 60,000 gallons a day, such a filter will remove an 
average of 99.9^ of the bacteria in the sewage. 
(6) As a deduction from (4) and (5) it may be fairly stated that about 
100,000 gallons per acre per day may be filtered through coarse sand 
filters similar to Tanks No. 1 and Nos. 12, 13, and 14, and results ob- 
tained more than satisfying the conditions of any standard of sewage 
purification yet laid down. Such filters may occasionally require 
either periods of comparative rest during which the amount of sewage 
applied would be much less than the average, or, in some cases, of abso- 
lute rest; it will doubtless be found advantageous to turn under the top 
layers of the filtering material, while in time it may be necessary to 
renew them. This rest period may be usually easily obtained in the 
summer by having areas to which sewage is applied for irrigation pur- 
poses only, and with due reference to the best commercial return from 
the growing crop. The summer season, too, with its higher tempera- 
ture, is the time when a given period of rest may be expected to give 
the most thorough recuperation. In this view broad irrigation may 
be considered an adjunct of purification by intermittent filtration. 
(7) Experiments with Bacillus prodigiosus indicate that coarse sand 
filters, when filtering at the rate of 60,000 gallons per acre per day and 
upward, may allow a few of the more hardy varieties of bacteria to 
pass through ; but with fine sand filters, filtering say 20,000 to 40,000 
gallons per acre per day, it is uncertain that any bacterium whatever 
is hardy enough to survive the passing through. 
(8) Filters of either clean fine sand or of river silt may be expected 
to purify at least 30,000 gallons per acre per day so thoroughly as to 
produce an effluent organically far superior to ordinarily pure waters, 
and in which the number of bacteria per unit volume is much less than 
in such water. Whether the few bacteria actually found in the effluent 
experimented upon, came through from the surface, or whether they 
are derived from the under-drains, or from bacteria developed in the 
lower portions of the filters, is uncertain. It is possible that at times, 
even with the fine sand filters, a few come through. 288 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The actual record of Tank No. 2, fine sand, for the third and fourth 
years of its service, 1890 and 1891, shows that it filtered an average of 
49,360 gallons daily, removing 97.5 per cent, of the organic matter and 
at least 99.99 per cent, of the bacteria. 
(9) With fine river silt, it appears that the best way to apply the sew- 
age is either in trenches which have been excavated and filled with 
coarse sand, or possibly to such areas the upper foot or foot and a half 
of which has been covered with coarse sand into which the daily 
application may sink in a short time. 
(10) The advantages of applying sewage to trenches excavated in the 
original material of an ordinary field, and filled in with clean, coarse 
sand, are as follows : (a) If sewage is applied over the whole surface, 
the finer particles are likely to be taken up by the sewage as it flows 
over the field, and deposited in the interstices in such manner as to 
soon choke the inter-spaces ; if applied in winter to the upper layers 
of such material, by reason of nearly continual saturation it is more 
liable to freeze than would be the case if open so that sewage readily 
passed into and through the spaces ; (6) with trenches about one foot 
wide, two feet deep, and five feet apart, filled nearly full of coarse 
sand, we have provided a medium which will readily receive the 
sewage and quickly take it below the surface. The area of fine mate- 
rial on the sides and bottom of the trenches is equal to the area of 
the whole surface of fine material in the field ; to this equivalent area 
the sewage comes not only freed from sediment by straining through 
the coarse sand, but it further comes to it with such slow motion as 
not to disturb the particles of fine material ; the underground surface 
of the original fine material of the field, therefore, remains perma- 
nently open to receive the sewage; (c) the surface of sand occasion- 
ally requiring renewal is at the same time limited to one-fifth ; and (<7) 
this one-fifth portion can be materially assisted, when necessary in 
cold weather, by covering the trenches with boards. 
(11) Fields covered with an impervious or nearly impervious soil at 
the surface, but having coarse sand or gravel subsoils, can be provided 
with trenches cut through the poorer filtering material near the sur- 
face, and more efficient filtering areas made than when prepared in the 
usual manner. 
(12) These trenches, filled with coarse sand, may be the best method 
of arranging filter areas in the colder climate of the Northern States. 
With them, sloping areas can be utilized without the expense of level- 
ling. The field at Lawrence has a maximum slope of about 1 in 10 ; 
while the trenches are arranged in reference to the contours in such 
manner as to slope from 1 in 50 to 1 in 100. 
(13) As a deduction from (12) and what has preceded, it may be con- 
cluded that when in extremely cold climates, liable to heavy snow- SUMMARY. 
289 
falls, it is found desirable to use full area coarse-sand filters, they may 
be efficiently operated in winter by arranging the surface before the 
beginning of cold weather in trenches, somewhat after the manner de- 
scribed in the foregoing, and providing board covers for the same, to 
be removed and stored in the spring, and at the same time the surface 
levelled for ordinary full surface application during the warm months. 
For moderate winter climates, however, the filter areas may be operated 
without any protective covering at all. 
A suggestion for a system of covered winter absorption drains on a 
level area is given in plan and section by Fig. 24. 
(14) The mechanical 
separation of a portion of 
the sewage which takes 
place in the coarse-sand 
trenches referred to in 10 
and 11 is merely an in- 
cident of intermittent fil- 
tration which under cer- 
tain conditions favorably 
modifies the result. 
WINTER DRAIN, UPPER END. 
Fig. 25.-Suggestion for Covered Winter Absorption Drains. 
winter drain Slower eno. 
(15) In estimating the relative value of chemical versus filtration 
processes of purification, the practical question arises as to which 
process may be expected to furnish an effluent least adapted to sup- 
port the life of bacteria. Experiments upon the effluents from the 
coarse-sand filters indicate that the organic matter remaining therein 
is in no case well adapted to support bacteria. 
(16) The further practical question arises in relation to the use of the 
purified effluents from filtration areas for drinking. The answer is : 
(a) That judging by chemical analysis alone, there is nothing in the 
effluents known, or even suspected by chemists, to be harmful; (6) 
there are, however, a few bacteria which survive passage through the 
coarse-sand filters, and until we are able to say that none of these are 
disease-producing varieties, the drinking of the undiluted effluents 
from the coarse-sand filters cannot be considered permissible; (c) the 290 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
amount and conditions of dilution which may be necessary to render 
such effluents comparatively safe, depend upon so many elements, that 
a rational opinion relative to the probable degree of safety in any given 
case can only be given by an expert after an examination of all the at- 
tendant circumstances ; (d) although not absolutely proven, there are 
nevertheless strong reasons for believing that the effluents from fine- 
sand filters are entirely free from bacteria of every sort and kind, and 
if, on further study, it turns out that this is true, so far as present 
Fig. 26. - Cultivated Filtration Area with Absorption Ditches, Luton, 
England. 
information goes, there is no reason to be urged against drinking the 
effluents from such filters. 
No reference has been made in this chapter to the partial cultivation 
of intermittent filtration areas by the use of the ridge and furrow sys- 
tem, which has been employed in England with more or less success. 
The new views which we derive from the Lawrence experiments seem 
to indicate that inasmuch as cultivation would not only interfere with 
the primary object of sewage purification, but furthermore, cannot as a 
rule be made profitable on such areas, there is no reason why it should 
be attempted. The statement made by Mr. Clarke, in 1885,* that "if it 
is proper to dedicate land to use as a park for the pleasure of the 
public, there is no reason why it may not be dedicated to sewage puri- 
* Report of Eliot C. Clarke to Mass. Drain. Com., p. 127. SUMMARY. 
291 
fication in order to preserve health," is considerably enforced by the 
new views. Fig. 25, however, illustrates a cultivated filtration field 
Fig. 27.-Method of Adapting Intermittent Filtration Area to Cultivation, 
by Means of Absorption Ditches. 
at Luton, England, as photographed by Mr. Clarke, in 1885, and Fig. 
26 shows a similar filtration area in section, it being common in Eng- 
land to adapt filtration areas to cultivation by means of absorption 
Fig. 28.-Section of High Grade Intermittent Filtration Beds. 
ditches like those shown in these figures. Fig. 27 is designed to show 
the method of constructing a high grade of intermittent filtration beds 
with coarse sand as a filtering material and with tile underdrains. CHAPTER XV. 
SUB-SURFACE IRRIGATION. 
Sub-surface irrigation is a useful modification of broad surface irri- 
gation applicable to relatively small quantities of sewage, as from 
isolated houses, hospitals, prisons, asylums, summer hotels, manufact- 
uring establishments, or any other place without access to the sewer- 
age system of a large town. Originally introduced by the Rev. Henry 
Moule, the invention of the automatic Hush-tank by Rogers Field 
gave it at once a utility that rapidly brought it into public notice. In 
spite, however, of its being an English invention it has probably 
been more extensively used in this country than there, due largely 
without doubt to its early introduction by Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., 
M. Inst. C. E., and its persistent advocacy by him, Mr. Philbrick, and 
other American sanitary specialists. At present the tendency is to 
use it less here than formerly, before the ease and certainty with 
which broad surface irrigation and intermittent filtration can be used 
in our climate were thoroughly understood. It is, nevertheless, a use- 
ful system under certain circumstances, and as such deserves brief no- 
tice in a work of this character, though by reason of its having been 
fully described by others, little more will be attempted than to point 
out the chief sources of information.* 
Mr. Olcott, in his paper, The Small-pipe Underground Intermittent 
System of Sewage Disposal, has given in a tabulated statement the 
detail of 37 small sub-surface irrigation systems constructed at various 
places, the most of them for single houses ; he states that he has con- 
structed about 70 similar works in alkf 
* These are (1) Waring's Sewerage and Land Drainage, chap, xxvii, sub-sec., The Disposal of 
Household Wastes, p. 287 and following ; (2) Gerhard, The Disposal of Household Wast - ; (3) 
Philbrick, The Disposal of Sewage in Suburban Residences, pamphlet reprint; also in The 
Sanitary Engineer, vol. vii. (1883), pp. 530 and 534 ; (4) paper by Geo. E. Olcott, The Small-pipe 
Underground Intermittent System of Sewage Disposal, in 11th An. Rept. N. Jer. St. Bd. Health 
pp. 79-88; and (5) a paper by Col. Waring, Sewage Disposal for Isolated Houses, in Am. Arch., 
March 12, 1892. 
t Tabulation includes information in reference to each of the 37 examples cited on the follow- 
ing points : 
(1) For whom and where constructed. 
(2) Number of persons contributing. 
(3) Approximate first cost. 
(4) Length of time in use at date of making the tabulation. 
(6) Answer to the question, Is system free from nuisance ? 293 
SUB-SURFACE IRRIGATION. 
As the result of this experience, Mr. Olcott indorses the following 
views, as to the cost, etc., of sub-surface irrigation plants on a small 
scale, expressed by Dr. J. W. Pinkham, of Montclair, N. J., in a paper 
before the New Jersey Sanitary Association in 1884, from which Mr. 
Olcott's statistics are chiefly quoted, namely: 
(1) The first cost for a family and house of average size is about $200. 
(2) The cost of annual maintenance is about $10 for such a house. 
(3) The ground selected should be free from shade and may be either garden or 
lawn. 
(4) By means of this system all liquid sewage, from the smallest dwelling-house 
or the largest institution, may be effectually disposed of without nuisance and with- 
out peril to health. 
(5) This system should take the place of cesspools in all suburban and country 
places which have sufficient ground for the distributing pipes. 
A reference to the several sources of information here indicated 
will, it is believed, furnish whatever is needed by any one thinking of 
using this system. 
(7) Answer to the question, Is all house waste satisfactorily disposed of ? 
(8) Answer to the question, Have stoppages occurred ? 
(9) Answer to the question, Is the soakage area underdrained ? 
(10) Answer to the question, Is the soakage area superficially dry ? 
(11) Miscellaneous statements from the parties for whom constructed, including individual opin- 
ion as to success of operation, etc. CHAPTER XVI 
THE DISPOSAL OF MANUFACTURING WASTES. 
Classification. 
The English Rivers Pollution Commission gave the disposal of 
manufacturing wastes extended consideration in their First, Third, 
Fourth, and Fifth Reports. The information there given is the basis of 
all the exact knowledge of the subject which has thus far been ob- 
tained. Taking their several Reports as a basis, manufacturing pollu- 
tions may be classified under the following heads : 
(1) Pollution by calico dye-works, print-works, and bleach-works. 
(2) Pollution by flax steeping and by linen and jute bleaching and 
dyeing. 
(3) Pollution by starch-works. 
(4) Pollution by paper mills. 
(5) Pollution by alcohol distilleries. 
(6) Pollution by sugar-refining and glucose works. 
(7) Pollution by petroleum refining. 
(8) Pollution by woollen works, hat works, etc. 
(9) Pollution by chemical works. 
(10) Pollution by tanneries. 
(11) Pollution by silk-works. 
(12) Pollution by collieries and coal washing. 
(13) Pollution by iron and other mining operations. 
(14) Pollution by iron-works, rolling mills, and other heavy metal- 
works. 
(15) Pollution by the cutlery trade. 
(16) Pollution by iron and steel wire, tin-plate, and galvanizing 
works. 
(17) Pollution by brass foundries. 
(18) Pollution by German silver and electro-plate works. 
Manufacturing Wastes-How Purified. 
It is unnecessary to consider in this place the large amount of de- 
tailed information given by the Commission in these reports. In the 
chapter on the Pollution of Streams we have already given some of 
the main facts of stream pollution in this country, and we may simply difficulties in the way of purification. 
295 
refer to these reports of the English Commission as furnishing a 
larger body of detailed information than can be obtained in any other 
place.* The Commission suggests for the purification of manufacturing 
refuse substantially the same treatments as are available for the pu- 
rification of town sewage, namely : Chemical precipitation, broad irri- 
gation, and intermittent filtration, and the general conclusion may 
be drawn, that the choice of method, in any given case, will depend 
largely upon special conditions, the same as in the purification of 
town sewage. A considerable number of large manufacturing estab- 
lishments in England and Scotland have constructed purification 
plants, and in some cases the utilization of the refuse matters has 
more than repaid the cost of constructing, maintaining, and operating 
the same.f 
Relative Danger to Health. 
As a general proposition it may be stated that a large portion of 
the refuse of manufacturing processes is less dangerous to health than 
domestic sewage, when turned into streams, for the reason that it does 
not contain, per se, the germs of infectious diseases. It is nevertheless 
true, that the refuse of different manufacturing operations varies 
greatly in respect to polluting qualities, as well as the facility with 
which it can be purified. For instance, the refuse from woollen scour- 
ings is frequently large in amount and difficult to treat; the washings 
from foul rags in paper-making may also be viewed with suspicion, 
but the vegetable dyes, acids, and alkalies are not especially danger- 
ous when considerably diluted. Some chemical reagents, which occur 
as refuse from manufactories, may even act as precipitants when 
turned into streams, and in that way conduce to a partial purification 
of the stream below the point of their inflow. This fact, however, can- 
not be construed into an argument in favor of indiscriminate pollution 
of streams by manufacturing refuse. 
Difficulties in the way of Purification. 
Again, the satisfactory purification of manufacturing wastes is, at 
many mills, rendered exceedingly difficult on account of the large 
quantity of water with which they are mixed. In many cases the use 
of water is unnecessarily large, and the first step toward the general 
purification of manufacturing refuse will undoubtedly be for the manu- 
facturers to learn to use less water and to separate their drainage in 
such manner that water only slightly fouled by use may go back into 
* See 7th Rept. Mass. St. Bd. Health for resume of this information. 
+ For sample plans of extensive plants designed specially for purification of manufacturing 
wastes, see 4th Rept. of Riv. Pol. Com., p. 61, et seq. 296 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the stream, while the more seriously polluted drainage is discharged 
into sewers, or purified by special appliances at the works, as the case 
may be. 
American Examples. 
Thus far in this country manufacturers have not, except in a few in- 
stances, been compelled to purify their own polluted wastes, and inas- 
much as few have undertaken the purification, of their own volition, 
very little experience under American conditions has thus far been 
gained. A few unsatisfactory cases, derived from Mr. Clarke's report 
to the Massachusetts Drainage Commission, may be cited: 
(1) The Wanskuck Mills, Providence, R. I., are among the largest of those in the 
United States making woollen and worsted goods. Until 1881 the dirty water result- 
ing from the different operations, amounting to about 400,000 gallons per day, 
flowed directly into West river. The yearly amount of refuse contained in this 
water included about 64,000 pounds of dyestuffs, 100,000 pounds of alkali, 4,000 
pounds of acid, 53,000 pounds of fuller's earth, and 400,000 pounds of grease. A 
dyeing and bleaching company below brought a suit against the Wanskuck Com- 
pany on account of the serious injury to its operations by the pollution of West 
river. After protracted litigation the Supreme Court granted a permanent injunc- 
tion forbidding such pollution. In compliance with this injunction attempts have 
been made to purify the waste water before permitting it to enter the river. At 
first, filtration through land was tried. The foul liquid was pumped on to a tract 
of gravelly land near the mills, about forty feet above the river. An acre and a 
half was prepared by making furrows four feet apart on the surface. The liquid 
was made to flow during the morning through the furrows on one-half of the land, 
and during the afternoon through those on the other half. For about three weeks 
this process was successful, as the water filtered through the land and came out clean. 
After this time the surface of the furrows became clogged, the water would not soak 
away fast enough, and the process was abandoned. It is stated, however, that a 
few days later the water had disappeared, and the film of sediment which had 
choked the ground dried, cracked, and curled up, showing clean sand underneath 
it. It is probable that after this interval, if the water had been applied again, it 
would have filtered away as before, and the process might have been continued in- 
termittently by allowing occasional periods during which the film of sediment could 
dry and crack. When a considerable amount of sediment had accumulated, and 
had been allowed to dry, it easily could have been broken up with tools and thrown 
upon the ridges between the furrows. As the liquid filtered for three weeks before 
the surface of the ground became clogged, whereas it took less than a week for the 
film of sediment to dry and crack, continuous purification could have been effected 
by the use of double the quantity of land, divided into two plots, used alternately. 
Two gentlemen, one of them the superintendent, who observed the experiment, are 
now of the opinion that this method would have proved sufficient. At the time 
that the first experiment was thought to be a failure purification by precipitation 
was adopted, and has been continued since. A set of six connected basins was 
excavated on the land previously used for filtration. Two of these basins, about 
30 feet by 60 feet each, were connected with four others about 75 feet by 220 feet 
each, all being 5 or 6 feet deep. About a barrel of lime to 100,000 gallons is added 
to the waste water at the mill before pumping. This addition is made rudely, the 
lime not being previously ground or even slaked. The water flows through one 
of the smaller basins, in which most of the deposition takes place. Leaving the 
small basin it flows through the four larger ones successively, where further deposi- 
tion takes place. To the eye, the effluent from the last basin looks about as dirty 
as the water which leaves the pumps. A decided smell from the basins is noticed 
in muggy weather, and as a whole the result is not satisfactory. As such processes AMERICAN EXAMPLES. 
297 
have proved effective elsewhere, the failure must be due to defects in the practical 
management of the process. For a while after it was attempted, sulphate of 
alumina was used as a precipitant. The cost of this chemical, which amounted to 
about $7 per day for each 100,000 gallons, or §6,000 per year for the whole amount 
treated, was considered so great as to preclude its use. The sludge which is 
cleaned from the basins is found to be commercially valueless. It is said to have 
proved beneficial when applied to grass in the neighborhood, but in practice it is 
found that, although it is given away, nobody comes for it a second time. It is 
thought that of the whole liquid waste 50,000 gallons would comprise all of the 
water used in washing wool and the greater part of the polluting refuse. 
(2) A method of wool scouring is practised in the Lorraine Mills, Saylesville, R. 
I., by which the grease is preserved, and most of the other dirt is eliminated from 
the wash water before permitting it to escape. The wool is washed in a machine 
having three bowls. . . . Six hundred pounds of wool are washed at a time, 
and pass successively from bowl 1 to bowls 2 and 3. When a new charge of dirty 
wool is put into bowl 1, the water previously used in bowl 2 is transferred to bowl 
1, that from 3 is put into 2, and clean water is used only in bowl 3. Thus, bowl 1, 
in which the wool is first washed, always contains water which has been used 
twice before, and bowl 2 that which has been used once. The amount of clean 
water added in bowl 3 at each washing is about 400 gallons. To this about 27 
pounds of soap are added, and a small quantity of free lye. Six hundred pounds 
of wool therefore are washed with about 400 gallons of water, which is very much 
less than is commonly used for the purpose, and probably is as little as will accom- 
plish the work. The resulting product is about 300 pounds of clean wool. The 
water from bowl 1 is drawn off into a " cooler," which is a pit about 30 feet across 
on top, dug in the ground. In this the water cools, and a small part of it evapo- 
rates or leaches into the ground. Most of it flows into a tank in the " save-all " 
house, from which it is pumped into three smaller tanks for treatment. These 
latter are about 7 feet square by 5 deep. In them the alkaline liquid receives a 
small quantity of sulphuric acid. This causes the greasy particles to separate from 
the water and rise as foam. The water below is then drawn off, and escapes into 
the river. It is clear, and about the color of amber. It has an odor like that of 
wool, and is somewhat acid. The greasy scum is drawn off upon four artificial fil- 
ters of gravel, having a superficial area of about 200 square feet each, and two feet 
depth of filtering material. The scum solidifies somewhat upon the filters, and is 
shovelled into bags, which are put between sheet-iron plates, in a press contained 
in a tight box which can be filled with steam. The grease flows from the bags 
as oil, and what remains in the bags is reduced to " soot-cake." The oil is some- 
what further refined, and then barrelled for the market. When cool, it has the 
consistency of lard or common soap-grease, and is of a reddish color, with an odor 
of wool. It is used either for stuffing leather, or as a lubricant, or in the man- 
ufacture of soap, etc. The " soot-cake," which is principally dirt, contains as 
it comes from the press about 50 per cent, of moisture. It has been analyzed by 
two chemists, one of whom reports it valueless, and the other as having some ma- 
nurial value. From 18,000 pounds of wool there are obtained a ton of grease and 
1,200 pounds of " soot-cake." The cost of the plant for extracting these, not in- 
cluding buildings, was §2,500. The process has only recently been put in opera- 
tion, but is thought to be remunerative. 
(3) Two mills in Millbury, Mass., each scouring about 1,000 pounds per day of 
wool in the grease, retain the first scour, which is supposed to contain about five- 
sixths of the dirt, thus lessening in that proportion the pollution which they other- 
wise would cause to the river. The first scour is retained in vats, which are 
cleaned periodically, and their contents used as a fertilizer. In these two cases 
the process is thought to be a paying one. 
(4) The woollen mills of Robert Bleakie & Co., at Hyde Park, Mass., employ 
about 275 operatives. All refuse from closets, wool scouring, and dyeing goes into 
a settling basin, from which the effluent goes into the stream. About 3,000 lbs. of 
wool are scoured daily with about 40 lbs. of soda ash, and are dyed chiefly with 
ground dyewoods. The wool shrinks in cleansing from 50 to 60 per cent., so that 
the refuse amounts to over 1,500 lbs. daily. The settling basin through which the 298 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
waste water flows, as shown by the accompanying cut, Fig. 29, consists of a ce- 
mented structure 80 feet long by 10 feet wide and 3: 5 feet deep. A large amount 
of solid refuse is intercepted by this, the heavier portions being retained in the 
bottom of the basin, and the greasy scum floating on top. The effluent, however, 
is still very dirty. The proprietor cleans out the basin at intervals, and uses its 
Mother Brook 
SECTION 
'-Bottom. 
Fig. 29.-Settling Basins at Woollen Mills, Hyde Park, Mass 
contents to fertilize his land. He estimates its value for this purpose at several 
hundred dollars per year. 
(5) Next to the pollution caused by wool washing, the refuse from tanneries 
seems to cause the most trouble. There are very few cases in which attempts have 
been made to purify this refuse. The drainage from a tannery can be clarified 
chemically by the use of salts of iron, sometimes in conjunction with lime, as pre- 
cipitants. At one place which I visited in England, a little sulphate of iron was 
first added to the drainage, uniting with the tan in forming tannate of iron, which 
was afterwards precipitated by the addition of lime-water from the lime-vats. The 
liquid, which was nearly colorless, was then filtered through gravel. Where the 
SECTION 
Fig. 30.-Mechanical Filter at Tannery, Winchester, Mass. 
water contains a great deal of tan bark, it probably would be necessary to intercept 
this in some way before purifying the water by intermittent filtration, because other- 
wise the bark would clog the surface of the ground. At Maxwell's tannery, in 
Winchester, a mechanical filter, Fig, 30, to strain out the bark and coarse lime, has 
lately (1885) been put on trial. This consists of a wooden box, about 4 feet wide, 2 
feet deep, and 60 feet long. This is divided into compartments which are filled 
with hay, through which the water filters. The effluent generally is clear, but of 
a deep mahogany color. A STUDY OF PAPER-MILL WASTES. 
299 
A Study of Paper-Mill Wastes. 
In 1885, Professor Wm. Ripley Nichols examined, at the request of 
Mr. Clarke, a number of samples (eight in all) of the waste material 
from the paper-mill of Messrs. C. F. Crehore & Son, situated at New- 
ton Lower Falls, Massachusetts. At this mill domestic rags and tarred 
hemp junk are made into card and press paper for mills. The stock is 
first cut and dusted, which removes part of the waste in a dry state; it 
is then boiled with lime to saponify the dirt, and bleach out the color. 
The waste water from this process is called bleach liquor. The stock 
is then washed in a paper engine, where it is passed under a heavy roller 
with steel blades, acting against a bed-plate also set with steel blades, 
the whole so arranged as not to cut the stock but merely to separate 
the fibres. A constant stream of water passes through the paper en- 
gine for an hour or more. The effluent, which is called wash-water, at 
first looks very dirty as it leaves the engine, but toward the end of the 
operation it appears to flow away clean. Sand-boxes in the bottoms of 
the washing engines receive the heavier particles, such as sand, dirt, 
buttons etc., removed from the stock. 
The samples submitted to Professor Nichols, comprised: (1), solid 
refuse from the " sand-boxes ; " (2), samples of " bleach-liquors ; " (3), 
samples of " wash-waters." The following is from Professor Nichols' 
report: 
The details of the examination of the various samples and such recommendations 
as I am able to make are as follows : 
1. MATERIAL FROM SAND-BOXES. 
The dirt from the " rags " sand-box, after draining off the liquid, weighed 252 
grammes while wet, and 98 grammes when dry. In bulk, it was mainly fibre; by 
weight, the larger part was sand, buttons, metallic hooks, pins, paper-fasteners, wire, 
etc. Expressed in per cents, we have : 
Per cent. 
Water 61 
Buttons and other heavy dirt 24 
Fibre and light dirt 15 
100 
Calculating on the dry material we have : 
Per cent. 
Buttons and heavy dirt 61 
Fibre and light dirt 39 
100 
The fibre and light dirt burned readily, leaving about half its weight of ash, or 
more exactly we have : 
Per cent. 
Volatile and combustible matter 47.72 
Ash 52.28 
100.00 300 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Per cent. 
The " fibre and light dirt " contained matter soluble in 
ether 1.29 
Matter soluble in ether after treatment with hydrochloric 
acid 5.80 
Phosphoric acid 0.37 
Nitrogen 0.59 
Potash, not determined. 
In my opinion there is not grease enough to pay to extract, or fertilizing matter 
enough to give a commercial value to the material as manure. There is, however, 
no reason why it should be discharged into the stream. If removed from the sand- 
boxes and dried, either by waste heat, if any is available, or by exposure to the air, 
it can then be burned under the boilers. This is, in my opinion, the best disposi- 
tion to make of it. It would, no doubt, be better to arrange for the settling of the 
heavier portion, containing bits of metal, etc., and dry and burn only the lighter 
portion. The heavier portion could be simply mixed with the ashes of the estab- 
lishment without harm and be disposed of with them. 
2. MATERIAL FROM THE " ROPE " SAND-BOXES. 
The sample received weighed wet 67 grammes, dry 13 grammes. When dry it 
burned readily, leaving less than half its weight of ash. We have, then, 
Per cent. 
Water 81 
Dry fibre and dirt 19 
100 
The dry fibre, etc., consisted of: 
Per cent. 
Volatile and combustible matter 63.6 
Ash 36.4 
100.0 
Ether extracted 18.67 per cent, of a tarry matter which burned with a smoky 
flame. The fibre contained : 
Per cent. 
Phosphoric acid 0.42 
Nitrogen 0.10 
The best disposition that can be made of this material is the same as that sug- 
gested in the previous case. 
This was a frothy, dark-colored, turbid, strongly alkaline liquid containing a 
large proportional amount of organic matter. The results of a partial examination 
appear in the table. If this liquid had to be disposed of by itself, the best method 
would probably be to evaporate it under the grate-bars or in some other way by 
waste heat if possible. It would give about 9 or 10 per cent, of its weight of a 
thick syrup, which could then be burned, and by its burning return part of the 
heat required to evaporate it. As, however, the first portions of the wash-water are 
unfit to discharge into the stream, it would probably be better to mix all the 
liquors together for treatment. 
3. BLEACH-LIQUOR FROM THE RAG BOILERS. 
4. BLEACH-LIQUOR FROM ROPE. 
This resembles the previous sample in general respects and might be treated 
similarly. 
5, 6, 7, 8. WASH-WATER FROM RAGS AND FROM ROPE. 
Samples 5 (rags) and 6 (rope) were taken 10 minutes after washing began, and 
samples 7 (rags) and 8 (rope), after 2 hours. The latter, although turbid and unin- A STUDY OF PAPER-MILL WASTES. 
301 
viting to the eye, might be discharged into the stream after a simple process of 
filtering through sand or sand and gravel. The first portions of the wash-water 
are, however, too foul to be thus discharged. I have made a number of experi- 
ments with various chemical precipitants; with the stronger liquors very little 
satisfaction was obtained. With the weaker liquors, or with a mixture of the strong 
and weak together, better results were obtained, but the method would be expen- 
sive and the effluent ought not to go into a stream used for water-supply. In my 
Table No. 67.-Examination of Various Samples of Refuse from Crehore's 
Paper Mill. 
(Parts per 100,000.) 
Unflltered. 
After filtering 
. through paper. 
Alkalinity ex- 
pressed as 
lime. 
Organic 
nitrogen. 
Total 
solids. 
Volatile. 
! Total 
solids. 
Volatile. 
Rags. 
Drainings from dirt 
Bleach-liquor 
Wash-water after 10 minutes 
Wash-water after 2 hours 
Rope. 
Drainings from dirt 
Bleach-liquor 
Wash-water after 10 minutes 
Wash-water after 2 hours 
7326.0 
537.5 
18.5 
8193.0 
492.5 
38.0 
5032.0 
' iE5 
28.0 
7222.0 
393.0 
11.0 
8120.0 
369.0 
18.0 
4.5 
5144.0 
9.0 
73.2 
749.6 
120.9 
0.5 
13.0 
178.0 
57.0 
0.8 
360.0 
51.0 
opinion, the best way of disposing of these liquors is by " intermittent downward 
filtration," through a sufficient amount of land. Judging from the published 
experience in other places this would be quite practicable, but I do not feel wholly 
sure of the success with the bleach-liquor from the ropes, as the organic matter 
therein contained is not as readily oxidized as is that from the rags. Experience 
might show that a larger area of land was necessary if this liquid were mixed with 
the rest than is usually required, but I think it would be better to evaporate this 
liquid as indicated above. The amount of heat required would not be great. I 
do not possess accurate information as to the amounts of the various liquids of 
which samples were sent to me ; but I assumed, on the strength of rough estimates 
which you gave me, that the daily discharge is approximately made up of : 
700 gallons of bleach-liquor (Bags.) 
700 " " " " (Rope.) 
50,000 " " wash-water 5 
50,000 " " " " 6 
150,000 " " " " 7 
150,000 " " " " 8 
After the samples had been in my laboratory for more than two weeks, and had, 
consequently undergone some chemical change, I made a mixture in this propor- 
tion and had it analyzed with the results which follow, and which represent, 
approximately,* the character of the present discharge : 
Total solids in solution 120. parts in 100,000 
Organic and volatile matter 80. " " " 
Inorganic matter 40. " " " 
Solids in suspension 74. " " " 
Organic and volatile 30. " " " 
Inorganic 44. " " " 
* Analytical Note.-These results of analyses vary somewhat from those calculated from 
Table 67, mainly because the liquors had undergone some change since the first determinations 
were made, but partly because, in liquids of this character (i.e., containing caustic lime), some of 
the determinations, such as that of the total solids, do not have a high degree of accuracy. 302 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Alkalinity as lime 25.4 parts in 100,000 
Ammonia 0.833 " " " 
Albuminoid ammonia 3.050 " " " 
Total organic nitrogen 5.353 " " " 
In the absence of more definite knowledge of the composition which the united 
waste liquids would have, and in the absence of knowledge as to the land which 
may be available, it is impossible to estimate accurately the amount of land required 
for treating the liquid. Of land favorable for the purpose, perhaps some three or 
four acres would be required. The liquid is rather alkaline to be used for irriga- 
tion, but if exposed to the air would lose some of its alkalinity, or if there were acid 
refuse from some other establishment which could be mixed with it, it would be 
an advantage. To neutralize 400,000 gallons of a mixture such as described above 
would require 1,500 lbs. of oil of vitriol. A portion of the organic matter would 
then settle out as sludge (which could be filtered off, dried, and burned), but the 
lime would go into the effluent as sulphate of lime, which would be of disadvan- 
tage to the stream as a source of water-supply. 
Table No. 68.-Examination of Various Samples of Refuse from Crehore's 
Paper Mill. 
(Pounds to 1,000 gallons.) 
Unflltered. 
After filtering 
through paper. 
K 
* 5 
Organic 
nitrogen. 
Total 
solids, 
Volatile. 
Total 
solids. 
Volatile. 
I Alkalinit 
pressed 
lime. 
Rags. 
Drainings from dirt .... 
6.1 
Bleach-liquor 
61 i. 2 
419.S 
602.3 
62.5 
30.0 
Wash-water after 10 minutes 
44.8 
32.8 
10.1. 
Wash-water after 2 hours 
0.05 
0.96 
0.92 
6.47 
0.04 
Rope. 
Drainings from dirt 
1.1 
Bleach-liquor 
683.5 
677.3 
429.6 
14.8 
4.3 
Wash-water after 10 minutes 
41.1 
30.8 
4.8 
Wash-water after 2 hours 
3.2 
2.3 
1.5 
0.75 | 
0.7 CHAPTER XVH. 
ON THE TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR AND OF NATURAL SOILS, AND 
ITS RELATION TO SEWAGE PURIFICATION BY BROAD IRRIGA- 
TION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION. 
Empirical Tendency of English Practice in Sewage Disposal. 
In examining the voluminous literature of sewage purification by 
broad irrigation and intermittent filtration in England, one is forcibly 
struck with the purely empirical tendency of current practice there, 
and, in so far as this tendency has kept the development of this 
branch of sewage purification in the line of well-ascertained observa- 
tion and experience, it is by no means to be deplored ; because there 
is in the beginning of all new sciences or arts a period when conserva- 
tive empiricism is in reality the highest form of knowledge put in 
order, that is to say, such empiricism is in reality the position of the 
true scientist. In the course of time, however, as the body of well-as- 
certained fact becomes greater, theory and deduction may properly 
come in as legitimate tools in the hands of those who are interested 
in the scientific investigation of problems in physics, and it is in this 
latter view that the following chapter is submitted for comment and 
criticism. 
Information still Lacking. 
The experiments of the Massachusetts State Board of Health have 
extended our knowledge of the kind of material best suited for sewage 
purification by filtration through soils considerably beyond what was 
previously known. Indeed, so extensive is the advance that we are 
able to predict results, as noted in a previous chapter, to this extent 
that, with a given material, we can say beforehand approximately what 
degree of purity will be attained for a given quantity of sewage ap- 
plied per unit of area. We still lack definite information as to the 
extreme conditions of climate under which purification by broad irri- 
gation and intermittent filtration may be effected, though the results 
recorded in the Twenty-third Annual Report of the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health, and given in Chapter XIV., help out some- 
what ; and it is with a view of still further supplying the deficiency 
that the information embodied in the following has been got to- 
gether. 304 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The Massachusetts experiments have demonstrated, moreover, that 
under proper conditions the nitrification of sewage will proceed dur- 
ing cold weather, although not as rapidly as in warm weather.* The 
detail of what can be actually accomplished in this particular is given, 
as we have seen, in the Special Massachusetts Report, and in the An- 
nual Report for 1891, already referred to. 
In order to illustrate the question of temperatures at Lawrence, 
where the experiments have been carried on, Tables Nos. 69 and 70, 
derived from the Special Report, are given. The winter of 1887-88, 
when the mean temperature for January was 15.46°, is stated to have 
been the coldest in 20 years. It was found necessary, because of the 
low temperature at which the sewage arrived at the experiment sta- 
tion, to warm it by passing a hot water-pipe through the measuring 
tank. In reference to this it may be noted as a very important point 
Table No. 69.-Mean Maximum, Mean Minimum, and Mean Temperature of 
Air at Lawrence, from November to March, Inclusive, During the Win- 
ters of 1887-88 and 1888-89. 
Temperatures of Air and Sewage at Lawrence. 
Month. 
1887-88. 
1888-89. 
Mean max. 
Mean min. 
Mean. 
Mean max. 
Mean min. 
Mean. 
November 
47.16 
28.30 
37.73 
48.40 
31.30 
39.85 
December 
35.54 
20.87 
28.20 
88.09 
21.45 
29.77 
January 
24 61 
6 32 
15.46 
39.77 
23.00 
31.38 
February 
35.03 
12.24 
23.63 
32.75 
11.82 
22.28 
March 
39.18 
20.39 
29.76 
45.38 
26.55 
35.96 
(Fahrenheit®.) 
in the discussion that the winter temperature of the sewage was con- 
siderably reduced by reason of the pipe conveying it from the sewer 
to the experiment station passing along the bed of the Merrimac river 
for nearly half a mile. The difference caused thereby is shown in 
Table No. 70. 
In reference to Table No. 70 it may be stated that for the purpose of 
comparing temperature of effluent with the temperature of sewage the 
effluent from Tank No. 1 has been selected. This tank is composed of 
a filtering material of 9,000 gallons of clean, coarse mortar sand of even 
grain, in which the voids were found to equal 36 per cent, of the whole. 
When saturated with water and allowed to drain there remained 12 
per cent, of the total volume, which was filled with water, and 24 per 
cent, containing air, the sand occupying 64 per cent, of the total space. 
As shown in Table No. 70 the mean temperature of the sewage, as 
* For statement of winter purification in detail, refer to Chapter XIV., Article on The Effect 
of Frost and Snow upon Intermittent Filtration at Lawrence, p. 280, and following. TEMPERATURES OF AIR AND SEWAGE AT LAWRENCE. 
305 
Table No. 70.- Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperatures in Main Sewer 
at Lawrence, the same for Sewage as delivered to Filter Tanks and 
for Effluent from Tank No. 1, from January, 1888, to April, 1889, in- 
clusive. * 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Temperature in main 
sewer. 
Temperature of sewage as 
delivered to filter tank. 
Temperature of effluent 
from Tank No. 1. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
1S88. 
January 
46 5 
37 
34 
35 3 
36 
35 
85.7 
February 
44 
36 
41 6 
65+ 
35 
47 0+ 
37 
35 
35 7 
March 
44 
36 
40 5 
80f 
51+ 
60 6+ 
42 
35 
36.6 
April 
51 
45 
47.2 
46 
36 
43.6 
46 
40 
42 2 
May 
57 
51 
53 2 
57 
45 
51 8 
57 
47 
52 0 
June 
63 
57 
59 4 
73 
58 
65 9 
73 
58 
64.1 
July 
61 
63.7 
73 
69 8 
74 
68 
71.0 
August 
68 
65 
67 1 
74 
69 
71 1 
71 
73.3 
September 
67 
62 
64 3 
71 
64 1 
74 
61 
68.4 
October 
59 
54 
56 3 
53 
47.8 
61 
51 
55.1 
November 
52 
50 
51.0 
50 
38 
45 0 
54 
43 
49.1 
December 
48 
45 
46 5 
46 
41 
44 7 
44 
39 
44.1 
1889. 
January 
47 
44 
45 9 
45 
44 
44 7 
41 
38 
29.6 
February 
48 
43 
44 5 
46 
44 
44 9 
39 
37 
37 6 
March 
47 
40 
44 
33 
36 6 
41 
36 
39.6 
April 
57 
45 
49.5 
53 
39 
46.1 
53 
40 
45.7 
* The maxima and minima of this table are not true maxima and minima as derived from maximum and 
minimum thermometers; they are merely the highest and lowest daily readings, as taken from the tabulations in 
the Special Report. + Sewage warmed artificially. 
applied to the filters in January, 1888, was over 11° below that of the 
sewage in the main sewer. In the winter of 1888-89 sewage was ap- 
plied at a temperature of about 45°, which was but little below the 
temperature of the main sewer, except in March, when the tempera- 
ture of the applied sewage ranged from 44° to 33°, with a mean of 36.6°. 
The mean temperature of the air for February of this year was 22.3°, 
as shown in Table No. 69. 
Without going into an elaborate analysis of the winter results of 
the Lawrence experiments it will be sufficient for present purposes to 
state : 
(1) That in winters of the mean temperatures of those of 1887-88 and 
1888-89, at Lawrence, sewage can be so far purified by intermittent fil- 
tration through sand, that probably 40 to 50 per cent, of the nitrogen 
applied in the sewage will be reduced to nitrates in the effluent. 
(2) That to accomplish this, the sewage needs to be applied at about 
the temperature 42° to 45°, which may be taken as the mean winter 
temperature in main sewers, although in manufacturing quarters, 
where hot waste liquids and condensed steam are admitted into the 
sewers, the temperature of the sewage may be even much higher.J 
J See Mr. Gray's Providence Report for temperature in sewers of Paris, where during an ex- 
tremely cold December in 1879 the mean temperature of the sewage was 43°, with a mean tempera- 
ture of the air at the same time of 18.3°, and of water of the Seine of 32°. 
In another case where a main Paris sewer receives the sewage of a manufacturing quarter, the 
winter temperature of the sewage was maintained at 53.6° to 62.6°. 306 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
(3) The complete nitrification of 50 per cent, of the organic matter 
represents more than 50 per cent, purification. 
Comparison of Air Temperatures at a Number of Places. 
Thus far we have comparatively little experience in this country in 
the winter purification of sewage by either broad irrigation or inter- 
mittent filtration on a large scale. We may, however, compare the mean 
temperatures at a number of places where meteorological records have 
been kept, with the records of places abroad where winter purification 
has proceded without interruption from frost. Table No. 71, following, 
gives a number of such records. 
The column State of Michigan in Table No. 71 may be taken as 
representing the approximate mean climate of that State. It is intro- 
duced for the purpose of showing what may be expected in a typical 
region in the northern part of the United States. The mean tempera- 
tures here given are from a table at page 17 of the 16th Annual Re- 
port of the Michigan State Board of Health, the stations represented 
being in all parts of the State, from Marquette and Escanaba at the 
North to Detroit, Ann Arbor, and Hillsdale at the South. The mean 
winter temperatures at Marquette are, however, much lower than the 
means as here given, and before designing sewage disposal by broad 
irrigation or intermittent filtration at a point as far north as Marquette, 
one would need more definite information in relation to local winter 
temperatures than is afforded by Table No. 71. 
Table No. 71.-Mean Monthly Winter Temperatures at the Places indi- 
cated in Europe and the United States. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
E-g,: • • ' 
Months. 
oat' 
Olfr 
rss 
9'98 
8'68 
r» 
Mean tem- 
perature. 
London. 
o 
No. of years 
taken. 
is iu oo o os 
Mean tem- 
perature. 
Dantzic. 
po 
No. of years 
taken. 
40.0 
29.7 
26.8 
27.3 
33.9 
44.5 
Mean tem- 
perature. 
Providence. 
□0 
No. of years 
taken. 
36.0 
26.6 
20.6 
23.6 
29.8 
44.3 
Mean tem- 
perature. 
State of 
Michigan. 
o 
No. of years 
taken. 
52.9 
46.6 
42.9 
49.2 
54.1 
63.5 
Mean tem- 
perature. 
No. of years 
taken. 
State of 
Alabama. 
In order to illustrate the preceding remark, and also to show the 
range of the mean in a single State, Table No. 72 has been prepared. 
The range in latitude of places in Table No. 72 is from 46°34' 
North at Marquette, to 42°17' North at Ann Arbor, a total range of 
4°17\ The lowest mean temperature for any month is found at COMPARISON OF AIR TEMPERATURES. 
307 
Table No. 72.-Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperatures for the Winter 
Months of 1886-87 at several Places in the State of Michigan. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Names of places. 
Dec., 1886. 
Jan., 1887. 
Feb., 1887. 
March, 1887. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Marquette 
42 
-13 
15.7 
37 
-21 
8.0 
36 
-13 
12.0 
46 
-14 
18.7 
Escanaba . 
39 
-15 
15.0 
39 
-21 
7.6 
36 
-17 
13.0 
44 
-12 
19.2 
Mackinaw city 
46 
0 
22.6 
42 
-14 
13.3 
41 
-12 
16.1 
39 
-10 
20.1 
Traverse city 
46 
-1 
21.6 
39 
-15 
16.2 
46 
- 15 
17.8 
48 
-7 
21.5 
Grand Haven 
49 
-3 
22.5 
48 
20.1 
46 
-7 
24.1 
60 
7 
27 3 
Lansing 
46 
-8 
19.6 
48 
-20 
18.2 
53 
-3 
24.4 
50 
5 
27.8 
Ann Arbor 
45 
-2 
19 3 
52 
-12 
19.5 
53 
3 
25.3 
51 
5 
29.1 
Detroit 
52 
3 
24.0 
54 
-3 
23.6 
51 
1 
28.2 
52 
31.0 
Escanaba in latitude 45°48' North, for the month of January; the 
highest mean for the same month being 23.6° at Detroit in latitude 
42°20'. The elevations above tide-water range from 930 feet at Ann 
Arbor to 585 at Detroit; Lansing is 900 feet, Marquette 641; while 
Escanaba, Mackinaw city, Traverse city, and Grand Haven are all a 
trifle less than 600 feet. The highest point at which a series of meteor- 
ological observations are recorded in Michigan is Reed city, in lati- 
tude 43°44' and 1,016 feet above tide, where in January, 1886, the mean 
temperature was 17.4°, with the maximum of 44° and minimum of -18° 
for the same month. 
A number of the other States have organized meteorological depart- 
ments in which the State meteorology is treated somewhat more in de- 
tail than by the United States Weather Bureau, and information of the 
kind indicated in the foregoing as likely to be of use in deciding ques- 
tions of sewage disposal may be in most cases easily obtained. By 
way of illustrating the climatology of one of the more southerly States, 
the means of the winter temperatures at a large number of places in 
the State of Alabama are also tabulated in Table No. 71. The details 
of the observations at a few of the stations in that State are given in 
Table No. 73. 
Table No. 73.-Minimum and Mean Temperatures of the Winter Months for 
a Series of Years at several Places in the State of Alabama. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Huntsville 
Birmingham 
Tuscaloos >... 
Auburn 
Montgomery 
Troy 
Mobile 
Name of place. 
co co co co co co co 
O O O O O O O 
Latitude. 
690 
600 
250 
826 
219 
450 
35 
Elevation above 
tide-water, ft. 
41.8 
49.0 
50.4 
47.8 
49.5 
52.3 
47.6 
December. 
Mean temperatures. 
42.1 
39.1 
45.1 
44.6 
48.2 
46.9 
50.7 
January. 
42.6 
41.7 
48.6 
50.7 
52.8 
51.3 
50 2 
February. 
51.3 
50.1 
56.6 
53.6 
57.1 
58.3 
60.7 
March. 
-0 
4 
4 
5 
14 
11 
Minimum for 
winter. 
14 
3 
6 
1H 
18i 
5 
22 
No. of years' ob- 
servations in- 
cluded in the 
means. 308 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The results of Table No. 73 in comparison with the mean temperature 
at Lawrence, Massachusetts, as shown in Table No. 69, easily indicate 
that an exceedingly efficient winter purification of sewage by irrigation 
and filtration can be attained in the State of Alabama. 
The foregoing illustrations of mean winter temperatures in Michigan 
and Alabama are sufficient to illustrate the value of a well-digested 
State climatology in connection with the selection of the method of 
sewage disposal to be used in regions lacking the data of actual ex- 
perience through a series of years. The variations in climate in dif- 
ferent parts of the United States are so extensive, and the range of lati- 
tude so great, that definite information of the kind here collected is of 
the highest value, though for its full utilization we need a series of 
allied observations in relation to the temperatures of the soil at 
various depths, such observations of the temperature of the soil fur 
nishing certain modifying corrections which do not appear from a 
study of air temperatures alone. 
Soil Temperature Observations Abroad. 
Observations of the temperature of the soil at various depths have 
been kept at the Greenwich Observatory, the Edinburgh University 
and at other places abroad for many years, but it is only recently that 
the subject has received any special attention in this country. 
To a number of the Agricultural Experiment Stations established 
during the last few years may be assigned the credit of beginning a 
series of studies of soil temperatures of value not only to the agricult- 
ural interests of the country, but which also throw considerable light 
on questions of sewage purification as well. 
Many of the European observations have been made and studied 
largely with reference to their bearing on geological dynamics, and 
while of interest from the geological point of view, are less useful for 
present purposes than those made at the several American Agricult- 
ural Experiment Stations. 
As an exception to this, Table No. 74, of the results at the Berlin 
sewage farms in 1884 and 1885, is given. 
The mean winter air temperatures at Berlin are : December, 33.5° 
F.; January, 30° ; and February, 31.1°. Soil temperatures have been 
taken at 14 different points at the depths indicated in Table No. 74. 
The results here given are the means of all the observations. The 
deepest frost penetration thus far observed is about 2.5 feet; in 
ordinary winters the depth of frost does not exceed 1.7 feet.* 
* Notes on European Practice in Sewage Disposal. By Chas. H. Swan. Jour, of Assn, of 
Eng. Socs., vol. vii., No. 7 p. 253 (July, 1888). RELATION OF SPECIFIC HEAT TO SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 
309 
Table No. 74.-Average Soil Temperatures at the Berlin Sewage Farms in 
1884 and 1885. 
Year. 
1884. 
1885. 
Depth, meters. 
0.5 
(1.64 ft.) 
1 
(3.28 ft.) 
3 
(9.84 ft.) 
0.5 
(1.64 ft.) 
1 
(3.28 ft.) 
3 
(9.84 ft.) 
Day of month. 
January 1 
40.1 
43.3 
49.5 
40.6 
43.4 
49.9 
January 15 
40.1 
42.4 
48.1 
39.1 
41.9 
49.0 
February 1 
42.9 
43.4 
35.9 
39.5 
47.7 
February 15 
43.3 
44.7 
47.7 
38.0 
40.6 
47.1 
March 1 
41.1 
43 5 
47.6 
41.1 
42 3 
46.7 
March 15 
43.2 
43.0 
46.8 
40.6 
42.3 
46.7 
April 1 
44.9 
45.3 
47.7 
43.4 
43.7 
46.7 
April 15 
46.8 
47.0 
47.7 
45.3 
45.9 
47,2 
May 1 
46.8 
46.2 
47.9 
54.7 
52.0 
48.1 
May 15 
56.2 
51.7 
49.0 
50.3 
50.5 
49.5 
June 1 
56.7 
54.6 
51.5 
57.8 
54.6 
50.4 
June 15 
58.3 
55.9 
52.2 
61.2 
58.0 
51.8 
July 1 
60.0 
57.5 
53.0 
64.7 
60.8 
53.5 
July 15 
66.0 
62.3 
54.4 
66.5 
62.9 
55.0 
August 1 
61.8 
61.1 
55.9 
62.7 
61.5 
56.2 
August 15 
64 9 
62.5 
56.4 
62.9 
61.8 
56.6 
September 1 
61.4 
61 2 
57.4 
58.0 
58.3 
56.6 
September 15 
61.8 
60 6 
57.3 
57.9 
57.9 
56.4 
October 1 
60.0 
59 7 
57.3 
55.6 
57.0 
56.5 
October 15 
53.1 
56.1 
56.9 
53.0 
54.4 
November 1 
48 7 
51 8 
55.5 
48 1 
50.9 
54.5 
November 15 
46.7 
50.0 
54.3 
48.2 
53.4 
December 1 
39.5 
44.0 
52.4 
43.1 
44.8 
51.9 
December 15 
44.8 
45.4 
50.8 
38.8 
42.8 
50.7 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Relation of Specific Heat to Sewage Disposal. 
The specific heat of a body is defined as the number of heat-units 
necessary to raise the temperature of one pound of the body 1° F. with 
water at 32° taken as the unit. In either of its three forms water pos- 
sesses the greatest specific heat of any substance known, although as 
ice its specific heat is only one-half that of the liquid form. Notwith- 
standing the utility of such information in agriculture, comparatively 
little has been done in the way of determining the specific heat of 
soils, the following table, No. 75, of relative rates of cooling, from 
Schiibler, embodying about the most useful results thus far obtained.* 
* On the Physical Properties of the Soil and on the Means of Investigating them. By Pro- 
fessor Schiibler, of the University of Tubingen. Jour. Roy. Ag. Soc. of Eng., vol. i. (1840), 
pp. 177-218. 
The results detailed in this paper of Professor Schiibler, while obtained more than 50 years ago, 
are still the best in many respects to be found anywhere. Recently the South Carolina and Mary- 
land Ag. Ex. Stations have experimented on soil physics, and the following resume from the 
Second An. Rept. of the S. Car. Sta. (pp. 76, 77) indicates the nature and extent of the work of 
this character which it is proposed to carry on at these stations. 
Soil Particles : 1. Interpretation of the result of mechanical analysis. 
a. Number of particles in unit weight or volume of soil. 
b. Diameter of average sized particle of soil and the mean arrangement of the particles. 
c. Surface area of particles (this shows the need of still further perfecting the method of 
mechanical analysis). 
2. On a movement of soil particles doc to changing water content and changing temperature, as 310 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
In obtaining these results a given quantity of dry soil was heated to 
145°, and the time required to cool to 70° observed, the temperature of 
the atmosphere being 61°. The observed times of cooling are stated 
in the first column ; in the second is given the relative power of 
retaining heat, with lime sand assumed as 100. 
In regard to the relative rates of cooling of the several earths as in- 
dicated in Table No. 75, it may be remarked that while the relative 
rate of cooling depends upon the power of retaining heat, it is still 
not quite identical with specific heat. As stated by Professor Schiib- 
related to the growth of roots, and the physical action of manure, with the effect of barometric 
changes and vapor pressure on the same. 
Soil Moisture: 3. Method for the determination of the moisture in the soil by electrical 
resistance. 
4. On the movement of soil moisture. 
a. On the cause and laws of the movement. 
b. On the effect of temperature. 
c. On the effect of manure. 
d. On the effect of rain. 
e. On the effect of cropping and cultivation. 
5. Calculation of the relative movement of soil moisture in different soils from the mechanical 
analysis. 
G. Calculation of the relative rate of evaporation and underdrainage from different soils from 
the mechanical analysis. 
7. On the capillary value of different soils from the mechanical analysis. 
8. Effect of fineness and compactness on the water-holding power. 
9. On the action of underdrains in the soil, and of how they act. 
10. On the flocculation and subsidence of clay particles. 
11. On the swelling of clay when wet. 
12. On the compacting of soils by rain. 
13. On the physical action of manures and fertilizers. 
Soil Temperature : 14. New form of soil thermometer, which registers the maximum and mini- 
mum temperature of a definite layer of soil. 
15. The relation of the soil to heat as observed in the field in typical soils or under different 
conditions of cultivation and fertilization. 
1G. Calculations of the relation of different soils to heat from the mechanical analyses, with 
the effect of the water content, cultivation, and cropping. 
17. The actual temperature of different soils, with range, etc. 
18. Study of the loss of heat from the different soils. 
a. As calculated from the mechanical analysis. 
b. As determined with the radiation thermometer. 
19. Specific heat of typical soils. 
Meteorology: 20. Temperature of the air and soils, and amount of moisture in same most 
favorable for plant growth. 
a. Distribution throughout the growing season. 
b. The relative effect on the growth of plants and crop production. 
c. How modified by manure and cultivation. 
21. The estimation of the actual amount of moisture in the soils from time to time. 
22. Influence of meteorological conditions. 
a. On grain production, as explaining low average yield of grain at the South. 
b. On the distribution of crops throughout the State. 
c. On the growth and ripening of crops. 
23. Amount and intensity of sunshine available for the crop. 
24. Effect of wind movement on plant growth, especially as to the amount of ammonia supplied 
to crops. RELATION OF SPECIFIC HEAT TO SEWAGE DISPOSAL. 
311 
ler, the rate of cooling does not depend merely upon specific heat, 
but on the different capacity as well which bodies possess of con- 
ducting heat. A body with a low rate of cooling will possess high 
specific heat and slight conducting power : these two properties com- 
bined constitute the power of retaining heat. 
Table No. 75. 
Time to cool from 
145° to 70° F. 
Relative power of 
retaining heat. 
Lime sand 
3 h. 30 min. 
100 0 
Quartz sand 
3 h. 27 min. 
95.6 
Clay loam 
2 h. 30 min. 
71 8 
Heavy clay 
2 h. 24 min. 
68.4 
Pure gray clay 
2 h. 19 min. 
66.7 
Garden soil J 
2 h. 16 min. 
64.8 
Humus 
1 h. 43 min. 
49.0 
Water 
30 h. 7 min. 
860.4 
Table No. 75 shows that under the stated conditions dry humus will 
cool about twice as fast as sand, and nearly eighteen times as fast as 
water, when exposed to the same degree of heat ; it also shows, inde- 
pendent of the considerations which have been forcibly presented by 
the Lawrence experiments, the superior value of sand as a sewage 
purification medium in winter. In order to illustrate this proposition 
we will review briefly the rationale of the process of applying sewage 
to an intermittent filtration area from day to day. According to the 
Lawrence experiments the daily application of sewage disappeared 
from the surface of coarse mortar-sand in comparatively short periods 
of time, the actual length depending, as might be expected, largely 
upon the amount applied. When applied at the rate of 60,000 gallons 
per acre per day, about 30 minutes usually sufficed for that quantity to 
sink entirely beneath the surface. At the rate of 100,000 gallons per 
day per single application, the surface of coarse sand was usually clear 
in about one hour,* though at times the periods were somewhat longer, 
as may be seen by inspection of the record in detail. In Table No. 76 
a few extracts are given from the original tabulations by way of illustrat- 
ing the point in question. As the liquid sewage sinks into the sand, thin 
laminae of water cover the particles of sand to the extent of about one- 
ninth of the whole volume, the balance of the space being occupied by 
sand two-thirds, and air one-fourth. The application of one day is 
pushed forward by that of the next, the last part of each daily applica- 
tion remaining just below the surface of the sand until the next appli- 
cation is made, when it is in turn pushed forward as before.f Again, it 
* For detailed statement as applying to filters of coarse sand and other material, see the 
tabulations in the Spec. Mass. Bd. of Health Rept., Part II. With very coarse material the daily 
application frequently disappeared within one minute. 
t Spec. Rept., Part II., pp. 6,7. 312 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 76.-Length of Time Sewage Remained on Sukface when Applied 
to Sand Filters (Lawrence). 
Date. 
Tank. 
Application 
per acre, 
gallons. 
'me sewage 
mained on 
surface. 
- 
Date. 
Tank. 
Application 
per acre, 
gallons. 
sewage j 
ned on 1 
face. 
Time 
remai 
sur 
£ 
April 10, 1888 
No 1 
30,000 
0 m. 
July 16, 1889 
No. 1 
100,000 
53 m. 
April 24, " 
44 4* 
30,000 
15 m. 
August 10, " 
100,000 
48 m. 
May 4, " 
44 44 
30,000 
0 m. 
April], 1888 
No. 2 
30,000 
45 m. 
August 15. " 
• * •• 
60,000 
20 m. 
April 6, •• 
44 44 
30.000 
2 h. 
18 m. 
August 23, 
4 < <4 
60.000 
18 m. 
April 10, " 
44 44 
30.000 
1 h. 
September 5, " 
44 44 
60,000 
20 m. 
May 4. 
44 44 
30,000 
48 m. 
September 6, •• 
44 
60,000 
42 in. 
July 16, 
44 •• 
20,000 
1 h. 
57 m. 
September?, " 
•« •• 
60.000 
22 m. 
August 14, '• 
.. .. 
20.000 
24 h. 
October 16, " 
•4 •• 
60,000 
1 h. 
11 m. 
August 24, " 
20.000 
5 h. 
41 m. 
October 19, " 
44 44 
60,000 
1 h. 
2 m. 
March 11, •• 
No. 6 
30,000 
20 m. 
December 10, " 
44 44 
60,000 
23 m. 
March 28, *• 
44 44 
30.000 
47 m. 
December 14, " 
4 4 44 
60,000 
27 m. 
April 19, " 
44 44 
30,000 
18 m. 
January 1, 1889 
4< 44 
60,000 
27 m. 
July 12, 
<4 44 
60.000 
1 h. 
38 m. 
January 15, " 
44 44 
60,000 
20 m. 
August 1, " 
44 4* 
60,000 
24 h. 
February 1, " 
4. 44 
60,000 
25 m. 
December 1, •* 
44 44 
60,000 
1 h. 
February 14, " 
4 4 44 
60,000 
24 m. 
January 1. 1889 
44 44 
60.000 
52 m. 
March 1. " 
60,000 
23 m. 
February 2, " 
44 44 
60.000 
1 h. 
March 15, " 
44 41 
60.000 
31 m. 
April 2, " 
60,000 
37 m. 
April 1, " 
44 44 
60,000 
32 in. 
June 1, " 
60,000 
36 m. 
April 15, " ... . 
44 44 
60,000 
1 h. 
51 m. 
March 24, 1888 
No. 12 
30,000 
20 s. 
May 1. " 
44 44 
60.000 
8 h. 
July 27, 
<4 44 
. 
24 h. 
May 15, " .. .. 
44 44 
60,000 
9 h. 
25 m. 
April 5, *• 
No. 13 
60,000 
45 s. 
June 14, " 
44 44 
60,000 
2 h. 
18 m. 
April 21, •• 
120,000 
1 n 
>. 5 s. 
July 2, " .... 
44 44 
100,000 
55 m. 
is clear that a slight circulation of air may be expected to take place 
through the voids of the sand which are not occupied with liquid, and 
the cooling effect of winter temperatures will therefore be somewhat 
greater than when continuous filtration, with its consequent entire ex- 
clusion of air, is used. In very cold weather, then, filter areas may be 
considerably protected from freezing by the use for the time being 
of continuous filtration rather than intermittent, the high specific heat 
of the water covering obviously extending greatly the time of reduc 
tion to temperature of freezing. 
Returning to the specific heat of sand, we may conclude from the 
preceding that its high capacity for retaining heat will also assist in 
prolonging the time to freezing. Putting sand in comparison with 
humus, other things being equal, the time would be doubled before 
reduction to the temperature of freezing, as shown by Schiibler's table. 
How Heated Bodies Cool. 
The rate at which cooling of various soils and water takes place is 
thus shown to be of considerable practical importance in sewage 
disposal ; indeed, we may say that a thorough understanding of its 
laws will assist greatly in reaching a satisfactory solution of the prob- 
lem of winter purification in cold climates. At present, aside from the 
experiments of Dulong and Petit and of Peclet, we have little accurate HOW HEATED BODIES COOL. 
313 
knowleclge of the laws of heat which apply, and what we do derive 
from their experiments, so far as its application to the present subject 
is concerned, is far from satisfactory. 
The cooling of heated bodies may be effected by either radiation, 
contact of cold air, or by conduction. In the case of a filter area with 
a sheet of water covering it, the sources of loss which it is necessary 
to consider are radiation and contact of cold air. Conduction, aside 
from the small area of contact of water and soil at the sides, only 
takes place from the water to the filter area, with the useful result that 
the heat abstracted from the water by conduction goes to increase the 
temperature of the filtering material. 
Radiation from a given area of surface varies as the temperature. 
For water its value is 1.085 heat-units per square foot of area per 
hour for a difference of 1° F. in temperature. 
Within limits not exceeding about 30° F. we may say that cooling 
by contact of air is, for a given area of surface, also proportional to 
the difference in temperature between the air and the body cooled, in 
accordance with the law of Newton. For greater differences of tem- 
perature the ratio of loss is somewhat higher, as demonstrated by 
Dulong, but for present purposes the assumption of proportionality 
of loss to temperature is sufficient. For a difference of 1° F. we may 
take the loss by cooling from contact with the air, according to Peclet, 
at 0.595 heat-units per square foot per hour. The combined loss from 
radiation and contact per square foot per hour for a difference of 1° F. 
accordingly becomes (1.085 + 0.595) = 1.680 heat-units. 
In order to illustrate the foregoing let us assume an air temperature 
of 10° and sewage at a temperature of 45° applied to the depth of four 
inches on a filter area free of snow. Also assume the time required to 
completely sink below the surface at one hour. The loss of heat from 
radiation and contact of cold air per square foot per hour will be ap- 
proximately (1.68 x 35) = 58.8 heat-units. Four inches in depth gives a 
volume weight per square foot of 20.8 pounds. The reduction in tem- 
perature of the applied sewage before sinking into the filtering mate- 
rial will accordingly be (58.8 - 20.8) = 2.8° F. To find the time elaps- 
ing before reduction under the conditions to the temperature of freez- 
ing we have a total loss of heat-units per square foot of (20.8 X 13) = 
270.4, of which, as an approximation, we may say 59 heat-units are 
lost the first hour, 54 the second hour, 50 the third hour, and so on 
until the whole quantity of 270.4 units is lost in about five and one- 
half hours. This result is a rapid approximation merely. The sub- 
ject admits of extended mathematical treatment, but the data are not 
exact enough to justify the additional expenditure of labor required.* 
* The laws of cooling are very complicated, and all formulae thus far devised are merely approxi- 
mative. Newton's law asserts that the rate at which a body loses heat is proportional to the dif- 314 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Again, the latent heat of freezing is about 142 units, and the with- 
drawal of this amount of heat under the conditions assumed, and 
through the operation of the same law of loss, will still further extend 
the time of complete congelation. In illustration of this we may con- 
sider the case of the stratum of water equivalent to a pound in weight 
per square foot. Its thickness will be (12.00 62.4) = 0.192 inches. 
The time required for this thickness to congeal will be, under the law 
of cooling already used, about 3.5 hours. When ice has once formed, 
however, a somewhat different set of conditions govern. Loss of heat 
from the water under the ice can then take place only by conduction 
through the ice cover, and, by reason of the low conductivity of ice, at 
a lower rate than when the unprotected water was exposed to every 
passing movement of the air. The weight of water at 32° is somewhat 
less than at slightly higher temperatures, 39.3° being the temperature 
of greatest density. Hence cooling by convection will not take place 
at the low temperatures under consideration. These illustrations, 
without exhausting the subject, will suffice to indicate why the process 
of cooling is a prolonged one under the conditions assumed. 
The specific heat of ice, however, is, as already stated, only one-half 
that of water, and hence we may expect a relatively more rapid further 
reduction of temperature of the ice itself after once actually formed 
than before; that is to say, ice responds to changes of temperature 
twice as readily as water. 
ference between the temperature of its surface and that of its inclosure. The rate of cooling may 
be defined as the fall of temperature per unit of time for any given instant considered. 
In testing the law of cooling experimentally it is found that if the temperature of a cooling 
body is observed at equal intervals of time, the excesses above the temperature of the air in which 
the cooling body is placed form a decreasing series, in which, letting O.> denote the initial excess 
of temperature, ~~ the ratio of the series, we have the excess at the end of one unit of time equal 
to , at the end of two units and after t units --If, then, e denote the excess 
m m2 m' 
at time, t, there results O -. __ 0O m-l. 
ml 
The following practical expression for the loss of heat by contact with air will answer the re- 
quirements of ordinary computation : 
L - 0.1F (t-TV* 
in which 
L - loss of heat by contact per square foot per hour ; 
F - factor for movement of air - 4 for quiet air ; 5, for moderately moving air; and 6 for rapidly 
moving air; 
t -= temperature of heated body ; and 
T - temperature of the air in contact. 
When (t-T) does not exceed aoout 20° to 30°, we may take L = 0. 1 F (t-T). 
For ordinary conditions of loss by contact of air with a filter area, F - 5, may be taken. 
With great differences of temperature, as for instance 50° to 60°, the neglect of the fractional 
exponent of (t-T) will lead to relatively larger variations from the actual law than with the 
smaller differences considered in the foregoing. HOW HEATED BODIES COOL. 
315 
In order to insure that winter purification may go on without inter- 
ruption, the thing to be attained, then, is to prevent the formation of 
any considerable quantity of ice. As we have seen, the latent heat of 
freezing is 142 units ; when ice is once formed this amount of heat will 
be required for every pound in the process of melting to water at the 
temperature of 32°. With sewage at temperature of 45° going on to a 
frozen filtration area, for every pound of ice converted into water at a 
temperature of 32° there will be required the reduction of 13 pounds 
of the onfiow'ing sewage to the same temperature ; in other words, with 
onflowing sewage at temperature of 45° the result of melting one 
pound of ice will be the reduction of nearly 13 pounds of water to a 
temperature of 32°. The 13 pounds of water at 32° thus reduced in 
temperature will, however, still contain their latent heat, amounting to 
(13 x 142) = 1,846 heat units, of which the water must be further en- 
tirely deprived before it can all pass into the state of ice. 
By way of illustrating the practical significance of the foregoing, let 
us assume the case of a filtration area covered with water frozen to the 
depth of three inches; temperature of air, 20°; fresh sewage applied 
above the ice at a temperature of 45°. We require to know the depth 
of sewage at this temperature which must be applied in order to melt 
the three inches of ice. Taking the weight of ice at 58 pounds per 
cubic foot, we have the weight of a square foot of area three inches 
thick as 14.5 pounds. The ice is exposed to a temperature of air on 
one side of 20° and of water on the other at 32°. We may assume its 
mean temperature at half way between the two, or at 26°.* Under these 
conditions every pound of ice will require (142 + 6) = 148 heat-units 
in order to reduce it to the liquid state at temperature of 32°, or each 
square foot of area will require (14.5 x 148) = 2,146 heat-units. The 
amount of water at 45° which will furnish this without beginning to 
congeal is (2,146 4- 13) - 165 pounds = 2.6 cubic feet; or, what is the 
same thing, there would be required a depth of water over the area of 
2.6 feet. This computation, moreover, has not taken into account the 
loss of heat of the applied sewage because of cooling from radiation 
and contact with the air ; this of itself would considerably increase the 
amount necessary to be applied. 
The Massachusetts experiments at their very beginning, in the win- 
ter of 1887-88, have afforded an excellent practical illustration of the 
principles nowunder discussion. For instance, in January, 1888, when 
sewage was first applied, the mean temperature for the whole month 
was, as shown in Table No. 69, 15.46°. The sewage was further, for 
* This assumption will not be quite true, as the small amount of evaporation which will take 
place from the exposed surface, even under the extreme conditions assumed, will reduce the mean 
temperature somewhat lower. It may be considered, nevertheless, near enough for illustrative 
purposes, which is all that is required here. 316 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
reasons already indicated, applied at a temperature only a few degrees 
above 32°. The result was that some of the filters became frozen, and 
it was found necessary to heat the sewage by passing a steam coil 
through the measuring tank. The amount of this heating may be seen 
by reference to Table No. 70. During February the amount of heating 
was sufficient to give a mean for the month of 47°, or about 5° above 
the mean in the sewer. This proving insufficient to free the tank from 
ice, the sewage was so far warmed artificially in March as to give a 
mean of about 61° for the whole month. On March 8, sewage at 
temperature of 57° was applied at the rate of 204,000 gallons per acre, 
followed by the same quantity on March 9, at temperature of 55°. On 
March 10, 32,000 gallons per acre was applied at temperature of G9°; 
March 12 and 13, 40,000 gallons per acre each day at 75°; March 14, 
40,000 gallons at 80°; March 15, 50,000 gallons at 68°; and March 16, 
50,000 gallons at 70°. From that time to the end of the month the 
temperature of applied sewage ranged from 68° to 52° ; but at no time 
during that period did the temperature of the effluent rise above 40°. 
These figures serve to point out saliently the large amount of sensible 
heat which must have been extracted from the applied sewage before 
the lost latent heat of the frozen material was fully restored. The 
mean temperature of the air for the mouth of March, 1888, was, as 
shown in Table No. 69, 29.76°. 
We may conclude, then, that in case a filtration area becomes frozen 
solid, the application of sewage at its ordinary water temperature of 
45 ° or thereabouts to the exterior of the frozen surface is fundament- 
ally wrong; it will only lead to an increase of the difficulty which it 
is intended to obviate. In case it is impossible to prevent freezing, 
the area should be so managed that the daily application of sewage 
at normal winter temperature may be made to pass under the ice, 
thereby avoiding the serious loss of heat resulting from contact of 
water in the liquid state with cold air. A certain amount of loss will 
still go on through the ice, but, as already shown, less rapidly than 
from an unprotected water surface. The resulting increase of tem- 
perature under the ice will further prevent the penetration of frost into 
the material of the filter, a point of considerable importance in its 
bearing upon the quality of the effluent. 
By reason of containing a large amount of air entangled among its 
particles, snow may be considered a poor conductor of heat; it is, 
therefore, a relatively good covering for a filtration or irrigation area 
in winter; and the foregoing shows how it may be of practical use if 
the sewage can be made to run under it, forming a thin layer of ice 
above. 
The preceding discussion enables us to appreciate the real reason 
why certain soils are warm and others cold. For instance, humus is SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL RADIATION. 
317 
usually considered a cold soil by reason of the long time required for 
it to become warm enough in spring to admit of successful planting. 
Its capacity for heating to a given temperature is shown by Schiibler's 
table to be double that of sand, and it therefore ought, under the same 
conditions, to become warm twice as quick. Usually, however, humus 
is found in valleys, and when without artificial drainage is saturated 
with water which, from its slowness in absorbing heat, extends the 
time of warming beyond the better-drained soils of uplands. On the 
other hand, at the approach of cold weather dry humus will, for the 
same reason, lose its temperature more quickly than sand, but here 
again the slowness of the water with which it is saturated to part 
with its specific heat will extend the time of cooling of the whole, so 
that in effect it is found that the natural soils of the valleys are gener- 
erally cooler in summer and warmer in winter than those of the adja- 
cent highlands. This fact will be forcibly brought out in discussing 
the results of the soil temperature observations at Fort Collins, Colo- 
rado, and at Auburn, Alabama. 
The cooling effect of evaporation may also be referred to as one of 
the elements of the problem under discussion. That it is an impor- 
tant element may be appreciated by considering that the evaporation 
of an inch of water over an acre will require as much heat as can be 
utilized in warming from the combustion of about eleven tons of coal. 
In a water-logged soil the evaporation may be expected, therefore, to 
reduce the summer temperature somewhat below what it would other- 
wise be. In filtration through coarse sand this loss, while probably 
slightly more than from a water surface because of the open quality 
of the material allowing of free circulation of air, can still be endured; 
if it proceeded at an equally rapid rate in winter it would be a very 
serious objection, but fortunately the relatively low rate of evapora- 
tion in the winter acts to reduce the loss at that time. 
Solar and Terrestrial Radiation. 
Solar and terrestrial radiation is another branch of the subject not 
only possessing theoretical interest but practical possibilities in the 
future of vast significance. In the introduction to his paper, Re- 
searches on Solar Heat,* etc., Professor Langley remarks that "the 
observation of the amount of heat which the sun sends to the earth 
may be termed the fundamental problem of meteorology." If we 
knew the original quantity and kind of this heat, how much of it 
reaches the soil, how it maintains the surface temperature, and how 
in diminished quantity and altered kind it is finally returned to space, 
* Researches on Solar Heat and its Absorption by the Earth's Atmosphere, by Professor S. P. 
Langley. Professional Papers of the Signal Service, No. xv., 1884. 318 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
nearly every element of the problem now under discussion, as well 
as those pertaining to aerial meteorology, would become predica- 
ble. 
According to Professor Langley's experiments of 1881 and 1882 it is 
shown that all the thermal phenomena on which organic life depends 
hinge upon the atmospheric property of selective absorption, without 
which the temperature of the soil, even in the tropics, would fall far 
below zero. 
An attempt to define the modern conception of what selective ab- 
sorption really is would lead too far into the theory of molecular 
physics, and we may simply say that the paper of Professor Langley 
furnishes an epitome of all that is at present known in regard to it; a 
study of the paper will repay any person interested in scientific mete- 
orology and allied subjects.* 
In reference to solar radiation it maybe stated that the temperature 
of the air as measured by an ordinary thermometer does not indicate 
the real intensity of the sun's heat. Such a thermometer really meas- 
ures only the amount of heat absorbed by the air; even when exposed 
to the direct rays of the sun its indications are below the real solar 
intensity by reason of the cooling effect of moving currents of air. In 
order to avoid the effect of such currents the vacuum solar radiation 
thermometer, which consists of a blackened bulb radiation thermom- 
eter inclosed in a glass tube and globe from which all air has been ex- 
hausted, is used; its indications are from 20° to 30° higher than those 
from a similar instrument with the bulb freely exposed to the moving 
air. By its use it is found that the solar intensity varies greatly at 
different places without reference to the temperature of the air. The 
intensity of solar radiation at any given place is indicated by compar- 
ing the solar radiation readings with the maximum air temperature. 
Again it has been known for a long time that the radiation of heat 
from the surface of the earth during the night reduces the temperature 
of the surface below that of the surrounding air. The amount of this 
radiation, or rather the reduction of temperature resulting therefrom, 
is shown approximately by comparing the readings of a terrestrial ra- 
diation thermometer with those of a minimum air thermometer. Some 
of the results obtained at a few points in this country have been tabu- 
lated in connection with the soil temperature observations following. 
Thus far we have considered the relative heating capacity of the soil 
without reference to its color, although it is obvious from the differ- 
ence in effect of solar heat on a blackened thermometer bulb that the 
effect of color is of considerable importance; and while in saturated 
soils the relatively high specific heat of water is, as we have seen, the 
* Deschanel's Natural Philosophy (Everett's Translation) may also be referred to for clear ele- 
mentary definition of selective emission and absorption. SOLAR AND TERRESTRIAL RADIATION. 
319 
controlling factor, nevertheless the influence of color as assisting se- 
lective absorption may still justly claim momentary attention. 
The fact that dark-colored soils are more easily warmed by the sun's 
rays than light ones has been frequently observed ; and experimental 
proof that an elevation of several degrees in the temperature of a light- 
colored soil may be caused by strewing its surface with charcoal pow- 
der or black vegetable mould has been obtained. Observations on this 
point have been made by several European investigators, but in the 
absence of explicit statements in regard to the effect of the entrained 
moisture of the soil the results have relative value only.* 
The best results are again those of Schiibler, who observed the tem- 
perature of various dry soils when exposed to solar heat with their 
surfaces either blackened by a thin coating of lampblack or whitened 
by powdered magnesia. Schiibler also determined the relative tem- 
peratures of various soils, both dry and wet, with surfaces in natural 
condition. Some of the results of these two determinations are em- 
bodied in Table No. 77. 
Table No. 77.-Heating Effect of the Sun on Wet and Dry Soils of Different 
Colors. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Mean of the highest temperature of the upper surfaces of: 
Dry earth. 
Natural color. 
Material. 
T3 
T5 
s 
8 
O 
C 
O 
Whit 
* Q 
g 
s 
(S 
s 
Wet. 
Dry. 
Diffe 
Magnesia, pure white 
108.7 
121.3 
12 6 
95.2 
108 7 
13.5 
Fine carbonate of lime, white 
109.2 
122.9 
13 7 
96.1 
109 4 
13.3 
Gypsum, bright white-gray 
110.3 
124.3 
14.0 
97.3 
110.5 
13.2 
Plough-land, gray 
107.6 
122 0 
14 4 
97 7 
111 7 
14 0 
Sandy clay, yellowish 
108.3 
121.6 
13 3 
98 2 
111 4 
13 2 
Quartz-sand, bright yellowish-gray 
109.9 
123.6 
13.7 
99.1 
112.6 
13.5 
Loam, yellowish 
107 8 
121.1 
13 3 
99 1 
112 1 
13 0 
Lime-sand, whitish-gray 
1(19.9 
124.0 
14.1 
99.3 
112 1 
12 8 
Heavy clay soil, yellowish-gray 
107.4 
120.4 
13.0 
99.3 
112 3 
13 0 
Pure clay, bluish-gray 
106 3 
120.0 
13.7 
99 5 
113 0 
13 5 
Garden mould, blackish-gray 
108.3 
122.5 
14.2 
99.5 
113 5 
14 0 
Slaty marl, brownish-red.. 
108 3 
123.4 
15.1 
101.8 
115.3 
13.5 
Humus, brownish-black 
108.5 
120.9 
12.4 
103.6 
117.3 
13.7 
Studying this table we note : (1) That the lampblack surface was 
warmed on an average about 13.5° more than the •white; (2) that the 
character of the surface determined the temperature. The results 
show that for all the soils the temperatures with either lampblack or 
magnesia were essentially the same. 
In the second series with natural surface, and either wet or dry, we 
* For resume of results in this direction see, (1) Storer's Agriculture, vol. i., pp. 112-116 ; (2) 
Johnson's How Plants Grow, pp. 186-199. 320 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
note for gray soil wet, a temperature of 97.7° ; and for brownish-black 
humus wet, 103.6°, giving a range of 5.9°. The same soils dry give, 
for gray soil, 111.7°, and for humus, 117.3°, a range of 5.6°. 
Again the difference in favor of the dry soils as against the wet is 
about 13.5°, the same as observed for the soils with whitened and 
blackened surfaces. 
Further we observe : (1) That all the soils when wet uniformly pre- 
sent a lower temperature than when dry and whitened; (2) that the 
dark-colored soils when wet were warmer than the wet light-colored 
ones. Again comparing the two sets of results it is evident that the deep- 
ening of the color has in all the wet soils materially assisted the temper- 
ature, which rises in a clear relation to the deepening of the color until 
in the case of brownish-black humus it lacks only 3.6° of being as 
high as the same soil dry with lampblack surface. 
Among earths and rocks specific heat seems to vary in some degree 
in proportion to density; and as a mean value we may say that gravel 
stone in comparison with water taken as unity has a specific heat of 
about 0.20. The upper surface of a filter area composed of fine dark- 
colored gravel will therefore possess greater efficiency than one not 
so covered; for such covering the rounded slate-colored pebbles of 
many river-beds will answer admirably. 
Again the specific heat of wood charcoal is 0.24, and its use for 
surfacing a filter can be considered, on account of its black color, of 
possible utility. 
Further, on the subject of increasing the temperature of the soil of 
filter areas, it may be stated that the nitrifying process itself is, when 
active, no inconsiderable source of heat, which is liberated by chemi- 
cal action from the organic substances in process of disintegration. 
In regard to increasing the temperature of filter areas by the use of 
dark-colored surfaces it may appear at first sight that, inasmuch as 
radiation or absorption are apparently converse operations, the net 
result for a complete cycle will be the same as though the surface had 
been left in its natural condition. The principle of selective absorp- 
tion, however, shows us that the rays of low intensity of wave-motion 
may be almost completely absorbed. Again radiation is not in every 
sense the converse of absorption, the quality of the surface has more 
to do with its quantity than color, as may be proven by suspending 
two terrestrial radiation thermometers at the same height, one above 
sod and the other above sand, when it will be found that the one above 
sod will show the lower temperature. Moreover bodies differ in their 
power of absorbing and radiating heat of different degrees of intensity 
of wave-motion. If black cloth or black paper be spread on snow on 
which the sun is shining the snow will melt more rapidly under the 
cloth than elsewhere. If the cloth is suspended above the snow the AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
321 
melting still goes on the same as when resting upon it. The reasons 
for this are: (1) That snow has a special capacity for heat of low in- 
tensity ; (2) the effect of absorption, conduction, and radiation by the 
black cloth is to transform the solar rays from a state of high intensity 
to that of low intensity, in which state they are capable of doing their 
maximum work in restoring the lost latent heat of snow. Expressing 
the fact in another way we may imagine that the effect of the black 
cloth has been to so reduce the intensity of wave-motion as to bring 
solar heat to a state wherein it can act the most effectively upon snow, 
a substance which is only exceeded by water in the slowness with 
which it receives and parts with heat. We may conclude then that the 
selecting of a material for the surface of a filter of such absorbing and 
radiating capacity as to utilize to some extent the heat gained during 
the day in maintaining the temperature during the night is quite 
within the possibilities of our present knowledge of heat. 
American Soil Temperature Observations. 
We may now take up the consideration of a few of the soil tempera- 
ture observations which have been kept by a number of the Agricult- 
ural Experiment Stations for the last few years. 
The soil thermometer in common use in this country was devised for 
the New York State Station at Geneva, by Henry J. Green, in 1882. 
So far as known to the author, with the exception of a short series 
made by Dr. Kedzie of the Michigan State Agricultural College a 
few years previously, the Geneva observations were the first extended 
series begun in this country. Unfortunately they have been confined 
entirely to the growing season from April to October, inclusive, and 
are without value for the present purpose. The station is to be cred- 
ited, however, with the first systematic beginning of such work. 
The thermometers devised by Mr. Green are a series of ordinary 
mercurial thermometers with sufficient length of stem to project above 
the ground for any depth. The graduation is far enough above the 
surface to enable the thermometer to be read by the observer when 
kneeling. They are encased in well-seasoned wood except at the bot- 
tom of the bulb and at the graduation. At the sides of the bulb, holes 
are bored through the wood to admit of more perfect contact with the 
soil. In setting the thermometer a trench is excavated, a groove cut 
at the side, the thermometers planted therein at the proper depths 
and the trench refilled as nearly as possible to its natural condition. 
The errors of soil thermometers may be determined by comparison 
with a standard and corrections applied to the observations the same 
as to any other mercurial thermometer. 
In Table No. 78 is given the mean soil temperatures and the snowfall 322 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 78.-Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperatures of the Air and 
the Same for the Soil at Various Depths, for the Months from Novem- 
ber, 1890, to April, 1891, inclusive, at State College, Pennsylvania. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Month. 
Air 15 feet above 
ground. 
Soil, depth of 
3 inches. 
j Soil, depth of 
6 inches. 
Soil, depth of 
1 foot. 
Soil, depth of 
2 feet. 
Snowfall, | 
inches. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
1890- 
Nov.... 
60.0 
17.0 
41.2 
49.5 
33.5 
40.9 
50.0 
35.0 
41.7 
48.5 
37.5 
43.2 
48.0 
40.5 
45.4 
0.6 
Pec.... 
47.0 
1.0 
25.6 
34.0 
32.0 
32.8 
34.5 
33.0 
33.6 
37.5 
34.5 
35.4 
40.5 
36.5 
37.9 
32.6 
1891. 
Jan.... 
49 0 
1.0 
28.9 
32.5 
23.0 
30.6 
33.0 
27.0 
31.4 
34.5 
33.0 
33.3 
35.0 
34 5 
35.0 
13.8 
Feb. ... 
58.0 
4.0 
33.1 
45.0 
23.5 
32.4 
11.5 
27.5 
32.3 
37.5 
33.0 
•33.6 
36.5 
34.0 
34.4 
40.5 
March.. 
54.0 
0.0 
31.6 
41.5 
24.0 
32.7 
40.5 
30.0 
33.5 
89.5 
33.0 
34.4 
38.0 
34.0 
35.1 
15.1 
April... 
82.0 
20.0 
49.5 
62.0 
31.5 
45.9 
56.5 
33.0 
46.0 
55.0 
35.0 
45.1 
50.5 
36.5 
43.1 
0.5 
in comparison with the mean air temperature for the winter of 1890-91, 
as kept at State College, Pennsylvania in latitude, 40° 55' north, longi- 
tude 77° 51' west. Observations have been made during the growing 
season for several years, but the foregoing are the first winter records 
kept. The station is 1,200 feet above tide-water. The soil in which the 
thermometers stand is a moderately dark, compact loam for a depth of 
about seven inches and after that a stiff clay subsoil. The surface im- 
mediately over the thermometers is free from vegetation and during 
the summer kept loose by stirring from time to time. The most inter- 
esting point in connection with this series is the slight frost penetra- 
tion in December, 1890, when the minimum temperature for the month 
was 1.0°, with a mean of 25.6°, the snowfall for the month being 32.6 
inches. 
At the Maine State College, Orono, Maine, in latitude 44° 54' north, 
and longitude 68° 40' west, a series of soil temperature readings have 
been kept for the growing season of the last three years. Table No. 
79 gives the results for 1889. 
Terrestrial and solar radiation readings are also given and herewith 
included by way of illustrating the relation of this class of data to soil 
temperatures. The terrestrial radiation thermometer was placed over 
grass and within six inches of the surface of the ground, while the 
minimum air thermometer with which it is compared was four feet from 
the ground. The greatest range of the terrestrial radiation thermome- 
ter from the minimum air was 10.8°. The quality of the soil in which 
the soil thermometers are placed and the elevation of the station above 
tide-water are not stated in the reports at hand. 
The mean winter temperatures of air at Orono in 1889 were : Novem- 
ber, 38.9° ; December, 27.6° ; January, 25.0° ; February, 15.2° ; March, 
32.9° ; April, 45.1°. The minimum winter temperature was- 20.0°, in 
March. The snowfall was: November, G inches; December, 6.5 in- AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
323 
Table No. 79.-Mean Temperature of the Air, Terrestrial Radiation, So- 
lar Radiation, and Mean Soil Temperatures at Various Depths for the 
Months from May to October, 1889, inclusive, at Maine State College, 
Orono, Maine. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
1889. 
May 
June 
July 
August.... 
September. 
October ... 
Means... 
Month. 
gfcb'SKgg 
7 
A. M. 
S S o L? S 2? S 
S888388 
59.47 
68.07 
70.86 
66.81 
61.55 
44.05 
61.80 
7 
P.M. 
60.24 
1 68.57 
70.58 
66.99 
62.27 
44.75 
62.23 
Mean. 
Mean of mini- 
mum temper- 
ature. 
o 
38.48 
49.20 
50.59 
47.66 
44.60 
28.48 
43.17 
Mean of ter. 
rad. ther. 
p pl Qt 4^ £> po 
8s Ss gs b S « 
Loss by radia- 
tion. 
Mean of sun 
thermometer. 
g 
67.85 
73.45 
75.30 
73.72 
71.23 
52.78 
69.05 
Mean of maxi- 
mum temper- 
ature. 
Excess of solar 
intensity. 
gfe32g£2 
£825^8 
K 
Soil, depth of 3 inches. 
60.33 
69.62 
70.86 
68.91 
63.01 
47.31 
63.34 
1 
P. M. 
fcg£2ES3 
7 
P. M. 
Mean. 
Month. 
Soil at depth of 1 foot. 
Soil, depth of 2 feet. 
Soil, depth of 3 feet. 
7 
A.M. 
1 
P.M. 
7 
P.M. 
Mean. 
7 
A.M. 
1 
P.M. 
7 
P.M. 
Mean. 
7 
A.M. 
1 
P.M. 
7 
P.M. 
Mean. 
1889. 
May 
52.46 
52.15 
53.21 
52.61 
48.84 
49.06 
49.01 
48.96 
46.28 
46.42 
46.4S 
46.39 
June 
61.26 
61.10 
61.79 
61.38 
57.23 
57.43 
57.41 
57.36 
54.36 
54.54 
54.52 
54.47 
July 
64.30 
64.02 
64.29 
64.20 
60.99 
61.14 
61.03 
61.05 
58.50 
58.57 
58.57 
58.56 
August 
63.31 
63.10 
63.31 
63.24 
60.96 
61.10 
60.97 
61.01 
59.16 
59.23 
59.23 
59.23 
September 
60.30 
60.21 
60.04 
60.18 
59.42 
59.51 
59.36 
59.43 
58.40 
58.37 
58.37 
58.43 
October 
48.17 
47.83 
47.85 
47.95 
50.63 
50.65 
50.54 
50.61 
51.66 
51.61 
51.61 
51.64 
Means 
58.30 
58.06 
58.41 
58.26 
56.34 
56.48 
56.39 
56.40 
54.73 
54.79 
54.79 
54.79 
dies; January, 15.5 indies; February, 28.3 indies; March, 4 indies; 
April, 4 indies. 
In Table No. 80 we have the means of a series of observations of 
temperature of air and soil as taken at 2 P. M., the approximate time of 
maximum daily temperature of each day for the months of January to 
April inclusive, 1889, at St. Anthony Park, Minnesota. The severity 
of the Minnesota climate will be appreciated when it is remarked that 
the mean of 2 P. M. observations for February was 17°. The winter of 
1888 -89 is stated, however, to have been on the whole a mild one. 
Nevertheless the soil of the Minnesota Station, which is gravel and sand 
with an admixture of clay, froze to a depth of between four and five 
feet; the greatest penetration of frost took place in the month of March, 
when the mean air temperature was 44° and the upper layers of soil had 
entirely lost their frost to a depth of 12 inches. The temperature at 
depth of five feet read 32° on three days in that month, 33° being the 
lowest in February, that temperature only being reached for the first 
time on February 22. On February 1 the temperature at five feet was 324 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 80.-Approximate Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperature of 
the Air and the Same for the Soil at Various Depths, for the Months 
from January to April, 1889, Inclusive, at St. Anthony Park, Minne- 
sota. * 
(Fahrenheit.0) 
Month. 
Air 5 feet above 
ground. 
Depth of 3 inches. 
Depth of 1 foot. 
Depth of 2 feet. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
January. 
1889. 
3b 
10 
25 
33 
15 
25 
30 
IS 
25 
31 
24 
29 
February 
46 
- 3 
17 
32 
6 
19 
27 
18 
22 
28 
18 
24 
March... 
62 
14 
44 
59 
21 
41 
39 
26 
32 
32 
25 
30 
April.... 
68 
42 
56 
66 
46 
58 
50 
35 
43 
45 
32 
39 
Month. 
Depth of 3 feet. 
Depth of 4 feet. 
Depth of 5 feet. 
Depth of 6 feet. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
January. 
1889. 
35 
31 
33 
38 
34 
36 
40 
36 
88 
41 
37 
39 
February 
31 
25 
29 
34 
30 
32 
36 
33 
34 
37 
34 
36 • 
March... 
32 
26 
30 
32 
30 
31 
33 
32 
33 
34 
34 
34 
April.... 
43 
32 
37 
41 
32 
36 
40 
33 
36 
34 
39 
36 
♦ The results in this table are all based upon the 2 p.m. daily observations. The maximum and minimum are 
the highest and lowest observations for each month. 
36°; it gradually fell until 33° was reached on the 22d, as just stated. 
At the depth of six feet the temperature ranged from 37° to 34° in 
February and remained stationary at 34° for the whole of March and 
until April 14, when the temperature advanced to 35°. From that time 
to the end of the month the tendency was slowly upward at six feet, 
reaching 39° at the end of the month. 
In reference to snow protection at St. Anthony Park, it is stated that 
the surface about the soil thermometers was nearly bare and fully ex- 
posed to the northwest winds, which are the coldest of the locality. 
These Minnesota observations are of special interest as illustrating 
the length of time required for the ground to free itself from frost 
when once frozen. The mean air temperature for March was 44°, with 
a mean soil temperature at the depth of three inches of 41°. At the 
depth of two feet the temperature of 32° was not attained until March 
28 and remained at that point until April 5. These results show the 
considerable length of time required for the soil and entrained moist- 
ure to recover its lost latent heat. In winters of extreme cold the soil 
of Minnesota is said to freeze to the depth of six feet. Experimental 
verification of this by the use of thermometers is lacking, as these ob- 
servations have not been carried on since the winter of 1888-89. AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
325 
In Table No. 81 we have the results of air and soil temperature obser- 
vations at Lincoln, Nebraska (latitude 40°50z north, longitude 96°45' 
west), for the winter of 1890-91, and the months of November and 
December, 1891. The station is about 1,150 feet above tide-water and 
subject to a snowfall at times of over two feet. The soil is described 
as a fine black loam from 14 to 18 inches deep, Underlaid by a bed 
of yellow clay. Table No. 81 is of special interest by reason of 
Table No. 81.- Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperature of Air and Soil 
for the Months Indicated, at Lincoln, Nebraska. 
(Fahrenheit0.) 
Month. 
Air. 
Soil, depth of 
3 inches. 
Soil, depth of 
1 foot. 
i Soil, depth of 
2 feet. 
Soil, depth of 
3 feet. 
Snowfall in 
inches. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
1890. 
November... 
60.0 
20 
38.9 
57.5 
32.0 
37.5 
52.5 
40.0 
44.6 
53.7 
45.0 
49.4 
55.5 
48.0 
51.5 
December. .. 
59.5 
5 
30.9 
41.0 
23.0 
32.1 
41.5 
34.0 
36.1 
45.0 
39.0 
41.0 
48.0 
41.7 
44.2 
3.2 
1891. 
January 
27.9 
35.1 
22.7 
29.4 
36.5 
31.4 
33.0 
39.2 
35.7 
37.1 | 
41.6 
38.5 
39.8 
February.... 
20.1 
31.7 
14.6 
24.5 
32.6 
24.2 
28.8 
35.9 
31.4 
33. 5J 
38.4 
34.8 
35.4 
13.6 
March 
28.4 
41.6 
16 4 
30.7 
36.9 
22.8 
30.3 
35.9 
30.0 
32 0 
36.4 
33.2 
34.4 
18.8 
April 
53.4 
69.6 
33.7 
53.6 
60.9 
35.7 
48.6 
54.3 
36.2 
44.5 
50.6 
36.5 
42.4 
November... 
78.0 
3 
34 5 
52.6 
26.3 
36.6 
51.0 
37.3 
43.4 
53.8 
42.8 
47.7 
55.2 
46.0 
50.7 
0.1 
December.... 
64.5 
-1 
32.6 
44.9 
29.2 
33.9 
42.3 
35.0 
37.6 
43.3 
39.0 
41.1 
45 9 
42.0 
43.8 
0.4 
exhibiting the slight frost penetration in the month of February, 
1891, when the mean air temperature was 20.1° ; and by way of 
illustration we will consider the meteorology of that and the fol- 
lowing month a little in detail. The preceding month of January 
had a mean air temperature of 27.9° and a total precipitation of 1.58 
inch, all in the form of rain. The ground was in consequence un- 
protected during the whole of January, which resulted in frost pen- 
etration to a depth of 12 inches on the 17th, when the reading at 12 
inches was 31.5°. At the depth of 9 inches a reading of 31.6° was 
reached on the 13th. On January 31, the reading at 6 inches was 32.1° ; 
at 9 inches, 32.1°; at 12 inches, 32.9°; at 2 feet, 36°; and at 3 feet, 
38.5°. Except the first 6 inches in depth the ground was entirely 
clear of frost on that date. The mean temperature of the air on Jan- 
uary 30 was 32.3° ; on the 31st, 15.3° ; on February 1 it was - 2.2°; 
while on February 2 it was 0.2°. On February 3 the soil temperature 
at depth of 3 inches was 14.6° ; at 6 inches, 17.7° ; at 9 inches, 24° ; at 
12 inches, 25.6°; and at 24 inches, 35.3°. Several inches of snowfall 
occurred on the 8th with a mean air temperature of 16°. From the 8th 
to the 19th, when an additional snowfall occurred, mean air tempera- 
tures ranged from 57° on the 9th, to 45° on the 14th ; to 14° on the 16th 
and 17th, and 27° on the 19th. On the 14th the soil temperatures at 326 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
various depths were: 3 inches, 30.5° ; 6 inches, 29.9° ; 9 inches, 31.6° ; 
12 inches, 30.6° ; at 2 feet, 33.4° ; and at 3 feet, 36°. Another fall of 
snow of a few inches occurred on the 27th, with a mean temperature of 
the air for that day of 8.7°. On February 28 the mean air temperature 
was 3.3°, with soil temperatures for the same date as follows: at 3 
inches, 16.3° ; at 6 inches, 19.2° ; at 9 inches, 23.8° ; at 12 inches, 24.2° ; 
at 2 feet, 31.4° ; and at 3 feet, 34.8°. In March the daily mean tem- 
perature ran below 32° every day except one until the 15th, when it 
rose to 38°, the exception in the previous part of the month being 34° 
on the 10th. From the 15th to the end of the month the mean daily 
air temperature was above 32° for every day except the 18th and 26th, 
when 29° and 31° were respectively reached. Heavy snowfalls oc- 
curred on the 6th and 7th, the total for the month, the most of which 
fell on these two days, being 18.8 inches. The soil temperatures in 
March were: On the 14th, at a depth of three inches, 24.7°; at 12 
inches, 29.8° ; at 2 feet, 31.4° ; and at 3 feet, 33.7. With the great rise 
in air temperature which began on the 15th the ground cleared itself 
of frost at various depths as follows : The temperature at 3 inches was 
37.7° on the 16th ; at 6 inches it was 32.3° on the 20th; at 9 inches, 
32.1° on the 23d ; at 12 inches, 32.1° on the 23d, at 2 feet, 32.1 on the 
17th; the minimum temperature at that depth having occurred on 
March 5 and 6, with readings at 30°. At the depth of 3 feet the 
minimum soil temperature of the winter was 33.2° on March 9. On 
March 31 the soil temperatures at various depths were; at 3 inches, 
41.6° ; at 6 inches, 40.3°; at 9 inches, 37.8° ; at 12 inches, 36.9° ; at 
2 feet 35.9° ; at 3 feet, 36.4°. 
In April, with a mean air temperature of 53.4°, the soil temperatures 
rose rapidly, attaining on the 30th, at a depth of 3 inches, 66.1° ; fit 12 
inches, 60.9° ; at 2 feet, 54.3°; at 3 feet, 50.6°. 
The mean air temperature of May, 1891, was 60°, with soil tempera- 
tures on the 31st of, at the depth of 3 inches, 77.3° ; at 12 inches, 67.9° ; 
at 2 feet, 59.9° ; and at 3 feet, 56°. 
The Nebraska observations contrast strongly with those in Minne- 
sota, showing how much quicker the fine black soil of the Nebraska 
prairie cleared itself of frost than did the less responsive material at 
the Minnesota Station. Again they are of interest in comparison with 
the results at the Colorado station, in nearly the same latitude, where 
on account of high altitude entirely different meteorological conditions 
obtain. 
The most elaborate set of observations of terrestrial meteorology 
thus far made by any of the Agricultural Experiment Stations are those 
of the Colorado Station at Fort Collins. Tables Nos. 82 to 87 show 
some of the results as compiled from data given in the Annual Reports 
of the station. The observations at Fort Collins are of considerable 327 
AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
Table No. 82.-Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperature of the Air for 
the Months January to April, inclusive, 1889 and 1890, at Fort Collins, 
Colorado. 
Month. 
1889. 
1890. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
January 
68.0 
- 3.5 
22.0 
65.6 
- 13.0 
20.8 
February 
62.0 
- 16.0 
25.6 
68 3 
- 20.0 
24.9 
March 
67.8 
17.0 
41.6 
70.1 
- 9.0 
36 0 
April 
79.0 
24.0 
50.6 
78 0 
13.8 
45.2 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Table No. 83.-Weekly Means of Soil Temperatures at the Depths Indicated 
from January to May for the years 1889 and 1890, at Fort Collins, Colo- 
rado. 
Week 
ending. 
1889. 
Week 
ending. 
1890. 
3 in. 
6 in. 
1 ft. 
2 ft. 
3 ft. 
6 ft. 
3 in. 
6 in. 
1 ft. 
2 ft. 
3 ft. 
6 ft. 
January 5.. . 
21.3 
23.4 
27.6 
33.6 
37.0 
44.2 
January 4... 
28.7 
31.1 
33 5 
36.3 
88.6 
44.3 
January 12.. 
21.5 
25.5 
27.7 
32.4 
85.6 
43.2 
January 11.. 
27.5 
29.5 
31.5 
84.4 
37.0 
43.5 
January 19.. 
24.8 
25.9 
28.2 
32.2 
35.1 
42.4 
[January 18.. 
25.6 
27.2 
30.0 
33.4 
35.9 
42 6 
January 26.. 
22.0 
23.2 
26.2 
31.4 
34 4 
41.7 
[January 25 . 
25.8 
27.1 
28.8 
32.4 
84.9 
41.7 
February 2.. 
26.0 
26.7 
27.9 
31.1 
33.9 
41.0 
February 1.. 
32.7 
32.2 
31 5 
32.4 
34.5 
41.0 
February 9.. 
30.2 
29.9 
30.2 
31.5 
33.9 
40.5 
February 8. 
35.0 
34.4 
32.6 
33.2 
34.8 
40.6 
February 16. 
32.9 
32.1 
31.1 
32.2 
31.3 
40.2 
February 15. 
31.5 
32.5 
33.3 
34.6 
85.9 
40.5 
Februarj' 23. 
25.4 
27.3 
30.0 
32.8 
31.8 
40.2 
[February 22. 
34.7 
35.8 
35.1 
35.6 
36.5 
40.6 
March 2 
31.3 
30.4 
30.2 
32.3 
31.3 
40.1 ' 
March 1 
29.0 
31.2 
33.3 
35.2 
36.7 
40.7 
March 9 
39.4 
37.6 
35.6 
34.7 
35.6 
39.9 
'March 8 .... 
33.2 
32 5 
32.2 
34.1 
35.8 
40.5 
March 16.... 
42 1 
40.8 
39.6 
39.3 
38.7 
40.5 । 
March 15.... 
34.4 
35 3 
35.3 
35.8 
36.7 
40.3 
March 23.... 
44.9 
44.3 
43.0 
41.5 
41.2 
41.4 
March 22.... 
41.1 
44.1 
41.9 
39.5 
38.7 
40.7 
March 30 ... 
46.1 
45.7 
44 2 
43.0 
42.7 
42.3 
March 29.... 
45.1 
46.0 
45.1 
43.3 
42.2 
41.9 
April 6 
53.9 
53.0 
49.8 
46.8 
45.3 
43.5 
April 5 
43.5 
44.2 
43.6 
43.0 
42 .8 
43.1 
April 13 
48.5 
49.0 
48.2 
47.5 
46.9 
44.7 
April 12 
51.2 
51.4 
49.6 
46.8 
45.0 
44.0 
Apr'l 20 
53.6 
53.2 
51.1 
49.7 
48.1 
45.7 
April 19 
46.2 
47.1 
47.2 
46.7 
46.2 
45.2 
April 27 .... 
59.4 
58.5 
55.0 
51.7 
49.9 
46.9 
April 26 
47.6 
48.3 
48.7 
47.8 
47.0 
45.8 
May 4 
51.7 
52.9 
51.8 
51.7 
51.0 
48.0 
May 3 
53.3 
53.3 
51.9 
49.3 
47.9 
46.6 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Table No. 84.-Maximum, Minimum, and Mean Temperatures of Air ; Mean of 
Terrestrial Radiation Observations and Mean Soil Temperatures for 
1890, at Fort Collins, Colorado. 
Month. 
Air 6 feet above ground. 
Mean terrestrial 
radiation. 
Mean soil temperatures, depth of: 
Snowfall, inches. 
Mean of 7 
a.M. and 
7 P.M. 
1 
| Mean, max. 
Mean of 
inax. and 
1 min. 
Mean, min. 
6 inches. 
1 foot. 
2 feet. 
3 inches. 
6 inches. 
1 foot. 
2 feet. 
1 
3 feet. 
1890. 
January 
20.8 
39.8 
24.7 
9.6 
4.4 
28.0 
29.4 
31.1 
33.8 
36.2 
42.0 
2.1 
February 
24.9 
45.0 
30.0 
15.0 
9.9 
10.8 
11.4 
32.5 
33.3 
33.6 
34.6 
36.0 
46.0 
2.3 
March 
36.0 
52.9 
38.0 
23.2 
18.4 
19.9 
19.7 
39.2 
39.5 
38.6 
38.2 
38.3 
40.8 
2.7 
April 
•45 2 
60.0 
46.5 
33 1 
29.2 
30.3 
30.4 
47.1 
47.7 
47.3 
46.1 
45.2 
44.6 
4.5 
May 
55.4 
71.2 
58.0 
41.0 
33.8 
36.9 
37.7 
57.6 
57.5 
55.9 
52.9 
51.0 
48 6 
0.8 
June 
63.5 
81.2 
64.0 
46.8 
37.3 
40.9 
41.8 
69.3 
68.1 
65.5 
60.6 
58.0 
53.2 
July 
69.9 
87.1 
71.1 
55.2 
46.2 
51.1 
51.6 
74.3 
73.8 
71 0 
67.3 
64.7 
58.8 
August 
63.7 
80.9 
66.1 
51.2 
41.5 
47.6 
48.0 
66.7 
67.2 
67.0 
65.9 
64.9 
61.7 
September.... 
56.0 
77.0 
58.3 
39.6 
35.2 
36.2 
57.6 
58.7- 
60.2 
61.2 
61 7 
62.0 
October 
41.8 
63.8 
47.4 
31.0 
26.3 
27.0 
47.0 
48.4 
50.5 
53.0 
54.6 
57.7 
November.... 
30.8 
54.9 
38.1 
21.3 
12.8 
16.4 
17.3 
36.7 
38.2 
40.8 
44.2 
46.7 
52 1 
3.2 
December.... 
27.2 
49.6 
37.8 
18.3 
8.4 
14.9 
16.2 
32.1 
33.3 
35.5 
38.0 
40.5 
46.7 
2.2 
(Fahrenheit.0) 328 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
interest by reason of the unusual location of the station at an elevation 
of about 4,980 feet above tide (latitude 40°35' north, longitude 105°0' 
west). The mean air temperatures, January to April inclusive, for the 
two years 1888 and 1890 are shown in Table No. 82. The weekly mean 
soil temperature for the same months and years have been tabulated 
in Table No. 83, the record here used being from a set of thermometers 
placed in loam which sometimes receives artificial moisture from the 
overflow of an adjacent irrigated area. The rainfall at this station 
is slight, the record showing a mean of 13.58 inches annually. Tin; 
larger part of this occurs in the spring and summer months. The 
winter months are stated to be almost entirely free from storms of 
every character, what little precipitation there is being in the form of 
snow and lasting only a short time. The average of stormy days in 
winter for several years has been for December, 1.3 days ; for January, 
3.6 days; and February, 3.6 days. The winter days are mostly clear 
with a relatively intense solar radiation. The mean total percentages, 
six months of the year, compared with Central New York, are as fol- 
lows : 
January. February. 
March. 
April. 
November. 
December. 
Fort Collins, Colorado 
72 67 
70 
57 
66 
66 
Central New York 
17 25 
29 
39 
25 
21 
- -- 
■ 
-- 
■ 
-- 
Difference 
55 42 
41 
18 
41 
45 
The solar radiation at Fort Collins is high and generally speaking 
probably in excess of the terrestrial radiation. The observations, how- 
ever, are still in the experimental stage and this conclusion can be 
Table No. 85 -Differences in Temperatube of the Soil at Various Depths 
in Dby and Wet Ground at Fort Collins, Colorado, in the Months Indi- 
cated, in 1890. 
(Fahrenheit.0) 
Weekly readings, 
1890. 
Set B., wet ground, depth : 
Set C., drjr ground, depih : 
6 in. 
1 ft. 
2 ft. 
3 ft. 
6 in. 
1 ft. 
2 ft. 
3 ft. 
July 3 
72.1 
68.1 
63 4 
61 1 
78 4 
73 6 
70 0 
65 4 
July 10 
73.3 
69.4 
64.4 
61.9 
77.2 
74.8 
70.5 
62.1 
July 17 
72 2 
70.9 
66.0 
63.9 
76.3 
76.6 
72.6 
57.8 
J uly 21 
74.6 
70.7 
64.2 
80.7 
76.0 
72.1 
68.3 
July 31 
73.4 
68.7 
65.9 
64.4 
72.7 
71.4 
68.5 
August 7.... 
74.1 
70.4 
66.6 
64.7 
78.6 
75.2 
71.9 
68 3 
August 14 
69.6 
67,7 
64.5 
71.2 
70.5 
69.8 
67.8 
August 22 
69.1 
65.3 
63.5 
62.8 
68.7 
67.1 
66.3 
65.2 
August 28 
69.6 
66.2 
63.8 
63.0 
70.7 
68 0 
66.7 
64.8 
September 4 
68.9 
65.1 
63.8 
63.2 
69.7 
67.1 
66.7 
64.8 
Means 
71.7 
68.2 
64.9 
63.4 
74.8 
72.2 
69.8 
November 7. 
50.1 
46.6 
49.6 
51 4 
43.7 
46.1 
50.9 
51.2 
November 21 
39.6 
40.9 
43 7 
46.4 
38.9 
39.4 
43.4 
45.4 
November 28 
25.1 
39.9 
42.9 
45.3 
35.4 
39 4 
42.3 
44.7 
December 4 
47.8 
39.8 
42.4 
44.6 
' 37.0 
87.9 
41.8 
43.9 
December 20 
33.3 
35.3 
38.7 
41.5 
31.4 
33.0 
37.4 
40.2 
December 26 
35.0 
35 3 
38.0 
40.7 
34.2 
33.3 
31.4 
39.2 
1891. 
January 2 
31.7 
35.3 
38.0 
40.7 
31.1 
33.1 
37.4 
39.1 
Means 
37.5 
39.0 
41.9 
44.4 
35.9 
37.5 
41.1 
43.4 AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
329 
Table No. 86.-Monthly Evaporation at Fort Collins, Colorado, from 
1887 to 1890, inclusive. 
(Inches.) 
Year. 
Jan. 
Feb. 
Mar. 
April. 
May. 
June. 
July. 
Aug. 
Sept. 
Oct. 
Nov. 
Dec. 
Total. 
1S87 
4.60 
5.55 
5.19 
5.75 
5.23 
4.24 
4.12 
3.26 
1.48 
1.60 
1888 
.... 
4.45 
7.70 
7.00 
4.06 
3.94 
2.17 
1.35 
0.99 
1889 
1.08 
1.03 
2.75 
4.06 
3.72 
4.34 
5.20 
5.15 
5.19 
3.28 
0.62 
1.42 
37.83 
1890 
0.86 
2.36 
8.48 
3.50 
4.32 
5.71 
5.44 
5.76 
3.69 
2.71 
1.32 
1.10 
40.24 
Means 
0.97 
1.69 
3.61 
4.37 
4.43 
5.87 
5.73 
4.80 
4.33 
3.85 
1.19 
1.38 
Table No. 87.-Solar and Terrestrial Radiation at Fort Collins, Colorado. 
Month. 
Day. 
Thermometer. 
Month. 
Day. 
Thermometer. 
Maxi- 
mum. 
Mini- 
mum. 
Solar 
rad. 
Ter. 
rad. 
Maxi- 
mum. 
Mini- 
mum. 
Solar 
rad. 
Ter. 
rad. 
1888. 
January 
1 
40 
10 
33 
12 
1888. 
April 
3 
71 
30 
44 
12 
7 
13 
-15 
45 
11 
5 
66 
46 
73 
IS 
8 
15 
-12 
48 
9 
44 » 
11 
63 
30 
62 
8 
ii 
15 
2 
-28 
60 
7 
44 
12 
80 
30 
57 
16 
44 
1« 
7 
-17 
65 
8 
«< 
22 
87 
48 
20 
24 
February 
" 
20 
50 
21 
68 
11 
November 
2 
64 
29 
57 
9 
27 
60 
21 
4 4 
6 
40 
32 
67 
22 
28 
07 
30 
60 
11 
44 
20 
53 
13 
5 
4 4 
29 
40 
25 
8 
9 
44 
26 
49 
26 
70 
8 
March 
3 
28 
9 
87 
14 
December . 
4 
68 
26 
54 
11 
4 4 
4 
26 
4 
88 
4 
20 
57 
22 
59.1 
15.5 
44 
5 
30 
3 
76 
11 
44 
27 
31 
4 
81 
13.5 
44 
28 
41 
4 
55 
11 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
considered as tentative only. If it turns out to be true on further study 
it may be considered as possibly explaining the relatively high tem- 
perature of the soils in winter. Thus far trouble has been found in 
making this record by reason of the ordinary solar radiation ther- 
mometers finally breaking because of the tube not being long enough 
to accommodate the mercury when expanding to an unusually high 
radiation ; 117° has been registered above the thermometer in the 
shade close by in February. Table No. 87 shows the record of solar 
and terrestrial radiation for a few days in January, February, March, 
November, and December, 1888. 
The means of the month to which the daily readings in Table 87 
pertain, so far as they can be made, are as follows : 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Max. 
Min. 
Solar rad. 
Ter. rad. 
January 
42.7 
10.0 
February. 
53.0 
25.0 
40.3 
March 
49.0 
27.0 
55.5 
ii.8 
April 
73.3 
40.6 
46.9 
November 
48.6 
24.7 
53.7 
8 8 
December 
49.0 
17.8- 
56.4 
10.1 
In the preceding tabulations the column of solar radiation ther- 
mometer gives the difference between the maximum temperature of 330 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the air in the shade and the highest temperature indicated by the solar 
radiation instrument placed in full sunshine. The reading of the latter 
instrument may be found by adding the numbers in the solar radiation 
and the maximum temperature column. The column of terrestrial 
radiation thermometer gives the number of degrees which that instru- 
ment falls below the minimum temperature of the air. 
Observations with the ordinary glass globe vacuum solar radiation 
thermometers were discontinued in 1889 and the Arago-Davy acti- 
nometer substituted instead. The observations with that instrument 
for 1890 are included in the Third Annual Report of the Colorado Ex- 
periment Station; but in the absence of the reduction constants, which 
have not yet been determined, a comparison of the solar radiation 
with the soil temperature in 1889 and 1890 cannot be made. 
In Table No. 83 the mean soil temperatures are given by weeks from 
January 1 to May 4. In reference to these temperatures it is stated 
that there are slight corrections of the thermometer which have been 
applied to the readings for 1890 but not to those of 1889. The differ- 
ences tabulated, so far as the present discussion is concerned, are not 
great enough to seriously affect a comparison of the means. 
In Table No. 84, the temperature of the air six feet above the 
ground, terrestrial radiation at three different elevations, mean soil 
temperatures, and snowfalls are compared for the whole year 1890. 
The mean soil temperatures are derived from the table of weekly 
means, and will vary slightly from a tabulation of actual monthly 
means by reason of the beginning and end of weeks not coinciding 
with the beginning and end of months. Hence the observations of 
one month in some cases lap into another in this table. The columns 
of mean terrestrial radiation illustrate the variation in mean tem- 
perature at various heights above the ground. 
In Table No. 85 we have a tabulation of weekly soil temperatures 
from two sets of thermometers. Set B is placed in low ground near 
a ditch; set C is on a knoll in dry ground which is never irrigated. 
For a large portion of the year the water table is not far below the three- 
foot thermometer of Set B; this set is also subject to the influence of 
the irrigation water applied to the adjacent field. The soil at Set Bis 
a dark loam, while Set C is in a hard, compact, yellow clay. 
Studying this table it appears that in the warm months the soil 
temperatures range considerably higher in the dry ground, while in 
the cold months they range higher in the wet ground. Some of the 
reasons for this have been cited in the preliminary discussion, but by 
way of additional illustration Table No. 86, of evaporation from a water 
surface at Fort Collins, as determined by observing the loss from a 
galvanized iron tank three feet square and three feet deep, sunk flush 
with the ground, is also given. The high rate in June and July is AMERICAN SOIL TEMPERATURE OBSERVATIONS. 
331 
specially noticeable, as for instance in 1888, when for these two 
months the sum was 14.7 inches, which gives a daily rate for the whole 
time of 0.245 inch. 
Records are also kept at Fort Collins of barometer, humidity, wind, 
sunshine, etc., but the foregoing are of more interest in discussing soil 
temperatures. The mean barometer is about 25 inches. 
The Experiment Station at Auburn, Alabama (latitude 32°40' north, 
longitude 85°30' west; elevation above tide-water 826 feet), has made a 
series of soil-temperature observations during the last few years, from 
the record of which, as given in the several bulletins of the station, 
Tables No. 88 to 90 have been prepared. In Table No. 88 is given the 
maximum, minimum, and mean temperature of the air and soil for the 
months from October, 1888, to March, 1889, inclusive. The soil ther- 
mometers, of which the record is given in Table No. 88, are planted at 
the top of a hill in sandy soil frequently stirred during the growing 
season. Readings are made at 7 a. m., 2 P. m., and 7 p. m. A similar 
set of thermometers, of which the record is not here given, are also 
buried on the banks of a running stream in sandy bottom land. Some 
of the results of comparing the set in the bottom with those in the dry 
Table No. 88.-Temperature of the Air and Soil at Various Depths, for the 
Years and Months Indicated at Auburn, Alabama. 
(Fahrenheit c.) 
Months. 
Air. 
Soil, at depth of 
3 inches. 
Soil, at depth of 
1 foot. 
Soil, at depth of 
2 feet. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min, 
Mean. 
Min. 
Mean. 
October.. 
1888. 
81 
43.0 
62.5 
80.5 
49 0 
65.5 
73.5 
55.5 
64.5 
70.5 
63.5 
66.5 
November 
78 
29.0 
54.7 
76.0 
35.5 
57.0 
68.5 
43.5 
57.0 
67.5 
51.0 
59.0 
December 
66 
20.0 
46.1 
58.5 
33.0 
48.3 
54.0 
39.5 
47.3 
54.0 
45.0 
50.4 
January. 
1889. 
67 
23.0 
46.9 
47.3 
46.7 
49 2 
February 
75 
16.5 
46.3 
46.8 
45.8 
47.7 
March.... 
76 
30.0 
54.7 
56.4 
53.5 
53.4 
Month. 
Soil, at depth of 
3 feet. 
Soil, at depth of 
4 feet. 
Soil, at depth of 
5 feet. 
Soil, at depth of 
6 feet. 
Soil, nt depth of 
7 feet. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
। Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
Max. 
Min. 
Mean. 
1888. 
October 
71.0 
65.5 
68.0 
72.5 
67.0 
69.5 
73.0 
68.0 
70.0 
73.0 
68.5 
70.5 
73.0 
69.0 
71.0 
November 
67.0 
55.0 
62.0 
67.5 
58.5 
64.0 
68.0 
61.0 
65.0 
68.5 
62.0 
66.0 
68.5 
63.5 
66.0 
December 
55.5 
49.5 
53.0 
58.0 
52.5 
55.2 
60.5 
55.0 
57.5 
62.0 
56.0 
58.7 
63.5 
57.5 
60.1 
1889. 
January 
50.8 
52.5 
53.6 
51.7 
55,9 
February 
March 
48.9 
53.1 
50.3 
53.2 
51.6 
53.3 
52.4 
53.3 
53.4 
54.0 332 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Table No. 89.-Mean of Air, Terrestrial, and Soil Thermometers at Auburn, 
Alabama, in 1889. 
(Fahrenheit °.) 
Month. 
Mean 
air 
temp. 
Mean 
ter. 
temp. 
Mean soil temperatures at depths of : 
3 ins. 
1 ft. 
2 ft. 
3 ft. 
4 ft. 
5 ft. 
Oft. 
7 ft. 
8 ft. 
January.... 
46.9 
39.7 
47.3 
46.7 
49.2 
50.8 
52.5 
53.6 
54.7 
55.9 
57.5 
February .. 
46.3 
36.8 
46.8 
45.8 
47.7 
48.9 
50.3 
51.6 
52.4 
53.4 
55.0 
March 
54.7 
43.2 
56.4 
53 5 
53.4 
53.1 
53.2 
53.3 
53.3 
54.0 
54.8 
April 
62.5 
55.6 
67.2 
63.9 
62.6 
61.1 
60.9 
59.0 
58.3 
58.2 
58.0 
May 
70.1 
57.2 
76 7 
73.9 
71.6 
69.3 
66.7 
65.4 
64.2 
63.3 
62.4 
June 
76.1 
65.8 
81.9 
78.3 
76.1 
74.0 
72.5 
70.6 
69.3 
68.5 
67.2 
July 
80.7 
70.0 
83.8 
80.9 
78.7 
77.2 
74.7 
73.3 
72.5 
70.8 
August .... 
77.6 
67.5 
81.6 
79.3 
79.1 
78.3 
77 5 
76.4 
75.6 
75.0 
73.3 
September . 
74.8 
65.2 
78.4 
77.0 
77.8 
77.2 
77.1 
77.8 
75.6 
75.0 
73.8 
October.... 
62.3 
49.5 
68.5 
67.1 
69.0 
68.3 
71.2 
72.3 
72.3 
72.2 
72.2 
November.. 
53.1 
42.9 
56.2 
56.2 
59.6 
61.6 
63.5 
64.7 
65.7 
66.6 
67.0 
December.. 
57.8 
45.5 
57.9 
55.2 
56.7 
57.5 
58.7 
60.0 
60.5 
61.5 
62.9 
upland may be briefly referred to. Thus it is found that the same 
difference exists here as at Fort Collins between the temperature of 
upland and lowland soil, although the differences at usual tempera- 
tures are not as pronounced in Alabama as in Colorado. But when 
the air temperature falls below about 40°, at times the soil tempera- 
ture in the upper layers ranges several degrees higher in the bottom 
than in the upland. The daily range of the bottom land is also less 
than that of the upland in winter, though, as may be expected, the 
daily range decreases with increase of depth. 
In Table No. 89 the mean air, terrestrial, and soil temperatures are 
tabulated for the twelve months of 1889. In this series the soil-tem- 
Table No. 90.-Comparison of the Maximum and Minimum Air Temperature, 
of Terrestrial Radiation, Air and Soil Thermometers, by Months for 
the Year 1889 ; at Auburn, Alabama. 
1889. 
January. 
February. 
March. 
April. 
May. 
June. 
। J uly. 
August. 
| September. 
October. 
1 v 
1 November. 
| December. 
Max. air ther 
67.0 
75 0 
76.0 
82.0 
89.0 
91.5 
98-0 
92.5 
93.0 
82.0 
76.0 
74.0 
Max. ter. ther 
Max. soil tem. 
51.0 
66.5 
54.0 
62.0 
63.0 
74.0 
73.5 
72.5 
78.0 
60.0 
60.0 
59.5 
Depth of 3 in 
63.5 
69.0 
73.5 
82.5 
92.5 
96.0 
101 5 
95.0 
96.5 
84.5 
69 5 
69.0 
Depth of 2 ft 
52.5 
57.0 
58.5 
67.0 
76.5 
80.0 
86.0 
82 0 
89.5 
74.0 
65.5 
60.0 
Depth of 4 ft 
53.5 
53.0 
56.5 
63.0 
71.5 
75.0 
79 5 
79.0 
84.5 
74 5 
69.0 
60.5 
Depth of 8 ft. 
59.5 
56.5 
56.0 
60.5 
62.5 
69.0 
73.0 
73.5 
76.5 
74.5 
70.C 
65.0 
Min. air ther 
23.0 
16.5 
30.0 
38.0 
45.0 
46 O 
67.5 
63.0 
48.0 
38.0 
24.0 
29.0 
Min ter. ther 
Min. soil tem. 
21.0 
24.0 
32.0 
37.0 
43.0 
43.0 
60.0 
62.0 
48.0 
36.0 
22.0 
30.5 
Depth of 3 in 
33.5 
32.0 
37.0 
48.5 
52.0 
52.0 
71.5 
69.5 
54.5 
45.0 
35.0 
35.0 
Depth of 2 ft 
46.5 
44.0 
49 0 
58.0 
64.5 
68.5 
77.0 
7S.0 
72.0 
62.5 
52.0 
50.0 
Depth of 4 ft 
51.5 
48.0 
50.5 
56.5 
63.0 
69.5 
74.5 
77.0 
75.0 
67.0 
58.0 
56.5 
Depth of 8 ft 
56.5 
54.5 
54.5 
54.0 
60.0 
65.5 
69.0 
73.0 
73 5 
70.5 
64.0 
62.0 
(Fahrenheit0.) REMEDIES FOR FROST. 
333 
perature observations are carried to a depth of 8 feet, which is con- 
siderably deeper than most of those thus far made here. 
In Table No. 90 the maximum and minimum air, terrestrial, and soil 
temperatures are contrasted. The value of this tabulation would be 
greater if solar radiation were included ; but thus far solar radiation 
observations have not been taken at the Alabama Station. 
The foregoing tables, from 78 to 90 inclusive, together with the anal- 
ysis of the same, can hardly be considered other than a very inade- 
quate presentation of the information which has been recently ac- 
quired in this country. Of necessity the discussion and tabulations 
have been considerably condensed in order to bring them within the 
limits of a single chapter. Observations have been made at a number 
of places in addition to those here cited, of which for lack of space no 
account has been taken in this paper. Whoever wishes to study the 
question at length will do well to consult the original data as found in 
the annual reports and bulletins of the several Agricultural Stations.* 
Remedies for Frost. 
The foregoing discussion has indicated why frost will probably in 
the colder climates of this country interfere with the successful use of 
broad irrigation and intermittent filtration in extreme winter weather, 
and we may next inquire what remedies, if any, can be applied. To this 
it may be answered that it is doubtful if broad irrigation can be made 
to work at all when mean winter temperatures are for any considerable 
period much below about 20° to 25°. The quality of the soil irrigated 
and its capacity for absorbing and retaining heat will, however, mate- 
rially influence the result; sandy, gravelly soils undoubtedly admitting 
of successful irrigation at lower temperatures of the air than clay and 
humus. The amount of snow will be also to some extent a controll- 
ing factor. In regard to intermittent filtration, it can probably be 
successfully operated by good management down to a mean air tem- 
perature of about, or somewhat below, 20°; and when the mean falls 
* The chief sources of information for the preparation of this chapter have been : 
(1) An. Repts. of New York St. Ag. Ex. Sta. at Geneva, 1883-1890. 
(2) An. Repts. Penn. St. Col., 1889-1890. 
(3) Bulletin No. 7 of the Minn. Ag. Ex. Sta., Apr., 1889. 
(4) An. Repts. Maine St. Col., 1889-1890. 
(5) Fourth and Fifth An. Repts. of Neb. Ag. Ex. Sta., 1890-1891. 
(6) First, Sec. and Third An. Repts. of Col. Ag. Ex. Sta., 1888, 1889, 1890. 
(7) Meterological Bulletins of the Ala. Ag. Ex. Sta., 1889, 1890, 1891. 
(8) Second An. Rept. of the South Carolina Ag. Ex. Sta., 1889. 
The authors wish to especially acknowledge indebtedness to Dr. Peter Collier of the New 
York State Station at Geneva, to Professor Wm. Frear, of the Pennsylvania State College, and to 
Professor Louis G. Carpenter of the Colorado Station, for data furnished. Also to the directors 
of several of the other stations, who have furnished the reports and bulletins of their stations as 
soon as published. 334 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
much lower there are four remedies either of which may be applied, 
namely : 
(1) At the approach of winter to cover the entire area with boards. 
(2) To cover a portion only, as for instance a series of trenches, at 
the approach of winter. 
(3) To artificially warm the sewage to such temperature as will ad- 
mit of filtering without freezing under extreme climatic conditions 
and without any protective covering of the field. 
(4) Where the topographical conditions admit of such treatment to 
lay the filtration area down with special sand trenches and permanent 
board covering as illustrated and described in Part II. of the Massa- 
chusetts Special Report. 
As indicated in the preceding discussion of this chapter, and also in 
Chapter XIV., the areas can also be worked continuously during ex- 
treme cold weather, though with the chance always that the frost may 
interfere with successful operation. For an absolute guarantee against 
interruption in extreme temperatures either the protective covering 
or artificial warming may be used ; which of these to adopt in any 
locality where special protection of some kind is indicated, will be 
chiefly a question of comparative cost. 
Comparative Estimates. 
By way of illustration let us assume favorable conditions for the 
construction of high-grade intermittent filtration areas; this assump- 
tion implying either a nearly level or gently sloping original natural 
surface to which sewage can be delivered by gravity. Assume coarse, 
clean mortar sand within such reasonable distance as to admit of trans- 
porting and placing at a cost not exceeding 50 cents per cubic yard. 
Also assume a daily flow of 1,000,000 gallons, which at 80 gallons per 
head per day will represent the sewage of 12,500 people. We will 
further assume that the conditions of purification will be satisfied 
when filtering at the maximum rate of 100,000 gallons per acre per 
day. At this rate 10 acres will be required, but for the contingency of 
allowing an occasional rest of the area we will prepare 15 acres, and for 
liberal surroundings will purchase a total of 25 acres. The estimated 
cost of this with the assumed favorable conditions may be put at: 
25 acres of land at $250 $6,250 
1+ acres leveled, graded, and embanked, at $300 4,500 
15 acres underdrained to depth of 5 feet, at $250 3,750 
15 acres furnished with coarse sand 3 feet deep (50c. per cubic yard), at 
$2,400 36,000 
Distribution carriers, tanks, straining arrangements, etc 10,000 
Barns, sheds, team, wagon, tools, etc 2,000 
Contingent expense about 12 per cent 7,500 
Amount $70,000 C OM P A R ATI V E ESTIMATES. 
335 
Annual cost of operation : 
1 foreman at $75 per month $900 
4 laborers, each $35 per month 1,680 
Keeping team, repairs of tools, etc 400 
Annual cost of repairs and renewals 920* 
Amount $3,900 
$3,900 capitalized at 4 per cent $97,500 
Total capitalization $167,500 
So for as present experience can guide us the foregoing may be con- 
sidered an ample estimate of the cost of constructing and operating 
without any special winter protection a high-grade liltration area of 
the capacity indicated, favorable conditions being as stated assumed. 
The total capitalized investment per inhabitant served would be 
($167,500 -r 12,500) = $13.40. 
We may now consider the addition to the foregoing caused by reason 
of either a protective winter covering of the area or by artificial warming. 
A protective covering for the whole area will require the providing 
and renewing of the necessary lumber for covering, the construction 
and maintenance of sheds for storing the same in summer, the pro- 
viding of the labor for laying down the covering in the fall and taking 
up and storing in the spring. The first cost of the lumber and store 
sheds, with the capitalization of renewals, maintenance, and additional 
labor will constitute the addition to be made to the previous estimate 
in order to obtain the total capitalized cost under the new conditions. 
We have assumed that the conditions of purification will be satisfied 
when filtering at the maximum rate of 100,000 gallons per acre per 
day ; accordingly, it will be necessary to provide covering for only 
ten acres. The amount of lumber per acre, including posts, joists, and 
deck boards, may be estimated at 55,000 feet B. M. We have then as 
additional first cost : 
55,000 ft. B. M. coarse lumber at 816, which for 10 acres amounts to $ 8,800 
Sheds for storing same during summer 3,300 
Total additional first cost of disposal works $11,800 
Additional annual cost of operation will be : 
Renewal of lumber and store sheds $850 
Additional labor for putting down and taking up protective cover- 
ing each year at $50 per acre 500 
Total additional cost of operation $1,350 
$1,350 capitalized at 4 per cent $33,750 
Total additional capitalization $ 45,550 
Bringing forward the previous capitalization of 167,500 
Total capitalization including protective covering $213,050 
* This amount, with the allowance of $1,680.00 per year for common labor, is considered sufficient 
to not only provide for ordinary repairs and renewals of buildings, tools, etc., but to further admit 
of changing the upper 2 to 3 inches of sand on from one to two acres each year ; this amount of 
annual renewal of sand being considered sufficient, as an average, in view of the liberal provision 
of surplus area which has been made. 336 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL TN THE UNITED STATES. 
In this case the total cost per inhabitant served will be ($213,050 
12.500) = $17.14. 
For covering of trenches merely, the cost of lumber and store sheds 
will be only about one-third of that for complete covering as per last 
estimate. The amount of labor, however, will be somewhat greater, 
the whole cost leading to a final capitalization of $201,000, which 
represents a total cost per inhabitant of $16.08. The advantage of 
operation will probably be somewhat in favor of the complete cover- 
ing. 
For the case of artificial warming we will assume that the climatic 
conditions are such as to require sewage which reaches the disposal 
works in winter at a normal temperature of 45° to be warmed to a 
temperature of 65° for 45 days. 1,000,000 gallons daily raised from 
temperature of 45° to 65° is (1,000,000 x 8.34 x 20) = 166,800,000 heat- 
units required per day. We will further assume the evaporation of 
10 pounds of water from 212° for each pound of coal consumed in the 
furnace, the temperature of the steam to be high enough to yield at 
least 1,000 heat-units per pound of water when recondensed in the ra- 
diating coils. On these assumptions 10,000 heat-units w ill be realized 
from each pound of coal consumed in the furnace. The daily con- 
sumption of coal becomes then (166,000,000 4- 10,000) = 16,600 pounds. 
Adding to this for warming station, operation of pump for returning 
water of condensation to boiler, etc., and we reach a total of 18,000 
pounds = 9 net tons, as the daily use of coal under the conditions as- 
sumed. 
We may then estimate the additional first cost as : For steam 
plant, including building, coal shed, boilers, foundations, and settings, 
connections, return pump and radiating coil, etc., complete, at $13,000. 
Additional cost of operation, on an average will be: 
9 net tons of coal per day for 45 days, at $3.50 per ton $1,417.50 
Additional labor for 45 days 180.00 
Renewals and repairs of steam-heating plant 600.00 
Total additional cost of operation $2,197.50 
$2,197.50 capitalized at 4 per cent gives $54,937.50 
Amount $67,937.50 
Bring forward previous capitalization 167,500.00 
Making the total capitalization for artificial warming $235,437.50 
For intermittent filtration, assisted by artificial warming in winter, 
the total cost per inhabitant served will therefore be, for the assumed 
case, $18.84. 
For complete comparison of methods of sewage disposal we may COMPARATIVE ESTIMATES. 
337 
also estimate the cost of purifying 1,000,000 gallons per day by chemi- 
cal treatment. For such works the estimate may stand as follows: 
5 acres of land at $250 $1,250 
Disposal works plant, including buildings, precipitation tanks, sludge 
press, air compressor, grinding and mixing machinery, pumps, 
etc., complete 30,000 
Contingent expense, about 12 per cent 3,750 
Amount $35,000 
Annual cost of operation : 
Superintendent at $100 per month $1,200 
Steam engineer, fireman, and 3 laborers at $225 per month 2,700 
Fuel, water, oil, and waste 1,000 
365 million gallons of sewuge treated annually at $12 per million 
gallons for chemicals 4,380 
Disposal of sludge 300 
Repairs and renewals of buildings and plant 1,600 
Amount $11,180 
$11,180 capitalized at 4 per cent $279,500 
Total capitalization $314,500 
For chemical purification the total cost per inhabitant served is 
therefore found to be, under the assumed conditions, $25.16. 
For intermittent filtration with a permanent board covering of spe- 
cially prepared trenches, as per experimental field at Lawrence, the 
comparative estimate of first cost for purification of 1,000,000 gallons 
daily may stand as follows : 
25 acres of land at $250 $6,250 
20 acres underdrained at $300* 6,000 
For excavating trenches 2 feet wide and 2.5 feet deep in 20 acres, includ- 
ing removal of surplus material (trenches to be 5 feet apart), 1,630 
cu. yds. per acre, at 20c. = $326 per acre $6,520 
For replacing the excavated material from said trenches with coarse sand 
at 50c. per cu. yd. 20 acres, at $815 16,300 
For furnishing and laying for 20 acres the permanent board covers of coarse 
lumber = 360 M. ft.B. M. at $24 8,640 
Distribution carriers, tanks, straining arrangements, etc 10,000 
Barn, shed, team, wagon, tools, etc 2 000 
Contingent expense, about 12 per cent 6,790 
Amount $62,500 
Annual cost of operation : 
For this system the total may be taken at $4,300, which capitalized at 4 per 
cent gives $107,500 
Total capitalization $170,000 
* In this case a somewhat greater area may be assumed as necessary by reason of only a portion 
of the total content of soil to any given depth being actually in service. The cost of underdrain- 
ing will also be somewhat greater than in the previous cases, due to greater depth of excavation re- 
quiring to be made. In the previously considered cases the drains are considered as laid after the 
leveling of field has been completed and before placing of the 3 feet of coarse sand, requiring un- 
der these conditions only 2 feet excavation for drains to be at depth of 5 feet when area was com- 338 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
From which we deduce a total cost per inhabitant of $13.60, an 
amount, it will be noted, subtantially the same as for intermittent filtra- 
tion with specially prepared sand area, without any protective cover- 
ing. Moreover, it is important to remember that this estimate pro- 
vides 20 acres of filtration area, which gives, when the whole area is 
in service, a daily mean rate per acre of 50,000 gallons. 
Although not necessary for the argument we may still properly con- 
sider for full completion of the subject two other cases in intermittent 
filtration, as for instance : (1) When good material is so entirely avail- 
able in situ that preparation of artificial area by bringing coarse sand 
from a distance is unnecessary ; and (2) the case when some little sort- 
ing and selecting of material at hand will suffice for the preparation of 
an efficient filtration area. We will base our estimates, as before, on 
the disposal of a daily flow of 1,000,000 gallons. 
In the first of these two cases we will assume the preparation of 20 
of the 25 acres purchased at a total cost of, including first cost of land 
as before, together with levelling, embanking, underdraining, con- 
struction of barns and sheds, teams, wagons, and tools and for contin- 
gent expense, an amount of $32,700. Expense of operation will be the 
same as in the previous estimates; whence we reach a final total capi- 
talization of $130,200, which gives again per inhabitant served, $10.42. 
In the same way for the second case the total cost per inhabitant will 
be $11.42. 
Taking into account all of the foregoing comparative estimates 
it appears that even when liberal allowance is made for artificial 
warming, which is also found to be the most expensive method of in- 
suring successful winter purification by intermittent filtration, we may 
still purify our assumed quantity of 1,000,000 gallons daily flow at no 
greater expense than by chemical treatment. For many localities the 
cost of intermittent filtration will be far below that of chemical treat- 
ment. Indeed, as between intermittent filtration with artificial warming 
in winter and chemical treatment the estimates show a difference in 
total cost per inhabitant served of ($25.16 - $18.84) = $6.32 in favor of 
the intermittent filtration. We must remember, however, that our es- 
timate of cost of an intermittent filtration area was based upon fairly 
favorable conditions ; if we assume unfavorable conditions we may in- 
crease the original capitalized cost of filtration area with artificial 
warming in winter from $18.84 to about $22.00 per inhabitant served, 
which still leaves a balance of $3.16 in favor of high-grade, and arti- 
ficially warmed, intermittent filtration. 
Again if we refer to the estimate of annual cost of operation with 
artificial warming it will be observed that coal is estimated at $3.50 
per ton, whereas in the vicinity of the coal regions it will be obtained 
at considerably less, in some places as low as $1.25 per net ton. On DEDUCTIONS. 
339 
the other hand, a few of the items of cost of chemical treatment will 
probably be somewhat less than used in the estimates in many lo- 
calities. 
As a general statement based on present information we may there- 
fore say that intermittent filtration under the most unfavorable cir- 
cumstances and in the severe climate of our northern winters will not 
exceed, when all the items are taken into the account, the cost of puri- 
fication by chemical treatment. This statement, it will be remembered, 
is based upon delivery of the sewage at the purification area or station 
by gravity. In case it becomes necessary to include the additional 
cost of pumping to an elevated filtration area the balance, as a matter 
of total capitalization, may be in favor of chemical purification. 
Again no account is taken of relative length of main outfall sewer 
required to reach the point where the purification is applied, the as- 
sumption being the use of the same location in either case. Expe- 
rience indicates, however, that frequently the finding of a favorable 
filtration area necessitates going further away than for the location of 
a chemical purification station. In such cases with relative costs of 
outfall sewer included in the capitalization the balance may also as 
a matter of total cost lie in favor of chemical purification. 
The present discussion is not concerned, except incidentally, with 
the comparative efficiency of the various methods of sewage purifica- 
tion - the Lawrence experiments appear conclusive on that point; 
and it may be merely remarked that the chemical treatment obtained 
at the foregoing expense would be somewhat less efficient than that 
obtained by intermittent filtration even in winter; for the whole 
season the mean efficiency of the chemical treatment would be far 
below that of the intermittent filtration. 
Deductions. 
In conclusion, by way of summary, we may say : 
(1) That any place with a mean temperature of the air for the cold- 
est winter month not lower than about 20° to 25° F., and with sewage 
distributed to the purification area at a temperature not lower than 
45° F., the purification of sewage by broad irrigation may probably be 
effected without serious interruption from frost, although winter puri- 
fication will be somewhat less efficient than that during the warm 
months. Below a mean temperature of 20° to 25° F. purification by 
broad irrigation will probably be interrupted considerably by frost. 
(2) Purification by intermittent filtration can probably be sucess- 
fully worked at a lower temperature than broad irrigation. As a safe 
limit we may set the lowest mean air temperature at about 18° to 
20° F. 340 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
(3) The quality and temperature of the soil to be used will materially 
influence the result, and before deciding what can be reasonably ex- 
pected in any given locality we need to know the physical properties 
of the soil to be used as well as the mean temperature of the air dur- 
ing the winter months. 
(4) As a corollary to (3) we may say that sandy soils are preferable 
for broad irrigation and intermittent filtration, not only on account of 
their open texture, but because of their greater capacity for retaining 
heat; clay and humus are, on the contrary, the poorest soils for this 
purpose by reason of their relatively low capacity for retaining heat. 
The close texture of clay also constitutes another serious objection to 
its use.* The great desideratum of successful sewage disposal by 
broad irrigation or intermittent filtration in winter is a medium which, 
acting in conjunction with the water, will prolong to the utmost limit 
the time of congelation. Sand answers to this condition better than 
any other material. 
(5) The capacity of a filtration area to absorb and retain heat in win- 
ter will be increased by making the upper surface an inch or two in 
depth of coarse black sand or dark-colored gravel. 
(6) It appears that the climate of the greater portion of the United 
States will admit of ordinary open intermittent filtration in the aver- 
age winter. Exceptions to this are however found in portions of the 
northern belt of States. 
(7) In general we may say that in any of the Middle, Central, and 
Southern States a very efficient purification can be attained by broad 
irrigation and intermittent filtration at all seasons of the year. 
* There is a reason, however, why clay may be of value as a sewage purification medium, namely, 
its peculiar behavior with reference to urine. 
Professor Way, in his investigation on the Power of Soils to Absorb Manure, Jour. Roy. Ag. 
Soc. of Eng., vol. xi., p. 3(56, describes the following experiment : 
Three quantities of fresh urine of 2,000 grains each, were measured out into similar glasses. 
With one portion its own weight of white sand was mixed ; with another its own weight of white 
clay ; the third being left without admixture of any kind. When smelt immediately after mixt- 
ure, the sand appeared to have no effect, while the clay mixture had entirely lost the smell of 
urine. The three glasses were covered lightly with paper, and put in a warm place, being ex- 
amined from time to time. In a few hours it was found that the urine containing sand had be- 
come slightly putrid ; then followed the natural urine; but the quantity with which the clay had 
been mixed did not become putrid at all, and at the end of seven or eight weeks it had only the pe- 
culiar smell of fresh urine, without the slightest putridity. The surface of the clay, however, be- 
came afterward covered with a luxuriant growth of confervas, which did not happen in the other 
glasses. 
Professor Way likewise found that filtering urine through clay prevented putrefaction and kept 
the urine as if fresh for a month or more. 
Professor S. W. Johnson, cites the foregoing experiment of Professor Way in his How Crops 
Feed (p. 393), and discusses at length the conditions under which the nitrogen of urine is absorbed 
and assimilated by vegetation. As the result of his own and the researches of other agricultural 
chemists whose investigations are cited, Professor Johnson concludes that it is not necessary 
for the nitrogen of urine to undergo nitrification, but that immediately, or after undergoing 
a slight but easy alteration, it may be taken up and assimilated by growing plants. The absence 
of bad smells from well-managed sewage farms is probably largely explained by Professor Way's 
experiments. DEDUCTIONS. 
341 
(8) In localities where the climate is too severe for purification by 
ordinary open intermittent filtration the efficiency of the process may 
be considerably increased by covering the area, either partially or 
wholly, or by artificially warming the sewage before application. 
(9) Other things being equal purification by high-grade intermittent 
filtration is cheaper than purification by chemical precipitation. As a 
general statement we may say that this still holds true even in severe 
winter climates where special protection of the filter area or artificial 
warming is required. CHAPTER XVIII. 
ON BEGGIATOA ALBA AND ITS RELATION TO SEWAGE EFFLUENTS. 
Mr. A. W. Bennett lias given in a paper on " Fungi Found in Sew- 
age Effluents," read before the American Society of Microscopists in 
1884, an account of Beggiatoa alba as developing in immense quantities 
in several sewage effluents in England. Inasmuch as this organism is 
found in this country a short account in the way of extracts from some 
of the literature may be properly given in this place. Mr. Bennett 
says: 
This organism occurs abundantly in the effluent water from sewage works, and is 
well known to English sanitary engineers under the name of the " sewage fungus." 
It forms dense, flocculent, grayish-white masses attached to the bottom and side of 
the channel, or to ordinary green algie. Under the microscope it is seen to consist 
of an immense quantity of colorless threads, with but little or no chlorophyll, full 
of granular protoplasm, and containing a number of bright, strongly refractive, 
globular particles; it is the Beggiatoa alba of Vaucher, but differs slightly from 
the typical form described by Zopf (Spalt-pilze, p. 76). The filaments are 
branched, either dichotomously or laterally, and situated either at the base of the 
branches or elsewhere, and the cells are frequently remarkably constricted, both 
above and below the septa. The globular refringent particles have been determined 
by German experimenters to consist of pure sulphur, and are most commonly situ- 
ated immediately below each septum, but sometimes towards the centre of a cell, 
or more generally diffused. 
The systematic position of Beggiatoa is somewhat obscure. Zopf places it, with- 
out hesitation, among the lowest section of fungi, the Schizomycetes, which form 
one division of Sachs' primary class of Protophyta. It may, in fact, be regarded 
as the Leptothrix condition of an organism of this class, having also its corre- 
sponding bacillus, coccus, and spirillum conditions. On the other hand, it appears 
to be closely allied to the Oscillatorim through Crenothrix. 
The source of the globules of sulphur contained in this organism is a very in- 
teresting question. The Beggiatoa is not necessarily indicative of partially decom- 
posed sewage ; it occurs also in the effluent water from manufactories, especially 
from sugar factories, tanneries, etc., thermal sulphur springs, as well as in drains. 
Luerssen (Die Kryptogamen, p. 24), gives as its habitat putrid water, noisome 
ditches, the effluents of manufactories and mineral springs, especially all thermal 
sulphur springs, as those of the Alps and Pyrenees, Aix la Chapelle, baths of 
Vienna, etc. It appears, therefore, to have the power of extracting sulphur, not 
only from decomposing organic matter, but also from the mineral sulphates dis- 
solved in spring water. Sulphur may be set free in this way by the mutual de- 
composition of soluble sulphides and sulphites. Independently of the source of 
sulphur in the organic matter present in the sewage itself there is an abundant 
supply of this element in the substances used for purifying or precipitating the 
sewage, which are usually sulphate of alumina, lime, and proto-phosphate of iron. 
The growth of the so-called " sewage fungus " must undoubtedly, therefore, be 
regarded as evidence of the presence in the water of an abnormal amount of sul- 
phates, derived either directly from sewage or from the substances used in precipi- ON BEGGIATOA ALBA. 
343 
tating it, or in other ways in manufactories. But there seems no reason to believe 
that it will itself have any injurious effects on the water. It is difficult to see how 
the sulphur, once set free, can again combine with hydrogen to form sulphuretted 
hydrogen gas as long as the organism is growing in the water. Indeed, if allowed 
to accumulate and periodically removed, it may tend to purify the water by ab- 
stracting from it some of the undue proportion of sulphur. 
At the Merton sewage disposal works of the Croydon, England, 
Rural Sanitary Authority, the Beggiatoa alba has been the subject of 
interesting legal proceedings. The outfall from these works discharges 
into a large pond at the head of a bye-wash from whence the effluent 
flows into the river Wandle. After the discharge into the pond had 
continued for some time, complaints were made by adjoining pro- 
prietors that the pond had become the source of a serious effluvium 
nuisance, and one of the riparian owners sought to restrain the Sani- 
tary Authority from discharging the effluent into the pool. An exam- 
ination disclosed the fact that Beggiatoa grew extensively in the 
underdrains and was constantly breaking away and flowing out in 
the effluent, accompanied by enormous quantities of vorticella. 
Mr. Justice Denman, who before deciding the case himself actually 
viewed the alleged nuisance, in his decree, says : 
The water which flows into the bye-wash (and here I speak partly from personal 
observation) contains in it a very large quantity of what is called sewage-fungus. 
The evidence about that substance was interesting and curious. ... It was said 
to be without odor whilst alive, but when dead to be capable of giving off sul- 
phuretted hydrogen, and so becoming foul to the nose. My own observation of 
what was happening last Tuesday, coupled with the appearances in the pond itself, 
and the evidences of the witnesses, entirely confirms this account. ... I have 
no doubt whatever that that pond, which was proved to have been clear within the 
last four or five years, and good for perch, has been turned into a very filthy pond 
mainly by this agency. . . . It is, I think, as plain as anything can be, that a 
continual discharge, such as I myself saw running into the pond in large quantities, is 
" 3, discharge of sewage or filthy water " not free from all foul or noxious matters, 
such as would affect or deteriorate the purity and quality of the water in the bye- 
wash, but that it has seriously affected and deteriorated it, and must inevitably do 
so. 
A decree of perpetual injunction was granted, restraining the Sani- 
tary Authority from polluting the pond and imposing a fine of $1,000. 
To obviate this difficulty fungus filters were constructed, and the Sani- 
tary Authority acquired the pond and the upper part of the bye-wash. CHAPTER XIX. 
THE EFFECT OF THE POLLUTION OF STREAMS BY MANUFACTUR- 
ING WASTES UPON THE LIFE OF FISH. 
This division of our subject, while of considerable importance, has 
furnished as yet comparatively little detailed information upon which 
to base conclusions. The principal investigations thus far are: (1) 
Those of Penny and Adams in Scotland; (2) those of Saare and 
Schwab in Germany, and (3) a few made under the direction of the 
United States Fish Commissioner in this country. The following 
gives some of the more important results of Penny and Adams' exper- 
iments. 
Penny and Adams' Experiments.* 
Iii order to determine the effect of various substances upon fish, 
two kinds were selected, namely, the minnow and the goldfish. These 
two kinds of fish are stated to possess different temperaments, the 
minnow being remarkable for its delicate vitality and for the fine 
sensibility it evinces toward all kinds of disturbing influences; the 
goldfish, on the other hand, is comparatively tenacious of life, and 
possesses a sluggishness of nature that permits sufficient length of 
time for observing the action of poisonous agents. 
Before beginning the experiments, a sufficient stock of fish was se- 
cured and stored under such conditions as to satisfy the experimenters 
that the fish to be experimented upon were in a healthy state. 
The experiments included a trial of a number of the acids, sulphuric, 
nitric, muriatic, etc.; of the mineral salts, sulphate of copper, chloride 
of lime, acetate of lime, etc.; the special chemicals, chlorine, iodine, 
etc.; of sumach, madder, logwood, etc.; and various miscellaneous pol- 
luting matters, such as furnace-cinders, blood, and coal-tar. 
Of the mineral acids, the nitric and sulphuric, when present in the 
proportion of 1 part to 50,000, killed minnows; but goldfish lived in 
the same proportion. In muriatic acid, both lived in a mixture of 1 
part to 50,000. 
Tannic acid killed a minnow in the proportion of 1 part to 14,000, 
and a goldfish with 1 part to 7,000. In gallic acid, 1 part to 7,000, 
both died, while in 1 part to 14,000 both lived. 
* Fourth Report of the Rivers Pollution Commission, vol. ii., pp. 377-391. PENNY AND ADAMS' EXPERIMENTS. 
345 
In acetic acid, a minnow lived 20 hours before succumbing in a mixt- 
ure of 1 part to 8,750 ; a goldfish lived in a proportion of 1 part in 
3,500 for 20 hours, and survived. 
In carbolic acid, a minnow, in one case, subjected to the action of 1 
part in 70,000, died in 40 minutes. A goldfish died in 1 part in 3,000 
but lived in one part in 7,000. 
The most virulent of the metallic salts was sulphate of copper. Both 
minnows and goldfish died in a mixture of 1 part in 100,000; both 
lived in a mixture of 1 part in 200,000. 
Sugar of lead, alum, salts of iron and potash are all destructive of 
fish life in about the same proportion, namely 1 part in 4,000. The 
salts of potash, the bicarbonate, red prussiate, and yellow prussiate 
are comparatively harmless ; both kinds of fish lived in all these in a 
mixture of 1 part in 500. With carbonate of soda a minnow died in 1 
part in 17,500, and lived in 1 part in 35,000; a goldfish lived in 1 part 
in 17,500. 
In a saturated solution of chloride of lime a minnow died in 1 part in 
16,000 ; both lived in 1 part in 21,000. 
In a saturated solution of chlorine both lived in 1 part in 2,000. 
Iodine and bromine killed in a mixture of 1 part in 35,000. 
Caustic potash, when present in 1 part in 35,000, destroyed a minnow; 
a goldfish was destroyed by 1 part in 7,000, but lived in 1 part in 35,000. 
Galls killed a minnow in 1 part in 2,808, and goldfish, 1 part in 936. 
Sumach and madder solutions both killed a minnow 1 part in 7,000. 
In sumach solution a goldfish lived in 1 part in 7,000, but in madder 
of the same strength died. 
In boiled logwood chips both kinds of fish lived in 1 part in 2,800 ; 
in logwood extract both lived in 1 part in 8,750. 
Linseed oil was found entirely innocuous as regards fish life. 
In a solution of crude soap, 1 part in 8,750, a goldfish lived for 
twenty hours and showed no after ill effects ; in double that strength a 
strong fish died in six hours. 
Table No. 91.-General Results of Penny and Adams' Experiments on Fish. 
Class of agents. 
No. of 
agents. 
No. of 
fish. 
Total No. of fish. 
Goldfish. 
Minnows. 
Died. 
Lived. 
Died. 
Lived. 
Died. 
Lived. 
Water 
6 
36 
36 
3 
3 
Acids. 
11 
35 
20 
13 
15 
22 
5 
Metallic salts 
16 
61 
28 
33 
4 
13 
24 
20 
Special chemicals 
7 
30 
23 
7 
7 
3 
16 
4 
Drysalteries 
10 
132 
20 
112 
8 
38 
12 
74 
Miscellaneous 
11 
77 
60 
117 
11 
13 
49 
4 
Waste discharge 
10 
37 
8 
29 
1 
20 
7 
o 
Totals 
71 
428 
174 
254 
44 
105 
130 
119 346 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Ashes and ordinary furnace cinders were found to be specially dele- 
terious. AVith 500 grains of furnace ashes to a gallon of, or 1 part to 
140, water a minnow died in 45 minutes and a vigorous goldfish in five 
and one-half hours. 
Coal-tar killed a goldfish in 1 part in 8,750. 
Heavy pitch-oil killed both minnow and goldfish, 1 part in 35,000; a 
goldfish lived 1 part in 70,000. In naphtha a minnow lived in 1 part in 
8,750. 
The general results of these experiments are given in Table No. 91. 
Saare and Schwab's Experiments. 
Saare and Schwab experimented upon tench and trout. They found 
that liquids containing from 0.04 to 0.005 of one per cent, of a bleach- 
ing solution were fatal to tench, while a solution of 0.0008 were fatal to 
trout. The action of the chlorine, which is the destructive agent in 
bleach liquids, was found to be increased by the presence of an acid. 
Mercuric chloride was fatal in proportions of 0.1 to 0.05 of one per 
cent. Copper sulphate in 0.1 and 1.0 per cent, killed trout in a few 
minutes. Potassium cyanide killed in the proportion of 0.01 to 0.005 
per cent. 
Carbolic acid was found fatal to trout in proportions between 0.01 
and 0.005 per cent.* 
Experiments of the United States Fish Commission. 
A number of papers in regard to the influence of the pollution of 
streams upon the fisheries have appeared in the publications of the 
United States Fish Commission, the more important of which are as 
follows : 
(1) A translation of a paper on The Injurious Influence on Piscicult- 
ure of the Retting Water of Flax and Hemp, by E. Reichard, of Jena,t 
in which are given the results of a series of experiments on the immer- 
sion of a tender fish, like the whiting as found in the river Salle, and 
a less delicate fish, the bastard carp, in mixtures of various proportions 
of clear water and retting water. The retting water used was obtained 
by soaking flax 5 days. 
In 1 part retting water and 3 parts running water the fish immedi- 
ately showed signs of uneasiness and both died in the course of 12 
hours. A repetition of the experiment gave the result that the fish 
died in 3 hours. 
A large bastard carp lived in a 3 to 1 mixture for two days, but lost 
* For Saare and Schwab's experiments in detail, see Archiv fur Hygiene, vol, iii., Part I., p. 81. 
t Ann. Rept. U. S. Fish Commissioner, 1880, pp. 545-550. EXPERIMENTS OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
347 
its color and gradually grew weaker; and although again placed in 
running water, died after 8 days. 
In 1 part retting water and 9 parts running water the fish quickly 
showed signs of sickness. After 24 hours in the mixture, they were 
again placed in running water, where they died in a few days. 
In 1 part retting water and 2 parts running water small fish died 
very soon. A large bastard carp was at the point of death in 42 hours ; 
it was then removed and placed in pure running water, where it par- 
tially recovered, but died in two weeks. 
In a mixture of 1 part retting water, 14 days old, and 4 parts fresh 
water the fish died in 36 hours. 
Fish placed in a mixture of 1 part retting water, 3 weeks old, and 4 
parts fresh water became sick and changed their color, but revived on 
transfer to fresh water after a few days. 
(2) In a report by Marshall McDonald, on the Pollution of the Poto- 
mac river by the Discharge of Waste Products from Gas Manufacture,* 
the point is made that even though the discharge of the waste products 
should seem to have no injurious effect in driving the larger fish away, 
yet such discharge and the consequent deposits upon the bottom may, 
by destroying their food, make impossible the development and growth 
of young fish. In the case examined the discharge into the river 
amounted to at least 100 gallons per minute of the waste products of 
gas manufacture ; and the conclusion at which Mr. McDonald arrives 
is that the bottom of the stream is affected by the deposited matter 
for a distance of several miles. 
(3) A report was by Mr. McDonald upon the Effect of Waste 
Products from Page's Ammoniacal Works upon Young Shad Fry.j* 
A series of experiments were made with mixtures of the wastes from 
the Ammoniacal Works in Potomac river water of various degrees of 
strength, with the result of showing that a distinctly deleterious influ- 
ence is exerted when the waste products are present to the amount of 
1 gallon to 400 gallons of the river water. The following gives the 
detail of the three last experiments of the series: 
One hundred newly hatched shad were put in 20 ounces of mixture, 
0.5 per cent, strength ( | part refuse and 99| parts water) at 2 P.M., 
June 2; at 6 p.m., 9 fish dead; 6 A.M., June 3, 16 fish dead; 6 A.M., 
June 4, 25 fish dead, and remainder weak; 6 p.m., June 6, all dead. 
One hundred newly hatched shad were put in 20 ounces of mixture, 
0.25 per cent, strength (0.25 part refuse and 99.75 parts water) at 2 p.m., 
June 2 ; at 6 p.m., all well; 6 A.M., June 3, four fish dead; 6 A.M., June 
5, 16 fish dead; 6 p.m., June 6, 57 fish dead; 6 a.m., June 7, all dead. 
One hundred newly hatched shad were put in 20 ounces of Potomac 
* Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Commission, vol. v., pp. 125-126. 
t Bulletin, etc., vol. v., pp. 313-314. 348 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE* UNITED STATES. 
water at 2 p.m., June 2; but few were alive at noon on June 8, and the 
few showed but little vitality. 
Mr. McDonald observes that newly hatched shad are much less sensi- 
tive to the injurious influences in the water in which they are, than are 
the same fish after their sacs have been absorbed and they have begun 
feeding. 
It is also suggested that the minute food of young shad is more 
sensitive to injurious influences than are the young fish which feed 
upon them. 
The authors' observations upon the haunts of minute life of various 
kinds is corroborative of this observation, and undoubtedly one very 
marked effect of stream pollution, as regards the life of fish, is the 
driving away or destruction of many kinds of favorite food. 
Experiments have shown that alewives, which are epecially sensitive 
to sewage pollution, will live in perfect health for an indefinite period 
in the effluents from intermittent sand filters. The same fish died 
when placed for a short time in the effluents from chemical processes. CHAPTER XX. 
CONCLUSIONS TO PART I. 
The Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge remarks 
in its second report that the satisfactory solution of sewage disposal 
problems is a matter of extreme difficulty. The additional remark 
may be properly made that sewage disposal will always be a matter 
of considerable expense. As a problem in economics, therefore, the 
question may be stated somewhat as follows: 
Having given a specific case ofseioage disposal, it is required to determine 
the method of treatment or purification which zvill best satisfy all the attend- 
ant sanitary conditions what ever they may be ; expense so far as compatible 
with the foregoing to be kept at a minimum. 
When stated in this form it at once becomes apparent that the so- 
lution of sewage disposal problems will require the highest skill of 
trained sanitary specialists. 
As regards the various methods of disposal discussed in the preced- 
ing chapters it may be stated by way of final conclusion, that: 
(1) Discharge into tidal or other large body of water will be ordi- 
narily, independent of other considerations, the cheapest method of 
disposal. Such discharge should never be permitted into bodies of 
fresh water which are the sources of public water-supplies at any point 
within the influence of the sewage. The range of influence in streams 
has been defined in general terms in the preceding chapters. 
Moreover, in order to obtain the best results from the self-purifica- 
tion processes, the quantity of water into which raw sewage is dis- 
charged should always be large enough to dilute the sewage from 
thirty to fifty-fold.* 
(2) Sewage may be greatly improved by chemical treatment but we 
have as yet no reason for supposing either that chemically purified 
sewage is fit to drink or even that it may be safely permitted to flow 
into streams used as public water-supplies. Other things being equal, 
the expense of chemical purification will be greater than that of either 
broad irrigation or intermittent filtration. 
With reference to American conditions it may be stated as a general 
* See Eng. Record, vol. xxvi., No. 24 (Nov. 12, 1892), p. 380, "Purification of Sewage by Mi- 
crobes." 350 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN TIIE UNITED STATES. 
proposition that chemical treatment only applies in those places where 
land purification is impracticable. 
(3) Broad irrigation offers a rational and efficient method of sewage 
purification, although the relatively high price of common labor in 
this country will limit its application here. The use, however, of the 
silo for preserving the large forage crops naturally produced by 
sewage farming, and the consequent extension to dairying, will be 
likely to lead to its gradual adoption in the more thickly settled por- 
tions of the country. In the arid regions of the West the scarcity of 
water has already led to a considerable development of sewage irriga- 
tion, as we have indicated in detail in Chapter XLIV., in Part II. 
From an economic point of view a marked advantage of broad irri- 
gation is that the sum realized from the sale of the produce assists in 
reducing the net cost of the purification. The most marked disad- 
vantage is that the sewage must be cared for in all sorts of weather, 
whether required for the crops or not. While, therefore, it is impossible 
to say that broad irrigation can always be conducted at a profit, it is 
nevertheless true that it will offer in many cases a cheap and efficient 
method of sewage purification. The probable limit of temperature at 
which it can be carried on in winter has been indicated in Chapter 
XVII. 
(4) Taking into account all the elements of the problem, intermittent 
filtration is the most practicable method of purifying sewage thus far 
worked out. Its effluents, when the best possible standard is main- 
tained, may flow without prejudice into streams used as public water- 
supplies, while the moderate areas required for its application permit 
its use in the majority of cases where any sort of purification is re- 
quired. 
As regards the use of intermittent filtration in winter, we may pred- 
icate from present information a fairly successful purification from 
properly managed areas, even in extreme cold weather. PART II. 
DESCRIPTIONS OF WORKS. 
CHAPTER XXI. 
PAIL SYSTEM AT HEMLOCK LAKE. 
The domestic water supply of the city of Rochester, New York, is 
obtained from Hemlock lake, in the County of Livingston, about 30 
miles southerly from and at an elevation of 386 feet above the city. 
Hemlock lake is about seven miles long and f mile wide. It oc- 
cupies the northern extremity of a deep, narrow valley, 15 miles long. 
The shores of the lake are bluff and steep, rising to a height of from 
300 to 700 feet, and along the beach are mostly covered with a growth 
of timber. The average depth is over 40 feet. 
About the time at which Hemlock lake was utilized as a source of 
water supply for the city the attention of the citizens of Rochester, as 
well as those of surrounding cities and towns, was attracted to the 
lake as a desirable point for summer residence.* 
In 1892 there were in use about 120 cottages and several hotels or 
summer boarding-houses, and the summer population, including 
transient visitors, was from 800 to 1,000 persons. 
The gradual growth of this large summer population, living directly 
on the shores of the lake, and using it not only as the source of water 
supply but also allowing all refuse substances, including contents of 
privies, to drain into it, had its natural effect in a probable marked 
deterioration of the quality of the water,f and the necessity for an 
efficient sanitary protection of this watershed accordingly became 
self-evident. In the spring of 1885 a complete sanitary survey was 
made and sketch plans prepared of every source of pollution about 
* See 16th An. Rept. of the Ex. Bd. of the City of Rochester for estimates in detail of perma- 
nent and transient population in the various cottages, permanent residences, hotels, etc. During 
July and August there is stated to be, probably, a constant population of about 1,200, which is 
largely increased on holidays and by special excursions. 
+ See (1) On the Micro-organisms in Hemlock Water, by Geo. W. Rafter (1888); and (2) A 
Report on an Endemic of Typhoid Fever at Springwater, N. Y., in October and November, 1889, 
by Geo. W. Rafter and M. L. Mallory (1890). 352 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the lake. At the same time the State Board of Health, under the pro- 
visions of the act already referred to on page 71 formulated rules and 
regulations for the sanitary protection of this water-shed (see Appen- 
dix III.). These regulations provide: (1) That privies, pig-pens, and 
barn-yards shall not be located over or adjacent to any stream, spring, 
or dry water-course tributary to the lake, where the contents can reach 
the lake; (2) that any privy situated within 50 feet of any spring, 
stream or dry water-course, or ravine, must be constructed without a 
vault, and provided under the seats with water-tight receptacles for 
night-soil, which shall be frequently removed, emptied, cleaned, and 
returned, and the contents 
buried in the earth in such 
a manner that they cannot 
reach any water-course or 
permanent level of subsoil 
water. 
Further, no manufactur- 
ing waste is allowed to be 
discharged or drained into 
any spring, stream, or dry 
water-course on said water- 
shed. The same restric- 
tion applies to depositing 
dead animals, birds, fish, 
decayed fruit, leaves, saw- 
dust, roots, branches or 
trunks of trees in any 
spring, dry water-course, 
or in the lake itself. The 
washing of sheep or other 
animals in the lake or any 
of its tributaries is also 
prohibited. 
The provisions relating to houses, cottages, tenements, tents, and 
picnic grounds within 200 feet of the shores of the lake may be sum- 
marized as follows: Each property is furnished with at least one 
privy set upon the surface of the ground, without a vault, and so con- 
structed that metallic pails, 15 inches high by 15 inches in diameter, 
can be placed under the seats and easily removed with their contents. 
This pail is shown by Fig. 30 A. 
The occupants are required daily to add dry loam in small quan- 
tities, as a deodorizer and absorbent. It is also made the duty of the 
occupant to provide a receptacle for garbage and to place the same 
therein. Slop or wash water is to be scattered upon the surface of 
Fig. 30 A. 353 
PAIL SYSTEM AT HEMLOCK LAKE. 
the ground at a distance from either the lake, or any ravine or water- 
course, and the points at which slops are deposited frequently changed. 
Animal manures from stables are to be deposited in tight covered 
receptacles and the contents frequently removed. 
The city of Rochester furnishes under the rules a sufficient number 
of metallic pails for the use of each privy within 200 feet of the lake 
and is required to remove, empty, cleanse, and disinfect the same as 
often as necessary. Whenever a full pail is removed an empty one is 
supplied in its place. The pails during removal are provided with 
air-tight covers, so that no odor can escape. The contents of the pails, 
together with the dry garbage, are removed to a point below the foot 
of the lake and buried. 
In practice, the night-soil and garbage is collected and removed to 
the foot of the lake by means of a broad, flat-bottomed steamboat, the 
collections being usually made in the early morning. From the 
steamboat landing at the foot of the lake the night-soil and garbage 
are transported by a tramway about 1,800 feet to the sanitary building 
and disposal grounds, where it is treated as follows : Narrow trenches 
are excavated, care being taken that the permanent level of the sub- 
soil water is not reached, and the contents of the pails are deposited 
therein in thin layers, and immediately covered with dry loam to a 
depth of six inches. This process is repeated day by day until the 
trench is nearly filled, when the balance is rounded up with earth and 
a new trench started. The location of the trenches is recorded, the 
surface cultivated and cropped, and after a suitable period the same 
land again used. A trench 500 feet in length has proved sufficient for 
a year's operation, and as these trenches need not be more than three 
feet apart, a small area is sufficient for the purpose. 
The cans, as emptied, are taken to a sanitary building, which is 
provided with an elevated tank filled with a solution of copperas, 
and other necessary appliances for washing, cleansing, deodorizing, 
and drying the cans. The cans are constructed of heavy galvanized 
iron, coated, inside and out, with black asphalt varnish. In cleansing 
the cans, if necessary, more active deodorizing and disinfecting agents 
than copperas are employed. 
The process has been so conducted that local prejudice has sub- 
sided and fears as to possible offensive odors in the neighborhood al- 
layed. In the sanitary building and about the grounds no offensive 
odors are discernible, although during the year 1890 the contents of 
3,128 cans and 80 tubs of garbage were thus removed and treated.* 
*See (1) Paper by J. Nelson Tubbs in Proceedings of the 11th. An. Meeting of the Am. W. 
Wks. Assn. (Cleveland, 1888), pp. 18-23. 
(2) The several An. Repts., Roch. W. Wks., 1886 to 1892, inclusive. 
(3) Eng. and Bldg. Rec., vol. xxii., p. 412 (Nov. 29, 1890), where illustrations of appliances may 
be found, and from which Fig. 30A has been taken. 354 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
In connection with the disposal by burial of this refuse organic mat- 
ter from the habitations on the shores of Hemlock lake, it may be of 
interest to note that the soil in the trenches which were filled one, two, 
and three years before, was examined in November, 1890, to ascertain 
whether complete decomposition had taken place. The excavations 
disclosed the following facts: In trench No. 3, used in 1888, no quick- 
lime was employed to hasten decomposition; nevertheless the soil ex- 
hibited no trace of putrescible matter, either by appearance or odor. 
In trench No. 2, used in 1889, quicklime had been strewn upon each 
layer of organic refuse as it had been deposited and then covered with 
a layer of earth, but although traces of the lime and a discoloration of 
the soil could plainly be seen, yet the earth was entirely free from any 
unpleasant odor. The excavation was made about three feet deep. In 
trench No. 1, burial with the use of lime was commenced in May, 1890, 
and only partial decomposition was found to have occurred after the 
lapse of six or seven months. It was also found, as anticipated, that 
the destruction of the organic matter took place much more quickly 
near the surface that at a depth of three feet. The soil is a clayey 
loam, whose surface is from four to five feet above the level of the water 
in the outlet. From these examinations it appears that shallow 
trenches are better than deep ones, and after a period of three years 
the indication is that the same trench can be used again. The trenches 
were again examined in November, 1891, with the result that a decom- 
position of the organic wastes, similar to that already described, was 
observed.* 
This Hemlock lake pail system is operated chiefly by steamboat for 
the summer season, only a few of the habitations being in use the 
balance of the year. In winter the necessary collections are made by 
wagon. The total cost of operation during the municipal year ending 
April 6, 1891, was as follows : f 
Wages of steamboat engineer and crew and other labor involved in 
collecting excreta, garbage, etc., during open season $1,413.05 
dost of collection by contract during winter 103.03 
Cartage of coal and supplies for boat 21.00 
Coal for steamboat 65.57 
Copperas and chloride of lime 9.80 
Asphaltum paint and oil 64.40 
Moving pig-pens to other locations 15.00 
Miscellaneous expenses and repairs 47.61 
Total $1,739.46 
* 15th An. Rept. Ex. Bd. city of Rochester, for year ending April 6, 1891, p. 42. Also see 16th 
Rept., p. 32. 
+ From June 1, 1891, to October 1 of the same year, there were collected by steamboat 3,060 pails 
of excreta. 171 tubs of garbage, and 3^ pails of dead fish. From October 1, 1891, to April 1,1892, 
the collections were made by wagon and row-boat, and amounted to 1,208 pails, the cost of this 
latter service being $6 per week. PAIL SYSTEM AT HEMLOCK LAKE. 
355 
During the year there was also expended in the way of permanent 
additions to plant and renewals, the sum of $352.18. 
The approximate first cost of the permanent plant is given by the 
following statement, which is made in detail in order to show what the 
several items making up the total cost of such a plant really are : 
(1) Sanitary surveys and examinations, and law expenses attending 
inauguration of system in 1885 $265.40 
(2) Surveys for and preparation oft plans of sanitary building, lake 
pier, tramway, and other permanent fixtures and superinten- 
dence of construction, estimated at 500.00 
(3) Frame building, elevated tank, and additions to same since 
original construction, including inside fittings, pump, etc 850.22 
(4) Flat-bottom scow in use for first three years 149.77 
(5) Original road from lake to sanitary building 39.59 
(6) Original landing dock at lake 11.25 
(7) For permanent pier 400 feet long, and tramway 1,800 feet long.. 4,660.55 
(8) Tram-cars 57.50 
(9) Flat bottom steamboat with small row-boat 1,907.20 
(10) Remodelling about 100 privies for reception of pails 69.47 
(11) For metallic sanitary pails, transportation of same, etc 1,256.17 
(12) Miscellaneous, including land (partly estimated) 232.88 
Total approximate cost of permanent plant to April 6, 1891.. $10,000.00* 
The total cost of operation for six years is shown by the following 
statement: 
For the municipal year ending April 5, 1886 f $497.49f 
" " " " " " 4,1887 1,525.58 
" " " " " " 2, 1888 1,461.53 
" " " " " " 1, 1889 1,740.78 
" " " " " " 7, 1890 3,912.091 
" " " " " " 6, 1891 1,739.46 
Total cost of operation for six years $10,876.93 
During the six years of operation which are here included, from 
18,000 to 20,000 pails of night soil, garbage, and dead fish have been 
disposed of by this pail system. 
The expense of doing this work, both in first cost and annual cost of 
operation, is evidently much greater than it would be for a similar 
performance in a town or city. The peculiar nature of the plant and 
the long distances covered may be taken as the main reasons for this. 
*In this total of $10,000 is included the cost of all new metallic pails purchased to April 6, 
1891. Some of these are properly chargeable to renewals, but by reason of the impossibility of 
determining from the accounts as kept just where renewal stops and legitimate increase of plant 
begins, all such expenses are grouped together in item (11). The plant may now be considered 
complete and fully adequate to perform the work required of it without further extension, and 
from this time on expenses of the sort under consideration may be properly charged to renewals. 
+ First year, not in operation for the whole season. 
t The statement for this year contains a large amount of labor properly chargeable to other ac- 
counts which cannot now be separated. The expenses of operation proper probably did not exceed 
about $1,700. 356 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The moving of the pails by boat, and the construction of a pier for 
facilitating such moving at all stages of the lake, is an imperative 
necessity due to the peculiar situation. The west side of the lake, on 
which is located a considerable number of the cottages, is absolutely 
inaccessible except by water; the cottagers themselves, even, going to 
their temporary homes by boat from the opposite side. As yet we have 
no pail system in a town with which to compare the figures as given for 
this exceptional case. CHAPTER XXII. 
THE FULLERTON AVENUE CONDUIT AND THE BRIDGEPORT PUMP- 
ING STATION, AT CHICAGO. 
The gradual increase in the pollution of the two branches of the 
Chicago river on account of receiving larger and larger amounts of 
sewage from year to year led in 1874 to the beginning of the construc- 
tion of the Fullerton Avenue Conduit, which was designed especially 
for the relief of the North branch. The plan adopted included the 
construction of an open cut and tunnel conduit from the river to the 
lake, and the erection of machinery for operating a screw by which 
a current of water could be sent at will, either from the lake to the 
river, or from the river to the lake, as might be necessary at different 
stages of the lake to secure the most thorough flushing of the river. 
The Fullerton Avenue Conduit. 
So far as the authors know, up to that time no similar plan for sew- 
age disposal had been carried out anywhere, probably because just the 
conditions which seemed to necessitate this particular arrangement 
had not occurred in any other place. Since then a similar arrange- 
ment has been carried out at Milwaukee, and we may accordingly in- 
clude a description of the Fullerton Avenue Conduit, and its pumping 
machinery, as involving on the whole a somewhat unique method of 
sewage disposal, at any rate so far as its mechanical features are con- 
cerned.* 
Owing to the failure of the original contractors, and other causes 
of delay, the Fullerton Avenue Conduit was not completed ready for 
operation until January, 1880. The following description of its pro- 
portions and principal mechanical features as originally carried out, 
taken in conjunction with Figs. 31 and 32 will give a general idea of 
this work.f 
The conduit is of brick, circular in section, 12 feet internal diameter, 
and 11,898 feet long, from the lake shaft to the North Branch of the 
* For extended discussion of some of the engineering features of the Fullerton Avenue Conduit 
see a paper Fullerton Avenue Conduit, etc., by Lyman E. Cooley, C. E., in Eng. News, vol. iii., 
pp. 212, 220, 229 (July 1, 8, and 15, 1876). A paper descriptive of the Milwaukee plant was pre- 
sented by Geo. H. Benzenberg, M. Am. Soc. C. E., before the International Engineering Congress 
at Chicago, in August, 1893. The paper will be published in Trans. Am. Soc. C. E. 
+ Abstracted from the 4th An. Rept. of the Dept, of Public Works, etc., of Chicago, for the 
year ending Dec. 31, 1879, pp. 70-75. 358 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Chicago river. The bottom of the invert from the river to Racine 
avenue, a length of 4,270 feet, is level, and 13 feet below the city 
Gate. 
Chamber 
SECTION THROUGH CENTERLINE OF CONDUIT AT ENGINEHOUSE. 
\ Gage-We/fc 
PLAN OF ENGINE ROOM. 
Fig. 31.-Fullerton Avenue Conduit Pumping Station, Chicago. 
SECTION A.B. 
datum. East of Racine avenue there is a vertical reversed curve con- 
necting the upper and lower grades of the conduit, which latter at this 
point is 27§ feet below datum. The tunnel continues by a series of THE FULLERTON AVENUE CONDUIT. 
359 
descending grades to the lake-shore shaft, where the invert is 54^ feet 
below city datum. From the shore shaft to the lake discharge shaft, 
a distance of 1,000 feet, the conduit is level. From the North Branch 
to Racine avenue the work was in open cut, and from Racine avenue 
THROUGH CENTER LINE OF CONDUIT AT 
LAKE PlER^ 
Fig. 32.-Sections Through Fullerton Avenue Conduit, Chicago. 
Ordinary Lake Surface 
through lake shore shaft. 
eastward in tunnel, the grade followed the level of suitable ground 
for tunnelling. 
The upper part of the lake shaft is a cast-iron cylinder, inches 
thick, 14 feet 2| inches outside diameter, and 24 feet long, cast in six 
sections of four feet each, and bolted together with internal flanges. 
The cylinder is lined with brick masonry, making it 12 feet internal 360 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
diameter. The part of the shaft below the cylinder is also 12 feet in- 
ternal diameter. 
The top of the cylinder is 4^ feet below city datum, and located in a 
wooden chamber, 34 x 18 feet inside, with openings on the east side 
into the lake. These openings are fitted with gates, which are intended 
to be closed only when the cover is on the shaft, in order to prevent it 
being lifted or damaged by the violence of the waves. At this end the 
water may be shut off from the conduit by a conical cover of boiler 
plate, on the lower end of which is a strong flange, inclined at an 
angle of 45° with the horizon, and fitting on a similar flange, cast on 
the top of the shaft, with a packing of India rubber tubing between 
the two flanges, making a perfectly water-tight joint. The cover pro- 
jects above the water, and is provided with an opening to allow access 
to the shaft. 
The shaft is protected from the violence of the waves by a pier of 
pilework securely braced together, and filled at the ends to the level of 
the water with loose stones or riprap, and built so as to offer the least 
resistance to ice and storms ; on the pier and over the shaft is a frame 
house in which is fixed a winch for raising or lowering the cover of 
the shaft. The shafts at the lake shore, Larrabee street, and Sheffield 
avenue, are 12 feet internal diameter, being built of a size to afford 
suitable facilities for working during the construction of the conduit. 
At each street intersection are shafts of G feet internal diameter, with 
eyes or junctions formed in them at suitable depths to afford ready 
means to connect with the sewerage system if it is found desirable to 
do so. 
These shafts are carried up to the level of the street, domed over, 
with openings on top for access, and covered with strong covers, and 
all provided with ladder irons. At the river end, where the machinery 
is located, the conduit is divided into two semicircular channels, 
which pass one on each side of a wrought-iron chamber. After pass- 
ing the chamber the two channels are again united to form one chan- 
nel, of the same size and section as the main conduit, which is con- 
tinued to the outlet on the river. The outlet is protected by a heavy 
masonry dock wall, in which is fixed a screen of iron rods for the pur- 
pose of preventing floating debris from entering the tunnel and ob- 
structing the screws when the current is from the river to the lake. 
The water is forced through the conduit by means of two screws 
similar to those of an ordinary propeller, one fixed at each end of a 
horizontal shaft 40 feet in length, and placed in the centre line of the 
conduit. This shaft passes through a boat-shaped iron chamber, 10 
feet in its greatest diameter, and secured to masonry foundations by 
28 two-inch bolts. All joints in the chamber are calked and made 
water-tight. The motive power is two single-cylinder condensing en- THE FULLERTON AVENUE CONDUIT. 
361 
gines, with cylinders 20 inches diameter and 30 inches stroke, with side 
valves, cut-off motion, and reversing gear, in order to permit them to 
run either way. The engines are placed on top of the chamber at the 
level of the engine-house floor. 
The driving-shaft is 8 inches in diameter and made in three sec- 
tions. The engines are coupled to the middle or crank section by 
connecting-rods 16 feet long. This section also carries the eccentrics 
for working the valves and is supported on pillow-blocks bolted to 
the masonry foundations. The end sections are connected to the 
middle by couplings, which have a longitudinal play sufficient to pre- 
vent the thrust being communicated to the middle section. They are 
also provided with an adjustable device to prevent the thrust and 
wear from the screw coming upon the end post of the chamber. 
The original screws were four-bladed, 6 feet 7 inches diameter, with 
a pitch of 8 feet. The back and forward edges of the blades were pro- 
jected upon a plane parallel to the axis, and parallel one to another, 
and the blades as foreshortened in projection were made 12 inches in 
width, giving the total area of the four blades of each screw one-half 
of the total area of a complete turn of the helicoid. The original 
screws were, however, removed in 1882 and a set 8 feet in diameter 
substituted in their place. 
There are three cylindrical boilers, 16 feet long and 66 inches 
diameter, with forty 5-inch longitudinal tubes in each boiler. Each 
boiler has 30 square feet of grate surface and 1,000 square feet of 
heating surface, and is connected with a brick chimney 3^ feet square 
inside and 100 feet high. The boilers are designed to bear a constant 
pressure of 80 pounds per square inch above the atmosphere, although 
it is not intended to work them with more than 60 pounds pressure of. 
steam. 
The engines are designed to work at a uniform rate of 100 revolutions 
per minute, and required to make as many as 125 revolutions per 
minute without injury. 
The portion of the conduit surrounding the shaft chamber and at 
each end of the same, a total length of 64 feet, is lined with a circular 
timber lining, funnel-shaped at the ends. At each end the lining is 
12 feet inside diameter, from thence forward it is contracted in size, 
and at the screws it is only one inch more in diameter than the screws. 
In designing the machinery there was some doubt as to the best 
size and form of the screw, there being no precedent of a propeller 
wheel used for forcing water in a confined channel, and the lining 
of the screw chamber was accordingly made somewhat of a temporary 
character, easily altered and adapted to any size and form of wheel 
which from experience might be found best and most economical to 
perform the required work. 362 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
To afford easy access to that part of the conduit where the screws 
are, two circular slide-gates are placed, one at each end of the engine- 
room, about 92 feet apart; these gates are 12 feet clear opening, made 
of boiler plate and faced with brass ; in the centre of each gate is a 
supplementary gate 36 inches diameter, to relieve the pressure from 
the large gate when required. The gates are operated by worm gear 
placed in the engine room, and when closed the portion of the con- 
duit between the gates can be pumped dry in a short time, so that the 
necessary repairs or alterations can be made in the screws. 
In order to ascertain the head of water against the screws, two wells 
are built adjacent to each other, each connected with the conduit by a 
4-inch pipe, one to the west of the shaft chamber and the other to the 
east of it. 
The original cost of the Fullerton Avenue Conduit, including the 
pumping machinery, was about $565,000. 
The Bridgeport Pumping Station. 
In 1883 the present pumping plant at Bridgeport, which was de- 
signed to force a larger quantity of water than had previously been 
possible from the South Branch of the Chicago river into the Illinois 
and Michigan canal was completed ready for operation. This work, 
as leading to disposal of the sewage flowing into the South Branch, 
may be now described, reference also being had to Figs. 33 to 37, 
inclusive.* 
The building is located across the old channel of the canal, about 
265 feet west of the South river, as shown in Fig. 33. The influent 
channel, 60 feet wide, was dredged to a depth of 10 feet below city da- 
tum. Its sides are vertical and maintained by a timber dock built in 
the usual manner. The effluent channel was excavated to a depth of 
6 feet below city datum, and the side slopes paved with stone. The 
position of the boiler and engine-houses in reference to the channels 
is so fully shown on the accompanying plan, Fig. 33, as to render 
description unnecessary. The machinery consists of four sets of cen- 
trifugal pumps, having a combined capacity of about 50,000 (nominally 
60,000) cubic feet of water per minute, raised to a height of eight feet.f 
Each set consists of two centrifugal pumps placed in a dry well 
below the surface of the water in the river, and driven direct by a ver- 
tical condensing compound engine, with high-pressure cylinder 18 
* Abstracted from 7th An. Rept. of Chicago Bd. Pub. Works for year 1882. 
t The enlargement of the pumping plant to a capacity of 100,000 cubic feet per minute has been 
begun since the above was written. The contract called for eight undulating pumps, each with a 
capacity of 12,500 cubic feet per minute, but was conditioned upon the success of the first two pumps, 
which were tested July 17,1893. See Eng. News, vol. xxx., p. 70 (July 27, 1893), for results of tests, 
illustration and description of new pump, recent operation of old, and condition of the Chicago 
river in 1893. THE BRIDGEPORT PUMPING STATION. 
363 
inches diameter, both being 34 inches stroke. Surface condensation 
is effected by a series of pipe condensers placed in the current of 
Fig. 33.-Plan Showing Location of Bridgeport Canal Pumping Station, Chicago. 
water in the influent channel, and so devised that each may be hoisted 
separately out of the water, and cleaned or repaired, and then replaced 
without emptying the channel or interfering with the operation of the 364 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Fig. 34.-Plan of Bridgeport Pumping Station. THE BRIDGEPORT PUMPING STATION. 
365 
Fig. 35.-Cross-section of Bridgeport Pumping Station. 366 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
others. The air-pumps are independent, and located in the dry wells. 
The pump-wheels are cast iron, 6 feet diameter, of the form shown by 
the accompanying drawings. Each is furnished with separate sup- 
ply and discharge pipes, which are 3| feet diameter at the pump, and 
increased gradually to 4£ feet by 4| feet at the outlet. They are pro- 
Fig. 36.-Longitudinal Section of One Set of Bridgeport Pumping Engines. 
vided with gates to shut off the water, which are operated on the floor 
of the engine-room. 
Each pump is coupled direct to the engine crank-shaft, which may 
be conveniently disconnected, if desired, by removing the coupling- 
bolts. The engines are adapted for running at high speed, and are 
provided with adjustable cut-off valves. All wearing surfaces are of 
steel, with boxes of phosphor-bronze. 
There are eight horizontal return tubular boilers, each 6^ feet in 
diameter, and 18 feet long, and containing 60 tubes, each 4^ inches THE BRIDGEPORT PUMPING STATION. 
367 
diameter and 18 feet long. The boilers are designed to withstand a 
pressure of 80 pounds per square inch, and are provided with the 
usual gages and valves. Each set of boilers is connected with a 9-inch 
Fig 37.-Section of Centrifugal Pumfs, Bridgeport. 
steam-pipe in the engine-room, from which smaller branches lead to 
the different engines. 
The water of condensation is delivered into boiler-iron tanks, and 
from there returned to the boilers by two steam feed-pumps, each 
having 8-inch steam and 5-inch water cylinder. 
For the purpose of determining the capacity of the pumps, a mov- 368 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
able weir was constructed across the effluent channel near its junction 
with the canal, with four openings, each 10 feet wide, with knife 
edges. 
To prevent the water returning into the river from the canal a timber 
lock was constructed in the canal a short distance east of the junction 
of the influent channel. The walls are of crib-work, built with 2x8 
inch timbers, laid flat, one on top of the other, spiked together and filled 
with stone. The chamber is 240 feet long between gates, and 19 feet 
wide. The floor is formed of 10x12 sleepers, bedded in the ground and 
covered with two thicknesses of 2-inch plank. This floor extends be- 
yond the chamber to the nose of the crib-work. 
Outside of the lock are waste-gates, 38 feet wide, to be opened 
when the works are not running during flood-time, or when the 
works are not in operation from any cause, so as to leave as large 
a way as possible for the passage of water. The gates, sills, and 
quoins are of white-oak timber, framed together and sheeted with 
pine, and have sluice-valves in the bottom operated by levers and 
racks. 
The total cost of these works was about $270,000. CHAPTER XXIII. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION PLANTS AT CONEY ISLAND, ROUND 
LAKE, WHITE PLAINS, AND SHEEPSHEAD BAY, NEW YORK. 
The disposal plants at Coney Island, Round Lake, White Plains, 
and Sheepshead Bay, New York, all employ the same general system 
of purification and may therefore be described together. This process, 
in brief, consists of the automatic introduction of lime and perchloride 
of iron to sewage in precipitating tanks, the deodorization and disin- 
fection of the sludge, or, if desired, of all the sewage, by chlorine, and 
the removal of the sewage from one compartment of the tanks to 
another and finally to the effluent pipe by means of siphons, the latter 
also effecting the change of level in the tanks which causes the auto- 
matic introduction of the precipitants in the desired quantities. The 
system was designed by J. J. Powers, C. E., Brooklyn, who holds pat- 
ents on certain features. 
Coney Island. 
The first of the four plants to be put in operation was that at Co- 
ney Island, in 1887. This place is a well-known sea-side summer re- 
sort near New York and Brooklyn, the sanitary condition of which 
some ten years ago was deplorable.* 
In 1884 the New York Legislature empowered the Board of Health 
of the town of Gravesend to construct sewerage and sewage disposal 
systems in any district of the town upon petition of a majority of the 
property-owners of the district affected. Since that date the Board of 
Health has built sewage purification plants for both the Coney Island 
and Sheepshead Bay districts, after designs by Mr. Powers. The plans 
for the Coney Island plant were submitted in a competition and were 
approved by Robert Van Buren, M. Am. Soc. C. E. 
The Coney Island plant, being the first one constructed, is the sim- 
plest of the four, but is essentially like the others except in minor 
*See results of an investigation by W. P. Gerhard, C. E., Eng. News, vol. xiv., pp. 1781-82 
and 210-214 (Sept. 19 and Oct. 3, 1885). These articles describe the sewage disposal methods 
adopted prior to Sept., 1885, by the large hotels at Brighton and Manhattan beaches, some of 
which seem to have been the precursors of the Powers process as applied to town sewage. 370 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
details and comparative smallness of the tanks. Perchloride of iron 
was the only precipitant used until the fall of 1892, since which time 
lime has also been used. 
A sketch plan and approximate longitudinal section of the plant are 
shown by Figs. 38 and 39. Two 24-inch trunk sewers join in a 30-inch 
pipe near the works, which branches to supply sewage to the two 
halves of the tanks. The sewage settles and is screened in the first 
tank, lime being used to increase the sedimentation since the fall of 
1892. A T-overflow conveys the sewage into the next compartment, 
where perchloride of iron is added automatically. A siphon discharges 
Precipi- 
tating < 
Tank ■ 
in I er-. 
Sewer 
Sen/ing & 
Screening 
Tank- * 
Pump' Wd/ 
' Covered 
Driveway 
Pumos • 
Boilers 
TOverf/ow\ 
(xtrbaqe and 
Sludge Furnace 
Siphon 
Fig. 38.-Sketch Plan. 
Precipitating 
-- „ Tan,(? 
T Overflow r 
Settling and 
Screening Tank 
Pump 
Well 
Siphon 
Clean ma 
out vaire 
Fig. 39.-Longitudinal Section Through Tanks and Pump Well. 
this compartment, when full, into the pump-well. The change in the 
level of sewage in this tank operates a float-valve to discharge the per- 
chloride of iron from a tank provided for the purpose. The method 
employed to introduce the chlorine into the sludge is described 
further on. 
The first year the works were operated the sludge was carried away 
by a scow, the works being close by Coney Island creek. For the 
last few years the sludge has been mixed with sawdust and burned in 
an Engle garbage crematory shown in plan at the end of the building, 
Fig. 38. 
Two Davidson pumps lift the effluent a few feet and discharge it 
through a pipe into salt water. 
The summer population and visitors at Coney Island probably ex- ROUND LAKE. 
371 
ceed 100,000 for a few hours on some days. The census of June, 1890, 
showed a population of 3,313 in the incorporated village of Coney 
Island.* 
Round Lake. 
The second plant built under the Powers patents is located at 
Round Lake. It needs but brief description, since it is only an 
elaboration of the Coney Island plant with details changed to suit 
local requirements. William B. Landreth, M. Am. Soc. C.E., was the 
designing, and J. Leland Fitzgerald, M. Am. Soc. C.E., the construct- 
ing engineer, these two gentlemen having been associated at the time 
under the firm name of Landreth & Fitzgerald, of Schenectady, New 
York. Mr. Fitzgerald described the works in detail in Fire and Water 
for February 14, 1891. The following is slightly abbreviated from a 
condensation of the above paper, combined with later information, 
which appeared in Engineering Nows of October 20,1892 : 
Round Lake is a summer resort near Saratoga Springs which has 
developed from a camp-meeting ground with tents for shelter to a col- 
lection of cottages and other buildings which serve a permanent popu- 
lation of about 400 and a summer population averaging 1,500, perhaps, 
with 7,000 or more people on the grounds during some days. The 
cottages and property are owned by the Round Lake Association, of 
which J. D. Rogers is superintendent. 
Water-works and a sewerage system were built in 1887, the sewers 
having been laid in the same trench as the water-mains. Money to 
pay for the water and sewer systems was raised by subscription and 
lot assessment. 
A restricted amount of surface water is admitted to the sewers in 
the centre of the village only. The buildings are so close together 
that a single house drain serves from two to six buildings, thus reduc- 
ing the total length of the sewers proper. 
The only available water into which the sewage could be discharged 
was Round lake, close by which the buildings are located. Some 
form of purification was therefore necessary. Broad irrigation was 
out of the question, as a sufficient area accessible by gravity could 
not be. secured. An area of three acres was chosen for downward 
intermittent filtration, the location being governed by distance from 
the residence section rather than by suitability for the purpose. The 
land needed grading and underdraining. As nothing of the sort was 
done except to lay a few lines of tile, purification was not effected and 
a nuisance arose. It was finally decided to put in a plant for chemical 
treatment and the process of Mr. Powers was adopted. 
* A more detailed description of this plant is given in Eng. News, vol. xxviii., p. 868 (Oct. 
20, 1892). Mr. Baker visited the disposal works shortly before the date just named and found 
them, apparently, in excellent condition. 372 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
A sectional plan of the purification works is shown by Fig. 40 and 
several vertical sections by Fig. 41. 
The pit A, Fig. 40, in the first compartment, is designed to retain a 
large part of the sludge. The screens S detain all large objects which 
have not settled, there being a screen or stop at the surface to intercept 
floating matter and a mesh screen placed across the channel. The 
sewage passes into the siphon-chamber GB through the inverted 
trapped overflow O. The siphon SI removes the sewage automatically 
from GB to the long narrow chamber C, from which it overflows into 
D and again into L, from which the final siphon SI delivers it into the 
manhole N. From this manhole the effluent passes through a pipe 
to the lake, 700 or 800 feet distant. 
The lime is admitted to the sewage, as it enters the first compart- 
ment, from the left end of the lime tank LI. The perchloride of iron 
is admitted to the sewage before it passes through the first siphon, 
being discharged from the measuring tank MT, which is connected 
with the storage tank CI. Both the lime and perchloride of iron are 
discharged automatically through feed-cocks worked by lever-floats. 
For the lime tank a spring tripped by a cam on the lever is used. The 
chlorine generators CH are in a semi-detached building at the left 
ventilated by louvres. 
When the precipitating tank AEFGB is cleaned the liquid is first 
drawn off into the final settling tank through the valves shown in the 
plan, Fig. 40, after which the more fluid portion of the sludge in the 
pit A is, or may be, pumped into the other side for further treatment 
by means of the centrifugal hand-pump located at P, in compartment 
E. Provision seems to have been made, also, for pumping from the 
pits H and M by centrifugal hand-pumps. Such sludge as is not 
pumped from pit A has some absorbent mixed with it (charcoal-dust 
has been used some of the time) after which it is shovelled into an iron 
bucket, lifted by a differential hoist and finally conveyed to a cart by 
means of an overhead trolley. 
Mr. Fitzgerald states that for the two seasons 1889 and 1890 it was 
unnecessary to remove the sludge from the pits H and M more than 
once or twice in the season ; but that it was necessary to remove the 
sludge from pit A every four days during the season; that chemicals 
were not used in winter, sedimentation being sufficient for the actual 
population of only 400; that for the two years, the average cost of 
labor and repairs had been $200 per year, and of chemicals, $150. 
In August, J. D. Rogers, superintendent, wrote that during the 
past season lime and perchloride of iron had been used, but that 
chlorine had not been used, because a cock could not be obtained that 
would " hold out against the corrosion of the chemicals more than a 
few weeks," after which it became dangerous. The plant had been run ROUND LAKE. 
373 
Fig. 40.-Sectional Plan of Round Lake Works. 
DatumL 
Bottom 
of Sewer 
Concrete 
Concrete 
Section a-b. 
Darurn _ 
Section c-d. 
Section e-f. 
Datum 
Section i-j. 
Fig. 41.-Vertical Sections Sewage Purification Works at 
Round Lake,.New York. 374 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
very well without the chlorine and the cost of its operation had thus 
been lessened. The cost of running the plant for 1892, Mr. Rogers 
stated, would be about $150, including chemicals and labor, while the 
resulting fertilizer would be worth about $30. 
White Plains. 
This plant and that at Sheepshead Bay were built at about the 
same time and differ more in engineering design and construction 
than in the details of the process, except that no final settlement of the 
effluent is provided at Sheepshead Bay. The process in its latest 
developments is described sufficiently in detail below for an under- 
standing of its essential features: 
White Plains is a suburb of New York, located on the New York and 
Harlem Bailroad, 22 miles from the 42d street station. Its popula- 
tion by the census of 1890 was 4,042. 
A public water supply was introduced in 1885. On Sept. 1, 1892, 
there were about 15 miles of water mains and 450 taps, the consump- 
tion of water being at the rate of about 350,000 gallons per day. 
The sewerage system was put in use about March 1, 1892, it having 
been under construction for some time previously. Wm. B. Landreth, 
M. Am. Soc. C.E., Schenectady, New York, made the plans for the pipe 
system, which were approved in 1889 by the State Board of Health of 
New York. Wm. B. Bider, C.E., of South Norwalk, Connecticut, was 
made engineer of the work after construction started, and later E. D. 
Bolton, C.E., now of Brookline, Massachusetts, was made engineer, 
and under him the works were completed. Geo. B. Byrne, C.E., of 
Byrne & Darling, White Plains, was resident engineer in charge of 
construction under Mr. Bolton. 
About ten miles of sewers are now in use. From April 1 to Sept. 16, 
1892, 222 sewer connections were made. Prior to April 1 about 20 
connections had been made. 
The separate system is used, with about 50 flush tanks, mostly 
Rhodes-Williams with a few Van Vranken. There are about 100 man- 
holes in the system, with perforated covers. As most of the roads or 
streets are of dirt these perforated covers admit much dirt to the 
sewers, increasing the amount of sludge at the purification works. In 
addition, the attendant in charge of the works states that when new 
connections are made with the sewers some house-owners take advan- 
tage of the opportunity to empty their cesspools. 
About 21 miles of underdrains were laid about on the same level as 
the sewers, as deemed necessary. These underdrains discharge into 
brooks where most convenient. 
A 24-inch trunk sewer, about 7,000 feet long, leads to the purification Section K, L, M, N, 0, P, Q 
FIG. 1. PLAN AND LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF TANKS. 
FIG. 2. CROSS-SECTIONS THROUGH TANKS. 
FIG. 3. FLOOR PLAN OF BUILDING. 
FIG. 4, CROSS-SECTION SHOWING CHLORINE GENERATORS. 
PLATE III. PLANS AND SECTIONS OF CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS 
AT WHITE PLAINS, N. Y. 
CHAS. HART & SONS. LITH., 36 VESEY ST., N. Y. WHITE PLAINS. 
375 
plant, which is located about 5,000 feet from the village on the west bank 
of the Bronx river close by the tracks of the New York and Harlem 
Railroad. This outlet pipe is of cast iron, except the last 600 or 700 
feet, which is vitrified pipe. Mr. Byrne states that cast-iron pipe was 
probably used in order to exclude ground-water. The effluent passes 
from the purification works through about 3,000 feet of 24-inch vitrified 
pipe, laid parallel to the Bronx river, into which it finally discharges 
just below a mill-dam. 
The main sewer from the village terminates in the well at the end of 
the building, shown in the plan, Plate III., Fig. 1. From this well the 
sewage may be turned into either set of tanks through the gates pro- 
vided for the purpose. 
As the first compartment of the tank is deeper than the others, 
much of the solid matter settles and is retained in it, going to the 
bottom by its own weight. The chemicals deposit more of the sludge 
as the sewage flows slowly on. A sludge-pit is provided in the centre 
of each final settling tank, as shown in Plate III. 
The sludge from the sludge-pits and from the first compartment 
of the precipitation tanks may be lifted by the 4-inch centrifugal 
pumps through the piping shown in the plan and section, Plate III., 
and discharged into the opposite side for further treatment. The 
" primers " of the pumps are charged through 1-inch galvanized iron 
pipe from the force-main described above. The pumps are driven by 
engines supplied with steam from the boiler-room. The sludge can 
be removed finally by means of the bucket, car, and tramway shown 
in the cross-section, in Plate III., Fig. 4, the tramway being shown ex- 
tending the whole length of the tanks in plan in Plate III., Fig. 3. The 
buckets have a capacity of | ton, are of steel, self-dumping, and are 
raised by differential one-ton hoisting blocks and tackle, which run on 
an overhead single-rail tramway of one ton capacity. 
The two dump cars are of |-inch boiler iron, one ton capacity. The 
tramway consists of 60-pound rails, two feet apart, clamped to the top 
of iron beams. 
Before the sludge is removed from the tanks it is rendered less 
liquid and more easily handled by the addition of " German bog," said 
to come off the top of peat-beds. This bog comes in bales 2 x 2g x 3^ 
feet and is a good absorbent. 
All the sludge which had been removed from the tanks from the 
time the plant was put in operation until Sept. 2, 1892, was outside 
the building in a pile on that date. Some of it was colored brown by 
the peat, some pink, presumably by the iron, but much of it had the 
appearance of ordinary lime and sand mortar, due to the lime used 
as a precipitant and to the further fact that much dirt is admitted 
to the sewers through the perforated manhole covers, as stated above. 376 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
This large heap of sludge was perfectly free from odor, quite as in- 
offensive as a pile of mortar. Neither was there the slightest offensive 
odor anywhere about the works. 
Thus far the sludge has been removed from the tanks and the 
chlorine used about once a month. The tanks may be washed per- 
fectly clean by the use of water from a small reservoir on the hill or by 
direct pressure from a small duplex pump provided to fill the reser- 
voir. This pump also affords fire protection for the building. The 
pump has 10-inch steam and 6-inch water cylinders, with 10-inch stroke. 
A G-inch suction-pipe extends to the river, only a few feet dis- 
tant. A 4-inch force-main extends from the pump to the reservoir on 
a hill near by, at a sufficient elevation to give a pressure of 47 pounds 
at the works. From the force-main a 2-inch galvanized iron pipe 
extends through the building and connects by means of 1-inch cast- 
iron pipe with the chlorine generators and tanks. Connections are 
also made with all the plumbing where water is needed. Linen hose, 
200 feet in length, is provided for washing the tanks and for fire use. 
The reservoir is of stone, cemented, 20 x 10 x 5 feet, and, according 
to the specifications, covered with a building and connected by an 
electric indicator with the pump-room. 
The settling chambers inside the building have rolling covers, the 
wheels running on I-beams, the wheels of one set of covers running 
on the upper and of another on the lower flange of the beam, so that 
the covers of one side may be rolled over or beneath those of the 
other. 
The final settling tanks are covered with 8-inch brick arches sup- 
ported by 90-pound I-beams resting on 12-inch brick piers. Openings 
6 feet long and 12 feet wide, with sliding covers, are provided in each 
corner of the covering in these tanks. 
The bottoms of all the tanks are composed of 18 inches of Portland 
cement concrete. The specifications state that all walls and piers to 
the height of the cross-walls must be laid in Portland cement mortar 
and plastered with the same where brick is used ; also that the entire 
inner surface of the tanks must be covered with two coats of asphalt 
paint up to the coping. Provision has been made for heating the 
building, including the settling tanks, by steam. 
There are two lime tanks, as shown in the plan and longitudinal 
section, Plate III., Fig. 1, each of riveted wrought iron, 1| x 2 x 10 feet. 
There are also two 2,000-gallon riveted |-inch wrought-iron tanks for 
holding the perchloride of iron. 
A hand hoist or elevator is provided in the chemical storage room, 
shown in the plan on Plate III., Fig. 3, for lifting the chemicals to the 
mixing tray of the chlorine generators and for lifting materials for 
storage in the second story. WHITE PLAINS. 
377 
The screens for stopping the large particles in the sewage as it 
passes through the tanks are shown in detail by Fig. 42. There are 
two of these screens for each set of tanks, located as shown by Plate 
III. They are made of j-inch 
wire, 1-inch mesh, swinging 
as shown in the illustration, 
to facilitate cleaning. 
In order that the chemicals 
used as precipitants may be 
admitted to the sewage auto- 
matically and in fixed propor- 
tion, the mechanism shown in 
Fig. 43 is employed for the 
lime and that shown in Fig. 
44 for the perchloride of iron. 
Each of these devices depends 
for its action upon the varying levels of the sewage in a tank which 
contains a float connected by a lever with a cock, all so arranged, as 
described below, that the chemicals will be discharged in quantities 
and at intervals as desired. 
Both Figs. 43 and 44 are designed to illustrate the principles upon 
which the mechanisms 
work, and not to show 
their exact arrangement at 
White Plains, although 
they do very nearly show 
the latter. 
The lime is slacked in 
the lime tank, Fig. 43. 
Water is added to make a 
milk of lime, which is fed 
into the sewage over the 
lip of the lime tank. 
Water is admitted to the 
lime tank through the 
pipe A, which is supplied 
from an elevated tank on 
a hill through the pipe B 
and the feed-cock. The 
water tank gives a pressure 
of 47 pounds per square 
inch in the building. The pipe B is perforated at different levels, to 
cause the water to be discharged horizontally in order to stir up the 
lime, much of which would otherwise remain at the bottom of the tank. 
Fig. 42.-Hinged Screen in Sewage Tank 
at White Plains, New York. 
Fig 43.-Automatic Feed-cock from Lime Tank, 
White Plains, New York. 378 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The pipes A and B connect with the casing of the cock C, as shown 
in the two enlarged sections. The cock is inserted in this casing and 
is provided with longitudinal slots at regular intervals on its circum- 
ference, which are so arranged that whenever one of these slots opens 
against the contracted end of the pipe A another will open against the 
pipe B and vice versa. 
The float is connected with the plug in such a way, that when it 
rises the cock is not turned, but when it falls a pawl engages with a 
ratchet and turns the cock so when the float is half way down the 
slots come opposite each pipe, and water is discharged into the lime 
tank and lime carried over the lip into the sewage. If the feed-cock 
Perch Iori de of Iran 
Tank 
Pleasuring Tam 
Three-Way Cock- 
Fig. 44.-Automatic Three-way Cock for Perchloride of Iron Tank 
was opened with the rise of the sewage it is obvious that the slower 
the flow of sewage the greater would be the discharge of lime. 
The device for admitting the perchloride of iron, Fig. 44, is slightly 
different, in that it is designed to measure this chemical accurately 
and to draw it from a storage tank of considerable size. To do this 
the storage tank is connected through a three-way cock with a small 
measuring tank placed on a lower level. The port of the cock which 
connects directly with the measuring tank is larger than the others 
and is always open. The third port connects, when in the proper 
position, with a pipe having its lower end over the sewage tank. The 
cock is turned automatically by the rise of the sewage so that the 
measuring tank is always emptied when or just before the float and 
the sewage are at their highest level and at no other time. The sew- 
age is at its highest level just before it is siphoned from the chamber 
to the large final settling tank shown on Plate III. 
In preparing the perchloride of iron for use, the storage tank is first WHITE PLAINS. 
379 
filled about half full of water, the desired amount of the chemical 
added and then the tank filled full. This method is followed to pre- 
vent injury to the valve. A 60 per cent, perchloride of iron is used, 
and two grains per gallon is considered a fair amount for ordinary 
sewage. The perchloride of iron is bought from Martin Kalbfleisch's 
Sons Co., New York, for 3^ cents per pound, or about $4.75 per carboy. 
In passing from a consideration of the use of chemicals, attention 
may be called to the fact that the lime is admitted intermittently to 
sewage which has a continuous How, and therefore some sewage may 
pass the series of chambers of the first tank to the weir over which the 
sewage flows to the first siphon chamber without receiving any direct 
addition of lime. Such sewage would have little or no precipitation to 
this point, but it would have sedimentation owing to the slow rate of 
flow. Since lime is discharged each time the first siphon works, every 
discharge of sewage into the final settling tank will contain lime, the 
only question being whether it is well mixed with the sewage. It 
would seem preferable to dischage the lime into the sewage continu- 
ously, or nearly so. This might be effected by arranging the float and 
feed-cock, Fig. 43, so that the water would be discharged into the tank 
with every few inches rise of the float, still maintaining a fixed rela- 
tion between the lime and sewage. Or, better yet, a constant flow of 
lime might be maintained and the quantity varied to correspond with 
the volume of sewage by slowly passing the latter through a rect- 
angular trough containing a lever-float which, rising and falling with 
the volume of sewage, would regulate the flow of lime through a feed- 
cock. The advantages of having the lime thoroughly mixed with the 
sewage the moment the latter reaches the first tank are obvious. 
The chlorine for deodorizing the sludge, or for treating the total 
volume of sewage if desired, is made from common salt, black oxide of 
manganese, and sulphuric acid. The salt and black oxide of manga- 
nese are mixed, 1 to 1, in a tray above the chlorine generators, and 
washed down into the generator with parts of water. The cocks 
being turned to allow the chlorine to pass through the pipes and into 
the sewage tanks, sulphuric acid is then slowly admitted to the tanks 
and the chlorine generated. Acid should be admitted only in sufficient 
quantity to develop a pressure of 2 pounds, the pressure being indi- 
cated by a gage. A safety water-column and safety-gage are provided 
to keep the pressure down to 5 pounds, the blow-off pipe from the 
safety-gage extending up through the roof of the building. In addi- 
tion the covers of the tanks being treated should all be tightly closed, 
and it is well to have the windows and door open. As inhalation of 
any amount of chlorine would be injurious to the nostrils, trachea, and 
lungs, the precautionary measures mentioned are advised on the 
printed directions for the generation and use of the chlorine and the 380 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
safety-gage is made a part of the plant. In practice, however, no 
trouble with the chlorine is experienced. It is obvious that since the 
chlorine is used to disinfect sludge or sewage it will be admitted to 
the tanks only when the perforated pipes are submerged, and if the 
chlorine should pass up through the sludge it would at once make the 
fact known, whereupon the acid could be turned off from the genera- 
tors. In practice it seems probable that a deficiency rather than an 
excess of chlorine will find its way to the tanks. 
The capacity of the final settling tank is about 27,500 gallons and of 
the small siphon tank or chamber which empties into it about 2,000 
gallons, allowing for the sewage which flows into the latter while it is 
discharging. The sewage travels about 150 feet in the first or precip- 
itating tank and 50 feet in the final settling tank, making 200 feet in 
all. 
There were, early in September, about 450 taps connected with the 
water-works and about 250 sewer connections, which, being taken to 
yield as much sewage as the consumption of water per tap, 780 gallons, 
would give 195,000 gallons per day of natural discharge into the 
sewers. If the above figures are all approximately correct only a 
small amount of ground-water now finds its way into the sewers. 
When the plant had been in operation only a month, however, it is 
said that the daily flow through the tanks was 266,000 gallons. At 
that time there were but few sewer connections and the greater part of 
the flow must have been ground-water. The tanks are sunk in the old 
bed of the Bronx river, the river having been turned when the New 
York and Harlem Railroad was built, and at first there may have 
been some seepage into the tanks. 
The amount of sewage treated at White Plains in September, 1892, 
was said to vary from some 200,000 gallons or under per day to about 
300,000 gallons, or less, for which about one barrel of lime and one car- 
boy, 10 to 12 gallons, of perchloride of iron was being used. 
To operate the plant an engineer and a laborer are required during 
the day and a watchman at night. About one ton of coal a week is 
consumed in generating steam. The coal costs $6 per ton, delivered. 
The contract price for the purification plant alone, without allowance 
for superintending construction, was $50,049. This was increased about 
$3,000 by errors in grade which necessitated the lowering of the foun- 
dations, but should not be charged to the cost of purification. 
No analyses of the sewage after purification have been made, to the 
authors' knowledge, and as the plant has been in operation but a short 
time little can be said regarding the results obtained. At the plant 
nothing objectionable could be seen or smelled and everything seemed 
to be in good shape. 
At the outlet into the river the effluent was somewhat clouded, which SHEEPSHEAD BAY. 
381 
might have been due, in part at least, to the use of lime. For several 
hundred feet down the river some of the finer particles of sewage were 
deposited in shallow water having little motion. In places these de- 
posits were 3 to 4 inches deep, but they gave off little or no odor upon 
being stirred. The deposits may have been the result of improper 
management of the plant, especially too infrequent cleanings, which, 
as has already been stated, have thus far taken place but once a month. 
It may be that the lime does not become thoroughly mixed with the 
sewage, for the reasons mentioned above, in which case imperfect pre- 
cipitation might be expected. In this connection it may be again 
stated that in constructing and operating sewage purification plants 
the controlling factor is the degree of purification desired. This 
decided, the next question is how to obtain it at the least possible 
expense.* The large and apparently inoffensive pile of sludge outside 
the purification building at White Plains witnesses that a great 
amount of pollution has been excluded from the Bronx river and ren- 
dered harmless. The deposits of sewage in the river gave no offence, 
even when stirred, and it is possible that the chlorine treatment had 
to a large extent rendered the deposits unobjectionable so far as de- 
composition is concerned.! 
Sheepshead Bay. 
The permanent population at Sheepshead Bay is probably less than 
3,000, but its floating and summer population is much larger. Like 
Coney Island it is in the town of Gravesend and its works were built 
under the same board of health. Horace Loomis, M. Am. Soc. C.E., 
was consulting engineer for the system. The following condensed 
* Throwing out of consideration the degree of purification effected, the following approximate 
estimate of the daily expense at White Plains may be given: 
1 carboy of perchloride of iron $4.75 
1 barrel of lime 75 
Coal 90 
Engineer 2.25 
Laborer and watchman, each, $1.50 3.00 
Common salt, black oxide of manganese and sulphuric acid 50 
Oil and waste 30 
Miscellaneous 50 
$12.95 
Assuming that the present average daily quantity of sewage treated is 250,000 gallons, and that 
the daily expense of treating this amount is $12, the cost per 1,000,000 gallons would be $48. Un- 
doubtedly when the town is fully sewered and the daily flow has become from 400,000 to 500,000 
gallons, the cost will be somewhat less. 
f Condensed from Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 284-5 and pp. 314-15 (Sept. 22d and Oct. 6,1892). 
In Eng. News of Oct. 6 may be found an account of the theoretical action of the lime and per- 
chloride of iron upon the sewage, extracted from a pamphlet entitled Treatment of Sewage by 
Chlorine, Precipitation and Sedimentation, by J. H. Raymond, M.D., Professor of Physiology 
and Sanitary Science, Long Island College Hospital. 382 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
description, in connection with the preceding part of this chapter, will 
give a fair idea of the purification plant.* 
The sewerage system was begun in 1891, and the purification plant 
was put in operation in 1892. The separate system is used. Water 
mains were laid by the town in the trenches with the sewers, there 
being about 13 miles of sewers and 15 miles of water mains. 
Although the same process is used at Sheepshead Bay as at White 
Plains, the details of construction are in some respects quite different, 
which is largely caused by the circular plan of the works and the fact 
that it was necessary to construct it on a pile foundation. The village 
is very flat and the surface of the ground is near the water-line of the 
bay. The purification plant is located on marsh land subject to the 
tide flooding near an inlet or creek. 
The 24-inch, egg-shaped cement outlet sewer from the village 
cuts across the marsh, turns and enters the building from the water 
side beneath the effluent pipe to the creek. The low levels and flat 
grades necessitate a deep receiving well from which the sewage is 
pumped to the tanks. 
The lime is discharged into the sewage while the latter is in the 
pump well, after which the sewage is pumped into the tanks. There 
are no final settling tanks. The perchloride of iron is discharged into 
the chamber, from which the sewage is siphoned to the effluent cham- 
ber and pipe. 
A 6-inch centrifugal pump, driven by steam, and having a 6-foot 
lift, was provided for handling the sludge, but it is not used. Sawdust 
is now mixed with sludge as an absorbent, after which it is shovelled 
into buckets, hoisted from the tanks, and pushed out in tram-cars as at 
White Plains. The sludge is used to fill in about the building, and was 
wholly inoffensive when the writer was at Sheepshead Bay, Sept. 12, 
1892, as was everything else about the plant. The whole building is 
heated by steam and the village water supply is extended to the 
plant. 
The effluent, as at White Plains, was slightly clouded. This seems 
to be admissible here, as does the omission of the final settling tank, 
for the effluent goes into a considerable creek of salt water. It is 
doubtful, however, whether the use of perchloride of iron at or near 
the time of siphoning is of especial advantage without the final set- 
tling tanks. 
* For full details and illustrations, see Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 308-9 (Sept. 29, 1892). CHAPTER XXIV. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE, NEW 
JERSEY. 
The town of East Orange, New Jersey, is situated immediately to the 
wrest of the city of Newark, and further bounded by the towns of 
South Orange, Orange, and Bloomfield, south, west, and north, respec- 
tively, as is shown in Fig. 45. The area is 2,400 acres, with a popula- 
tion in 1890 of 13,282. The topography is of a simple character, con- 
sisting of a nearly level plateau in the southern part, from which near 
the central part break four parallel valleys with drainage trending to 
the north. Within the limits of East Orange are three ridges, or low 
ranges of hills, which also run nearly north and south, and separate 
the valleys. The valleys are somewhat undesirable for residence by 
reason of greater dampness of the soil than is found on the ridges, 
which are generally dry and underlaid by the new red sandstone for- 
mation ; and until recently the bulk of the building in the northern part 
was on the ridges, the drainage from the better class of houses mostly 
passing into cesspools on the lower lands. Many of these had become 
very offensive, and considerable areas of soil were rapidly approaching 
complete saturation. 
The increase of this unsatisfactory condition led the citizens of East 
Orange, as early as 1881, to take under consideration improved meth- 
ods for disposing of domestic wastes, but it was not until the latter 
part of the year 1883 that a definite project was formulated. In 
that year, the matter of sewerage was taken actively in hand by the 
Town Improvement Society of East Orange, and a committee on sew- 
erage and drainage, consisting of Messrs. J. C. Bayles, M. Am. 
Soc. M.E., Alfred P. Boiler, M. Am. Soc. C.E., and E. Fortmeyer, 
Esq., appointed. At the meeting of the Improvement Society, held 
October 4, 1883, the committee reported that as a preliminary step 
toward securing a system of sewerage and sewage disposal they had 
requested J. J. R. Croes, M. Am. Soc. C.E., to prepare a plan for the 
complete sewerage of the town, with an approximate estimate of cost, 
together with suggestions as to the best method of sewage disposal. 
Mr. Croes' report was in substance, that inasmuch as East Orange is 
entirely surrounded by other densely populated areas, which further 
cut it off from access to any large stream or to tide-water, if the waste 384 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
products were to be disposed of or purified within the township limits, 
it would be desirable to diminish their volume as much as practicable. 
Therefore the sewerage system should be chiefly confined to carrying 
house wastes. If in any case it were to be deemed desirable to carry 
roof water in the sewers it should be held back in cisterns and only 
allowed to empty gradually into the sewers. His plans provided, 
WEST 
GRANGE 
7.600 ac. 
pop. 4,500 
.NEWARK 
WATER-WORKS 
dERSEYC/TY 
WATER-WORKS 
SO. ORANGE 
5, ZOO ac. 
pop. 5,000 
Fig. 45.-Map of East Orange, New Jersey, and Vicinity. 
therefore, for carrying only a maximum of one-half cubic foot per 
minute for every 100 feet of street with the sewers running half full. 
The entire system would comprise 40 miles of sewers, 26 miles of which 
were to be of six-inch diameter with main outfall of an elliptical sec- 
tion 28 by 42 inches, computed to flow two-thirds full at the time of 
maximum flow. The main outfall sewer would be extended to the 
north-east corner of the town, where a suitable location for disposal PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE. 
385 
works could be found, near a tributary of the Second river, a stream 
emptying into the Passaic at the northern boundary of Newark. 
The method of disposal recommended by Mr. Croes, was to first 
filter the sewage through a Farquhar-Oldham filter, the sewage having 
been treated with perchloride of iron before filtration; the filtering 
material, consisting of sawdust, was to be used, after filtration, as fuel 
under the boilers required for the pumping plant which would force 
the sewage through the filter. The effluent from the filter was to be 
further purified by passing through soil before reaching the stream. 
The plan actually submitted provided for only one disposal station, 
although as an alternative plan the question was considered whether 
two stations on opposite sides of the town would not be preferable, 
thus avoiding a long and expensive deep sewer, which would other- 
wise be necessary for conveying the sewage from the southern district 
to the northern disposal ground. The cost of the whole system was 
estimated at $330,000. The Town Improvement Society's committee 
on sewerage and drainage indorsed Mr. Croes' recommendation as to 
the system of sewers, but advised, in their report of April, 1884, further 
deliberation in regard to the method of disposal, as recent legislation 
had considerably enlarged the authority of the New Jersey townships 
in the matter of acquiring rights to drain through other towns and 
municipalities. Under an act passed by the Legislature a short time 
previously, any township in the State having a population of not less 
than 2,000 to the square mile, and a public water supply, may con- 
struct a system of sewerage or drainage, or both ; may have plans and 
estimates made ; may build sewers in any part of any township ; may, 
if necessary, appropriate any lands required by due process of con- 
demnation ; may build, if the township authorities shall deem it advis- 
able, a main outfall sewer to tide-water, and for this purpose may pass 
through territory situated within the bounds of any other municipal 
corporation; may enter into contract with the authorities of any city 
whose territory adjoins that of the township, for the privilege of con- 
necting the sewers of the township with those of the municipality; 
may purchase land and erect suitable buildings for the purpose of 
properly deodorizing, utilizing, or otherwise disposing of sewage; 
may apply to the circuit court of the county in which the town is 
situated for an appointment of commissioners to condemn any re- 
quired lands; may borrow money, from time to time, to pay for public 
works, and secure the payment of the same by issuing bonds at a rate 
not exceeding six per cent, annual interest, and to an amount not 
exceeding ten per cent, of the assessed valuation of the property of 
the township, the legal voters at their annual meeting to decide the 
sum to be expended during the current year. The Act also provides for 
the payment of principal and interest of the bonds, and directs the town 386 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
assessor to levy assessments each year while the debt is unpaid, in a 
sum equal to the principal and interest which will fall due during 
that year. 
In September, 1884, the township authorities directed Mr. Croes to 
prepare plans and estimates of the cost of conveying the town sewage 
to tide-water in Newark bay, below the city of Newark. Later on he 
was further directed to prepare additional estimates for disposal within 
the township limits. The plans and estimates submitted by Mr. Croes, 
in accordance with these instructions, showed that the construction of 
a sewerage system, sufficient for immediate purposes, would cost 
about $77,000. If the sewage were taken to Newark bay, the necessary 
outfall sewer, shown on the map, Fig. 45, would cost $154,000, while 
if chemical treatment, supplemented by filtration through land within 
the township limits, were adopted, the cost would be $76,000. With 
disposal to Newark bay the cost of completely sewering the town, in- 
cluding sewerage system, outfall sewer, etc., would be $462,345; for 
local treatment within the township limits the entire cost would be 
$398,325. 
The township committee on sewerage presented a report in Febru- 
ary, 1885, favoring the sewerage system recommended by Mr. Croes, 
but inclining to the opinion that the sewage should be delivered into 
the sewers of the city of Newark, which lie between East Orange and 
the Passaic river, provided a suitable arrangement could be made with 
the Newark authorities. The committee also recommended that the 
question of proceeding with the construction be submitted to popular 
vote at the town meeting in March. 
The matter, however, remained in abeyance until the spring of 1886, 
when Carroll Ph. Bassett, M. Am. Soc. C.E., was engaged to design 
the details of a plan providing for purification of the sewage within 
the township limits. The disposal works, in conjunction with a sepa- 
rate system of sewers embracing 26 miles of street mains, were con- 
structed under his direction during that and the following year, and 
placed in operation in June, 1888. Rudolph Hering, M. Am. Soc. C.E., 
reviewed the plans as consulting engineer. 
In designing the main sewer, it appeared advisable to Mr. Bassett to 
locate the disposal works as far away as possible from the northeast- 
ern district of the township, in which was situated the water-works 
supplying East Orange and the neighboring town of Bloomfield. 
These water supplies are derived from shallow wells in the new red 
sandstone. In accordance with this view, an intercepting sewer was 
designed, which crossed the northern district from east to west, lead- 
ing finally into the Second river valley. This sewer would intercept 
the sewerage of five-sixths of the total area of the township without 
pumping and deliver it into the northwest section instead of the north- Fig. 46.-General View of Sewage Disposal Works at East Orange, New Jersey. 388 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
east. Mr. Bassett considered the arguments in favor of the point of 
collection which was adopted as : (a) A larger percentage of the area 
of the township could be Collected to this point by gravity, than to 
any other; (6) the sewage would be united at the best point for ulti- 
mate gravity extension to tide-water or combination with other towns if 
it were desired ; (c) about the only land in the township, available for 
sewage treatment was there reached ; (d) the stream, offering an outlet 
for the effluent, was larger than any other in the district. 
In the chapter on Quantity of Sewage and Variations in the Rate 
of Flow, at page 132, we have referred to the large amount of ground- 
water which finds its way by infiltration into the sewers of the East 
Orange system. Its amount has been as high as about 50 per cent, of 
the total daily flow, and it has undoubtedly increased somewhat the 
cost of the purification treatment by necessitating the use of more 
chemicals than would be required provided the daily flow was confined 
to sewage proper. 
The disposal works designed by Mr. Bassett included a chemical 
treatment with lime and sulphate of alumina, supplemented by filtra- 
tion through a coke filter, further supplemented by intermittent fil- 
tration through land. 
The following is Mr. Bassett's description of the purification works, 
with slight abbreviations, as presented to the American Society of 
Civil Engineers : 
The land secured for the works was singularly unfavorable for sewage purifica- 
tion. The total area available was about 15 acres ; of this 5 acres were covered by 
Dodd's mill-pond, and the character of its bottom may be understood, when it is 
remembered that repeated complaint of its deposits had been made by residents to 
the Health authorities. The drainage and transformation of the pond was held 
out to hostile residents as consolation for the location of sewage purification works 
in their midst. Reference is made to the general plan of the works, Fig. 48. 
This, together with the views, Figs. 46 and 47, will show the residences imme- 
diately adjoining. 
The stream indicated on the plan originally fed the pond, but its channel has 
been deepened and straightened-a rather expensive piece of work, some of the ex- 
cavation being made in quicksand. It is a tributary of the Passaic, called Second 
river., Its volume varies from 12 cubic feet per second, in dry weather, to 775 
cubic feet per second flood volume. After a flow of about 4 miles it enters the 
Passaic, near the intakes for the water supply of Newark and Jersey City. Under 
these conditions it was necessary to secure a very high purity in any sewage effluent 
which was to be discharged into the stream, and the works must be operated with- 
out local nuisance. No reasonable expense was spared to make the works efficient 
and attractive ; the buildings constituting the works are shown in the photographs, 
Figs. 46 and 47. A pleasing architectural effect is secured. The masonry is of 
high class ; deep blue trap-rock, with rock face and worm joints, pointed with red 
mortar, relieved by red brick trimmings and cut stone capitals at the front about 
the doors and windows, secure a permanent and attractive appearance to the 
works. 
The sewage enters the works in a 2-feet by 3-feet new form, egg-shaped, brick 
sewer ; discharges into a conduit of rectangular section, having lateral projections 
extending nearly to its centre on alternate sides at intervals of three feet along 
the axis. In this conduit, chemicals from the building join the sewage; the lateral Fig. 47.-View of East Orange Disposal Works showing Portion of Filtration Area. 390 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
projections of the carrier give a whirling motion to the sewage, which causes a 
complete mixture of chemicals with it. The carrier leads the sewage to the pre- 
cipitation tanks. 
The tanks are constructed in duplicate, one set being cleaned or lying idle while 
the other is in use; Fig. 50 gives a general plan of the building and tanks, with 
longitudinal and cross sections. A brick wall located 10 feet in front of the 
inlet to the tanks, checks the velocity of entrance flow. A board floating on 
edge in vertical guides, intercepts the lighter floating matters, and insures their 
saturation before passing it. The cross-walls in each tank divide it into three 
compartments, and the flow passes over these with a depth of about 2 inches, the 
heavy matters being intercepted and settling. With a continuous flow of low ve- 
locity in the tanks, the surface water is being constantly skimmed off into the car- 
rier. Drums float a swivel arm in each compartment, which connects with a low 
service pipe in the bottom of the tanks that discharges on the surface of the ground 
at a low level. These arms draw water only from the surface, but the drums fall- 
ing with the water enable any arm to empty the compartment in which it is located 
into the low service earlier, leading to the surface of the grounds. The effluent 
from the precipitation tanks, after entering the carriers (Figs. 48 and 49), is dis- 
tributed over the surface of the filtration grounds and descends to the under-drains, 
which are from 3 to 5 feet deep and 20 feet apart over the entire 14.7 acres in the 
works. 
The sewage effluent is applied to the land on the principle of intermittent down- 
ward filtration, the flow being applied successively to different areas. Part of the 
land is laid off in beds, 4 feet wide, separated by shallow furrows, in which the 
water flows and soaks laterally into the beds. The remainder of the land is di- 
vided into flat beds, 100 feet long by 50 to 100 in width, over the whole of which 
water flows. This latter method is preferable, as more water is disposed of, and 
in winter, frost is more easily kept out of the ground. Italian rye-grass has given 
the best results on the land, and is now grown almost exclusively. Farmers from 
the neighborhood cut the grass and remove it as is necessary, but up to the 
present time the town authorities have not been able to secure a satisfactory return 
on its sale. 
Within the main building on the first floor are chemical mixing vats, filter presses, 
sludge-pressing machinery (receivers, air compressors and pump), boiler, and a 
small office for records and tests (Fig. 50). On the second floor chemicals and ma- 
terials are stored. The chemical mixers are cylindrical cast-iron vats, 4 feet in di- 
ameter, with inverted cone-shaped bottom overlayed with a perforated plate. The 
desired amount of chemicals is placed on the plate, water is let into the tank, and 
air blown up through the bottom, causing violent agitation of the liquid and re- 
sulting in the rapid solution of the chemicals. With a known flow of sewage at a 
given time, it is determined how wide to open a slide-valve in the bottom of the 
tank after solution of the chemicals is secured, in order to add the desired number 
of grains per gallon of sewage. 
The sewage is mainly of a domestic character and somewhat constant in its alka- 
linity. Not more than 3 grains of lime and 2 grains of sulphate of alumina are now 
added to each gallon of sewage by the authorities, although when the works were 
placed in operation, the author recommended the use of 8 grains of lime and 10 
grains of sulphate of alumina per gallon of the sewage. The present result is 
a less efficient precipitation. A combination of chemical precipitation and land 
filtration in the works makes it possible to increase the work performed by 
the land by reducing the efficiency of chemical treatment, and rice versa. The 
labor of purification now placed upon the grounds is greater than its equitable 
share as originally intended. Much better results could be secured by calling out 
the full efficiency of the chemical treatment. To relieve the filtration grounds, 
which have rather a retentive soil, several artificial filter-beds of coke and gravel 
were constructed under my direction, and have been of material service. (See Fig. 
48.) 
Returning now to the precipitated matter of sludge in the tanks : after the super- 
natant water is drawn off through the swivel-arm into the low-service carrier, a valve 
gate is opened and the sludge drawn into the deeper sludge-well within the build- PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE. 
391 
D.D Tile Drains 
a.b L.d Tumbling Steps 
Area available for filtration enclosed by hatched 
lines,: In East Oranqe. 3i acres, in Bloom- 
field. 6.3 acres. 
Fig. 49.-Sections Through Different Portions of the East Orange Disposal Area. 
Fig. 48.-General Plan of East Orange Sewage Disposal Works. 
IRRIGATION FIELD. EAST-SIDE 
Ave, 
CROSS SECTION ON EG 
Franklin 
CROSS SECTION ON HUK 392 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Fig. 50-Plans and Sections of East Orange Chemical Precipitation Works. 
SECTION AA PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE. 
393 
ing. By forming a vacuum in a cast-iron receiver, which is connected by an iron 
pipe with the sludge-well, the sludge is drawn up into the receiver, milk of lime 
being drawn in at the same time, by a small pipe from the mixing tank in the 
chemical room. This lime prepares the sludge for pressing, cutting the slime so 
^Pjpn 
\+ortorcinq 
for Outlets 
jludqe 
Outlet 
Valve 
$"Pipu 
S/udqe Inlet l/atve, 
J ' Sludqelnlet 
to Receiver- 
4"Pipes t 
Comp Air Pipe, 
Prepare Gaqe 
Vacuum Mainrs^ 
Air Cock - 
Tran iter Comp, fan 
Fig. 51.-East Orange Sludge and Forcing Receivers. 
that the water separates more readily from the solids. A pressure of 100 pounds per 
square inch is secured in one of the other receivers, and, being connected with the 
receiver containing the sludge by an air transfer main and the proper valves 
opened, the sludge is forced into a Johnson filter-press and pressed into moist, 
hard, portable cakes. 394 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
An analysis of fresh sludge directly from the press, made September 11th, 1889, 
by Mr. Charles T. Pomeroy, of Newark, N. J., gave results as follows : 
Nitrogen from organic matter 326 per cent. 
Total phosphoric acid 459 " 
Moisture 50.625 " 
Using the 1889 trade values adopted by the New Jersey experiment station we 
have an estimated worth of $1.51 per ton, 2,000 pounds. This sludge quite rapidly 
lost its moisture on exposure to the air, until it contained 6.37 per cent, moisture. 
If dried at 100 degrees C. it would have an estimated value of $3.06 per ton, 2,000 
pounds. 
The machinery used in manipulating the sludge was constructed by S. H. John- 
son & Co., Stratford, England, who have erected numerous plants in England. 
Their machinery is the subject of several patents, and no similar devices are manu- 
factured in this country. Not all of the machinery furnished has been satisfactory. 
The combination vacuum and compression pump and the high-pressure water- 
pump gave considerable trouble, and have been replaced by a Clayton compressor 
. . . . and a Worthington duplex pump 
The method of maintaining and securing the pressure in the hydro-pneumatic re- 
ceivers to press the sludge is worthy of brief comment. There are three receivers 
in the system (see Fig. 51); let them be represented by A, B and C. Air passes out 
at the top, sludge at the bottom, water enters at the side near the bottom and exits 
at the bottom. All the receivers are empty, except of air. Water is pumped into A 
and B and the air transfer mains opened to transfer their air to C, raising the press- 
ure to 45 pounds per square inch. The valve on the air main from C is closed. 
The water in A and B is drained back into a shallow tank in the floor of the build- 
ing with which the pump suction is connected-air taking its place. Water is 
again forced into A and B, operating proper valves, and the pressure in C is raise d 
to 75 pounds per square inch. A repetition of this process brings the pressure in 
C to 105 pounds per square inch. A and B are emptied as before and a vacuum in 
A created, the sludge suction pipe is opened, and A is filled with sludge. Water 
is now pumped into B, forcing its air into C and thence into A, to force the sludge 
into the press. When B is filled with water, C may be filled with air, and A with 
sludge and air. When a receiver is filled with water, a float valve at the top closes 
the outlet to the air transfer main, and weighted valves on the force main lift and 
relieve the pressure on the pump. 
The value of the process now first appears. B is emptied of water and filled with 
sludge, while at the same time water is being forced into C, and by connection with 
A forcing the remainder of its sludge into the press. Compressed air is thus never 
allowed to escape into the atmosphere. When C is filled with water, it is ready to 
be filled with sludge, while at the same time water is forced into A and the sludge 
of B forced in the press. 
The filter press shown in Fig. 52, consists of thirty-six cast-iron cells, supported 
on a simple frame, with a central feed-passage into which the sludge is forced from 
the receivers. The cells are separated by canvas bags, and in the intercellular 
spaces the sludge remains, while the water is drained out through the canvas bags 
into a trough on the rear of the press, and returns to the tanks. On the end of the 
press is a capstan-screw connected with a thrust-block which presses the thirty-six 
cells of the press into close contact. It is the air pressure which separates the 
water from the sludge. 
There is nothing offensive about these cakes when pressed dry; and if protected 
from water after being taken from the press, they may be kept in bulk for weeks 
without nuisance. In the presence of heat and moisture they become more or less 
objectionable. The manurial value of the sludge cakes is slight. The small 
amount of precipitants used fails to retain the bulk of fertilizing matters in the sew- 
age. At present between 9,000 and 10,000 people are contributing to the sewage, 
and about 13 tons of sludge are taken out each week. Some of the sludge cake 
has been sold at fifty cents per load ; but more has been given away among neigh- 
boring farmers, while a large amount has been carted away by the authorities for 
burial when no other removal offered. Fig. 52.-Johnson Filter Press in Operation at East Orange. 396 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
A committee of the " Town Improvement Society of East Orange " . . . deter- 
mined during the summer and fall of 1890 to investigate the operation of the works 
and their results. They secured and submitted to Professor A. R. Leeds two 
samples of effluent water for examination and report. The results generally are 
better than results secured for the author's use from time to time. . . . 
The summary of Professor Leeds' analyses, as quoted by Mr. Bas- 
sett from the committee's report, and such of Professor Leeds' com- 
ments as are necessary by way of explanation, are as follows : 
Analyses of East Orange Sewage Effluents, compared with Untreated 
Sewage. 
Raw sewage 
(1) Effluent from coke fil- 
(2) Final effluent 
1.0 to 1.5 
0.087 
0.02 
Free ammonia. 
.30 to .70 
0.027 
0.003 
Albuminoid am- 
monia. 
0.44 
0.40 
Oxygen required 
to oxidize 
organic matter. 
.... 
0.0 
0.0 
Nitrites. 
.... 
0.20 
0.38 
Nitrates. 
5 to 10 
0.12 
4.00 
Chlorine. 
Total hardness. 
Permanent hard- * 
ness. 
8 to 12 
12.60 
8.50 
Temporary hard- 1 
ness. 
40 to 108 
29.00 
25.50 
Total solids. 
18 to 91 
23.50 
22.00 
Mineral matter. 
7 to 22 
6.10 
' 3.50 
Organic and vola- 
tile matter. 
(Parts per 100,000 ) 
* Sewage passes through small coke filters at its exit from tanks. 
Sample No. 1. Taken from the flow as it emerges from the coke filter as the 
sewage leaves the tank. 
Whev received-Sept. 8, 1890. Color-Turbid with white flocks. Taste-Not 
tried. Smell-Unpleasant, musty. 
The results above stated indicate the presence of a large amount of unoxidized 
sewage. I should also suspect that this sample represents sewer water which has 
received the addition of some lime, taken at a point before the benefit of this treat- 
ment has been obtained. The effect of the addition of lime is to increase the tem- 
porary hardness (in the above analysis it is 12.6 parts per 100,000), after this lime has 
operated, by combining with the large amounts of carbonic acid contained in sew- 
age, and the carbonate of lime resulting from this combination has precipitated, 
carrying with it much of the organic matter. 
Sample No. 2. From the final effluent into the brook. 
When received-September 8, 1890. Color-White, clear. Taste-Not tasted. 
Smell-Not pleasant, slightly musty. 
It will be seen that the temporary hardness diminishes, and the benefit of the 
treatment becomes apparent. The second sample is strikingly different from No. 1. 
It shows an almost entire disappearance of the nitrogenous organic matter, the free 
ammonia being only ^th and the albuminoid ammonia ihth of the amounts present 
in sample No. 1. This disappearance is evidently due to oxidation, since the 
nitrates (which arise from the absorption of oxygen under the influence of nitrifying 
bacteria in the ground) are strikingly increased. I should suspect this sample to 
represent aerated sewage water which has passed through the ground. In its 
passage its sewage impurities have been effectually removed, and the substances 
remaining are such as are found in country streams in their natural unpolluted con- 
dition. 
I should certainly feel far less sense of danger in drinking the sewage effluent, as 
represented by the samples sent from the East Orange Sewage Disposal Works, 
than in drinking the water of the Passaic river, as pumped at Belleville and sup- 
plied to the inhabitants of Jersey City. Your effluent (September 8th, 1890) con- 
tained 0.0017 grains of albuminoid ammonia per gallon; the Passaic river, at PRECIPITATION AND FILTRATION AT EAST ORANGE. 
397 
Belleville, on the date of my last analysis (June 14th, 1890) contained 0.01 grain 
per gallon. In other words, taking the albuminoid ammonia as the measure of 
sewage contamination, the Jersey City water contains six times more sewage than 
the effluent waters from your works. 
As chemist for the Jersey City Board of Public Works, from 1881 to 1886, I 
found very many samples of the Passaic water even worse than the above. 
I regard the performance of your works and the character of the effluent as satis- 
factory from both the practical and sanitary standpoints. 
Mr. Bassett resumes his description of the works as follows: 
The total cost of the works to January 1, 1891 (including about 4 miles of exten- 
sions constructed since my connection with the work), is given as follows: 
Chargeable against sewerage system (29 miles) $322,020.64 
Disposal works plant 75,098.60 
Disposal works land (including 4 acres not used).... 20,749.20 
Total $417,868.44 
The cost of operating the works has been- 
July, 1888, to March, 1889 $562.00 per month. 
March, 1889, to March, 1890 746.00 
March, 1890, to January, 1891 881.00 " 
The average daily flow of sewage reaching the disposal works is approximately 
1,300,000 gallons, or an average of about 90,000 gallons per acre. The need of the 
coke filters is therefore apparent. This daily flow may be approximately divided as 
follows: 
Ground-water from 25 miles, constructed under 
my direction 550,000 gallons. 
Ground-water from 4 miles, constructed since 
June, 1888 100,000 " 
Flush-tank flow 30,000 " 
House sewage flow 620,000 " 
According to a statement made by Mr. Bassett in August, 1891, at 
that time the several items which entered into the expense of opera- 
tion, were approximately as follows : 
Engineer and laborers at building, coal and water, oil 
and waste $300 per month. 
Chemicals, including lime 200 " 
Manager and two helpers on grounds 155 " 
Removal of sludge ' 70 " 
Total $725 
About 15,000 people are stated as contributing' sewage at the time of 
the foregoing statement. The annual per capita cost of maintenance, 
therefore, exclusive of interest charges, was about 60 cents. 
Mr. Bassett states that this per capita cost will probably reduce as 
experience and volume of sewage increase. 
Later information regarding the cost of treatment and other feat- 398 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ures of the works was obtained by a personal visit in November, 1892, 
as follows : 
Mr. J. J. O'Neill, Township Engineer of East Orange stated that 
the cost of operating the works for the nine months from January 1 to 
October 1, 1892, had been as follows: 
Labor $3,935 
Chemicals, coal, oil, canvas, repairs, sundries 2,146 
Total $6,081 
This is at the rate of about $675 per month, or $8,100 per year, or 
about 56 cents per inhabitant per year, on a basis of a population of 
14,500. The decreased cost of operating the works in 1892 is said to 
have been due to greater efficiency of labor. The force at the disposal 
works in November, 1892, included a foreman, engineer, and five 
laborers. The tanks are cleaned three times a week, and their sides 
whitewashed or treated with some other disinfectant. The sludge cakes 
are generally drawn to the poor farm and there buried or disposed of 
otherwise.* 
Lime is bought of a local dealer at 95 cents per barrel, delivered at 
the works. Sulphate of alumina costs about 1| cents per pound at 
the works, and is bought by the carload from the New York branch 
of Harrison Bros. <t Co., Philadelphia. 
In November, 1892, there were in use about 33 miles of sewers and 
1,685 house connections. Most or all of the flush tanks were not in 
use in 1892, and the daily flow of sewage for that year is given at 
1,200,000 gallons, which is said to be less than it was previously, 
owing to a decrease of infiltration of ground-water to the sewers.f 
* July 15, 1893, it was stated at the disposal works that the sludge was being drawn away by 
farmers, without compensation on either side; also, that to that date two crops of grass had been 
cut from the disposal area. 
+ The sources of information in regard to the Sewage Disposal Works at East Orange are : 
(1) Mr. Bassett's paper, Inland Sewage Disposal, with Special Reference to the East Orange, 
N. J., Works, Tran. Am. Soc. C. E., vol. xxv. (1891), pp. 125-160. 
(2) The East Orange, N. J., Sewerage System. Eng. News, vol. xxi. (Jan. 5 and 19, 1889), pp. 
42-43. 
(3) Sewerage of East Orange, New Jersey. Eng. and Bldg. Reed., vol. viii., (1883) p. 45; also 
vol. xi. (1885), p. 313 ; also vol. xix. (1889), pp. 87-88 and 107-109. 
(4) The East Orange Sewage Disposal Works as Compared with Other Methods. Abstract of 
paper read before N. J. San. Assoc., Trenton, Nov. 22, 1889. By Carroll Ph. Bassett, 13th 
An. Rept. N. J. St. Bd. Health (1889), pp. 73-82; also in revised form, Eng. News, vol. xxiii. 
(Feb. 15, 1890), pp. 160-162. 
(5) The reports of Mr. Croes and the Committee on Sewerage, etc., of the Town Improvement 
Society. 
(6) Sewage Purification in America. East Orange, N. J. Eng. News, vol. xxviii. (Dec. 1, 
1892), pp. 520-521. CHAPTER XXV. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND MECHANICAL SEPARATION AT 
LONG BRANCH, NEW JERSEY. 
In the fall of 1884 the local health authorities of Long Branch, New 
Jersey, consulted Carroll Ph. Bassett, M. Am. Soc. C.E., in regard to 
the introduction of sewerage into that town. 
On investigation it was found that, while urgent need existed for an 
efficient removal of sewage, the limit of the city's bonded indebtedness 
had been almost reached. An increase in the limit could only be 
secured by a popular vote, and would probably have been defeated.* 
It was finally decided to allow a company to build works. The neces- 
sary legislation was obtained, and a private company, incorporated 
under the State law, introduced a system of sewerage. A number of 
the public-spirited citizens of Long Branch were interested in the 
control of the sewerage company, and it was considered that a matter 
so intimately related to the health of the town could be safely intrusted 
to their hands. Surveys were made and plans perfected in the winter 
of 1885-6, and in the following spring the main portion of the sewer- 
age system was constructed. 
In the agreement between the town and the company it was stipu- 
lated that no objectionable matters should be poured into the adjacent 
waters; hence the introduction of some process of purification was 
imperatively necessary. To meet the requirements, a system of par- 
tial chemical precipitation, supplemented by filtration through coke, 
was devised. 
The system has been described by the engineer as follows: 
The topography of the town is simple. A ridge, twenty feet above mean tide, 
rolls up from the beach and falls easily back to a parallel valley, 500 to 600 yards 
from the beach, which averages nine to ten feet above mean tide throughout the 
length of the town. The west slope of the valley rises gradually for a fraction of a 
mile, where it again dips to form a secondary valley. This second ridge is inter- 
sected by several streams and depressions, it would have been a simple matter to 
construct sewers adapted to the needs of the built-up portion of the town, but to 
design a comprehensive system capable of extension and development to meet the 
needs of the entire adjacent territory, and conditioned on the location of the works 
* In regard to the sanitary condition of Long Branch previous to the construction of the sewer- 
age works, see (1) A Report on an Inspection of Certain Health Resorts. By E. W. Bowditch 
San. Eng., in Rept. Nat. Bd. Health for yr. end. June 30, 1882, pp. 153-187; (2) 7th An. Rept. 
N. J. St. Bd. Health (1883). 400 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
for the treatment of the sewage, was a complex problem of considerable magnitude, 
and required an expense in construction only justified by the demands of the future, 
and in the making of which the company are stated to have demonstrated their 
good faith and determination to meet the needs of the entire community. 
The system constructed is the " separate " system. The sewage is collected in 
vitrified pipes (eight-inch being the minimum) into the main, which flows in the 
principal valley (twenty-four-inch being the maximum) ; passes through the build- 
I Air Compressor 
Vacuum Pump 
\ Boiler 
Centrifugal. 
Pump I 
S/udqe 
\ Well 
Flan. 
Lost Pressure 
Air Rece/ver 
1 Chemical.■' 
\Mrer .1 
y Float for 
I Sludge Receiver 
r Lime Mirer 
Centrifugal. 
Pump ; 
Sludge Porting 
Receiver 
Tidal I 
Chamber 
petrified 
1 Pipe 
Fig. 53.-Plan and Sections of Purification Works at Long Branch, New 
Jersey, and Sections through Tidal Chamber. 
ing, where it undergoes the treatment; thence to the tidal chamber, in which it is 
controlled by automatic valves and discharged on the outgoing tide into the ocean 
through a wrought-iron pipe supported on piles and extending 200 feet from shore. 
Man-holes are placed along the lines at intervals not greater than 300 feet, and 
at all deviations of alignment or grade, securing control and location of troubles in 
the pipes. The covers are perforated to secure ventilation, and buckets are to be 
hung just beneath the covers to catch dirt and sand falling through the holes. 
As the sewers are designed to accommodate the maximum flow of the crowded 
season, the main does not receive cleansing flow during a large portion of the year. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND MECHANICAL SEPARATION. 
401 
Arrangements are made for liberal flushing along the lines, and in some locations 
the brook can be turned into the sewers. 
In the section of the town to which the sewage would gravitate, little available 
land for treatment-works could be obtained; and the main sewer was necessarily 
located at so small a height above mean tide that considerations of economy de- 
Boiler 
EtMb.NE.Wj. 
F'lan, 
Fig. 54.-Plan of Sludge Compressors. 
Tramway 
'5'0"bage 
S/udge 
Press 
pendent on a gravity outlet demanded that the shortest line to the ocean be pro- 
vided. This prevented any lengthy detour of the main sewer to treatment-works, 
and virtually determined their location. A small plot of ground, 100 x 100 feet, 
on Long Branch avenue, near Second avenue, was finally procured and the works 
erected there. The building is surrounded, close on every side, by dwellings and 
shops. Chemicals (lime, alum, etc.) are mingled with the sewage at its entrance to 402 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the works. Together they flow into the receiving tanks, which are constructed in 
duplicate of concrete, and receive the sewage alternately, the one being cleaned 
while the other is in use. The course of the sewage in the tanks, under planks 
floating on edge, over walls, through submerged arches, as shown in the accom- 
panying sketch (Fig. 53), is such that in the thirty-feet flow a large part of the 
matters in suspension settles with the chemicals into the bottom of the tank ; the 
sewage then enters the series of portable coke filters. Provision is made for four 
deep, narrow wire cages, sliding in guides and holding different sizes of coke. 
Ceiling Line 
Relief Valve, to blow 
at 44 lbs. 
Low Pressure Main^ 
This Va/ve tv blow 
ar 100 lbs. 
Low । 
Pressure 
Air 1 
Receiver, 
From Air Compressor 
tv Receiver and 
Float ^or/ 
i'P/unqern 
Valve J 
Sludge Press 
bags, 
tot* fixed 
in most i 
canvenienP 
Position J 
Pressure 
\bagt 
(Chemical 
i Mixer 
\Lime 
j Mirer 
Floor Line 
Sludge Well 
Sectional Elevation A-B> 
Fig. 55.-Details of Sludge Compressors, Long Branch, New Jersey. 
When the filters are clean a very fair purity is secured, and it is believed that the 
process is capable of considerable development. The coke when taken from the 
frames is used as fuel; it could with care be used again as a filter, effecting 
economy. The flow in the tanks is continuous. Considerable loss of head occurs 
in the flow through the filters, and when they are in operation the sewage has to be 
pumped up to the level of the gravity sewer. This is accomplished by a six-inch 
centrifugal pump, built by the Weber Machine Company, of Lawrence, Massachu- 
setts. When the filters are out the sewage passes through the works by gravity. 
After sufficient deposit is secured in one of the tanks the flow is diverted to the 
other, and the water is drawn down in the first tank nearly to the level of the CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND MECHANICAL SEPARATION. 
403 
sludge (or deposit); the remaining contents of the tank are then drawn into a 
wrought-iron sludge-receiver by creating in it a vacuum with a vacuum engine. 
From this receiver the sludge is forced by compressed air into Johnson's filter- 
press, where the liquids are pressed from the sludge, leaving portable cakes to be 
used as guano. A by-pass is arranged on the main sewer near the building, so that 
sewage, in case of accident or emergency and during the winter season, can be 
made to flow by gravity directly to the tidal chamber, avoiding the works.* 
Low Pressure 
Safer/ Va/ve 
Safety 
I for Preiwre Main 
Sludqe 
Press k 
low Pressure 
Air Receiver 
/If Cock 
5toqmq 
Bracker^ 
Sectional EZIeyatlon C - D. 
Fig. 56.-Details of Sludge Compressors, Long Branch, New Jersey. 
The population of Long- Branch in winter does not exceed 7,000 ; in 
summer it is estimated at 80,000. 
The sewers receive some roof-water at the head of the lines. 
On a visit to the plant Dec. 1, 1892, the following additional infor- 
mation was secured through the courtesy of the officials of the com- 
pany : 
There were in use on the above date about ten miles of sewers and 
* Description of Long Branch Sewerage System. By Carroll Ph. Bassett, 11th An. B,ept. N. J. 
State Bd. Health (1887), pp. 88-91. 404 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
400 house connections. The tidal chamber provided to permit of dis- 
charging the sewage at high tides is not used, difficult construction 
and economy having resulted in a chamber too small for practical use. 
During heavy rains in the winter season no attempt at purification is 
made, the sewage passing around the station directly to the ocean. 
About 75 pounds of alum a day, costing 1| cents per pound in New 
York, has been used since the plant was put in operation. Lime is 
used for treating the sludge, only a small quantity of the latter, it ap- 
pears, being secured. The sludge is given to one of the directors of 
the company, who uses it on his farm. The sewage passes through 
two coke filters, and- the coke is renewed only once a year at a cost of 
about $2. No records of the amount of sewage treated, or of the daily 
How, are kept.* 
* See Eng. News, vol. xxviii. (Dec. 22, 1892), pp. 580-582. CHAPTER XXVI. 
THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS. 
The water supply of the Charlestown district of the city of Boston, 
and of the towns of Chelsea, Everett, and Somerville, is derived from 
the upper Mystic lake, which is about 6^ miles from Charlestown, in 
the towns of Medford, Arlington, and Winchester. Its area is about 
200 acres ; drainage area, 27f square miles ; and mean surface elevation, 
about 7 feet above tide-water. The storage capacity is about 380,000,- 
000 gallons. 
In Winchester and Woburn, near the head of the upper Mystic lake, 
are about a dozen tanneries, the drainage from which formerly passed 
directly into the upper lake. A considerable amount of house-drain- 
age also passed into the Abbajona river (the influent stream to the 
Mystic lake) or into its tributaries. The effect of this drainage was to 
seriously pollute the Mystic lake. After the acquirement of the Mys- 
tic supply by the city of Boston, it was concluded to construct a sewer 
to intercept this objectionable drainage and convey it to the lower 
Mystic lake, which is.subject to tidal action. An Act was passed by 
the Massachusetts Legislature in 1875, authorizing the construction 
of such a sewer, but by reason of defects in it nothing was done until 
after the passage of an amendment in 1877. Immediately thereafter 
an order of the City Council was approved, authorizing the construc- 
tion of the sewer in conformity with the provisions of the original Act 
and the amendment. The entire work, including the main sewer and 
its branches, was completed in the summer of 1878. 
The main sewer, 11,857 feet in length, extends from the head of the 
lower Mystic lake to a point in Woburn, near Moseley's tannery. It 
is 28 inches high and 26 inches wide, except at the outlet and along a 
railroad embankment near the upper end, where cast-iron pipes 24 
inches in diameter were used. Branch sewers, to the amount of 11,664 
feet, were constructed to various points, where the tannery and other 
objectionable drainage was to be intercepted ; 6,150 feet of these are 15 
inches in diameter, 2,000 feet 10 inches in diameter, with the balance 
6 inches in diameter. 
The Mystic valley sewer presents some interesting phases of legis- 
lation in reference to sewerage and sewage disposal. During the year 
1880 complaints were made by the towns of Medford and Arlington 406 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
that the accumulation of sewage in the lower Mystic lake was the 
cause of a serious effluvium nuisance, and the Legislature was appealed 
to for its abatement. 
The result of this action was the enactment of a law ordering the 
discontinuance of the sewer, unless the sewage be so treated as to ren- 
der it free from polluting substances. The peculiar nature of the tan- 
nery sewage, which consists mainly of the refuse of tanneries, such as 
spent tan bark and scrapings of hides, appeared to render it a very 
difficult problem to comply with the requirements of the Act, ami 
in order to learn authoritatively what could be accomplished by 
chemical treatment of this particular sewage, the Boston Water Board 
requested Professor Wm. Ripley Nichols to examine a sample of the 
sewage and report upon the same. The following is from his report, 
submitted in February, 1881: 
The sewage was received by me late in the afternoon of January 28th, having 
been taken from the sewer that afternoon. It was alkaline, reddish brown in color, 
and containing a quantity of suspended matter, the coarser part of which settled 
somewhat readily. The odor, when the sample was fresh, was not very considerable, 
but was sufficiently marked to betray its origin. On standing in the laboratory, 
the organic matter, as might be expected, began to decompose and became very 
much more offensive. 
The specific gravity was about 1,007, water being 1,000. Analysis showed that 
every 100,000 parts contained about 330 parts by weight of suspended matter and 
1,170 parts of matter in solution; or, expressed in grains to the United States gallon, 
one gallon contained : 
Grains. 
In suspension 192 
In solution 683 
(Of which 432 grains were common salt.) 
Altogether 875 
I have made a number of calculations and experiments with reference to the 
chemical treatment of the sewage, but I do not know that this was a fair sample of 
the entire daily discharge, which I have assumed to be 200,000 gallons, or say in 
round numbers, 1,700,000 pounds. 
Subsidence.-When the sewage stands quietly, the greater portion of the sus- 
pended matter settles, but the liquid still remains turbid and highly colored and 
liable to decompose. If the sewage were allowed simply to settle in tanks and the 
somewhat clarified liquid then run off directly or through coarse filters, the sedi- 
ment could be removed as a thin mud. 
The weight of dry sediment for the day's discharge would be some 5,600 pounds, 
and when wet (that is, in the form of sludge, which would run slowly or could be 
pumped) it would occupy about 12,000 gallons. 
I am, of course, aware that at the present time settling tanks are in use in the 
tanneries, and that thus a large amount of solid matter is prevented from entering 
the sewer. 
Treatment with lime.-The sewage, as I received it, was alkaline, no doubt from 
the excess of lime used in the tanneries, and the addition of a small quantity of lime 
had no effect on the clarification of the liquid. Even when added to the amount of 
two per cent, by weight (which would be 35,000 pounds of quicklime for the day's 
run), it failed to produce any very considerable effect. With the enormous pro- 
portion of £ by weight (290,000 pounds of quicklime for the day's run), quite an 
efficient clarification was accomplished by the subsiding of the lime ; but any such 
proportion as this would be out of the question from a practical point of view. THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS. 
407 
Even in this case, however, the liquid still contained organic matter in too large a 
quantity to be discharged into a salt-water basin without being liable to cause 
offence. 
Treatment with alum.-On the addition of alum (or sulphate of alumina) in suffi- 
cient amount, there separates readily from the sewage a rather bulky precipitate 
containing almost all the coloring matter, even in solution, and leaving the liquid 
clear and nearly colorless. As the experiment is performed in the laboratory, bet- 
ter results are obtained by this method than by any other ; but to produce the best 
effect it is necessary to add as much alum as from to | of one per cent, of the 
sewage. To treat in this way the daily discharge of sewage would require from 
4,000 to 6,000 pounds of alum, or an equivalent amount of sulphate of alumina. 
The expense of the chemical puts this out of the question, and, if it did not, we 
should have to face the fact that the sediment formed would, after twenty-four 
hours' standing, occupy when wet the space of 60,000 gallons; moreover, with the 
best clarification that I have been able to effect, the clear liquid still contained, in 
solution, a large amount of organic matter ready to decompose. 
Treatment with clay.-I was not able to obtain satisfactory results by using clay, 
although when a considerable quantity was added to the sewage and thoroughly 
mixed with it, a certain amount of organic matter was dragged down as the clay 
settled. Such treatment, if applied practically, would increase very much the 
weight of sludge to be handled ; but I have made no calculations of the amount of 
clay required. 
Treatment with sulphuric acid.-When acid is added to the sewage in just suffi- 
cient quantity to neutralize its alkaline character, the liquid clears itself quite well, 
most of the coloring matter subsiding as a flocculent sediment. The liquid still 
contains a large quantity of organic matter; but if, after treatment with acid, it 
were filtered and then allowed to flow over fragments of limestone or marble chips, 
to neutralize any excess of acid, it would no doubt give less offence than at present. 
The amount of acid required for this particular sample would be equivalent to 
about 2,000 pounds of oil of vitriol for the day's discharge, and the wet sludge 
would occupy about 20,000 gallons. 
You will bear in mind that my experiments have been performed, and my con- 
clusions are based, on a single sample of sewage ; I have no means of knowing 
how fairly it represents the average character of the entire day's run. More ex- 
tended acquaintance with the stuff might lead me to modify somewhat the state- 
ments made. With this caution I state the following 
CONCLUSIONS. 
No practicable chemical treatment will purify the sewage to such an extent that 
it may be discharged into the lower Mystic lake with a reasonable expectation of 
freedom from offence. 
It is possible to treat the sewage so that if it were discharged into a running 
stream, or into a tidal basin with considerable circulation, the risk of offence would 
be very much lessened. 
The most practical way of treating the sewage would be to collect in tanks, mix 
with sulphuric acid (perhaps with addition of a small amount of sulphate of alu- 
mina), allow to settle, filter through coke or other material, and then pass the 
liquid over marble chips or broken limestone to the point of discharge. 
The act of 1881, ordering the discontinuance of the sewer unless 
the sewage was so treated as to render it free from polluting sub- 
stances, was the subject of a large amount of controversy between the 
city authorities of Boston and the authorities of the towns bordering 
on the lower Mystic lake. Finally, after the constitutionality of the 
Act had been affirmed by the courts, an injunction was issued, on the 408 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
petition of the town of Medford, to prevent any further discharge into 
the lower Mystic lake. 
Thereupon the city proposed to construct works by which, through 
the operation of sedimentation supplemented by partial tiltration 
through natural gravel beds, the larger portion of the suspended im- 
purities of the sewage might be removed. This proposition was 
agreed to by the town of Medford, and the proposed works were con- 
structed in the town of Winchester, near Bacon's crossing, upon an 
area of about 5.5 acres. At this point a dam was thrown across the 
sewer, and its contents lifted by a pump into a large settling tank, in 
which it was hoped that the heavier impurities would be deposited in 
such manner as to permit of their removal from time to time. The 
overflow was received into a ditch, 1,250 feet long, after flowing 
through which it again entered the sewer. During its passage 
through this long trench about one-third of the partially purified 
sewage was absorbed into the porous, gravelly soil in which the 
trench was dug. An additional amount of suspended impurities was 
also removed by means of brush dams placed at intervals across the 
trench. 
The original works were found inadequate to the proper purifica- 
tion of the sewage, and in 1883 additional settling tanks were con- 
structed on an improved pattern, and a new effluent ditch, about 1,400 
feet in length, excavated between the tanks and the point where the 
sewage was returned to the main sewer. 
An experiment was also made in 1884 with a Farquhar mechanical 
filter, which proved to be incapable of purifying a sewage carrying as 
large an amount of matter in suspension as this. 
These various sedimentation and partial filtration processes having 
proven unsatisfactory, the Boston Water Board concluded in 1887 to 
adopt chemical precipitation, and accordingly detailed Wilbur F. 
Learned, C.E., to experiment and report on a scheme for treating the 
sewage by chemical methods. In a paper, Some Facts about the 
Chemical Treatment of the Mystic Sewage, which Mr. Learned read 
before the Boston Society of Civil Engineers in February, 1888, it 
is stated, in regard to the character of the sewage, that the morning 
flow is very much diluted with ground-water, but between 10 and 
11 a.m., or thereabouts, the sewage gradually grows heavier, reaching 
its maximum density about 2 or 3 r.M. In the meantime its color has 
changed from that of dirty water in the morning to a brownish black 
in the afternoon, passing through the various shades of tan to very 
deep red and thence to almost black. 
The total dissolved and suspended matter is stated as 112 grains 
per U. S. gallon in the morning, while in the afternoon a maximum 
is reached of 540 grains per U. S. gallon. The suspended matter THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS. 
409 
amounts to 16 grains per gallon in the morning and 128 grains in the 
afternoon. The sewage is generally neutral, though occasionally 
showing a slight alkaline reaction. 
In regard to his experiments on the chemical treatment of this sew- 
age, Mr. Learned says : 
The chemical reagent used for precipitation was crude sulphate of alumina of two 
grades, called S. cake and B. cake. The S. cake contains 3 per cent, free sulphuric 
acid, 18 per cent, free alumina, and 40 per cent, sulphate of alumina. The B. cake 
contains .005 free sulphuric acid, 18 per cent, free alumina, 44 per cent, sulphate 
of alumina. The large quantity of free acid in the S. cake soon destroys any iron- 
work with which it may come in contact, and it is not therefore as preferable for a 
precipitant as the B. cake. The amount of precipitant used in the forenoon is 
always less, and with better results, than in the afternoon. For instance, a precip- 
itant applied to the sewage between 9 and 11 o'clock a.m., at the rate of one-half 
ton per 1,000,000 gallons will throw down 25 per cent, of the total matter in the 
sewage, while two tons per 1,000,000 gallons applied to the sewage between 3 and 
4 o'clock p.m. will not precipitate more than 30 per cent, of the total matter. I 
have seen the reagent at the rate of one ton per 1,000,000 throw down 31 per 
cent, of the total matter, and with the same sewage a treatment at the rate of two 
tons per 1,000,000 gallons throw down only 32 per cent, of matter. 
Such results seem to show that beyond certain limits the chemicals precipitate 
a small amount of matter. 
The coarse suspended matter is easily precipitated by a moderate amount of the 
chemical reagent, and some of the finer particles are also thrown down, whereby 
the effluent is deprived of some of its color, and a corresponding portion of the of- 
fensive matter removed ; besides this, there is dissolved matter which seemingly 
undergoes little change in the presence of the chemical reagent. 
The quantity of precipitant recommended for the Mystic sewage is 1.75 tons of 
crude sulphate of alumina per 1,000,000 gallons, and increasing gradually until the 
amount reaches 3 tons per 1,000,000 between 2 and 4 o'clock p.m., then decreas- 
ing as the sewage becomes less dense to the rate of half a ton per 1,000,000 at 
midnight. With this quantity for a precipitant, it is believed that the effluent will 
be clear and tolerably free of color, the suspended matter all thrown down, and as 
much of the dissolved matter' as may be consistent with a single reagent. 
Should, however, additional purification be required, an increased reagent w'ill 
not give better results; but if the effluent, having all the suspended matter removed, 
and in a state of comparative purity, be run on to land of a gravelly nature, which 
will act as a chemical filter, a still further state of purity will be obtained. 
Velocity of treated sewage.-One of the experiments was made with sewage clari- 
fied by subsidence and subsequently treated, thus forming a large quantity of fine 
flocculent matter which required a long time for precipitation. 
The velocity of the treated sewage in the precipitation tanks varied from 0.33 
foot per minute to 0.70 foot per minute. In a few instances definite quantities of 
suspended matter in the effluent were obtained, while in other cases when the 
velocity was greater no results were obtained. For instance, in one case, when the 
velocity was 0.56 foot per minute, 23 grains per gallon were obtained, and in an- 
other, when the velocity was 0.37 foot per minute, 16 grains per gallon were found, 
while in cases when the velocity was 0.70 foot per minute no results were obtained. 
It should be borne in mind that the precipitation tanks were inadequate for the 
purpose of precipitation. 
If they had been twice as long, in order to give the flocculent matter ample time 
to precipitate, I have no doubt that a velocity of 0.50 foot per minute would have 
given a very fine effluent, free of suspended flocculent matter. 
Treatment of crude sewage and of clarified sewage.-1This experiment consisted 
in treating crude and clarified sewage with equal quantities of precipitant at differ- 
ent hours of the day. 
The total average per cent, of matter precipitated from the crude sewage was 29 
per cent., and the amount precipitated from the clarified sewage was 30 per cent. 410 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
This small difference might have been increased somewhat by a greater number 
of trials, but the difference will always be small when the amount of reagent ap- 
plied to the crude sewage is adequate, because it requires a large quantity of pre- 
cipitant to throw down the fine particles of matter in the clarified sewage, while the 
same quantity applied to the crude sewage will give very nearly as good results. 
Admitting a slight advantage by treating the clarified sewage when the amount 
of precipitate alone is considered, the advantages obtained from the crude sewage, 
such as compact sludge, active precipitation, etc., far exceed that of the former 
method. 
The benefit of having a compact sludge cannot be too highly spoken of ; in fact, 
lime is frequently added as a reagent in part for this purpose, and is one of the re- 
quirements in case the sludge is to be pressed. 
As the result of his experiments, Mr. Learned recommended the fol- 
lowing for the Mystic valley sewage : 
(1) The intermittent treatment of the sewage. 
(2) The construction of four precipitation tanks, each capable of 
holding three hours' pumping. 
(3) A sludge-well into which the sludge may be drained. 
(4) A sludge-pump for raising the sludge into flumes, by which it may 
be conveyed to shallow basins for partial desiccation until such time 
as pressing the sludge may become a necessity. 
(5) A branch sewer from the present line of main sewer to a pump- 
well on the city's land. 
(6) An engine and pump for pumping the sewage into the tanks. 
(7) Tanks and machinery to aid the dissolving of the crude sulphate 
of alumina. 
(8) Buildings, including engine-house, coal-shed, etc., all at an esti- 
mated cost of $11,000. 
In accordance with this recommendation the present works, which 
are illustrated in Figs. 57, 58, and 59, were designed and constructed, 
ready for operation, in the latter part of the year 1888. They consist, 
in detail, of a pump-well connected with the main sewer by a branch 
sewer of brick, a sewage-pump and engine, engine-house, four settling 
tanks, a sludge-well, sludge-pump, and a series of settling basins for 
receiving the sludge. The general design of the works may be readily 
inferred from the illustrations. In the engine-house are three vats 
(marked chemical tanks on the plan), so arranged that the precipitant 
is fed from the middle vat, which is placed lower than the other two, 
in which the precipitant is dissolved; these vats are provided with 
steam coils for heating the water used, and with a stirring apparatus 
driven by the engine. 
The precipitant is fed to the sewage as it flows from the branch 
sewer into the pump-well ; the process of pumping thoroughly incor- 
porates the chemicals. As each settling tank is filled, the sewage is 
allowed to remain quiescent for about three hours, after which time it 
is found that the sedimentation process is complete. The clarified Fig. 57.-General View oe Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works. 412 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED 
STATES. 
tEffluent E/ume 
FlumeJvTanks 
■ Pump Well 
Chemical Tarik's 
Tank 3 
Fig. 58.-General Plan of Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works. 
5/uc/qeFiume foSeHEnq Basins 
\ Basins 
SeffUnq 
Driveway 
Driveway THE MYSTIC VALLEY CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION WORKS. 
413 
effluent is then drawn off by means of narrow stop-planks, which are 
removed one by one. During the winter season the tanks can be 
filled six times before it is 
necessary to remove the 
sludge. In warm weather 
the sludge, if allowed to 
remain too long, is liable 
to become offensive, and 
it is necessary to remove it 
somewhat oftener. The re- 
moval is effected through 
sluices connecting with 
the sludge-well, which is 
placed in the middle space 
between the four tanks, as 
indicated on the plan, Fig. 
58. From the sludge-well 
the sludge is pumped into 
a flume, which conveys it 
to the settling basins. A 
cross-section through the 
buildings, on the line C D 
on the plan, is shown by 
Fig. 59. The results of a 
number of measurements, 
made since the plant was 
put in operation, show that 
on the average 1 volume 
of sludge is deposited to 
every 30 volumes of sew- 
age treated. After the 
effluent has been drawn 
down as low as it can be 
without disturbing the 
sludge, the latter is found 
to contain about 4 parts of 
dry solids to 96 parts of 
water; a large portion of 
the water disappears in 
the settling basins, leav- 
ing a product sufficiently 
dry to permit of handling, and containing about 4 parts of solids to 
12 parts of water. The volume of the dry product is in the neighbor- 
hood of 10 cubic yards daily. 
Fig. 59.-Cross-section through Mystic Valley Disposal Works. 414 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The cost of the present works, including- the preparation of the set- 
tling basins, was $10,410. 
For the year ending December 31, 1889, the total amount of sewage 
pumped and treated was 99,882,850 gallons, or 324,000 gallons per day, 
exclusive of Sundays and legal holidays, when the pumps were not 
run; 404,270 pounds of sulphate of alumina were used as a precipitant, 
and 102 tons of coal used in the pumping. 
The cost of pumping and treating the sewage, exclusive of the care 
of the main sewer and its branches, is given as $152.46 per 1,000,000 
gallons treated. 
For the year ending December 31, 1890, the pumps ran 335 days, 
working 5,147 hours, and the amount of sewage pumped and treated 
was 119,119,670 gallons, making an average of 355,500 gallons per day 
of pumping. The total amount of sulphate of alumina used during 
the year was 323,650 pounds. The coal consumption amounted to 191 
tons. The quantity of sludge removed from the basins was 2,611 
cubic yards. 
The rate of precipitant used for the year 1890 was 1 part of crude 
sulphate of alumina to 3,067 parts of sewage, or 1.36 net tons per 
1,000,000 gallons of sewage. 
For the 13 months ending January 31, 1892, the total quantity of 
sewage pumped and treated was 133,102,028' gallons. The total 
amount of crude sulphate of alumina used was 331,890 pounds; the 
amount of coal, 210.66 tons. 
The quantity of sludge removed from the basins was 2,334 cubic 
yards, the most of which was carted away by a neighboring farmer, 
and used as a fertilizer. The rate of application of precipitant was 
one part to 3,354 parts of sewage, or 1.24 net tons per 1,000,000 gallons 
of sewage.* 
* The sources of information in regard to the Mystic Valley Sewage Disposal Works are the 2d, 
5th, 6th, Sth, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th An. Repts. of the Boston Water Board; and Mr. 
Learned's paper, Some Facts about the Chemical Treatment of Mystic Sewage, in the Jour. 
Assoc, of Eng. Socs., vol. vii., No. 7 (June, 1888), pp. 244-248. Mr. Learned's paper is also to be 
found in Eng. & Bldg. Reed., vol. xix. (1889), p. 189. CHAPTER XXVII. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS. 
Probably the sewage disposal of the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, 
has been the subject of more discussion than that of any other Ameri- 
can city. As long ago as 1872, Phinehas Ball, C.E., presented a scheme 
for the utilization of the Worcester sewage; and the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health, at the very beginning of its series of studies of 
river pollution, selected the Blackstone river, which receives the sewage 
of Worcester, as one of the streams for special examination. The re- 
sults of this original study of the Blackstone river by the State Board 
of Health are to be found in its Fourth Annual Report. The examina- 
tion of the waters of the river, which was thus begun in 1872, was con- 
tinued in the following year, and the additional results may be found 
in the Fifth Annual Report of the Board. In the Seventh Annual 
Report may be found further investigations, and a statement in detail 
of all the various sources of pollution which existed on the Blackstone 
river at that time, together with analyses of the water, and a tabulation 
of the dry weather flow in relation to the sources of pollution, number 
of the same, etc., per square mile. From the summary it appears that 
there were at that time 44 woollen mills, employing 3,003 operatives ; 
27 cotton mills, employing 3,978 operatives ; 12 iron works, employing 
1,224 operatives ; 1 tannery, employing 6; and 1 shamble, employing 5 
operatives. The sewage and various manufacturing wastes of nearly 
all those establishments passed directly into the river. In the Fourth 
Annual Report of the State Board of Health is also given an extended 
series of analyses of samples of the sewage of Worcester, made by Pro- 
fessor Wm. Ripley Nichols, from which it appears that the average day 
sewage of Worcester contained at that time 25.35 parts in 100,000 of 
total dissolved matters, 1.876 parts of free ammonia, and 0.316 part of 
albuminoid ammonia. The average night sewage contained 15.29 parts 
in 100,000 of total dissolved matters, 0.745 part of free ammonia, and 
0.144 part of albuminoid ammonia. 
In order to understand the relation of the City of Worcester to the 
Blackstone river, it should be stated that the river is formed by the 
confluence of the Kettle and Mill brooks, in the southern pail of the 
city of Worcester, and flows thence in a southeasterly direction to tide- 
water at Pawtucket, Rhode Island, crossing the state line at Black- 416 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
stone. The drainage area of the Blackstone in Massachusetts, not 
including Mill river, which unites with it below the state line, is 260 
square miles. 
The valleys of the two streams, which unite at Worcester to form the 
Blackstone river, contain naturally a number of small lakes and ponds. 
These streams are rapid flowing, and, as on the other tributaries of the 
Blackstone, nearly every available mill site in the valleys has been 
utilized for the location of mills. In order to supply water power dur- 
ing the dry season, many of the natural bodies of water have been con- 
verted into storage reservoirs by the construction of dikes and embank- 
ments, and in addition many large artificial storage reservoirs have 
been built. From this complete development of the water power in 
the valleys it results that the dry-weather flow of the streams is kept 
high by the How of the large amount of stored water. The mills, how- 
ever, discharge into the stream, as already stated, much of their sewage 
and manufacturing wastes, which are nevertheless more thoroughly 
diluted and removed than they otherwise would be, by reason of the 
large dry-weather flow due to storage. 
The city of Worcester is supplied with water from the head waters 
of the Blackstone river. In 1892 the sewerage system included about 
80 miles of sewers which discharge sewage into the river, chiefly 
through Mill brook, one of the confluent tributaries. An Act was 
passed by the Massachusetts Legislature in 1867 allowing Mill brook 
to be used as a common sewer. Since that time it has been walled in 
and arched over for much of its length through the city, so that it has 
become, substantially, a main sewer of the city. 
The population of Worcester, by the census of 1890, was 84,645, and 
the growth during the previous 25 years is shown by the following 
figures: 
In 1865 the population was 30,047; in 1870, 41,105 ; in 1875, 49,317; 
in 1880, 58,291 ; in 1885, 68,383. 
The daily consumption df water is stated as amounting to 4,635,000 
gallons in 1890. In 1892 it may be taken at about 5,000,000 gallons 
per day, giving for a population of 90,000 an average per capita of 
55.5 gallons per day. 
The distance by river from Worcester to Blackstone, at the state 
line, is 26 miles, and the fall in that distance is 220 feet, and through- 
out this whole distance are located a large number of manufacturing 
establishments. 
The Blackstone river is not used at any point for a public water 
supply, and the chief reason for a demand on the part of the riparian 
owners below Worcester for the purification of the sewage of that city, 
was the production of a nuisance so serious as not only to unfit the 
water of the stream for use in manufacturing operations, but also be- CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
417 
cause of its condition being probably dangerous to health. The phy- 
sicians practising in the towns below Worcester, through which the 
river Hows, for a number of years considered the conditions such as to 
produce a large amount of sickness. 
In regard to the effect of the sewage contamination upon the use of 
the river water for manufacturing purposes, it was claimed that light- 
colored cloths could not be made when the river water was used, and 
that some of the cotton mills were obliged to give up the making of 
this class of goods. The water was also found unfit for use in steam 
boilers, causing foaming and corrosion. Statements made by manu- 
facturers along the river indicated that this trouble was met with at all 
the mills where water from the river was used in steam boilers, while 
those using the water of tributary streams did not have this cause for 
complaint. The reason for this condition of the river water was prob- 
ably found in the fact that a number of the manufacturing establish- 
ments at Worcester discharged a large amount of waste acid into the 
stream. This was particularly the case with the sewage from the wire 
works which are located there. 
As regards the discharge of crude sewage into the Blackstone river, 
the effect upon the city of Worcester itself has not been at any time 
specially unsatisfactory, except that the foul smells in Mill brook have 
necessitated, as already stated, the covering of that stream within the 
city limits. The nuisance, however, gradually became very serious to 
the people on the banks of the river below Worcester, and was espe- 
cially offensive at Millbury, which is the nearest town to Worcester.* 
Having indicated in the foregoing the conditions which led to a de- 
mand on the part of the people living upon the banks and using the 
waters of the Blackstone river below Worcester, for a purification of 
the Worcester sewage, we may, before describing the works which 
have been actually carried out, refer to the several projects at different 
times proposed. The first of these, as already noted, is Mr. Ball's, of 
1872. Mr. Ball's report is given in the Fourth Annual Report of the 
State Board of Health, page 109 and following, and the map accom- 
panying it may be found facing page 406 in the Seventh Annual Re- 
port of the same Board. From them it appears that Mr. Ball proposed 
in 1872 to dispose of the sewage of the city by irrigation, at a point 
about three miles below the city and not far from the village of Mill- 
bury. The project involved the delivery of the sewage to this area 
by gravity. 
In 1881 the town of Millbury employed Col. George E. Waring, Jr., 
"to suggest some practicable plan by which the city of Worcester 
* For a discussion of the process of self-purification as exemplified in the case of the Black- 
stone river, see Special Report of the Mass. St. Bd. Health, Part I., Examination of Water Sup- 
plies, pp. 794-798. 418 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
may withhold from the Blackstone river the waste organic matter pro- 
duced by the population and its industries, and now polluting that 
stream." 
The plan proposed by Col. Waring included the following : 
I. To separate the dry-weather sewage of the city and the early 
storm-washings of the sewers from the water of Mill brook. 
II. To allow the earthy matters of the sewage to subside. 
III. To screen out the coarser objects. 
IV. To expose the screened sewage in a thin sheet to the air during 
its rapid flow for a distance of 500 feet at a sharp fall. 
V. To carry it at low velocity for about 10 miles through ditches 
bordered by rank-growing trees or bushes; alternating to a second 
set of ditches as often as necessary, say once a week, so as to give 
each set a dry week for the aeration of the subsided matters. 
VI. To spread the resultant effluent over 126 acres of wooded swamp 
land, giving each area two days out of three for aeration. 
The area selected by Col. Waring is included in the area near Mill- 
bury, which Mr. Ball proposed to utilize in 1872.* 
The Legislature of 1881 directed the State Board of Health to inves- 
tigate the question of sewage disposal for Worcester, with special 
reference to preventing the further pollution of the Blackstone river 
and its tributaries, and recommend a definite plan for preventing such 
pollution. The Board appointed, as experts, C. F. Folsom, M.D., and 
Joseph P. Davis, M. Am. Soc. C.E., who, acting in conjunction with 
Dr. Walcott, Secretary of the Board, designed a system of disposal 
by intermittent filtration. By this project the sewage would be di- 
verted from Mill brook and conducted, partly by gravity and partly 
by pumping from a low area, to a tract of land midway between 
Worcester and Millbury, and in the vicinity of the locality previously 
selected by Mr. Ball and Col. Waring, but at a somewhat higher eleva- 
tion. For this purpose it was proposed to distribute the sewage at a 
rate not exceeding 40,000 gallons per acre per day, the experts express- 
ing the opinion that this daily quantity would not be large enough to 
prevent the successful raising of crops on the filtration area. The 
estimated cost of carrying out the plan of intermittent filtration was 
$408,490. The necessary pumping was estimated at $3,500 per year. The 
cost of construction under Col. Waring's plan was estimated at $206,500. 
Criticisms of Col. Waring's plan are submitted by the experts in 
their report, and reasons given why, in their opinion, it would not 
provide an efficient solution of the sewage disposal problem for 
Worcester, f 
* Col. Waring's report may be found in the Sanitary Appendix to the 3d An. Rept. of the 
Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, for the year 1881. 
+ The experts' report may also be found in the Sanitary Appendix to the 3d An. Rept. of the 
State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
419 
At the first session of the Legislature following the presentation of 
this report, a bill was introduced in the interests of the residents 
along the Blackstone river below Worcester, by the provisions of 
which the city of Worcester was required to purify its sewage before 
discharging it into the river, within four months from its passage, and 
thereafter to cease discharging into the river all matter offensive or 
dangerous to public health. In the extended hearing which was given 
before the Joint Standing Legislative Committee on Public Health, 
the riparian owners claimed that they were injured in health and 
business by reason of the presence of Worcester sewage in the stream. 
Testimony was given on the part of the petitioners for the bill to the 
effect that only a few years before, the stream was pure and fit for all 
kinds of manufacturing uses; whereas now the stream had become 
offensive to sight and smell, and its water rendered entirely unfit for 
use in manufacturing. The city authorities denied nearly all the 
statements of the petitioners, claiming in effect: (1) The city was not 
creating any nuisance ; (2) even if the city were creating a nuisance, it 
still had a right to do so under the Law of 1867, by which it was per- 
mitted to discharge crude sewage into Mill brook; (3) the proper 
remedy for the petitioners was not to compel Worcester to purify its 
sewage, but to remove the dams built by the petitioners, thereby 
removing obstructions in the stream which prevented the sewage from 
flowing freely and purifying itself. The expert testimony on the side 
of the city was prepared by Wm. E. Worthen, M. Am. Soc. C.E., and 
the city engineer, Charles A. Allen, M. Am. Soc. C.E. The State's 
side of the case was presented by Drs. Folsom and Wolcott, and Joseph 
P. Davis, M. Am. Soc. C.E., who, as a commission of experts, had 
devised the project of disposal by intermittent filtration, already 
briefly described.* 
The opposition on the part of the city to the compulsory expendi- 
ture of the large amount of money which was required to effect the 
purification, was sufficiently strong to prevent anything being done at 
that time, and the Legislature adjourned without passing the Act. 
The bill was again introduced at the session of 1884, and, after a 
spirited opposition on the part of the city, again defeated, for reasons 
similar to those which had been previously urged. 
In his report to the Massachusetts Drainage Commission in 1885, 
Mr. Clarke further considers the question of sewage disposal for Wor- 
cester, and reviews the several reports which have been made previous 
to that time. His conclusion was that a solution of the problem of 
sewage disposal at Worcester had already been devised by the experts 
* For this evidence in detail, see The Sewage of Worcester in its Relation to the Blackstone 
River. Hearing before the Joint Committee on Public Health, in the matter of restraining the 
city of Worcester from polluting the Blackstone river. Feb. and March, 1882, Pamphlet, 
164 pages. 420 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL TN THE UNITED STATES. 
of the State Board of Health in 1881, and he therefore investigated 
the conditions at Worcester no further than was necessary to verify 
the essential features of their plans. Mr. Clarke states that an exam- 
ination of the territory below Worcester showed that the tract of land 
which had been selected as a filtration area was most accessible and 
suitable for the purpose. Borings and test-pits also proved the adapt- 
ability of the soil for filtration. 
The estimates prepared by the experts were verified by Mr. Clarke, 
with the result that if they were in error at all they were larger than 
necessary. Mr. Clarke closes the portion of his report treating of 
Worcester sewage disposal with the suggestion that the Drainage 
Commission could, with propriety and safety, recommend that Wor- 
cester be required to purify its sewage in some way ; but that a choice 
of method and its details be determined by the city itself. 
During the period of discussion the pollution increased from year 
to year, and in 1883 the City Council of Worcester directed the city 
engineer, Charles A. Allen, M. Am. Soc. C.E., to proceed to Europe 
in order to acquire a thorough knowledge of sewage disposal as prac- 
tised there, with special reference to the conditions obtaining at Wor- 
cester. Mr. Allen accordingly visited England, Erance, and Germany, 
examining the methods of sewage disposal in use at Croydon, Don- 
caster, Burnley, Bradford, Leeds, Barnsley, Wigan, Leyton, Birming- 
ham, and Atherton in England, Paris in France, and Berlin and 
Dantzic in Germany. 
Finally, in 1886 the Legislature passed an Act directing that the 
city of Worcester should, without being limited to any particular 
system, within four years after its passage, remove from its sewage, 
before its discharge into the Blackstone river, " the offensive and 
polluting properties and substances therein, so that after its discharge 
into said river, either directly or through its tributaries, it shall not 
create a nuisance which might endanger the public health." 
The city was also authorized by the Act to acquire rights of way or 
easements wherever needed for the construction of the necessary sew- 
erage and sewage disposal works, and for the payment of all damages 
sustained by any person or corporation by reason of such erection or 
construction; also to raise and appropriate such sums of money as 
might be required to carry out the provisions of the Act. 
September 20, 1886, the City Council ordered that the city engineer 
make such investigations, examinations, surveys, plans, and estimates, 
and take the opinions of such experts as he deemed necessary to 
ascertain the best and most approved system of sewage disposal to be 
obtained for the city of Worcester in compliance with the law. The 
city engineer was also directed to report his plans as soon as possible. 
In his report, submitted in accordance with this order, Mr. Allen first CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
421 
gives an account of the several foreign sewage disposal works visited 
by him in 1883. 
In regard to the disposal of the sewage of Worcester by irrigation, 
Mr. Allen says : 
Now the conditions, climatic and other, that exist at Worcester are not as favor- 
able to the proper treatment of sewage by irrigation or by filtration as in England 
and France, or even in Germany, at Berlin and Dantzic. 
It has been stated, both in reports made upon the subject of sewage treatment 
and in evidence taken in support of the claim that the city of Worcester should 
purify its sewage, that the climate at Berlin and Dantzic, where broad irrigation is 
resorted to, is substantially the same as at Worcester, and that therefore it will be 
easy to purify the sewage of the city by irrigation throughout the entire year. 
I think, however, that there is a reasonable doubt about this. The following 
statements of the difference in temperatures will show a decided difference in 
climatic conditions during the winter months. The temperatures at Dantzic were 
obtained from Mr. Aird, the manager of the farm at that place, and are official; 
while the temperatures at Worcester are taken from the city records. 
The following table gives the differences in temperature for five winters, begin- 
ning with December 1, 1877, and ending March 31, 1883: 
Dantzic. 
December, 1878 
January, 1879 
February, " 
March, " 
Average monthly 
temperature. 
.. 34° Fahr. 
.. 28° " 
.. 32° " 
. 33° " 
Average by months ., 
. 31.75° Fahr. 
December, 1879 
January, 1880 
February, " 
March, " 
. 27° Fahr. 
. 29° " 
. 31° " 
. 36° " 
Average by months .. 
. 30.75° Fahr. 
December, 1880 
January, 1881 
February, " 
March, " 
. 34° Fahr. 
. 23° " 
. 28° " 
. 34° " 
Average by months .. 
. 29.5° Fahr. 
December, 1881 
January, 1882 
February, " 
March, " 
. 34° Fahr. 
. 37° " 
. 38° " 
. 44° " 
Average by months.. 
. 38.25° Fahr. 
December, 1882 
January, 1883 
February, " 
March, " 
. 26° Fahr. 
. 27° " 
. 30° " 
. 26° " 
Average by months .. 
. 29.75° Fahr. 
Worcester. 
December, 1878 
January, 1879 
February, " 
March, " 
Average monthly 
temperature. 
. 25° Fahr. 
. 20° " 
. 20° " 
. 30° " 
Average by months . 
. 23.75° Fahr. 
December, 1879 
January, 1880 
February, " 
March, " 
. 28° Fahr. 
. 30° " 
. 27° " 
. 29° " 
Average by months . 
. 28.5° Fahr. 
December, 1880 
January, 1881 
February, " 
March, " 
. 20° Fahr. 
. 16° " 
. 23° " 
. 32° " 
Average by months .. 
. 22.75° Fahr. 
December, 1881 
January, 1882 
February, " 
March, " 
. 33° Fahr. 
. 21° " 
. 25° " 
. 32° " 
Average by months .. 
. 27.75° Fahr. 
December, 1882 
January, 1883 
February, " 
March, " 
. 23° Fahr. 
. 18° " 
. 22° " 
. 23° " 
Average by months .. 
. 21.5° Fahr. 
It will be noticed that, with the exception of the winter of 1879-80, the mercury 
ranged much lower at Worcester than at Dantzic, a difference of from 7° to 8° Fahr. 422 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
for the entire season being the general amount. This, of course, makes a great 
difference in frost penetration, and adds to the liability of the ground remaining 
frozen. 
An examination of the tables of daily temperature . . . shows that, in the 
five years covered by the tables given above, at Dantzic there were only three days 
during that period that the thermometer registered below zero, the extreme being 
4° degrees below; while at Worcester, during the same period, there were forty 
days below zero, with an extreme of 18° below. 
At Dantzic there were thirty-eight days in which the temperature was between 
10° and 20° above zero, while at Worcester there were 164 days. 
While there were 364 days at Dantzic in which the thermometer registered be- 
tween 20° and 32° degrees above, at Worcester there were 221 days. 
The total number of days covered by the observations in the five years was 606. 
Of this number Dantzic had 460 below the freezing point, or about 75.9 per cent., 
while Worcester had 542 days, or 89.4 per cent. 
While Dantzic had only 114 days below 20°, or 18.8 percent., Worcester had 
328, or 54.1 per cent.* 
As has been stated in the description of the works at Berlin, the sewage is stored 
in large reservoirs during the severest portion of the winter, no attempt being 
made to purify by irrigation ; while at Dantzic it is constantly applied to the land 
without regard to the weather, the manager stating that while the action of the 
frost interfered somewhat with the operation of the w7orks, still the periods of ex- 
treme cold were of so short duration that no serious difficulty was experienced. 
A glance at the table of temperature will illustrate this fact. For instance, from 
the 25th to the 28th inclusive of January, 1881, was the coldest weather indicated 
for any four consecutive days in the five years. For the following twenty days the 
temperature averaged 33°, one degree above the freezing point, so that whatever 
frost had penetrated the ground during the short cold period would undoubtedly 
be removed long before the twenty days had expired. In fact, there could have 
been very little severe frost after this time, for the average temperature of the 
month of February following was 28° Fahr., while March had an average of 34° 
Fahr. 
It is true that here in New England extremes of cold are followed frequently by 
warmer periods-that is, the weather is not excessively cold for long periods of 
time ; but the reaction is not generally great, and it is almost too well known a fact 
to be commented upon, that after the frost once enters the ground here, it stays 
with almost constantly increasing depth until spring fairly opens. 
That this difference in climatic conditions is likely to prove a troublesome mat- 
ter, if any method of land treatment is exclusively relied upon, there would seem 
to be but little doubt. 
In Mr. Allen's opinion the climatic difficulty at Worcester was likely 
to be a serious one, and he accordingly deemed it desirable to take 
the opinion of some of the ablest English sanitary engineers upon 
this point. In response to a request from him, Mr. B. S. Brundell, 
M. Inst. C.E., who has constructed many sewage farms, among them 
the farm at Doncaster, England, which is one of the most successful 
(from a sanitary point of view), wrote as follows : 
Sewage if properly applied to land may be purified; but the operation is not 
profitable. That is to say, sewage farming cannot, save in exceptional instances, 
be made to pay. Given a sufficient and suitable area of land, and if the sewage is 
passed either over or through it you can have an effluent water fit to pass into any 
* For complete table of comparative daily temperatures at Worcester and Dantzic for the five 
winters, 1878-79 to 1882-83 inclusive, see either the Appendix to Mr. Allen's original report, or 
his paper on Sewage Disposal, in Trans. Am. Soc. C.E., vol. xviii., pp. 16-17. 
Also refer to table on page 306 for mean temperature of winter months at Dantzic for 81 years. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
423 
stream without polluting that stream. Whether what is known as sewage farming 
could be made to succeed in your climate it is almost impossible to say. 
With a winter of extreme severity extending, as you say, from early in November 
to April, and with the ground frozen from three to five feet deep for a good part of 
that time, the application of sewage would be extremely difficult. 
Our winters here, although adding to the trouble of sewage irrigation, do not 
make it impossible. The temperature of the sewage when it reaches the land is 
sufficiently high to keep the outfalls open; but of course when it spreads upon the 
land it soon becomes frozen, and remains a glazed surface until the thaw sets in, 
when it is gradually absorbed by the land. 
I do not feel able to give an opinion as to how far this process would be limited 
by the degree of cold to which you are liable, but I foresee very considerable dif- 
ficulty in the matter. 
Mr. James Mansergh, M. Inst. C.E., in answer to a similar inquiry 
addressed to him, wrote as follows : 
I have carefully considered, in the light of my experience in England, whether 
under such conditions as these, the disposal of sewage by way of broad irrigation 
and downward intermittent filtration may be counted on as a reliable and satis- 
factory mode of treatment. 
My experience on this matter dates from the year 1860, when, in conjunction 
with my then partner, Mr. Hugh U. McKie, C.E., City Surveyor of Carlisle, I laid 
out the first sewage farm ever made in England, to Mr. McKie being due the credit 
of its suggestion and initiation. 
Since that time, I have laid out the following sewage farms :-Bedford, Tun- 
bridge Wells-with two farms, Colney Hatch, Leavesden, and Caterham Metro- 
politan Lunatic Asylum, Lincoln County Asylum, Ormskirk, Reading, Grantham, 
Southborough, Lincoln, St. Albans, Chesham, Bethesda, and Burton-upon-Trent 
(now in hand), and I have advised upon Ashford, Hildenborough, Rotherham, 
Birmingham, Hereford, Staines, Waltham, etc., etc. 
I believe my practice in this branch of engineering is not second to that of any 
man in England. 
During my connection with these w'orks, and on my visits to other sewage farms, 
I made myself acquainted with the circumstances of the application of sewage to 
land during our English winters, and since my interviews with yourself I have 
made special and particular inquiries at several of the farms above mentioned. 
The general experience in England undoubtedly is that with ordinary care no 
real difficulty is experienced in getting rid of sewage during frosty weather. 
This, I think, may be accepted as a fact. At the same time, I have myself seen ice 
six or eight inches thick on a sewage farm with a clay subsoil, and the sewage con- 
tinuing to freeze on the surface; and I have heard that, in the severe winters we 
have had here since 1878, it has been with some difficulty that trouble has been 
avoided on more than one farm. 
It is palpable that the risks are greater where sewage is put upon clay lands than 
where the subsoil is an open or loamy gravel. 
If the land can be kept unfrozen on the surface by the continuous application of 
the relatively warm sewage, all goes well. 
A thin coating of ice may be formed during the nights, but the sewage can, as a 
rule, be readily distributed under this film. 
In this country we rarely have long spells of hard frost unbroken by short inter- 
vals of heightened temperature. 
Under the conditions you have described to me, I should have very great hesita- 
tion in recommending the process of broad irrigation and intermittent filtration as 
reliable modes of disposing of the sewage and preventing the pollution of the river. 
I should fear that during such frosts as you tell me not unfrequently prevail, 
the ground would get frozen so hard as to render it impervious to the sewage, 
which would then simply flow over the surface into the river or its tributaries in a 
crude condition. 
In order to acquaint myself more particularly with the relative temperatures at 424 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Worcester, U. S., and England, I have obtained certain statistics from Mr. G. W. 
Symonds, F.R.S., which I have embodied in the accompanying diagram.* 
In addition to Worcester and London, all the facts are given with accuracy in 
respect of Vienna and so far as concerns the " mean " in respect of Berlin, but the 
" minimum " of Berlin is merely the best approximation I can just now procure. 
From this diagram I learn that, speaking broadly, the " mean " temperature of 
the months from November to March in Worcester and London compare as follows : 
November, Worcester 3° Fahr, lower than London. 
December, " 12° " " " " 
January, " 15° " " " " 
February, " 15° " " " " 
March, " 9° " " " " 
The lowest recorded temperatures compare as follows : 
November, Worcester 10° Fahr, lower than London. 
December, " 10° " " " " 
January, " 21° " " " " 
February, " 34° " " " " 
March, " 21° " " " " 
Making the comparison between the mean monthly temperatures of Worcester 
and Berlin (the sewage works of which city you have seen) the figures come out as 
follows: 
November, Worcester 1° Fahr, lower than Berlin. 
December, " 8° " " " " 
January, " 4° " " " " 
February, " 6° " " " " 
March, " 5° " " " " 
I find from the diagram that the mean temperatures of Worcester are as follows: 
November, 7° Fahr, above freezing point. 
December, 5° " below " " 
January, 8° " " " " 
February, 7° " " " " 
March, 1° " above " " 
and the minimum temperatures are as follows: 
October, 6° Fahr, below freezing point. 
November, 20° " " " " 
December, 35° " " " " 
January, 46° " " " " 
February, 51° " 
March, 32° " 
April, 10° " 
All these figures confirm me in my opinion that it would not be prudent to trust 
to getting rid of sewage satisfactorily at Worcester by the irrigation process.! 
Continuing the discussion of objections to broad irrigation and in- 
termittent filtration, in their application to the conditions obtaining at 
Worcester, Mr. Allen says: 
The great difference in the amount of annual rainfall is also an important factor 
to be considered. The greatest rainfall given at any place visited was at Wigan, 
where the average is about forty inches per annum, while the smallest amount was 
at Barnsley, where the average was given as 281% inches per annum. The average 
of all places visited was 34 inches per annum. 
At Worcester the average is about 48 inches per annum, the lowest recorded 
amount for one year being 34.5 inches (or about the same as the average amount at 
the places where inquiry was made), while the greatest recorded rainfall for one 
year at Worcester is 61.48 inches. 
Now it is generally the experience abroad that during storms the sewage has to 
* The diagram is not given in Mr. Allen's report. 
+ For further definition of the limitations of irrigation in winter, see Chapter XVII. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
425 
be disposed of in some other way than by irrigation, the ground being frequently 
surcharged with water, rendering it incapable of purifying the sewage at all. With 
the large rainfall here, this difficulty would be very much increased. 
Aside from the difficulties caused by climatic differences, there is still another 
objection to irrigation that in the case of the city of Worcester should, it seems to 
me, have great weight. I refer to the loss of water by this means of sewage dis- 
posal. Just what the amount would be that the vegetation would absorb, and that 
would evaporate, can only be determined by actual trial. 
At Berlin, the experiments show that at least 30 per cent, is retained, while at 
Doncaster most of the water is lost in this way, the reason being that only a small 
quantity of sewage is applied to any one piece of land, the intention being not to 
apply more than would come in an ordinary rainfall. That the loss of water would 
be considerable there can be no doubt. 
For this, it is reasonable to suppose, the city would have to pay, as it is situated 
at the head of a manufacturing stream, where great value is placed upon every 
drop of water retained by any means, judging from the suits that have been 
brought against the city for water taken for domestic and general water supply 
purposes. 
That this claim will be made, the following quotation will show. It is taken 
from the "Report of Millbury," dated Dec. 15th, 1881, and printed in connection 
with the report of the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity, 1882: 
" At this time, permit us to refer to a matter which we think ought not to be 
lost sight of in this connection. Whatever plan may eventually be adopted, there 
will necessarily result a greater or less loss of water, which, in the dry season of 
the year, when evaporation takes place rapidly, may amount to so much as to be a 
serious matter to the mills using the stream for water power. Even now the loss 
to manufacturers is noticeable. But it is claimed that whatever water is taken for 
the Worcester water supply is returned to the river through the sewers. This can, 
of course, be true only to a certain extent. With the sewer water used for irriga- 
tion and restrained for purposes of purification, the loss will be much greater. 
" We should urge the necessity of providing some means to make good this loss. 
And we respectfully ask that, should your Board report to the Legislature a plan to 
prevent the pollution of the river, they will also report that, by means of additional 
storage basins to be used for this purpose, the city should make good the conse- 
quent loss of water." 
This report was signed by George A. Flagg, C. D. Morse, and Osgood H. Waters, 
Committee of the Town of Millbury. 
While they do not ask to be paid for water lost, they do ask that compensating 
reservoirs may be constructed, which amounts to about the same thing. 
The above are the principal objections to irrigation so far as the city of Worces- 
ter is concerned. While they are more or less local in their character, there is 
danger that by the adoption of irrigation, especially when a large quantity of sew- 
age is to be treated, the irrigation fields will become a greater nuisance than 
the one which is to be abated. In other words, it takes the most careful manage- 
ment to prevent a sewage farm from becoming offensive. 
What has been said in relation to the adoption of a scheme for treating the sew- 
age of Worcester by irrigation, applies also to intermittent downward filtration, so 
far as the effect of the climatic and other conditions are concerned ; in some re- 
spects, however, not to so great an extent. For instance, the amount of water lost 
by evaporation and absorption would not be as great. The effect of severe frosts 
would probably be about the same, as in order to obtain an effluent that is at all 
satisfactory, the application (as the name of the system implies) must be intermit- 
tent. It will not do to simply turn the sewage constantly over a single area of un- 
derdrained land, and expect that a clear effluent will be obtained: the land must 
have rest. " The intermittency is a sine qua non, even in suitably constituted soils, 
whenever complete success is aimed at." The danger would be that after one fil- 
tration area has received all the sewage that can be applied at one time, and before 
the relatively warm sewage can be again applied (generally after three or four 426 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
days), the ground would be frozen to such an extent that filtration would not take 
place. 
The temperature of the sewage has therefore much to do with the length of time 
that the ground can be kept open, and also with the extent of the area upon which 
sewage can be applied in cold weather. There were only two places that I visited 
where a record had been kept of the temperature of the sewage, viz., at Berlin and 
Paris. At the former place the lowest temperature reached in winter was 45° F., 
while at the latter place the minimum was 41° F. 
At Worcester the sewers have all been constructed to receive drainage of every 
nature. All surface water is conducted to them, and in consequence the tempera- 
ture of the sewage is at times very low. The record shows that in the main lateral 
sewers as low as 33° F. is reached. It is probable, therefore, that sewage taken 
from them and applied to the land would freeze quickly, and could not be depended 
upon to keep the ground free from frost. 
The advantage that intermittent filtration would have over broad irrigation is 
that a much smaller area of land would be required, and the raising of crops would 
have to be made of secondary importance. In fact, it would be much better not to 
attempt to raise crops at all, as the income derived therefrom would be small, and 
the tendency would probably be to neglect the purification of the sewage in order 
to derive as large an income as possible from the land. 
It must be understood that in order to obtain a good effluent, especially when 
the area of land is limited, some means of separating the sludge from the sewage 
is almost absolutely necessary to prevent the ground from clogging. This fact is 
recognized by English authorities and, as before shown, this method of sewage 
treatment is rarely used except as an auxiliary to irrigation or precipitation. 
Chemical precipitation would not be subject to the objections spoken of above, 
and where the sewage has to be treated constantly, through the entire year, would 
seem to be the most favorable method for adoption at Worcester. 
On account of the peculiar quality of the Worcester sewage, due to 
the character of the manufacturing wastes, it was considered desirable, 
before actually deciding to use the method of chemical purification, to 
obtain some idea of the probable amount of chemicals which would be 
required in order to produce a satisfactory effluent. Professor L. P. 
Kinnicutt, of the Worcester Free Institute, was requested to make a 
series of analyses, and give an opinion as to the quantity and quality 
of precipitating reagent best suited to the conditions. The following 
is from his report: 
As to the chemical character of Worcester sewage a few words are necessary. 
Worcester sewage, in consequence of the nature and character of its manufacturing 
interests, contains, as may be seen from tables given below, a very large amount of 
soluble sulphates. It is well known that sea water cannot be used for flushing 
sewers, nor can sewage be run into the sea near the shore without a dreadful stink 
resulting. The cause of this stink is that the organic matter reduces the sulphates 
contained in the sea water to the state of sulphides, which are then acted upon by 
the carbonic acid, and sulphuretted hydrogen is set free. That these reactions 
would take place if Worcester sewage was treated according to either of the first 
two methods mentioned, seems to me more than probable. The sulphates in the 
sewage would be reduced to sulphides, and not only carbonic acid but the free acid 
in the sewage would immediately decompose these sulphides, and sulphuretted hy- 
drogen, with its disgusting odor, would be continually given off. 
The amount of iron sails contained in Worcester sewage is also large. Salts of 
iron are decomposed by alkaline substances, an insoluble hydrate of iron being 
formed, which attracts to itself the suspended matter in the sewage and carries it CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
427 
to the bottom. In purification of sewage by precipitation, iron salts are commonly 
added after the sewage has been made decidedly alkaline by the addition of lime. 
The presence of these iron salts, therefore, would be an advantage in any precipi- 
tation process, while they would be more or less detrimental in an irrigation or 
intermittent filtration process. 
The second part of your question, What chemicals and what amount of chemicals 
are necessary to add to Worcester sewage, so as to produce an effluent which would 
be harmless when emptied into the Blackstone river ? I find difficult to answer 
fully at this time. The answer to the question depends on the character of the 
sewage ; what substances and what amount of these substances are contained in the 
sewage. To determine this a series of careful analyses made on samples collected 
at half-hour intervals during a number of days is necessary, the sewage being at 
the time of collection the normal dry-weather sewage. The last part of the above 
condition could not be fulfilled, as the flow of Mill brook at Cambridge street for 
twenty-four hours is at present about seventeen million gallons, which would not 
be the case if its flow depended entirely on the sewage received from the city. 
Such being the case, I have not thought it best to make a long series of analyses, 
as I should like to have done, and have only made four analyses, two of day and 
two of night sewage. Each day and night sample was obtained by uniting half- 
hour samples taken throughout the twelve hours from Mill brook at Cambridge 
street. Table No. 1 gives the results of the analyses in parts per 100,000. 
Table No. 2 gives the number of parts per 100,000 if the total amount of solid 
matter in the sewage remained the same, while the flow, instead of being 17,370,000 
gallons, was reduced to the normal dry-weather flow of about 3,500,000 gallons; 
and also gives, for the sake of comparison, the mean of 181 analyses of London 
sewage, as given by Mr. Dibden in the Report of the Royal Commission on Metro- 
politan Sewage Discharge, Vol. 2, Page 158. 
Table No. 3, columns 1, 2, and 3, give the total number of pounds of the various 
ingredients contained in twenty-four hours' flow of Mill brook at Cambridge street; 
and column 4 gives the calculated number of pounds that would be found in twen- 
ty-four hours in 1,000,000 gallons if the total amount of solids remained the same, 
while the flow, instead of being 17,370,000, was 3,500,000, or, in other words, gives 
an approximate idea of the amount of the various ingredients in 1,000,000 gallons 
of Worcester's dry-weather sewage. 
Table No. 1.-Analyses of Worcester Sewage. Parts per 100,000. 
January 14th and 15th. 
6 A.M. to 6 P.M. 
6 P.M. to 6 A.M. 
Average. 
Total solids 
43.42 43.42 
29.45 29.45 
36.43 36.43 
Volatile 
14.72 
7.82 
11.27 
Inorganic 
28.70 
21.63 
25.16 
Suspended 
9.92 
6.15 
8.03 
Soluble 
33.50 33.50 
23.30 23.30 
28.40 28.40 
Volatile 
9.50 
3.90 
6.70 
Inorganic 
24.00 
19.40 
21.70 
Chlorine 
4.375 
2.58 
3.477 
Sulphur trioxide 
8.104 
6.07 
7.086 
Nitric acid 
trace 
trace 
trace 
Ferrous oxide 
3.130 
2.783 
2.956 
Free ammonia . 
0.554 
0.377 
0.465 
Albuminoid ammonia.... 
0.178 
0.105 
0.141 
Free acid, in terms of sul- 
phuric acid 
3.611 
3.680 
3.645 428 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
January 18th and 19th. 
9 A.M. to 
9 P.M. 
9 P.M. to 
9 A.M. 
Average. 
Total solids 
.... 48.40 
48.40 
21.60 
21.60 
35.00 
35.00 
Volatile 
.... 20.77 
6.10 
13.43 
Inorganic 
.... 27.63 
15.50 
21.57 
Suspended 
16.00 
4.10 
10.05 
Soluble 
.... 32.40 
32.40 
17.50 
17.50 
24.95 
24.95 
Volatile 
.... 10.40 
3.50 
6.95 
Inorganic 
.... 22.00 
14.00 
18.00 
Chlorine 
... . 4.017 
2.25 
3.133 
Sulphur trioxide 
... 8.113 
3.917 
6.015 
Nitric acid 
trace 
trace 
Ferrous oxide 
.... 3.121 
2.018 
2.571 
Free ammonia 
.... 0.780 
0.274 
0.527 
Albuminoid ammonia.. 
.... 0.266 
0.066 
0.166 
Free acid, in terms of 
sul- 
phuric acid 
.... 5.091 
2.74 
3.91 
Table No. 2. 
Column 1. Parts per 100,000, mean value of four analyses if total amount of 
solid matter in the sewage remained the same, while flow was reduced to 3,500,000 
gallons. Column 2. Mean of 181 analyses of London sewage. 
No. 1. 
No. 2. 
Total solids 
.. 177.2 177.2 
123.83 
123.83 
Volatile 
.. 61.3 
45.50 
Inorganic 
. . 115.9 
78.33 
Suspended 
44.8 
39.13 
Soluble 
.. 132.4 132.4 
84.70 
84.70 
Volatile 
. . 33.86 
27.6 
Inorganic 
. . 98.49 
57.1 
Chlorine 
.. 16.40 
15.0 
Sulphur trioxide 
.. 32.50 
Ferrous oxide 
. . 13.71 
Free ammonia 
.. 2.461 
4.51 
Albuminoid ammonia 
. . 0.759 
0.547 
Free acid, in terms of sulphuric acid... 
.. 18.745 
Table No. 3. 
Columns 1, 2, and 3. Total number of pounds contained in twenty-four hours' 
flow of Mill brook at Cambridge street. Column 4. Total number of pounds in 
1,000,000 gallons if the flow was 3,500,000 instead of 17,370,000 gallons, the total 
amount of solid matter remaining the same. 
Total solids 
No. 1, Jan. 14. 
.. 52,057 52,057 
No. 2, Jan. 18. 
51,586 
51,586 
Volatile 
.. 16,100 
19,786 
Inorganic 
.. 35,957 
31,800 
Suspended 
11,457 
14,814 
Soluble 
.. 40,600 40,600 
36,757 
36,757 
Volatile 
.. 9,570 
10,230 
Inorganic 
.. 31,030 
26,527 
Chlorine 
.. 4,970 
4,617 
Sulphur trioxide 
. . 10,127 
8,953 
Ferrous oxide 
. . 4,224 
3,793 
Free ammonia 
664 
777 
Albuminoid ammonia 
201 
245 
Free acid, in terms of sulphuric acid. .. 
.. 5,210 
5,733 CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
429 
No. 3, mean of 
1 and 2. 
No. 4, amount in 
1,000,000 gallons. 
Total solids 
.. 51,821 51,821 
14,806 14,806 
Volatile 
.. 17,943 
5,127 
Inorganic 
.. 33,878 
9,678 
Suspended 
13,142 
3,754 
Soluble 
. 38,679 38,679 
11,051 11,051 
Volatile 
.. 9,900 
2,829 
Inorganic 
. . 28,779 
8,222 
Chlorine 
.. 4,790 
1,368 
Sulphur trioxide 
. . 9,540 
2,726 
Ferrous oxide 
. . 4,008 
1,145 
Free ammonia 
720 
206 
Albuminoid ammonia 
223 
63 
Free acid, in terms of sulphuric acid... 
.. 5,477 
1,565 
The above tables, on account of the very large flow of Mill brook at the present 
time, do not pretend to any very great degree of accuracy ; but they show the gen- 
eral characteristics of Worcester sewage and give a basis from which deductions can 
be drawn. 
They indicate, first, that Worcester sewage, taking the free ammonia as an index, 
contains about one-half as much organic matter in solution as the average English 
sewage, of which London sewage may be taken as a fair example. 
That Worcester sewage contains a very large amount of inorganic salts. 
That the amount of soluble sulphates and salts of iron in the sewage is very 
large. 
That the sewage has a decidedly acid character, while sewage as a rule is of an 
alkaline nature. 
These characteristics, which can easily be explained by noting the character of 
Worcester's chief industries, make it difficult to draw an analogy from any of the 
careful experiments made in England ; and without practical experiments with our 
own sewage, my opinion as to the kind and amount of chemicals that are best to use 
can only be considered approximately correct. 
In dealing with this question the two most important facts to be considered are, 
the acid character of the sewage, and the large amount of soluble sulphates and iron 
salts which it contains. 
In all processes of chemical precipitation an alkaline sewage is necessary. To 
change the acid character of Worcester sewage to an alkaline character would be the 
first step, no matter what chemicals are afterwards to be used. This could, I think, 
be best accomplished by the addition of lime. The amount of quicklime necessary 
to add to 1,000,000 gallons of Worcester dry-weather sewage (taking Table 3, column 
4, as the basis for calculation) would be about 900 pounds. 
By the addition of this amount of lime the sewage would not only be made alka- 
line, but a part of the process of chemical precipitation would be accomplished. 
Calcium sulphate, a heavy, fairly insoluble substance, would be formed, and a por- 
tion of the iron salts would tend to settle to the bottom of the liquid, carrying a part 
of the suspended organic matter. 
The sewage would not be in a condition where a chemical precipitation process 
could be applied. 
The various processes of chemical precipitation only differ from each other in the 
kind of chemicals used and the manner in which they are applied. For Worcester 
sewage I believe that the simplest of all processes, the addition of lime, would give 
an effluent that would be harmless when emptied into the Blackstone river, es- 
pecially if, in very hot, dry weather, the effluent was run on to a small filtering bed. 
If not practicable to have a small filtering area, which I should consider desirable, 
the further purification in very hot weather, if found necessary, might be accom- 
plished by the addition of a small amount of permanganate of potassium and sul- 
phuric acid to the effluent. 
I believe that the addition of lime alone would be sufficient, on account of the 
large amount of iron salts already in the sewage ; the amount in 1,000,000 gallons 
equalling about 2,417 pounds of anhydrous iron sulphate, or 15 grains per gallon. 430 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
There is possibly a question whether the iron, being in the sewage before the 
addition of the lime, would bring about the same result as though added after the 
lime, as little differences like this often affect the results of a chemical process. 
My opinion, though not based on experiments, is that the addition of sulphate 
of alumina, or the further addition of sulphate of iron, would be unnecessary when 
the sewage contained the amount of iron given above. 
The exact amount of lime necessary to add is also a question that can only be 
answered after numerous experiments. I believe, however, that 15 grains of quick- 
lime per gallon, or 2,150 pounds, added in the form of milk of lime, would be 
amply sufficient. If the quicklime before addition was dissolved in water, for which 
purpose sewage water could be used, probably only one-half of the above amount 
of quicklime would be necessary. 
The precipitate thus produced, technically known as sludge, after being sub- 
jected to mechanical pressure by use of a Johnson filter press, would amount to 
about 6 tons for every million gallons of sewage, and might possibly be disposed 
of as a fertilizer, or could be used for the filling up of low land, or, if necessary, could 
be burnt in a Hoffman furnace, without causing any nuisance and probably without 
the use of any extra fuel. 
It lias already been stated that the sewage of Worcester is all dis- 
charged into Mill brook, one of the confluent tributaries which unite 
in the south part of the city to form the Blackstone. This brook has 
a known minimum flow of 2,000,000 gallons in 24 hours, and an esti- 
mated maximum How of about 50,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. In 
designing sewage disposal works for Worcester, it appeared necessary 
to separate the sewage from the normal water flow of Mill brook. To 
effect this Mr. Allen proposes the construction of intercepting sewers, 
running as nearly parallel to Mill brook as possible, and so designed 
as to take all the dry-weather flow of the lateral sewers, only allowing 
the storm-water to overflow' into the brook by storm overflow's. 
For this purpose intercepting sewers are proposed for each side of 
the brook, which are to extend through the entire length of the city 
and unite in the southern portion, at the junction of Cambridge and 
Millbury streets, from which point a single conduit 36 inches in diam- 
eter, which it is proposed to lay in the bottom of the invert of the 
large sewer in Millbury street, will extend to a point near the junction of 
Millbury and Vernon streets. From this point the outfall sewer is to 
diverge from the present sew'er, and after crossing under the bed of 
the river, follow' through Millbury street to Greenwood street, along 
Greenwood street a distance of about 1,000 feet, and from thence 
nearly parallel with the Providence and Worcester railroad to the 
location of the purification works, a short distance further south. This 
section is to be of brick, 42 inches in diameter, with a grade of 1 in 
2,000. Its estimated capacity is 15,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. This 
capacity has in view a considerable grow'th of the city. Alternative 
plans for intercepting sewers are also suggested in the report, but in- 
asmuch as they do not especially modify the method of purification 
which has been adopted, we need not separately refer to them here. 
The detail of the proposed scheme for chemical precipitation is suf- CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT AVORCESTER, MASS. 
431 
ficiently exhibited for present purposes by the following estimates as 
condensed from the report: 
Estimate No. 1. Chemical Precipitation with Intercepting Sewers. 
East side intercepting sewer, from Lincoln square to Pond street, with 
changes in present system $51,900 00 
West-side intercepting sewer, from Lincoln square to Pond street, with 
changes in present system 62,300 00 
Intercepting pipe, from Pond street to outfall sewer 41,250 00 
Outfall sewer, from Mill brook to precipitation works 54,775 00 
Building, Tanks, and Machinery 60,000 00 
$270,225 00 
Add 15 per cent for Engineering and contingencies 40,533 75 
$310,758 75 
Land and land damages 12,000 00 
Total $322,758 75 
Estimate No. 2. Intermittent Filtration with Intercepting Sewers. 
East and West-side intercepting sewers, intercepting pipe from Pond 
street to outfall sewer, and outfall sewer from Mill brook to loca- 
tion of precipitation works as per previous estimate $210,225 00 
Outfall sewer extended from location of precipitation works to filtration 
area 45,135 00 
Preparing 80 acres of land for filtration purposes 80,000 00 
Subsiding tanks 10,000 00 
$345,360 00 
Add 15 per cent, for Engineering and contingencies 51,804 00 
$397,164 00 
Land and land damages 42,000 00 
Total $435,164 00 
In regard to the possibility of combining, at some time in the future, 
chemical treatment with intermittent filtration, it is stated that the 
additional expense, above the cost of the precipitation scheme alone, 
would be either $197,405.25 or $214,800.00, the difference depending 
upon which of two available filtration areas might be selected. 
In regard to the cost of operation, it is stated that the estimates of 
annual expense are based upon a cost of 45 cents per person per year. 
Assuming that the sewage of 50,000 people, amounting to 3,000,000 
gallons per day, now enters the sewers, the annual cost upon this 
basis is found to be $22,500 per year. The annual cost of operating 
intermittent filtration for 3,000,000 gallons per day, constantly treated, 
was estimated at $11,200 per year. But these estimates of cost do not, 
in either case, include either interest on the cost of the plant or the 432 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
annual sum to be set aside for renewals and depreciation ; they mere- 
ly include the actual running expense per year. 
In concluding his elaborate report, Mr. Allen states that his reasons 
P^/7w^y 3/^0^ 
Mixing CMnnel. 
Fig. 60.-Plan of Sewage Disposal Works, Worcester, Massachusetts. 
for preferring the method of purification by chemical treatment at 
Worcester are as follows : 
1. That the effluent obtained will without doubt conform to the requirements of 
the law. 
2. That the cost of establishing a plant will be less than by either irrigation or 
downward intermittent filtration. 
3. That chemical precipitation will not be affected by climatic conditions. 
4. There will be no loss of water, and consequently no water damages to pay. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
433 
5. If this method of disposal is adopted by the city of Worcester, it will be in a 
position to take advantage, without material change in plant, of improvements that 
will undoubtedly be made in the methods of sewage disposal. 
Fig. 61.-General View of Worcester Disposal Works. 
6. That precipitation will be a valuable auxiliary to irrigation or intermittent fil- 
tration, if it should ever be thought desirable to add either of these methods of 
disposal to the system. 434 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Following Mr. Allen's report of 1887, from which we have quoted at 
length, on May 14, 1888, the City Council adopted an order for the 
construction of the outfall sewer from the main channel of Mill brook 
to the proposed location of the precipitation works. This section of 
the sewer was built at an actual cost of about $69,000. 
Fig. (52.-View of Central Channel, Worcester Precipitating Tanks. 
On July 8,1889, the City Council ordered the construction of the pre- 
cipitation works, and work began as soon thereafter as the detailed 
plans could be sufficiently matured. The general plan of the precipi- 
tating works is shown by Fig. 60 ; two views by Figs. 61 and 62 ; and 
the details are illustrated by Plate IV., which shows, Fig. 1. a section 
of the outfall sewers leading to the purification works, where it passes 
under the river ; Fig. 3, a section of the central channel and the pipe 
arch ; Fig. 4, the effluent pipe and sludge drains in place. The main 
sludge drain is connected with the sludge well located in the basement 
of the machinery building at point A, Fig. 60. Fig. 5 is a self- 
explanatory section of the side and middle walls. The overflow steps 
and effluent drain are shown by Figs. 6, 7, and 8, also on Plate IV. 
In regard to the method of treatment which has been finally 
adopted, Mr. Allen in his report for the year ending November 30, 
1890, says : 
The treatment which we have finally adopted is the " continuous process." The 
sewage, after leaving the outfall sewer, enters the receiving chamber in the gate or FIG 8 
FIG 6 
FIG 7 
FIG. I. 
FIG. 3. 
Main Sludge Drain 
FIG. 4 
b. 
section 
BET 
BASINS. 
a. 
SECTION 
OUTS 
WALL. 
FIG 5. 
PLATE IV. DETAILS OF WORCESTER PRECIPITATION TANKS. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
435 
screen house. It then passes through the screens, where all matter that would tend 
to clog the sludge-pump are screened out, such as paper and sticks of wood. It 
then passes through the outlet chamber into the mixing channel. The chemicals 
are introduced at the upper end of this channel, being discharged through pipes 
connected with the vats inside the building. After the introduction of the chemi- 
cals the sewage flows through the mixing channel, the chemicals being thoroughly 
mixed with it by the agitation produced by the baffle-plates. From this channel 
the sewage passes through the first weir into tank No. 1. Here there is a fall of 
one foot, which tends to more thoroughly mix together the sewage and chemicals. 
It then passes very slowly through tank 1, out of this tank through the second weir 
into the main channel, then through the third weir into tank 2, through tank 2 into 
tank 3, and thence through tanks 4, 5, and 6, until it is discharged finally through 
the last weir and over the overflow steps into the effluent drain, and from thence 
into the river; it takes about six hours for it to pass through all the tanks. The 
position of the weirs and the general arrangement of the tanks is shown by Fig. 60. 
When it becomes necessary to clean a tank, the flash-boards are placed in the 
weirs connected with this tank, and the sewage is passed around into the next tank 
through the main channel. Tank No. 2, in Fig. 60, is represented as being cut out. 
The sewage in the tank to be cleaned is then allowed to rest from three to six 
hours, so that thorough precipitation will take place before the water is drawn off. 
In front of each effluent pipe, and projecting into the tank, is a flume of wood. 
This flume is so constructed that the water can be drawn from the surface by means 
of flash-boards 6 inches deep. When the time has arrived for drawing the water, 
the first flash-board is removed and the gate at the mouth of the effluent pipe is 
opened. The water flows over the top of the second flash-board, through the gate 
and effluent pipe into the effluent drain, and then into the river. This method is re- 
peated until all the boards have been removed, and the water drawn down to the 
Perforated Pipes, 
.■Concrete 
F/oor 
Fig. 63.-New Chemical Agitator, Worcester, Massachusetts. 
level of the sludge. The gate at the mouth of the sludge-drain is then opened, and 
the sludge flows through the sludge-drains to the sludge-well under the building. 
It is pumped from this well into a pipe carrier, and flows by gravity to the sludge- 
beds, located on land owned by the city, situated on the easterly side of the Provi- 
dence & Worcester Railroad, and entirely removed from the works. This land 
(about 16.5 acres) was selected for this purpose owing to its very favorable location. 
It is situated between the railroad and the river, is entirely isolated, there being no 
way to reach it except through land owned by the city. The liability of complaint 
being made by reason of its near proximity to buildings is thus reduced to the 436 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
minimum. A little over one-half of the area is low, swampy land ; the remainder is 
covered with knolls of gravel. 
At present 11 sludge-beds are in use, all being located on the low land. They 
are formed by removing the turf from the surface and constructing dikes with the 
soil removed. The beds are rectangular in shape, and are about 100 feet square. 
One day's sludge is pumped into each bed. It is then allowed to rest for 11 days, 
the second bed receiving the sludge the next day, and so on through the series. 
This is done to avoid any possible chance of a nuisance arising from any one bed 
being overcharged. Occasionally a layer of gravel is spread over the accumulated 
sludge. In this way it is intended to grade the surface of the entire area, after 
which it is intended to erect a destructor upon the land and burn the sludge-which, 
from experiments that have been made, I am convinced can be easily done. These 
beds have been in almost constant use since the works were put in operation, and 
there has never been the least trace of bad odor arising from them even during the 
hot summer months. This is, without doubt, due not only to the care that has been 
used in not allowing them to be overcharged, but also to the character of the sew- 
age, and therefore to the character of the sludge, it being heavily charged with iron 
salts and lime. Everything that would tend to create a nuisance seems to be en- 
tirely killed out. 
The precipitation takes place principally in the first three tanks. The sludge 
has to be removed from tanks Nos. 1 and 2 about once in 36 hours in warm weather, 
btit during cold weather we have been able to go four days without cleaning, with- 
out perceptibly affecting the character of the effluent. Tank No. 3 is cleaned 
every two or three days in warm weather, and once in 7 or 8 days in cold weather. 
Tanks 4, 5, and 6 accumulate very little sludge ; but they are cleaned as often as is 
necessary-about once a week in the hottest weather, and once in three weeks during 
the colder period. In the first two tanks during warm weather, or when the sludge 
is removed once in 36 hours, the accumulation is about 10 inches deep over the en- 
tire bottom surface. No. 3, when cleaned once in three days, has a depth of sludge 
of about 8 inches. Nos. 4, 5, and 6, when cleaned once a week, have an accumula- 
tion of about 6 inches. The sludge is about 95 per cent, water, and after it has 
been spread upon the sludge-beds for about 9 days this almost entirely disappears. 
The precipitant principally used at the works is Vermont lime. This has proved 
to be much better for our use than either Eastern or Western lime. It costs, de- 
livered at the works, about $7.00 per ton. The sulphate of alumina, which is used 
in limited quantities, costs about $25.00 per ton delivered. 
The sewage is extremely acid, owing to the fact that large quantities of sulphuric 
and muriatic acids are discharged into the sewers from iron manufacturing estab- 
lishments. This acid does not appear at the works in uniform quantities, but is 
extremely intermittent. It generally makes its appearance once in about 6 hours, 
although there is always acid present in the sewage. The heavy flow of acid sew- 
age generally lasts about one and one-half hours. 
In order to get perfect precipitation and a good effluent, we have found that it is 
necessary to neutralize this acid, or, in other words, to make the sewage alkaline. 
This is done by introducing a sufficient quantity of lime to accomplish the object. 
It is therefore necessary to test the sewage at very frequent intervals during the 24 
hours. Samples of the sewage are taken in glass beakers after the chemicals are 
introduced, and the test is made in the laboratory. As a test for alkalinity, phenol- 
phthalein is used. A very small quantity is dropped into the beaker of sewage, 
and if the liquid turns red the sewage has been made alkaline by the lime ; if the 
color remains unchanged more lime must be introduced. 
The sulphate of alumina is used with the lime on occasions when there is not 
sufficient iron salts in the sewage to act with the lime in producing a good effluent, 
generally Sundays and Mondays. The quantity of lime used varies with the vary- 
ing character of the sewage. We have found by experience that there is no fixed 
rule that can be followed. The number of grains per gallon varies from 1 to 
200 of lime, and from 1 to 40 of alumina. The larger amounts are for short 
intervals of time, so that the average for 24 hours rarely exceeds 8 grains of lime 
and 4 of alumina per gallon. 
When operations were first begun the tanks were used intermittently, and a fixed CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER. MASS. 
437 
amount of lime per gallon was used ; that is, 15 grains, say, of lime per gallon was 
used without regard to the character of the sewage, as is the practice in many of 
the European works. It was soon found out that while at times the effluent would 
be very fine, at other times it would be very poor, and we soon found that, in 
order to obtain a uniformly good effluent, the quantities of lime or alumina had to 
be increased or diminished as the character of the sewage varied ; so the series of 
tests previously spoken of were resorted to, and have been constantly adhered to 
since, with the result of obtaining an effluent of remarkably uniform character. 
After we were satisfied that we had discovered the correct principle of applying 
and mixing the chemicals, the tanks were used continuously-i.e., the sewage was 
allowed to run through the entire series, as at present-and this plan has been fol- 
lowed ever since. 
At first, there were days at a time when as high as 4 tons of lime was used, and 
very much larger quantities of alumina than at present. Experiments without 
number were made to see if this excessive use of chemicals could not be reduced, 
and finally the following plan, which has been extremely satisfactory, was hit upon. 
The arrival of the acid sewage at the works is anticipated, and preparations are 
made so that when it arrives it is thoroughly treated with lime, making it alkaline. 
As this flow generally lasts an hour and a half at a time, tanks 1 and 2 become 
heavily charged with it. After this extremely acid sewage has passed into the 
tanks, the machinery is stopped, and no more chemicals are added until the arrival 
of the next dose of acid in large quantities-generally from four to five hours. 
During this interval of time, the sewage that passes by the works and into the 
tanks is so thoroughly treated by the iron salts and lime present in the extremely 
acid sewage that has just preceded it, that the effluent is as good, if not better, 
than it would be if chemicals were applied as it passed the works. In other words, 
there is an excess of chemical matter in the acid sewage after the lime is added, 
which is utilized as a precipitant by passing crude sewage through the tanks 
heavily charged with it. Experience has demonstrated that crude sewage passed 
through tanks 1 and 2, previously filled with the acid sewage, will become mixed 
with it, and that this can be relied upon to do its work thoroughly for intervals 
of from 4 to 5 hours. This has resulted in the saving of large quantities of lime, 
the amount now used per day being about one-half the amount used for some time 
after the works were put in operation. 
All the lime and alumina used is weighed in the chemical room before it is 
turned into the vats. In this way the number of grains per gallon is determined. 
I have already described the manner in which the sewage is tested, the object 
being to have it alkaline when it enters the tanks. If it is necessary to increase 
or diminish the quantity of chemicals used, the person making the tests gives the 
order through a speaking tube connecting the laboratory with the chemical room. 
All orders are given in grains per gallon. For instance, if it is desired to use 10 
grains of lime per gallon, 12 lbs. of lime is poured into the vats once in 4 minutes. 
If it is necessary to increase to 20 grains per gallon, 23.75 lbs. is used every 4 
minutes; thirty grains calls for 26.75 lbs. every 3 minutes ; fifty grains calls for 
44.75 lbs. every 3 minutes ; 100 grains, 89 lbs. every 3 minutes ; 150 grains, 89 lbs. 
every 2 minutes; 200 grains, 119 lbs. every two minutes; 300 grains, 89 lbs. once 
a minute. The above is on a basis of 3,000,000 gallons in 24 hours. Tables have 
been prepared, and are kept in the chemical room in a conspicuous place, so that 
the operative there can tell ata glance the number of pounds of lime or alumina he 
is to put into the vats in response to the order from the laboratory. 
It is not my purpose in this report to give the result of analyses made of the 
effluent. We have not sufficient data at hand to give a correct idea of its true char- 
acter. The analyses should extend over a long period of time before a result that 
can be relied upon can be obtained. It is sufficient to say that we know all the 
suspended matter is removed, that the organic matter carried in solution is very 
largely reduced, and that the free and albuminoid ammonias are also largely re- 
duced. 
As a practical illustration of what is accomplished, samples of the selvage and of 
the effluent taken at the same time have been saved. Sewage five months old is 
the color of ink, and the odor from it is so foul that it is sickening; while the 438 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
effluent of the same age is clear, colorless, and entirely without odor. I am per- 
fectly satisfied that no decomposition takes place in the effluent, and that so far as 
the Blackstone river is concerned, it is as unobjectionable as spring water would 
be. I do not claim that drinking water is manufactured at the disposal works : 
what I believe is, that the method of treatment is such that when the whole sew- 
age of the city is dealt with at the works, the Blackstone river will be entirely re- 
lieved of any further pollution by the city of Worcester. 
As to the cost of treatment, Mr. Allen states that it is constantly 
being reduced, and at the time of making his report is well within 
his estimate of 1887, namely $22,500 for 3,000,000 gallons per day, 
constantly treated. 
On June 17, 1892, Mr. Baker visited the works and obtained the 
additional and later information given below. 
For some time after the plant was put in operation 3,000,000 gallons 
of sewage were treated daily. This amount was afterward increased, 
and on June 19, 1891, the daily treatment of 6,000,000 gallons was 
begun, it being considered better to partially treat this amount than 
to treat a smaller amount thoroughly. In 1892 the construction of 
10 new tanks was begun, making 16 in all. The information secured 
regarding the more recent operation of the plant and the extensions 
is as follows :* 
Originally the lime was ground at the works, but now it is slaked in 
a vat, a ton at a time. In this way about 23 per cent, of lime and 30 
horse-power are saved, which is partially offset by the fact that the 
lime must be slaked by hand. Either sewage or water may be used 
for slaking. 
The agitators formerly used to mix the chemicals are still used, but 
this is because there is no other means of getting the lime through 
the pipes to the sewage below. 
During the year ending Nov. 30, 1891, there were treated 1,399,000,- 
000 gallons of sewage, or about 3,830,000 gallons daily, from which 
22,042,000 gallons of sludge was precipitated, the sludge having been 
pumped to sludge-pits. The solids in the sludge aggregated 1,230 
tons, or about 3j tons a day, all of which was diverted from the river. 
The amount of lime used during the year was 757.8 tons, and of 
alumina 64.65 tons. These chemicals were used in varying quantities, 
and often the alumina was not used at all ; still, giving the averages 
for what they are worth, we find that for the whole year the av- 
erage amount of lime used per gallon was 7.6 grains, and of alumina 
0.65 grains. 
The disposal of the sludge, the solid part of which amounted in 
1891 to 3| tons per day, has been a serious problem from the start. 
At first the sludge was put in heaps and covered up, but this did not 
give satisfaction. Three different sludge-furnaces were tried, but the 
* Eng. News, vol. xxviii. (July 28, 1892), pp. 77-8. CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT WORCESTER, MASS. 
439 
labor involved was too great, although the sludge formed its own 
fuel after once kindled. In one of these furnaces sludge containing 
50 per cent, water burned quite rapidly, while some containing 72 per 
cent, of water burned at the rate of 2.225 tons in nine hours, unaided 
by other fuel. In the spring of 1892, the sludge which had accumu- 
lated since September, 1891, was carted away at the expense of the 
city and put on to farm land. 
As late as the spring of 1892 there were only eleven sludge-beds, 
covering an area of about three acres. These had been overworked 
until they were almost useless. When the sludge on the beds did not 
exceed a few inches in depth it was found that it dried quite rapidly. 
An area of 5.7 acres was therefore added to the sludge-beds. The 
first beds were not underdrained, but the later ones have been. The 
sludge passes to the beds through wooden troughs. 
The new tanks will have the same capacity each as the old ones, but 
will be of a different shape, their dimensions being 40 x 166| feet, 5 
feet deep from the top of the weir. Sewage will discharge about 18 
inches deep over the weir. The old tanks were 66| x 100 feet, 5 feet 
deep. There will be ten of these tanks, increasing the capacity of the 
plant to 15,000,000 gallons per day and providing for the treatment of 
the entire dry-weather flow of sewage, which in April, 1893, was re- 
ported as varying from 11,000,000 to 15,000,000 gallons per day. 
On June 15, 1893, Mr. Baker visited the works for the second time, 
and found some interesting features being introduced in connection 
with the extension of the tank system. A new form of lime agitator 
is to be used, as shown in cross-section in Fig. 63 (page 435). In the 
new agitators the lime will be mixed and kept from settling by means 
of compressed air. Two masonry tanks, each 8 by 16 feet, will be used 
for the lime. The bottoms of the tanks will have an undulating sur- 
face, as shown in Fig. 63, and in each of three longitudinal depressions 
there will be a l|-in. wrought iron pipe, perforated every 28 ins. with 
|-in. holes, the holes in each pipe alternating with those in the other. 
The air will be furnished by a Rand air compressor, with 12 x 16-in. 
double cylinders, there being ample boiler power available to drive it. 
The air will keep the lime continually agitated, and it is proposed to 
slake it in lots of 2| tons. 
As practised in 1892 and the first half of 1893, the lime was slaked 
and kept stirred by means of a hose, two men sometimes being re- 
quired for the work. 
An 8-in. pipe will connect with the new lime tanks and convey the 
lime to the inlet channel at a point nearly 100 feet above the old lime 
inlet, which was just below the screens, at the throat of the salmon way 
or baffle-plates. 
The practice of putting the sludge upon sludge-beds will be con- 440 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tinned, but the sludge from the new settling tanks will pass to an open 
channel and thence to a Shone ejector, the air for which will be com- 
pressed by power from a 21-in. Holyoke turbine driven by the effluent 
from the top of the tanks, which will give a head of about 7 feet on the 
turbine. The ejector will have a capacity of 35,000 gallons per hour. 
In 1892 the city hauled the sludge to the land of some farmers, and 
gave it to them in order to introduce it. In 1893 the farmers have 
hauled the sludge themselves, but have not paid the city for it. The 
sludge has been found to give good results with many different crops, 
and especially with corn, potatoes, and rye.* 
* The chief sources of information in regard to the sewage disposal works at Worcester as ac- 
tually carried out (in addition to the references already given) are : 
(1) Rept. of the City Eng. to the City Conn., in re. Disposal of the Sewage, etc., 1887. 
(2) An. Repts. of the Com. of Sewers, the Supt. of Sewers, and the City Eng., etc., for yr. end. 
Nov. 30,1890. 
Also see Eng. News, vol. xxiv., p. 432 (Nov. 15, 1890). CHAPTER XXVIII. 
DISCHARGE INTO TIDE-WATER AND PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPI- 
TATION AT PROVIDENCE, RHODE ISLAND. 
The city of Providence, Rhode Island, situated at the head of Nar- 
ragansett Bay, is the second city in New England. The population in 
1850 was 41,513 ; 1860, 50,666 ; 1870, 68,904 ; 1880, 104,857; 1890, 132,146. 
The city is intersected by the Woonasquatucket and Mashassuck 
rivers, which, uniting to form the Providence river, divide it naturally 
into three sections. The Seekonk river is on the eastern boundary. 
The eastern section is high, its extreme elevation being over 200 feet, 
and falling away abruptly to the west toward the Mashassuck river, 
and also inclining gradually toward the south to the harbor. On its 
easterly border are the cliffs of the Seekonk river, from 20 to 50 feet 
in height. A large portion of the southwestern section is from 60 to 
70 feet above tide-water. The northwestern section generally rises in 
a northwesterly direction, with a large portion above an elevation of 
90 feet, while much of it ranges from 150 to 190 feet, with the highest 
point in the neighborhood of 200 feet. The surface of this portion is 
diversified by hills and dales. The topographical features of nearly 
the whole city are, therefore, generally such as to give unusual advan- 
tages in respect to sewerage and drainage. 
Previous to 1871 no systematic system of sewerage existed at Prov- 
idence. In that year a comprehensive plan was prepared, and the 
construction of sewers begun under the direction of the Board of 
Water Commissioners, with J. Herbert Shedd, M. Am. Soc. C.E., as 
chief engineer. At that time there existed about 8.5 miles of old 
stone sewers and drains, which were used to a considerable extent for 
house drainage. None of the original sewers were incorporated into 
the present system, although some are still used as surface-water 
conduits only. 
The original sewers, as well as those designed in 1871, discharge 
into the intersecting rivers and the harbor at the most convenient 
points. The fact was fully recognized in the formal design, that in the 
end the pollution of the streams and the harbor would become such 
as to necessitate some other arrangement; and accordingly Mr. Shedd's 
plans included the ultimate construction of a series of intercepting 442 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
sewers, by which the entire flow of sewage would be conveyed to 
Field's Point, at the southern extremity of the harbor, and there dis- 
charged with the ebb of the tide into deep water. The mean range of 
the tide at Providence is about 4.7 feet. 
In 1874 Mr. Shedd, in response to a resolution of the Board of Aider- 
men of November 26, 1873, asking for information in regard to the 
general plans on which the sewers had been constructed to that date, 
submitted an elaborate report, in which is discussed nearly every 
question of interest in connection with the design of the Providence 
sewerage system. The report is of special interest and value, by 
reason of containing the first thorough analysis of the relation of 
maximum rainfall to size of sewers to be found in American sanitary 
literature. In this particular, Mr. Shedd's report of 1874 is an engi- 
neering classic, and has been the model upon which nearly all the 
American sewerage reports since made have been based. 
Considerable opposition, however, was developed among the citizens 
of Providence to the plans for sewerage which Mr. Shedd had pre- 
pared, and in order to get an authoritative expression of opinion from 
a disinterested source, the Mayor of Providence requested the Board 
of Directors of the American Society of Civil Engineers to designate 
three members of that Society to make an examination of the sewer- 
age system adopted by the advice of Mr. Shedd, and report as to the 
sufficiency of size, kind of material, division of districts, etc.; and also 
to recommend any changes which they might deem requisite. Gen. 
Geo. S. Greene, Col. Julius W. Adams, and E. S. Chesbrough were 
designated as such Commission. Their report approving the system 
designed by Mr. Shedd was presented under date of August 7, 1876. 
In regard to the final delivery of all the sewage at Field's point, 
Messrs. Greene, Adams, and Chesbrough say: 
The project of ultimately carrying all the sewage into the deep-water current at 
Field's point is judicious and proper, and should be constantly kept in view in all 
constructions of marginal or outlet sewers, and in plans for right-of-way for sewers 
leading toward that point. It is probable that, to preserve the sanitary condition 
of the waters of the Providence and Seekonk rivers, it will be necessary to dis- 
charge the sewage ordinarily at ebb-tide, and to have a reservoir near the outlet to 
enable this to be done. The property of the city on Field's point contains a proper 
site for such works. 
Should the sewage ever be of sufficient value to justify the use of it for irrigation, 
this point will be the position from which it can be most easily carried to the dry 
plains on either side of the Pawtuxet river, by pumping it to a sufficient height 
for distribution. 
The considerable increase in population, together with a corre- 
sponding extension of the manufacturing industries of Providence, had 
led to such relatively rapid increase in the pollution of the Providence 
river and its tributaries, as to force upon the city authorities the ques- PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
443 
tion of some disposal of the sewage other than by allowing it to pass 
directly into the several streams. In September, 1882, the City Coun- 
cil directed Samuel M. Gray, M. Am. Soc. C.E., who was then city 
engineer, to report plans of main intercepting sewers, and of any 
other work necessary for collecting, conducting, and disposing of the 
sewage of the city, in accordance with the best approved methods, at 
such a point and in such a manner as would be the least injurious to 
the public health, together with the estimated cost thereof. 
Subsequently, on February 23, 1884, the City Council directed Mr. 
Gray and his assistant, Chas. H. Swan, M. Am. Soc. C.E., to proceed 
to Europe to investigate the various plans in practical operation for 
the disposal and utilization of sewage, together with all matters relat- 
ing thereto, and to report the result of such investigations, with such 
recommendations with reference to the sewage of the city as might 
be deemed expedient. 
In accordance with these instructions, Messrs. Gray and Swan pro- 
ceeded to Europe and inspected the sewerage systems and methods of 
sewage disposal at the following places : 
The pail system at Birmingham and Manchester. 
The Liernur pneumatic system at Amsterdam. 
The Berber system at Paris. 
The Shone system at Wrexham. 
The combined system at London, Berlin, Paris, and Frankfort-on-the 
Main. 
The separate system at Oxford, and also at Paris, where it was in ex- 
perimental operation to a limited extent. 
Irrigation farms at Bedford, Berlin, Breslau, Croydon, Dantzic, Don- 
caster, Edinburgh, Leamington, Milan, Oxford, Paris, Warwick, Wim- 
bledon, and Wrexham. 
Precipitation works at Aylesbury, Birmingham, Bradford, Burnley, 
Coventry, Hertford, Leeds, and Leyton. Precipitation works in pro- 
cess of construction were also inspected at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 
As the result of his investigations, Mr. Gray recommended : 
(1) That a system of intercepting sewers be completed. 
(2) That the system of intercepting sewers be so designed as to convey the 
sewage of the city to Field's point. 
(3) That the sewage be treated at Field's point by chemicals in such manner as to 
precipitate the matters in suspension and to clarify the sewage. 
(4) That the clarified effluent be emptied into deep w7ater at Field's point. 
In regard to precipitation, Mr. Gray says : 
My reason for recommending precipitation is that I am confident that the sewage 
can be so clarified that the effluent will be entirely harmless when emptied into the 
river at Field's point, and the purification can be accomplished at less expense than 
by irrigation. Although sewage is more fully purified by irrigation than by pre- 444 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
cipitation, I have not felt justified in recommending its adoption, for, from careful 
and extended surveys, I am convinced that the large amount of suitable land re- 
quired for irrigation cannot be obtained at any reasonable cost within reasonable 
distance of the city. 
. . . It is proposed to erect pumping works. The sewage from a part of the 
eighth ward and from most of the ninth will not require pumping. The sewage 
from the remainder of the city will be lifted about twenty-eight feet into a conduit, 
through which this sewage, together with that from the eighth and ninth wards, 
already referred to, will flow to the precipitation works. . . . . 
At this point . . . it is proposed to construct tanks and erect suitable build- 
ings and works for the mixing of chemicals with the sew'age, and for the handling 
of the sludge, etc. The sewage, after receiving the mixture of chemicals, will flow 
into precipitation tanks, where it will remain for a short time to cause the deposit 
of sludge; the clarified effluent will flow off into deep water at the point as shown 
on the plan. 
The sludge left in the bottom of the tanks will then pass into receivers, from 
which it will be forced by compressed air into filter presses. 
. . . By these presses the sludge is easily compressed into a portable form. 
That this sludge possesses some value as a fertilizer there is no doubt; it remains 
to be proved whether there will be any sale for it in this vicinity. Therefore, for 
the purposes of this report, I assume that there will be no immediate income from 
its sale as a fertilizer. 
Before deciding the question of discharge of crude sewage at Field's 
point versus precipitation before discharge, extensive experiments 
were made with floats, in order to ascertain what probable action the 
tide and currents would have on the sewage. In regard to the results, 
Mr. Gray says: 
From a careful study of these experiments, and from a long and close observation 
of the causes of the present pollution of the cove, the Providence river, and its 
tributaries, I am of the opinion that if the crude sewage of the city be emptied into 
the river at Field's point it will inevitably cause a nuisance, to the injury not only 
of the dwellers within the city, but to the occupants of many of the shore resorts 
and residences bordering on the Providence river and Narragansett bay, and will 
seriously damage, if not destroy, many of the valuable oyster beds which now line 
the shores. .......... 
. . . A very important factor in the pollution of the cove, as well as the Prov- 
idence river and its tributaries, is the liquid wastes of manufactories emptied into 
the rivers. There are, as near as I can estimate from the best obtainable data, up- 
ward of 2,735,000 gallons of filthy liquid wastes emptied daily (Sundays excepted) 
into the Mashassuck and West rivers, and upwards of 2,088,000 gallons into the 
Woonasquatucket river, making a total of 4,823,000 gallons of filthy liquids, aside 
from town sewage, emptied into the several rivers during twelve or fourteen hours out 
of the twenty-four. I wish to call your attention emphatically to the fact that how- 
ever thoroughly the town sewage may be kept from the rivers, if these foul liquids 
from manufactories are allowed to enter the streams, as at present, the cove, to- 
gether with the Providence river and its tributaries, will continue to present about 
the same filthy appearance that they do to-day. It is only by keeping all sewage 
and filthy liquids out of these waters, or by clarifying them before they are per- 
mitted to enter, and by thoroughly clearing the river beds from all deposits of filth, 
that we may look for improvement in the condition of the Providence river and its 
tributaries. I am convinced from observations abroad that in some cases the quan- 
tity of liquid wastes now emptied into the rivers from manufactories might be ma- 
terially reduced, and that the remainder could be so clarified by the proprietors as 
to prevent polluting the river, and possibly result in some instances in a source of 
income to them. 
In designing the sizes of the intercepting sewers, I have thought best to make PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
445 
provisions for receiving the liquid wastes of these manufactories. It is an impor- 
tant question for your consideration on what conditions it may be advisable to admit 
these liquid wastes into the sewers. 
The estimated daily dry-weather flow of town sewage in Providence at the pres- 
ent time (1884) is about 3,000,000 gallons. This is based on careful and extensive 
gaugings, made at different times, of the amount of sewage flowing in the several 
sewers. . . . ....... 
. . . It will be seen by table of gaugings that the sewers laid in wet localities 
furnish a much greater quantity of sewage per inhabitant connected, than do the 
sewers laid in drier parts of the city. This larger quantity of sewage is due in 
most localities to spring or ground water, which finds its way into the sewer. The 
great value to the general health of the community of thus draining the ground is 
too apparent to need comment. 
In designing the intercepting sewers, liberal provision has been made for a popu- 
lation of 300,000 inhabitants within the present city limits, together with small 
districts lying outside the present limits, whose only outlet will be through the city. 
The Providence sewers are entirely constructed on the combined 
system. 
In his original design of 1871, Mr. Shedd based the sizes of sewers 
upon an estimated maximum amount of 30| cubic feet of rainfall per 
minute per acre reaching them. The reasons for adopting this figure 
are presented in detail in Mr. Shedd's report of 1874. 
Mr. Gray states in his report of 1884 that the intercepting sewers 
(excepting the main sewers of the ninth ward) are designed to carry 
inch of water per hour from the area drained, together with the 
manufacturing wastes and 60 gallons of sewage per inhabitant, in- 
cluding ground-water. The manufacturing waste is estimated as flow- 
ing off in ten hours, while one-half of the domestic sewage is estimated 
to flow off in seven hours. The balance of the flow from the rainfall, 
when in excess of the foregoing allowances, is to be disposed of 
through storm overflows, which will discharge the excess directly into 
the streams. 
In the ninth ward the flatness of the territory, the long valleys, and 
the absence of streams to receive the overflow, render it desirable to 
provide for more surface-water than in other parts of the city, where 
overflows can be easily and safely made. In this district, therefore, 
provision was made for two inches of rainfall per hour, in addition to 
the sewage. 
An overflow is to be provided for the ninth-ward sewer into the 
cove, pear the proposed pumping station. 
The estimated cost of the whole work recommended by Mr. Gray 
was $3,699,504. 
In regard to the various suggestions for disposing of the sewage of 
Providence by irrigation and otherwise, Mr. Gray says: 
Experience indicates that the amount of land required for the disposal of sewage 
by irrigation is about one acre to one hundred inhabitants. The population pro- 
vided for in the proposed system of intercepting sewers is 300,000. The amount of 446 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
land necessarv to properly dispose of the sewage of that population would be about 
3,000. 
It has been suggested to take the sewage to Seekonk plains for irrigation. The 
great expense of conveying the sewage across the Seekonk river and to this land, 
together with the fact that the available area is less than one thousand acres, 
forbids a consideration of this scheme. 
It has also been suggested that the sewage be taken to Warwick plains and there 
used for irrigation. From extensive surveys of this territory, I am satisfied that 
there is not a sufficient quantity of suitable land in that locality for the future needs 
of the city. The estimated cost for construction in accordance with this suggested 
scheme, including only sufficient quantity of land for the present needs, is $1,146,- 
000 more than for the plan of precipitation herein recommended. The annual cost 
of pumping the sewage to Warwick plains would be double the cost of the pump- 
ing required in the plan recommended. Considering the additional cost, and in view 
of the fact that there is not a sufficient quantity of land at Warwick plains for fu- 
ture needs, I deem it unnecessary to further consider this scheme. 
By combining precipitation with irrigation a much smaller area of land is requi- 
site, and should it hereafter be deemed advisable to adopt some system of irrigation, 
the proposed precipitation works will form a most useful auxiliary. 
Another suggestion has been made, which is to take the sewage down the river to 
Conimicut point, and there, in its crude state, discharge it into the bay. I esti- 
timate that the carrying out of this scheme would cost $1,194,000 more than the 
plan I have recommended. The annual cost of pumping to Conimicut point would 
be nearly double the cost of pumping in accordance with the plan recommended. 
Moreover, the experiments made at this point with floats show that there are strong 
reasons for fearing that crude sewage emptied into the bay at this point would 
create a nuisance in the not distant future. 
Considerable opposition having developed among the citizens of 
Providence to the plan of intercepting sewers and sewage disposal, as 
suggested by Mr. Gray in his report, the City Council again requested 
the American Society of Civil Engineers to appoint three members of 
the society, skilled in sanitary engineering, to visit Providence and 
examine Mr. Gray's plan for a sewerage system and for sewage dis- 
posal works, and to report to the City Council their opinion as to 
whether the said plans were the best and most economical which could 
be adopted for the collection and disposal of the sewage of the city; and, 
if not, to recommend any changes which they might deem advisable. 
In accordance with this resolution, the President of the American So- 
ciety of Civil Engineers appointed Messrs. Joseph P. Davis, Rudolph 
Hering and Robt. Moore, Members of the Society, as a Commission 
for this purpose. These gentlemen visited Providence, examined Mr. 
Gray's plans, profiles, estimates, and computations, and submitted their 
report under date of December 21, 1886. 
After defining the various practicable methods of sewage disposal, 
the Commissioners say: 
We may now proceed to a consideration of the several plans which have been 
proposed for dealing with the sewage of the city of Providence. These are : 
1. Disposal at Seekonk plains ; 
2. Crude disposal at Field's point; 
3. Disposal at Warwick plains ; 
4. Precipitation at Field's point; 
each of which wre will consider in the order named. PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
447 
I. DISPOSAL AT SEEKONK PLAINS. 
In considering the scheme for disposing of the sewage at Seekonk plains, for 
which Mr. Gray, in his report of February 2, 1886, has submitted an estimate, the 
fact at once appears that if broad irrigation be adopted, the amount of land avail- 
able for this purpose (being less than 1,200 acres) is barely sufficient for present 
requirements, and leaves no margin whatever for the future needs of the city. In- 
termittent filtration, for which the land is fairly suitable, is the only method of dis- 
posal which should be seriously considered at this point. We find, however, that 
much cheaper land, of equally good or better quality for this purpose, exists at 
Warwick plains, a point more remote from the centre of population, and where, be- 
cause of this remoteness from habitation, carelessness in the management of the 
process will cause much less annoyance than at Seekonk plains. These and other 
considerations of minor importance make it evident that the advantages for dispo- 
sal of the sewage on the land are much greater at Warwick plains than at Seekonk 
plains ; and we think it is, therefore, useless to enter into any detailed discussion 
of plans for the latter place. 
II. CRUDE DISPOSAL AT FIELD'S POINT. 
The discharge of the sew'age in its crude state at Field's point, although involv- 
ing works of somewhat greater first cost than are required for precipitation, is yet, 
on account of its smaller current expenses, by far the cheapest of all the modes 
which have been proposed for disposing of the sewage of the city. We understand, 
however, that the sentiment of the citizens of Providence is much opposed to this 
method of disposal. Nor is this surprising. The shores in this vicinity are used 
for summer residences and as pleasure resorts ; bathing beaches are near at hand, 
and during the summer and fall months these waters are much frequented by ex- 
cursion parties, attracted by the cool breezes of the bay and the beauty of its 
shores. Extensive oyster beds exist in this vicinity, and the fishing interests are 
said to be of some importance. The float experiments made by Mr. Gray show that 
the strong and well-defined outward tidal current, which is found opposite Field's 
point shortly after the ebb tide sets in, begins below this point to diminish in 
force and become diffused. The direction of the surface currents is greatly in- 
fluenced by the wind, but, as a rule, matter discharged at the Point during the 
hour and a half after high tide, would meet the incoming tide before reaching 
Gaspee point, and would be carried backward a considerable distance toward its 
place of starting, unless sooner grounded on one of the shores. With a westerly 
wind, the tendency is to strand on the east shore, and probably the bathing beaches 
on that shore, between Squantum and Sabine's point, and even below, would be 
much injured. 
Considering all the interests at stake in preserving the bay and its shores from 
even the apprehension of nuisance-interests of a kind which relate to the health 
and pleasure of the people, and cannot, therefore, be measured in money values- 
we are of the opinion that the plan of crude disposal at Field's point, by which 
these interests might be jeopardized, is inadmissible. 
m. DISPOSAL AT WARWICK PLAINS. 
At Warwick plains are found about 2,200 acres of land available for irrigation. 
The soil is of good character for this purpose, and the situation is in many re- 
spects favorable. But looking to the future, when the city of Providence shall have 
a population of 300,000, this is not sufficient land to dispose of the sewage in a 
satisfactory manner by broad irrigation. On this account, and also because we find 
disposal by intermittent filtration to be the cheaper and, all things considered, the 
better method, we have made an estimate of the cost of a scheme for this method 
of disposal, and shall use it, rather than the estimate for broad irrigation given in 448 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Mr. Gray's report, for purposes of comparison with the scheme of precipitation at 
Field's point. 
In making this estimate, we have assumed that 1,000 acres of land will be pur- 
chased at once, not only to allow for the future needs of the city, when the land 
may be much more difficult to acquire, but also to afford in the first instance 
greater latitute in the management of the farm. Filter beds are well adapted to a 
variety of crops, particularly to those of market-gardening. But, to admit of the 
greatest possible use from such cultivation, it is advantageous to operate in connec- 
tion therewith a stock or dairy farm. The crops from the filter beds may, by this 
means, be partially utilized upon the farm with better results than from direct sales 
in the market. This surplus land may be fertilized by broad irrigation if found 
advisable, but in our estimates we have made no allowance for preparing it for this 
purpose, either by underdrainage or by grading the surface. 
Mr. Gray's estimates, both for precipitation and for irrigation, are based upon 
caring for a dry-weather flow of 9,000,000 gallons of sewage daily, including about 
3,000,000 gallons of manufacturing waste ; that is to say, while the intercepting 
sewers and other parts of the work, which cannot be enlarged except at great cost 
and inconvenience, are made of capacity sufficient for a population of 300,000, or a 
dry-weather flow of sewage of, say, 24,000,000 gallons daily, those parts of the 
works which are intended for the treatment of the sewage, and which can easily be 
extended from time to time as required, are proportioned to a dry-weather flow of 
9,000,000 gallons. 
In our estimate of the cost of filtration, we have assumed the same basis of sew- 
age flow, and have, as far as possible, adopted the same scale of prices as Mr. Gray, 
which, as before stated, we consider liberal and safe. For the cost of the whole 
system of intercepting sewers, which is the same in this as in the precipitation 
scheme, we have taken Mr. Gray's figures without change, viz., $2,195,973.00. 
We have further assumed that, as an average through the year, each acre of land, 
when properly prepared by underdrainage and grading, will dispose of 45,000 gal- 
lons daily, this being about the same as the English basis of 1,000 people per acre. 
Upon these assumptions, we find the total cost of the scheme for intermittent 
filtration at Warwick plains, including the purchase of 1,000 acres of land and the 
special preparation of 200 acres for use as filter beds, to be $4,620,000. Sludge- 
tanks are provided at the farm to remove from the sewage, by simple sedimenta- 
tion without the use of chemicals, the solid and slimy matters which would tend 
to clog the pores of the soil, such removal being, in the opinion of the best judges, 
necessary to secure the best working of the system of intermittent filtration where 
so large a quantity is put on the land as is proposed in the present instance.* 
The yearly cost of operating, including the expense of pumping the sewage and 
the care of the sludge, we estimate at $28,000 per year. The subsequent cost of 
distributing the sewage over the land and the care of the filter beds, as well as the 
cost of management and operation of the farm, we assume will be repaid by the 
sale of the products. 
As to the expectation of profit from the application of sewage to the land, our 
opinion is decidedly adverse. Irrigation in dry climates, or even in moist cli- 
mates if the water be applied only at such times and in such quantities as are 
needed, is a most valuable aid to agriculture ; but where the water comes, and 
must be cared for night and day. and every day in the year, and in largest quanti- 
ties in rainy weather when it is needed least, the case is very different. It 
then becomes more of a hindrance than a help. And whilst there are in England 
a number of towns, mostly of small size, where sewage farming on the process of 
intermittent filtration has resulted in a profit, yet in the case of Providence, where 
the climate forbids the production of any crops for nearly half the year, and where 
no experience has been gained in such farming, we think our assumption that the 
cost of distributing the sewage and the management of the farm will be recovered 
from the sale of its products, is as favorable as it is safe to make. 
* See Second Report of Royal Commissioners on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge, 18S4 ; pages 
xlv., xlviii. Also Bailey-Denton's Ten Years' Experience, etc., etc. Second Edition, page 21. PROPOSED 'CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
449 
In this scheme it is proposed to pump the sewage from the main intercepting 
sewer into tanks located at Field's point, where it will be treated chemically. 
The clarified effluent will be conducted, by means of an outlet sewer, to a point 
midway between the shore and Fuller's rock light, where it will be discharged at 
the bottom of the channel in such manner as to secure the utmost possible diffu- 
sion. This is the scheme recommended by Mr. Gray, and for which he has given 
an estimate of cost in his report of November 14, 1884. 
We have made a new estimate of those parts of the work which are intended for 
the raising, storing, and treatment of the sewage, but as it gives a result not differ- 
ing materially from Mr. Gray's estimate, we adopt his figures, which show the total 
cost of the precipitation scheme to be $3,699,504, or, say, $3,700,000. 
As to the yearly cost of treatment, it is hardly possible to give exact figures, 
owing partly to the want of experience in such work in this country, and partly to 
a want of certainty as to the standard of purity in the effluent that will be required 
at different seasons of the year. We have, however, estimated the cost of thor- 
ough treatment throughout the year of a sewage of average quality, believing that 
in practice it will be found that a much less quantity of chemicals will be required 
in the colder months than we have provided. 
The yearly cost of pumping and treating the sewage, when the dry-weather flow 
shall have reached 9,000,000 gallons per day, we estimate at $65,000; believing, 
however, that in practice this may be reduced to $53,000. 
IV. PRECIPITATION AT FIELD'S POINT. 
COMPARISON OF THE SCHEME OF INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT WARWICK PLAINS WITH 
THAT OF CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT FIELD'S POINT. 
It remains now to weigh the comparative merits of the two latter schemes, as in 
our judgment it is between these two that the choice must lie. 
And, first of all, to what extent will these two schemes accomplish the end for 
which they were designed, and free the city from sewage nuisance ? For any plan 
which does not accomplish this should be at once dismissed from consideration. 
In answer to this inquiry, our opinion is clear that success may be attained by 
either scheme. 
That sewage may be effectually disposed of by intermittent filtration does not 
now admit of any doubt. Since this method of disposal was first proposed by Dr. 
Frankland in 1870, it has been tried in a large number of towns in England, and in 
a few instances in this country-the principal one being at the town of Pullman, 
Illinois. In all cases except where the essential requirements of the process have 
been grossly violated, its success in producing an effluent clear, colorless, and free 
from all noxious or putrescible matters has been complete. . . . 
As regards the particular case in hand, we find the land at Warwick plains to be 
of a kind well suited for filtration, being very largely sand and gravel with a cov- 
ering of light soil, so that we have no doubt that, if proper care were taken in the 
matter of underdrainage and grading the surface, and the sewage applied with 
proper intervals of rest, it would be thoroughly purified, and the city freed from 
the nuisance under which it now suffers. 
Turning now to the scheme for chemical precipitation at Field's point, we think 
that this method will also deal effectually with the sewage, and afford a satisfactory 
solution of the present problem. Precipitation processes have been in operation 
in England for the last thirty years, and the experience there gained is more than 
that of all the world besides. A committee appointed in 1880 by the city of Glas- 
gow to investigate the subject of sewage disposal,* sum up in their report the 
results of experience bearing upon this point as follows : 
" There are processes of precipitation now in operation, which give an effluent 
capable of being discharged into a river with perfect inoffensiveness and without 
sensibly destroying its purity, provided always that the volume of sewage is small 
* See Report Royal Commission on Metropolitan Sewage Discharge, page xxiv., paragraph 169. 450 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
compared with that of the river Whatever be the process of chemical 
purification to which the sewage is subjected, the effluent is still impure, and will 
putrefy and give off noxious gas if kept for some time ; and we know of no way in 
which the purification can be completed but by oxidation. Filtration through 
cultivated land, i.e., irrigation, is probably the best means. But oxidation of the 
effluent may in most cases be effected by the simple and natural process of run- 
ning it into the nearest water-course, when, if the proportion of clean water be 
sufficient, the organic matter will be gradually oxidized, and the effluent water 
will not become putrid or offensive in any way, even in warm weather." 
The fact seems to be that the nuisance of sewage is almost wholly due to the sus- 
pended matter. If this be taken out by the process of precipitation, dilution with 
a sufficient quantity of water, usually stated to be twenty times the volume of the 
sewage, is all that is needed to insure the complete destruction of the organic mat- 
ters which remain. In the present instance, the large volume of water which 
passes Field's point is amply sufficient to diffuse and oxidize without offence many 
times the quantity of clarified sewage which will ever be poured into it. 
We have no doubt, therefore, that a precipitation process at this point, properly 
worked, will so effectually dispose of the sewage that it will cause no further trouble. 
In claiming for these two schemes that they will effectually dispose of the sew- 
age, we do not mean to say that there will not, at times, be unpleasant smells in 
the immediate neighborhood of the works. The pumping station, screening cham- 
ber, and the precipitation tanks, as well as the sludge tanks of the filtration scheme 
at Warwick plains, will, under certain atmospheric conditions, not be free from 
objectionable odors. With good management there should ordinarily be no smell 
noticeable outside the works, and even at the worst the trouble will be strictly 
local. In no case will there be anything detrimental to the public health, nor any- 
thing that can be properly called a nuisance. 
Both schemes, then, being satisfactory solutions of the problem in hand, and 
as such substantially equal, we must compare them next from the financial point 
of view. 
As we have already stated, the first cost of the filtration scheme will be $4,620,- 
000, whilst the cost of the precipitation scheme is $3,700,000, showing a difference 
in favor of the latter of $920,000. 
This, however, is not conclusive. The question of annual cost must also be 
taken into account. 
This is made up of three elements: Interest upon the first cost, operating expenses, 
and repairs, including in the latter the cost of maintaining and, when necessary, 
completely renewing such parts of the works as are of a perishable nature. Sum- 
ming the first two of these elements for each scheme, we get the following : 
For the filtration scheme : 
Interest upon $4,620,000 at 3| per cent $161,700 00 
Operating expenses, including pumping and care of sludge 28,000 00 
Total ' $189,700 00 
For the precipitation scheme : 
Interest upon $3,700,000 at 3| per cent $129,500 00 
Operating expenses, including pumping and cost of precipitation 65.000 00 
Total $194,500 00 
The third element of the annual expenses-to wit, the repairs and renewals of 
perishable parts-hardly admits of a satisfactory estimate. It is evident, however, 
that when we consider the much greater cost of the machinery required to pump 
to the sewage farm, the larger amount of iron submitted to the action of sewage, and 
the liability to derangement in a complicated system of tile drainage, that this 
item of expense will be the greater for the filtration scheme. And when we con- 
sider further that the cost of treating the sewage is likely to be considerably re- 
duced below the cost given in the preceding estimate, it seems quite certain that PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
451 
in the matter of annual cost, as well as in first cost, the balance will be in favor of 
precipitation. 
Another consideration tending, as we think, to incline the scale in the same di- 
rection, is the greater simplicity of the organization necessary to carry on precipi- 
tation as compared with filtration. 
The kind and quantity of chemicals required to produce a satisfactory effluent 
having been once determined by the experience of the first few months, during 
which time the greatest care and skill will be well rewarded, the process afterward 
will be mainly a matter of routine. This will be especially true at Providence, 
where the effluent will be discharged into a large body of moving water, whereby 
it will be at once greatly diluted and dispersed. In discharging into small fresh- 
water streams, where the dilution is small, the character of the effluent has to be 
much more carefully watched, and, if economy be studied, the treatment varied as 
Fig. 64.-Plan of Outlet Sewer to Field's Point, Providence, Rhode Island. 
the character of the sewage varies from the day to the night hours and from season 
to season. But under the conditions existing at Providence, after the kinds and 
quantities of chemicals best suited to the local conditions have been once deter- 
mined and the best methods of manipulation established, the works will need for 
their successful management only a small force of laborers under the charge of a 
faithful and intelligent foreman. 
The process of intermittent filtration is also in itself, and if nothing but the pu- 
rification of the sewage be aimed at, one of routine and simplicity ; but when carried 
on in connection with farming and market gardening, it is no longer a simple me- 
chanical process, but a business venture, which requires for its success the employ- 
ment and dismissal of many men, the handling of considerable sums of money, and 
the constant exercise of a skill and foresight of no mean order. 
On this subject Mr. Bailey-Denton, who is one of the warmest advocates of the 
application of sewage to land, and who has done more than all others together to 
develop and bring into use the process of intermittent filtration, remarks : 
" That a sewage farmer, to qualify himself for success, must serve a special ap- 
prenticeship to the occupation. Moreover, it has been made clear that an ordinary 452 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
farmer is no better qualified to deal with sewage, without such apprenticeship, than 
a gardener ; for not only is it necessary to know what grasses and vegetables can 
be best treated with sewage, and to regulate the frequency of application and the 
quantity of liquid to gain the best return, but it is absolutely essential that he 
should be able to effect the best and readiest sale of his crops when fit for market, 
and so conduct his operations with reference to the demands of local markets, and 
of such other markets as he can reach, as will conduce to the growth of only such 
crops as he can most readily sell. By this means he will reduce to a minimum 
the losses incidental to all food production; for it is quite certain that, in the 
long run, the man who sells the most at the right moment, and who aims at con- 
verting into milk or meat what he cannot sell, is the person who will make the 
Section AB, 
Fig. 65.-Sections oe Outlet Sewer, Providence, Rhode Island 
most money. To do this it is absolutely requisite that every sewage farm should 
have upon it sufficient buildings to house a proper number of milch cows and 
pigs, to consume a portion of each season's produce. 
"It is essential, in fact, that a tenant of a sewage farm should combine in his 
own capabilities the practical qualities of a farmer, a gardener, and a market sales- 
man, which will induce him to avoid all treatment of a dilettante character, and lead 
him to embrace in his management the growth of such crops only as will keep him 
most favorable before the market he serves." * 
In other words, to conduct a sewage farm of 1,000 acres is an enterprise calling 
for a high order of business capacity, and above all demanding a constant watchful- 
ness and study, which experience shows can be expected only where a strong per- 
sonal interest is at stake, and in which any kind of corporate management is apt 
*See Bailey-Denton, on "Intermittent Downward Filtration," edition of 1885, pages 98-99. PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
453 
to lead to failure. So long, therefore, as another course is open for adoption, we 
cannot advise the city of Providence to incur the risks which a business undertak- 
ing such as this will involve. 
CONCLUSIONS. 
Summing up our conclusions, we find as follows : 
1. That in order to cleanse the rivers and the cove, all sewage must be kept out 
of them, except in time of storms. 
Section AB, 
Fig. 66.-Sections of Outlet Sewer, Providence, Rhode Island. 
2. That this can be accomplished only by a system of intercepting sewers, sub- 
stantially such as that proposed by Mr. Gray. 
3. That of the various schemes for final disposal of the sewage, the two which 
we consider best are those for Intermittent Filtration at Warwick plains, and 
Chemical Precipitation at Field's point. 454 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
4. That either of these will dispose of the sewage in a satisfactory manner, and 
in a way to free the city from nuisance. 
5. That in this respect the two plans are substantially equal. 
6. That of these two the precipitation scheme is, in first cost, the cheaper bv 
3920,000. 
7. That in annual cost the balance will probably be in favor of precipitation. 
8. That the organization needed for precipitation is simple, having in view but 
a single object-the purification of the sewage. 
9. That the organization at Warwick plains will have two objects: one, the 
purification of the sewage ; the other, the somewhat complicated business of con- 
ducting a large farm with a view to profit. In other words, it will be a business 
Fig. 67.-View in Storm Outlet, Bell Mouth of Providence Intercepting 
Sewers. 
venture in which the city should not embark unless there be no satisfactory alter- 
native. 
10. For these reasons, the scheme of chemical precipitation at Field's point is, in 
our judgment, the one best worthy of adoption. 
Work was begun upon the intercepting sewers in 1890, and to Decem- 
ber 31, 1891, 7.388 miles had been constructed. The outlet to Field's 
point may be seen by reference to the map, Fig. 64. Some of the more 
interesting details may be gathered from Figs. 65 and 66, the references 
of which for locations are to Fig. 64. Fig. 67 is a view taken in the 
mouth of a storm outlet. The proposed precipitation works are to be 
located on Section 2, near the point F as shown on the map, Fig. 64. 
The construction now in process is under the supervision of Mr. PROPOSED CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT PROVIDENCE, R. I. 
455 
Shedd, who is again city engineer of Providence, having succeeded 
Mr. Gray in 1890. 
In regard to the authorship of the plans of the improved sewerage 
and sewage disposal works, as being actually carried out at Provi- 
dence, it may be said that the intercepting sewers are substantially 
as designed by Mr. Shedd, and as outlined in his report of 1874. The 
credit of the plan of the sewage disposal works essentially pertains to 
Mr. Gray. The complete system may be stated, therefore, as the 
joint work of these two eminent engineers. CHAPTER XXIX. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, STATE 
HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
The irrigation works at the Worcester Hospital, which were designed 
by Buttrick and Wheeler, civil engineers, of Worcester, in 1876, are 
deserving of brief description in this work, not only because they are, 
so far as the authors are informed, the first successful irrigation 
works in this country, but that they have continued to successfully 
dispose of the sewage of about 600 people, the ordinary population 
of the hospital, from the date of their completion until the present 
time. A letter from the superintendent in January, 1892, states that 
no trouble has ever been experienced in disposing of the sewage of 
the hospital in the manner which was originally designed. 
It is true that some attempt had been made to dispose of sewage by 
broad irrigation at the State Insane Hospitals at Augusta, Maine, and 
Concord, New Hampshire, a short time before the sewage farm of the 
Worcester Insane Hospital was put in operation. Neither of these 
attempts were, however, entirely successful and both have been aban- 
doned. We may therefore give the credit to the authorities of the 
Worcester Hospital, of instituting the first successful sewage irriga- 
tion farm in the United States. 
The hospital building is situated on a considerable rise of ground, 
about 3,000 feet west of the main irrigation field, shown in plan by 
Fig. 68, the area of which includes about 14 acres. The several 
branches of the hospital sewers are all brought to a common point, a 
few hundred feet east of the main building, and connect in a manhole 
from which a by-pass leads to a settling tank. The details of this 
tank are shown by Fig. 69. 
At the tank there is also located a windmill by which sewage is 
elevated when required, and used during the growing season to irri- 
gate the lawns immediately about and adjacent to the building. It is 
stated that no nuisance has ever resulted from a judicious use of the 
sewage in this way. The fall from the settling tank to the main irri- 
gation field is about 37 feet, and the pipe sewer leading from the tank 
to the main field is 12 inches in diameter. At manholes Nos. 8, 10, 11, 
and 13, Fig. 68, along this pipe, outlets are provided by which sewage 
can be run as required into main distributing trenches and consider- BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE WORCESTER HOSPITAL. 
457 
Ftg. 68.-Plan of Sewage Disposal Area, Hospital for the Insane, Worcester, Massachusetts. 458 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
able additional area of land reached by irrigation. The total area 
that can be irrigated, including the specially prepared main field, is 
from 30 to 40 acres. The entire hospital farm includes 257 acres. 
The settling tank, Fig. 69, is 30 feet long, 16 feet wide, and covered 
by arches turned upon iron girders, with side walls and bottom of 
Fig. 69.-Settling Tank at the Hospital fob the Insane, Worcester, Massachusetts. 
Transverse Section. 
l4\l8'Pipt' 
to Compost Heap 
Main _Se^er_ 
uonsituoinal Section, 
To Compost Heap, 
brick laid in cement, and made water-tight by a Portland cement 
plaster coating one-half inch in thickness. The sewage enters the 
tank at the west end and flows out at the east end, as indicated on the 
plan. About two-thirds of the distance from the inlet to the outlet 
a brick partition is built across the tank, in which are placed 4 plates BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE WORCESTER HOSPITAL. 
459 
of brass perforated with 60 holes one-fourth of an inch in diameter. 
The lower plates are 30 inches from the floor of the tank; the entire 
partition is 4.5 feet high, and capped with a strong netting of gal- 
vanized wire of |-inch mesh. As stated, the sewage is received into 
the larger division, where the solids are detained, the fluid portion 
straining through the brass plates and wire netting and passing to 
the main sewer to be used for irrigation. 
The published reports do not furnish any detail as to just the 
method used for disposing of the sludge from the settling tank and 
the frequency with which the tank is cleansed. Definite statements 
are also lacking in regard to the quantity of sewage per day, quality 
of the soil of the irrigation area, etc. 
The main irrigation field of 14 acres area is provided with a main 
carrier laid out in four different levels of about equal length. The 
first level is at an elevation of 414 feet above tide-water; the second 
at an elevation of 413.33 ; the third, 412.67; and the fourth level at an 
elevation of 412 feet. The balance of the details will be readily under- 
stood by reference to the plans. 
The work was largely constructed by the inmates of the hospital, 
and no statements of cost can be made.* 
* The chief source of information in regard to sewage disposal at the Worcester Hospital is the 
47th An. Rept. of the Trustees, etc., for the yr. end. Sept. 30, 1879. CHAPTER XXX. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT PULLMAN, 
ILLINOIS. 
In 1880 the Pullman Palace Car Company concluded to erect, in 
connection with their Chicago Works, a model town as a place of resi- 
dence for their large number of artisans and mechanics. For this pur- 
pose a nearly level tract of land was selected on the west shore of Lake 
Calumet, at a point between five and six miles west of Lake Michigan 
and fourteen miles south of the central part of the city of Chicago. 
The company's large car shops and car-wheel works, employing over 
4,000 operatives, are located here, as are also the Allen Paper Car 
Wheel Works, the Union Foundry, the Pullman Iron and Steel Works, 
the Standard Knitting Mills, Paint Works, Terra Cotta Works, and the 
Drop-Forge and Foundry Company's Works. The total number of 
operatives in these various manufacturing establishments, including 
the Car Wheel Works, is said to be 5,500. 
The town (now a part of the city of Chicago) owes its inception to 
the president and founder of the Pullman Palace Car Company, Geo. 
M. Pullman, Esq., who has carried out here an ideal town in which are 
provided, not only houses for the workmen, but all the various needs 
of a modern civilized community. The present population is given as 
11,000. 
The site of the town is almost level, and on an average from 7 to 8 
feet above the mean water surface of Lake Calumet. The lake drains 
only a small area and discharges into Lake Michigan through the 
Calumet river, which, however, does not flow through the lake, 
but is connected therewith by a small channel, through which the 
water flows from lake to river, or from river to lake, according to the 
varying condition of winds and floods. The lake is about 3 miles long, 
1| wide, and from 1 to 8 feet in depth. The absence of any current 
in this shallow lake renders it undesirable to make Lake Calumet the 
disposal place for crude sewage. 
The design and construction of the sewerage system and sewage dis- 
posal works were entrusted to Benezette Williams, C. E., of Chicago, 
who, after a review of all the circumstances, determined upon a purely 
separate system of sewerage, with disposal by broad irrigation sup- 
plemented by intermittent filtration, upon a tract of land about three BROAD IRRIGATION AT PULLMAN, ILLINOIS. 
461 
miles distant from the town. The rainfall is disposed of by a system 
of drains leading to Lake Calumet by the most convenient lines. Con- 
struction upon the sewerage system began in August, 1880, and in Oc- 
tober, 1881, the entire system, including the land disposal, was first put 
in operation. The plans were reviewed by E. S. Chesbrough, M. Am. 
Soc. C.E., as consulting engineer for the Pullman Company. 
The sewerage system proper is, as stated, a purely separate system 
to which nothing is admitted but sewage, except the small amount of 
water for flushing from a series of connections with the water mains. 
Automatic flushing basins are placed on the house drains and receive 
the sewage from the sinks and wash-bowls, while the water-closet 
sewage flows directly into the street sewers. The flushing basins also 
serve the purpose of grease traps, the siphons being so constructed 
that the grease is carried out whenever a flush occurs. The grease, 
having become cold while in the basin, does not adhere to the sides of 
the sewers when rapidly flushed out. From 4 to 6 houses are connected 
with one basin, as a measure of economy. 
The sewers converge to a common point, at which is located a 
storage reservoir of a capacity of about 300,000 gallons. The ventila- 
tion of this reservoir is secured by means of 8 flues, lined with 12-inch 
sewer pipe, built into the buttresses of the water tower, in the base of 
which the storage reservoir is located, and opening above the top of 
the tower at a height of 165 feet. The ventilation is further assisted 
by a 20-inch pipe leading to the chimney of the car shops. The bottom 
of the storage reservoir is about 30 feet below the surface of the 
ground, and the top of the groined arches covering it 10 feet below the 
surface of the ground. The pumping engines are two direct-acting 
compound condensing engines, with piston pumps. Each has a 
capacity of 2,500,000 gallons in 24 hours. They are located in an 
engine-room, directly over the storage reservoir previously described, 
the floor of the engine-room being supported by the groined arches 
which cover the reservoir. 
The daily average quantity of sewage for 1890 was 1,800,000 gallons, 
of which it is stated that about 1,375,000 gallons was from the dwell- 
ings and the balance from the shops. In September, October, and 
November, 1890, the average daily quantity of sewage pumped was a 
trifle over 2,000,000 gallons. 
The yearly amounts of sewage pumped for the ten years, 1882 to 
1891 inclusive, were as follows : 
Year. 
Gallons. 
1882 
211,620,160 
1883 
358,354,520 
1884 
443,815,480 
1885 
468,302,120 
1886 
472,748,080 
Year. 
Gallons. 
1887 
573,700,640 
1888 
568,607,760 
1889 
602,250,000 
1890 
657,001,360 
1891 
617,664,030 462 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
During the first nine months of 1892 a total of 513,990,060 gallons of 
sewage was pumped, or an annual rate of 685,328,000 gallons. 
It was considered desirable to avoid screening or settling the sewage 
before pumping, and with this object in view the pumps were de- 
signed with special reference to pumping everything which might be 
found in the sewage. For this purpose a rubber valve of special make 
East boundary of farm 
Fig. 70.-Plan of Sewage Farm at Pullman, III., as Laid Out in 1880, 
is in use, which is stated to work satisfactorily. Cotton waste, cloths, 
sticks and blocks of wood pass through the pumps frequently, without 
injury or inconvenience. Whatever sediment collects in the reservoir 
by incidental settling is washed loose with a hose from time to time, 
and passed through the pumps with the sewage. The pumping plant 
was furnished by the Cope & Maxwell Manufacturing Company, of 
Hamilton, Ohio. 
The cost of operating one of the pumps for 20 hours a day and BROAD IRRIGATION AT PULLMAN, ILLINOIS. 
463 
pumping an average of 1,800,000 gallons per day in 1890 is stated as 
follows : 
Fuel $1.73 
Oil and waste. 0.57 
Attendance 3.75 
Total $6.05 
This would be at the rate of $3.36 per 1,000,000 gallons pumped. The 
actual lift, not including friction in the force main, is on an average 
about 30 feet. 
A 20-inch cast-iron main, nearly 3 miles in length, connects the 
pumping station with the sewage farm. At the farm end of this main 
is located a closed screen-tank, as indicated on the plan, Fig. 70, fitted 
with a screen of j-inch mesh. This tank is 6 feet in diameter, 24 feet 
long, and made of ^-inch boiler-iron. The lower end is high enough 
above the floor to admit of wagons being driven under it, and into 
which may be received the material intercepted by the screen, by the 
opening of the valve at the lower end of the tank. A section through 
the screening tank is shown by Fig. 71. 
The distribution pipe, leading from the screening tank, is fitted with 
a pressure regulator set to 10 pounds. An overflow pipe is also pro- 
vided as an additional precaution. The object of the pressure regula- 
tor is to prevent heavy pressures and vibrations from the pumps from 
coming upon the distribution pipes, which are entirely of vitrified tile. 
The main distribution pipe is 15 inches in diameter, with 9-inch laterals 
315 feet apart. Hydrants are located on the 9-inch lines every 320 feet, 
thus giving one hydrant to about each 2| acres. The distribution 
pipes of vitrified tile were tested with water pressure before laying. 
The system of underdraining consists of parallel lines of common 
agricultural tile, 2 to 4 inches in diameter, laid to an average depth of 
3§ feet and about 40 feet apart. According to a statement made by 
E. F. Martin, farm superintendent in 1887, the primary drains would 
give better service if they were all at least 4 inches in diameter. The 
small drains connect with a main underdrain, from 6 to 12 inches in 
diameter, which empties into a ditch discharging into Lake Calumet. 
The tract of land originally appropriated to sewage disposal com- 
prises about 1,500 acres, and at present about 140 acres are in use for 
this purpose. Of this amount, 15 acres were laid out in flat beds, 
surrounded by embankments in order to permit of use for intermittent 
filtration whenever necessary. The soil is the ordinary Illinois prairie 
black alluvium, 1 foot in depth, underlaid by clay with occasional 
pockets of sand. The distribution after the sewage leaves the hy- 
drants is effected by means of short pieces of hose connected with the 
hydrants, supplemented by temporary shallow grips or furrows, as 464 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
needed for the different crops. The most satisfactory crops have 
been found to be cabbage, cauliflower, celery, asparagus, onions, sweet 
corn, squashes, and other vegetables common to market gardening. 
The raising of potatoes has been found to be a failure on this farm. 
Main from Pumping Works 
Screening 
Tonk 
Regulating 
Valve 
Fig. 71.-Section through Screening Tank and Pressure Regulating Valve, 
at Pullman, Illinois. 
Italian rye-grass is also unsuited to the soil of this farm ; it is stated 
to grow so coarse and rank as to be nearly worthless for feeding 
Very little stock is kept, for the reason that it is more profitable to 
raise vegetables, etc., for the Chicago market. 
A plan of the farm as laid out in 1880 is shown by Fig. 70. BROAD IRRIGATION AT PULLMAN, ILLINOIS. 
465 
Many statements were made in the earlier years of the operation of the 
Pullman farm as to the large commercial profit realized. All such that 
have come under the authors' notice have lacked definiteness as to the 
detail. The most authentic statements indicate that in some years the 
farm proper has yielded a net profit of as much as 8 per cent, on the 
investment, while in other years, owing to early frost or other adverse 
causes, there has been very little or no profit. The positive statement 
is made, however, that in no year has the outlay exceeded the income. 
During the growing season about 40 laborers are employed, this num- 
ber including those who attend to the irrigation. During the balance 
of the year the labor at the farm, which is mostly confined to control- 
ling the distribution of the sewage, is limited to one or two men. The 
statements of net profit in the foregoing are made without reference 
to the cost of pumping the sewage, which, from what has already been 
stated, may be taken at about $2,208 per year. 
The Pullman management has not kept any record of the tempera- 
ture at which the sewage reaches the disposal area in winter, but it is 
stated to leave the houses at an average temperature of 65° Fahr. The 
minimum winter temperature of the air is - 25° Fahr. The maximum 
snowfall is about 2 feet; in the ordinary winters it seldom exceeds 1 
foot. The maximum depth of frost penetration is stated at 3.5 feet; 
the ordinary depth, 2 feet. 
Mr. Duane Doty, engineer for the Pullman Company, states that the 
only analysis of sewage and effluent in his possession was made in the 
laboratory of the State Board of Health of Massachusetts, November 
30, 1887, as follows, an analysis of water from the farm well beino- an- 
pended: 
Ammonia. 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Chlorine. 
Nitrogen. 
Pure sewage 
2 3000 
.3200 
1 98 
Filtered sewage from manhole on filter-bed 
8500 
.0480 
2.31 
1.560 
Filtered sewage from mouth of main underdrain 
0026 
.0108 
3.78 
. 650 
Water from farm well 
0900 
.0166 
1.78 
.033 
The efficiency of the purification at Pullman has been the subject 
of considerable discussion, especially in relation to the results at- 
tained in winter; and the following statements by engineers who have 
visited the farm on tours of inspection are of considerable interest. 
Eliot C. Clarke, M. Am. Soc. C.E.' says: * 
The winters at Pullman are colder than in most parts of Massachusetts, but irri- 
gation has always proceeded there without interruption. I made a visit to that 
farm in February, 1885. For the five days previous the mercury had not risen to 0 
Fahrenheit, and had been as low as -25°. On the day of my visit, the mercury 
standing at -12°, I found the sewage going on to the land, and covered by a 
stratum of ice from one to eight inches thick. I broke the ice, and with a spade 
dug a hole in the ground below, which was perfectly open. As the weather mod- 
erated the sewage rapidly melted the ice above it. 
* Report to the Massachusetts Drainage Commission of 1885, p.129. 466 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The second account is by Charles A. Allen, M. Am. Soc. C.E., as 
follows: * 
Upon the day of our visit [January, 1887] it was quite warm, the thermometer 
registering 40° Fahr. We found that the sewage was all being discharged upon 
the filtration area, the first section of which was covered with sludge to a depth of 
about a foot. The sewage was running over this to the second section, which was 
partially covered with ice, and then over the remaining area, which was entirely 
covered with ice, and was finally discharged into the effluent trench without having 
been filtered in the least. 
The entire area was completely covered with sewage, and there was evidently no 
filtration taking place, as about the same quantity passed off at the lower end of 
the beds as was discharged upon the upper end. 
The manager of the farm was away, but we were given the following facts by his 
assistant, which we subsequently verified : 
The farm is run for the purpose of making money, the purification of the sewage 
being a secondary consideration. 
During the summer months when vegetation has received all the sewage it will 
bear, it is simply turned into Lake Calumet in its crude state. 
We were told that not a particle of sewage has been applied to the farm proper 
this winter, it all having been simply passed over the area as already described. 
Mr. Geo. H. Benzenberg, M. Am. Soc. C.E., wrote as follows on 
Nov. 21, 1892 : f 
I have not been at Pullman for a number of years, and hence cannot give you any 
information whatever as to what they are doing there now, but I know that as early 
as prior to 1887 a large amount of crude sewage was run into Lake Calumet. This 
I found to be the fact upon a visit to the farm, and which the superintendent 
finally admitted and excused by saying that it was necessary in order to save the 
crops. The sewage was being run in a large open ditch, covered by bushes grow- 
ing on each side, from near the farm to the lake. 
Mr. Benzenberg's statement lias been corroborated by Mr. Rudolph 
Hering, M. Am. Soc. C.E., who visited the farm in 188G, and also in 
1887. 
In 1891 Mr. Allen Hazen, chemist of the Lawrence (Mass.) Experi- 
ment Station, visited Pullman. Mr. Hazen's account of his visit, 
together with an interesting mechanical analysis of the surface soil 
of the filter beds, is as follows : $ 
I visited the Pullman sewage farm in October, 1891. The superintendent was 
absent, and I was shown about by a man who had worked on the farm for some 
years. He told me that with the application of sewage, worms developed in the 
soil and destroyed the crops, and for this reason no sewage had been applied for 
two or three years. ............ 
The filter was not in use at the time of my visit, nor did it have the appearance 
of having been used. My guide thought that it was at least a month since any 
sewage had been applied, and a much longer time since any considerable quantity 
had been treated. The sewage of the entire town was being turned directly into 
Lake Calumet, from which large quantities of ice for Chicago are cut. 
* From Mr. Allen's Report of 1887, p. 44. 
+ Eng. News, vol. xxix. (Jan. 12, 1893), p. 27. 
J Eng. News, vol. xxix. (Jan. 12, 1893), p. 28. BROAD IRRIGATION AT PULLMAN, ILLINOIS. 
467 
A sample of the surface soil of the filter had the following mechanical analysis: 
Mm. 
Per cent. 
Finer than .24 
87 
" " .12 
42 
" " .06 
28 
" " .03 
16 
" " .01 
. organic, 8 
Albuminoid ammonia, 225 parts in 100,000. 
The analysis shows the material to be very much finer than the sands success- 
fully used in Massachusetts, and it would hardly be possible to put upon it, with 
good results, any large volume of sewage. 
Mr. Doty furnished the following statement in this connection, which 
he gave as the language of the sujierintendent of the farm: * 
The sewage wdien not needed upon the fields of the farm is run on to the filter 
beds, and these filter beds are ploughed up four or five times a year so as to loosen 
the soil and expose as much of it as possible to the air. At times all the sewage 
is used upon the farm, and in wet weather not more than half of it. Some seasons 
have taken all the sewage upon the fields. At rare intervals only, when it has been 
necessary to clean the receiving tank at the farm end of the iron main, is raw sew- 
age run into Calumet lake, and then for very brief periods and not enough of it to 
do any harm.f 
* Eng. News, vol. xxix. (Jan. 12, 1893), p. 27. 
+ In addition to those quoted, the further sources of information in regard to the Pullman 
sewage farm which have been drawn upon are : 
(I) The Pullman Sewerage, a paper by Benezette Williams, Member of the Western Society of 
Civil Engineers, in Jour, of the Assoc, of Eng. Socs. vol. i. (1882), pp. 311-319, from which the 
main facts in the foregoing in relation to original design of the sewerage system, sewage farm, 
straining tank, etc., have been abstracted. An abstract of Mr. Williams' paper may also be 
found in Eng. News, vol. ix. (1882), pp. 203-204. 
(2) Tabulation of sewage irrigation statistics, in Mr. Gray's Providence Rept. of 1884. 
(3) Articles in Eng. & Bldg. Reed., vol. vii., p. 35; vol ix., p. 476; vol. x., p. 360; vol. xiv., 
p. 55. 
(4) Private letters to the authors. 
(5) Articles in the Sanitary News and the American Architect. 
(6) Description of a visit to Pullman by Dr. Wm. Oldright in 6th An. Rept. Prov. Bd. of 
Health of Ontario (1887), pp. Ixxxiv.-vi. 
(7) Article "Scientific Sewerage," in the Pullman Journal, Feb. 21, 1891. By Duane Doty, 
C.E. CHAPTER XXXI. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE MASSACHUSETTS REFORMATORY, 
CONCORD. 
The sewage of this institution was originally discharged into the 
Assabet river at a point immediately opposite the institution. The 
deposit of floating and suspended matter of the sewage along the 
banks and on the bottom of the stream having become noticeable, an 
attempt was made to screen out the solid portion through coarse wire 
screens located in a subterranean screen-pit, which was situated near 
the line of the main sewer and connected therewith by a by-pass. 
This still permitted the liquid portion of the sewage, with its soluble 
constituents and much of the finer suspended matter, to be discharged 
into the river as before. The arrangements for removing the solid 
portion from the screen-pits were inconvenient, and their non-removal 
led to the production of a positive nuisance. The clogging of the 
screens also rendered it necessary, in order to allow the flood flow to 
pass, either to open the gates of the main sewer so that the sewage 
would flow directly into the stream without passing into the screen - 
pits, or else to raise the screen and allow the accumulations of sludge 
to be flushed out into the river by storm How. 
The sewage proper from the main group of prison buildings 
amounted to upwards of 100,000 gallons per day, and in times of rain- 
fall this amount was augmented by the roof-water. 
The waste water from the gas-works, originally discharged into the 
common drains, had been afterwards excluded therefrom and allowed 
to run into an open sink-hole in the gravel, in the rear of the build- 
ings. 
The drainage from the sinks and water-closets of a large isolated 
shop, which has since been removed, was disposed of by flowing in an 
open ditch leading from the shop to a sink-hole about 70 feet distant. 
The waste liquors from the dyeing-vats in the hat-shop, amounting 
to from 40,000 to 70,000 gallons per day, was further disposed of by al- 
lowing it to flow out upon the surface of the ground and into gravel 
and sand-pits near by, where it was left to soak away as best it might. 
Finally, the sink drainage from 10 houses on Commonwealth ave. 
(see Fig. 72), occupied by the officers and their families, was dis- 
charged by a pipe sewer into a large cesspool. The cesspool re- BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE CONCORD REFORMATORY. 
469 
quired cleaning about once each week, involving an amount of labor 
equal to the total expenditure of six months' time of one man through- 
out the year. Water-closets were not introduced into these houses 
Fig. 72.-Plan of Disposal Works, Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord. 
until 1885, and previous to that time each house was provided with a 
privy. 
In the spring of 1883, an Act was passed by the Massachusetts Leg- 
islature, authorizing the expenditure of a sum not exceeding $5,000 470 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
for the disposal of the sewage at the Reformatory ; and in June of that 
year the Prison Commissioners instructed William Wheeler, C.E., to 
prepare plans for a comprehensive system of sewage disposal. Sur- 
veys were immediately made and plans prepared and submitted to the 
Commissioners, who, after accepting them, referred them to the State 
Board of Health for approval, in accordance with the Act. The State 
Plan of Pump Room on Line AB. 
Section onEF 
Fig. 73.-Details of Receiving and Separating Tanks, 
Massachusetts Reformatory. 
Plan of Receiving and Separating Pits on CO.- 
Board of Health, after some changes in the selection of the lands 
upon which the sewage was to be disposed of, approved the plans 
September 1, 1883. The construction of the works was begun on Sep- 
tember 18, and mostly completed during the following summer. 
The common labor and much of the skilled labor was done by con- 
victs. 
The general arrangement of the new works is shown by Fig. 72, 
while Fig. 73 represents the principle features of the receiving and BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE CONCORD REFORMATORY. 
471 
separating tanks, pumping station, etc. The plant has been described 
as follows: 
The plan of the new works, while leaving substantially unchanged the general 
arrangement of plumbing and interior drains, involved the construction of an en- 
tirely new system of pipe sewers outside the prison buildings, from which storm 
water is excluded except at a few points for flushing purposes, as later described, 
and whereby all the ordinary sewage is carried to a series of underground receiving 
and separating tanks or chambers. These chambers are separated by brick par- 
titions sixteen inches thick, laid in hydraulic cement mortar, the outside walls con- 
sisting of an eight-inch brick lining or interior facing, with an impervious backing 
of hydraulic cement concrete or beton, constructed in situ, after the brick was laid. 
Every alternate brick in alternate courses is a header, projecting outward half its 
length, thus affording a perfect bond between the brick face and concrete backing. 
The whole is built upon a concrete foundation extending over the entire area of the 
chambers, affording a tight floor three inches thick and footings six inches thick 
under all walls and partitions, and is covered by two arches whose adjacent skew 
backs rest upon a middle partition and piers, thus forming a valley which affords a 
passage for the main collecting sewer and safety-overflow pipes. 
The chambers are provided with sewage inlets, sludge outlets, and suction pipes 
for discharging the liquid portion, all in duplicate, and each one in a separate com- 
partment from, and capable of being used interchangeably with, its companion. 
Access to each compartment is had through man-holes of ample size. 
The sewage is commonly first admitted through an inlet valve, a, into a compart- 
ment, A (see " Plan of Receiving and Separating Pits," Fig. 73), about twelve feet 
square, from which, when filled to a depth of five feet, the liquid portion overflows 
automatically from its middle depth, through an unsealed three-legged siphon, m, 
into another chamber of the same size, A'. The second compartment, A', has con- 
nection through a valve, b, with a storage chamber about twenty-five feet square, 
BB, into which the liquid portion flows in the usual operation of the works, the 
said liquid portion being pumped out daily through either or both of the suction 
pipes, c and c', as circumstances may require. 
The second chamber, A', is practically a duplicate of the first one, A, and may 
be used interchangeably with either the first one as the primary receiving and 
separating compartment (in which case the crude sewage is admitted through an 
alternate inlet valve, a); or with the larger one, BB, as a storage chamber and 
pump-well; or, as ordinarily used, in open connection therewith, it affords simply 
an addition to the storage capacity of the works. 
With this interchangeability of uses, effected by simple devices, the function of 
each compartment may be performed by one of the other two, whereby each may in 
turn be left in temporary disuse, thus facilitating the work of discharging the 
sludge, and the examination, repair, and general care of the works. 
By causing the liquid overflow from the receiving chamber to take place from 
the middle of its depth, the solid matter, which either floats or sinks, remains in 
the chamber, where it is allowed to accumulate until it approaches the level of the 
inlet of the overflow pipe or siphon. The sludge is then discharged by gravity 
through the valve, e or e, as the case may be, an eight-inch Akron pipe,/1, into a 
composting pit situated about six hundred feet distant, on the low bluff overlook- 
ing the river. Here the excess of liquid that flows out with it is allowed to leach 
away into the dry, porous soil, and the residue is covered (at intervals of about two 
or three days) with a light layer of dry loam, muck, or other absorbent, whereby it 
is rendered odorless and innocuous, and its fertilizing value developed and pre- 
served. Before the next discharge is to occur, it is in suitable condition to be 
carried away and composted with more absorbents, or applied directly to the land, 
with results which demonstrate its agricultural value. In practice, with the present 
population served by these works, numbering about 650 convicts and upward of 
twenty officers' families, and disposing of about 100,000 gallons of sewage daily, 
the sludge is discharged once in two weeks. The accumulations of that period 
furnish a deposit of from eighteen to twenty inches deep upon the bottom of the 
receiving chamber, and floating matter to a thickness of from six to ten inches upon 472 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the top of its contents. After a thorough agitation with a pole, through a man-hole, 
during which about one-half to three-fourths of the floating matter sinks, the dis- 
charge valve is opened and the entire contents gravitate into the sludge-pit, which 
has been made ready by cleaning out the preceding charge, and loosening up the 
bottom to facilitate the leeching away of the excess of liquid as already described. 
Two open sludge-pits, each about 12 x 40 feet, were originally constructed, to be 
used alternately; but one has recently been found to serve the purpose, after cover- 
ing it with a substantial building to exclude rain and snow, and to confine the odor 
occurring temporarily during the flow of the sludge into it. Although situated 
within from 150 to 400 feet from six double houses occupied by officers of the 
prison, the resident engineer states that no complaints have arisen therefrom since 
it was so housed. 
Over one of the small compartments. A', of the receiving chambers, a small 
pump house is built, the walls of the compartment constituting the foundations of 
the building. (See " Plan of Pump House." also Vertical Section on E F," Fig. 73.) 
The pump room contains a small Knowles tank sewage-pump, having its steam 
cylinder eight inches and plunger ten inches in diameter, with a twelve-inch stroke, 
and connected with an upright tubular boiler thirty-six inches in diameter and 
seven feet high-both pump and boiler being constructed expressly for these works. 
The pump has two suction pipes, c and c', whereby the sewage may be pumped 
directly from either chamber, A' or BB, whence it is delivered through a six-inch 
iron force-main to the various points at which it is to be disposed of by irrigation. 
It is discharged through common fire hydrants made with one specially large 
nozzle and two hose nozzles of ordinary size. Two sewage hydrants are placed 
within the prison yard, where large quantities are used for the irrigation of its 
sandy soil, and two more outside the enclosure upon the highest points of the 
arable land of the prison farm, and at distances of about 400 and 600 feet from the 
driven wells. 
Here the sewage is used in broad irrigation upon such desirable crops as are best 
fitted for cultivation therewith-chiefly grasses and grains, as well as general tilled 
crops to a limited extent. The soil, being light, free, and sandy, with the natural 
water-table at a considerable depth below its surface, is eminently well adapted to 
receive the sewage, which it does with great benefit to itself, and without com- 
plaint of odor or appearance of disagreeable results of any sort; and this notwith- 
standing the fact that the methods pursued for its distribution are still somewhat 
crude. The sewage is received at an elevation of several feet above the ground, 
into a line of wooden troughs supported upon light " horses " or portable trestles, 
graduated in height so as to secure a suitable fall toward the points of final dis- 
charge, and is often allow'ed to run tw7o weeks, during the hours of pumping, in one 
place without change. 
Undoubtedly a more convenient and economical, and certainly a more sightly 
management of the sewage, would be effected by suitably grading the surface of the 
utilization grounds, and constructing shallow open conduits and surface channels, 
provided with suitable contrivances for deflecting the flow toward any desired part 
of the field, and through which the sew7age would be distributed by gravity and 
regulated at pleasure. 
The inconvenience of moving the present arrangement of troughs and trestles 
affords a potent temptation to unduly prolong the time of flow7 in a single place. 
The duration of flow in one place, under the more convenient system of distribu- 
tion, could wisely be limited to not more than four days, on even so free and dry a 
soil; and while the works were not originally so constructed by reason of an inade- 
quate appropriation, later recommendations for reforming the methods of distribu- 
tion in accordance with the foregoing suggestions have been made to the commis- 
sioners, with the offer of gratuitous professional assistance in carrying them into 
execution. The absence of any particular sanitary motive or necessity, however, 
for pressing such improvements, may perhaps be held to be a reasonable excuse for 
neglecting to make them. 
The new drains, with a minor exception, are laid in straight lines, w7ith a man-hole 
at every junction and at every change of direction or grade. The ventilation of the 
sewers is insured by the admission of air through perforated covers upon certain of BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE CONCORD REFORMATORY. 
473 
the man-holes, whence it circulates to and through the soil pipes which are carried 
through the roofs of the prison buildings-the soil pipes of the "strongrooms" 
also having been so extended in conjunction with the work done under the Act of 
1883, with the direct result of entirely obviating the presence of objectionable 
odors and sewer emanations which had occasionally existed before. 
The ventilation of the receiving and separating worksis effectually accomplished, 
without objectionable results of any sort, by the constant admission of air through 
a perforated man-hole cover, v, into the primary receiving compartment, J, and its 
positively induced circulation through a series of openings connecting all the com- 
partments above the level of the sewage therein, and leading, by a suitable ar- 
rangement of dampers at the base of the furnace, into either the fire-box under the 
boiler, or the chimney directly over the boiler, where the gases may be burned- 
the draught of the chimney in either case effecting the necessary circulation. 
The officers' houses upon Commonwealth row were furnished with water-closets, 
and together with the Warden's and Deputy-Warden's (now Superintendent's) 
houses, were connected with this system of works during the months of August and 
September, 1885, through sewers shown upon Fig. 72-the expense for this addi- 
tion being paid out of the general appropriation for the Reformatory. 
Storm water is excluded from the new sewerage works, except in the case of that 
admitted for flushing purposes by the conductors upon the two houses at the heads 
of the Commonwealth row sewers, and also through connecting conductors near 
the heads of some of the principal drains within the prison yard. 
To prevent any back-flow of sewage, in case the contribution of storm water by 
these connections should be excessively large during the night, when the pumps 
are not ordinarily in operation, a safety overflow, d, is provided, whereby the excess 
automatically escapes into the sludge-pipe, and thence passing by the sludge-pits, 
is discharged into the river. No considerable quantity of objectionable refuse can 
so reach the stream, however, inasmuch as such overflow takes place, as already 
stated, at night, when not only is the amount of normal sewage at its minimum, 
but tlie overflow itself consists of the secondary contributions of the storm water, 
after its primary flow has cleansed the sewers and discharged its scourings into the 
receiving chambers. 
With the present consumption of water, amounting, as already stated, to about 
100,000 gallons per day, the night flow of sewage from about 5.30 p.m., when 
pumping usually ceases, to 7 a.m., when it begins again, fills the sewage reservoirs 
to within about a foot of the overflow level, or from 80 to 85 per cent, of their full 
capacity of about 28,000 gallons. The pumping continues from about 7 a.in. to 
10.30 a.m., and again from 3 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. daily, at which time it is left empty, 
ready for the night flow. The large consumption of water and consequent delivery 
of sewage during the night, and indeed at all hours of the day, is largely due to the 
practice by a large number of the convicts of so placing a small bit of wood or other 
material under the seats of their water closets as to cause it to flow with a constant 
stream, thus maintaining a sense of cleansing and purifying efficacy which is only 
imaginary, at the expense of a considerable waste of water and the disposal of it in 
the form of sewage. 
The winter care and management of the se-wage does not differ in any essential 
degree from that at other seasons of the year, nor does it present any peculiar diffi- 
culties or annoyances. The comparative warmth of the sewage enables it to find 
its way into the ground before freezing to any injurious extent, while the sludge-pit, 
being covered by a close house in which a quantity of dry absorbents is stored, is 
managed without difficulty. 
All labor required in the management and operation of these works is done by 
convicts. The annual expense of running them may be approximately stated as 
follows-the labor being rated at what would be its fair valuation under normal con- 
ditions of employment: 
55 tons soft coal, at $4.00 $220 00 
Salary of attendant 600 00 
Repairs and sundries 80 00 
$900 00 474 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The cost of taking care of the sludge-pits and utilization grounds would be ad- 
ditional, but it is doubtless more than repaid by the purely agricultural value of 
the sewage products to be cared for and disposed of under any rational system of 
treatment. 
Most of the conductors disconnected from these works have been reconnected 
with the old brick sewers, whereby a complete double and separate system of sew- 
erage is provided-the storm water thus finding its way into the river. 
The dye refuse and washing water from the hat shops, amounting to about 50,000 
gallons daily, was disposed of by an independent method, having been collected 
and carried by a six-inch pipe sewer into a pair of open filter beds or sinks, contain- 
ing each about 500 square feet, and situated on the slope of the bluff east of the 
prison yard, where it soaked away without unsightly or unpleasant consequences. 
These beds or sinks were made in duplicate, to enable the bottom and sloping sides 
of either one to be raked over, and the nearly impervious deposit of felting fibre 
thereon to be removed, while the other was in use. The removal of the hat indus- 
try last year led necessarily to the abandonment of this branch of the works, which 
is not therefore shown upon the accompanying plans. 
The water from the purifiers of the gas-works, under an arrangement made by 
the resident engineer of the Reformatory, flows into an open rectangular pit be- 
hind the gas-house. Across one end of the pit is a brick partition having an open- 
ing through it below the level of the liquid standing therein. The gas liquor first 
enters the larger compartment, where the oil and light combustible compounds 
which are brought along with it gather upon its surface and remain therein, while 
the water itself flows through the submerged opening in the brick partition into 
the smaller compartment. From the latter it flows out through a submerged pipe 
orifice into a drain leading into one of the old brick sewers, and thence into the 
river. The combustible supernatant matter remaining in the larger compartment 
is regularly burned off twice a month. 
The removal of the picture moulding shop, which was in contemplation at the 
time of building the new works, has since been carried into effect, thus taking it 
out of the drainage problem.* 
* Disposal of Sewage at the Massachusetts Reformatory. By Wm. Wheeler, C.E., 7th An. 
Rept. of the St. Bd. of Health, Lunacy, and Charity of Mass. Supplement, etc. (1886), pp. 195- 
208. CHAPTER XXXII. 
BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE RHODE ISLAND STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
The Rhode Island State Institutions, consisting of the House of 
Correction, State Alms House, State Hospital for the Insane, State 
Prison, Sockanosset School for Boys, and the Oaklawn School for 
Girls, are located at Cranston, a short distance west of the city of 
Providence, in the midst of a tract of about 500 acres of land owned by 
the State. 
In the fall of 1884, the Board of State Charities and Corrections, 
which has charge of the State Institutions, requested Samuel M. Gray, 
M. Am. Soc. C.E., of Providence, to suggestan improved method for 
disposing of the sewage, which previous to that time had been utilized 
to some extent in irrigation, but without any special order or system. 
Mr. Gray, after investigation, recommended systematic broad irriga-' 
tion, and designated a number of areas which were adapted to such use. 
His preliminary report was presented to the General Assembly of 
Rhode Island the following spring, and an Act passed appropriating 
$10,000, and authorizing the Controlling Board to purchase or condemn, 
if necessary, not exceeding 50 acres of land to be used specially for 
irrigation. Work was immediately begun on the construction of an 
experimental irrigation area, for the disposal of the sewage from the 
House of Correction, Alms House, and Insane Hospital. For this 
purpose the sewage was collected and carried to a field some 500 feet 
east from the buildings, where an area of 3.5 acres was prepared. This 
area, under favorable conditions, was considered sufficient to tempo- 
rarily dispose of the sewage of the population of the three institutions 
named, which amounted to about 850 people, and to also serve as an 
index of what could be accomplished by land purification at this place. 
The area selected was of somewhat irregular and uneven surface, 
with the top soil, ten inches in depth, of fine light loam underlaid by a 
sandy subsoil and fine gravel, which grows coarser as the depth in- 
creases, until at the depth of six feet it is composed of coarse gravel 
and sand in such proportions as to form a nearly ideal material for the 
purification of sewage. A plan of the field as prepared is shown by 
Fig. 74. The surface of the field was first graded to a uniform slope, 
and the field then underdrained with 3-inch and 4-inch round tile, laid 
from 5 to 6 feet in depth, in lines about 40 feet apart. The drains 476 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
are shown on Fig. 74 by dotted lines, the full lines on the same figure 
representing the contours, the elevation of which above tide-water are 
Howard Sta, 
Fig. 74.-Plan of Dtsposat, Area, Rhode Island State Institutions, Cranston. 
Ponfioc Branch Raifroad 
there given. The 3-inch drains are laid nearly at right angles to the 
contours, and empty into the 4-inch, which are laid, as indicated, along BROAD IRRIGATION, RHODE ISLAND STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
477 
the lower side of the field and with a grade of 6 inches to the hundred 
feet. The outlet of the 4-inch drain is at the point f, Fig. 74. At the 
junction of each line of 3-inch with the 4-inch is a brick well, 8 inches 
square in the clear, carried above the tiles about 4 inches and covered 
with brick. The chief object of these wells is to afford means of ex- 
amining the drains when necessary without breaking the tiles. The 
method of laying the tiles has been described as follows : 
A narrow trench was excavated to a true grade, and in the trench were laid strips 
of spruce boards, one inch thick and about four inches wide, upon which were 
placed the tiles end to end and close together, each joint wound with strips of 
tarred paper about four inches in width, lapping two inches on each tile and ex- 
tending twice around it. The tiles, as fast as 
laid, were covered with screened pea-gravel, 
free from sand, to a depth of about three 
inches, and this fine gravel was in turn covered 
with about three inches of coarse gravel, an 
abundance of this material, coarse and fine, 
having been obtained from excavations on the 
field. The trenches were then back-filled, 
care having been taken to pack the earth sol- 
idly. The tile-drains having been completed, 
the surface of the field was again evened and 
the soil replaced where it had been previously 
removed in grading. 
In order to form a basin to retain the 
sewage, if necessary, in winter when the 
ground is frozen, and also to prevent 
its possible escape without filtration at 
any time into the Pawtuxet river near 
by, from which the water supply of the 
city of Providence is derived, an em- 
bankment was built around the three 
low sides of the field, as shown in Fig. 
74. The following is a description of 
the works: 
The sewage is conveyed to the field in a six- 
inch Akron pipe and discharged into a wire- 
basket (at the point f, Fig. 74, also shown in 
the plan and section of the screening well, 
Fig. 75). The use of the basket is to catch 
rags or other materials coming from the In- 
stitutions through the six-inch pipe, which, if 
not removed, might interfere with the proper 
distribution of the sewage upon the field. Af- 
ter passing through the basket the sewage 
runs into a brick w'ell, and from thence flows in a carrier or trough along the up- 
per or westerly side of the field, from which carrier it is discharged at nine differ- 
ent points by a system of gates, as described further on ; or the sewage may be 
discharged directly upon the field from the well, as shown at B, Fig.,74. 
The carrier was constructed in the following manner (see Fig. 76) : To provide 
Section AB. 
Fig. 75. - Screening Basket, 
Rhode Island State Institu- 
tions. 478 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
a foundation which should be affected as little as possible by frost, a trench was 
dug, three feet wide at the top and two and one-half feet wide at the bottom, having 
a depth of three feet. This was filled to a point two feet and eight inches from the 
bottom with loose stone closely packed, the upper layer composed of pieces about 
one inch in diameter. On this stone foundation concrete was laid about four inches 
in depth, composed of one part cement and four parts gravel and sand, and upon the 
top of this the carrier rests. To form properly this concrete bed, boards twelve 
feet long and nine inches wide were placed nearly upright and in the direction of 
the carrier, the bottom edges eighteen and the upper edges sixteen inches apart, 
giving a batter of one inch to each side of the bed. To hold in position the boards 
thus placed, short strips of wood notched near the extremities were placed across 
the boards, near the ends and in middle, both above and below, the edges of the 
board fitting closely into the notches of the strips. A plan and end-view of one set 
of boards and cross-pieces in position are shown at G and H, Fig. 76. 
Section 
on Embank rnent. 
Gate Costing 
\-Castinq 
Plan 
Carrier 
in Excavation 
rile Drain 
and Trench. 
Fig. 76.-Details of Carrier and Drain, Rhode Island State Institutions. 
The carrier itself is made of twelve-inch vitrified pipe divided longitudinally in 
the centre, making what is known as " split pipe." This is done by cutting grooves 
in the clay while soft before baking, so that when taken from the kiln the pipes are 
easily divided into two longitudinal sections of equal size. 
These half-pipes were placed to line and grade upon the concrete bed so as to form 
a continuous trough, and backed up with brick and cement. (See section of car- 
rier on Fig. 76.) Along the line of carrier, at distances of about one hundred feet, 
were placed iron castings, each casting taking the place of a section of the vitified 
half-pipe, having the same trough-like form, and arranged with a system of gates 
as before mentioned. These are shown in plan and elevation on Fig. 76, from 
which a better conception can be formed than from description. By means of 
these gates the whole or part of the sewage may be discharged upon the field at 
any of the points where these castings and gates are placed. 
The most difficult engineering operation relating to the sewage of the 
State Institutions, namely, that of disposing of the sewage of the State 
Prison, was not entered into in 1885, there being no portion of the 
area already owned by the State upon which the sewage could be de- 
livered by gravity which was considered suitable for broad irrigation, 
and the alternative of pumping the prison sewage upon suitable areas BROAD IRRIGATION, RHODE ISLAND STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
479 
of the State land was thought to have so many objectionable features 
that its adoption was not deemed advisable, unless it should prove 
impracticable to obtain, by purchase or otherwise, sufficient land so 
located with reference to the prison as to permit delivering the sew- 
age thereon by gravity. It was to meet this difficulty that the Act au- 
thorizing the purchase of additional land was passed. Under its pro- 
visions a little over 12 acres were purchased for the sum of $3,959.79. 
A definite statement of the cost of the work cannot be given, inas- 
much as the manual labor needed for draining, grading, etc., was fur- 
nished by the inmates, under the direction of the Superintendent of 
State Institutions. Aside from such labor there was paid out on ac- 
count of construction, up to December 31, 1885, the sum of $3,424.12. 
The direct supervision of the construction work was intrusted to 
Joseph A. Latham, C.E., who acted under the direction of Mr. Gray. 
In regard to the winter disposal at this place, the following state- 
ment was made by Frederick P. Stearns, M. Am. Soc. C.E., in a dis- 
cussion of sewage disposal before the Boston Society of Civil Engi- 
neers on February 15, 1888 : 
I visited the sewage disposal area of the State Institutions at Cranston, R. I., on 
the 28th day of January, 1888. The temperature of the air in the morning was 
- 19.4° C. (3° below zero F.), and at one p.m., at the time of the visit, -15.6° C. 
(4° F.). This was one of the coldest days of the season, at the end of a very cold 
week, and near the end of the coldest January since 1857. 
The populations of the institutions contributing sewage was about 1,000, and the 
mean flow about 90,000 gal. per day. The sewage was being turned upon a level 
tract of about 2.5 acres. The surface of the ground was generally covered with ice 
about 5 inches thick. Near where the sewage went upon the field it was not frozen. 
Beyond this it appeared to be flowing over the ice, and a new layer was forming 
upon the surface of the sewage. To all appearances very little sewage was enter- 
ing the ground. It is evident, however, either that the sewage did enter the 
ground or that it had been filtering through prior to this time, as the total accu- 
mulation of ice upon the surface did not represent more than 8 days' flow of the 
sewage, and a large portion of it was probably due to rain and snow, the precipita- 
tion for the month having been 4.5 inches. The areas were so arranged that no 
sewage could run off over the surface. 
Not only was the weather very cold, but the temperature of the sewage, 4.7° C. 
(40.5° F.), was unusually low. The average temperature of Medfield sewage in 
January, 1888, as deduced from daily observations, was 16° C. (60.7° F.). The 
mean temperature of sewage of the Concord Reformatory during the last week in 
January was 11.1° C. (51.9° F.). The mean temperature of Boston sewage during 
this month was 6.3° C. (43.3° F.). 
Recent statements in regard to the condition of the purification 
works at Cranston are lacking, as are also statements as to the actual 
cost of operation ; but the latter item is quite small, since indepen- 
dent of the use of a portion of the sewage for the irrigation of crops it 
requires considerably less than the time of one man.* 
* The chief source of information in regard to the disposal works at Cranston is the 17th An. 
Rept. of the Bd. Charities and Corrections of R. I. for 1885. Also see Eng. & Bld. Reed., vol. 
xiii., p. 322 (March 4, 1886). CHAPTER XXXIII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AND BROAD IRRIGATION AT SOUTH 
FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
The town of Framingham, Massachusetts, of which South Framing- 
ham is the principal village, is situated in the drainage area of Lake 
Cochituate, from which a portion of the water supply of Boston is de- 
rived, as is shown by Fig. 77. Until recently the sewage of the town 
has flowed into Beaver Dam brook, a tributary of Lake Cochituate. 
In the latter part of the year 1889 complete sewerage and sewage 
disposal works were completed and put in operation. 
A project for the disposal of the sewage of South Framingham was 
elaborated by Eliot C. Clark, M. Am. Soc. C.E., in his report to the 
Massachusetts Drainage Commission in 1885.* At that time it was 
proposed to convey the sewage from the towns of Ashland and Natick 
and the village of South Framingham, and also from Sherborn prison, 
to a common point for disposal-a tract of land just outside of tire 
Lake Cochituate drainage area and in the area of the lower Sudbury 
river basin being selected for this purpose. Mr. Clark s proposition 
was to purify the combined sewage of the towns and the prison by 
intermittent filtration at this point. His plan included the delivery of 
all the sewage at a pumping station to be located near the Boston 
and Albany railroad, a little west from the estuary of the Beaver Dam 
brook, and from that point to be delivered through a force main to the 
proposed filtration area, about one mile to the north.f 
The selectmen of Framingham, in the latter part of 1886, engaged 
* As early as 1879, Desmond FitzGerald, M. Am. Soo. C.E., from one of whose reports the 
map, Fig. 77, was originally taken, began to urge the importance of excluding sewage from the 
Boston water supply. Further details of this movement on the part of Boston are given in Eng. 
News, vol. xxix., pp. 98-99 (Aug. 4, 1892). 
+ By the Public Statutes of Massachusetts, Chapter eighty, Section ninety-six, it is provided : 
No sewage, drainage or refuse or polluting matter of such kind and amount as either by itself or 
in connection with other matter will corrupt or impair the quality of the water of any pond or 
stream hereinafter referred to, for domestic use, or render it injurious to health, and no human 
excrement shall be discharged into any pond used as a source of water supply by a city or town, 
or upon whose banks any filter basin so used is situated within 20 miles above the point where 
such supply is taken, or into any feeders of such ponds or streams within such 20 miles. 
It is therefore questionable whether any town in that State has a right to discharge a purified 
effluent into any stream, pond, or lake which is either the source of a water supply or tributary to 
one within 20 miles from the point of discharge. Under the Statute it would appear necessary 
to show the effluent entirely free from polluting matter, before its discharge would become per- 
missible. SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
481 
S. C. Heald, M. Am. Soc. C.E., of Boston, to make the necessary 
surveys and plans for sewerage and sewage disposal works for that 
town alone, and proceeded to obtain from the Legislature an act au- 
thorizing the town to construct and maintain a system of sewage dis- 
posal. 
In the meantime H. H. Carter, C.E., acting as engineer for the 
Boston Water Board, had reported in January, 1887, that the best 
method for disposing of the sew- 
age of South Framingham was by 
filtration at substantially the loca- 
tion selected by Mr. Clark in 1885. 
Mr. Heald, as engineer for the 
town, submitted his report to the 
Sewerage Committee in August, 
1887. He proposed a separate sys- 
NOTE 
Sewerage System, 1889 shown 
Fig. 77.-Map of South Framingham, Massa- 
chusetts, and Vicinity. 
tem of sewers, with disposal at the point previously indicated in the 
reports of Messrs. Clark and Carter. The sewage would flow by 
gravity to a point near the east line of the town of Framingham, 
where a receiving tank and pumping station would be located, 
from which the sewage was to be forced to a disposal area substan- 
tially as proposed in the original report of Mr. Clark in 1885. For the 
main outfall sewer in Waverly street he proposed a pipe 15 inches in 
diameter, laid to a grade of 1 foot in 400. 
The present population to be provided for is about 5,000, and a 
volume of about 75 gallons per capita per day was considered a safe 
basis for estimate. 482 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IX THE UNITED STATES 
In regard to the disposal area, Mr. Heald, in his report of 1887, 
says: 
If we avoid the denser clays as altogether unsuitable (unless they are so altered 
in their condition by mixing, burning, etc., as to lose their natural character), and 
regulate the application of the sewage to other soils within the limits of one thou- 
sand persons to the acre to those most suitably constituted, and two hundred and 
fifty persons to the acre to those least suitably constituted, all other descriptions 
of cultivable land may be made capable of filtration. 
For the present wants of the town I would advise taking about eighty-five acres 
of land on the northerly side of the Worcester turnpike and westerly of the road 
leading from said turnpike to Saxonville. Should the town at any time desire to 
increase the area of its farm, additional land could be obtained on the northerly 
side of the brook that crosses the Worcester turnpike near the town line, and land 
on the easterly side of said road to Saxonville. 
The soil is well suited for the purification of sewage, the surface being of light 
sandy loam and the subsoil for the greater part being coarse gravel. 
I have reserved about ten acres of the land for intermittent filtration, the re- 
mainder to be used for broad irrigation. The filtration area is to be divided into 
nine fields, each of which contains nearly an acre of land; each field is to be sur- 
rounded by an earth embankment three feet high. These fields are at different 
elevations, depending upon the natural elevation of the land. Each field is given 
an elevation that would require the least amount of laboi' to bring it to a nearly 
level surface. In preparing a field, after it has been properly graded, a ditch or 
carrier about two feet wide and one foot deep is formed on one side of the field, and 
at right angles with the carrier a series of furrows is made. The furrows are from 
four to five feet apart from centre to centre, and divide the field into long, narrow' 
beds. The beds may be used for raising root crops, the sewage flowing through 
the carriers and furrows without coming in contact with the vegetables in the beds. 
In practice it may be found that the filtration fields are not needed during the 
summer months-that the area devoted to broad irrigation and the demands for 
sew'age from the owners of land along the line of the force main, even in rainy 
weather, will be sufficient to dispose of all the sewage. 
If such should be the case the fields may be used to take the sewage during the 
winter months, and in the summer any suitable crop could be raised in them with- 
out any especial preparation of the beds. 
By having embankments around them, the fields can be flooded to a depth of at 
least two feet, should occasion require it. 
It is impossible to state just how a sewage farm should be conducted in order to 
attain the best results in respect to crops, or just w hat crops should be raised ; but 
for the area devoted to broad irrigation a grass crop would undoubtedly be the 
best. Some of the land to be devoted to the broad irrigation may be ploughed in 
the autumn and lay fallow, receiving during the winter an occasional dressing of 
sewage, and in the spring cross-ploughed and a crop of corn or oats started. 
The area to be devoted to sew'age farming should be thoroughly cleared of all 
trees and brush. The sewage may then be applied and the land be gradually put 
into a suitable condition for the growth of grass or other crops. 
The area of land recommended to be taken will undoubtedly be sufficient to 
meet the wants of the town for at least fifteen years, and the additional land re- 
ferred to would be ample for any probable growth of the town. 
In advising your town to adopt this method of disposing of its sewage I am not 
advising anything experimental. In England the same treatment of sewage has 
been in successful operation for nearly thirty years. On the Continent the follow- 
ing cities, having a winter climate nearly like that of Massachusetts, dispose of their 
sewage upon the land. 
Danzig, in 1871, commenced to dispose of its sewage in this manner. In 1873 
Berlin decided to adopt the same method, and was followed in a few years by Bres- 
lau, and quite recently by Frankfort. SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
483 
The cost of pumping and caring for the sewage at the farm is estimated at 
twenty-seven hundred dollars ($2,700) per year. 
Mr. Heald's report is accompanied by a report by Pliinelias Ball, 
C.E., of Worcester, in which the plans and arrangements proposed 
by Mr. Heald are strongly commended. 
The Sewerage Committee of the town, having accepted Mr. Heald's 
report, proceeded to negotiate with the Boston Water Board in order 
to ascertain how much the city of Boston would contribute toward 
the expense of the construction of such system of sewerage and of sew- 
age disposal for South Framingham as would result in preventing the 
flow of any of the sewage of the town into the tributary streams of 
Lake Cochituate. As the result of the negotiation on the part of the 
Town Sewerage Committee, the Boston Water Board proposed to con- 
tribute twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) whenever the town should 
complete and put in service, so much of the system devised by Mr. 
Heald as provided for the irrigation field, force main, pumping plant, 
and main trunk line sewer from Bridges street to the pumping station, 
provided that said work should be completed on or before December 
31, 1889. 
Upon receipt of this proposition, the Town Sewerage Committee 
submitted the oiler of the Boston Water Board to the Hon. Wm. Gas- 
ton for a written opinion as to the validity and the power of the 
Water Board to bind the city of Boston to such payment. 
The following is the opinion received: 
Boston, February 7, 1888. 
To the Drainage Committee 
of the Town of Framingham, Mass. 
Gentlemen : Referring to the letter addressed to the inhabitants of the town of 
Framingham by the Boston Water Board, and approved by the Mayor of Boston 
February 3d, 1888, concerning which our opinion has been asked, we beg leave to 
say that we have examined the same and are of the opinion as follows : 
By the provisions of Chapter 167 of the Acts of the year 1846, entitled an "Act 
for supplying the City of Boston with pure water," the city is, after an enumeration 
of various powers, finally authorized at the close of the second section of the Act, to 
do " any other acts and things necessary or convenient and proper for the purpose 
of this act; " this same general pow'er was also conferred upon the city by the pro- 
visions of Chapter 177 of the Acts of the year 1872, in reference to the supply of 
pure water to the city of Boston from Sudbury river and Farm pond. 
The powers thus given to the city (which in our opinion should be construed 
liberally) were, under the provisions of Chapter 80 of the Acts of the year 1875, 
and of an ordinance passed by the City Council, thereunder transferred, so far as 
they could legally be delegated, to the Boston Water Board. In our judgment the 
general powers above recited in the Acts of 1846 and 1872 could thus be legally 
delegated, and are now vested in the Water Board. 
That Board has therefore, in our opinion, the power to do any acts and things nec- 
essary or convenient and proper for the purpose of supplying pure water to Boston, 
either from Lake Cochituate or from Sudbury river or Farm pond. There can be 
no doubt that any system of sewerage which has for its object the removal and dis- 
charge of sewage and polluting substances which now naturally drain into the 
above sources of Boston's water supply, to a point outside the watershed furnishing 484 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
such supply, is a proper and convenient thing for accomplishing the purpose of the 
two acts named, viz., to give Boston pure water. And we are accordingly of opin- 
ion that the Boston Water Board has the power to contribute, or agree for the city 
to contribute, any sum which it deems proper towards the construction of such 
sewerage system. It can in our judgment make no difference so far as Boston is 
concerned whether the beneficial work so paid for by Boston is done by persons 
directly in the employ or by the town of Framingham in its municipal character. 
In our view the proposed contract, if duly accepted by the town of Framingham, is 
binding on the city of Boston. Under the provisions of the new city charter (St. 
1885, Ch. 266, S. 6), the city of Boston is prohibited from incurring any liability 
beyond the appropriation duly made therefor. We are informed by the City Auditor 
that the sum of $50,000 has been duly appropriated by the City Council to be 
expended by the Water Board for the protection of the purity of the water supply 
by agreements with the towns of Framingham and Marlborough, and that the sum 
of money is still on hand. We find upon a recent conference with the Corporation 
Counsel of Boston that he concurs in the above views. 
Yours respectfully, 
Gaston & Whitney. 
The Committee thereupon recommended the acceptance of the 
proposition of the Boston Water Board. 
In the meantime Mr. Heald's plans had been submitted to the State 
Board of Health, which, after due consideration, reported, in regard to 
them as follows: 
Office of the State Board of Health, 
13 Beacon St., Boston, May 13, 1888. 
To the Committee on Sewerage, Framingham, Mass. 
Gentlemen : In response to the application from the town of Framingham of 
March 1, 1888, giving notice of their intention to introduce a system of sewerage 
and asking advice as to the best practicable method of disposing of their sewage, 
and approval of the plans presented pursuant to Chapter 403 of the Acts of 1887, 
the State Board of Health, after fourteen days' notice by publication in the news- 
papers of Framingham and Natick, and official notice in writing to the Selectmen 
of the town of Natick of the presentation to it of such system for its approval, gave 
a public hearing at the State House in Boston on the 24th day of April to all in- 
terested in said system, and after careful examination of the plans presented and 
of the proposed location of grounds for sewage disposal and their surroundings, both 
by personal examination and by its engineers, this approves of the disposal of sew- 
age of Framingham by irrigation and intermittent filtration upon the tract of land, 
containing sixty-eight acres, selected by the town, which is located in the town of 
Natick on the northerly side of the Worcester turnpike and outside of the Boston 
water supply basin. As the method of disposal of sewage upon this tract is not 
presented by the town with sufficient clearness to enable this Board to approve or 
disapprove of the same in detail, the Board therefore approves the system as modi- 
fied and amended as follows : 
The sewage should be applied to so much of the surface of the tract of land as is 
more than four feet above the level in summer of the water in the brook draining 
the tract, and at or near this height on the slope towards the brook, and near 
the lower border of the tract upon which sewage is to be applied, in those sections 
not sloping directly towards the brook, there shall be constructed an embankment 
of earth as much as one foot high above the adjacent surface to which sewage is to 
be applied, and four feet wide, which shall at all times be maintained at such 
height as to prevent any sewage applied to the surface from flowing over the sur- 
face of the ground into the brook or upon adjoining land; and the Board further 
amends by directing that the top of the underdrains to convey the effluent from 
the filtration or irrigation areas shall not be less than four feet below the surface of 
the ground to which sewage is applied ; and the Board further amends by directing 
that the quantity of sewage to be applied to any filter-bed or any irrigation area SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
485 
shall not exceed in any week the equivalent of one foot in depth over the whole 
area of that bed or irrigation area to which it is applied, and the times of appli- 
cation shall be so arranged that no liquid sewage shall remain exposed upon the 
surface or in open ditches more than twenty-four hours at a time. It is understood 
that the receiving reservoirs are to be completely covered and ventilated by flues 
extending to the flue of the chimney of the pumping station, and both reservoirs 
and pumping station are to be located within the town of Framingham. As herein 
modified and amended the proposed system of sewage disposal and its location are 
approved. 
Per order of the Board, 
(Signed) Samuel W. Abbott, 
Secretary of State Board of Health 
The preliminary arrangements having been all satisfactorily made, a 
portion of the work was advertised for letting June 18,1888. The con- 
Chimney 
Coal shed 
Rubble Concrete 
Section AB 
Boiler room 
I ' I 
Gatehouse 
Pump well 
Engine room. 
Fig. 78.-Plan of Reservoirs and Pumping Station, South Framingham, 
Massachusetts. 
struction began immediately thereafter and proceeded as rapidly as 
possible. The work was practically completed about November 1, 
1889. The following extracts from the report of J. J. Van Valken- 
burgh, engineer in charge of construction, give the main facts in 
regard to that portion of the work which relates more particularly to 
the sewage disposal. 
The two receiving reservoirs at the pumping station are each one hundred ten 
and a half feet long and thirty feet wide. [See Fig. 78 for plan of reservoirs and 
pumping station.] These are parallel to and separated from each other by a wall 
three feet thick and seven and one-half feet high. The side walls are three and 
one-half feet thick and eight and one-half feet high. The brick arches, two feet 
in thickness, rest on these walls. 
The bottoms of the reservoirs are inverted and are constructed of rubble concrete, 
varying in thickness from one and one-half feet in the centre to two feet at the 
wpUs. In the centre of the reservoirs the arches are eleven feet and nine inches 486 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
above the invert, and at the walls three and one-half feet. The reservoirs when 
completely filled will hold four hundred and thirty-one thousand gallons. 
Both of the reservoirs may be kept free of sewage while the pumps continue to 
run, being fed by means of an eighteen-inch pipe extending through the centre 
wall from the gate house to the pump-well. 
The pump-well and gate house are both arranged for screens, but it is hardly 
probable that it will be necessary to resort to screening the sewage, since the pump 
valves are of the swinging type, eight by ten inches in diameter.* 
The pumping station and chimney in every particular are of ample size to ac- 
commodate a duplicate set of machinery similar to what you now have. The pump- 
ing engine is one of M. T. Davidson's improved compound duplex condensing type, 
and is guaranteed to deliver, through nine thousand feet of twelve-inch pipe, two 
million U. S. gallons of sewage per twenty-four hours, against a total head of forty 
feet. This total head does not include friction. This then is at the rate of thir- 
teen hundred and eighty-nine gallons per minute, or eighty-three thousand three 
hundred and thirty-three gallons per hour. Thus if the reservoirs were completely 
filled, pumping at the rated capacity of the pumps, they could be emptied in five 
hours and ten minutes. 
Water for the boilers and condenser is taken from a well, six feet in diameter and 
twelve feet deep, situated near the brook which flows by the easterly side of the 
station. This well is connected with the brook by an eight-inch pipe. The depth 
of the well is such that in case said stream becomes too low to be of service, the 
drain in Waverly street or Beaver Dam brook can be piped so as to flow into the 
well. 
There are two steel boilers of the horizontal tubular type, each forty-eight inches 
in diameter, thirteen feet and two inches long, and containing fifty-two three-inch 
steel tubes twelve feet long. 
The shell of the boilers is three-sixteenths of an inch thick; the heads three- 
eighths of an inch. 
A three-foot flue extending from the reservoirs passes under and in front of the 
boilers, and is then connected by a two-foot pipe with the thirty-inch flue leading 
from the boilers to the chimney. 
The draught for the boilers is taken from this source. You see, therefore, that 
the reservoirs have an excellent ventilation. 
The twelve-inch cast-iron force main, which is ninety-seven hundred and forty 
feet long, extends in nearly a straight line to a point on Hartford street about four 
hundred and fifty feet east of Bowdoin lane. Thence following the southerly side 
of said street and the easterly side of Speen street (or road to Saxonville), it reaches 
the farm at a point three hundred feet north from the Worcester turnpike ; thence 
in a straight line and parallel with said turnpike one hundred and eighty feet to 
the first manhole, where the force main ends; but the same course is continued 
two thousand feet further with fifteen-, twelve-, and ten-inch Akron pipe laid to a 
grade of one foot in a thousand. 
The force main is laid to grade ; that is, by opening a six-inch gate in the engine 
room, six thousand one hundred feet of this main will drain into the reservoirs. 
Through two more gates of the same size the remainder of the pipe can be emptied. 
The advantages of this arrangement will be better appreciated when it becomes 
necessary to repair a possible break or leak. 
Eleven six-inch plugged branches have been put in on line of the force main at 
such places as seemed to us most advantageous to those who might desire to take 
the sewage as a fertilizer. 
On lines of pipe at the farm there are fourteen hexagonal man-holes, so con- 
structed that when the pumps are working, by closing a gate on the pipe extending 
through them, the sewage will rise in them. At certain distances up the sides of 
the manholes there are eight-inch gates, generally four of them, at elevations one 
* Near the beginning of 1892 screens were added to remove some of the coarse matters. SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
487 
foot higher than the bed or point of land upon which it is desired to let sewage 
flow. Regulating the opening of these gates regulates the amount of sewage 
delivered. 
The farm, containing sixty-nine acres, three roods, and eleven and one-tenth 
rods, is now in good shape to receive its first instalment of sewage. All wood, ex- 
cepting that reserved by the town, has been cut, likewise this season's growth of 
sprouts. About twelve acres of land have been taken for intermittent filtration ; 
the remainder is to be devoted to broad irrigation. The area for intermittent filtra- 
tion has been divided into eleven beds, with banks about three feet high and four 
feet broad at the top, with sides sloping one and a half to one. One embankment, 
through which extends the main feed pipe, is somewhat higher in certain sections 
than the others, in consequence of giving said pipe the same depth of covering. In 
preparing a bed a portion of land was taken which was as generally level as possi- 
ble, and after ploughing, grubbing, and removing as much loam as was necessary to 
form the embankments, to smooth off the surface and replough into lands seven feet 
in width. The ditches produced by thus ploughing are about nine inches deep and 
twice that in width. These ditches are met at the banks by a larger ditch or car- 
rier, which will conduct the sewage from the manholes into them. Eight of the 
beds are finished, and their embankments in proper shape and seeded. The re- 
maining three beds are graded, and the loam has been put on line of embankments 
as disposed of by the carts. Two beds have been ploughed with a swivel plough 
from one side, consequently these beds do not have a series of ditches similar to 
those possessed by the beds just described. But they have a main carrier along 
the upper sides, from which the sewage will flow into the furrows as ploughed. 
Six of the beds have a six-inch underdrain, six feet below the surface of the 
ground. These drains extend through nearly the centre of the beds, and their 
outlets are in the ravines near the centre of the farm. During the most rainy 
season no water has been observed to come from them, excepting the case of one 
drain that is in close proximity to the bed of the pond that formerly existed near 
the Worcester turnpike. The point of observation of this drain is outside of the 
beds and eight feet below their general level. We think it advisable, therefore, to 
defer further underdraining until the assured necessities of the beds demand it. 
We also advise devoting as much of the sewage as is practicable to broad irriga- 
tion, reserving the beds as much as possible. 
According to the financial statement submitted by the town's sewer- 
age committee at the completion of the work, the total cost of the 
sewerage and sewage disposal works was $148,288. The statement 
does not show the amount properly chargeable to sewage disposal, 
but an idea of the cost of the same can be derived from Mr. Heald's 
original estimate, which stood as follows : 
26,088 lin. feet of sewer, all sizes, with man-holes $63,756 50 
Pumps and boilers in duplicate 8,000 00 
Chimney, engine and boilers house 7,000 00 
Foundations, screens, gates, etc 3,000 00 
Receiving reservoirs (250,000 gallons capacity) 12,000 00 
10,200 lin. feet of 12-inch force main, at $1.85 18,870 00 
85 acres of land at $40 3,400 00 
Clearing and burning 65 acres, at $20.00 1,300 00 
Filtration beds and carriers 10,000 00 
Amount $127,326 50 
Add 10 per cent, for engineering and contingencies 12,732 65 
Total estimated cost $140,059 15 
In regard to the increase in cost of the work in actual construction 
over the amount of the estimate, it is stated by Mr. Van Valkenburgh 488 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
in his report, from which we have already quoted, that the increase 
was due to the large number of heavy storms which occurred while 
the work was constructing, necessitating extra pumping, additional 
underdrains, deeper foundations and more extended supervision, etc. 
In order to facilitate construction, 8,058.4 lineal feet of underdrain were 
constructed which were not contemplated in the original estimate. 
Mr. Baker visited South Framingham on June 17, 1892, and through 
the kindness of Mr. Van Valkenburgh, obtained some additional in- 
formation. John H. Goodell, chairman of the Framingham Sewerage 
Committee has since added to this information, as has Frederick P. 
Stearns, chief engineer of the Massachusetts State Board of Health.* 
To June, 1892, none of the farmers along the line of the outfall sewer 
had availed themselves of the opportunity to draw sewage from it 
through the eleven 6-inch branches provided for this purpose. 
In 1892 corn was successfully raised on three of the beds. 
The following table gives an analysis, furnished by Mr. Stearns, of 
the sewage, effluent, and unpolluted ground-water at South Fram- 
ingham. 
Analyses of Sewage, Sewage Effluent, and Unpolluted Ground Water from 
the Sewage Field at South Framingham, Massachusetts. 
(Parts in 100.00(T.) 
Color. 
Total residue on 
evaporation. 
Ammonia. 
'ouuoiqo 
Nitrogen as 
Free. 
Albuminoid. 
Nitrates. 
Nitrites. 
Sewage 
Sewage effluent at underdrains ... 
Sewage effluent at spring 
Unpolluted ground water 
0.70 
0.00 
0.00 
0.00 
28.30 
19.45 
7.23 
4.70 
1.7898 
.0335 
.0000 
.0000 
.3750 
.0039 
.<1029 
.0008 
4.07 
2.56 
1.77 
0.20 
.0080 
.6018 
.2350 
.0083 
.0001 
.0006 
.0000 
.0000 
Mr. Stearns comments upon these figures and the work of the dis- 
posal area as follows: 
In each case the analyses are the averages of several determinations. They rep- 
resent, first, the sewage as it flows out of the carrier upon the beds; second, the 
effluent flowing from underdrains beneath certain of the beds, which afterward soaks 
into the ground and is filtered the second time before reaching the brook into 
which the effluent finally passes; third, the water of a spring located near the 
brook, which derives its supply to a large extent from the sewage effluent, and 
represents the general character of the effluent when it reaches the brook; and, 
fourth, the unpolluted water from a flowing well near by. 
Only a small part of the sewage effluent comes out at the underdrains, and you 
will notice that this is purified to such an extent that there is only 2^ of free am- 
monia and 1% of albuminoid ammonia remaining, while the nitrates have increased 
greatly. At the spring the free ammonia is entirely removed and the albuminoid 
* See Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 127-9 (Aug. 11, 1892). SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS. 
489 
ammonia is less than one per cent, of that in the sewage. On one occasion an 
analy'is of the spring water showed that it contained neither free nor albuminoid 
ammonia, while the excess of chlorine and nitrates over the amount found in the 
unpolluted ground-water, as shown in the last line, proves without doubt that this 
spring contains a large proportion of sewage effluent. 
Bacterial examinations of the sewage and of effluent collected from the spring 
show that nearly, if not all, bacteria are removed by filtration. 
The effluent from this sewage field flows into a small brook, and although the 
works have been in operation more than two years the discharge of the effluent into 
this brook has not produced any noticeable effect. 
In the report of the Sewer Committee for March, 1893, it is stated 
that there were then 451 houses and 39 hotels and business blocks 
connected with the sewers-222 new connections, or nearly one-half the 
total, having been made in the year 1892-3. At the sewage farm it is 
stated that 400 bushels of corn (probably in the ear), three-fourths of 
an acre of cabbages, and some squashes were raised in 1892, and sold 
for a total of $174. 
The effect of frost and snow upon these filter beds is given in Chapter 
XIV., page 284.* 
* The chief source of information in regard to the South Framingham sewage disposal is Re- 
ports of the Committee on Drainage and Sewerage and Construction of the Sewerage System, 
etc., Nov., 1889. Compiled by Wm. A. Brown, Clerk to Selectmen. Also see Eng. News, voh 
xxii., p. 497 (Nov. 23, 1889); vol. xxviii., pp. 127-9 (Aug. 11, 1892). CHAPTER XXXIV. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MEDFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. 
In the fall of 1886 sewerage and sewage disposal works were con- 
structed at Medfield, Massachusetts, a small town on the Charles 
river, about 17 miles from Boston. The sewage disposal works, which 
include preliminary sedimentation and upward filtration through ex- 
celsior, supplemented by intermittent filtration through natural soil, 
were projected by Eliot C. Clarke, M. Am. Soc. C.E., and constructed 
under the supervision of Fred. Brooks, M. Am. Soc. C.E. The plans 
for the sewage disposal works were approved by the Massachusetts 
State Board of Health in August, 1886. 
The chief manufacturing enterprise at Medfield is the Excelsior 
Straw Works, which employ for seven months of the year between six 
and seven hundred operatives, and during the remainder of the year 
about half as many. 
The following account of the Works is extracted and condensed from 
a paper by Mr. Brooks, Sewage Disposal at Medfield, Massachusetts, 
in the 19th Annual Report of the Massachusetts State Board of Health: 
The straw-works drainage, nearly half of which comes from the vats in which 
straw is dyed, used to run into Vine brook, which flows past the works and is 
dammed up in a small pond just below, whose level is frequently raised and lowered 
for mechanical purposes. This produced an offensive smell around the pond, and 
blackened and polluted the water so that some residents below, on both sides of 
the brook immediately west of the railroad track, who had used its water for domes- 
tic supply, were obliged to abandon it,. and made several complaints. In 1886 a 
pipe sewer was built chiefly for the purpose of keeping the sewage from the straw- 
works out of Vine brook, and disposing of it so as to avoid the nuisance. The 
sewer has been entered also by the Central House (having accommodations for 
about forty boarders), which formerly drained into the brook, and by three private 
dwelling-houses which did not drain into the brook. As a result the channel of the 
brook has already been washed so that it is inoffensive to sight and smell. A 
favorable place was found a little out of the village for the discharge of the sewage 
and its purification by intermittent downward filtration. 
Much ground dye-wood is used at the straw-works, and if this in its water-logged 
condition were admitted to the sewer it was not to be supposed that the sewer 
would be self-cleansing with the gradient available. It falls at the rate of 4 per 
1,000 for nearly a quarter of a mile. Accordingly to exclude the spent dye-wood 
from the sewer there was built adjacent to the dye-house a settling basin with a 
filter, whose construction may be understood by the aid of the accompanying draw- 
ing [Fig. 79]. It is made in two parts, side by side, exactly alike, in order that one- 
half may be in use, if necessary, while the other is being cleaned out. The dis- 
charge from the vats can be turned, by a wooden gate in the trough which brings it INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MEDFIELD. 
491 
from the dye-house, into either side of the settling basin separately. Entering by 
the four-inch openings the liquid flows generally in both sides, with a total width of 
ten feet and a depth of four feet, less the thickness of the deposit of sediment. The 
velocity of flow is thus checked, and the ground dye-wood 
has a chance to settle. To get into the second pair of 
compartments it has to pass over the brick dividing wall, 
whose elevation is the same as the bottom of the inlet 
pipe. Here is another opportunity for settlement to take 
place, but apparently very little collects in the second 
compartments until the first are pretty well filled. In the 
third compartments by a tight board partition the liquid 
is obliged to pass downward, and escape by upward filtra- 
tion through a mass of excelsior held between two sets of 
wooden slats, as exhibited by the drawing ; the upward flow 
being preferred as a precaution against choking the filter. 
The filter was in use nearly a year before the excelsior 
was changed; it worked very satisfactorily, but the excel- 
sior had by that time become so rotted that probably it 
would soon after have gone to pieces and escaped through 
the sewer. A new supply was accordingly substituted. 
The sediment needs to be shovelled out and carted off once 
or twice a year; it has a similar appearance to saw-dust, 
except for its black color. 
Near the lower end of the sewer the sewage passes 
through a cesspool arranged as shown on the accompanying 
drawing [Fig. 80], so that the outflow takes place from be- 
neath the surface of the sewage standing in the cesspool. 
The effect is that objects which either float or sink are 
held back until they are sufficiently changed by chemical 
or other action to flow uniformly with the rest of the liq- 
uid, and are prevented from being thrown out upon the 
ground at the outlet. . . . Very little sediment col- 
lects in the cesspool-only about a foot in depth in the 
course of a year ; when it fills up, the sediment will have 
to be taken out. 
. . . The filtering bed upon which the sewage is dis- 
charged consists of one acre of ground graded nearly level. 
It was intended to be conical, sloping at the rate of five 
per thousand away from the centre, where the outlet of 
the sewer is; but owing to slight imperfections in the 
work, unequal settlement, etc., it is a little irregular-gen- 
erally flatter. . . . The shape of the filtering bed was 
made a little irregular to adapt it to the existing topo- 
graphical conditions; but it is substantially a square, sub- 
divided into four small squares of one-quarter acre each by 
little embankments, three of which are about a foot in 
height; the fourth covers the pipe to a depth of three 
feet for protection against freezing or other injury. To 
prevent the sewage from running off from the filtering bed without penetrating its 
surface, the filling wTas also embanked about a foot above the graded surface along 
the north-east side of the filtering bed, the only portion of the exterior line where 
the graded surface was not lower than the ground adjacent. The material is mostly 
gravel and stones from the size of a man's fist downward, and is well suited for the 
purpose of filtration. In grading the filtering bed the thin stratum of loam and 
grass upon the surface was not removed; it was simply ploughed up and then 
handled like the gravel. But the narrow strip under the embankment through 
which the pipe is laid had its loam stripped off, and the gravel with which it was 
replaced was carefully puddled to make an unyielding foundation for the pipe. At 
the middle of the filtering bed the pipe sewer ends [as shown by Fig. 80] in a wooden 
Brick Wa//s capped with P/ank upon iv/i/ch are /a/d 2 "Corer/nq P/anks. 
Fig. 79.-Sections through Settling and Filtering Tanks, Medfield, Massachusetts 
Section C-D 
Section A-B. 492 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
trough having four outlets-one to each subdivision of the filtering bed-which out- 
lets are closed by three gates ; so that the sewage runs on to one subdivision, and is 
shut off from the other three. Every other day the gate is changed from one outlet 
to the next, so as to turn two days' sewage on to a subdivision, and then give it 
six days' rest, to allow the sewage to pass off through the ground, and let the sur- 
face of that division become dry enough for another dose. 
No underdrainage has been put in at the filtering bed. The ground-water 
naturally is about ten feet below the surface of the filtering bed. Judging 
from the visible indications, especially the contour of the surface of the ground, 
the natural drainage from the filtering bed must be in the direction of a little 
depression leading down toward the meadow to the northward, where there is 
a spring of very good water which is the source of a permanent stream, as 
shown on the plan and profile. The artificially straight course of the little stream 
may be explained by the fact that the meadow through which it flows was graded 
up several years ago, so that better crops could be cultivated. This stream being 
a tributary of the Charles river, upon whose banks a long distance below are situated 
Section thro' Outlet 
on A,B,C 
Section. 
Embankment 
Fig. 80.-Plan and Section through Sewage Outlets and Cesspool. 
the filtering galleries from which several municipalities draw their water supply, 
Medfield sewage requires to be purified before entering it. 
The success of this filtering bed during the severe cold of winter has been 
favored by the fact that the dye-vats are kept at a high temperature. Daily obser- 
vations in October, November, December, and January, 1887-88, show that the 
temperature of the sewage as it comes upon the filtering bed at the outlet is, while 
business is active at the straw-works, generally from 60° to 80° F., falling at night 
and on holidays from that downward to about the temperature of the ground- 
water, say 50° F. ... In January, 1887, on a day when the thermometer went 
down to 26° below7 zero F., the sewage was turned on to a division of the filtering 
bed that was covered with snow and ice. The writer visited it a few days later 
and found that from a strip five or ten feet wide, extending nearly across the bed, 
the snow7 and ice had been melted away. The sewage had also run underneath the 
remaining snow and ice a little way, so that on digging with a shovel through it 
-say ten feet from this open place-moist and unfrozen ground was found beneath ; 
still further away the ground was frozen. 
With regard to the quantity of liquid discharged upon the filtering bed, it was 
estimated in the latter part of 1887 by putting a little weir at one of the wooden 
trough outlets and observing at intervals the height of water going over it. It 
fluctuates a great deal, but it is estimated that in addition to the leakage of 2,000 
cubic feet per twenty-four hours of clean water above mentioned, there comes in 
on the average, from straw-works and the house drains, about 3,000 cubic feet per 
day for six days in the week for about seven months, from November to May-that INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MEDFIELD. 
493 
is, about half the days in the year-but only about 1,500 cubic feet per day for five 
months, from June to October, and on Sundays in the other seven months, i.e., the 
other of the year. That this estimate (though not claiming to be minutely accurate) 
is substantially correct may be judged by comparing such estimates as can be made 
from known facts as to the number of people in the buildings and the quantities 
usually discharged from the dye-house and bleachery; also by comparing the 
estimated quantity of water pumped from an artesian well which is the original 
source of most of the liquid that gets into the sewer. Most of what is pumped 
from this well ultimately finds its way into the sewer. More has been pumped 
heretofore than the required water supply, and the excess has been allowed to over- 
flow from a tank and escape into the sewer, making just so much unnecessary 
hindrance to the drying of the filtering bed; whereas, if pumped at all, it might 
better have overflowed into Vine brook, being pure water. For purposes of com- 
parison the quantity of liquid discharged upon this filtering bed of one acre (or 
4,000 square metres) may be estimated at 4,250 cubic feet (or 120 cubic metres, or 
32,000 United States gallons) per twenty-four hours the year round, though the 
actual want of uniformity must make the effect rather different. For the purpose 
of comparison as to the population provided for, we may assume, as an approxi- 
mation, that the manufacturing waste from the straw-works takes the place of the 
domestic waste that would ordinarily go with the number of operatives that board 
outside of the sewered area; and thus counting operatives and residents alike, 
may call the average population provided for about 500. 
The works were designed for about 3,000 to 3,500 cubic feet of sewage per 
twenty-four hours ; but the town secured an additional acre of ground around the 
present graded filtering bed with a view to extending its area, if an increase in the 
quantity of sewage to be disposed of should hereafter make it necessary. At 
present the full area prepared is not fairly availed of, because from the neglect to 
grade the surface more accurately by a little harrowing there are portions which 
stand high and dry, and have never been touched by the sewage, which collects in 
the low places where, after two days' discharge, it stands in a pool. The six days 
following hardly give suflicient opportunity for it to percolate through the soil and 
for the surface of the filtering bed to become dry. The natural tendency is toward 
the formation of a moist, pasty coating over the surface of the lowest points of 
the filtering bed, entirely contrary to the intention with which it ■was laid out. In 
spite of this imperfection, which it is not to be supposed will be allowed to con- 
tinue, the general working of the scheme has been highly satisfactory. No smell 
is noticeable except just at the outlet of the sewer. 
The work for the town was done under a contract for a " lump " sum ; the cost 
of the disposal works was probably about §1,000, including cesspool, pipe from 
cesspool to outlet, earthwork, engineering, superintendence and profit to con- 
tractor, and the value of land, which was given to the town. The annual expense 
of maintenance of the work of disposal is insignificant-probably about thirty 
dollars. A man has to change the gate regularly, which is the principal labor re- 
quired. The surface ought to be harrowed over when it gets clogged with sedi- 
ment, the embankments repaired if they get trodden down or washed ; the wooden 
parts will have to be occasionally renewed as they decay, the cesspool will have to 
be emptied sometimes; but a very few days' labor annually will cover all that 
appears to be required. 
No statements as to recent cost of operation have been made.* 
* Mr. Brooks's paper gives a series of analyses of (1) the water of wells in the vicinity of the 
filter area ; (2) of a spring near by, below the filter area, which contains some of the effluent; and 
(3) of the crude sewage ; together with the results of a few determinations of bacteria by plate 
cultures. A record of the temperature of the sewage for the month of December, 1887, is in- 
cluded. 
Mr. Brooks's paper, in a slightly modified form, may also be found in the Jour, of the Assoc, 
of Eng. Socs., vol. vii., No. 7, pp. 235-244 (July, 1888). Also see Eng. and Bld. Reed., vol. xviii., 
pp. 27-30 (1888). CHAPTER XXXV. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AND BROAD IRRIGATION AT THE 
LONDON, ONTARIO, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
The sewage disposal system at the London (Ontario) Insane Hos- 
pital is so interesting that a short description of it is included in this 
volume, although it is not in the United States. 
Previous to 1889 the sewage from the hospital was delivered into a 
small brook, tributary to the South branch of the Thames river, which 
flows through the city of London. This brook has only a small drain- 
age area, and frequently becomes nearly dry during the summer 
season. The population of the hospital is over 1,000 and the daily 
amount of sewage about 60,000 gallons. The necessity, therefore, for 
some means of disposal other than into the brook had been for a 
number of years very apparent. 
In 1888 Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C.E., was requested to 
examine the whole question of sewage disposal, and report plans and 
such information as would be necessary for carrying out the work 
advised. 
As soon as possible after receiving this commission, Col. Waring 
reported a project, which was immediately carried out, substantially 
as follows: 
The original system of sewers, which received storm and roof water, 
was left intact, and a new system of small vitrified pipes laid, connect- 
ing with all fixtures throughout the buildings, and flushed by auto- 
matic flush-tanks located at the heads of the several lines. The new 
sewers all deliver into an underground tank, of a capacity of 100,000 
gallons, near the main hospital building. The sewage is delivered 
from the sewers into a screen chamber at one end of the tank, and 
passes through a vertical screen into the tank proper. Ventilation of 
the tank is secured by means of six man-holes, three at one end having 
perforated covers, and three at the other end connected by ten-inch 
pipes, laid underground, with the chimney of the pump-house. 
The disposal area (Fig. 81), amounting to 30 acres, is so situated 
with reference to the hospital buildings as to render delivery of the 
sewage thereto by gravity impossible, and accordingly a pumping 
station was erected about 30 feet east of the tank, containing an eight- 
inch Webber centrifugal pump, driven by a 25 horse-power Westing- LONDON, ONTARIO, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
495 
house automatic engine. The suction is a ten-inch iron pipe, dipping 
into a small sump in the bottom of the tank at the lower end in such 
manner as to admit, when necessary, of the sewage being entirely 
pumped out. This pump has a capacity of about 60,000 gallons per 
hour; hence, for the present, about one hour's pumping per day will 
be all that is required. The discharge-pipe is an eight-inch spiral 
riveted pipe 1,526 feet long, which enters the bottom of a brick dis- 
tributing well, 4 feet in diameter, at the disposal field. 
Irrigating Tract 
irrigating Tract 
Irrigating Tract 
Fig. 81.-Disposal Area, Hospital for the Insane, London, Ontario. 
The method of disposal is intermittent filtration supplemented by 
broad irrigation. For this purpose an area of about five acres, at the 
highest portion of the disposal field, has been levelled and laid out in 
absorption ditches after the manner shown in the cross-section, Fig. 
82. The balance of the field, consisting of about 12 acres, is provided 
with a main carrier and distribution ditches for use as an irrigation 
area whenever the filtration area is overworked, or whenever during 
the growing season the sewage can be profitably utilized thereon for 
growing crops. The intermittent filtration area is divided into three 496 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
parts, into one of which the sewage is run for one day, this arrange- 
ment giving two days' rest for a section after each application. 
The construction was begun in October, 1888, and completed in 
June, 1889, the work being done by the Department of Public Works 
Fig. 82.-Section of Absorption Ditches. 
of Ontario, under the general direction of the Architect-in-Chief of 
the Department. F. W. Farquhar, C.E., of the firm of Waring, Chap- 
man & Farquhar, Civil Engineers* of Newport, Rhode Island, acted as 
resident engineer. 
The entire cost of the work was in the neighborhood of $15,000, the 
principal items of construction being as follows : 
1 sewage collecting tank. 
1 pump-house containing boiler, pump, and engine. 
1,526 feet spiral riveted force-main. 
3,865 feet 6-inch sewers. 
640 feet 4-inch sewers. 
2 automatic flush-tanks. 
1 distributing-well. 
320 feet 18-inch channel pipe. 
2,700 feet 3-inch tile underdrains. 
2,700 feet 4-inch tile underdrains. 
1,250 feet 6-inch tile underdrains. 
3,000 cubic yards grading. 
10,800 feet settling ditches. 
2,700 feet irrigating ditches. 
The following extracts from Col. Waring's report to the Department 
of Public Works indicate a number of interesting details, which have 
been mostly omitted in the foregoing general account. 
The plan sent . . . shows . . . the new drains recommended for the 
collection and removal of foul wastes. These all lead to an underground tank, to 
be constructed ... to the rear of the west wing of the main building. 
The details of this tank are shown in the drawings. (See Fig. 83.) Its interior 
size is 70 feet by 40 feet; walls 16 inches thick, with bottom of concrete. It is 
covered by three longitudinal arches, 12.66 feet span, 12 inches thick, which rest 
on two longitudinal walls with arched openings. The floor of the tank is graded, 
varying between elevation 31.9 and 32.3 respectively. Each section has a longitu- 
dinal drainage gutter, with its upper end at 32.22 and its lower end at 31.98, 31.94, 
31.90, with a cross gutter leading to a sump four feet in diameter with its bottom 
at grade 30.0. 
The bottom of this sump is hemispherical, and the suction pipe of the pump is 
centrally located, having six inches space between its mouth and the bottom. This 
mouth should be bell-shaped, not straight as shown in the drawing. The elevation 
of the ground at this point is 47.5, making the surface of the floor of the tank 
about 15 feet below the surface. LONDON, ONTARIO, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
497 
There are three man-holes at each end of the tank, with covers at the surface of 
the ground. At the receiving end of the tank, at the head of the central chamber, 
is a screening chamber reaching to the surface of the ground and with its bottom 
at elevation 34.4. 
Fig. 83.-Collecting Tank and Pumping Station, Hospital for the Insane, London, Ontario. 
The opening from this chamber into the tank is 8.33 feet wide, and it is provided 
with a screen carried in slots in the side w'alls 4.5 feet high in the centre. This 
screen is to be made of wrought iron and galvanized; the vertical bars to be of 
half-inch round iron, and the openings between them one inch wide. The top of 498 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
this screening chamber is covered at the surface of the ground with a hinged 
wooden cover. 
The receiving well . . . is to be constructed as shown in the drawings. 
Its inlet is at the bottom, and the force main has a continuous rise from the 
pump. The pump has no valve. Therefore, whenever the pump is stopped the 
contents of the receiving well and force main will flow back into the tank, so that 
there will be no trouble from freezing. 
At the highest part of the field a tract ... is brought to an absolute level 
at an elevation of about 45.8. 
Fig. 84.-Section of Carrier Ditches. 
This level tract is laid off in communicating parallel ditches . . . and is 
underdrained. . . . the main outlet from the receiving [distributing] well 
has a fall of one in 500. At its lower end it delivers into a distributing ditch, 
which is continued by a carrier parallel with the west side of the field, from which 
carrier two distributing ditches are laid as shown. (See Figs. 84 and 86 for sec- 
tions of carrier and distributing ditches.) 
Concrete 
^Branch. 
l8"CbannelPipe 
Force Main 
'Distributing 
Well 
Section AFT 
'ChannelPipe. 
Sect ion of Bank 
Section of Absorption Dt/ih 
Unclerdrain 
Fig. 85.-Details of Distributing Well, Hospital for the Insane, 
London, Ontario. 
The carrier ditch has the natural fall of the land ; the distributing ditches have a 
fall of one in 500. At a point southeast from the level field there is a short level 
catch ditch, intended to intercept the surface flow of sewage down the steep slope 499 
near it, and distribute more evenly over the depression below. The need for the 
catch ditch may be avoided by such grading at this part of the tract as will bring 
the contours more nearly parallel. . . . 
The main outlet from the receiving well is to be made of half pipes (vitrified). 
This pipe is to be without sockets, and is to be laid in vitrified collars or sleeves. 
If the flow through the distributing ditch is arrested at any point, as it may be 
by sticking a wrought-iron gate into the earth, making a dam across the top, the 
sewage will overflow for a greater or less distance above the dam according to the 
volume of the current. If the dam is placed first at the lower end of the upper 
distributing ditch it will overflow, for example, 200 feet above the dam. When the 
ground to be reached by this overflow has received a sufficient supply of sewage 
LONDON, ONTARIO, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
Overflow Line 
4.0ft. 
0.5ft. 
Fig. 86.-Section of Distributing Ditches. 
the dam is placed higher up stream, and the overflow carried over the next section 
of 200 feet, and then in like manner to the third section. Should the ground be- 
tween the two ditches not be able to absorb all the sewage discharged upon it, the 
overflow will be caught by the second distributing ditch, and if its quantity is suf- 
ficient can have its distribution regulated by the placing of a dam there as above.* 
* The sources of information in regard to the sewage disposal at the London, Ont., Insane Hos- 
pital are :-(1) The 7th An. Rept. of the Prov. Bd. of Health (1888), which contains Col. War- 
ing's Rept. to the Dept. Pub. Wks. and the Rept. of a Com. of Prov. Bd. Health, etc.; (2) Eng. 
& Bldg. Reed., vol. xx. (1889), p. 119 ; (3) a paper, " Disposal of Sewage at Large Institutions," 
in the American Architect for April 9, 1892. By Col. Waring. CHAPTER XXXVI. 
CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AND INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT 
THE ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
The original method of disposing of the sewage of this Hospital was 
by turning it directly into Silver creek, a small stream flowing a few 
hundred feet distant from the buildings. The pollution of the stream 
had been for a number of years, however, the subject of complaint on 
the part of the riparian owners. The matter was finally referred to 
the Minnesota State Board of Health, who directed Dr. Charles N. 
Hewitt, secretary and executive officer of the Board, to examine the 
case and report thereon. Dr. Hewitt reported that the discharge of 
crude sewage into the stream was the source of a serious nuisance 
which ought to be immediately abated. 
The Controlling Board of the Hospital thereupon employed, in 
January, 1890, W. S. MacHarg, C.E., of Chicago, who proposed a 
scheme of chemical precipitation, supplemented by intermittent filtra- 
tion. Mr. MacHarg's plans were submitted to the Controlling Board 
on February 5, 1890, and accepted by them, subject to the approval of 
the State Board of Health, w hich wTas given on February 21. Con- 
Bank of Carin 
Pneapifafion Tank'- 
4" Sludge Mam 
Fig. 87. -Plan of Disposal Works, Second Minnesota Hospital for 
the Insane, Rochester, Minnesota. 
struction was immediately begun and the works put in operation Nov- 
ember 1, 1890. The general arrangement of the works and the creek 
are shown by Fig. 87. The detail of the precipitation tanks is shown 
by Fig. 88. ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
501 
The present population of the Hospital is about 1,050 persons and 
the sewage, amounting to 60,000 gallons a day, flows to the precipita- 
tion tanks through a 10-inch pipe. The sewage consists only of the 
. Baffle Board 
BaffleBoard, 
Longitudinal Section. 
Shone, 
Ejector 
Circulating 
Channel. 
Influent 
.Channel 
Effluent Channel 
Outlet 
Broken Stone 
Screen 
Camber 
Ejector Pit 
Transverse Section 
Circulating Channel 
, Influent Channel 
Sewer 
from 
Hospital 
Effluent Channel 
Ejector Pit. 
Air Pipe X 
InlefPipe 
\ Ejector 
To Filtration Area 
To Sludge Pit " Plan 
Fig. 88.-Precipitation Tank, Second Minnesota Hospital for the Insane. 
discharge from water-closets, baths, toilets, kitchens, laundries, etc. ; 
no storm-water is admitted. The tankage is of sufficient capacity to 
handle 75,000 gallons per day. The tanks, four in number, are ar- 
ranged for a depth of sewage of 4 feet; they are worked on the con- 
tinuous system, one being cut out each day and cleaned preparatory to 
receiving the sewage during the night, when steam is not available for 
pumping. 
Shone's Hydro-Pneumatic Ejector is used for pumping; the air 
compressor and air receiver are located in the engine house, about 502 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IX THE UNITED STATES. 
1.000 feet from the ejector, the air supply being carried thereto through 
a 3-inch pipe. The ejector is set low enough to allow the sewage and 
sludge from the bottom of the tanks to flow to it by gravity. 
A 4-inch main leads from the ejector to the filtration area at the 
right, and also to the sludge disposal area, a short distance to the 
left. The soil of the filtration area is prairie loam to the depth of 16 
inches, below which is sand and gravel. At about six feet is found a 
strong flow of ground-water in the direction of the creek. At this 
depth 3-inch underdrains are laid in lines about 25 feet apart, with 
the main outfall drain 6 inches in diameter, as indicated on the plan. 
No details of the method of laying these drains are furnished. The 
following from Mr. MacHarg's report will serve to indicate the other 
essential features of the project: 
As a consequence of the reasons I have 'adduced, I recommend that a double 
process be used ; that which is at the present moment the result of the best judg- 
ment of the facts which have accumulated from experience extending over many 
years and including many processes. 
This process is, first, the clarification of the sewage by chemical precipitation or 
subsidence in tanks ; and, second, the disposal of the effluent by intermittent filtra- 
tion upon land, and of the sludge by mixture with earth as manure. The filtration 
of the effluent water is not essential except where a high standard of purity is ie- 
quired in the stream. It may therefore be so used advantageously during such 
part of the year as the ground is not frozen, and during extreme cold weather or 
during heavy rains may be discharged directly into the stream without offence. 
The advantage of this process is, I think, obvious ; the clarification in the tanks 
removes all suspended matter, which is the most offensive, and if proper chemicals 
are used for precipitation most of the dissolved impurity may be removed, and an 
effluent be obtained which may be discharged into any stream not used for domes- 
tic water supply without disagreeable consequences ; the clarified effluent water 
may be used in irrigation to the advantage of crops, and almost all the dissolved im- 
purity will be removed. 
Having alternative ways of disposing of the effluent, you are thus made indepen- 
dent of climatic conditions, and the drainage of the hospital is continued without 
offence to adjoining property. 
To accomplish this result I provide, as shown in the accompanying plans, a tank 
large enough to contain one day's flow of sewage for a probable 1,200 persons, or 
about 75,000 gallons (?) ; this tank is to be built of masonry or concrete, with par- 
titions and channels so arranged that any one section may be cut out, emptied, and 
cleaned without interference with the continuous use of the tank. 
For the disposal of the effluent water I propose to underdrain about two acres of 
land, and prepare it with the necessary banks and channels on the surface. A pipe 
is to be laid from effluent end of tank to the ejector, and from the ejector to the 
field. This pipe will be branched as shown, and the sewage be allowed to flow 
over one portion of the field on one day and over another on the next. By divid- 
ing the field into four portions, each section has one day work and three days rest. 
By this intermittent use the extremely efficient action of earth filtration is obtained. 
A very ordinary class of attendance is required upon the filtration area. Certain 
crops may be grown upon this area, but this method is not founded upon any idea 
of getting a money value out of sewage. 
To carry away the sludge deposited in the tanks an inlet pipe is connected to the 
ejector, branching and connecting to the bottom of each section of the tank, with 
an opening at the floor and with a branch with a floating arm. The floor connec- 
tion is stopped with a plug and the arm is free to rise and fall with the water, ROCHESTER, MINNESOTA, HOSPITAL FOR THE INSANE. 
503 
and the floating end covered with a screen. From the outlet of ejector a pipe is 
run to any part of the low land near the brook. A portion of land is excavated to 
receive the sludge. The section of the tank to be cleaned is closed off at the chan- 
nels, and the clear water allowed to flow through the arm to the ejector and de- 
livered on to the irrigating field ; when the floating arm has fallen to the level of 
the sludge, the plug in the bottom is drawn out and the sludge discharged by 
means of the ejector through the pipe before mentioned upon the excavation pre- 
pared. When all the sludge is discharged the tank is washed out and the ejector 
disconnected from it, and the tank put again in service. The sludge is covered in 
the excavation with fresh earth and allowed to solidify; several layers may be put 
in each excavation, and when required may be dug out and used for manure. 
As regards the use of chemicals to precipitate the sewage, and therefore render 
the effluent more nearly pure, I think that it will be necessary during the greater 
part of the year. While the effluent is being used upon the land, vegetation and 
bacterial action in the aerated soil will accomplish all that is necessary in the puri- 
fication of the water, and you will only need to have recourse to the precipitants 
during such periods as you wish to discharge into the brook. This means neces- 
sarily through the winter and possibly during long-continued wet weather. 
The chemicals most available are lime, sulphate of alumina, and, under some 
circumstances, sulphate or perchloride of iron. These are all used in the crude 
form, as purity and consequent increased cost are unnecessary. Clay is also used 
as an absorbent to facilitate deposition. Lime used alone is efficacious, but pro- 
duces a sludge which under some circumstances becomes offensive. Sulphate of 
alumina with clay produces good results; with either mixture a small amount of 
one of the iron salts is sometimes used as a deodorizer. The experience with these 
preparations is mostly English, and as their sewage is less diluted than ours it is 
probable that you will need to determine the mixture which will give you the most 
satisfactory results. 
The work was largely constructed by the labor of the hospital 
patients, and statements as to actual cost are lacking. For operating 
the works one man is specially employed, who is assisted somewhat, 
when necessary, by the patients. 
A letter from the superintendent of the hospital, received in April, 
1892, states that no trouble has been experienced in securing an 
efficient winter purification during the two winters that the disposal 
works have been in operation. Both the winters, however, are stated 
to have been somewhat warmer than the average. The sewage prob- 
ably reaches the precipitation tank in cold weather with a temperature 
of at least 45° F.* 
* The chief source of information in regard to the sewage disposal at the Rochester Insane 
Hospital is the 6th Biennial Rept. of the Trustees, etc., for the Biennial Period Ending July 31, 
1890. Also see Eng. and Bldg. Record, vol. xxiii., p. 72. CHAPTER XXXVII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MARLBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS 
Marlborough, Massachusetts, a town with a population in 1890 of 
13,805, is situated on the influent streams to Basin No. 3 of the Sudbury 
river water supply of the city of Boston. While the town has only 
just constructed a sewerage system, it has nevertheless resulted that 
Basin No. 3 has been considerably polluted by the drainage of Marl- 
borough. 
In 1888 an Act passed the Massachusetts Legislature authorizing 
the town of Marlborough to lay out, construct, and maintain a system 
of sewerage and sewage disposal. Under the provisions of this Act 
the town authorities designated M. M. Tidd, M. Am. Soc. C.E., of 
Boston, to prepare the necessary plans, which, after a number of hear- 
ings, were finally approved by the State Board of Health on January 
7, 1890. The plans presented by Mr. Tidd included the delivery of the 
sewage completely outside of the Sudbury river water-shed and its 
purification by intermittent filtration. In consideration of carrying 
the sewage outside the Sudbury water shed the Boston Water Board 
have agreed to contribute $62,000 toward defraying the expenses of 
the work of construction. Desmond FitzGerald, M. Am. Soc. C.E., 
represented the city of Boston in this connection. The sewerage sys- 
tem, which is of the separate type, was completed early in 1892, and 
the disposal area shortly afterward. 
On June 23, 1892, there were about 350 sewer connections. As the 
total number of water connections at the close of 1890 was 1,794, and 
the population of the town in 1890 was 13,805, it is evident that the 
amount of sewage to be purified is small compared with what it will 
be in the future. 
The town introduced water-works in 1883, and the consumption of 
water in the early part of 1892 was about 325,000 gallons a day, but at 
4.30 P.M., May 12, 1892, after a dry spell, the flow through the outlet 
sewer was at the rate of 330,000 gallons a day, and on May 25, 1892, at 
9 a.m., after heavy rains, the rate of flow was 790,000 gallons a day. 
The measurements on each date were made by observing the time 
taken to fill the separating tank once. 
Ground-water is the only explanation for this large flow through the 
sewers, for, as has been stated, not more than one-fifth of the water !5 "Server Pip* r - - - - ~ 
10 "Iron '< 
!6'Dmin * ■ - 
4-" " „ : 
PavedSuper =» ■ » - 
Sludge Carrier • 
Horizontal Scale 
Vertical Scale 
Section on A-B. 
Sotaronfy Beds Ifo 20 
have been constructed. 
FIG. 2. PLAN OF FILTER BEDS. 
FIG. 1. MAP OF MARLBOROUGH SHOWING SEWERAGE SYSTEM. 
CNA8» HART 4 SOHS, LITH., 36 VESEY ST., N. Ye 
PLATE V. MAP OF MARLBOROUGH TOWN AND PLAN OF FILTER BEDS. Stop Plank. 
N? £ balnan/zed Iron Mr? Screen with Selvedge Edge / "Medi 
5 
Plan of Portion of Sludge Carrier. 
Ouidefor Stop Plank. 
Plan. 
OUTLETS AT FILTER BEDS. 
FIG. 5. 
Section C-D. 
Plan ■ 
Section on Line A-B. 
tk.- 
\ ferticai Section. 
From Elevation. 
Longitudinal Section on A-B. 
Section C- D. 
FIG. 7. SLUDGE CARRIER. 
Section on A-B. 
FIG. 1. SEPARATING TANK. 
^'wr/ron Plate., 
Stud Bolt 
FIG. 4. SCREENS IN SEPARATING TANK. 
Half open 
Sectional Plan. 
Half 
bate 
Cast lion Anchor 
for 
Gate Stands. 
PLATE VI. DETAILS OF SEWAGE PURIFICATION PLANT AT MARLBOROUGH, MASS. 
CHAS. HART 4 SONS, LITH., 36 VESEY ST., N. Y. 
Side Elevation. 
Section A-B. 
Front Elevation. 
Vertical Section. 
Front Elevation. 
FIG. 6. 10-IN. GATE TO FILTER BEDS. 
FIG. 2. 18-IN. INFLUENT GATE. 
FIG. 3. 18-IN. SWINGING GATE. INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT MARLBOROUGH. 
505 
consumers are connected with sewers. Unfortunately, Marlborough is 
not the only town where an excessive amount of ground-water finds its 
way into the sewers. The city of Boston would not allow Marlborough 
to put in underdrains because it feared that sewage would pass 
through defective sewer joints, and into the drains, and thus finally 
into the Boston water supply. 
The filtration areas are located about two miles, in an air line, from 
the outskirts of the village, as shown by Plate V., Fig. 1, and some 3| 
miles from the last house connection, measured on the pipe line. The 
nearest house is about 1,000 feet from the filter areas. There are two 
other houses about 1,500 feet away, and no more within about a mile. 
The sewage passes from the village to the disposal area through an 
outlet sewer of vitrified pipe. A separating or settling tank removes 
the sludge from the sewage, after which it passes through iron pipes 
to the several filter beds, of which there are now 14 in use besides the 
six small ones used for emptying the sludge. 
The arrangement and details of the purification plant are shown by 
Plates V. and VI. Fig. 2, Plate V., is a plan of the filter beds. Only 
20 of these, including the 6 sludge beds, were in use, but it is proposed 
to use 51 beds eventually. The 14 filter beds now in use, with their 
dividing embankments, cover about 13 acres. In the whole tract 
bought by the city there are 60 acres. 
The separating or sludge tank is shown in plan and section by Fig. 
1, Plate VI. It is of brick, in two compartments, with gates permit- 
ting sewage to be admitted to or drawn from either one at will. 
The course of the sewage in passing through the tank is shown by 
the drawings. The screens perform only a slight service, as most of 
the solid matter settles before the sewage reaches the screens. 
The sludge can be removed from either tank to the sludge carrier 
by opening the cleaning-out gate. The floor over the tanks is formed 
by iron gratings supported by I beams, 3| feet centre to centre. 
The character of the 24-in. influent gates, and the 18-in. gate, which 
controls the passage of sewage directly to the beds through the pipe 
on the partition wall, are shown by the 18-in. lift-gate, Fig. 2, 
Plate VI. 
There is also shown in Fig. 3, Plate VI., an 18-in. swinging gate, 
which is apparently used at the effluent end of the tank. 
Fig. 4, Plate VI., shows in detail the screen used in the separating 
tank. 
The sewage passes from the top of the tank through iron pipes 
along the embankments to the several beds, and discharges on to the 
beds through gates and short branches, the bed at the point of dis- 
charge being paved. Fig. 5, Plate VI., gives a plan and section of the 
outlet to the beds, and Fig. 6, Plate VI., shows the two-way 10-in. ver- 506 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
tical gate used. A single gate constructed on the same principle as 
the two-way is used where only one gate is needed. 
The sludge passes through the cleaning-out gate, already mentioned, 
to the sludge carrier, shown in detail in Fig. 7, Plate VI. 
Sludge was first removed from the tank in April, 1892. It remained 
upon one of the beds for a month, instead of being speedily removed, 
and finally became offensive. An adjacent farmer removed it without 
cost to the town. On May 25 the sludge was drawn from the tank 
the second time, and on June 11 the third time, in each case a farmer 
hauling it away. The tank filled full, or nearly full, of sludge, each of 
the last two times. 
The crust that forms on top of the filter beds, consisting of minute 
particles of matter suspended in the sewage, is harrowed in from time 
to time. 
The effluent from the beds discharges through underdrains into Hop 
and Wash brooks, which empty into the Sudbury river. These beds 
were visited by Mr. Baker, June 17,1892, at which time they seemed, so 
far as casual observation could determine, to be doing good work and 
presented no unpleasant features. A strong breeze was blowing over 
the beds, but even at their leeward side only a slight odor was noticed. 
The cost of the tank, tank-house, filter-beds, and all appurtenances, 
including engineering and excluding land, was $21,720. The outlet 
sewer was carried 2^ miles farther than it would have been had not 
sewage purification been adopted. The total extra cost caused by the 
construction of this extra pipe line and the filtration beds and appur- 
tenances was about $62,000, which was met by the city of Boston in re- 
turn for the removal of the sewage from its water-supply.* 
*See Eng. News, vol. xxviii., p. 170 (Aug. 25, 1892). CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FOR 
THE FEEBLE-MINDED. 
The Custodial Ward of the Massachusetts School for the Feeble- 
Minded, completed in 1889, was designed to accommodate about 150 
inmates. It is located near the summit of a densely wooded hill in 
Waltham. The natural course of the drainage from the School is into 
the Charles river, which is the source of a municipal water supply, at 
a point a short distance below where the drainage of the Custodial 
Ward would naturally enter it. Under the laws of Massachusetts, to 
which we have already referred (p. 480), it therefore became necessary 
to purify the sewage before allowing it to flow into any tributary 
stream of the Charles river. Frank P. Johnson, C.E., of Waltham, 
was accordingly directed to prepare plans for sewage disposal. 
The plan prepared by Mr. Johnson and carried out was as follows: 
From the Custodial Ward building and the laundry just south of it 
the sewage is conducted into a brick sludge-trap, shown in detail by 
Fig. 89, where it halts until the grease has risen in a scum to the surface, 
the insoluble matter settled to the bottom, and the paper, etc., become 
broken up and held in suspension. The 6-inch inlet enters about a 
foot above the surface of the sewage. From the sludge-trap a 4-inch 
ventilating pipe runs into the boiler-house chimney. The 5-inch iron 
overflow from the sludge-trap to the detaining tank is T-shaped, and so 
placed as to allow the effluent to pass over from below the scum of the 
grease on the surface and from above the sediment at the bottom of 
the sludge-trap. An 8-inch iron pipe and gate at the bottom of the 
sludge-trap permits the grease and sediment to be run off to a com- 
post heap as often as may be necessary-probably about once in three 
months. 
From the sludge-trap the sewage passes into a brick detaining tank, 
13 by 20 feet, capable of holding the sewage of 24 hours, amounting 
to 16,000 gallons. The bottom of this tank pitches every way to one 
corner, where is placed a 4-inch gate through which its contents may 
be discharged when desired, and a siphon through which the tank 
automatically empties itself as often as it becomes full. Above, in the 
same corner, is an overflow opening for use in case the siphon be- 
comes clogged, and it is so placed that the interior of the detaining 508 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES 
tank may be viewed through it from the adjoining man-hole. The 
4-inch gate and the siphon are in this man-hole, the bottom of which 
is one foot lower than the lowest joint inside the detaining tank, so as 
to facilitate the action of the siphon. The siphon is primed by a 
priming cup on its longer leg, and at its top it is provided with a 
special arrangement for cleaning should it become clogged. 
From this point the sewage flows into and through a small distrib- 
uting man-hole, out of which lead three earthenware pipes controlled 
Inn frame ana (over 
r Iron Cover 
brum/e 8u8 *Z4 ■ 
S"Iron Overflow 
Sludge 
Trap, 
Sludge 
~mp 
6'> 6' 
Sect iohEw 
To Disposal 
Area. 
^errh/atinoPi,£ 
? Boiler House 
Chimney 
To Compost Heap 
CorSluOge. 
raCompostHeap 
Cor SfiK/ge, 
Fig. 89.-Details of Detaining Tank, Massachusetts School for the 
Feeble-minded, Waltham. 
by as many- gate valves. The sewage, if necessary, may be run 
through one of these pipes out over the hillside among the dense 
underbrush of the woods before mentioned, but each of the other pipes 
supplies a filtration area, of which there are two, so that one may be 
at rest while the other is in service. A description of one will answer 
for both. 
The subsoil of the hillside is gravel that would be excellent for 
road-making, and is overlaid by about 18 inches of loam. Averaging 
about six feet from the surface is rock. This condition, while not the 
most favorable, had to be made the best of, and it was first under- MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FOR THE FEEBLE-MINDED. 
509 
drained with ordinary 2-inch circular land tile, laid five feet deep on 
lines 50 feet apart following the direction of quickest descent, the tile 
being extended far enough above the disposal area to intercept what 
Fig. 90.-Plan of Disposal Works, Massachusetts School for the Feeble-minded. 
storm water might come from the hillside above. These underdrains 
discharge into Clematis brook, a tributary of the Charles river, and 
receive no sewage except as the purified effluent may enter them after 
filtration. A general plan of the disposal works, including the filtra- 
tion area, is shown by Fig. 90. 510 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
From the distributing man-hole the sewage passes into G-inch mains, 
which deliver into 3-inch feeders laid in parallel lines approximately 
at right angles to the contour lines, or, in other words, on the lines of 
greatest slope. 
Every three feet on each feeder is a 3-inch T-branch connecting with a 
A -lateral, and set level, or even slightly pitching up-hill, so as to cause 
each lateral to be filled in succession before the flow reaches the next. 
The n laterals are approximately parallel, and follow the contour 
lines of the surface about three feet apart. They are covered just 
deep enough to permit of ploughing the field without disturbing them. 
About 5,000 linear feet of laterals have been laid in each disposal area. 
The several dotted lines on Fig. 90, numbered from 70 to 160, are 
contours showing elevation of surface. For greater distinctness and 
convenience only every other one of the laterals has been drawn. The 
filtration system is shown in full lines and the underdrains in broken 
and dotted lines. 
No separate account was kept of the cost of doing the work, its exe- 
cution being mostly at odd times by laborers elsewhere at work on 
the grounds, as it became convenient to spare them. This was by no 
means to the advantage of the sewerage system. 
The engineer's estimate of cost was $1,500, and the probable real 
cost could not have been far from $1,800. It is likely that it could be 
duplicated under ordinarily favorable conditions for $1,400. 
For the sake of economy a similar but slightly different device from 
the tile distributors was used, and a material saving effected. 
The works were first operated January 1, 1890, and are reported as 
giving good satisfaction.* 
* The foregoing account of the sewage disposal at the Mass. School for the Feeble-minded is 
derived from a description by Mr. Johnson originally contributed to Eng. and Bldg. Reed., ap- 
pearing in vol. xxl, at page 300. Mr. Johnson has kindly revised the matter there given, for use 
here. 
Since this chapter was written permission has been granted by the legislature to connect the 
sewers of the school with the sewerage system of the city of Waltham. The legislative act was 
approved March 10, 1893. CHAPTER XXXIX. 
SUB-SURFACE IRRIGATION AT THE LAWRENCEVILLE, NEW JERSEY. 
SCHOOL FOR BOYS. 
The Lawrenceville School for Boys is located at Lawrenceville, New 
Jersey, a small town about half-way between Trenton and Prince- 
ton. The late John C. Green left the bulk of a large fortune to 
trustees to be used by them for educational and other purposes. In 
1882 the trustees purchased the Lawrenceville School, and proceed- 
ed to erect new buildings and make other constructions necessary 
for placing the institution upon a thoroughly first-class footing. 
Messrs. Peabody & Stearns were designated as architects to design 
and superintend the erection of the buildings ; Frederick Law Olm- 
sted was commissioned to lay out the grounds ; and to J. J. R. Croes, 
M. Am. Soc. C.E., was intrusted the design for the water supply, sew- 
erage, and sewage disposal works, which latter were constructed under 
the personal supervision of Frederick S. Odell, M. Am. Soc. C.E., who 
acted under the direction of Mr. Croes. 
The following is the description, slightly condensed, of the sewer- 
age and sewage disposal works as given by Mr. Odell: 
The necessity of disposing of the sewage within a limited area of the grounds 
made it imperative that its volume be limited to a minimum, and therefore all sur- 
face or subsoil drainage was excluded from the sewers, and disposed of as pre- 
viously related ; then, to insure positive immunity from leaky joints, it was decided 
to use six-inch cast-iron pipe, with leaded joints, for the sewers. 
There are twTo branch lines of sewers, with a flushing man-hole at the head of 
each. . . . 
The two branch sewers unite near the rain-water reservoir and continue to the 
boiler-house and laundry, near which is placed the sewage tank, in which the solid 
matter in the sewage is allowed time to deposit itself on the bottom, and the par- 
tially clarified liquid is retained until it is desirable to discharge it into the sub- 
surface tiles. 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL SYSTEM. 
The sewage tank is built of brick-work underground, and is in two sections. The 
first or retaining section is in duplicate, and contains six compartments, three in 
each set. Each compartment is sixty feet long, about three feet wide, and four feet 
deep. [See Fig. 91.] 
The sewage flows into one end of the first compartment, passes along its whole 
length, and at the other end passes into the second compartment through a quar- 
ter-bend pipe, with the mouth turned down below the level of the outlet, to pre- 
vent scum on the surface of the liquid from passing over into the second compart- 
ment, through which the liquid passes to its further end, and in like manner into 512 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the third, at the further end of which it passes over a weir into the receiving cham- 
ber, which is circular in form, twenty-five feet in diameter, and eight feet deep. 
From this it is pumped by a pulsometer pump as often as necessary. This 
Fig. 91.-Plan and Sections of Receiving and Settling Tank, Lawrenceville, New 
Jersey, School. 
Section online AB. 
Longitudinal Section 
Plan. 
Section online CD. 
chamber is ventilated by a pipe leading into the flue of the boiler-house chimney. 
It is intended that whenever solids collect in such quantities that the settling com- 
partments require cleaning, the sewage shall be turned in the duplicate set and 
the sludge removed from the first. 
It is found that nearly all the solids are deposited very near the entrance in the 
first compartment, and to cause the deposit to be distributed more evenly over the 
bottom the water in the first compartment has been siphoned into the receiving 
chamber two or three times within the past six months. The rapid subsidence of 
the water, and the flow of incoming sewage during this operation, distribute the 
solids over the bottom, and enable the compartment to be used longer without 
cleaning out than would be the case if this distribution were not made. THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL FOR BOYS. 
513 
The pulsometer has been so arranged that by attaching a suction hose the water 
in the settling tanks can be pumped out and carried 300 feet through a hose to 
farm land ploughed to receive it. In January, 1887, the tanks were thus emptied 
and the sludge then removed by a farmer to whom it had been sold. There were 
about 300 cubic feet of sludge removed from the first section of each of the set- 
tling tanks. 
The irrigation ground [see Fig. 92] comprises about one and three-quarters acres 
in the lower part of the school grounds, between the boiler-house and the brook. 
It is still further limited in location by the dam and pond on the westerly side, 
and an adjoining owner on the easterly side. It is the lowest portion of the school 
property, is naturally wet, and that portion near the brook (before drainage) was 
swampy. Its selection was a matter of necessity, it being all the land available 
for this purpose. 
The natural surface of the ground was on a quite uniform slope from the higher 
portion to the brook, so that very little surface grading was necessary, but its 
thorough subsoil drainage became of the greatest importance. 
To accomplish this, parallel lines of 2-inch round agricultural tile were laid, 40 
feet apart, discharging into the brook. 
LAUNDRY 
Pump 
' House 
Pond 
Fig. 92.-Plan of Disposal Works, Lawrenceville School. 
These drains were laid 4 feet below the surface wherever the elevation of the 
brook permitted this depth ; but, by reason of the elevation of the brook, the 
lower part of the drains were not deeper than from 2 to 2| feet, and probably 
the average depth is not greater than 3 feet. 514 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
These drains were effective in drying the ground and preparing it to receive the 
sewage. 
The distributing or sub-surface tiles were laid about eight inches below the sur- 
face, in nearly parallel lines 5 feet apart, on uniform grades of 9 to 12 inches in 100 
feet. [See Fig. 92.] 
They are 2 inches in diameter and 12-inch lengths. 
They are laid on bed pieces of the same material and length, which cover the bot- 
tom joints. Smaller pieces cover the top joint, leaving an opening on each side of 
f x | inch, out of which the water escapes into the soil. 
The water enters these lines of sub-surface drains from a 4-inch carrier leading 
from a chamber into which the pulsometer discharges, and in which are the two 4- 
inch carrier pipes leading to different parts of the ground, into either of which the 
sewage can be turned at pleasure and the two sections of the field used alternately. 
A special branch joins the 2-inch distributing tile with the 4-inch carrier, the 2- 
inch tile being so attached that its bottom is at the same level as that of the carrier 
from which it branches, so that if but little sewage is flowing in the carrier each 
line of drain will get its share, those in the upper portion of the field being pre- 
vented from surcharge by either flattening the grade or throttling the first section 
of drain. 
There are about six hundred feet of 4-inch carrier pipe, and about twenty 
thousand feet of 2-inch drains on the If acres of ground. 
The amount of sewage water averages 6,000 gallons a day. 
This is discharged into the irrigation tile eight times in a month, or from 20,000 
to 25,000 gallons at a time. The discharge from the outfall drains begins very soon 
after the tile is charged, showing the ground to be very porous. 
No complaint has been made of any offensive odor or fouling of the stream. 
The irrigation ground is not worked to nearly its capacity, as it has been found 
that the sewage does not flush the tiles fully to the lower extremity of the lines; 
and while the growth of the grass on the upper end of the lines is luxurious and 
rapid, the ground over the further end has remained bare or with very scanty vege- 
tation. 
The cost of the following structures is made up from accounts kept during con- 
struction : 
Sewage tank $2,100 
Irrigation grounds 2,000 
With the exception of the occasional deficiency in the capacity of the rain-water 
drains, . . . the operation of the works during the year has been very satis- 
factory. 
The regular number of persons now using the water and contributing to the sew- 
age is 180. The works are designed to accommodate 400 people. 
The water supplied for all purposes averaged 8,000 gallons a day in 1886, varying 
from 6,000 gallons a day in April to 25,000 gallons a day during one week in Octo- 
ber, 1886, when the lawns were very dry and a new sprinkling cart was put in use 
on the roads and lawns. 
The amount of sewage at Lawrenceville has gradually increased, 
until, in 1893, it averages, during the school terms, about 20,000 gallons 
per day. Some complaints having been made for the last two years 
that the effluent is insufficiently purified as it enters the brook, the 
progressive management of the school determined to extend the sew- 
age disposal facilities. The work was again intrusted to Mr. Croes, 
but in order to obtain the views of other engineers, opinions were 
asked from Mr. Allen Hazen and Mr. Rafter. Both of these gentlemen 
visited Lawrenceville and submitted short reports to Mr. Croes of the THE LAWRENCEVILLE SCHOOL FOR BOYS. 
515 
results of their examinations. Mr. Rafter was there on July 24, 1893. 
At that time the school was not in session, and the daily amount of sew- 
age averaged only five or six thousand gallons per day. The original 
disposal area appeared capable of still handling this amount, although 
the effluent, as it issued from the drains, gave some evidence of incom- 
plete purification. Several of the distribution tiles were removed and 
found nearly clear from deposit, a result largely due, without doubt, 
to the thorough settling which takes place in the deposit chambers. 
Mr. Croes had suggested for the additional disposal works the use 
of intermittent filtration through specially prepared areas, the soils at 
Lawrenceville being of a heavy clayey nature-entirely unsuited of 
themselves-and material suitable for intermittent filtration can only 
be obtained at a distance of about two miles from the school. In view 
of this fact, Mr. Hazen, while approving of the intermittent filtration, 
suggested as a considerably less expensive alternative the use of broad 
irrigation on a field of several acres included in an area of land which 
the school had recently purchased*. The water of the brook receiving 
the effluent is used for watering cattle on the adjoining farms, and in 
view of the uncertainty as to the degree of winter purification attained 
in broad irrigation, Mr. Rafter suggested that the intermittent filtra- 
tion would be, on the whole, preferable by reason of giving somewhat 
better control of all the conditions. 
All the engineers agreed that the present sub-surface irrigation area, 
which is now considerably in need of rest, should be retained for use as 
a relief area. With such assistance it was considered that a filtering 
area of about 22,000 square feet of the available material would be 
sufficient for a number of years. The matter is still in abeyance, but 
it may be stated that under the conditions, by due attention to the de- 
tail, a fairly satisfactory result can be attained, whichever method of 
treatment may be used.* 
* The experience of the past eight years has shown that the subsoil tile were laid on rather too 
steep a grade, so that when the system was tilled up with an overdose of sewage, the water rose to 
the surface at the lower ends of the lines of tile. To obviate this, it was considered best to insert 
two additional lines of carriers intercepting the lines of tile at half their length and thus re- 
ducing the head on the ends when the system was full. The outfall underdrains which, owing to 
local conditions, as above stated, had apparently not been laid deep enough below the subsoil tile, 
were cut off by an intercepting drain laid parallel to the brook and 20 feet from it, and continued 
1,000 feet down stream, the trench being partly backfilled with cinders. The effluent sewage 
filters away slowly into the brook. This portion of the work was done in August, 1893. It is 
contemplated to construct the additional filtration area of underdrained gravel filled trenches at 
an early day. 
For sources of information in regard to sewage disposal, etc., at the Lawrenceville School, see 
(1) Mr Odell's paper on The Water Supply, Drainage, and Sewurage of the Lawrenceville School, 
in Trans. Am. Soc. C.E., vol. xvi. (1887), pp. 68-78; (2) Eng. & Bldg. Reed., vol. xv. (1886), pp. 
12-18. CHAPTER XL. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT GARDNER, MASSACHUSETTS. 
An intermittent filtration system was put in operation in 1891 in 
connection with the new sewerage system. McClintock & Woodfall, 
of Boston, were engineers for the works. The plant has been de- 
scribed as follows: * 
The town of Gardner is situated in the central part of the State, 
on the divide between the Connecticut and Merrimac rivers, all but 
a small part draining into the Connecticut river. The population 
of the town in 1890 was 8,424. It is largely engaged in the manu- 
facture of chairs. The daily consumption of water is about 300,000 
gallons. 
The town is made up of four villages closely united-South, Depot, 
West, and Centre. Of these the West village is the most thickly settled 
and contains the most factories. The South is also thickly settled and 
has a number of factories. The Centre is strictly a residential part of 
the town. The Depot village is not thickly settled. 
The State Board of Health, fearing that in time the crude sewage, 
if emptied into the brook leading to Otter river, might create a nui- 
sance, ordered the town to purify the sewage before allowing it to flow 
into the river. Intermittent downward filtration was adopted. The 
main outfall sewer is a 12-inch pipe. A greater part of West Gardner, 
the Centre and Depot villages had been sewered at the beginning of 
1893. 
The separate system was used not only on account of its costing 
less than the combined, but from the fact that the surface water can be 
at this place easily and cheaply drained into natural water-courses 
without doing any harm. 
There were in use, at the close of the summer of 1892, 5| miles of 
sewers, 12 to G inches in diameter, 128 man-holes and 23 flush gates in 
man-holes; also 139 sewer connections, of which 100 were from houses, 
25 from business blocks, 10 from factories with a total of 1,500 em- 
ployees, and 4 from hotels. At the close of the summer of 1891 
there was a total of 97 connections. The daily amount of sewage 
delivered at the filter beds was about 125,000 gallons in February, 
1893. 
* Condensed from Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 163-165 (Feb. 16, 1893). INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT GARDNER. 
517 
To reach the most available ground for a filter area it was neces- 
sary to carry the outlet sewer down through a small valley and up 
on to a hill. This was effected by making the last 1,050 feet of the 
Top of Wall betw Tanks, El 994 9 
El 994 
E1.989. 
Section in Front of Division Wall. 
Stone 
Coping 
Ta 
Filter 
Bed 
£19915 
Section 
of 
bate 
Chamber. 
Each lank 7 "So}, 
5'0 "deep 
lOVitrPipe 
to Fi'/fer 
Bed 
Division Wall 
IB"Iron Pipe 
Inlet 
^Wooden Crate 
to direct the Flam 
in to either Tank 
10 Ft Pipe 
to Filter 
Bed 
Plan . 
OateChamber 
with Iron Oates 
and !0 "Vit Pipe 
Outlets to Filter- 
Beds. 
Fig. 93.-Plan and Section of Settling Tank, Gardner, Massachusetts. 
outlet sewer of iron pipe, with a sag near the middle of 24 feet. 
A blow-off, discharging on to filter bed No. 50, Fig. 96, used only in 
this connection, was placed at the lowest point in the iron pipe. 
This is to be used only in case of stoppage. In February, 1893, this 518 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
gate had not been open for over a year, and no trouble had arisen 
from solids collecting at this point and stopping the sewer. 
The blow-off gate used is an 8-inch vertical lift gate, exactly like 
the 10-inch in use at the filter beds at Marlborough, Massachusetts, 
shown on Plate VI., Fig. 6. 
The outlet pipe discharges into a settling tank, shown in plan and 
Mill between 
Tanto 
Fig. 94.-Inlet to Settling Tanks. 
section by Fig. 93. The tank is built of brick, with walls 12 inches 
thick. It is divided into two parts by a 12-inch wall, built through 
the centre, thus giving two compartments, each 20 feet long, 7 feet 
wide, and 5 feet deep. The sewage first flows into a wooden box, 
Fig. 95.-Gates on Outlet Pipe from Tank. 
shown in plan by Fig. 94, and also by the dotted lines in the plan 
of the tank. Fig. 93, and is diverted into either tank by means of a 
swinging door. Stop planks to prevent floating matter from reach 
ing the gate chambers are placed near one end of the tanks. The 
sewage is drawn off at the surface by means of pipes leading into 
the gate chamber. The flow into these pipes is controlled by iron 
gates, a sketch of which is shown by Fig. 95. The sludge is drawn 519 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT GARDNER. 
off by opening similar gates, shown in plan at the bottom of the 
tank, Fig. 93, crude sewage being used to wash out the tanks. Extra 
pipes for future use have been built into the tank and gate cham- 
ber. 
The flow from the gate chamber into the main carrier is also regu- 
lated by means of iron gates like the above. The gates are raised or 
lowered by means of chains, which pass over pulleys and through 
the wall of the tank, and are worked inside the tank house. The 
solid matter which settles in the tanks is discharged on to the sludge 
bed through the sludge pipe, as shown in Figs. 93 and 96. 
5/udqe 
Bed 
Overf/o* 
y AtoB. 
Tile Underdrains, 4 -5'deep 
Vitrified Distributing P/pe 
" Out/erP/pe from Beds 
Iron 5ewer Pipe 
Wooden Distributing Troughs > 
!2"sguare J 
banks between Beds, 2 'high 
Overflow 
bate Chamber 
Fig. 96.-Plan of Filter Areas, Gardner, Massachusetts. 
In constructing the filter beds the surface was first levelled, the 
surplus dirt being used to make the banks, and the bottoms of most 
of the beds being formed in clay. They were then covered in gravel 
to the depth of from 4 to 5 feet, carted on from a bank south of the 
settling tank, after which the outlets for the effluent and the tile drains 
leading into them were laid. Then the banks subdividing the beds 
were built. The bottoms of these banks extend 1 foot below the surface 
of the beds. All of the banks were then sodded. The 10-inch dis- 
tributing pipes were then laid and connected with square wooden 
troughs, firmly fastened to cedar posts set in the edge of the bed. 
These troughs are covered, but every other cover is hinged, so that 
the interior of the troughs can be examined at will. The troughs have 520 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
an opening at each bed, and by means of a board sliding in grooves 
the sewage can be directed on any bed, as desired. These troughs 
are from 2g to 3 feet above the beds, and the sewage falls on to a piece 
of stone pavement which prevents the washing of the beds. The tile 
drains are from 4 to 5 feet deep and 20 feet apart, and the banks are 
2 feet higher than the surface of the beds. The surfaces of the beds 
are level. Beds A and B were constructed by simply levelling the 
bottom and building the banks. No tile or outlet pipe was laid, and 
the effluent simply soaked through the ground. An examination of 
the plan of the filter beds, Fig. 96, will show clearly their general 
arrangement. All of the beds except No. 51 discharge their effluent 
directly into the brook. The effluent from No. 51 is discharged into 
the woods, and is allowed to flow over the ground. The effluent is 
practically colorless and odorless, and has caused no trouble in the 
brook. 
Overflows have been built, so that the sewage cannot flow over 
the banks in any case. Very little trouble has been caused by the 
extreme cold weather, as the sewage finds its way under the snow and 
ice and is filtered through the gravel. The road from Broadway was 
built and the hill graded, greatly improving the general appearance 
of the field. 
The areas of the several beds are as follows: 
No. of 
bed. 
Area, 
sq. ft. 
No. of 
bed. 
Area, 
sq. ft. 
No. of 
bed. 
Area, 
sq. ft. 
No. of 
bed. 
Area, 
sq. ft. 
1 
... 9,520 
5 
.. . 4,300 
9 
... 3,240 
51 
2,300 
2 
.. . 8,570 
6 
. . . 4,400 
10 
... 3,850 
52 
3,370 
3 
.. . 8,790 
7 
.. . 4,000 
11 
... 3,850 
A 
5,000 
4 
... 4,400 
8 
.. . 3,240 
50 
... 2,500 
B 
11,000 
Total, 82,330 square feet, or nearly two acres. 
The above area does not include the space occupied by the main 
banks, but does include the division banks, the bottoms of which are 
only 1 foot below the surface of the beds. 
Bed No. 51, Fig 96, was at first used as a sludge bed, but the odor 
arising from the sludge while drying, as well as from that which had 
previously been taken off and piled up near the bed, led to this bed 
being converted into a filter bed and the construction of bed No. 52 
for a sludge bed. Since this change no trouble has been caused by 
the odor, as this bed is farther away, and is over the brow of a hill and 
surrounded by woods. No trouble has been caused by the filter beds, 
as there is no odor arising from them that can be detected a few feet 
away. 
The sludge is allowed to remain on the sludge bed until it is dry, 
when it is removed and placed in piles and covered with dirt. The 
sludge is discharged from the tank, and the filter beds are cleaned INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT GARDNER. 
521 
every two to three weeks. The sewage is discharged on to the filter 
beds in the following order: 
Bed No. 1, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. 
" " 2, " 10 A.M. to 1 P.M. 
" " 3, " 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 
" " 4, " 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. 
" " A and 5, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. 
First day. 
Second day. 
Bed No. 6, from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. 
" " 7, " 9 a.m. to 11 A.M. 
" " 8, " 11 A.M. to 1 P.M. 
" " 9, " 1 P.M. to 3 P.M. 
" " 10, " 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. 
" " 11, 11 . 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. 
" " 51 and B, from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. 
This has been found to give satisfactory results. 
The cost of the filter beds and accessories, not including engineer- 
ing and superintendence, is stated to have been as follows: 
Labor 88,766 
Vitrified pipe 8684 
Tile pipe 238 
Wooden troughs 305 
Total cost of carriers and drains 1,227 
Carting 26 
Freight 13 
Wood dams at Beds A and B 13 
Iron gates and gate chamber 99 
Tank 600 
Tank house 344 
Miscellaneous 105 
Total 811,193 
The cost of preparing the beds, with piping, was $10,046, or 12 cents 
per square foot, the area being 82,330 square feet. The total cost of 
the beds, tanks, and all accessories, was 14 cents per square foot of fil- 
tering area. 
The general pipe system in place cost $40,530, including $1,719 for 
the 1,050 feet of iron pipe in the outlet sewer, making the total cost of 
the system $51,723, not including engineering and superintendence. CHAPTER XLI. 
INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT SUMMIT, NEW JERSEY. 
A sewage system was built at Summit, New Jersey, in 1892, with C. 
Ph. Bassett, M. Am. Soo. C.E., as engineer. The natural outlet was to 
the Passaic river, but before discharging the sewage into the river it 
was deemed best to purify it by means of intermittent tiltration. The 
filtration area was put in operation on August 2, 1892. 
In November, 1892, there were nine miles of separate sewers, 20 
flush-tanks, and 180 house connections.* 
The filter beds are located about a mile from the village, within the 
township limits. One end of the disposal area borders on the Passaic 
river, as shown in the plan, Fig. 97. The township owns 26 acres of 
land, only 10 acres of which have been laid out in beds. Deducting 
the area occupied by embankments and a road, there are about eight 
acres of land available for filtration. There are only a few houses in 
the vicinity, and those are at some distance from the beds. 
A public road passes through the disposal area. The land on the 
side of the road nearest the river slopes toward the river, and the 
beds are laid out in terraces, as shown by Fig. 98, which is a reproduc- 
tion of a photograph taken near the lower edge of the tract. The 
beds are separated by earth embankments. The lowest beds are some 
20 feet above the river. The effluent is discharged at the top of the 
abrupt river bank, and finds its way down the bank into the river. 
Mr. Baker visited the beds on Nov. 28, 1892, and found the effluent 
with only a slight cloudiness and but very faint musty odor. The river 
showed no sign of pollution, and there was nothing about the disposal 
area which indicated to smell or by offence to sight the use to which 
it was put, except on raising a man-hole cover, when a very slight odor 
was observed. 
Regarding the care of the beds, the attendant stated that their sur- 
face was raked up occasionally. He also stated that no fixed rule was 
observed as to the length of application of sewage to the beds, judg- 
ment being used in that respect. 
The general arrangement of the beds, sewage carriers, outlet cham- 
bers, man-holes, sub and main underdains, and tile man-holes to give 
"This description of the filtrstion area ia condensed from Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 544-546 
(Dec. 8, 1892). Surface Camera 
5ubdra/n •> 
« 17/es 
Sewage Out/efs 
■Tf/e Chambers 
Manho/es 
Boundary of Beds 
NEW PROVIDENCE 
ROAD 
Fig. 97.-Plan of Filter Areas at Summit, New Jersey. 524 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
access to the latter, will be seen by reference to the plan and the 
accompanying explanatory symbols, Fig. 97. The underdrains are 
placed with their centres at a depth of 3 feet below the surface of the 
beds. 
Fig. 98.-View of Summit Filter Areas, from Road near Northwest Corner, 
The sewage is distributed to the beds through pipe carried in the 
tops of the embankments, from which it is drawn through chambers 
and short lengths of pipe at the corners of the beds, all located as 
shown in the plan, Fig. 97. The details of the main carrier and 
branches, including the plugs used to divert the sewage as may be INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT SUMMIT. 
525 
fAHTH 
CROSS SECTION THROUGH BRANCH. 
PLAN AND HORIZONTAL SECTION. 
LONGITUDINAL SECTION. 
Fig. 99.-Details of Sewage Carrier. 526 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
desired, are shown by Figs. 99 and 100. Where the beds to be served 
are at a lower level than the outlet 
chambers, half-tile, Hat stone, and 
V-shaped troughs are used to carry 
the sewage down or to protect the 
embankment. All the brick cham- 
bers and manholes are lined inside 
and plastered outside with cement, 
and the brick manholes and some or 
all of the outlet chambers have board 
covers, painted. 
At the intersection of sub and main underdrains tile chambers are 
placed, as shown in plan and section by Figs. 101 and 102. Fig. 102 
Fig. 100.-Plan and Elevation of 
Plug for Carrier. 
SECTION. 
plan. 
Fig. 101.-Plan and Section through Tile Chamber. INTERMITTENT FILTRATION AT SUMMIT. 
527 
shows the underdrains at changes of grade at embankments, where ad- 
jacent beds are on different levels. There are but two or three of the 
special sections, shown in Fig. 102, they being placed only at points 
6 " TILES 
SPECIAL SECTION. 
USUAL SECTION. 
Fig. 102.-Sections through Tile Chambers and Underdrains at Changes of 
Grade at Embankments. 
where the underdrain beneath a bed is at least 2 feet higher than the 
surface of the bed below. The tile chambers have iron covers, as 
shown in Fig. 101. 
The effect of snow upon these filter beds during the winter of 1892-3 
is referred to in Chapter XIV., p. 285. CHAPTER XLII. 
LAND DISPOSAL AT HASTINGS, NEBRASKA. 
The following description of the sewage purification plant at Hast- 
ings, Nebraska, where intermittent filtration has been practised for two 
years, and, as designed, will be combined with sewage farming, was 
prepared by the engineer of the sewerage and sewage disposal systems, 
Mr. J. M. Wilson, of Omaha, Nebraska.* 
Hastings, Neb., is a thriving young city of some 15,000 (13,584 in 1890) inhab- 
itants, situated on the plateau between the Platte river and the Republican. The 
Platte, about 16 miles to the north, is a broad, shallow stream, carrying in the 
spring and early summer a large volume of water from the melting snows in the 
mountains of Colorado and Wyoming; but in the late summer and winter the 
stream is largely lost in the sands of its many broad channels. 
The Blue, a tributary of thq Kansas river, about ten miles to the south, is a 
much smaller stream, but, being confined to a narrower channel, is more perma- 
nent in its flow. 
These were the nearest and the only streams that could possibly be used for the 
discharge of sewage. Higher -lands to the north cut off the outlet to the Platte. 
To reach the Blue would require that the line should follow the windings of some 
of the draws or valleys leading from the vicinity of Hastings to that river. This 
would so lengthen the line and increase the cost that all thought of reaching a run- 
ning stream with the sewage was abandoned. 
The only available method of disposal was a sewage farm. Upon investigation, 
the conditions at Hastings were found to be very favorable for the success of such 
a plant. Below the surface no water is found until a depth of about 100 feet is 
reached, at which depth permanent water is found in sand and gravel. The sub- 
soil here is quite pervious to moisture ; after the heaviest rains the water disap- 
pears quickly from the surface, being absorbed by the 100 feet or more of po- 
rous subsoil, without producing that condition of complete saturation which is so 
often found where the underlying strata are impervious or the permanent water 
level is near the surface. 
In many cases, in the lands which must of necessity be selected for sewage 
farms, these favorable conditions do not exist, and only a few feet of the upper 
strata can be made available by artificial drainage. The amount of sewage that 
such lands will absorb without saturation is, of course, very limited, and the con- 
dition of permanent moisture so near the surface gives, by capillary attraction, all 
the moisture in most cases that crops grown on the land can appropriate. The 
additional moisture supplied by the sewage is just so much excess. The result is 
that on most sewage farms where crops are raised, very little of the sewage is ap- 
plied to the crops, or only such crops are raised as will endure excessive moist- 
ure. The profitable crops that will endure such conditions are very few indeed. 
On the contrary, in this plains region, with its great depth of porous subsoil and 
its moderate rainfall, the conditions for disposing of sewage successfully, either 
by discharging it intermittently on limited areas or by applying it to crops, were 
peculiarly favorable. 
The general surface of this part of Nebraska is a gently undulating plain, rising 
* Condensed from Eng. News, vol. xxix. (March 9, 1803), pp. 218-20. Boundary Line 
Bough Land. 
Cannot be utilized for Receiving Sewage 
Area No. 7. 
EI.243 
Area No. 6. 
EI.243. 
Wooden-Sluice bate. 
Fig. 5 . 
Boundary of Sewer Farm 
Area No.4. 
El. 248. 
'A Nr&a 
No. 5 
ei. 248. 
Area 
No.9. 
EI.243. 
Area 
No. 10 
EI.243 
Embankment 
Wooden 
S/uiceOate 
Brick, /aid in Cement, pfasfeted 
inside and outside with Cement. 
Area 
No.3. 
El.248. 
Area No.2. 
El 248. 
. Distributing 
Basin 
Section on A- B. 
Area No.l. 
El 252. 
Fig. 4. Distributing 
Basin and Two-Way 
Outlet Cutter. 
High, Smooth Land Suitable for Bui/ding Site 
for Superintendent of Farm. 
Area No. / 
Ei. 252. 
Area No. 3. 
El. 248. 
Boundary of Sewer Farm 
Area No-4 
EL 248 
Area No. 6. 
EL 243 
Plan. 
Enlarged Section on Line A-B. 
Builtof Brick, 
p/asfeted / "thick 
with Portland 
Cement 
Fig. i . Map of 
Disposal Area. 
Section on C-D. 
Section C- D. 
/2 Brick 
Wai/,laid 
in Cement 
andpiaster- 
ed on inside 
andOutside 
■ 70 "Diam. 
-Section A - B. 
End Elevation. 
Longitudinal Section. 
Outlet G. 
7b Areas 8 
Detail of bate 
tor 
Distributing Outlet. 
^Leather' 
Plan. 
Fig. 2 . Settling Tank . 
Flan. 
Fig, 3 •• Four- Way Outlet. 
PLATE VII. SEWAGE PURIFICATION PLANT AT HASTINGS, NEBRASKA. LAND DISPOSAL AT HASTINGS, NEBRASKA. 
529 
to the westward at the rate of say 7 to 10 feet per mile. In the vicinity of Hast- 
ings the rate is 9 feet per mile. The plain is broken by draws or valleys, down 
which the water passes to the permanent streams when there is any surplus. After 
heavy rains the draws are, for a few hours, quite respectable creeks ; but ordinarily 
they are dry, and the surface, where it has not been disturbed by the plough, is 
covered with a thick, strong sod. Along the sides of these draws the land has been 
lowered by the action of the water considerably below the general level of the sur- 
rounding plain, and yet left high enough above the bottom of the draw to insure 
adequate drainage. 
With a pumping plant that would raise the sewage 15 feet, any one of the many 
smooth farms lying to the east was available for a sewage farm, practically graded 
and ready for the reception of the sewage. The objections to this arrangement 
were : 
(1) The cost of erecting and maintaining the pumping plant; and (2) the difficulty 
that might arise in draining such a tract in case, as was likely, it should need drain- 
age after the sewage was applied. 
If the sewage was to be disposed of by gravity, the only available fields were the 
lands before mentioned, lying adjacent to the draws. These were somewhat ir- 
regular in outline and elevation, and would require considerable grading to put 
them in shape for the application of the sewage; but they were so situated that 
good surface drainage was insured, and if it should become necessary to tile the 
farm later, the draw would afford a ready outlet for such drainage. 
A small draw, heading in the northeast corner of the city, leads off toward the 
northeast about 1| miles, where it intersects with a much larger draw from the north- 
west. Along the borders of this larger draw there are considerable areas which, 
while elevated enough above the bottom of the draws for drainage, are low enough 
to make it possible, by careful economy in grades, to reach them by gravity from 
every part of the city. It was found that the storm water could be sent off through 
the natural waterways by using short runs of large pipe at moderate depths, and 
with better fall than it was possible to secure for the sewer line to the farm. 
This, with the limited areas available for receiving the sewage and the difficulty of 
taking care of the storm water on such a farm, settled the question in favor of the 
separate system of sewerage. 
The nearest land available for a disposal area was a tract of 70 acres, somewhat 
broken. To find smoother land upon which the sewage could be deposited by 
gravity would have necessitated a lengthening of the main pipe from 3,000 to 5,000 
feet and the crossing of several small draws. The additional cost of this part of the 
line would have more than overbalanced the necessary expense of grading, not 
to mention the extra cost of caring for and maintaining the additional line. 
The 70-acre tract selected for the sewer farm is shown by Fig. 1, Plate VII. The 
southwest part of the tract is too much elevated to receive sewage, but is valuable 
farming land and will furnish a desirable building site for the residence of a super- 
intendent. 
The northwest portion of the area north of the draw is very rough and cannot be 
utilized for sewage, except at heavy expense for grading and piping. The central 
part of the western half of the area has been graded into areas, as shown on the 
map, each having its own level and separated from the adjacent areas by a low 
ridge of earth. The cross section at the foot of Fig. 1, Plate VII., shows the ar- 
rangement of these ridges and slopes. The elevations selected and the forms of 
these areas were determined largely by the question of economy in moving the 
earth. 
These areas were brought to a uniform grade, except at the points where the 
sewage is received from the distributing gutters. Here the surface was slightly 
elevated, to secure a better distribution over the surface when the sewage is first 
discharged on an area. The sewage is discharged first into a settling tank, shown 
in plan and section by Fig. 2, Plate VII. 
This tank is provided with cast-iron gates for controlling the flow of the sewage. 
It was the intention to provide a screen, but is was found that it was not necessary, 
as the paper and the small amount of solids which would make trouble by clogging 
the drains were all deposited in the lower part of this tank, from which it could be 530 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
drawn off on the lower area, No. 8, where it could be readily collected and disposed 
of when the water was drained out of it. 
From this settling tank the sewage is conducted to distributing or outlet gutters, 
so situated as to distribute the sewage on two or more adjacent areas. These gut- 
ters are built of brick laid in cement mortar and plastered with Portland cement, as 
shown by Figs. 3 and 4, Plate VII. The gates which regulate the flow are of 
^-inch plate iron, faced with sole leather and set at an angle from the vertical, so 
that their weight, which is increased by a heavy cast-iron disk bolted to the back, 
acts with the sewage to shut the gate snugly against the seat. The seating face is 2 
inches wide and built up of cement. The gate is opened by revolving it upward 
and backward till it rests on the top of the gutter. 
Areas Nos. 1 and 8 receive sewage from short lines of pipe leading from the 
settling tank, as shown by Figs. 1 and 2, Plate VII. Areas Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 are 
supplied by an 18-inch pipe from the settling tank, the sewage being distributed to 
each of the four beds by the four-way gutters shown in Fig. 3. A 12-inch continu- 
ation of the 18-inch pipe from the settling tank carries the sewage to areas Nos. 6 
and 7, the two-way outlet gutter here being similar to that shown in Fig. 4. An 
ordinary wooden sluice gate is the only means provided for supplying sewage to 
area No. 9. This gate is shown in plan and* section by Fig. 5, Plate VII. Area No. 
10 is supplied by one of the branches of the two-way gutter shown in Fig. 4. The 
other branch of this two-way gutter is designed to discharge sewage on to a part of 
the irrigable land nearest to the distributing basin, the remaining part of this sec- 
tion being provided for by the 8- and 12-inch outlets on the south side of the basin, 
all as shown in the plan, Fig. 1. The 18-inch main outlet is extended across the 
draw to the most distant part of the disposal area, this section being suitable for 
irrigation. 
The farm is under the care of a superintendent of sewers and water-works. He 
visits the farm once a day, or as often as may be necessary to change the flow from 
one area to another. The time of discharge on any given area is determined largely 
by the season and the amount of rainfall, and must be regulated by the experience 
and intelligence of the superintendent. Occasionally the areas are ploughed to 
facilitate absorption and to cover up deposits, which, with the carting away at inter- 
vals of the sludge discharged from the settling tank, is all the attention the farm 
receives. 
The works have now been in operation about two years. The first year was an 
unusually wet season, and the capacity of the soil for receiving sewage was for this 
reason much reduced, but it was all discharged in rotation upon the areas that had 
been graded. No offensive odors were perceptible from the fields, as everything 
was distributed before decomposition set in, and the sewage was not allowed to dis- 
charge or remain on one area long enough to become putrid. The only time when 
any odor is perceived is when the settling tank is opened to discharge the collected 
solid matter. At such times for a short interval there is a little odor when the dis- 
charge is first made ; but it is only perceived in its immediate proximity. 
Up to Jan. 1, 1893, the number of sewer connections that had been made was 
119, mostly from the business part of the city and the larger residences. Outside 
of the business portion no attempt has been made to compel the making of connec- 
tions. 
The lands marked on the plan as suitable for irrigation cultivation are all avail- 
able for absorption fields ; and if a larger area is needed, the lands along the valley 
to the eastward will afford opportunity for increasing the areas to any extent de- 
sired. By means of shallow ditches and furrows along the slopes, the sewage may 
be conducted over these lands and used for irrigating crops, as with the water from 
irrigating canals in the arid regions of the West. No attempt as yet has been 
made to use it in this way, but at intervals the sewage is allowed to flow over the 
meadow land of this portion, as far as it can do so without special direction and yet 
not escape into the draw. 
The absorption areas now in use are not underdrained, but depend entirely upon 
the capacity of their soil for absorption. Ultimately tiling will be necessary, and 
this will convert them into filtering beds discharging their effluent into the draw. 
When the farm was first put in use it had been freshly graded, and it was not LAND DISPOSAL AT HASTINGS, NEBRASKA. 
531 
thought best to put in tile until all settlement of the fills had ceased. We also 
wished to test the capacity of these areas without the tiling. With the amount of 
sewage now disposed of the results are satisfactory, but I have no doubt that in 
time they will all require drainage. 
In arranging this farm, while keeping in view the desirability and the possibility 
of using the sewage in the cultivation of crops and arranging for its use when the 
quantity of sewage would make such use profitable, these two facts have been kept 
steadily in mind: (1) That with all crops of value, the amount of sewage that can be 
used with profit has very definite limits ; (2) that the time during which it can be 
applied to any crop is ordinarily confined to only a limited portion of the growing 
season. To apply in greater quantities and at other times is to ruin the crop. CHAPTER XLIII. 
SURFACE IRRIGATION AT WAYNE, PENNSYLVANIA* 
Wayne is a surburban residence village about 15 miles from Phila- 
delphia, on the Pennsylvania Railroad. It has been built up by 
Messrs. A. J. Drexel and Geo. W. Childs, who bought the Wayne estate 
some years ago. In June, 1890, its population was 997. Two years 
later a population of 2,000 was claimed. There are no manufactories. 
Water-works were built by Drexel & Childs in 1881. Shortly after, 
Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C.E., was engaged to extend the 
sewerage system of the village, which then conveyed the wastes and 
roof water of a few buildings into a brook flowing through the valley. 
Col. Waring extended the system on the strictly separate plan, col- 
lecting the sewage in a large flush tank, from which it was discharged 
into the brook through an 8-inch pipe 2,925 feet long, having a 
fall of 1 foot in 400. An additional area being secured later, a 12-inch 
outlet was laid parallel to the lower part of the first outlet. 
The brook which received the sewage had a copious flow and dis- 
charged into Darby creek, a stream polluted by manufactories. The 
brook gradually became fouled, to prevent which the sewage was 
finally delivered into a settling basin before passing to the brook. 
The effluent not being sufficiently cleared by this settlement, it was 
discharged into a second, and later into a third settling basin. 
The farm land along the brook gradually being taken up for resi- 
dences, complaints regarding the fouling of the stream increased, and 
finally an injunction to prevent the discharge of sewage into the brook 
was threatened. When the works described below were recommended 
by Col. Waring, in the spring of 1891, the move for an injunction was 
stopped under verbal protest. 
Surface irrigation on somewhat isolated land at the lower side of the 
estate was decided upon. The disposal area is thus described by Col. 
Waring in an article in the of American Architect July 2, 1892, from 
which much of this information has been taken: 
The tract to be used was of unfavorable character, but it was the only one avail- 
able. It consisted mainly of an old pond surrounded by ancient pollard willows, 
a large area of swamp through which the brook meandered, about four acres of 
slightly sloping cleared land, and a very steep, thickly wooded and rocky hillside, 
* Condensed from Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 422-4 (Nov. 3, 1S92). SURFACE IRRIGATION AT WAYNE. 
533 
rising about 100 feet from the level of the brook to one corner of the nearly square 
tract. 
The pond was obliterated, the willows and much other vegetation were cleared 
away, the brook was confined within stone walls, and all except the steep hillside 
was thoroughly underdrained. 
The disposal area includes eleven acres, divided by the creek as 
shown in Fig. 103. Along the lower course of the brook much of the 
Fig. 103.-Plan of Disposal Works, Wayne, Pennsylvania. 
land was a nearly level tussock swamp. All growth less than eight 
inches in diameter was removed from the tract. The creek was 
straightened and deepened, and the banks sloped back from the walls 
of the creek and sodded. But little grading was necessary on the left 
or south side of the creek, but the whole area on the other side was 
graded. The header drain of six-inch pipe on the left side of the creek 
was laid to cut off the effluent from some slightly wet land. The stone 
drain is for the protection of the pumping station. 
The land on the south side of the creek was divided into three nearly 534 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
equal tracts by embankments about one foot high, which converge at 
the distributing well. A road to the pumping station divides the land 
on the north side of the creek into two sections. 
The outlet sewers already de- 
scribed were intercepted just 
above the old settling basins, from 
which point a 12-inch vitrified 
pipe, with a fall of 1 in 125, ex- 
tends to the edge of the disposal 
field. About 400 feet above the 
edge of the field an 8-inch branch, 
with a fall of 1 in 250, extends to a 
screening chamber. From this 
chamber the sewage is delivered 
at will on to tract D or E, first 
passing over a bed of broken 
stone. 
The main outlet sewer is of vitrified pipe where in earth, and of iron 
and cement where on piers. It ends in a brick screening chamber 
with a concrete bottom near the pumping station, shown in plan and 
Cross Section, 
Flan . 
Screen Screen 
Longitudinal Section 
Fig. 104.-Screening Chamber. 
Six 6 "Overflow 
Pipes 
Overflow 
Receiving 
Pump Bea 
Inlet 
Sump Ho/e 
Tank 
Pump Bea 
Boi/er' 
Plan. 
Chimney 
4"Va/ve Barr Duplex Pump 
11nlet 
Six (/Overflow Pipes 
Section. 
Sump 
Well.^ 
Fig. 105.-Receiving Tank and Pump House. SURFACE IRRIGATION AT WAYNE. 
535 
section by Fig. 104. After passing through the screens the sewage 
flows into the receiving reservoir, shown in plan and longitudinal sec- 
tion by Fig. 105. This reservoir has a capacity of 90,000 gallons to the 
mouth of the inlet pipe. Its bottom is of concrete and slopes toward 
the sump into which the suction 
pipes extend. Six 6-inch pipes 
at the top of the tank lead to 
the creek as an overflow. 
Two Barr duplex pumps, with 
a capacity of about 22,000 gal- 
lons each per hour, or 525,000 
gallons per day, force the sew- 
age up the hill on the left of 
the creek to the distributing 
well. This 12-inch force main 
is of spiral weld steel pipe, is 
480 feet long, and has a rise of 
about 100 feet. The lower end 
of the force main was placed 
above ground, to obtain a grade 
that would allow it to drain dry 
through the aerating pipe, men- 
tioned below. 
Both pumps are started when the screening reservoir is nearly full, 
and, as designed, the sewage is first delivered back into the receiving 
tank through a 4-inch aerating pipe, the object being to deodorize 
the sewage and increase its oxygen. Aeration is maintained for from 
60 to 90 minutes, after which the valve in the aerating pipe is closed 
and the sewage is delivered into the well. 
The distributing well is shown in plan and section by Fig. 106. It 
is of brick with a concrete bottom, and is covered by a small building 
shown in the distance in the view, Fig. 108. Lift gates, working in 
the masonry of the well, are provided to 
regulate the discharge of the sewage 
upon the tracts. 
A bed of broken stone, about 8 inches 
deep and 50 feet wide, extends across the 
tract below the distributing well. Sew- 
age is discharged into a depression along 
the upper edge of the stone bed. When this depression is filled the 
sewage flows down the bed, which has a fall of about 1 to 4, to a 
catch wall of broken stone designed to check the somewhat rapid 
flow of the sewage and to distribute it evenly over the land below. 
The cinder banks shown in Fig. 107 are laid on graded strips follow- 
Section. 
Outlet to. 
Tract A. 
E mbankment antf 
Footpath, I'hi 'qh 
and 2' w/de 
Plan 
Outlet to c 
Fig. 106.-Distributing Well. 
Fig. 107.-Cross Section 
through Cinder Bank. 536 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
ing contours. The cinders, mostly from locomotives, are backed, to 
prevent washing. These banks are designed to catch the sewage in 
its irregular flow down the steep hillside and start it again uniformly. 
The receiving reservoir fills in from 6 to 12 hours, and is emptied in 
Fig. 108.-General View of Wayne Disposal Works, from North Side 
of Creek. 
about 5 hours. The sewage disappears from the surface of the land in 
about a half-hour after the pumps are stopped. 
The field on the left side of the creek was put in operation in Sep- 
tember, 1891. The field at the right of the creek was put in use later, 
before well covered with vegetation. Col. Waring states that if the 
aeration of the sewage, as described above, proves sufficiently bene- 
ficial, a force main will be constructed to the field at the right, and 
sewage delivered to it by pumping, instead of by gravity, as now. 
Figs. 108 and 109 present views of the disposal works from two dif- 
ferent points. 
Oct. 27, 1892, Mr. Baker visited the Wayne purification works, and 
through the courtesy of Mr. Frank Smith, manager of the Wayne 
estate, and Mr. C. D. Slaw, superintendent of the sewerage system, 
obtained the additional information which follows. 
There are now about 600 acres in the estate. All buildings on the 
property are connected with the sewerage system, there being about 
275 connections. The average daily consumption of water in Wayne 
is stated to be about 200,000 gallons. The average sewage pumpage 
was given as about the same, but from all the data at hand it would SURFACE IRRIGATION AT WAYNE. 
537 
seem to be higher. Two days out of five, according to the informa- 
tion given, the sewage flows by gravity on to the north part of the 
area. 
The first screens used at the screening chamber at the receiving 
reservoir had a 2-inch mesh. This mesh proved to be too coarse, and 
screens with 1-inch mesh are now used. The rakings from the screens 
average about two barrels a day, there being more on Saturday, Sun- 
day, and Monday than on other days. Lime is put upon the rakings 
as they accumulate beside the chamber before removal. 
The pumping station is kept open throughout the 24 hours, and the 
pumps are run from 16 to 18 hours a day, requiring about 110 pounds of 
buckwheat coal per hour. Two engineers are employed at the station, 
and the superintendent divides his time between it and the part of 
the sewerage system within the village. In addition, laborers are em- 
ployed when necessary, which, it would seem, is not often. Sewage 
is turned upon each tract for only one day at a time, so that each 
tract has a rest of five days. 
The material in the barriers has never been changed, and the 
Fig. 109.-General View of Works from South Side of Creek. 
broken stone at the top of the hill on the south side of the creek, Mr. 
Slaw stated, has never been cleaned, except that one section has had 
one cleaning. The broken stone at the head of the areas on both sides 
of the creek showed only a small amount of rags and paper which had 
been caught. At the dam of broken stone at the top of the steep hill- 
side, and at the first barrier below, sludge accumulates and has to be 538 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
shovelled out. Except at the first or stone barrier, the sewage rarely 
runs over the top of the banks, unless they are stopped by leaves, as 
is likely to be the case in the fall of the year. The sewage has a 
tendency in the first part of its course to run down the steep hillside 
in channels, and to some extent this has been encouraged, or rather 
several small channels have been formed in order to keep the sew- 
age from flowing down in one large one. 
There was scarcely any trouble from frost during the winter of 1891- 
2, and that at only one corner of the field. 
As the sewage came from the middle gate of the distributing well at 
the top of the hill it was cloudy, and like any sewage not affected by 
manufacturing wastes. At the second barrier, counting the dam of 
broken stone as one, little change was noticed, perhaps because the 
sewage came quite directly and rapidly from the first through two or 
three channels. At the third barrier the sewage was clearer, and a dog 
drank freely of it. Behind the fourth barrier a clear-looking liquid 
four or five inches deep was found. Below the last barrier no sewage 
could be seen. At Iphan creek, which flows through the grounds, 
there was evidence of some seepage through the walls of the creek 
below the section which was receiving sewage, but the seepage was 
slight and might have been natural. At the ends of the drain and 
trench of broken stone no effluent was discernible. The creek showed 
no signs of pollution by the effluent, and small fish were observed 
in it. 
At least five crops of grass were raised on each side of the creek in 
1892, and a man was engaged in raking up a fair crop of grass from 
the field north of the creek on the day of Mr. Baker's visit. CHAPTER XLIV. 
THE USE OF SEWAGE FOR IRRIGATION IN THE WEST.* 
Considering the general development of the two sections of the 
country, the western part of the United States is about as far advanced 
in the purification of sewage as the eastern. This is accounted for in 
three ways : (1) The very low stage of western streams during the hot, 
dry season often renders sewage discharged into them an unbearable 
nuisance, or there may be no natural stream near by of sufficient size 
to receive sewage; (2) the familiarity of the people with irrigation ; 
and (3) the value of all available water for this purpose naturally leads 
to the application of sewage to crops when any method of purification 
is necessary. 
For the foregoing reasons all but two of the sewage purification 
plants west of the Mississippi river employ irrigation, and one of the 
two exceptions, Hastings, Nebraska, uses intermittent filtration and 
will probably raise crops eventually, while the other, Leadville, Colo- 
rado, only strains the sewage through a small area of sand. 
As shown below, eight western towns are prepared to apply sewage 
to land for irrigation in the season of 1893. In addition, Los Angeles 
may also be ready to so dispose of its sewage in 1893, and until three 
years ago had been so doing for some time ; while at Cheyenne, 
Wyoming, sewage was for a period of seven or eight years delivered 
into an irrigating ditch and used for irrigation, this use being stopped 
only by a change in the outlet sewer. 
Some of the leading points regarding these sewage farms are given 
in the accompanying table, from which it appears that sewage was 
first used for irrigation at Cheyenne, Wyoming, probably in 1883. 
Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
The population of this city increased from 4,226 in 1880 to 11,140 in 
1890. Water-works were built in 1879 and a sewerage system in 1888. 
Sewage was first used for irrigation in 1889. January 1, 1893, there 
were in use 20.4 miles of separate sewers, 239 man-holes, 683 house 
connections, and 18 flush tanks. 
A statement of the causes which led to the use of sewage for irriga- 
*See Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 183-6 (Feb. 23, 1893). 540 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
General Information Regarding the Use of Sewage for Irrigation in 
the West. 
Popu- 
lation, 
1890. 
Ready 
for 
use. 
Irrigation adopted on 
account of- 
Ownership 
of irrigated Rental, 
land. 
Crops raised or 
proposed to 
be raised. 
Colorado Springs, 
Colo 
^11,140 
1889 .. 
( Litigation on account 
( of pollution 
J- Private. 
$300* per year, 5 years 
J Alfalfa, hay, 
( garden truck. 
Trinidad, Colo. .. 
5,523 -[ 
( To prevent pollution 
of water used for 
( domestic purposes . 
1892.. 
J * 
$500* 
i Blue grass pro- 
| posed. 
Fresno, Cal 
10,818 •} 
Jan., 
1890.. 
J- Best avTble method 
$5,000* 
j Chinese truck 
| gardens. 
Pasadena, Cal.... 
4,882 
1893... 
1 Evidently some puri- 
| fication necessary.. 
} City.... 
( B'rly,hay, fruit, 
< veg't'blespro- 
( posed. 
Redding, Cal .... 
1,821 
1888... 
( To prevent pollution 
-< Sacramento water 
( supply 
Private. 
i $300* first year.t and 
1 yearly increase. 
( Grain, potatoes, 
- v e geta bles, 
( fruit. 
Los Angeles, Cal. 
50,395 -} 
Prior 
1887.. 
To provide water for 
irrigation 
No rental formerly.J 
Miscellaneous. 
Santa Rosa, Cal.. 
5,220 -j 
1889 or 
earlier 
Litigation on account 
of pollution 
J- City.... 
Leased without rental. 
Garden truck. 
Helena, Mont.... 
13,834 
1889... 
J Means of providing 
| park 
( »< 
r 
( Leased : lessee to make' 
-. improvements and 
( cash payment. 
Vegetables, 
nursery stock. 
Cheyenne, Wyo.. 
11,690 
Prob. 
1883.. 
To provide water for 
irrigation 
j- Private. 
No rental. 
Stockton, Cal.... 
14,4241 
1892 or 
1893.. 
To provide water for 
irrigation 
J- " 
♦ Paid by the city, t Increase yearly proportionately with assessment roll. $ City may exact a rental of $3 
per acre for land covered by new outfall. 
tion, and a description of the sewage farm, have been furnished by Mr. 
H. I. Reid, city engineer and engineer of the disposal plant, as fol- 
lows : 
In the utilization of sewage for irrigation purposes at Colorado 
Springs no attempt is made toward treatment or purification other 
than by natural means and in a rather primitive manner. The system 
was adopted as a compromise measure, to avoid suits for damages for 
the alleged pollution of the stream into which the outfall sewer orig- 
inally einptied, " Fountain Qui Bouille," commonly known as Fountain 
creek. This stream has a normal flow at the sewer outlet of 50 cubic 
feet per second, but at times during the irrigating season this is 
reduced to almost nothing, although during the same season floods 
may be expected, when for a few' hours or days the creek becomes a 
swift-flowing river, with a fall of 30 to 40 feet per mile. 
The original sewrerage system was put in operation in 1888. The 
following year a ranchman, living some two miles below the outlet 
point, shown in Fig. 110, instituted injunction proceedings to prevent 
the sewage from being turned into the stream, claiming that his well, 
situated near the stream, was so polluted as to render it unfit for drink- 
ing purposes, and that the water in his irrigating ditch, the head gate 
of which is f mile below the sewer outlet, was so foul that stock would 
not drink it. Before the suit came to trial the city council appointed 
a committee to try and arbitrate the matter. This was done and the 
suit was withdrawn, the city paying all costs of proceedings to that 541 
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO. 
date, and agreeing to divert the sewage at some point on the outfall 
and utilize it for irrigation on the lands designated on the accompany- 
ing map, Fig. 110. 
A contract was made between the city and the owner of this land, 
whereby the city was to deliver the sewage at the point B, Fig. 110, by 
the line A B, and to pay annually $300 
for five years, the owner to receive the 
sewage at this point and use the same 
for irrigation purposes in such a man- 
ner as he deemed best, provided, how- 
ever, that he prevent the sewage from 
flowing directly into the creek, and 
provided, further, that if the method 
of irrigation was not satisfactory to 
Fig. 110.-Plan of Sewage Farm at Colorado Springs, Colorado. 
the ranchman bringing the suit, or to the city, then the city should 
have possession of the land and use such methods as it thought best. 
At the expiration of the contract the city has the option of buying the 
land at a stipulated sum, and probably will buy it, although there are 
now many parties who would pay for the sewage delivered to their land. 
The city tapped the outfall at the point A, Fig. 110, and by means of 
an underground wooden conduit on a less gradient than the original 
outlet delivered sewage on the surface of the ground at the point B, 
whence the lessee takes charge of it and delivers it to grounds by the 
ditches B E and BCD, and thence by laterals to any desired point. 
The map shows that many years ago the stream followed a different 
channel than the present one, the depression of which extends through 
the entire tract from west to east, and is from 3 to 4 feet lower than 542 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
the north bank of the creek at corresponding points at right angles 
thereto. The old channel is the medium whereby the surplus sewage 
is carried off without flowing directly into the creek. 
The sewage is distributed by means of small ditches or furrows 
through the garden tract, whence all liquid matter not absorbed by 
the earth flows back into this old channel, and thence into the depres- 
sions, forming small reservoirs at H, I, L, Fig. 110. The small laterals 
radiating from the main ditch irrigate the northern portion of the 
lands, and in a similar manner any surplus flows into the same reser- 
voirs. During the irrigation season, which in this instance is from 
March 1 to Nov. 1, there is but little surplus, the character of the soil 
being such that the greater portion is absorbed or carried off by 
underflow. 
In constructing the outlet sewer, throughout this entire tract of 
valley land, from the surface to a depth of 2 or 3 feet, loose black loam 
was found, then a 2-foot stratum of sand, below which was coarse 
gravel and sand, through which water was flowing with considerable 
velocity, so that at a depth of 6 feet it was found necessary to dig a 
parallel and deeper trench to carry off the water, in order to facilitate 
pipe-laying. This probably explains the rapidity with which the sew- 
age is absorbed when applied for irrigation. As soon as sufficiently 
dry, after each application of sewage, the soil is thoroughly pulver- 
ized and any accumulation of solid matter turned under before receiv- 
ing another application. 
When irrigation is not in progress the entire flow is carried through 
the main ditch and emptied into the old channel and depressions men- 
tioned. The upper pools or reservoirs, Fig. 110, were ploughed out by 
the action of surface water; the lower or most easterly one is a reser- 
voir, the dam of which was built up through a similar agency. Imme- 
diately north of the railway tracks are sand and gravel hills, some 200 
feet higher than the valley and very steep. During the rainy season 
flood water flows into Fountain creek, across the valley at right angles 
to the old channel. At such times the debris brought down has been 
deposited upon the lower level of the valley, and a sand dike several 
hundred feet wide and 5 or 6 feet higher than the lowest portion of the 
valley has been formed, thus converting the valley at this point into 
the basin K, Fig. 110, the area of which is some three or four acres. 
All surplus sewage collects in this basin and rapidly seeps away into 
the underflow and finally into the creek. The solid matter is deposited 
in the basin, and that it will in time cement the bottom and fill it up is 
very probable ; but no trouble of this kind has been experienced to 
this date, and to all appearances there is very little deposit of any 
kind. It is said that no unpleasant odor is experienced on any por- 
tion of the farm at any time. 543 
TRINIDAD, COLORADO. 
So far as practical results are concerned the disposal area is sucess- 
ful, inasmuch as the city is relieved of costly litigation and also from 
the care and maintenance of the outlet lines. The lessee is well 
pleased because of the enormous crops raised and lack of trouble from 
the vexatious problem of " priority of water rights." As illustrating 
the demand for water in this section, it may be stated that the ranch- 
men several miles below the outlet, seeing the sewage farm well sup- 
plied with water at times when they have none, threaten to enjoin the 
city from using the sewage for this purpose, and to compel it to turn 
the sewage into the stream for their benefit. 
Tiie sewage farm comprises at present an area of about 35 acres, but 
may be added to as future needs require. In 1892 the sewage was 
used on 25 acres-15 in meadow and alfalfa and 10 acres in vegetables ; 
but a larger acreage could be covered with the present amount of sew- 
age. The crops produced are enormous, and owing to close proximity 
to the market the farm is a paying investment. As already stated, at 
present the city has nothing to do with the management of the farm, 
but the probabilities are that when the lease expires the city will buy 
the farm and enlarge the system. 
Under date of Jan. 24, 1893, Mr. Reid wrote that he had recently 
visited the sewage farm, and found the sewage running directly into 
the creek through a ditch cut from the reservoirs, shown in Fig. 110. 
This, he states, is in direct conflict with the terms of the agreement, 
but that possibly it was done to flood the lands of ranchmen below, 
who have recently been willing to take all the sewage they can get. 
Trinidad, Colorado. 
The city of Trinidad is divided into two parts by the Las Animas 
river, a comparatively small stream during much of the year. The 
farmers below the city depend upon ditches leading from the river for 
water for domestic use, which makes some form of sewage purification 
especially necessary. Following the advice of Mr. Norval W. Wall, 
city engineer, it was decided to purify the sewage by irrigation. A 
contract was therefore made with Mr. Jas. M. John, who was mayor at 
the time, to receive and dispose of the sewage on land owned by him, 
the city paying $500 per year and delivering the sewage upon the land. 
The population of Trinidad in 1880 was 2,226, in 1890 it was 5,523. 
A public water supply was introduced in 1879 by the Trinidad Water- 
Works Co. A sewerage system was put in operation in 1892, the out- 
fall sewer having been completed about three months before the close 
of the year. Mr. Wall was engineer of the system. 
On Jan. 1, 1893, there were in use two miles of separate sewers, 18 544 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
man-holes, two flush-tanks, and 12 house connections, mostly to public 
buildings. 
An 18-inch vitrified outlet sewer 7,100 feet long leads from the city to 
the sewage farm. This outlet has a theoretical velocity, when running 
full, of 2.58 cubic feet per second. 
At the farm end of the outlet there is a masonry settling tank 50 feet 
long, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet deep. 
The sewage farm slopes toward the Las Animas river at the rate of 
from 2^ to 3^ feet per 100, and is laid out with embankments following 
natural contours, as shown in Fig. Ill, except that a total of 15 em- 
Fig. 111.-Sketch Plan of Sewage Farm, Trinidad, Colorado. 
bankments have now been made. The embankments are from 25 to 50 
feet apart and average about 1,500 feet in length. Wooden sluice boxes 
provide means for the passage of sewage through the embankments to 
lower areas. To the close of 1892 about $1,200 had been expended by 
Mr. John in preparing the farm to receive sewage. 
It is stated that blue grass is proposed as a crop on the farm, for the 
reason that it will stand more frequent irrigation than any other crop. 
Fresno, California. 
A very interesting example of the nse of sewage for irrigation is 
found at Fresno, California, where the city pays $5,000 per year for the 
disposal of its sewage, and the contractor distributes the sewage over 
land which he rents to Chinamen for market gardens. 
The population of Fresno has increased from 1,112 in 1880 to 10,- 
818 in 1890. A public water supply was introduced in 187G by the 
Fresno Water Co. Tin; city put a sewerage system in operation in 
January, 1890. Shepard & Teilman, of Fresno, were engineers of the 
system, Mr. J. C. Shepard, of that firm, being city engineer at the 
time. Sept. 5, 1892, there were included in this system about eight 
miles of sewers on the separate plan, not including the outlet sewer. FRESNO, CALIFORNIA. 
545 
which consists of about 4£ miles of 24-inch vitrified pipe laid to a 
grade of 3| feet per mile. Jan. 1, 1893, there were in use about 
600 house connections and six flush-tanks. In addition to the flush- 
tanks there is at four points a continuous flow of water into the 
sewers, about equal to a 2-inch stream under a 6-foot head. The lower 
end of the outlet connects directly with an irrigating ditch. 
We are indebted to Shepard & Teilman for the information here 
given regarding the sewage farm, the remainder of which is presented 
substantially as furnished by them in September and October, 1892, as 
follows: 
Prior to the construction of the sewers the city trustees considered 
the disposal of the sewage the great obstacle to be overcome; there' 
fore they called for proposals to take care of the sewage for five years, 
the successful bidder to give a bond of $10,000 to protect the city from 
all damages which might arise therefrom after its delivery at the end 
of the pipe. Alexander McBean, of Oakland, was the lowest bidder, 
and his bid of $5,000 per annum was accordingly accepted. He pur- 
chased 80 acres of land at the end of the outlet sewer, and for one year 
the sewage ran upon it without any attention or care, except when oc- 
casionally some neighbor saw fit to take it for irrigation. The second 
year ditches were constructed and the land leased to Chinamen for 
vegetable gardens, and for the last two seasons it has been used for 
irrigating gardens and vineyards. 
The land is all under cultivation with all the various kinds of vege- 
tables commonly in the market, such as potatoes, yams, parsnips, let- 
tuce, celery, beans, peas, and corn. It is customary to irrigate vege- 
tables in furrows only. Trees and vines are preferably irrigated in 
furrows also. Grasses would be flooded, but Messrs. Shepard & 
Teilman have no knowledge of sewage used on grasses at this farm. 
As to the amount of sewage used on the 80 acres, definite statement* 
are lacking. The 24-inch outlet sewer, on a grade of 3| feet per mile, 
runs continuously, it is judged, about one-third full, but what propor- 
tion of the flow is used on the sewage farm is unknown. 
Mr. H. Burley, the superintendent of the farm, states that he can see 
no difference between irrigating with sewage and clear water. It is 
possible that the land may produce good crops longer by the use of 
sewage, but that, he considers, is still to be proved. The general im- 
pression is that sewage is superior to clear water for irrigation. The 
sewage farm is an exceptionally poor piece of land, but nevertheless 
it produces fairly well with sewage irrigation. Neither Messrs. Shep- 
ard & Teilman nor Mr. Burley have any information as to what a 
similar piece would do if irrigated with clear water only. 
When sewage is put upon the land without more dilution than is 
given by the flushing water, unless the land is cultivated within a day 546 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
or two, there is quite a stench, but when cultivated this disappears. 
Thus far there has been no complaint regarding the sewage farm, and 
as the matter stands the $5,000 is in effect a yearly pension to the con- 
tractor. 
When not needed on the farm, the sewage is allowed to flow in the 
irrigating ditches for miles beyond ; in this way it becomes very much 
diluted, and in the irrigating season is used throughout the country 
below the sewage farm proper. 
Pasadena, California. 
After an unfortunate experience with the Pacific Sewage Co.-an 
organization which agreed with the city to construct a disposal system 
similar to that in use at Atlantic City, New Jersey, but failed to do so- 
and after two years of litigation over right of way for the outlet sewer, 
the city of Pasadena in the middle or the latter part of 1892 began the 
preparation of a farm for the disposal of the sewage of the city. It is 
expected that this farm will be put in use in the season of 1893, as de- 
scribed below. 
Pasadena is a city of comparatively recent origin, its population in 
1880 having been but 391. The present population is estimated at 
6,000, the census of 1890 showing 4,882 inhabitants. The construction 
of a sewerage system was begun in 1887, and in 1891 nearly five miles 
of sewers had been built within the city limits. August Mayer, C.E., 
of Pasadena, is the engineer of the whole system, which is of the sepa- 
rate type. We are indebted to Mr. Mayer for the following informa- 
tion relating to the sewage farm, the matter having been furnished in 
November, 1892: 
The city of Pasadena lies in the midst of the San Gabriel valley, at 
the foot of the Sierra Madre mountains, 10 miles northerly from the 
city of Los Angeles and about 30 miles from the Pacific ocean. Its 
elevation above the latter may be taken at 900 feet, or about 600 feet 
above the main part of Los Angeles. The soil around the city, and 
especially that close to the mountains, is sandy, with excellent under- 
drainage. The general slope toward the ocean in the vicinity of the 
city is 2 feet per 100 feet. The grades obtainable for sewerage in the 
city, with one or two exceptions, are excellent. The average annual 
rainfall amounts to 20 inches, which is precipitated chiefly during the 
months of January, February, March, and April. The average tem- 
perature during the rainless eight summer months may be taken at 
85° F. The air is dry. 
Wherever water is obtainable for irrigation, citrus fruit is principally 
raised, while the unwatered land is fit only for the raising of some 
deciduous fruits, grapes, and barley ; the latter being chiefly cut in this PASADENA, CALIFORNIA. 
547 
vicinity before its maturity and used for hay. Bare land is worth 
$100 per acre without water, while watered land is held at about $600 
per acre. Irrigation, therefore, makes the land valuable, and since 
water is here only obtainable from springs or storage reservoirs, of 
which latter there are none at this place at present, waste of water is 
hardly ever met with. It appears, therefore, that the circumstances for 
successful sewage disposal by means of irrigation, from a financial as 
well as sanitary standpoint, are favorable. 
The sewage farm is owned by the city, and comprises 300 acres of 
land situated about four miles from the city in a southeasterly direc- 
tion, in a well-settled part of the valley. The soil is a sandy loam, 
mixed with some alkali. It has the capacity of absorbing a consider- 
able quantity of water. It is estimated that for the present only 40 
acres will actually be required for the disposal of the sewage, although 
Slide bare. 
Fig. 112.-Sketch of Sewage Outlet Gate, Pasadena, California. 
the sewage may be spread over a much larger area for the purpose of 
irrigating crops on the remainder of the farm. Most of the land will 
probably continue to be devoted, as at present, to the raising of barley- 
hay until fruit orchards are planted. The land originally cost $125 per 
acre, or a total of about $40,000, including some extra expenses. The 
gross yield in barley-hay, without irrigation, is $4,000 per annum, or 
10 per cent, on the cost; the net yield amounts to about $3,000, 7| per 
cent, on the money invested. 
It is the intention to devote the land irrigated with sewage to the 
raising of vegetables, berries, and citrus fruits, and perhaps walnuts and 
alfalfa. The latter yields about seven crops per annum, or about 10 
tons per acre, and is sold for $10 to $15 per ton. It stands any amount 
of irrigation at all seasons, and the sewage may be crowded on it at 
any time. Vegetables are calculated to yield $25 net per acre, while 
berries, as a rule, yield from $100 to $200 per acre per annum. Citrus 
fruits often net from $150 to $400 per acre per annum. With sewage 
irrigation, Mr. Mayer thinks these figures may possibly be exceeded. 548 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
As seen from the section of the outlet gate, Fig. 112, the sewage is 
taken from the sewer in much the same manner as water from irrigating 
pipes, by the simple closing of a cast-iron slide gate built into a man- 
hole, through which the pipe leads. The sewage is thus backed up 
into the sewer until it rises nearly to the top of the man hole, whence it 
finds its way through a joint of sewer pipe into the main carrier, an 
earthen ditch 20 inches wide at the top, 10 at the bottom, and 10 inches 
deep. This carrier has a grade of from 4 to 6 inches in 100 feet. The 
land which the main carriers cover is divided into fields 100 feet in 
width and from 200 to 400 feet in length. The slope of the fields at 
right angles to the main carriers is 1$ to 2^ feet per 100 feet. To irri- 
gate the fields a dam of earth or of redwood board is inserted in the 
carrier at the lower end of the field, and the sewage is thus diverted 
into numerous small furrows from 3 to G inches deep and one foot 
apart, previously made with a common cultivator. Each field is 
expected to take the sewage for at least 12 hours. After the first 
soaking the dam is removed, and the next field in order will receive its 
charge, and so on. As soon as the ground permits, say in about two 
days, field No. 1 will be thoroughly cultivated, to keep the ground 
from baking hard and to allow the air to act upon the soil. This is 
the common course adopted in this vicinity for irrigation with pure 
water. 
Fruit trees are planted in regular lines about 20 feet apart each way, 
which permits the manner of irrigation described in the foregoing. 
The side and bottom walls of the main carriers will be raked over with 
a garden rake whenever it becomes necessary to prevent the ditch from 
becoming foul. 
Berries are to be planted in rows about 8 feet apart, and the sewage 
will be led in between the rows so that the ground can be well culti- 
vated. Vegetables may be planted in single or double rows, as the 
case may require, and the sewage will be conducted in between the 
rows or fields in flat trenches, which are to remain filled until the 
ground from trench to trench is thoroughly saturated with the sewage 
water, when the trenches will be drained, and after having dried off 
sufficiently they will be cultivated. 
Redding, California. 
Redding is one of the smallest towns in the United States using 
sewage for irrigation or having a sewerage system ; its population in 
1890 was 1,821, and in 1880 but GOO. A separate sewerage system was 
built in 1889 by the town, with the city engineer, S. E. Brackins, 
as engineer, and Bassett & Touhey, Sacramento, as contractors, who 
also entered into an agreement to dispose of the sewage for 40 years. REDDING, CALIFORNIA. 
549 
January 1, 1893, there were 2.9 miles of sewers and seven 112-gallon 
flush-tanks in use. 
The following description of the sewage farm and matters pertain- 
ing to the disposal of sewage has been prepared from material fur- 
nished in October, 1892, by L. F. Bassett, C.E., the present owner of 
the farm : 
Redding is situated on slightly rolling ground, at an elevation of 
550 feet above the sea. It is bordered on the northeast and southeast 
by the Sacramento river. The climate ranges from 16° above zero in 
the winter to 107° F. above in summer. Most of the season the atmos- 
phere is dry and evaporation rapid. 
It was the original intention of the town to discharge its sewage into 
the Sacramento river, but objection was made at Sacramento, where 
water is taken from the river to supply the city, and the State Board 
of Health gave notice to the authorities of Redding not to discharge 
the sewage into the river. The town authorities thereupon requested 
bids for taking care of the sewage, and a contract was entered into for- 
a term of 40 years, the sewage to be disposed of at $300 for the first 
year, the amount of yearly payment thereafter to increase in propor- 
tion to the increase of the assessment roll. 
The contractors immediately purchased a tract of about 100 acres of 
land within the corporate limit, shown by Fig. 113, and prepared a 
portion of it, about a mile from the built-up part of the town, for the 
utilization of the sewage by irrigation. The land selected is com- 
paratively level, and the soil a sandy and gravelly loam 4 to 6 feet in 
depth, underlaid with gravel. Land better adapted to the purpose 
would be hard to find. About 10 acres have been prepared for irriga- 
tion by levelling and constructing open carrier ditches, elevated above 
the surface of the land to be irrigated. 
The sewage is applied directly to the land by the broad surface 
irrigation system, either by being run in furrows between rows or 
spread over the surface, according to the requirements of the crop. 
The sewage has been applied to various crops, grain, asparagus, 
potatoes, turnips, beets, orchard and some garden truck. It has been 
principally used in raising fruit trees for nursery stock, the young 
trees being irrigated between the rows. About five acres are used as 
a nursery. 
Generally the land is cultivated as soon after an application of sew- 
age as the soil becomes dry enough. Part of the year it is necessary 
to put the sewage on land on which no crops are growing. It is then 
customary to run the sewage on the same piece of land for several 
days in succession, and after the land becomes sufficiently dry, to 
plough or cultivate it. This is more particularly the case in winter, 
when there is sufficient moisture for crops without irrigation. 550 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The sewage is not allowed to flow continuously on to the land, as too 
much time would be required in taking care of it; besides which the 
ordinary flow is not of sufficient volume to operate successfully. As 
shown by the plan, Fig. 113, a reservoir was constructed at the outlet 
of the sewer, at the upper line of the sewage farm. This reservoir has 
a capacity of 75,000 gallons, which is about equal to the daily flow in 
the dry season. Each morning the outlet is opened, and the contents 
discharged in from two to four hours, as desired. The bottom and 
sides of the reservoir are so constructed that everything gravitates to 
the outlet, and special cleaning is seldom necessary. An abundant 
supply of water from the town water-works is at hand for use if re- 
quired. The reservoir is covered with a rough board structure, and a 
vent chimney of lumber is carried to an elevation of about GO feet. 
This has been sufficient to prevent any nuisance, and none is com- 
plained of, although the reservoir is alongside the public road. 
Fig. 113.-Plan of Sewage Farm, Redding, California 
It is stated by Mr. Bassett that no difficulty has been experienced in 
preventing a nuisance on the irrigated lands. Care and attention to 
secure proper distribution and cultivation are required, and with these 
the results have been fairly satisfactory. There is sometimes a slight 
odor in the immediate vicinity of freshly irrigated land, or where the 
sewage becomes ponded previous to its subsidence into the soil, but 
even this odor is not noticeable at a distance of 200 feet. 
A screen near the upper line of the irrigated lands (see Fig. 113) 
catches such large objects as might cause an obstruction in the ditches 
or interfere with the free flow of the sewage over the soil. There has 
been no underdrainage, as none is required, the soil being very porous 
and underlaid with an extensive bed of gravel. 
There has been some prejudice against the sewage farm, but this is 
gradually dying out. The most of this is stated to have been mani- 
fested by two landowners immediately south of the tract under irriga- 
tion, who from the first objected strongly to the location of the sewage 
farm in their vicinity. In June, 1892, one of the objectors had the 
proprietor of the farm arrested for maintaining a public nuisance. At LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. 
551 
an examination, held shortly afterward, the examining magistrate 
decided that the evidence was not such as would secure a conviction, 
and the case was dismissed. 
Besides the sewage, fresh water from the Sacramento river, sufficient 
for 40 acres, is available for irrigation at this farm. 
Los Angeles, California. 
The city of Los Angeles, California, is now the second in size in the 
State, having increased from a population of 11,183 in 1880 to 50,395 in 
1890. Water-works were built in 1862, but the date at which sewers 
were first put in operation is not at hand, though it was not until 1887 
that a comprehensive plan for sewerage was prepared. In that year 
sewerage plans were prepared by Fred Eaton, M. Am. Soc. C.E., 
who was then city engineer of Los Angeles. The sewers were de- 
signed on the separate system, and proportioned for a final population 
of 200,000, allowing 100 gallons of sewage per head per day, with a 
maximum flow of 150 gallons. These plans were reviewed and ap- 
proved by Rudolph Hering, M. Am. Soc. C.E. They, however, failed 
to receive the sanction of the final municipal authority. 
In 1889 Mr. Eaton presented another plan for the drainage of the 
city, somewhat more elaborate than the former. The rapid growth 
since 1887 and the great improvements in street paving, as well as the 
prospects of future development had so far changed the conditions as 
to lead to the conclusion that more liberal provision for sewerage 
should be made than the previous plan contemplated. The subject 
was therefore treated on a larger scale than in the previous plans. The 
street sewers were to a great extent planned on the combined system, 
while an outfall to the sea was provided via Ballona, instead of via 
Centinella Rancho, as in the previous plans.* 
In order to keep the cost of the outfall, which would of necessity be 
several miles in length, within bounds, provision was made for dis- 
charging storm-water directly into the Los Angeles river and other 
natural water courses by storm overflows. In this way the main out- 
fall was kept down to a size about sufficient to convey the dry-weather 
flow of the sewage of the city. 
In spite of the various restrictions, the cost of the enlarged plan was 
considerably greater than that of 1887. When put before the citizens 
to vote bonds for its execution, the project was defeated and therefore 
abandoned. 
At this time the daily dry-weather flow of sewage amounted to about 
7,000,000 gallons per day, and was disposed of by irrigation on a sandy 
tract of 1,700 acres adjoining the southern limits of the city and known 
* Los Angeles is on the Los Angeles river, about 12 miles from the Pacific ocean. 552 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
as the Vernon district. The sewage was taken at the city limits by 
the South Side Irrigation Company, who distributed it to the different 
land-owners of the district through open ditches owned and controlled 
by the company. The lands reached by the sewage ditches had, pre- 
vious to irrigation, yielded a yearly rental of about $2.50 per acre ; but 
with sewage irrigation they easily rented for from $15 to $25 per acre 
per annum. Throughout the whole district the sewage was the only 
water that could be depended upon for irrigation, except on a few 
acres reached by the surplus waters of the irrigation ditches in the 
city of Los Angeles. 
During the era of real estate speculation (1885-89), a great deal of the 
hind of the Vernon district was cut up into lots and sold. Residences 
and improvements were constructed throughout the district, and for 
the following reasons the sewage began to be considered the source of 
a public nuisance: (1) It was carried in open ditches; (2) the people 
were obliged to take it, whether they wanted it or not; (3) the irrigable 
area was considerably reduced by subdivision into house lots, while by 
reason of the rapid growth of the city the quantity of sewage was 
continually increasing; and (4) the owners of the lands were more in- 
terested in selling for residences than in developing for cultivation. 
Finally injunction suits were brought against the South Side Irri- 
gation Company to compel it to convey the sewage in closed con- 
duits through the lands of such owners as objected to open ditches, 
and also to restrain the company from delivering sewage to lands when 
not required thereon for the irrigation of crops. As further compli- 
cating the matter, the city had only one outfall and was unable to con- 
trol the volume of sewage ; again, whatever volume was discharged at 
the city line the Irrigation Company was obliged to dispose of. The 
result of the controversy was that the injunctions were granted, 
whereupon the Irrigation Company turned the sewage into the Los 
Angeles river, where it has since gone to waste, except that a small 
.area has remained under irrigation. 
In the meantime the question of ultimate disposal was pressing for 
solution, and finally, in November, 1889, the council ordered that "all 
plans and propositions for sewering the city, and all proposals for the 
disposal of the sewage, be referred to a Commission of Engineers," to 
consist of Rudolph Hering, M. Am. Soc. C.E., Fred Eaton, M. Am. 
Soc. C.E., George Hansen, C.E., George C. Knox, C.E., and August 
Mayer, C.E., who reported under date of December 23, 1889. 
The Commission took up the various projects which had been sub- 
mitted from time to time, including those of a citizens' committee 
which had reported, a short time before the appointment of the Com- 
mission, a project for sewerage embodying substantially Mr. Eaton's 
plan of 1887; but instead of an outfall to the sea they advocated the 553 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA. 
erection of several detached stations at which all the sewage would be 
treated by precipitation or filtration, and the effluent used for irriga- 
tion to the south of the city. The estimates submitted by the citizens' 
committee were considerably lower than either the engineer's estimate 
of 1887 or that of 1889. The precipitation plan was, however, shown 
when analyzed to entail much larger capitalized expense than the citi- 
zens' committee had estimated. 
In its report the Commission of Engineers took the matter up in 
detail, and presented estimates on the various routes and plans which 
had been under discussion, together with concise statements of the 
problem of sewage disposal at Los Angeles, and concluded " that on 
account of the nearness of large areas of irrigable lands and the com- 
parative distance to the ocean, a disposal of the sewage by irrigation 
is the most suitable method for Los Angeles." 
The problem of disposal by irrigation was, however, somewhat com- 
plicated by the fact that the city owned no lands upon which to irri- 
gate, and that consequently disposal by irrigation must be subject to 
arrangements with the land-owners ; and in order to obtain their views 
a circular was prepared and placed in the hand of every land-owner 
that could be reached in the Vernon and Florence districts and in the 
direction of Ballona, these being the localities to the south and 
southwest of the city in which disposal by irrigation would be natu- 
rally applied. The following are the questions asked in this cir- 
cular : 
1. Do you desire sewage for irrigation ? 
2. Would you use crude sewage? 
3. Would you prefer crude sewage ? 
4. Would you use purified sewage? 
5. How many acres of land do you own ? 
6. How many acres would you irrigate ? 
7. What is the nature of your soil ? (Sandy, loamy, alkali, or moist.) 
8. Do you wish the sewage for the dry season only ? 
9. Would you take the sewage for the wet season only ? 
10. Would you enter into contract with the city of Los Angeles, and give bonds 
to take care of its sewage at all seasons, and if so, how long? 
11. Would you make use of the city's sewage at times when you needed it, if its 
system was provided with an outfall sewer to the sea ? 
12. Do you use well water for household purposes ? 
13. What is the depth of your well ? 
14. Is your well tubed ? 
15. In boring and digging did you meet with any impervious layer of clay or 
hardpan ? 
16. Would you object to the irrigation with sewage on lands in your vicinity? 
A great number of answers were received, which are presented in 
four tables in the report. The following from the report gives the 
main points of these four tables: 
Table No. 1 shows for Vernon and Florence that thirty-five property holders, 
owning 3,033 acres of land, desire sewage either crude or pure for irrigation; 554 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
twelve persons, controlling 367 acres, will make use of purified sewage only ; thir- 
ty-two persons, owning 2,955 acres, will take sewage for the dry season only ; six- 
teen persons, owning 571 acres, would take the sewage during the wet season ; 
three persons, controlling 48 acres, intend to use sewage only if the city provides 
its sewer system with an outfall to the sea ; 43 persons, owning all the property 
canvassed, except 70 acres, refuse to guarantee by contract and bond to take the 
sewage of the city at all seasons; three persons, owning 70 acres, signify their 
willingness to enter into contract with the city and give bond to take the sewage 
for all seasons; forty-five persons state that they use well water for domestic pur- 
poses. Table No. 2 shows for Vernon and Florence that one hundred and thirty-three 
property owners, controlling 5,125 acres, positively refuse to use sewage for irri- 
gation, while one hundred and twenty four of them object also to sewage irrigation 
in their vicinity. Table No. 3 shows that five persons, owning 1,026 acres of land 
in the direction of Ballona, will take the sewage foi' irrigation, crude or purified; 
six persons, owning l,028| acres, will take the sewage for the dry season; no 
one in that vicinity offers to take sewage during the wet season; all six persons 
refused to enter into contract with the city to take the sewage at all times, while 
five use well water for domestic purposes. Table No. 4 shows that twenty-two 
property holders in the direction of La Ballona, controlling 1,711 acres, refuse to 
irrigate with sewage, while twenty-one of them also object to sewage irrigation 
in their vicinity. Most of the land is reported to be sandy or sandy loam. 
As stated by the Commission, the conclusions which are reached from 
the foregoing point to the following : 
(1) That a great portion of the lands lying south of the city are suitable for irri- 
gation purposes. This the Commission can affirm from personal inspection. 
(2) That an insufficient amount of land is offered for a permanent disposal of the 
city's sewage. 
(3) That enough land is, however, available for a disposal during the dry season. 
(4) That an insufficient amount of sewage would be accepted in winter. 
The Commission continued the discussion as follows : 
The problem, therefore, requiring a solution, is the finding of a practicable 
method of disposing of the sewage during the winter months. 
In order to have some tangible data regarding the length of time during which 
sewage is not desired by irrigators, we have asked and received a statement thereof 
from Mr. Henry Martz, President of the South Side Irrigation Company, showing 
that since the summer of 1888 the sewage had to be run to waste during the fol- 
lowing periods : From Nov. 13, 1888, to Feb. 14, 1889, 93 days, no sewage was used. 
From Feb. 14 to March 12, 1889, 20 days, one-half of the sewage was used 
(about 3| cubic feet per second on 650 acres, or 3,480 gallons per day per acre.) 
From March 12 to April 20, 1889, 39 days, no sewage was used. From April 
20 to Sept. 30, 1889, 163 days, all the sewage was used (about 8 cubic feet 
per second on 1,700 acres, or 3,040 gallons per day per acre). From Sept. 30 
to Oct. 20, 1889, 20 days, one-third of the sewage was used (about three cubic 
feet per second on 1,700 acres, or 1,140 gallons per day per acre). Oct. 20 to Dec. 
15, 1889, 56 days, no sewage was iTsed. Therefore, between Oct. 20, 1888, and 
Oct. 20, 1889, on 187 days, all sew'age was used; for 26 days, one-half of it; for 20 
days, only one-third of it; and for 132 days none was used. Between Sept. 30, 
1888, and Sept. 30, 1889, on 207 days, all the sewage was used; for 26 days, 
one-half of it, and for 132 days no sewage was used. 
During a wet year, the number of days when the water-takers do not want the 
sewage is still greater; but for the purpose of a comparative estimate of cost, we 
have assumed an average time of 130 days per annum, during which the sewage 
must be disposed of by other methods than the present one. Land cannot be 
properly cultivated which must receive sewage at all seasons. The crops at certain 
stages of growth will be positively injured by irrigation. The greatest benefit is 
derived by land-owners, if they are placed iu such a position that they can take the CONCLUSIONS. 
555 
sewage whenever and in whatever quantity they desire. Under such circumstances 
land can be rented at higher rates than otherwise, and consequently sewage water 
can be sold at much better prices to the irrigators. 
After further discussion of the several questions presented, the 
Commission arrived at the following 
Conclusions. 
(1) There is no legal authority to pollute a watercourse and to create and main- 
tain a nuisance therein, and therefore crude sewage cannot be discharged into the 
Los Angeles river or any other available stream. 
(2) For this reason it is not within the province of the Commission to consider 
an outfall sewer to the river not far from the city, or to any other watercourse 
within reach, without making provision for the proper purification of the sewage at 
the point of discharge. 
(3) If the annual cost of purifying the sewage by precipitation is capitalized and 
added to the cost of a short outfall sewer, the total expense of any such method of 
disposal in this locality is far too expensive, and the Commission cannot recom- 
mend it. 
(4) The filtration of sewage of the winter' months upon 800 acres of land either 
near the Los Angeles river or the Ballona creek, is more expensive than the cost of 
an outfall to the sea, but this difference is not so great that it might not be bal- 
anced by other considerations than the question of cost. 
(5) The expense of taking care of the sewage during the winter months may 
possibly be balanced by the receipts from the crops raised during the summer 
months, but this conclusion depends greatly upon the skill, intelligence, and in- 
tegrity of the management. 
(6) The operation of filtration areas on the part of the city would oblige it to 
enter directly or indirectly into competitive business for the raising and sale of 
crops, which is to be looked upon with disfavor. 
(7) The owners in severalty of those large areas, which by reason of their size can 
alone profitably receive the amount of sewage upon which the present estimate is 
based, refuse to enter into any engagement to take this sewage unless the city 
guarantees them against any loss resulting from litigation. 
(8) The city can give this guarantee or can guarantee the general public against 
the creation of a nuisance only when it is in position to dispose of the sewage prop- 
erly at all times. 
(9) Other things being equal, an outfall to the sea which requires a minimum of 
care and attention on the part of the municipality, is therefore to be preferred. 
The outfall sewer to Long beach along the Los Angeles river is the most ex- 
pensive among the sewers projected to the ocean. 
(10) There are prospective objections to the disposal of sewage at Long beach by 
an outfall sewer along the river, on account of the shoals and sloughs prevailing in 
that locality, and eventually the sewage might have to be removed further into the 
ocean by pumping. 
(11) The only two remaining lines of outfall sewers, namely, to points between 
Santa Monica and Redondo beach, are equally commendable from an engineering 
point of view, and the preference between them may be decided on the grounds of 
cost. 
(12) The outfall sewer by Ballona route is the cheaper one, and therefore more 
preferable. 
(13) The draining of the Cienega, and incidentally improving its value, may be 
accomplished by laying tiles in the same trench with the sewer, which tiles can 
drain into the creek. 
(14) If the sewage is freed of its floating matter by screens placed on the line of 
the sewer near the coast, none of it can drift to points along the shore and there 
deposit. 556 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
(15) By carrying the outfall 2,000 feet into the ocean from the shore and letting 
the sewage escape twenty-five feet below low water, no sewage will be traceable in 
the ocean water, even with strong currents, at a distance of one and one-half miles 
from the outlet, and a chemical analysis will be unable to detect any traces of sew- 
age at a distance of two miles. 
(16) While Los Angeles at the present time derives no income from the sale of 
its sewage for irrigation, and can presumably derive no income from such source 
whilst it is obliged to solicit landowners to receive the sewage and to guarantee 
the users against loss by litigation, it is unquestionably a fact that, with an outfall 
sewer, the city will be placed in an independent position, and will be enabled to 
sell the sewage at market rates to those who desire its use. 
(17) The income from the sale of sewage, current rates, when the population of 
the city reaches 200,000, will be over three per cent, on the investment in building 
the outfall sewer. 
(18) In view of the above, the Commission recommends the construction of an 
outfall sewer to Ballona, with possibly a temporary reduction in the cost by using 
a wooden flume in crossing the marshes near the sea, and by contracting for the 
sale of sewage water during the irrigation season. 
According to statements made in October, 1892, by Mr. J. H. Dock- 
weiler, the present City Engineer of Los Angeles, the city finally voted 
$395,000 worth of bonds to construct tire outfall sewer from the south- 
west corner of the city to the Pacific ocean, a distance of 12 miles. 
This sewer, which it is expected will be completed during 1893, has 
been so located as to deliver sewage upon the lands at the highest 
possible level. Provision has been made to supply sewage from this 
outfall by gates and hydrants located at the commanding points, but 
the landowners will be required to make their own arrangements for 
conduits to their lands and for distribution. It is proposed to charge 
about $3 per acre per annum for the use of the sewage. It is stated 
that at least 20,000 acres of sandy soil are available for irrigation 
from the outfall sewer. 
In the report of the State Board of Health of California for the two 
years ending June 30, 1890, there appeared a paper by Mr. D. G. 
McGowan, Health Officer of Los Angeles, from which the following 
extract is taken : 
At the southeast angle of the city limits this water (sewage) is taken by the 
South Side Irrigation Company and conducted through a 22-inch cement pipe a 
distance of six miles to the sandy plains below the town of Florence. Though 
eagerly taken at first by the Chinese market gardeners for irrigating and enriching 
their truck patches, its prolonged use has been found to be a detriment, lessening 
the productive qualities of the land when it becomes well saturated with the sew- 
age matters. It is a fact that lands upon which it has been used constantly for 
several years have been abandoned by their cultivators, or it has been necessary to 
pipe pure water upon them to take the place of sewage for the purpose of irriga- 
tion . 
The above statements, when taken in connection with the prior ex- 
planation of the abandonment of the use of sewage from the ditches 
of the South Side Irrigation Company, lose much of the force which 
they seem to have by themselves. It is doubtless true that the land HELENA, MONTANA. 
557 
was overdosed with sewage, and it is quite probable that little or no 
proper attempt at a rotation of crops was made.* 
Santa Rosa, California. 
The population of Santa Rosa in 1880 was 3,016, and 5,220 in 1890. 
The Santa Rosa Water Co. built water-works in 1873. A few streets 
were sewered on the separate plan some years ago, sewage being 
discharged into Santa Rosa creek, near the city limits. Complaints 
of pollution of the creek, followed by a lawsuit, led to the purchase 
by the city of between 18 and 19 acres of land about two miles from 
the city, to which an outlet sewer was built. 
The farm is leased to parties who take care of the sewage for rental, 
using it for gardening purposes. The city can terminate the lease at 
any time. The year the farm was put in operation is not stated, but 
it was used as early as 1890, and probably at least one or two years 
earlier. 
A slight rise near the end of the outlet sewer causes the coarser 
solid matter to collect. Once a day, or as often as is necessary, a gate 
is opened and the collected matter flushed out into a pit near the bank 
of the creek. 
When not used for irrigation the sewage flows on to low land near 
the bank of the creek, which land is flushed at high water.f 
Helena, Montana. 
About one-fourth of the sewage of Helena is used for broad irriga- 
tion on a farm owned by the city and leased to Mr. A. T. Newbury for 
five years from 1890, prior to which it had been leased for about two 
years to another party whose name has not been given. 
Helena had a population of 3,624 in 1880 and 13,834 in 1890. A sew- 
erage system was put in operation in 1889. Jan. 1, 1893, there were 
26.5 miles of sewers, receiving no rain-water except from roofs. There 
were on the same date 810 house connections, 310 man-holes with per- 
forated covers, and 76 Field flush-tanks discharging every 12 hours 225 
gallons. G. N. Miller, C.E., was engineer of the sewerage system. 
The end of the outfall sewer connects directly with the distributing 
ditches of the farm. The sewage, when not used for irrigation, runs 
across the farm into and through two ditches extending for about 2^ 
miles to Ten Mile creek, a stream about 20 feet wide and 1 foot deep. 
* In addition to the articles in Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 183-6 (Feb. 23, 1893), the further 
source of information in regard to Los Angeles sewage disposal is a Report of the Board of En- 
gineers upon the Disposal of the Sewage of Los Angeles City, and its Sewer System, presented 
to the Mayor and Council of the City of Los Angeles, Dec. 23, 1889. 
+ Information furnished by Newton V. Smyth, city engineer, and J. L. Jordan, city clerk. 558 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
The city paid $6,100 in 7 per cent, bonds for the 40 acres of land in- 
cluded in the farm, which has received sewage for about four years. 
The farm has been leased, the lessee paying the city a rental of $200 in 
cash; he is further to plant 100 trees and make one acre of lawn per 
year, caring for the trees and lawn. It is said that the lessee raises 
vegetables and all kinds of nursery stock on the farm. In connection 
with the statement made below, that the farm has never paid the 
interest on the cost, it must be remembered that this could hardly be 
expected from the use to which the farm seems to be devoted ; nor, for 
the same reason, can efficient purification throughout the year be ex- 
pected. 
The sewage is distributed over the farm by means of open ditches 
and is brought to the plants by Hooding. It is utilized only in the 
growing season. The land is not underdrained. 
The above information was given by Mr. Geo. K. Reeder, formerly 
city engineer, and by the present city engineer, Mr. Jas. S. Keerl. The 
following additional facts and opinions regarding the operation and 
success of the farm are given substantially as furnished by Mr. Reeder 
in July and September, 1892: 
The sewage is only utilized in the growing season. During the 
winter months, or rather when the ground is so frozen that there is no 
absorption, the sewage is allowed to flow in the natural channels upon 
the surface. During some portions of the year, even when not used 
for irrigation, the sewage scarcely gets across the field before being 
absorbed or evaporated. 
Mr. Reeder states that the farm has never proved a source of income 
to the city-in fact, it has never paid the interest on its cost-and has 
not proved a success in disposing of sewage throughout the whole 
year. His opinion is that the soil is not suitable for the purpose, it 
being a gravelly, sandy loam for a depth of six inches, beneath 
which is a bed of quite impervious clay and gravel. The land may be- 
come more suitable after years of working. The city authorities, in 
the lease, have virtually turned over all control of the sewage to the 
lessee, and thus far the tenants have done as they pleased. 
As nearly as can be learned from the aidermen, the intention in es- 
tablishing the farm was ultimately to convert it, or at least a portion 
of it, into a park, sewage to be supplied to the trees by means of po- 
rous tile. It has also been proposed to make it an absorption farm, 
the sewage to be turned on to one portion until it would absorb no 
more, then to another, and so on, each portion after drying out to be 
turned over by cultivation, to fit it for a new dose of sewage. This 
was to be done irrespective of seasons, and crops were to be a second- 
ary consideration. STOCKTON. CALIFORNIA. 
559 
Cheyenne, Wyoming. 
Regarding the former use of the sewage of Cheyenne for irriga- 
tion, the following information has been furnished by Mr. Fred Bond, 
city engineer, under date of Aug. 28,1892 : 
The sewage, direct from the sewer outlet, was discharged directly 
into the irrigating ditch of a private ditch owner, and mixed therein 
with water already in the ditch, which was taken from the creek a little 
further up, or above the point where the connection with the sewer 
was made. In this way the creek water and sewage were mixed and 
carried to the land to be irrigated. The party using the sewage did 
not pay for it, the obligations between the city and himself being con- 
sidered mutual. It is stated that the sewage was so used for seven or 
eight years. The sewage is now discharged into the creek, about 
2,500 feet below the point where it formerly entered the private ditch. 
Cheyenne had a population of 3,456 in 1880 and of 11,690 in 1890. 
Sewers were put in use in 1883 on the separate plan. On Feb. 20, 
1891, about five miles of 9- to 15-inch vitrified salt-glazed sewer pipe 
had been laid. 
The use of sewage for irrigation was stopped on account of the ex- 
tension of the outlet sewer to discharge at a point below the ditch of 
the party who made use of the sewage. 
Stockton, California. 
Provision for the use of sewage for irrigation has been made at Stock- 
ton, California, but the fact came to our attention too late to secure ex- 
act information. The construction of a sewerage system was begun in 
1891, under the direction of Mr. George Atherton, city surveyor. The 
sewage is pumped into an outfall sewer 14 inches in diameter and two 
miles long, discharging into the Stockton river. It is stated that at 
regular intervals on the outlet sewer, gates are placed " by means of 
which the property owners turn the sewage upon the land during the 
dry season for irrigation purposes." 
The population of Stockton in 1890 was 14,424. 
In reviewing the foregoing information in regard to sewage disposal 
in the extreme Western States, two conclusions seem fairly indicated, 
namely, that (1) there is evidently a large field for sewage irrigation 
in that region ; and (2) that thus far a portion of the sewage irrigation 
attempted has been of a somewhat unsatisfactory character, by reason 
of either lack of attention to the details or else a lack of thorough infor- 
mation about this special form of irrigation. Both of these difficulties 
will undoubtedley correct themselves as the country develops and 
new plants are put in operation. CHAPTER XLV. 
MISCELLANEOUS PLANTS. 
In order to include within the limits of one volume descriptions of 
all the sewage purification plants known to be in operation in the 
United States in the early part of 1893, it is necessary to touch lightly 
upon the few remaining works, especially as some of them were put in 
operation since the manuscript for this book was sent to the printer. 
SUB-SURFACE DISPOSAL AT LENOX, MASSACHUSETTS.-OLD AND NEW PLANTS. 
A sewerage system was built at Lenox, Massachusetts, in 1875-6, with 
Col. Geo. E. Waring, Jr., M. Inst. C.E., as engineer. The population of 
Lenox was small at that time, having been only 2,043 four years later, 
or in 1880, and money for an outfall sewer to the river was not avail- 
able. A combined system of sub-surface and surface irrigation was 
therefore adopted. The outlet sewer emptied into a combined screen- 
ing and Hush tank, with a capacity of about 500 cubic feet, from which 
a Rogers-Field siphon discharged the sewage into a chamber with 
two outlets. One of these outlets connected with some 10,000 feet of 
sub-surface irrigation pipes, and the other to a surface carrier from 
which the sewage flowed over the top of the ground. 
The sub-surface pipes gave much trouble on account of becoming 
clogged with grease and other solid matter, necessitating the frequent 
and often continued use of the surface carriers. For the past few years 
settlement has been effected in the screening tank, and the sewage has 
all been discharged upon the surface. 
The total area employed for both sub-surface and surface disposal 
was only about 1' acres, which soon became overtaxed.* 
Lenox, as is well known, is built on the Berkshire hills. The growth 
of the town has latterly, it appears, been away from the old disposal 
area on another slope. In 1887-8 an outfall sewer was built to receive 
the sewage of the newer portion of the town, and a new disposal area 
was put in operation early in October, 1888, Mr. E. W. Bowditch, of 
Boston, having been engineer. It was proposed early in 1893 to pump 
to the new outfall sewer the sewage from the district tributary to the 
old area. 
* For further details see Col. Waring's Sewerage and Land Drainage. LAND DISPOSAL at GREENFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. 
561 
The new disposal area consists of 17 acres of land some two miles 
from the village, on a quite steep hillside near the Housatonic river, 
into which the effluent is discharged. 
A 12-inch outfall sewer ends in a circular well provided with a 
swinging gate to turn the sewage at will into either side of a settling 
tank. Sewage is drawn from the top of the settling tank to a pipe-line 
connecting with six wells or man-holes, in the bottom of which are 
thimble-shaped iron stopper gates provided with lift-rods extending 
to the top of the man-hole. When these gates are shut down the sew- 
age flows beneath the man-holes, and when they are raised it flows into 
them, the inflow varying with the height to which the thimble-shaped 
stopper is raised. 
From the man-holes the sewage passes into stone drains covered 
over with earth, by means of Akron pipe laid near the top of the drains, 
with bell-joints on their lower ends, through which the sewage escapes. 
There were, in June, 1892, six of these drains, each some 300 to 400 
feet long. 
Sludge is drawn from the settling tank to a pit and covered with 
earth. Mr. T. Post took charge of the ■ sewerage system in 1888, and 
has remained in charge since that time.* 
Disposal upon Land and Sedimentation at Amherst, Massachusetts. 
In 1881 the college town of Amherst, which in 1890 had a 
population of 4,512, first conducted a small amount of sewage to a 
settling tank, from which the sewage was drawn through ditches 
on to land, and the sludge also removed and applied to land. 
In 1891 the outlet sewer was extended and a settling tank in two 
compartments built. Mr. Henry Hastings agreed to take care of the 
settling tank for five years from 1891 for the use of the sludge. The 
clarified sewage flows to Fort river, about 520 feet distant. 
About one-fourth of the sewage of the town goes in another direction, 
and is used for broad irrigation on a tract of grass land, which has 
been much improved by the sewage.f 
Disposal on Land at Greenfield, Massachusetts. 
Since about 1882 the sewage of Greenfield has been discharged 
on to a piece of meadow land. The outfall sewer ends abruptly on 
the edge of the meadow. Some pains were apparently taken to 
distribute the sewage over the land, but in June, 1892, the sewage 
* For further details of the old and new Lenox plants see Eng. News, vol. xxviii., pp. 33 and 
53-4 (July 14 and 21, 1892), respectively. 
+ For further details see Eng. News, vol. xxviii., p. 54 (July 21, 1892). 562 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
was entirely without control, some of it going on to the meadow and 
some into a small brook leading to the river. So far as can be 
learned, the owner of the land wished and secured the discharge of 
sewage upon the meadow for fertilizing purposes, but upon his death 
the outlet was neglected and has remained in that condition since.* 
Mechanical Separation or Filtration at Leadville, Colorado. 
The sewage of Leadville is passed through a body of sand and 
gravel about 6 or 7 feet deep with an area of some 24 square feet, the 
effluent being discharged into California gulch. The disposal bed is 
in two sections, for alternate use. The sewerage system was built in 
1886 by the Leadville Sewerage Co., of which C. N. Priddy is superin- 
tendent. In March, 1891, there were 40 sewrer connections. In the 
spring of 1892 the yearly cost of caring for the disposal bed was given 
as $450. The population of Leadville in 1890 was 10,834. f 
Mechanical Separation at Atlantic City, New Jersey. 
The system of purification in use at Atlantic City consists of an 
elevated bed, in which sand with hay below is used as a separating 
material, and from which the efiiuent falls in small streams or in drops 
some three feet to gathering gutters which lead to an effluent pipe. 
It is claimed for this system that filtration is supplemented by aeration, 
and thus that greater purification is secured. The rate of treatment at 
Atlantic City is so rapid that only partial mechanical filtration, or 
straining, can be expected, and this is all that is claimed for the plant 
by its superintendent. 
Atlantic City is a well-known seaside resort which has many visitors 
in the winter, but a much larger number in the summer. Its popula- 
tion in June, 1890, was 13,055, against 5,477 in 1880. It is said that 
during the height of the summer season as many as 150,000 people are 
to be found in the city on some Sundays. 
The sewerage and sewage disposal systems were built in 1885 by a 
private company, and are now owned and operated by the Atlantic City 
Sewerage Co. 
All the sewage at Atlantic City is pumped, the pump-well being 
located in the pumping station and being ventilated to the chimney. 
Features of both the pumping plant and filter beds are covered by 
patents, and the method of disposal is called the " West system " by 
the owners of the patents, the National Sewerage and Sewage Utiliza- 
tion Co. of New York City. It is only fair to add that a comparatively 
* See Eng. News, vol. xxviii., p. 196 (Sept. 1, 1892), for additional facts regarding sewage 
disposal at Greenfield. 
t Eng. News, vol. xxix., p. 52 (Jan. 19, 1893). CHEMICAL PRECIPITATION AT CANTON, OHIO. 
563 
slow rate of filtration was the design of the patentee of the sys- 
tem. 
The daily sewage pumping records for the year ending November 
30, 1892, illustrated by diagrams and analyzed in detail, are given in 
Chapter VII., " Quantity of Sewage and Variation Rate of Flow." * 
Electrical Treatment at Brewsters, New York. 
Brewsters is a small village iu the Croton watershed, about 52 
miles from New York City. To prevent pollution of the New York 
water supply the Department of Public Works has built some sewers 
in the village and caused a plant to be erected for the treatment of the 
sewage. Salt and water, at the rate of 160 lbs. of the former to 1,000 
gallons of the latter, is subjected to an electrical current of about 700 
amperes and 5 volts, the current passing through a positive electrode 
of copper, plated with platinum, and a negative electrode of carbon, 
both immersed in the brine. The electrically treated solution is dis- 
charged directly into the outlet sewer, through which it flows for a few 
hundred feet to a series of trenches in meadow land, perhaps 500 feet 
from the east branch of the Croton river. The treated sewage soaks 
off into the ground as best it can. The salt used costs about $4 per 
ton. The power to drive the dynamo is furnished by a 20-H. P. hori- 
zontal boiler and a 15-H. P. engine. The dynamo is 4-H. P. 
The volume of sewage is very small, being that derived from some 35 
buildings, and no definite figures regarding the operation of the plant 
are available. The plant was built by the Woolf Electric Disinfect- 
ing Co., of New York City, and was devised by Albert E. Woolf, also 
of New York. The contract price was $5,000, which the contractors 
claim is below the actual cost of the plant, f It is reported that the 
treated liquid is discharged into the sewer at the rate of 1 part to 100, 
which with a solution of the strength stated above is equivalent to 
1,600 lbs. of salt to 1,000,000 gallons of sewage. 
Chemical Precipitation at Canton, Ohio. 
The accompanying plan and sections, Figs. 114. and 115, show the 
general features of the works at Canton, which were put in operation 
about May 1, 1893. Chemical precipitation works were recommended 
by Samuel M. Gray, M. Am. Soc. C.E., in March, 1887, who also pre- 
pared plans for the works. The plant was finally constructed after the 
detailed plans of Mr. L. E. Chapin, Assoc. M. Am. Soc. C.E. The 
tanks are operated on the continuous plan. The chemical mixers and 
* The above is extracted from Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 122-4 (Feb. 9, 1893). 
+ See Eng. News, vol. xxx., p. 41 (July 13, 1893). 564 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
Screen and 
; bate Chamber 
Mix/na 
ana 
PmsiRoom 
Boiler 
Room 
Sludge Storage Tank 
and Well 
Effluent Chamber 
No. I. 
Sludge Channel 
No 2 
Precipitation Tank 
5Judge Channel 
Fig. 114.-Plan of Chemical Precipitation Plant, Canton, Ohio. 
AtChannel End of Tank, 
Half Cross Section 
At Upper End of Tank. 
Embankment ' ** ' 
of braver and Oar . 
Longitudinal Section 
•qt Side of Tanks. 
Fig. 115.-Sections oe Canton Precipitating Tanks. 
Longitudinal Section at Sludge and Effluent Subway. THE world's COLUMBIAN EXPOSITION. 
565 
sludge compressing machinery were furnished by the Bonnot Co., of 
Canton. The population of Canton in 1890 was 26,189. In the spring 
of 1893 about 16 miles of sewers and some 900 house connections were 
in use.* 
Chemical Precipitation at Chautauqua, New York. 
In the summer of 1893, works were put in operation for the treat- 
ment of the sewage of Chautauqua, the well-known summer resort on 
the lake of the same name. There are four settling tanks. The chem- 
ical mixers and filter presses were made by the Bonnot Co., of Canton, 
O. Early in August the sewage of 5,000 people, some 130,000 gallons 
per day, was being treated, with a resultant pressed sludge of 2,500 
pounds, of which 40 per cent, was water. 
Samuel M. Gray, M. Am. Soc. C.E., Providence, R. I., was engaged 
as consulting engineer for the plant, and under his direction compet- 
itive plans, with proposals for construction, were received. The con- 
tract was awarded to Wm. B. Landreth, M. Am. Soc. C.E., Jamestown, 
N. Y., who built the works after the designs submitted by him, Thos. 
McKenzie, Jun., Am. Soc. C.E., acting as constructing engineer. 
Chemical Precipitation at the World's Columbian Exposition, 
Chicago. 
The sewage of the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 was 
treated by the German vertical tank system, the plant being modelled 
directly after that at Dortmund, designed by Karl Kinebuhler. Fig. 
116 shows a combined section and elevation of the tanks. The sew- 
age is forced to the elevated central receiving and distributing tank 
by means of Shone ejectors stationed about the Fair grounds. From 
the distributing tank it passes to either or all of the four precipitating 
tanks, receiving sulphate of alumina, or copperas, and lime on its way. 
The alumina or copperas is mixed with the sewage by means of a re- 
volving screw placed in a special casting, as shown by the illustration, 
and the lime by the core mixer, also shown in the illustration, Fig. 116. 
Different chemicals and different amounts of any chemical can be used 
at the same time, and the results noted by means of the frequent chem- 
ical and bacteriological examinations which are being made. 
The sludge may be drawn off while the tanks are in operation, 
through the sludge-pipe at the bottom of the tanks to one of three 
sludge-tanks, each 4 feet in diameter and 8 feet high, giving a capacity 
of about 100 cubic feet. The sludge is forced by means of compressed 
* For additional information see Eng. News, vol. xxix., pp. 520-1 (June 1, 1893), and vol. xxx., 
pp. 60 and 61 (July 20, 1893). 566 
SEWAGE DISPOSAL IN THE UNITED STATES. 
air into one of two filter presses, made by Perrin Ar Co., Chicago. Each 
press has 50 cells, 36 inches in diameter and 1| inches through, and 
each sludge-cake weighs about 47 pounds, or each pressful about 
[^Sulphate ofAumma 
orC^pems 
44"I ns. Diffm. 
Mechamcaf 
Mixer 
Mi/k of Lime 
. -ConeM/'rer 
iRing,j"M. 
Beil Moufh/n/em 
5/ud^eMpe 
Fig. 116.-Elevation and Section of Receiving and Precipitating Tanks, 
World's Columbian Exposition. 
2,350 pounds. The sludge is burned in an Engle garbage crematory, 
near by. 
The plant was put in operation April 14, 1893, and so far as the rec- 
ord is available treated sewage as follows : 
Month of May 940,000 gallons per day. 
" " June 1,630,000 " " " 
First three weeks in July. 2,250,000 
The cost of chemicals until July 1 was at the rate of about $8 per 
1,000,000 gallons treated. The plant is operated in eight-hour shifts, 
an engineer, fireman, pressman, chemical man, and two laborers in the 
morning; the same, less the twro laborers, in the afternoon ; and again, 
less the laborers and pressman, at night. 
The plant cost from $30,000 to $33,000, excluding the building. It 
was built under the direction of W. S. McHarg, Engineer of Water 
Supply, Sewerage, and Fire Protection of the Exposition, and is run purification works under construction. 
567 
under the supervision of Allen Hazen, Chemist of the Lawrence Ex- 
periment Station of the Massachusetts State Board of Health.* 
Purification Works Under Construction. 
In addition to the works described, plants are known to be under 
construction as follows ; Meriden, Connecticut, intermittent filtration, 
with Carrol Ph. Bassett, M. Am. Soc. C.E., engineer ; Brockton, Massa- 
chusetts, intermittent filtration, F. H. Snow, engineer; Princeton, New 
Jersey, Professor C. M'Millan, engineer. There are also a number of 
places where plans of sewage disposal works have been prepared, but 
where no action has yet been taken towards beginning construction. 
Plans have been prepared for the following towns in New York state, 
on which construction is likely to begin in the course of a year or two : 
The village of Far Rockaway, J. J. Powers, engineer; the Twenty- 
fourth Ward of the City of Brooklyn, Robert Van Buren, M. Am. Soc. 
C. E., chief engineer; the villages of Holly and Albion, Waldo and 
Dodgson, engineers, Geo. W. Rafter, M. Am. Soc. C. E., consulting 
engineer. There are also several public institutions in different parts 
of the United States where something has been done in the way of 
sewage purification plants, but which are not referred to for the reason 
that so far as known to the authors the plans do not involve anything 
of special interest over what has been already given. 
* For additional information and illustrations see Eng. News, vol. xxx., p. 86 (Aug. 3, 1893). APPENDICES. 
APPENDIX I. 
The following is the English Rivers Pollution Prevention Act of 
1876, under the provisions of which the large number of purification 
works constructed in that country during the last fifteen years have 
been carried out. 
(39 and 40 Viet. chap. 75.) 
AN ACT for making further Provision for the Prevention of the Pollution of Rivers. (15th 
August, 1876.) 
Whereas it is expedient to make further provision for the prevention of the pollution of rivers, 
and in particular to prevent the establishment of new sources of pollution : 
Be it therefore enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and 
consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assem- 
bled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :- 
1. This Act may be cited for all purposes as the Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 1876. 
PART I. 
Solid Matters. 
2. Every person who puts, or causes to be put or to fall, or knowingly permits to be put or to 
fall or to be carried into any stream, so as to either singly or in combination with other similar 
acts of the same or any other person to interfere with its due flow, or to pollute its waters, the 
solid refuse of any manufactory, manufacturing process or quarry, or any rubbish or cinders, or 
any other waste, or any putrid solid matter, shall be deemed to have committed an offence against 
this Act. 
In proving interference with the due flow of any stream, or in proving the pollution of any 
stream, evidence may be given of repeated acts which together cause such interference or pollu- 
tion, although each act taken by itself may not be sufficient for that purpose. 
PART II. 
Sewage Pollutions. 
3. Every person who causes to fall or flow or knowingly permits to fall or flow or to be carried 
into any stream any solid or liquid sewage matter, shall (subject as in this Act mentioned) be 
deemed to have committed an offence against this Act. 
Where any sewage matter falls or flows or is carried into any stream along a channel used, con- 
structed, or in process of construction at the date of the passing of this Act for the purpose of 
conveying such sewage matter, the person causing or knowingly permitting the sewage matter so 
to fall or flow or to be carried shall not be deemed to have committed an offence against this Act 
if he shows to the satisfaction of the court having cognizance of the case that he is using the best 570 
APPENDICES. 
practicable and available means to render harmless the sewage matter so falling or flowing or car- 
ried into the stream. 
Where the Local Government Board are satisfied after local inquiry that further time ought to be 
granted to any sanitary authority which at the date of the passing of this Act is discharging sew- 
age matter into any stream, or permitting it to be so discharged, by any such channel as aforesaid, 
for the purpose of enabling such authority to adopt the best practicable and available means for 
rendering harmless such sewage matter, the Local Government Board may by order declare that 
this section shall not, so far as regards the discharge of such sewage matter by such channel, be 
in operation until the expiration of a period to be limited in the order. 
Any order made under this section may be from time to time renewed by the Local Govern- 
ment Board, subject to such conditions, if any, as they may see fit. 
A person other than a sanitary authority shall not be guilty of an offence under this section in 
respect to the passing of sewage matter into a stream along a drain communicating with any 
sewer belonging to or under the control of any sanitary authority, provided he has the sanction of 
the sanitary authority for so doing. 
PART III. 
Manufacturing and Mining Pollutions. 
4. Every person who causes to fall or flow or knowingly permits to fall or flow or to be carried into 
any stream any poisonous, noxious, or polluting liquid proceeding from any factory or manu- 
facturing process, shall (subject as in this Act mentioned) be deemed to have committed an offence 
against this Act. 
Where any such poisonous, noxious, or polluting liquid as aforesaid falls or flows or is carried 
into any stream along a channel used, constructed, or in process of construction at the date of the 
passing of this Act, or any new channel constructed in substitution thereof, and having its out- 
fall at the same spot, for the purpose of conveying such liquid, the person causing, or knowingly 
permitting the poisonous, noxious, or polluting liquid so to fall or flow or to be carried, shall not 
l>e deemed to have committed an offence against this Act if he shows to the satisfaction of the 
court having cognizance of the case that he is using the best practicable and reasonably available 
means to render harmless the poisonous, noxious, or polluting liquid so falling or flowing or car- 
ried into the stream. 
5. Every person who causes to fall or flow, or knowingly permits to fall or flow, or to be 
carried into any stream, any solid matter from any mine in such quantities as to prejudicially 
interfere with its due flow, or any poisonous, noxious, or polluting solid or liquid matter pro- 
ceeding from any mine, other than water in the same condition as that in which it has been 
drained or raised from such mine, shall be deemed to have committed an offence against this 
Act, unless in the case of poisonous, noxious, or polluting matter he shows to the satisfaction of 
the court having cognizance of the case that he is using the best practicable and reasonably avail- 
able means to render harmless the poisonous, noxious, or polluting matter so falling or flowing or 
carried into the stream. 
6. Unless and until Parliament otherwise provides, the following enactment shall take effect, 
proceedings shall not be taken against any person under this part of this Act save by a sanitary 
authority, nor shall any such proceedings be taken without the consent of the Local Government 
Board: Provided, always, that if the sanitary authority, on the application of any person 
interested alleging an offence to have been committed, shall refuse to take proceedings, or apply 
for the consent by this section provided, the person so interested may apply to the Local Govern- 
ment Board, and if that Board, on inquiry, is of opinion that the sanitary authority should take 
proceedings, they may direct the sanitary authority accordingly, who shall thereupon commence 
proceedings. 
The said Board, in giving or withholding their consent, shall have regard to the industrial 
interests involved in the case, and to the circumstances and requirements of the locality. 
The said Board shall not give their consent to proceedings by the sanitary authority of any 
district which is the seat of any manufacturing industry, unless they are satisfied, after due 
inquiry, that means for rendering harmless the poisonous, noxious, or polluting liquids proceed- 
ing from the processes of such manufactures are reasonably practicable and available under all the APPENDIX I. 
571 
circumstances of the case, and that no material injury will be inflicted by such proceedings 
on the interests of such industry. 
Any person within such district as aforesaid, against whom proceedings are proposed to be 
taken under this part of this Act, shall, notwithstanding any consent of the Local Government 
Board, be at liberty to object before the sanitary authority to such proceedings being taken, and 
such authority shall, if required in writing by such person, afford him an opportunity of being 
heard against such proceedings being taken, so far as the same relate to his works or manufactur- 
ing processes. The sanitary authority shall thereupon allow such person to be heard by himself, 
agents, and witnesses, and after inquiry, such authority shall determine, having regard to all the 
considerations to which the Local Government Board are by this section directed to have regard, 
whether such proceedings as aforesaid shall or shall not be taken ; and where any such sanitary 
authority has taken proceedings under this Act, it shall not be competent to other sanitary 
authorities to take proceedings under this Act till the party against whom such proceedings are 
intended shall have failed in reasonable time to carry out the order of any competent court under 
this Act. 
PART IV. 
Administration. 
7. Every sanitary or other local authority having sewers under their control shall give facilities 
for enabling manufacturers within their district to carry the liquids proceeding from their 
factories or manufacturing processes into such sewers : 
Provided, that this section shall not extend to compel any sanitary or other local authority to 
admit into their sewers, any liquid which would prejudicially affect such sewers, or the disposal 
by sale, application to land, or otherwise, of the sewage matters conveyed along such sewers, or 
which would from its temperature or otherwise be injurious in a sanitary point of view : Pro- 
vided, also, that no sanitary authority shall be required to give such facilities as aforesaid where 
the sewers of such authority are only sufficient for the requirements of their district, nor where 
such facilities would interfere with any order of any court of competent jurisdiction respecting 
the sewage of such authority. 
8. Every sanitary authority shall, subject to the restrictions in this Act contained, have power 
to enforce the provisions of this Act in relation to any stream being within or passing through or 
by any part of their district, and for that purpose to institute proceedings in respect of any 
offence against this Act which causes interference with the due flow within their district of any 
such stream, against any other sanitary authority or person, whether such offence is committed 
within or without the district of the first-named sanitary authority. 
Any expenses incurred by a sanitary authority in the execution of this Act shall be payable as if 
they were expenses properly incurred by that authority in the execution of the Public Health Act, 
1875. 
Proceedings may also, subject to the restrictions in this Act contained, be instituted in respect 
of any offence against this Act by any person aggrieved by the commission of such offence. 
9. The Conservancy Board constituted under the Lee Conservancy Act, 1868, shall, within the 
area of their jurisdiction, have, to the exclusion of any other authority, the powers for enforcing 
the provisions of this Act which sanitary authorities have under this Act. 
The said Conservancy Board may also enforce the provisions of the Lee Conservancy Act, 1868, 
under the head or division, " Protection of Water," by application to the county court having 
jurisdiction in the place in which any offence is committed against those provisions; and such 
court may by summary order require any person to abstain from the commission of any such of- 
fence, and the provisions of this Act with respect to summary orders of county courts and appeal 
therefrom shall apply accordingly. 
LEGAL PROCEEDINGS. SAVING CLAUSES. DEFINITIONS. 
(1) Legal Proceedings. 
10. The county court having jurisdiction in the place where any offence against this Act is com- 
mitted may by summary order require any person to abstain from the commission of such offence, 
and where such offence consists in default to perform a duty under this Act may require him to 572 
APPENDICES. 
perform such duty in manner in the said order specified; the court may insert in any order such 
conditions as to the time or mode of action as it may think just, and may suspend or rescind 
any order on such undertaking being given or condition being performed as it may think just, and 
generally may give such directions for carrying into effect any order as to the court seems meet. 
Previous to granting such order, the court may, if it think fit, remit to skilled parties to report on 
the " best practicable and available means," and the nature and cost of the worksand apparatus 
required, who shall in all cases take into consideration the reasonableness of the expense involved 
in their report. 
Any person making default in complying with any requirement of an order of a county court 
made in pursuance of this section shall pay to the person complaining, or such other person as the 
court may direct, such sum, not exceeding fifty pounds a day for every day during which he is in 
default, as the court may order; and such penalty shall be enforced in the same manner as any 
debt adjudged to be due by the court; moreover, if any person so in default persists in disobeying 
any requirement of any such order for a period of not less than a month, or such other period less 
than a month as may be prescribed by such order, the court may in addition to any penalty it may 
impose appoint any person or persons to carry into effect such order, and all expenses incurred by 
any such person or persons to such amount as may be allowed by the county court shall be deemed 
to be a debt due from the person or persons executing such order, and may be recovered accord- 
ingly in the county court. 
11. If either party in any proceedings before the county court under this Act feels aggrieved by 
the decision of the court in jx>int of law, or on the merits, or in respect of the admission or rejec- 
tion of any evidence, he may appeal from that decision to the High Court of Justice. 
The appeal shall be in the form of a special case to be agreed upon by both parties or their attor- 
neys, and, if they cannot agree, to be settled by the judge of the county court upon the application 
of the parties or their attorneys. 
The court of appeal may draw any inferences from the facts stated in the case that a jury might 
draw from facts stated by witnesses. 
Subject to the provisions of this section, all the enactments, rules, and orders relating to proceed- 
ings in actions in county courts, and to enforcing judgments in county courts and appeals from de- 
cisions of the county court judges and to the conditions of such appeals, shall apply to all proceed- 
ings under this Act, and to an appeal from such action, in the same manner as if such action and 
appeal related to a matter within the ordinary jurisdiction of the court. 
Any plaint entered in a county court under this Act may be removed into the High Court of 
Justice by leave of any judge of the said High Court, if it appears to such judge desirable in the 
interests of justice that such case should be tried in the first instance in the High Court of Jus- 
tice, and not in a county court, and on such terms as to security for and payment of costs, and such 
other terms (if any) as such judge may think fit. 
12. A certificate granted by an inspector of proper qualifications, appointed for the purposes 
of this Act by the Local Government Board to the effect that the means used for rendering harm- 
less any sewage matter or poisonous, noxious, or polluting solid or liquid matter falling or flowing 
or carried into any stream, are the best or only practicable and available means under the circum- 
stances of the particular case, shall in all courts and all proceedings under this Act be conclusive 
evidence of the fact; such certificate shall continue in force for a period to be named therein, not 
exceeding two years, and at the expiration of that period may be renewed for the like or any less 
period. 
All expenses incurred in or about obtaining a certificate under this section shall be paid by the 
applicant for the same. 
Any person aggrieved by the grant or the withholding of a certificate under this section may ap- 
peal to the Local Government Board against the decision of the Inspector; and the Board may 
either confirm, reverse, or modify his decision, and may make such order as to the party or parties 
by whom the costs of the appeal are to be borne as to the said Board may appear just. 
13. Proceedings shall not be taken under this Act against any person for any offence against 
the provisions of Parts II. and III. of this Act until the expiration of twelve months after the 
passing of this Act; nor shall proceedings in any case be taken under this Act for any offence 
against this Act until the expiration of two months after written notice of the intention to take 
such proceedings has been given to the offender, nor shall proceedings under this Act be taken for 
any offence against this Act until the expiration of two months after written notice of the inten- APPENDIX I. 
573 
tion to take such proceedings has been given to the offender, nor shall proceedings under this Act 
be taken for any offence against this Act while other proceedings in relation to such offence are 
pending. 
14. The Local Government Board may make orders as to the costs incurred by them in relation 
to inquiries instituted by them under this Act, and as to the parties by whom such costs shall be 
borne; and every such order and every order for the payment of costs made by the said Board 
under section twelve of this Act may be made a rule of Her Majesty's High Court of Justice. 
15. Inspectors of the Local Government Board shall, for the purposes of any inquiry directed 
by the Board under this Act, have in relation to witnesses and their examination, the production 
of papers and accounts, and the inspection of places and matters required to be inspected, similar 
powers to those which the inspectors of the said Board have under the Public Health Act, 1875, 
for the purposes of that Act. 
(2) Saving Clauses. 
16. The powers given by this Act shall not be deemed to prejudice or affect any other rights or 
powers now existing or vested in any person or persons by Act of Parliament, law, or custom, and 
such other rights or powers may be exercised in the same manner as if this Act had not passed ; 
and nothing in this Act shall legalize any act or default which would but for this Act be deemed 
to be a nuisance or otherwise contrary to law : Provided, nevertheless, that in'any proceedings for 
enforcing against any person such rights or powers the court before which such proceedings are 
pending shall take into consideration any certificate granted to such person under this Act. 
17. This Act shall not apply to or affect the lawful exercise of any rights of impounding or 
diverting water. 
18. Nothing in or done under this Act shall extend to interfere with, take away, abridge, or 
prejudicially affect any right, power, authority, jurisdiction, or privilege given by "The Thames 
Conservancy Acts, 1857 and 1864," or by "The Thames Navigation Act, 1866," or by the Lee 
Conservancy Act, 1868, or any Act or Acts extending or amending the said Acts or either of them, 
or affect any outfall or other works of the Metropolitan Board of Works (although beyond the 
metropolis) executed under the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, and the Acts amending or ex- 
tending the same, or take away, abridge, or prejudicially affect any right, power, authority, juris- 
diction, or privilege of the Metropolitan Board of Works. 
19. Where any local authority, or any urban or rural sanitary authority, has been empowered 
or required by any Act of Parliament to carry any sewage into the sea, or any tidal water, nothing 
done by such authority in pursuance of such enactment shall be deemed to be an offence against 
this Act. 
(3) Definitions. 
20. In this Act, if not inconsistent with the context, the following terms have the meanings 
hereinafter respectively assigned to them ; that is to say,- 
"Person " includes any body of persons, whether corporate or unincorporate. 
" Stream " includes the sea to such extent, and tidal waters to such point, as may, after local 
inquiry and on sanitary grounds, be determined by the Local Government Board, by order pub- 
lished in the London Gazette. Save as aforesaid, it includes rivers, streams, canals, lakes, and 
water-courses, other than water-courses at the passing of this Act mainly used as sewers, and 
emptying directly into the sea, or tidal waters which have not been determined to be streams 
within the meaning of this Act by such order as aforesaid. 
"Solid matter " shall not include particles of matter in suspension in water. 
"Polluting" shall not include innocuous discoloration. 
"Sanitary authority" means- 
In the metropolis, as defined by the Metropolis Management Act, 1855, any local authority act- 
ing in the execution of the Nuisance Removal for England Act, 1855, and the Acts amending the 
same. 
Elsewhere in England, any urban or rural sanitary authority acting in the execution of the 
Public Health Act, 1875. 
The application of the Act to Scotland and Ireland is omitted, 
as consisting chiefly in definitions and explanations, and as being, 
therefore, irrelevant to our circumstances. 574 
APPENDICES. 
APPENDIX II. 
AN ACT to confer upon the State Board of Health power to protect from contamination, by 
suitable regulations, the water supplies of the State and their sources. Passed June 13, 
1885; chapter 543, Laws of 1885. 
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows : 
Section 1. The State Board of Health is hereby authorized and empowered to make rulesand 
regulations for protecting from contamination any and all public supplies of potable waters and 
their sources within this State. Provided, however, any such rule or regulation shall not be oper- 
ative in any county until the county judge of that county shall approve the same. 
Sect. 2. The said State Board of Health shall also have power, and it shall be its duty : 1. 
To publish once a week, for at least six consecutive weeks, all such rules and regulations as it 
shall have made concerning the contamination of any sub-soil waters, springs, streams, lakes, 
ponds, reservoirs, or other bodies of water contributing to the potable water supply of any munic- 
ipality within this State, such publication to be made in one or more newspapers published in 
the county in which the waters affected by such regulations are located. The cost of publishing 
the regulations of the State Board of Health, as above provided, shall be paid by the corporation 
or municipality benefited by the protection of the water supply, concerning which the rules are 
made. 2. To impose penalties for the violation of, or the non-compliance with, their rules and 
regulations, not exceeding two hundred dollars in any one case. 
Sect. 3. The officer or board having by law the management and control of the potable water 
supply of any municipality, in all cases where the said municipality derives its water supply in 
whole or in part from any sub-soil water, springs, streams, lakes, ponds, reservoirs, or other waters 
concerning which the State Board of Health shall make any rule or regulation, is hereby author- 
ized and empowered to make such inspection of the sources of said water supply as said officer or 
board may deem advisable to secure the said water supply from any defilement, and to ascertain 
whether or not the rules and regulations made by the State Board of Health are complied with. 
Sect. 4. In case such inspection shall disclose the violation by any person or persons of any 
of the rules or regulations of the said State Board of Health relating to the sources of said water 
supply, the officer or board mentioned in section three of this act shall serve or cause to be 
served a copy of the said rules and regulations, accompanied by a notice specifying the rule or 
regulation claimed to have been violated, upon the said person or persons violating such rules or 
regulations. If the person or persons so served do not immediately comply with the said regula- 
lation, the said officer or board having charge of the water supply of the municipality affected 
thereby shall notify the State Board of Health of the violation of its rules ; the State Board of 
Health shall thereupon examine into the said violation, and if the party complained of is found 
to have actually violated any of the said regulations, the Secretary of the State Board of Health 
shall order the local board of health having jurisdiction thereof to convene and enforce obedience 
to the said regulation. 
Sect. 5. In case any local board of health having jurisdiction thereof fails to enforce the order 
of the Secretary of the State Board of Health within ten days after the receipt of a notification so 
to do, as provided in the last section, the corporation furnishing the water supply, or the munici- 
pality deriving its water supply from the waters for the sanitary protection of which such rules 
have been made, is hereby authorized and empowered to maintain an action in a court of record 
and which shall be tried in the county in which the cause of action arose against the person or 
persons violating the said rules for recovery of the penalty therein provided. 
Sect. 6. Every person who shall wilfully violate or refuse to obey any rule or regulation 
made and published by the State Board of Health, and approved pursuant to the provisions of 
this act, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and on a conviction thereof shall be subject to a fine or 
imprisonment, or both, at the discretion of the court, such fine not to exceed three hundred dol- 
lars, nor such imprisonment six months. But the recovery of a penalty in a civil action, as pro- 
vided in section five of this act, and criminal prosecution and conviction under the provisions of 
this section, shall not be had for the same offense. APPENDIX III. 
575 
Sect. 7. When the State Board of Health shall, for the protection of a water supply from con- 
tamination, make regulations, the execution of which will require the providing of some public 
means of removal or purification of sewage, the municipality or corporation owning the water- 
works benefited thereby shall, at its own expense, construct and maintain such works or means 
for sewage disposal, as shall be approved by the State Board of Health. * 
Sect. 8. The State Board of Health, any local board of health, or any municipality or corpo- 
ration furnishing water, may cause the affidavit of the printer, publisher, or proprietor of any 
newspaper publishing the rules and regulations as provided by the second section of this act, to 
be filed with such rules as published in the clerk's office of the county in which the municipality 
or corporation furnishing the water supply in any case may be situated or located, and such affi- 
davit and rules, or duly certified copies thereof, shall be deemed conclusive evidence of due publi- 
cation and of all the facts therein stated in all courts and in all proceedings or prosecutions under 
the provisions of this act. 
Sect. 9. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with the provisions of this act are hereby re- 
pealed. 
Sect. 10. This act shall take effect immediately. 
APPENDIX III. 
The following is the first set of Rules for the sanitary protection of 
water-sheds established under the New York State Act: 
RULES AND REGULATIONS for the Sanitary Protection of the Waters of Hemlock Lake, 
the Public Potable Water Supply of the City of Rochester. 
Privies adjacent to the Lake. 
Rule I. 
Section A. All houses, cottages, tenements, tents, camp and picnic grounds, adjacent to the 
shores of Hemlock lake, shall be provided with, at least, one privy, which shall be placed upon 
the ground, without any vault beneath it, and shall be so constructed that metallic pails, fifteen 
inches high by fourteen inches in diameter, can be placed under the seats and be frequently and 
easily removed with their contents. 
Section B. The privies shall be so located that access to them from the lake may be had, for 
the purpose of facilitating the removal of the pails. 
Section C. Occupants of the premises should daily add earth or ashes to the contents of the 
pails, as a deodorizer and absorbent. 
Section D. The owners and occupants shall also exercise due care and oversight of the pails 
used in the privies. 
Section E. When any privy is to be used in winter as well as summer it shall be so located and 
arranged that the pail may be replaced by a water-tight box or trough resting on solid runners or 
small wheels, and having a staple by which it may be drawn out from under the seat, or be other- 
wise so arranged that when the box is sufficiently filled, it may be taken from under the privy 
and the contents emptied in some safe place, where they cannot possibly be washed into the lake 
or into any stream running into the lake, or into any well or spring. Ashes should daily be 
thrown into the privy box as a deodorizer. 
Section F. No owner or occupant shall have upon their premises any privy vault of any kind 
situated within two hundred feet of the shore of Hemlock lake. 
Section A. The city of Rochester shall furnish a sufficient number of pails, for the use of each 
privy situated within two hundred feet of the shore of Hemlock lake, and shall cause the pails to 
be placed under the seats, and to be removed, emptied, cleansed and disinfected as often as may 
be necessary to insure that they are kept in good sanitary condition. 
Rule II. 
* In 1890 this section was amended, throwing even more completely the expense of protection upon the mu- 
nicipality. 576 
APPENDICES. 
Section B. When a full pail is removed from a privy, its place shall be immediately supplied 
by an empty one. 
Section C. The pails shall be made of metal, and shall be fifteen inches high by fourteen 
inches in diameter, outside measurement. They shall be provided with covers, to be used during 
removal. 
Section D. The removal of the pails from the privies shall be conducted in such a manner as 
to cause as little inconvenience or annoyance to the occupants of the premises as is compatible 
with proper management of the business. 
Section E. The contents of the pails shall be removed by the city of Rochester to some point 
below the foot of the lake, and be so treated and disposed of as to cause no nuisance nor danger 
to the public health. 
Privies near Streams, Springs or Water-courses on Hemlock Lake Water-shed. 
Rule III. 
Section A. No privy shall be located within thirty feet of any stream, spring or dry water- 
course, the water from which, wdien running, empties eventually into Hemlock lake. 
Rule IV. 
Section A. Any privy situated within fifty feet of any stream, spring or dry wrater-course, on 
the water-shed of Hemlock lake, or within fifty feet of the bank of any ravine on this water-shed, 
shall be constructed without a vault, and shall have under the seats half barrels, tubs, pails, or 
water-tight boxes or troughs arranged to be easily and frequently removed, emptied, cleansed and 
returned to their place, under the privy seats. Ashes or dry earth should daily be used in these 
privies as a deodorizer and absorbent. 
Rule V. 
Section A. The owners or occupants of premises having privies with tubs, pails or boxes, 
shall cause the contents to be removed and the receptacle to be cleaned as often as is necessary to 
keep the privy in good sanitary condition. 
Section B. The contents of the said privies shall be disposed of in such a manner that they 
can by no possibility be washed into any stream, dry water-course, ravine, spring or well, either 
over the surface or through the sub-soil, and the excremental matter shall be so placed as not to 
cause an offensive nuisance. 
Rule VI. 
Section A. If, owing to the porous character of the soil, the height and flow of the surface or 
sub-soil waters, the steepness of the slopes, or other conditions of the locality, it shall be the judg- 
ment of the local board of health, or of the State Board, that the excremental matter from any 
privy may be washed on the surface or through the soil into some neighboring spring or water- 
course, then, after due notice to the owners or occupants of these premises, their privy shall be 
made to conform to the rules governing privies situated within fifty feet of w'ater-courses. 
Garbage. 
Rule VII. 
Section A. The owners or occupants of all houses, cottages, tenements, tents, camp and pic- 
nic grounds, within two hundred feet of Hemlock lake, shall place all garbage produced on their 
premises in such receptacles as may be provided therefor by the city of Rochester. 
Section B. No garbage shall be thrown into the lake, or upon the ground within two hundred 
feet of the lake, nor shall it be thrown upon any spot where it may possibly be washed into the 
lake. APPENDIX III. 
577 
Rule VIII. 
Section A. The city of Rochester shall provide proper receptacles for receiving the garbage 
produced on all premises within two hundred feet of Hemlock lake, and shall cause the same to be 
removed and emptied as often as may be necessary. 
Rule IX. 
Section A. All house slops, and sink and laundry water, produced on premises adjacent to 
Hemlock lake, shall be thrown upon the surface of the ground, and distributed so as to prevent 
concentration and saturation at one spot, but no such polluted water shall be thrown upon the 
ground within one hundred feet of the lake shore, or as near that limit as the depth of the lot 
will permit, nor into, nor near any spring, water-course or ravine. 
Rule X. 
Section A. No garbage or house slops, sink or laundry water shall be discharged into any 
stream, spring or dry water-course, on any part of the water-shed of Hemlock lake, nor shall any 
such putrescible or polluted waters be thrown upon the ground or into it, where they may pol- 
lute any spring, stream or water-course on this water-shed. 
Animal Manures. 
Rule XI. 
Section A. All stables situated within two hundred feet of Hemlock lake shall be provided by 
their owners or occupants with a tight and well-covered bin or box, in which all manures shall be 
placed, and from which it shall be removed as often as cleanliness may require. 
Rule XII. 
Section A. No stable, pig-sty, hen-house, barn-yard, hog-yard, hitching or standing place for 
horses, or other place where animal manure accumulates, shall be so constructed or located that 
the manure from it may wash into the lake or into any stream, spring or dry water-course run- 
ning into the lake. 
Manufacturing Waste. 
Rule XIII. 
Section A. No waste products, putrescible matters or polluted waters from any slaughter- 
houses, cheese factories, wine or beer vaults, cider-mills, tanneries, saw-mills or other manu- 
factories shall be allowed to drain or wash into any stream, spring or dry water-course, or any 
part of Hemlock lake water-shed, or into the lake. 
Animal and Vegetable Matters. 
Rule XIV. 
Section A. No dead animal, bird or fish, nor any filthy or impure matter, nor any decayed 
fruit, vegetable substances, leaves, saw-dust, roots, branches or trunks of trees in any condition 
of their growth or decay shall be thrown into Hemlock lake, or so placed by any person that 
they shall wash into the lake, nor shall they be thrown into any spring, stream or water-course 
running into the lake. 578 
APPENDICES. 
Washing Sheep or Animals. 
Rule XV. 
Section A. No sheep or other animals shall be washed in Hemlock lake, or in any influent 
stream within half a mile of the lake, nor shall any diseased sheep be washed in any spring, 
pond or stream on the water-shed of Hemlock lake. 
Rule XVI. 
Section A. In accordance with chapter 543 of the laws of 1885, a penalty of $50 is hereby 
imposed upon any person or persons guilty of violation of or non-compliance with any of the 
above given mandatory rules or regulations, to be recovered under said act. 
Approved by order of the State Board of Health. 
APPENDIX IV. 
The following' is the Massachusetts Act for the Protection of Inland 
Waters as Amended in 1888: 
AN ACT to protect the Purity of Inland Waters, and to require Consultation with the State 
Board of Health regarding the Establishment of Systems of Water Supply, Drainage and 
Sewerage. 
Be it enacted, etc., as follows: 
Sect. 1. The state board of health shall have the general oversight and care of all inland 
waters, and shall be furnished with maps, plans and documents suitable for this purpose, and 
records of all its doings in relation thereto shall be kept. It may employ such engineers and 
clerks and other assistants as it may deem necessary : provided, that no contracts or other acts 
which involve the payment of money from the treasury of the Commonwealth shall be made or 
done without an appropriation expressly made therefor by the general court. It shall annually on 
or before the tenth day of January report to the general court its doings in the preceding year, 
and at the same time submit estimates of the sums required to meet the expenses of said board in 
relation to the care and oversight of inland waters for the ensuing year, and it shall also recom- 
mend legislation and suitable plans for such systems of main sewers as it may deem necessary for 
the preservation of the public health, and for the purification and prevention of pollution of the 
ponds, streams and inland waters of the Commonwealth. 
Sect. 2. Said board shall from time to time, as it may deem expedient, cause examinations of 
the said waters to be made for the purpose of ascertaining whether the same are adapted for use 
as sources of domestic water supplies or are in a condition likely to impair the interests of the 
public or persons lawfully using the same, or imperil the public health. It shall recommend 
measures for prevention of the pollution of such waters, and for removal of substances and causes 
of every kind which may be liable to cause pollution thereof, in order to protect and develop the 
rights and property of the Commonwealth therein and to protect the public health. It shall have 
authority to conduct experiments to determine the best practicable methods of purification of 
drainage and sewage or disposal of the same. For the purpose aforesaid it may employ such ex- 
pert assistance as may be necessary. 
Sect. 8. It shall from time to time consult with and advise the authorities of cities and towns, 
or with corporations, firms or individuals either already having or intending to introduce systems 
of water supply, drainage or sewerage, as to the most appropriate source of supply, the best prac- 
ticable method of assuring the purity thereof or of disposing of their drainage or sewage, having 
regard to the present and prospective needs and interests of other cities, towns, corporations, 
firms or individuals which may be affected thereby. It shall also from time to time consult with 
and advise persons or corporations engaged or intending to engage in any manufacturing or other APPENDIX V. 
579 
business, drainage or sewage from which may tend to cause the pollution of any inland water, as 
to the best practicable method of preventing such pollution by the interception, disposal or puri- 
fication of such drainage or sewage: provided, that no person shall be compelled to bear the ex- 
pense of such consultation or advice, or of experiments made for the purposes of this act. All 
such authorities, corporations, firms and individuals are hereby required to give notice to said 
board of their intentions in the premises, and to submit for its advice outlines of their proposed 
plans or schemes in relation to water supply and disposal of drainage and sewage, and all pet itions 
to the legislature for authority to introduce a system of water supply, drainage or sewerage shall 
be accompanied by a copy of the recommendation and advice of the said board thereon. Said 
board shall bring to the notice of the attorney-general all instances which may come to its knowl- 
edge of omission to comply with existing laws respecting the pollution of water supplies and in- 
land waters, and shall annually report to the legislature any specific cases not covered by the 
provisions of existing laws, which in its opinion call for further legislation. 
Sect. 4. In this act the term "drainage" refers to rainfall, surface and subsoil water only, 
and " sewage" refers to domestic and manufacturing filth and refuse. 
Sect. 5. Chapter two hundred and seventy-four of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and 
eighty-six is hereby repealed, but nothing in this act shall be construed to affect the expenditures 
authorized under chapter thirty of the resolves of the year eighteen hundred and eighty-eight. 
Sect. 6. This act shall take effect upon its passage. (Approved May 18, 1888.) 
APPENDIX V. 
The city of Passaic, New Jersey, having proposed to turn its outfall 
sewer into the Passaic river at a point about 4 miles above the Newark 
Water-works intake, the city of Newark sought to restrain Passaic 
from such discharge. 
The following is the Chancellor's decision on the original applica- 
tion as rendered in 1889 : 
Newark Aqueduct Board v. City of Passaic. 
(Court of Chancery of New Jersey. July 22, 1889.) 
Nuisance-Pollution of Stream-Injunction. 
A corporation called the " Newark Aqueduct Company " was authorized by statute to use 
springs "and other sources of water," to supply the inhabitants of Newark with water, and to 
take such sources of water supply by condemnation. In 1860 the city of Newark was empowered, 
by act of the legislature, to purchase the property of the Newark Aqueduct Company, and to 
make use of its sources of water supply, and "any other sources," taking by condemnation, if 
necessary. The complainant, the Newark Aqueduct Board, is a public body, charged with the 
management of Newark's water supply, and is empowered by statute to maintain suits in equity 
or at law " for any injury or trespass or nuisance, done or caused, or procured to be done, to the 
water-courses, pipes, machinery, or any apparatus belonging to or connected with any part of the 
works, or for any improper use or waste of the water." In 1867 the complainant purchased for 
the city of Newark land bordering upon the Passaic river, a tidal stream, and upon the land thus 
purchased constructed a pumping station, and, abandoning all other sources of water supply, for 
several years has taken large quantities of water, for domestic and other uses, by the inhabitants 
of Newark, from the Passaic river. The city of Passaic, situate upon the same river, about four 
miles above the complainant's pumping station, proposes to discharge its main sewer into the 
tidal water of the river. The complainant alleges that such discharge will materially pollute the 
water of the river, and thereby create a nuisance injurious to it, and by bill, in its own name and 
behalf, seeks an injunction to restrain the proposed discharge of sewage. Held, (a) that the 580 
APPENDICES. 
water of the Passaic river, where the tide ebbs and flows, belongs to the state, for uses common to 
al! its citizens; (b) that the city of Newark has no special rights in that water, either by reason 
of its riparian ownership on the river, or by grant from the state, which may be injured by the 
apprehended nuisance, and enable the complainant, by showing an apprehended injury, distinct 
from that which will be suffered by the other inhabitants of this state, to maintain its individual 
suit to restrain the nuisance; (c) that, at best, such special rights have not been established by 
adjudication in this state; (d) that the complainant is not in position to ask for a preliminary 
injunction when the right on which it founds its claim is, as a matter of law, unsettled; (e) that 
the proceeding in equity to restrain a public nuisance is by information by the attorney general; 
(/) that the statutory authority to the complainant to maintain a suit in equity for nuisance to 
water-courses connected with its works did not constitute it a public agent to sue to restrain a 
public nuisance, but merely clothed it with power to sue, as an individual might, for the protection 
of private property; (g) that an injunction to restrain a nuisance will issue only in cases where 
the fact of nuisance is made out upon determinate and satisfactory evidence, and that, if the evi- 
dence be conflicting, and the injury be doubtful, that will constitute a ground for withholding the 
injunction, and, if the nuisance be merely apprehended, it must appear that apprehension of 
material and irreparable injury is well grounded, upon a state of facts which show the danger to 
be real and immediate; (h) that such conditions of fact do not appear in this case. 
(Syllabus by the Court.) 
On order to show cause why an injunction should not issue restraining the discharge of sewage 
into the Passaic river. 
E. L. Price and Thomas N. McCarter, for the order. C. P. Rust and J. IE Griggs, contra. 
McGill, C. The complainant is a corporate body, composed of commissioners who are from 
time to time elected by the legal voters of the city of Newark, and is charged by statute with the 
control and management of the supply of " pure and wholesome water " for that city. Among 
other powers conferred upon it is authority to maintain a suit at law or in equity for injury, tres- 
pass, or nuisance to water-courses and apparatus connected with the water-works which are con- 
fided to its care. P. L. 1860, p. 442. By an act of the legislature passed in the year 1800, a 
corporation known as the "Newark Aqueduct Company" was incorporated by the name "The 
President and Directors of the Newark Aqueduct Company," for the purpose of furnishing water 
to the inhabitants of Newark, and was empowered to make use of any spring or springs that it 
might think necessary to use for the purpose of obtaining a supply of water. P. L. 1800, p. 10. 
By a supplement to that act of incorporation, which was approved February 17, 1857, (P. L. 19,) it 
was recited that the city of Newark was rapidly increasing in population, and that many additional 
springs and "other sources of water" were to be found in the vicinity of Newark which could 
be made available by the company, but which the company could not purchase through "private 
negotiations," and power was therefore given it to search for water and to take by condemnation. 
By the act of the legislature approved March 20, I860, (P. L. 442,) above referred to. the city of 
Newark was authorized to buy the property of the aqueduct company, and thereafter to take suf- 
ficient water to supply the city of Newark from the sources of supply which the aqueduct company 
then used or was empowered to use, and "from any other sources;'' and in order to make other 
sources of water supply available a method of condemning water-rights was provided. In pursu- 
ance of the authority thus conferred, the mayor and common council of the city of Newark 
purchased the plant of the aqueduct company. In 1867 the population of Newark had so largely 
increased, and the demand for a greater supply of water had become so urgent, that the complain- 
ant purchased about 12 acres of land, having a frontage of about 2,000 feet upon the west bank of 
the Passaic river, about a mile above the village of Belleville, upon which, at considerable cost, it 
caused a pumping station to be built, from w'hich water has since been pumped from the Passaic 
river to a large receiving reservoir constructed upon high ground about a mile from the pumping 
station, and from thence distributed to the city of Newark, two miles distant, and to adjoining 
towns, for domestic and other uses. In 1869, after the completion of the pumping station and the 
receiving reservoir, all sources of water supply, other than the Passaic river, were abandoned. In 
the acquisition of this plant the city of Newark expended upwards of $1,000,000. The water it 
takes from the river averages 13,000,000 of gallons daily, and is distributed to nearly 200.000 per- 
sons, who, by paying water-rates, confer a large revenue to the maintenance of the water-works, 
and the payment of the interest upon bonds that were issued by the city of Newark for their 
construction. APPENDIX V. 
581 
The tide ebbs and flows in the Passaic river at the point at which Newark's supply of water is 
taken, and for a distance of about five miles above that point, and one mile above the city of 
Passaic, and within the same limits, the river is in fact navigable. The city of Passaic, having a 
population of upwards of 10,000 persons, is situated upon the west bank of the river, four miles 
above the intake of the water for Newark. It was incorporated in 1873, (P. L. 1873, p. 484,) and 
in 1875 (P. L. 1875, p. 570) was authorized to cause sewers and drains to be constructed in any part 
of the city. In pursuance of this power it has lately, against the complainant's protest, contracted 
with the other defendants herein to construct a main sewer, with several lateral sewers emptying 
into it, and to so build the main sewer that its contents will be discharged into the Passaic river. 
The plans for the proposed construction contemplate sewers aggregating 3,650 feet in length, and 
the drainage of 110 dwelling-houses, containing 1,126 inhabitants, shops, stores, and manufactories, 
in which 113 people are employed, and a public school attended by about 400 pupils. The portion 
of the city in which these drains are to be located is rapidly building up and increasing in popula- 
tion. The sewers will not receive the surface or rain water, but will be cleared by means of flush- 
tanks, and, as it is estimated, will daily discharge into the Passaic river 60,000 gallons of filth from 
privies, sinks, and factories. Health statistics exhibit that during the past year 20 per cent, of the 
deaths in Passaic were caused by typhoid and scarlet fevers, diphtheria, cholera infantum, and 
dysentery, and it is insisted that the foul excreta of patients suffering with those diseases will be 
carried into the Passaic river through the proposed sewers, and therefrom germs of those diseases 
will be pumped to the complainant's distributing reservoir, and be distributed to a large population, 
endangering its health. To secure the prohibition of the proposed discharge of these sewers into 
the Passaic river is the object of this suit. 
The complainant takes the position, in the first place, that the proposed sewage will pollute the 
waters that it supplies to Newark and other municipalities, and will thereby create a nuisance 
especially injurious to the complainant; and, in the second place, if it should be determined that 
the complainant will not sustain a special and distinct injury, it is nevertheless empowered by 
special statutory authority to maintain this suit, if injury will result to it at all, though it be 
merely in common with the remainder of the public. To this the defendants reply-First, that 
the complainant has no right in the waters of the Passaic river which is not common to all citizens 
of this state, and that an injury to such a right cannot result in such a special and peculiar injury 
that will enable the complainant to maintain this suit in its own name; second, that in absence of 
such special injury it has no authority to maintain this suit; third, that if, under the legislation 
from which it derives its powers, the complainant has obtained a distinct right to the water of the 
Passaic, such right does not clearly appear, and should be established at law before the issuance of 
the injunction sought; and, fourth, that, in point of fact, the proposed discharge of the sewage 
will not pollute or otherwise injuriously affect the waters of the Passaic at the Newark intake. 
It is well established that the title to navigable tide-water and to lands under navigable tide-water 
is in the state for the support of rights therein which are common to the entire public, such as the 
rights of navigation and fishing. Without express grant from the sovereign, no individual can 
obtain special rights in either the water itself or in the land under it. Riparian owners have no 
special rights in navigable streams in which the tide ebbs and flows by reason of adjacency to such 
stream, other than alluvion and dereliction. The rights common to the public are enjoyed by the 
riparian owner in common with others. All that he gains by adjacency to the water, in addition to 
the contingent rights by alluvion and dereliction, is convenience in the enjoyment of the common 
rights. Stevens v. Railroad Co., 34 N. J. Law, 532. The rule is different with respect to the 
riparian owner on a navigable stream in which the tide does not ebb and flow. There his title 
extends to the land under water to the middle of the stream, and to such use of the water as will 
not work injury to the rights of other riparian owners, or be materially detrimental to the public 
easement of navigation. Attorney General v. Railroad Co., 27 N. J. Eq. 1, 8, 638; Cobb v. 
Davenport, 32 N. J. Law, 369. 
As the Passaic river at Newark's water intake is a tidal stream, that city has no special right in 
the water of the river in virtue of its riparian ownership, nor can I see how it can claim such right 
under the legislation to which I have referred. It is obvious that the legislature had in view the 
taking of water sources by condemnation, and that it did not contemplate a grant of any part of 
the public domain. The act of 1800 authorizes the use of springs by the aqueduct company. The 
act of 1857 extended the company's power of condemnation to additional springs and " other 
sources," and the act of 1860 gave similar powers to the complainant respecting all sources of its 582 
APPENDICES. 
water supply. No words indicative of an intention to grant public rights were used. The rule is 
well settled that general and indefinite words in a statute will not pass any prerogative, right, title, 
or interest of the sovereign. In Trustees v. City of Trenton, 30 N. J. Eq. 667, 683, Mr. Justice 
Depue says : " The common-law doctrine is that where the king has any prerogative, right, title, 
or interest, and the statute is general, he shall not be barred of them by the general words of the 
act, for the king shall not be bound unless the statute is made by express words to extend to him. 
Magdalen College Case, 11 Coke, 74; Willion v. Berkley, 1 Plow. 239; Bac. Abr. tit. 'Statute' 
(E). Independently of any doctrine founded on the notion of prerogative, the same construction 
ought to prevail, founded upon the legislative intent. Where the government is not expressly or 
by necessary implication included, it ought to be clear from the nature of the mischiefs to be 
reached, or the language used, that the government itself was in contemplation of the legislature, 
before a court of law would be authorized to put a construction on a statute which would affect 
its rights." The same judge in his charge to the jury in Stevens v. Railroad Co., as reported in 34 
N. J. Law, 534, made use of this language : " The distinction between the grant of a mere fran- 
chise and a grant of a portion of the public domain is broadly marked. With respect to the 
latter, the rule is invariably adhered to that, in cases of doubt, the grant is to be construed in 
favor of the state, and most strongly against the grantee, who will take nothing not clearly given 
him by the grant. * * * An intent to alienate any portion of them without any consideration 
will not, in the absence of a formal grant, in express words, be implied, except upon the clearest 
necessity to effectuate the purpose of the legislature in investing the grantee with public fran- 
chises." In the same case in the court of errors and appeals (34 N. J. Law, 553) Chief Justice 
Beasley says: " The state is never presumed to have parted with any part of its property in the 
absence of conclusive proof of an intention to do so. Such proof must exist either in express 
terms or in necessary implications. I shall not cite authorities to sustain so familiar a proposi- 
tion." State v. Bentley, 23 N. J. Laws, 538; Proprietors of Bridges v. Improvement Co., 13 
N. J. Eq. 94; Water Com'rs v. Hudson City, Id. 420; Townsend v. Brown, 24 N. J. Law, 87; 
Banking Co. v. Railroad Co., 16 N. J. Eq. 419, 436; Endl. Interp. St. § 354. 
Although it may be proper in some measure to relax the strict application of this rule in the 
case of a public body created essentially for a public purpose, like the complainant before me, yet, 
even there, there must be some manifestation of the legislative intent to grant public rights. I 
have been referred to other legislation, having for its object the prevention of the pollution of the 
waters of the Passaic within the boundaries of the counties of Essex and Hudson, (P. L. 1873, 
p. 683,) as indicative of legislative recognition of right in the complainant to take water from the 
Passaic where the tide ebbs and flows ; but, in view of the fact that previous to that legislation 
the legislature expressly authorized the city of Jersey City (P. L 1852, p. 419) and the Harrison 
Aqueduct Company (P. L. 1864, p. 754) and possibly other corporations to take the Passaic water 
at the locality indicated, the legislation referred to may properly be regarded as relating to pro- 
tection of the rights thus given. At all events, there is nothing in it to satisfy me that it should 
influence the construction of the complainant's rights, as here contended for. 
It is not necessary to determine what right, if any, the complainant may have in common with 
the public to take water from the Passaic for the uses to which it devotes it. If such a right is 
enjoyed, it is a common right, the interference with which, by pollution of the water, does not 
work a private, direct, and material damage to the complainant distinct from that which is suffered 
by the public at large, and which is necessary to enable an individual to maintain such a bill as 
that which is before me. It is true the injury to the complainant may be greater than to others 
of the public, because the complainant makes extensive use of the water for purposes which will 
not admit of its pollution, while others may make but little similar use of it, and others yet may 
not use it at all. But the injury to all is in its character and essence the same; the difference is only 
in degree. In the absence of the distinct injury to the complainant, it cannot maintain this suit. 
Where a nuisance is purely public, the proceeding in this court to restrain it must be by informa- 
tion by the attorney general. The statutory authority under which it is insisted the complainant 
may maintain this suit is contained in the sixth section of the act of 1860, above referred to. That 
section provides " that the Newark Aqueduct Board " may prosecute an action or process at law or 
in equity against any person for money for the use of water, for the breach of any contract, " and 
also for any injury or trespass or nuisance done, or caused or procured to be done, to the water- 
courses, pipes, machinery, or any apparatus belonging to or connected with any part of the works, 
or for any improper use or waste of the water." As the control and management of all that per- APPENDIX V. 
583 
tains to Newark's water supply was committed to the complainant board, it became convenient and 
proper that it should be enabled to make contracts and enforce compliance with them, and at the 
same time to protect the property placed in its charge. For these purposes it was given 
a corporate name and existence, but I find nothing in this legislation which clothes the complainant 
with power to do more than an individual could do in the protection of his own property. It does 
not authorize proceedings either in the name of the state or in the name of the attorney general. 
The injury contemplated was evidently injury to private rights only. It was to apparatus, pipes, 
machinery, and water-courses connected with the complainant's works; that is, injury to water- 
courses in which the complainant's principal had some special right of property. The legislation 
evidently was designed to bestow a corporate existence upon the aqueduct board for certain pur- 
poses, and, among them, to maintain suits in its own name for the protection of the property 
intrusted to it in the same manner as an individual owner of that property might sue for his own 
protection. The conservation of public interests is with the state and its attorney general, and its 
bestowal by the legislature upon another agency, like the grant of public domain, should be by 
express language, or, at least, by that from which the power must be necessarily implied. 
It follows, from the views that I have taken of the questions thus far considered, that the com- 
plainant has not shown either authority to maintain this suit in behalf of the public, or such 
distinct special rights in the waters of the Passaic river as this court will feel bound to protect, or, 
at best, that it has not shown such authority and rights established by adjudication in this state. 
" No rule of equity," says Chief Justice Beasley, in Coach Co. v. Railroad Co., 29 N. J. Eq. 299, 
304, " is better settled than the doctrine that a complainant is not in a position to ask for a pre- 
liminary injunction when the right on which he founds his claim is, as a matter of law, unsettled." 
And in the late case of Haggerty v. Lee, 45 N. J. Eq. 255, 17 Atl. Rep. 826, Mr. Justice Depue 
reiterates the rule thus stated, in this language: "It is impossible to emphasize too strongly the 
rule so often enforced in this court, that a preliminary injunction will not be allowed where either 
the complainant's right which he seeks to have protected in limine by an interlocutory injunction 
is in doubt, or where the injury which may result from an invasion of that right is not irrep- 
arable." 
It has been urged that the consequences of the contemplated drainage will be so disastrous and 
irreparable that I should not dismiss this application without consideration of its merits, and giv- 
ing some expression of opinion as to them. It is a well-settled rule of equity procedure that an 
injunction to restrain a nuisance will issue only in cases where the fact of nuisance is made out 
upon determinate and satisfactory evidence. If the evidence be conflicting, and the injury be 
doubtful, that will constitute a ground for withholding the injunction. 2 Story, Eq. Jur. § 924a ; 
Attorney General v. Heishon, 18 N. J. Eq. 410. And, where the interposition by injunction is 
sought to restrain that which it is apprehended will create a nuisance, the proofs must show that 
the apprehension of material and irreparable injury is well grounded upon a state of facts which 
show the danger to be real and immediate. Brookline v. Mackintosh, 133 Mass. 215. The com 
plainant grounds its apprehension of danger from the defendant's sewage, if discharged into th 
river, largely upon the opinion of Peter T. Austen, who is employed by it as its chemist, and wh6 
is also a professor of chemistry in Rutgers College, at New Brunswick, in this state. This gentle- 
man, assuming that both floating and dissolved matter discharged into the Passaic river will 
reach the Newark water intake within a few hours after its discharge, and be pumped into the 
reservoir and distributed to the people of Newark, proceeds to discuss the effect of the use of such 
polluted water upon the health of its consumers. He says: " Experimental science has established 
the fact that a large number of diseases are communicated from one person to another by means 
of minute organisms known as microbes, bacteria, baccilli, micrococci, etc., or more popularly as 
germs. The communicability of disease, as in cases of small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, 
syphilis, etc., is well understood by the public. The germs or virus of these diseases comes in con- 
tact with the proper membranes, and proceed at once to develop and cause the specific functional 
disorders known as disease. There is good evidence to show that disease may also be communicated 
by water, if the water contains disease germs." The affiant then refers to instances in which the 
prevalence of typhoid fever in a community was attributed to the excreta of the typhoid fever 
patient in water from which the inhabitants drank. He thinks that the albuminoid matter in 
sewage in sufficient quantity, and under favorable circumstances, will feed disease germs, and mul- 
tiply them, and that the putrefaction and decomposition of the albuminoid substances may pro- 
duce poisonous nitrogenous substances deleterious to health. He further stated that although 584 
APPENDICES. 
a portion of the solid matter in sewage may sink to the bottom, or become entangled with the 
vegetation on the banks of the river, the soluble matter will still pass on, and the solid matter that 
sinks or becomes entangled may soon ferment, putrefy, and decompose, and impart to the water 
its products, and that in process of decomposition gases will be generated which will cause the 
solid matter that contains them to float with the current. 
In addition to this affidavit the complainant produced the depositions of Charles Jacobson, its 
civil engineer, and two of its water inspectors, which show that in October, 1888, Mr. Jacobson, 
accompanied by the two inspectors, went to a point in the Passaic river, at about the place where 
the defendant proposes to discharge its main sewer, at a time when the tide in the river was at full 
ebb flow, and the volume and current was at about the average, and when little or no wind was 
blowing, and placed four tin floats in the water, and then followed them in their course down the 
stream. Three of the floats became entangled in grass along the shore of the river, but the fourth 
went to the intake of the water for Newark, a distance of about 24,300 feet, in four hours and two 
minutes. 
In reply to the affidavit of Professor Austen, and in support of the answer's denial that the dis- 
charge of its sewage will pollute the waters of the Passaic river or create a nuisance therein, the 
defendant produced the deposition of Henry Wurts, formerly state chemist of New Jersey. Mr. 
Wurts states that he is by profession a chemist, and that for the last 17 or 18 years he has made 
special study of the waters of the Passaic river, and many analyses of them. Speaking of such anal- 
yses made by him in 1881 and 1882, he says: " These analyses were so planned as to follow up the 
changes that might take place in the composition of the river from above Passaic Falls down to 
the outlet of the Dundee canal into the tidal channel at Passaic, showing the effect on the sewage 
of Paterson if flowed through the open air. Above the falls, the total amounts of nitrogen in the 
water in all forms by three analyses, made at intervals of some weeks, were .0217, .0286, and .0889, 
and in the mean .0297, grain per gallon, while at four and a half miles below the falls, at the 
Broadway bridge, the figures were .025-, .0315, and .0363, in the mean .0309,-only 4 per cent, 
more than above the falls. Thus in this four and a half miles of flow almost the whole effect of 
the sewage of Paterson (then having at least 50,000 people) had disappeared. This is an absolute 
loss and destruction of the noxious matter, as these impurities must pass off into the air as 
ammonia and gaseous nitrogen. Even such portion of it as is assimilated by plants and animals 
living in the water becomes thereby innocuous, and ultimately passes into the air in these same 
gaseous forms." The affiant declares it to be his opinion, substantiated by the result of his 
analyses, that the nitrogenous and putrescible constituents of the sewage of the city of Passaic 
will substantially vanish during the down flow of four and a half miles from the sewer outlet to 
the Newark intake. He also states that on the 25th of April, 1889, he examined the sewers of the 
city of Newark that empty into the Passaic river, and found that they number seven, and that the 
nearest of them to the Newark water intake is that which is called " Second River," two and a 
quarter miles below the pumping station. At the foot of Clay street he found two brick tunnels 
discharging directly into the river "streams of black opaque water," having a thick, offensive- 
looking scum upon it. This sewer is three and a quarter miles below the water intake, and dis- 
charges about 2,(MX),000 of gallons of sewage during the 12 business hours of each day. He further 
states that the tide in the river carries a portion of this sewage to the Newark intake, and that his 
analyses establish that seventeen-eighteenths of the present pollution of the water at that intake 
is caused by the Newark sewage. It is also shown that at the defendant's proposed sewer outlet 
the Passaic river is about 200 feet wide, and 14 feet deep in the channel, at high tide, and that 
because the United States government has removed the bars in the river the sewage will be swept 
back and forth by the continual ebb and flow of the tide, and that the tide flows above the outlet 
of the sewer for a mile and a half, at the end of that distance rising about three and a half feet. 
It is argued that the flow of each tide will send the sewage back this distance diluted in a great 
body of water, and that the greater part of it will thus be obliged to traverse a much greater dis- 
tance than four and a half miles before it can reach the Newark intake ; and it is insisted that if 
the Paterson sewage from 50,000 population disappears in a flow of four and a half miles above 
tide-water, that the sewage in question, from only 10,000 population, must more certainly vanish 
in this greater flow, added to a washing by the tide. 
In the case of Attorney General v. Board, L. R. 18 Eq. 172. in 1874, I find that Sir George 
Jessel, M. R., dealt with testimony by Dr. Frankland, of the Royal College of Chemistry in 
England, which was somewhat similar to that which is here given by Professor Austen. There Dr. APPENDIX V. 
585 
Frankland said that no sewage could be admitted into a river without deteriorating the quality of 
the water. " The deterioration," he said, ''for washing and manufacturing purposes, may be, as 
in this case, insignificant or imperceptible; but for drinking and cooking such water becomes 
dangerous, because, as the rivers pollution commissioners have shown, the sewage matter is not 
perceptibly altered in its character by a flow of seven miles, and scarcely diminished in quantity. 
Neither does the failure of chemical analysis to detect any deleterious ingredient indicate that 
danger is absent, since the nature of the noxious ingredients which propagate small-pox, scarlet 
fever, typhoid fever, or cholera is unknown. A chemical analysis is therefore powerless to detect 
these ingredients." In the case before me Professor Austen speaks of these ingredients as germs of 
disease called " microbes; " that is, germs so infinitesimal that they derive their name, " microbes," 
from the powerful glass by the aid of which it is claimed they may be detected. The theory 
advanced by Dr. Frankland was contradicted by other experts, and the Master of the Rolls, because 
no impurity was detected in the intake of the Workington water-works, declared that a nuisance 
was not proven. 
In Goldsmid v. Commissioners, L. R. 1 Ch. 349, Lord Justice Turner, referring to the 
testimony of scientific experts in a case of nuisance, said: " Speaking with all possible respect to 
the scientific gentlemen who have given their evidence, and as to whom it is but just to say that 
they have dealt with the case most ably and most impartially, I think that in cases of this nature 
much more weight is due to the facts which are proved than to conclusions drawn from scientific 
investigations. The conclusions to be drawn from scientific investigations are, no doubt, in such 
cases, of great value, in aid or in explanation and qualification of the facts which are proved, but 
in nay judgment it is upon the facts which are proved, and not upon such conclusions, the court 
ought in these cases mainly to rely. * * * In my view of this case, therefore, the scientific 
evidence ought to be considered as secondary only to the evidence as to the facts." 
This view of scientific evidence in cases of this kind so commends itself to me that I am con- 
strained to be guided by it in the disposition of the question of fact I am now considering. The 
application here is to restrain that which it is alleged will create a nuisance, not that which in fact 
creates a nuisance. The injury is prospective, and it is only possible to judge from experience in 
similar cases, experiment, and the opinions of experts, whether the apprehension is well grounded 
and free from doubt. Here two important circumstances appear-First, practically all traces of 
the Paterson sewage, as far as the same could be detected by chemical analysis, had disappeared 
in the flowing water of the Passaic, four and a half miles from the place at which it was dis- 
charged into the river, although in that part of the river there was no flux and reflux of the tide; 
and, second, the sewage of Newark, washed by the tide to the Newark water intake, readily 
detectable by chemical analysis, has not produced an injury similar to that which is apprehended 
from this much smaller quantity of sewage, to be emptied into the river at a much greater distance 
from the intake. In the light of these circumstances, it may be asked why, if imperceptible germs 
of disease, fraught with danger to health and life, continue in water after all traces of the sewage 
from which they come, so far as they can be detected by the chemist, are lost, have not their 
dangerous qualities become manifested in Newark long before this ? This experience seems to be 
a complete negation of the danger theory advanced in support of this application, or is sufficient, 
at least, to render it doubtful whether the danger apprehended is more than chimerical. I deem it 
of sufficient weight to justify me in withholding a preliminary injunction. 
With reference to the Newark sewage, I should add that it is not a sufficient ground for refusal 
of the injunction asked to say that the Newark sewage is a greater and more dangerous nuisance 
than the sewage of the city of Passaic will be, and because it pollutes the river the court will not 
restrain the small addition to that pollution that the sewage of Passaic will make. The defendant 
would have no right to add to existing pollution, even though it be proportionally much less than 
that which exists. Attorney General v. Steward, 20 N. J. Eq. 415; Attorney General v. Corpora- 
tion, L. R. 5 Ch. 583 ; Attorney General v. Asylum. L. R. 4 Ch. 146. I will discharge the order 
to show cause, and deny the complainant's application. 
Application for an injunction was again macle in 1890 and a large 
additional amount of evidence taken in the fall of that year. The de- 
cision is still pending. 586 
APPENDICES. 
APPENDIX VI. 
The following is the Pollution Prevention Act passed by the Vir- 
ginia Legislature in 1892 : 
AN ACT to prevent the pollution of potable water used for the supply of cities. Approved Feb'y 
29,1892. 
1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That it shall be unlawful, except as here- 
inafter provided, for any person to defile or render impure, turbid, or offensive the water used 
for the supply of any city or town of this state, or the sources or streams used for furnishing 
such supply, or to endanger the purity thereof by the following means, or any of them, to wit: by 
washing, or bathing therein, or by casting into any spring, well, pond, lake, or reservoir from 
which such supply is drawn, or into any stream so used, or the tributary thereof above the 
point where such supply is taken out of such stream, or is impounded for the purposes of 
such supply, or into any canal, aqueduct, or other channel or receptacle for water connected 
with any works for furnishing a public water supply, any offal, dead fish, or carcass of any animal, 
or any human or animal filth, or other foul or waste animal matter, or any W'aste vegetable or min- 
eral substance, or the refuse of any mine, manufactory, or manufacturing process, or by discharg- 
ing or permitting to flow into any such source, spring, well, reservoir, pond, stream, or the tribu- 
tary thereof, canal, aqueduct, or other receptacle for water, the contents of any sewer, privy, stable, 
or barnyard, or the impure drainage of any mine, any crude or refined petroleum, chemicals, or 
any foul, noxious, or offensive drainage whatsoever, or by constructing or maintaining any privy 
vault or cesspool, or by storing manure or other soluble fertilizer of an offensive character, or by 
disposing of the carcass of any animal, or any foul, noxious, or putrescible substance, whether solid 
or fluid, and whether the same be buried or not, within two hundred feet of any watercourse, 
canal, pond, or lake aforesaid, which is liable to contamination by the washings thereof or perco- 
lation therefrom; provided, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed to authorize the 
pollution of any of the waters in this state in any manner now contrary to law; and provided 
further, that this act shall not apply to streams the drainage area of which, above the point where 
the water thereof is withdrawn for the supply of any city or town, or is impounded for the pur- 
poses of such supply, shall exceed fifty square miles. 
2. That any person knowingly or wilfully violating the terms of this act shall be deemed guilty 
of a misdemeanor, and shall be punished for each offence by a fine not exceeding one hundred dol- 
lars, or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both, at the discretion of the court, and 
provided further, that nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to prevent the washing oi 
ore or minerals in any of the streams or waters of this commonwealth other than such as may be 
used for the water supply of any city or town. 
3. This act shall take effect fifteen days after its passage. 
APPENDIX VII. 
The following are the Rules of the New York State Board of Health 
governing the preparation of such plans for Sewerage and Sewage 
Disposal Works as are required by law to be submitted to the Board 
for approval: 
The experience of the past year has shown the necessity for a statement of what the Board re- 
quires to be conveyed by the plans submitted, and of the most desirable form that these plans 
should take. The following suggestions are therefore made, and it is requested that those inter- APPENDIX VII. 
587 
ested with the preparation of plans will follow them as closely as is practicable. Certain portions 
must be followed, while considerable latitude can be allowed upon others, as intimated. 
1. A plan of the entire village will be required, showing all streets, and so far as practicable pro- 
posed streets. This must not be on a smaller scale than 250 feet to an inch and may be larger. A 
comprehensive title, stating what the map purports to show, must be placed thereon. The scale 
of the map must be distinctly stated, and an explanation of all symbols used must be given on it. 
Contour lines should be carefully located and drawn to interfere as little as possible with the de- 
lineation of other features. A sufficient number of elevations above an assumed datum, written 
in figures, should be given to show the governing elevations of the ground. The elevations of 
sewer invert at critical and other important points should be given, each surmounted by an oval as 
a distinguishing mark. When the plan presented does not propose to sew'er the entire village, and 
the street profiles do not extend to the ends of the streets or to the village limits, the elevations of 
the ground at every change of slope in the streets beyond the limits of the profiles, and the eleva- 
tions of the bottoms of the deepest cellars, or other localities below the level of the street, should 
be given in their proper locations upon the plan. Upon this plan must be shown all existing 
sewers, with all the information obtainable regarding their depth below the surface, grades, sizes, 
man-holes, lamp-holes, catch-basins, flush-tanks, etc. The proposed system must be laid down in 
a clear and definite manner, showing the locations of the lines in the streets, the position of man- 
holes, catch-basins, lamp-holes, inspection-pipes, flush-tanks, ventilators or other appurtenances, 
by symbols readily distinguishable and explained in the map-legend. The sizes of pipe and the 
grades of inclination must be given in figures alongside the line, and points of change of inclination 
or of alignment must be definitely located, being part of the information given by the profiles, 
here repeated as a great convenience. Inclinations may be given as fall in feet per hundred or as a 
slope ratio. A sufficient number of arrows must be drawn alongside the lines to show clearly the 
direction of flow of sewage. The position of outlet must be clearly shown, and the direction of 
current in the body of water, if any, into which the sewage flows. Location of disposal works 
must also be shown. Independent lines of pipe proposed for subsoil or cellar drainage should be 
marked by a different symbol from that for tight sewer pipe lines, and the size of such pipes should 
be given. When the territory covered by the village is large the details of sewers may be given on 
one or more sheets on the large scale, the entire village being sho wn on an accompanying map of a 
convenient smaller scale, which shall contain the general information required above. 
2. Profiles of the streets proposed to be sewered and of other lines of sewer must be presented on 
separate sheets from the plan. These profiles should be extended to the entire length of the street 
and should be presented for every street in the village, unless the elevations beyond the ends of 
proposed sewer lines are placed on the plan as proposed in paragraph 1 above. These profiles 
should show the profile of ground surface, the elevation of particularly low points, such as cellar 
bottoms, low lots, etc., and their distances from the sewer line, and the grade line of the sewer. 
Location of man-holes, lamp-holes, catch-basins, flush-tanks, and other sewer appurtenances should 
be shown, also points of intersection with other streets and points of entrance of branches, with 
their elevations at entrance. Inclination of sewer should be given in figures, also points of change 
of inclination being clearly defined. A small title should appear on each sheet of profiles, giving 
at least name of village, scales and explanation of symbols. 
3. Details of the general plans for constructions connected with the sewers, such as man-holes, 
catch-basins, lamp-holes, inspection pipes, junctions, valves, traps, should be given, and full 
drawings of any devices for special purposes demanded by the peculiar circumstances of the case. 
Sections of sewers other than circular should be shown. Full details of the outlet should be given, 
and plans, elevations, sections and details of special grounds, buildings, machinery or other appara- 
tus used in connection with the disposal of the sewage and drainage. Definite scales for these de- 
tails cannot be prescribed. It is necessary that the scales used be large enough to present the in- 
formation clearly and definitely, and plenty of room should be left between drawings, that they 
may not be unintelligible on account of crowding. It will be better to present the details on one 
or more sheets separate from the plans and profiles. Titles and subtitles enough to give name of 
village, explanation of symbols, names of objects delineated and scales should appear on each sheet 
of details. 
4. General specifications for the construction of the system must accompany the plans, giving 
the general requirements and conditions regarding trenching, draining material, inspection and 
laying of pipe, character of materials and manner of construction of brick sewers and of man- 588 
APPENDICES. 
holes, flush tanks, outlets and other appurtenances. The specifications intended for contractors 
may be presented as fulfilling the above requirements, if considered desirable. 
5. Duplicates of plans, profiles, details and specifications must be presented. The original will 
be returned to the sewer commissioners upon approval, with the official statement of that ap- 
proval. The duplicate will be filed according to law, in the office of the State Board of Health. 
The originals may be in any color desired. As portions at least of each set of plans will be repro- 
duced for the annual reports, it is quite necessary that the duplicates be drawn in black only, the 
distinction between lines being made by different forms of line rather than by colors. They must 
be as perfectly clear and definite as the originals, and may be upon tracing cloth. Red lines may 
be used if the ink is ground from a body color. Aniline red must not be used. 
6. A report should be presented, written probably by the designing engineer, giving the data 
upon which calculationsand locations were made, such as area, population, distribution, estimated 
increase in population, rainfall, amount of surface drainage to be taken care of and method of dis- 
posing of it, amount of roof-water, amount of sewage, and basis for the estimates of these amounts, 
a statement of such points as are peculiar to the locality, a description of devices for special pur- 
poses, and such other information as may be deemed necessary to a complete understanding of the 
plans as presented. This report should also give a general statement of the reasons for choice of 
system and of the method of disposal of sewage and drainage, an explanation of any special feat- 
ures connected therewith, and a statement of the proposed manner of maintaining the works, 
where a purification plant is intended. A tabular statement of the amounts of water and sewage 
to be disposed of by each sewer branch and main will be found the shortest and most convenient 
manner of presenting the major part of the information above required. 
APPENDIX VIII. 
AN ACT to Prevent the Pollution of Rivers and Sources of Water Supply.-Chapter 225, Laws 
of 1885. Approved, March 7, 1885. 
To be enacted by the Legislature of the State of Minnesota : 
Section 1. No sewage, drainage or refuse or polluting matter of such kind as either by itself 
or in connection with other matter will corrupt or impair the quality of the water of any spring, 
well, pond, lake, stream or river for domestic use, or render it injurious to health, and no 
human or animal excrement shall be placed in or discharged into, or placed or deposited upon the 
ice of any pond, lake, stream or river, used as a source of water supply by any town, village or 
city; nor shall any such sewage, drainage, refuse or polluting matter or excrement be placed 
upon the banks of any such poiid, lake, stream or river within five miles above the point where 
such supply is taken, or into any feeders or the banks thereof, of any such pond, lake, stream or 
river. 
Sec. 2. The State Board of Health shall have the general supervision of all springs, wells, 
ponds, lakes, streams or rivers used by any town, village or city as a source of water supply, 
with reference to their purity, together with the waters feeding the same, and shall examine the 
same from time to time and inquire what, if any, pollutions exist, and their causes. In case of 
the violation of any of the provisions of section one (1) of this act, said Board may appoint a time 
and place for hearing parties to be affected, and shall give due notice thereof, as hereinafter pro- 
vided, to such parties, and after such hearing, if in its judgment the public health requires it, 
may order any person or corporation or municipal corporation to desist from the acts causing 
such pollutions, or to cleanse or purify the polluting substance in such a manner and to such a 
degree as shall be directed by said Board, before being cast or allowed to flow into the waters 
thereby polluted, or placed or deposited upon the ice or banks of any of the bodies of water in the 
first section of this act mentioned. Upon the application of the proper officers of any town, vil- 
lage or city, or of not less than legal voters of any such town, village or city, to said 
Board, alleging the pollution of water supply of any such town, village or city by the violation of 
any of the provisions of this act, said Board shall investigate the alleged pollution, and shall ap- 
point a time and place when and where it will hear and examine the matter, and shall give notice APPENDIX VIII. 
589 
of such hearing and examination to the complainant, and also to the person or corporation or 
municipal corporation alleged to have caused such pollution, and such notice shall be served not 
less than ten (10) days prior to the time so appointed, and shall be served in the same manner 
that now is or hereafter may be by law provided for the service of a summons in a civil action in 
the district court. Said Board, if in its judgment any of the provisions of this act have been vio- 
lated, shall issue the order or orders already mentioned in this section. 
Sec. 3. The district court, or the judge thereof, may, upon the complaint of said Board, or of 
the proper authorities of any town, city or village, whose sources of water supply shall be so pol- 
luted, issue an injunction to enforce the orders of said Board. 
Sec. 4. Such orders of the State Board shall be served upon the persons, corporations or 
municipal corporations found to have violated any of the provisions of this act, and any party 
aggrieved thereby shall have the right to appeal to the district court of the county in which is 
situated the town, village or city, whose source of water supply is found to have been polluted, 
and such aggrieved party shall have the right to a trial by jury in the same manner as in a civ? 
action in said court. During the pendency of the appeal, the pollution against which the order 
has been issued, shall not be continued contrary to the order of the State Board, and upon the 
violation of the order the appeal shall be forthwith dismissed. 
Sec. 5. Any person, corporation or municipal corporation desiring to appeal from any such 
order of the State Board, shall, within thirty (30) days after the service upon him or it, of a copy 
of such order, file in the office of the clerk of the district court of the proper county, a notice 
of such appeal, together with a bond in the sum of not less than two thousand (2,000) dollars, 
with two (2) sureties, to be approved by the judge of said court, conditioned for the prosecution 
of such appeal to judgment, and for the payment of all the costs and disbursements that may be 
adjudged against him or it therein, and shall, within three (3) days after such filing, serve a copy 
of such notice and bond upon the Secretary of the Board; said Secretary shall within ten (10) 
days thereafter, deliver such copies so served upon him to the Mayor or other chief executive 
officer of any such city, village or town, whose source of water supply has been found to have been 
so polluted. 
Sec. 6. Water boards, water commissioners, water companies and the proper officers of any 
city, village or town, making use as a source of water supply, of any well, spring, pond, lake, 
stream, river, reservoir or well, within, or partly within, this State, and distributing the waters 
thereof for public, domestic and general uses, shall, from time to time, and whenever required by 
said Board, make returns to said Board, upon blanks to be furnished by it, of such matters as 
may be required by said Board and called for by such blanks, and any such water board, water 
commissioners, water company, or officers of any city, village or town, who shall for the space of 
thirty (30) days after being furnished with such blanks, fail or neglect to make any such report 
so required, shall for each and every such neglect or failure, forfeit and pay the sum of one hun- 
dred (100) dollars, for the use of the local Board of Health, or the proper officers acting as 
such, of the city, town or village where such delinquent has its principal office. Said State Boar< 
shall, in the name of the State, prosecute in the district court of the proper county an action fo> 
the recovery of the penalty or forfeit therein imposed. 
Sec. 7. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. INDEX. 
Absorption ditches, Hospital for the Insane, London. 
Ont., 495. 
Acid, may be actionable pollution if discharged into 
streams, 100 ; effect, on nitrification, 197 ; sewage, 
Worcester, Mass., 436. 
Act, rivers pollution prevention, English, 569 ; New 
York, 574 ; Massachusetts, 578; Virginia, 586; Min- 
nesota, 588. 
Actinomycosis, 28. 
Adams, Col. Julius W., 63, 442. 
Adeney, W. E., 224. 
Adverse possession, relation of, to stream pollution, 
103, 104, 109. 
Aeration and oxidation, acting in conjunction with 
aquatic plants and animals, 62; experiments on 
purification of sewage by aeration, 222; aeration at 
Wayne, Pa., 535. 
Agricultural experiment stations, work on soil physics, 
164. 
Air compressor, Rand, Worcester, Mass., 439. 
Temperatures, see temperatures. 
Albany, N. Y., epidemic of typhoid fever at, 11. 
Albion, N. Y., purification plant proposed, 567. 
Algae, number present in and effect on polluted 
streams, 79; in Beaver dam brook, 81-82 ; influence 
of mineral nitrates on growth of, 82; food for young 
fish, 87 ; food for rhizopods, 90. 
Alkali, effect on nitrification, 197. 
Allen, Chas. A., 419, 420, 466. 
Alum, use in paper manufacture, 49; woollen manu- 
facture, 51; cotton, carpet, blanket, and cloth manu- 
facture, 64, see Chemical precipitants. 
Alumina, sulphate of, see Chemical precipitants. 
Amherst, Mass., disposal on land and sedimentation, 
561. 
Ammonia, how produced, 160. 
Ammonias, free and albuminoid, decrease of, in Illinois 
and Michigan Canal, 69; relations of, to ammonias 
and organic nitrogen of Frankland and Armstrong 
process, 153, condition of, in sewage, 158. 
Analyses (see in addition to below, list of tables, p. xxv). 
Comparison of methods by Henry Martin, 153 ; night 
soil, 157. 
Sewage, Rochester, N. Y., 21; Chicago Stock Yard, 
32; Constituents of sewage, 83 ; American, 152 ; 
English, 153; London, 154; Rugby, Eng.. 240; 
East Orange, N. J., 394, 396: Mystic Valley, 
406; Worcester, Mass., 415, 427; Pullman, Ill., 
465; South Framingham, Mass., and effluent, 
488. 
Soils, how mechanical, are made, 163, 164, 166; 
Pullman, Ill., 467. 
Sludge, East Orange, N. J., 394. 
Street drainage, 155. 
Water, Rochester, N. Y. (from well). 20 ; Black- 
stone River, 43, 44 ; Connecticut River, 56, 57 ; 
Passaic River. 60, 61, 62 ; Schuylkill River, 64; 
Mississippi River, 65; Illinois and Michigan 
Canal, 67, 70; Hudson River, 70 : sub-soil water 
from South Framingham drain, 80, 81. 
Angell, on prescriptive right to pollute water-courses, 
103. 
Animals and plants, purifying effect of. in Passaic Riv- 
er, 59. 62 ; minute, how distinguished, 77 ; agents in 
purification of streams, 89 ; minute animal life in 
polluted water, 94. 
Animals, infectious diseases of, 24; diseases of, in re- 
lation to public health (Billings), 27; injury to 
streams, 32. 
Anthrax, description, 27; outbreak at Bradford, Eng- 
land, 27 ; literature, 28 ; Iowa case, 31. 
Atherton, Geo., 559. 
Atlantic City, N. J., sewage flow for a year, 144 ; me- 
chanical separation of sewage, 562. 
Austin, Henry, 172. 
Bacillus, typhoid fever and bibliography, 7. 8 ; mal- 
lei, specific germ of glanders, 12 ; prodigiosns, ex- 
periments with, in sand filter, 14 ; anthrax, 27. 
Bacteria, harmless and pathogenic, 5 ; in sewage muds, 
95 ; Lortet's paper on pathogenic, in Lake Geneva, 
95; survival of pathogenic, 96; of nitrification, 188, 
191 ; how removed by chemical precipitation, 221 ; 
growth stimulated by nitre, 224 ; removed by inter- 
mittent filtration, 267, 275, 276. 277. 278, 282, 286, 
287, 288; removed at South Framingham, Mass., 
489. 
Baffle-board for mixing chemicals, 208; plates, 
Worcester, Mass., 435. 
Ball, Phinehas, 415, 483. 
Barber, Dana C., 64. 
Bassett, C., Ph., 132, 386, 399, 522, 548, 549, 567. 
Bealey v. Shaw, case of, 103. 
Beggiatoa alba and its relation to sewage effluents, 
342 ; legal proceedings caused by, at Croydon, Eng- 
land, 343. 
Bennett, A. W., 342. 
Benzenberg, Geo. H., 466. 
Berlier system, 1, 3. 
Berlin sewage farm, 251. 
Bigelow, Chief Justice, on eminent domain, 111. 
Billings, Frank S., 26, 27. 
Blackstone on the law of custom, 104. 
Blackstone River, analyses of, 43, 44. 
Blood, corpuscles found in sewage muds, 95 ; discharge 
into streams, actionable pollution, 100 ; source of or- 
ganic nitrogen, 160. 
Blyth, A Manual of Public Health, 29. 
Bolton, E. D., 374. 
Bond, Fred, 559. 
Bonnot Co., 565. 
Boston, decision in regard to maintaining purity of 
water supply, 105; main drainage, 177, 182; early 
sewers at, 177; filth-hoist, deposit sewers, 183; 
sewerage tunnel, 184. 
Bowditch, E. W.. 560. 
Brackins, S. E., 548. 
Brewsters, N. Y., electrical treatment, 563. 
Brewer, Professor W. H., 50. 
Bridgeport pumping station, Chicago. 174, 362. 
Broad irrigation, see Irrigation. 
Brockton. Mass., intermittent filtration, 567. 
Brooks, Fred, 490. 
Brooklyn. N. Y., purification plant proposed for 26th 
Ward, 567. 
Brown, Professor Charles C., 71, 72. 
Byrne, Geo. R., 374. 
Canal, Illinois and Michigan, 66,174. 
Canton, O., chemical precipitation, 563. 
Carbon, amount in excrements, 157. 
Carbonic acid, decomposed by algae, etc., 79. 
Carpenter, Dr. Alfred, 250. 
Carriers, sewage, 226; State Insane Hospital, Worces- 
ter, Mass., 459; Massachusetts Reformatory, Con- 
cord, 472; Rhode Island State Institutions, Crans- 
ton, 477; Hospital for the Insane, London, Ont., 
498; Massachusetts School for the Feeble-Minded, 592 
INDEX. 
Waltham, Mass., 50S, 510; School for Boys, Law- 
renceville, N. J., 514; Summit, N. J., 524 ; Hast- 
ings, Neb., 530; Colorado Springs, Col., 542 : Pas- 
adena, Cal., 548 ; Gardner, Muss., 519; Lenox, Mass., 
560. 
Carter, H. H., 481. 
Catch-work system of broad irrigation, 228. 
Cesspool, actionable pollution when erected near 
a stream, 100. 
Chamber, tidal, Long Branch, N. J., 400, 4C4. 
Chancellor, C. W., 3. 
Chandler, Professor Charles F., 70. 
Chapin, L. E., 563. 
Chautauqua, N. Y., chemical precipitation, 565. 
Chemical agencies in self-purification of a stream, 92. 
Chemical composition of sewaged and unsewaged grass, 
210 ; milk from cows fed with sewaged grass, 241. 
Chemical mixers, East Orange, N. J., 390 ; Canton, 
O., 564; Chautauqua, N. Y., World's Columbian 
Exposition, Chicago, 565. 
Chemical precipitants, amount used, East Orange, N. 
J., 390 : experiments regarding, Mystic Valley 
Works, 408, and Worcester, Mass., 426. 
Alum, experiments, Mystic Valley Works, 407 ; use 
and cost of, Long Branch, N. J., 404. 
' Alumina, sulphate of, one of three chemicals 
chiefly used as a precipitant, 203 ; chemical ac- 
tion of, 204; used in Lawrence experiments, 
209, 217, 226; precipitant for manufacturing 
wastes nt Wanskuck Mills. Providence, R. I., 
296; East Orange, N. J., 388,390, 398; Mystic 
Valley Works, experiments, 409, use, 410, 414 ; 
Worcester, Mass., use and cost. 436, 437, 438 ; 
World's Columbian Exposition. 565. 
Clay, experiments, Mystic Valley Works, 407. 
Copperas, used with lime in Lawrence experi- 
ments, 209, 214, 221; World's Columbian Expo- 
sition, 565. 
Ferric sulphate, ns precipitant in Lawrence ex- 
periments, 216, 221. 
Ferrous sulphate, one of three chemicals chiefly 
used as precipitants, 203 ; chemical action of, 
204. 
Lime, one of three chemicals chiefly used as a 
precipitant, 203; chemical action of, 204 ; used 
in Lawrence experiments, 209. 211, 220; and 
copperas, 214, 220; and ferric sulphate, 216; 
for manufacturing wastes, Wanskuck Mills, 
Providence, R. I., 296; Coney Island, 370; 
Round Lake, N. Y., 372; White Plains. N. Y., 
377; Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., 382 ; East Orange, 
N. J., 388, 390. 398 ; Mystic Valley Works, ex- 
periments, 406 ; Worcester, Mass , use and cost, 
430. 436, 437. 438, 439 ; Woi Id's Columbian Ex- 
position, Chicago, 565. 
Manganate of soda and nitre, 223. 
Perchloride of iron. Coney Island, N. Y., 370; 
Round Lake, N. Y.. 372; White Plains, N. Y., 
378 ; cost of, at White Plains, 379 ; Sheepshead 
Bay, 382 ; recommended, East Orange, N. J., 
385. 
Sulphuric acid, experiments, Mystic Valley works, 
407. 
Chemical precipitation, reagents and theory of. 203; 
conditions essential for success, 204 ; classification 
of methods, 205 ; capacity of tanks, 206 ; vertical 
tanks, methods of sludge disposal, 207; mixing 
chemicals, 208; Massachusetts experiments, 209; 
results of experiments with equal money values of 
different chemicals, 218; deductions from Lawrence 
experiments, 220; of manufacturing wastes at 
Wanskuck Woollen Mills. Providence, R. I., 296; and 
intermittent filtration, comparative cost and effi- 
ciency where filter-beds would have to be protected 
from frost. 337. 341; relative efficiency of, and in- 
termittent filtration, 341; results with, generally to 
be adopted in America only where land treatment is 
impracticable. 349 ; Coney Island. N. Y., 369 ; Round 
Lake. N. Y., 371 ; White Plains. N. Y., 374 : cost of 
constructing White Plains plant. 380 : estimated cost 
of operating White Plains plant, 381 : Sheepshead 
Bay, N. Y., 381 ; East Orange. N. J., 383 ; cost, con- 
structing and operating, 397. 398; Long Branch, 
N. J.. 399; Mystic Valley Works, 405 ; report of 
Wm. Ripley Nichols on, 406 ; cost, 414; Worcester, 
Mass., 415 ; estimated cost, 431 ; why preferred by 
Mr. Allen, 432; cost of operating. 438 ; Providence, 
R. I., proposed, 441, 443, 449 ; Hospital for the In- 
sane, London, Ont., 500 ; Los Angeles, Cal., dis- 
cussed, 5513. 555 ; Canton, O., 563 ; Chautauqua, N. 
Y., World's Columbian Exposition, 565. 
Chemicals, list of, used in various manufacturing proc- 
esses, 52. 53, 64. See Chemical precipitants. 
Chesbrough, E. 8., 40, 169, 180, 461. 
Cheyenne, Wyo., irrigation, 559. 
Chicago, statistics of typhoid fever at, 19; population, 
19; analysis of stock-yard sewage, 32 ; drainage com- 
mission, 66, 174; water supply and sewerage sys- 
tems, 169, 174, 176. 
Chicago River, sewer-discharge into, 65 ; description 
of, 173; pollution of. 174. 
Chlorine, amount in water of Beaver Dam brook, SO; 
as deodorizer and disinfectant, Coney Island, N. Y., 
370 ; Round Lake, N. Y., 372, 373: White Plains, 
N. Y„ 379. 
Cholera, water-borne disease, 12. 
City populations, American, growth of, 131. 
Cities, American, use of water in, 119; population of, 
120, 127, 128, 129 ; population at ten year periods, 
129. 
Clarke, Eliot C., 150, 152, 177, 419, 465. 480. 490. 
Clay in suspension, effect of. in assisting sedimentation, 
92 ; size of particles, 163. See Chemical precipitants. 
Coefficient, uniformity, of filtering materials, 167. 
Cohoes, N. Y., epidemic of typhoid fever at, 10. 
Coke filters, Long Branch, N. J., 402, 404; Mystic 
Valley Works, recommended, 407. 
Collier, Peter, 162. 
Colorado Springs, Col., irrigation, 539. 
Combined systems of sewerage, provision for rainfall 
in, 132 ; impossibility of providing for all the rain- 
fall, 134; rs. separate, 150 ; impossibility of purifying 
whole flow, 152. 
Commission, Massachusetts drainage, 113. 
Common law as to rights of riparian proprietors, 99; 
prescriptive right, how acquired by, 102; rule of, 
modified by mill acts, 113, 118. 
Connecticut, sanitary investigations in, 45. 
Connecticut River, flow, pollution, analyses, 56, 57 ; 
emergency water supply at Hartford. 57. 
Coney Island, N. Y., chemical precipitation at, 370. 
Cooley, L. E., 174. 
Copperas, waste, 357 ; product of iron manufacture, 48 ; 
use in manufacturing, 51, 52, 64. See Chemical pre- 
cipitants. 
Cary, C. A.. 25. 
Cotton manufacture, wastes resulting from, 52, 53. 
Crenothrix, present in water of Beaver Dam brook, 81. 
Cresson. Dr. Charles M., 64. 
Crimp, W. Santo, 154. 
Croes, J. J. R., 383, 511. 
Crookshank, Manual of Bacteriology, 25. 
Crops, experiments with, in England, 235, 243 ; Pull- 
man. Ill., profit from. 465; destroyed by worms, 466 ; 
Hastings, Neb., suitability of soil for, 528; purifica- 
tion placed before, 531 ; Los Angeles, Cal., alleged 
effect of sew'age on, 556. 
Alfalfa, Colorado Springs, Col., 543. 
Asparagus, Pullman. Ill., 464; Redding, Cal., 549. 
Barley. Leamington, Eng., 246. 
Beans. Leamington, Eng., 245; Fresno, Cal., 545. 
Beets, Pasadena, Cal., 549. 
Cabbage, Leamington, Eng . 244 ; Pullman, Ill,, 
464 : South Framinghnnt, Mass., 489. 
Carrots, Leamington. Eng.. 245. 
Cauliflower. Pullman. III., 464. 
Celery, Pullman, Ill., 464. 
Corn, Pullman, Ill., 464; South Framingham, 
Mass., 488. 489 ; Fresno. Cal., 545. 
Garden truck, Pasadena, Cal.. 549. 
Grain. Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord, 472. 
Grass, amount raised by sewage irrigation and re- 
sults of feeding it to milch cows at Rugby, Eng., 
236, 238; chemical composition of Rugby, 240 ; 
Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord, 472 ; 
Wayne, Pa.. 538: Trinidad. Col., 544; Italian 
rye grass, 244, 246 ; East Orange, N. J., 390 ; 
Pullman, Ill., 464. 
Lettuce, Fresno, Cal. 545. 
Mangolds, Leamington, Eng., 244. 593 
INDEX 
Oats, 242 ; Leamington, Eng., 245. 
Onions, Pullman, Ill., 464. 
Parsnips, Leamington, Eng., 245; Fresno, Cal., 
545. 
Peas, Fresno, Cal., 545. 
Potatoes, Leamington, Eng., 245; Pullman, Ill., 
464 ; Fresno, Cal., 545; Redding, Cal., 549. 
Prickly comfrey and rhubarb, Leamington, Eng., 
246. 
Squashes, Pullman, Ill., 464; South Framingham, 
Mass , 489. 
Turnips, Leamington, Eng., 246; Pasadena, Cal., 
549. 
Vegetables, Colorado Springs, Col., 543; Helena, 
Mont., 558. 
Yams, Fresno, Cal., 545. 
Current floats, Providence, R. I., 444. 
Curlier, Dr. Charles G., 75. 
Custom, evidence of voluntary abrogation of rights in 
streams, 102; law of. 104 ; may dedicate stream to 
manufacturing use, 117. 
Cyclops, present in polluted water, 76; size, 77 ; fecun- 
dity of, 77, 78 ; devour human excrement, 78. 
Davis, J. P., 42, 130, 418, 419, 446. 
Dejecta, sterilization of, from diseased persons, 12 ; 
how disinfected, 13. 
Deposit sewers, Boston main drainage, 183, 184. 
Derby, Dr. George, 34. 
Detroit, statistics of use of water, 126. 
Diarrhoea, water-borne disease. 12. 
Diatoms, number and law of development in polluted 
streams, 79; number in Beaver Dam brook, 82; food 
for young fish. 87 ; food for rhizopods, 90. 
Dibdin, W. J., 94, 154. 
Dilution to prevent nuisance from sewage in streams, 
12. 
Disease germs, theory of, 4 ; in sewage muds, 95, 93. 
Diseases, communicable, intercommunicable, 4 ; list 
of water-borne, 12 ; infectious, of animals. 24, and 
relation to man, 30; views of natives of India re- 
garding causation of diseases, 110. 
Disinfectants. American Public Health Association re- 
port on, 8, 12 ; chloride of lime, 13; chlorine, Coney 
Island, N. Y., 370 ; Round Lake, N. Y., 372, 373 ; 
White Plains, N. Y., 379. 
Dodge, Professor James A., 65. 
Doty, Duane, 465. 
Drainage, character of street, 154. 
Drains, suggestion for covered winter absorption, 289 ; 
use of, for carrying excrement. 35. 
Drown, Dr. Thomas M., 93, 153, 223. 
Dupre, A., and Dibdin, W. J., experiments on purify- 
ing sewage by aeration, 222. 
Dye wastes, may be actionable pollution if discharged 
into streams, 100. 
Dysentery, water-borne disease, 12. 
Easements in streams, how created, 102. 
East Orange, N. J., ground-water in sewers of, 132 ; 
chemical precipitation and intermittent filtration at, 
383. 
Eaton, Fred, 551. 552. 
Effluent, Coney Island, N. Y., 370 ; White Plains, 
N. Y., 380; Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., 382 ; Gardner, 
Mass, 520 ; Summit, N. J., 522; ditch. Mystic Valley 
works, 408 ; pipe, Worcester, Mass., 434, 435; South 
Framingham, Mass., 488; where discharged, Marl- 
borough, Mass., 506. 
Ejector, Shone, for handling sludge, Worcester, Mass., 
440 ; Hospital for the Insane, Rochester, Minn., 501, 
502. 
Electrical treatment, Brewsters, N. Y., and cost of, 
563. 
Electrolysis, literature of, 3. 
Embrey v. Owen, decision in case of, 99. 
Eminent domain, discussion of, 110, 111. 
English Rivers Pollution Prevention Act, 569. 
Ensilage, see silos. 
Entomostraca, in relation to self-purification of streams, 
76-79 ; food for fish, 87 ; marine forms, 89. 
Entozoic diseases, sewage farms centres of distribution, 
30. 
Evans V. Merriweather, case of, 101. 
Evaporation at Fort Collins, Col., 329. 
Excrement, human, danger of, in drinking water, 4 ; 
detected in sewage contaminated waters, 77, 78 ; in 
sewage muds, 95 ; unreasonableness of turning into 
streams, 101; general data of human and animal, 
155, 157, 158. 
Experiment stations, agricultural, work on soil physics, 
164. t 
Expert witnesses, opinions of, on effect of stream pol- 
lution, 98. 
F®Ces, in sewage, 150 ; amount from mixed popula- 
tion. nitrogen, phosphates, and potash in, 155. 
Fanning, J. T., 126. 
Farquhar - Oldham filter, 2 ; recommended, East 
Orange, N. J., 385; tried, Mystic Valley Works, 408. 
Far Rockaway, N. Y., purification plant proposed, 567. 
Fernald, Chas. H., 28. 
Ferric sulphate, see Chemical precipitants. 
Ferrous sulphate, see Chemical precipitants. 
Fertilizers, explanations and valuations, 160, 161, 162 ; 
experiment station, 162; sludge used as, East 
Orange, N. J., 398 ; Long Branch, N. J., 404; Mys- 
tic Valley Works, 414 ; Worcester, Mass., 439 ; Marl- 
borough, Mass., 506 ; Amherst, Mass., 561 ; provi- 
sion to use sewage as. South Framingham, Mass., 486. 
Filth-hoist, Boston main drainage, 183. 
Filter, coke, East Orange. N. J., 388; recommended, 
Mystic Valley Works, 407; Farquhar-Oldham, rec- 
ommended, East Orange, N. J., 385, tried Mystic 
Valley Works, 408. 
Beds, East Orange. N. J., coke and gravel, 390 ; 
Pullman. Ill., 467 ; South Framingham, Mass., 
487; Medfield, Mass . 491; Marlborough, Mass., 
505; Atlantic City, N. J., elevated, 562. 
Filtering material, relation to applied sewage, 168. 
Filter press, literature, 208. 
Johnson, East Orange, N. J., 394 ; Long Branch, 
N. J., 4 3; Worcester, Mass., recommended, 
430. 
Bonnot, Canton, O., Chautauqua, N. Y., 565. 
Perrin, World's Columbian Exposition, 566. 
Filters, care of, in winter, 281. 
Filtration, Leadville, Col., 562. 
And irrigation, statistics of foreign, 247. 
Continuous and intermittent, importance of dis- 
tinction between, 17 ; advantages of continuous 
in cold weather, 312. 
Intermittent, quality of material required, 163 ; 
first mentioned, 261; definition and theory, 262 ; 
Frankland's discussion, 263 ; a biological proc- 
ess, 264 ; Lawrence experiments, 265 ; condi- 
tions most essential to nitrification, 269 ; by 
means of trenches, 270; different materials, 272; 
not a straining process, 276; use of effluents for 
drinking water, 277, 289 ; permanency of filters, 
279 ; effect of frost and snow at Lawrence, 2S0 ; 
South Framingham, Mass., 284 ; Summit. N. J., 
285 ; cultivation of filtration areas, 290, 291 ; 
summary, 286; suggestion for covered winter 
absorption drains, chemical precipitation vs. fil- 
tration. 289 ; at Lawrence in 1887-88. deduc- 
tions, 305; relation of specific heat to. 309; effi- 
ciency promoted in cold weather by changing to 
continuous, 312: necessity of preventing forma- 
tion of ice, 315 ; heating effect of sun on wet and 
dry soils of different colors, 319 ; remedies for 
frost, 333; estimated cost of various methods of 
protecting filtration areas from frost, 334 ; deduc- 
tions regarding effect of temperature of air and 
soil on, 339 ; probably most practicable means of 
sewage disposal, 350; examples and projects, 
Round Lake, N. Y.. tried, 371 ; East Orange, 
N. J., in use, 383, 390 ; Worcester, Mass., recom- 
mended and estimated cost, 418, 431. discussed, 
423, 425; Providence, R. I., discussed, estimates 
of cost. 449, 450; Pullman, Ill., in use, 460 ; 
South Framingham. Mass., 480, cost, 487 ; Med- 
field, Mass., 490, cost construction, 493 ; Hospital 
for the Insane. London, Ont., 494; do., Roches- 
ter, Minn., 500; Marlborough, Mass., 504; Mas- 
sachusetts School for the Feeble Minded, 507. 
cost construction, 510; School for Boys, Law- 
renceville, N. J., recommended, 515; Gardner, 
Mass., in use, 516, cost construction, 521 ; Sum- 594 
INDEX 
mit, N. J., 522; Hastings, Neb., 528 ; Brockton, 
Mass., 567 ; Meriden, Conn., 567. 
Mechanical, as method of sewage disposal, 2 ; Long 
Branch. N. J , 399; Medfield. Mass., 491; of 
manufacturing wastes at woollen mills, Provi- 
dence, R. I., 296 ; at woollen mills, Saylesville, 
R. I., 297; at tannery, Winchester, Mass., 298; 
through gravel filter beds, tried, Mystic Valley 
Works, 408. 
Upward, unsuccessful experiments with, 261. 
Fish, food for, 86, 87, 91; effect of manufacturing 
wastes on, see Manufacturing wastes. 
Fisheries, sea, inexhaustible, 91. 
Fission-fungi, or schizomycetes, cause of communi- 
cable diseases, 5. 
FitzGerald, Desmond, 480, 504. 
Fitzgerald, J. Leland, 371. 
Flash boards, Worcester, Mass., 435. 
Floats, current, Providence, R. I., 444. 
Flush tank, invention of, accelerated use of sub-surface 
irrigation, 292. 
Folsom, Chas. F., 37, ISO, 418. 
Food for fish, 86, 87, 91. 
Foods, valuation of fertilizing ingredients in, 162. 
Forbes, Professor S. A., 87. 
Fullerton Avenue Conduit and Bridgeport Pumping 
Station, Chicago, Ill.. 357. 
Franchises for sewage disposal works, 85. 
Frankland. Percy F., 79, 80, 192, 263. 
Frere, P. H., 159. 
Fresno, Cal., irrigation, 544. 
Frost, remedies for, in connection with intermittent 
filtration, 333; effect of frost and snow on intermit- 
tent filtration, Lawrence, Mass., 280; South Fram- 
ingham, Mass., 284 ; Summit. N. J., 2-5; on sewage 
farms, 423 ; Pullman. 111., 466; Massachusetts Re- 
formatory, Concord, 478 ; on broad irrigation, Rhode 
Island State Institution, Cranston, 479; on inter- 
mittent filtration, Medfield, Mass., 492 ; on irriga- 
tion, Wayne, Pa., 538. 
Fteley, A., 126. 
Fuller, Geo. W., 8. 
Gagings of flow of sewage, sec Sewage gaging. 
Gardner, Mass., intermittent filtration, 516. 
Gas, permitting, to escape near streams may be action- 
able, 100. 
Gate, sewage outlet, Gardner, Mass., 518 ; Pasadena, 
Cal., 547 ; Lenox, Mass., 561. 
Genessee River, Rochester, N. Y., water supply, 20, 
21, 22. 
Gerhard, Wm. P., 3, 869. 
Germ theory of disease, 4 ; germs of typhoid fever, 6. 
Gilbert, J. H.. 160. 
Glanders, bacillus mallei, specific germ of, literature, 
25. 
Goldsmid v. Tunbridge Wells Commissioners, case 
of, 108. 
Goodell, John H„ 488. 
Gould, law of waters, 100. 
Gravel as filtering material. 275. 
Gray, Samuel M., 3. 140, 443, 475, 563, 565. 
Greene. Geo. S., 442. 
Greenfield, Mass., disposal on land. 561. 
Ground-water, infiltration to sewers, 131; Boston and 
East Orange, 132 ; Marlborough, Mass., 504. 
Hardy system of sewage purification, literature of, 3. 
Hastings, Henry, 561. 
Hastings. Neb., land disposal, 528. 
Hat manufacture, 53. 
Hausen, Geo., 552. 
Hazen, Allen. 18, 466, 514, 567. 
Heald, Simpson C., 481. 
Health of Towns Commission's reports, 170. 
Heated bodies, how they cool, 312. 
Heat, latent, 814. 
Heat, specific, defined, 309 ; relation to sewage disposal, 
309; relative power of different substances to retain 
heat, 311 ; of ice, 314. 
Hemlock Lake, pail system at. 351. 
Hemlock Lake, water supply of Rochester. N. Y., legis- 
lative protection, 71. 352. 575 ; use of. 139. 
Hering, Rudolph, 12. 73, 386, 446, 466, 551, 552. 
Hewitt, Chas. N., 500. 
Hilgard's elutriator, appliance for soil analysis, 163. 
Hine, S. K , 223. 
Hoffman and Witt, report on London sewage, 158. 
Hog cholera, 25 ; water-borne disease, literature, 26. 
Holley, N. Y., purification plant proposed, 567. 
Holsman v. Boiling Spring Bleaching Co., case of, 98. 
Hospital for the Insane, Worcester, Mass., broad irri- 
gation. 456 ; London, Ont., intermittent filtration 
and broad irrigation, 494 ; Rochester, Minn., chem- 
ical precipitation and intermittent filtration, 500. 
Hospitals, broad irrigation especially adapted, 225. 
Hoy v. Cohoes Co., case of, 113. 
Hoyt, W. E„ 42. 
Hudson River, analyses of water of, used as water sup- 
ply. 70. 
Hunt, Dr. Ezra M., 25. 
Ice on sewage farms, 423; effect of, Pullman, 111., 
466. 
Illinois, studies of stream pollution in, 65. 
Illinois ami M ichigan Canal, 66 ; rate of self-purifica- 
tion in, 66-70; relation to Chicago sewage disposal, 
174. 
Indigo, use in woollen manufacture, 51; cotton manu- 
facture, 52; amount used in one carpet, blanket, and 
cloth mill, 64 ; may be actionable pollution if dis- 
charged into streams, 100. 
Infection, definition, 24. 
Infusoria, in sewage polluted streams, 75-79 ; food for 
young fish, 87 ; food of, 90: in polluted water, 94. 
Injunctions against stream pollution, 108. 
Inspection wells, Rhode Island State Institutions, 477; 
Summit, N. J., 526. 
Intercepting sewers at Boston, 182. 
Intermittent filtration, see Filtration. 
Irrigation, broad, special applications in United States, 
different systems, 225, 232; cost of distribution sys- 
tem, 229; preparation of areas, 230; literature re- 
garding areas, underdraining, 232; treatment of 
heavy clay soils at Wimbledon, Eng., 233; reports of 
sewage of Towns Commission, 235 ; Royal Agricult- 
ural Society's Sewage Farm competition, 246; 
statistics of foreign sewage irrigation and filtration, 
247; silos, 248 ; sanitary aspects, Dr. Alfred Carpen- 
ter on, 250 ; Berlin, Germany, sewage farm, 251 ; 
statistics regarding health of persons living on sew- 
age farms, 252 ; effect of temperature of air and soil, 
339 ; efficient means of sewage disposal, 349 ; recom- 
mended and discussed, Worcester, Mass., 417. 418, 
421, 423, 425 ; effect of cold weather on. in England, 
423 ; discussed, Providence, R. I., 446, 447; tried 
State Insane Hospital, Worcester. Mass., 456 ; Pull- 
man, 111.. 460, profit from crops, 465 ; Massachusetts 
Reformatory, Concord, 468, effect of winter tempera- 
ture, cost of operation, 473 ; Rhode Island State In- 
stitutions, 475 ; South Framingham, Mass., 480; Hos- 
pital for the Insane, London, Ont., 494; Wayne, Pa., 
532; Colorado Springs, Col., 539, annual cost 541; 
Trinidad, Col., annual cost, 543 ; Fresno, Cal., 544 ; 
Pasadena, Cal., 546 ; Redding, Cal., 548 ; Los An- 
geles, Cal., 551. periods sewage ran to waste, 554 ; 
Santa Rosa, Cal., Helena. Mont., 557; Cheyenne, 
Wyo., Stockton, Cal., 559; Amherst, Mass.. 561 ; 
Princeton, N. J., 567; use of sewage for, in the 
West. 539. 
Sub-surface, when first used, 292 ; plants for private 
houses and institutions, 292, literature of. 292, 
cost of. 293 ; School for Boys. Lawrenceville, 
N. J., 511, cost of construction, 514. 
Iron, perchloride of, see Chemical precipitants. 
Iron, wastes from manufacture of, 48. 
Jersey City, N. J., water supply from Passaic River, 
58, 63. 
Johnson. Frank P., 507. 
Jordan, E. O., 190. ' 
Kalamazoo, sewer gagings at, 140. 
Keerl, J. S., 558. 
Kent, Chancellor, 107. 
Kinebiihler, Karl, 565. 
Kirkwood, James P., 36, 37. 
Kjeldahl method of analysis, 153. 
Knox, Geo. C., 552. INDEX 
595 
Lake Cochituate, decision as to pollution of, 105. 
Lancet, London, article on Chicago water supply and 
sewerage system, 177. 
Landreth, Wm. B„ 143, 371, 374, 565. 
Lane, Moses, 180. 
Latham, J. A., 479. 
Lattimore, Prof. S. A., 21. 
Lawes and Gilbert, 157. 
Lawes, Sir J. B., 88, 159. 
Lawrence, typhoid fever and water supply, 6. 
Lawrence experiment station, experiments regarding 
nitrification, 194, 195. 
Leadville, Col., mechanical separation by filtration, 
562. 
Learned, Wilbur F., 408. 
Leeds, Professor Albert R., 64, 65. 
Leith, 93. 
Lenox, Mass., subsurface disposal, 560. 
Lime, waste from paper mills, 49; does not contami- 
nate New England streams, which are deficient in, 
50 ; cotton manufacture, 52 ; pits for hides, action- 
able pollution when near streams, 100 ; phosphate of, 
as fertilizer, 161; for treating sludge, Long Branch, 
N. J., 404 ; used to disinfect sewage screenings, 
Wayne, Pa., 537 ; also see Chemical precipitants. 
Limestone, to counteract effect of acid on nitrification, 
198. 
Littoral proprietors, definition of, 97. 
Liverpool, former sanitary condition, 170. 
Long Branch, N. J., chemical precipitation and me- 
chanical separation, 399. 
Long, Professor J. H., 32. 66-70. 
Loomis, Horace, 381. 
Lortet, paper on the pathogenic bacteria of Lake Ge- 
neva, 95. 
Lortzing system of combined mechanical and chemical 
purification, 2. 
Los Angeles, Cal., irrigation, 551. 
Lansinburgh, N. Y., effect of uncontaminated water 
supply in preventing epidemic of typhoid fever, 11. 
Lausen, Switzerland, typhoid fever at, 15 ; literature, 
17. 
Lowell, typhoid fever and water supply, 6, 7. 
Macadam, Dr. Stevenson, study of the water of 
Leith, 93. 
McClintock and Woodfall, 516. 
MacHarg, W. S., 500, 566. 
McKenzie, Thos., 565. 
M'Millan, Professor C., 567. 
Maine, sanitary investigations in, 45. 
Manufacturing establishments, responsible for purifica- 
tion of sewage, 6; on Nashua River, 39; fostering 
care of, in Massachusetts, 116. 
Wastes, organic, from paper manufacture, lime, 
chloride of lime, alum, sulphuric acid, 49; germs 
destroyed in boiling, per cent, of waste from 
different kinds of stock, 50 ; amounts of various 
chemicals used per day in one carpet, blanket, 
and cloth mill, 64 ; in sewage, 150 ; study of 
paper mill, Newton Lower Falls. 299; classifica- 
tion, and how purified, English Rivers Pollution 
Commission Reports, 294. 
American examples of purification, chemical pre- 
cipitation, Wanskuck Woollen Mills, Providence, 
R. I., 296 ; extraction of grease and filtration, 
Lorraine Woollen Mills, Saylesville, R. I., sedi- 
mentation, Robt. Blakie & Co.'s Woollen Mills, 
Hyde Park, Mass., 297; mechanical filtration, 
Maxwell's Tannery, Winchester, Mass., 298; 
wastes, Providence, R. I.. 444 ; Massachusetts 
Reformatory, Concord, 474; Medfield, Mass., 
490. 
Effects upon fish, 344, 346. 
Manure, placing of, in stream actionable, 100 ; valuable 
constituents of, 156; source of ammonia and nitric 
acid, 160. 
Marlborough, Mass., intermittent filtration, 504; cost 
of construction, 506. 
Martin, E. F., 463. 
Martin, Henry, 153. 
Martin, Mayor of Boston v. Gleason, case of, 105. 
Maryland agricultural experiment station, work on 
soil physics, 165. 
Mason, Professor Wm. P., 10, 69, 223. 
Massachusetts School for the Feeble Minded, Waltham, 
intermittent filtration, 507. 
Sewer Act of 1709, 178. 
State Board of Health reports and recommenda- 
tions, 34-45; reports on stream pollution, best 
thus far made anywhere, 43 ; other reports of 
value, 45 ; experiments with nitrifying organ- 
ism, 190 ; power to protect water supplies, 578. 
Mayer, August, 546, 552. 
Mechanical analysis of soils, how made, 163, 166; 
separation and chemical precipitation, Long Branch, 
N. J., 399; separation, Atlantic City, N. J., 562. 
Medfield, Mass., intermittent filtration, 490. 
Meriden, Conn., intermittent filtration, 567. 
Merrimac River, limit of sewage influence in, 9. 
Meters, water, effect in reducing waste, 125. 
Microscope, use of, for studying stream pollution, 77, 78. 
Microscopical investigation of sewage muds, methods 
of, 94, 95. 
Mill acts, origin, 110 ; how they nullify the natural 
rights of riparian proprietors, 112; how justified, 
112; development in Massachusetts and Virginia, 
112 ; none in New York, 113; effect on common-law 
rule, 113, 118. 
Miller, G. N., 557. 
Mills, Hiram F., 6. 
Milwaukee, sewage disposal and water supply com- 
mission, 87. 88. 
Mineral matters, amount in excrements, 157. 
Minnesota, studies of stream pollution in. 65; power 
of State Board of Health to protect water supplies, 
588. 
Mixers, chemical, see Chemical. 
Mohawk River, used as water supply, 70. 
Moore, Robt., 446. 
Moule, Rev. Henry, 159. 
Mud, sewage, studies of, 93, 95; study of Thames, by 
W. J. Dibdin, 94. 
Muriatic acid, used in brass manufacture, 47 ; waste 
from paper mills, 49; cotton manufacture, 52; 
amount used in one carpet, blanket, and cloth mill, 
64; may be actionable pollution if discharged into 
streams, 100. 
National Sewage and Sewage Utilization Co., 562. 
Newark. N. J., water supply formerly from Passaic 
river, 58, 63; Aqueduct Board v. City of Passaic, 579. 
Newbury, A. T., 557. 
New Jersey, Act to prevent pollution of streams in, 
57 ; act relating to construction of sewers in towns, 
385. 
New Orleans, granted sewage disposal franchise, 85 ; 
former condition of city, 170. 
New York State, stream pollution in, 70; protective 
legislation in, 71, 574 ; Board of Health, power and 
rules to protect water supplies. 574. 575, 586. 
Nichols, Professor Wm. Ripley, 34. 35, 36, 83, 406. 
Night-soil, value of, for manure, 157; analyses of. 157. 
Nitric acid, used in brass manufacture, 47; cotton 
manufacture, 52 ; how produced, 160. 
Nitrification and the nitrifying organism, 187 ; litera- 
ture of, 187, 202; Warington's paper on, in 1882, 
188, in 1884, 189 ; Massachusetts investigations, 
190; experiments by Percy and Grace Frankland, 
191, 192, 193 ; practical experiments at Lawrence, 
195; present theory of denitrification, 201 ; effected 
by intermittent filtration, 262; formerly considered 
a summer process, 266 ; results with coarse sand fil- 
ters, 268 ; conditions most favorable to, 269 ; garden 
soil not favorable to, 272 : in winter in some of the 
Lawrence filter tanks, 280, 283 ; agency of organism 
in intermittent filtration. 286. 
Nitrogen, apparent reduction of, in sewage polluted 
stream, 59, 63 ; value of that in sewage, 83, 158 ; in 
sewage muds, 94; in excrements, 155; the most 
valuable fertilizer, 160 : trade value of, 162 ; stored 
in Lawrence experimental filters, 194. 
Nitrogen, organic, see Organic nitrogen and Nitrifica- 
tion. 
Nuisances, public, are crimes, 98. 
Odell. Fredk. S., 511. 
Oil, pollution of streams by, 47 ; from wool, 50, 51 ; 
cotton. 52, 53 ; flowing in streams, actionable pollu- 
tion, 100. 596 
INDEX. 
Olmsted, Frederick Law, 511. 
Organic matter in sewage muds, 94 ; percentage stored 
in Lawrence experimental filters, 282; amount re- 
moved by different Lawrence tanks, 287, 288; nitro- 
gen, relation of, to ammonia. 153 ; determination of, 
by Kjeldahl method, 153 ; in excrements, 155 ; in 
sewage, 158; relation to ammonia and nitric acid, 
160; trade value, 162. 
Osburn's beaker method of soil analysis, 163. 
Oxidation and aeration, acting in conjunction with 
aquatic plants and animals, 62 ; power of soil to pro- 
duce, 188, 190 ; bacteria to produce. 190 ; of organic 
matter in water, experiments on, 223. 
Oxygen, free, effect on nitrification. 200; and time es 
sential elements in intermittent filtration, 269. 
Pail system at Hemlock Lake, 351 ; cost of, 354, 355. 
Paquin, Paul, 26, 27. 
Paramecium, filth infusorian, 75 ; aurelia, bursaria, 76; 
food of, 90 ; in polluted water, 94. 
Parry, W. Kaye, 224. 
Pasadena, Cal., irrigation, 546. 
Passaic, N. J.. Newark Aqueduct Board r., 579. 
Passaic River, pollution of, 56-63 ; purifying effect of 
minute animals and plantain, 59, 62. 
Peat, as source of organic nitrogen, 160. 
Pennsylvania, investigations of stream pollution, 63- 
65; Commonwealth v. Soulas, 98. 
Penny and Adams's experiments to determine effect of 
manufactuiing wastes on life of fish, 344. 
Perchloride of iron, see Chemical precipitants. 
Permissive pollution, principle of, 113, 119. 
Perrin & Co., Chicago, 566. 
Phenolphthalein for alkaline test, Worcester, Mass., 
436. 
Philadelphia, statistics of typhoid fever at, 19. 
Phosphates in excrements. 155; in sewnge, 158; in 
commercial fertilizers, 160 
Phosphoric acid, as element of manures, 156; in sew- 
nge, 158 ; in commercial fertilizers, 160 : anhydrous, 
161 ; trade value, 162. 
Phosphorus, relative value as fertilizer, 160, 161 ; trade 
value, 162. 
Pierson, Geo. 8., 140. 
Plants and animals, purifying effect of, in Passaic River, 
59,62; minute, how distinguished. 77 ; assist in self- 
purification of stream, 79 ; in Beaver Dam brook, 80, 
82. 
Pneumatic systems, literature of. 3. 
Polluting matter in streams, what becomes of it, 92; 
common nuisance, 98. 
Pollution of streams, Connecticut River, 56; classifica- 
tion of streams, with reference to, 72: common nui- 
sance, 98; when actionable, 100 ; principle of per- 
missive, 113, 119; of Chicago River, 357. 
Populations of American cities, 120-122, 127, 128: law 
of increase, 129; at ten-year periods, 129-130 ; gen- 
eralizations regarding increase of. 131. 
Potash, use of. in manufacture. 49. 51, 52. 54, 64 ; may 
cause actionable pollution if discharged into streams, 
100: in excrements, 155 ; element of manures, 156; 
in sewage, 158 ; as fertilizer, trade value, 162. 
Potassium, compounds of, 161. 
Powers, J. J., 369, 567. 
Precipitation, chemical, see Chemical precipitation. 
Prescription, discussion of, 102-8, 117. 
Princeton, N. J., broad irrigation, 567. 
Protozoa, as food for young fish, 87 ; food of other mi- 
nute forms, 90. 
Providence, R. I., sewer gagings. 140; discharge into 
tide-water and proposed chemical precipitation. 441. 
Pullman. Ill., broad irrigation and intermittent filtra- 
tion, 460. 
Pumps, sewage, Fullerton Ave. conduit, Chicago. 360 ; 
Bridgeport pumping station, Chicago, 362 ; Mystic 
Valley works. 410 ; Pullman, Ill.. 462, cost of oper- 
ating, 462, 463 ; Massachusetts Reformatory. Con- 
cord, 472 ; South Framingham, Mass., 4S6 ; Hospital 
for the Insane, London, Ont.. 494; Lawrenceville, 
N. J., school, pulsometer. 512; Wayne, Pa., 535; 
sludge, White Plains. N. Y., 375; Sheepshead Bay, 
N. Y., 382 ; Mystic Valley Works. 410, 413. 
Qvincy, Josiah, Mayor of Boston, 179. 
Radiation, solar and terrestrial, 317; at Maine State 
College, Orono, Me., 322 ; Fort Collins, Col., 327. 
329 ; Auburn, Ala., 332. 
Rainfall, provision for, in combined systems, 132; 
heaviest for 24 hours, 134. 
Redding, Cal., irrigation, 548. 
Reeder. Geo. K., 558. 
Reid, H. I., 540. 
Reservoirs, sewage, Boston main drainage, 184; Pull- 
man, Ill., 461 ; South Framingham, Mass., 4b5, ven- 
tilation of, 486 ; Wayne, Pa., 535 ; Redding, Cal., 
and ventilation, 550. 
Rhode Island State Institutions, broad irrigation, 475. 
Richards, Mrs. Ellen H., 190. 
Rider, Wm. B., 374. 
Ridge and furrow system of broad irrigation, 227. 
Rivers pollution, limit of influence of sewage, 6 ; limit 
in Merrimac, 8, 9; Mohawk, pollution of 10; Hud- 
son, pollution of, 11; Genesee, at Rochester. N. Y., 
21, 22 ; by germs of hog cholera, 25 ; Massachusetts, 
36,37, 45; Nashua, 38, 39 ; recent reports of Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Health,43 ; Blackstone, anal- 
yses of water of, 43, 44 ; Connecticut, flow of and 
analyses, 56, 57: pollution of, 57; in New Jer- 
sey, 57-63 ; Passnic River. 58-63 ; investigations in 
Pennsylvania, 63-65; Schuylkill, 64 ; studies in 
Minnesota, 65; studies in Illinois, 65 ; Chicago, dis- 
charge of city sewers into, 65 ; commission, views 
on storm water, 151; Prevention Act, English, 569. 
Riparian proprietors, rights, etc., 97,98, 100, 102, 105, 
112. 
Rochester, N. Y., typhoid fever at, analyses of well 
waters, 20 ; protection of water supply, 71 ; use of 
water, 188. 
Rogers, J. D., 371. 
Rotifers, present in polluted waters, 75 ; aid in self- 
purification of streams. 76 ; food of young fish, 87 ; 
food for polyzoa, etc., 90. 
Round Lake, N. Y., chemical precipitation at, 371. 
Rubber manufacture, little waste from, 55 ; use of bi- 
sulphide of carbon, 55. 
Saare and Schwab's experiments to determine effect 
of manufacturing wastes on fish, 346. 
Salmon way for mixing chemicals, 208. 
Salt, common, effect on nitrification. 198. 
Saltpetre, effect on nitrification, 198. 
Sand, diameters of, 163 ; mechanical composition of 
those used at Lawrence experiment station. 166 ; re- 
newal of, in intermittent filtration, 279, 280. 
Sanitary protection, Hemlock Lake, rules for, 575. 
Santa Rosa, Cal., irrigation. 557. 
Schenectady, N. Y., epidemic of typhoid fever nt, 10, 
11 ; sewer gagings at, 143. 
Schizomycetes or fission fungi, cause of communicable 
diseases, 5. 
School for Boys, Lawrenceville, N. J., sub-surface ir- 
rigation, 511. 
Schuylkill River, pollution of, 64, 98. 
Screen, sewage, Round Lake, N. Y.,372 ; White Plains, 
N. Y„ 377 ; Worcester, Mass, 435; State Insane 
Hospital, Worcester. Mass., 459 ; Pullman. Ill.. 463; 
Massachusetts Reformatory, Concord, 468 ; Rhode 
Island State Institutions, Cranston. 477; South 
Framingham, Mass., 486; Hospital, London. Ont„ 
494. 497; Marlborough, Mass., 705; Wayne. Pa.. 
534, 537 ; Redding, Cal., 550 ; Lenox, Mass., 560. 
Sedgwick, Professor Wm. T.. 9. 14, 18. 
Sedimentation, conditions affecting, in streams, 73; 
favorable conditions for. 92: no guarantee of safety, 
95; of wastes from Woollen Mills. Hyde Park. Mass., 
297; tried, Mystic Valley Works, 408; Medfield, 
Mass.. 490 ; Amherst, Mass., 561. 
Self-purifieation in Passaic River, 58-63 ; in Illinois 
and Michigan Canal, and law of. 66-70 : general dis- 
cussion. 75-92; Beaver Dam brook, SO; biological 
agencies, 92. 
Separate systems of sewerage, 150-152. 
Sewage, definition, J ; why necessary to purify, 4 ; 
upon whom does responsibility for purification rest, 
6 ; limit of influence in streams and lakes, 6-10 ; why 
it should be kept out of streams. 12; effect of. on 
writer supplies. 22. 23. 32 : Chicago stock yard, 32 ; 
Worcester, Mass., 44: rapid reduction in alkaline INDEX 
597 
stream, 59; necessary dilution, purification by mi- 
crobes, 73; value of manurial constituents, 82, in 
Boston sewage, 83; utilization, right view of, 84 ; 
value for irrigation, 85 ; food for fish, 86, 88 ; sedi- 
ments, retain dangerous character for long time, 
93 ; actionable pollution if discharged into streams, 
100; unreasonableness of turning it into streams, 
104 ; discharge of, into streams held to be a nuisance, 
108; relation of sewage flow to water supply, 119, 
146, to temperature, 148 ; constituents of, 150 ; per- 
manent character of, from separate systems, domestic 
wastes in, 150; average composition of, American. 
152, of English, 153, of London, 154, from street 
surfaces. 154 ; condition of the nitrogen, phosphoric 
acid, and potash in, 158; value of, as fertilizer, 159; 
of Towns Commission's report, 172 ; farming not 
profitable, 422 ; characteristics of Worcester, Mass., 
426 ; acid, 436. 
Amount, of, cause of variations, 131; maximum 
and minimum flow, 137; Boston. Mass., 184; 
Pullman, II)., 461 ; Massachusetts Reformatory, 
Concord, 473 ; Medfield, Mass., 492 ; Hospital, 
London, Ont., 494 ; Lawrenceville, N. J., school, 
514; Gardner, Mass., 516; Wayne, Pa., 536; 
Chautauqua, N. Y., 565 ; World's Columbian Ex- 
position, Chicago, 566, also see Sewage gagings. 
Analyses, see Analyses. 
Disposal, definition and classification of methods, 
1 ; new subject in United States, 3; fundamen- 
tal proposition of, 23; works not properly sub- 
ject to franchise, 85; into tide-water. 86 ; into 
fresh water, 86-89 ; proposed multiple discharge, 
Milwaukee, Wis., 87, 88; fixed data of, 163; 
rules of New York State Board of Health regard- 
ing plans for, 586. 
Farm, see Broad irrigation. 
Gagings, results, 140 ; at Providence, R. I., Kala- 
mazoo. Mich.. Weston. W. Va., 140 : Schenec- 
tady, N. Y., Toronto, Ont., 143 ; Atlantic City, 
N. J., 144. 
Muds, accumulation of, in harbor of Leith, 93, 94 ; 
study of, from Thames River, 94, 95 ; centres of 
distribution of pathogenic bacteria, 96. 
Temperatures, see Temperatures. 
Sewer, definition of, 1 ; may be used for what. 35; 
Massachusetts Act of 1709, 178; Boston intercepting, 
182 ; Boston deposit, 183; gagings, see Sewage gag- 
ings. 
Sewerage, definition of, 1 ; investigations by Massa- 
chusetts State Board of Health, 36; separate or 
combined systems, 150 ; views of English Rivers 
Pollution Commission, 151 ; early discussions in 
England, 169 ; early American systems, 169; results 
of early English systems, 171. 
Shedd, J. Herbert, 441. 
Shepard, J. C., 544. 
Shone ejector, see Ejectors. 
Silk manufacture, 53 ; silk gum, 53 ; waste from, 53. 
Silage, see Silos. 
Silos, as adjuncts to sewage farming, 248, 254; litera- 
ture of, 257, 259; likely to extend use of broad irriga- 
tion. 350. 
Silt, effect of, in sewage-polluted streams, 73 ; diame- 
ters of, 163. 
Slater, J. W., 30, 108. 
Sludge, absorbent. Round Lake. N. Y., 372 ; White 
Plains, N. Y., 375 ; Sheepshead Bay, N. Y., 382. 
Amount removed from Boston deposit sewers, 183, 
184; should be removed frequently, 204; methods 
of disposal, 207 ; filter presses for, 208; litera- 
ture regarding, disposal. 208; nature of, in sand 
removed from surface of filter beds, 280. 
Beds, Worcester, Mass., 436; Marlborough, Mass., 
506; Gardner, Mass., 520. 
Disposal, Coney Island, N. Y.. 370 ; Round Lake, 
N. Y., 372 ; White Plains, N. Y., 375 ; Sheeps- 
head Bay, N. Y., 382; East Orange. N. J., 390 ; 
Long Branch, N. J., 403; Mystic Valiev works, 
413, 414 ; Worcester, Mass., 430, 436, 438, 440 ; 
Massachusetts Reformatory. Concord. 471 ; Hos- 
pital, London, Ont., 503; Marlborough, Mass., 
505, 506; Gardner. Mass.. 520; Lenox, Mass., 
Amherst, Mass., 561 ; World's Columbian Expo- 
sition, 565, 566 ; drain. Worcester. Mass., 434. 
Furnace tried, Worcester, Mass., 438. 
Pump, Mystic Valley works, 410. 
Well, Mystic Valley works, 410 ; Worcester, Mass., 
434. 
Snow, F. H., 567. 
Snow and frost, effect on intermittent filtration areas, 
Lawrence, Mass., 280; South Framingham, 284; 
Summit, N. J., 285. 
Soap, use in manufactures, 50, 51, 54. 
Sodium chloride, normal, at Rochester, N. Y., 20 ; in 
sewage at Rochester, 21. 
Soil, classification of particles, 163; mechanical analy- 
sis of, 163, 164, 166 ; surface area of, 165; per cent, 
of empty space. 165; oxidizing power, 188; Law- 
rence experiments with fine, for intermittent fil- 
tration, 272 ; character of, Pullman, Ill., 463 ; Rhode 
Island State Institutions, Cranston, R. I.. 475; Hos- 
pital, Rochester. Minn., 502 ; Redding, Cal., 549 ; 
Helena, Mont., 558 ; see Temperatures. 
Sorby, Dr. H. C„ 77, 79, 95. 
South Carolina agricultural experiment station, work 
on soil physics, 164. 
South Framingham. Mass,, effect of frost and snow on 
intermittent filtration, 284 ; broad irrigation and in- 
termittent filtration, 480. 
Specific heat, see Heat. 
Stalker, M., 30. 31. 
State Insane Hospital, Worcester, Mass., broad irriga- 
tion, 456. 
Statute of limitations, 102. 
Stearns, Frederick P.. 82. 131, 479, 488. 
Stockton, Cal., irrigation, 559. 
Stock yard, Chicago, drainage from, 66. 
Stock yard sewage, Chicago, analysis of, .32. 
Stokee v. Singers, case of, 98. 
Storer, Professor F. H., extracts from work on agri- 
culture, 156. 
Stream pollution, studies made in Massachusetts, 3 ; 
in other States, 23, in whole country. 33 ; first Ameri- 
can report on, 34 ; by sulphuric acid, 42; recent re- 
ports of Massachusetts State Board of Health, 43; 
investigation in Connecticut regarding pollution 
from large number of manufacturing wastes, 46, 55; 
New Jersey studies, 57-63 ; investigations in Penn- 
sylvania, 63. 65; studies in Minnesota, 65 ; in Illi- 
nois, 65; in New York. 70, 72; classification with 
reference to pollution, 72 ; deposits of sewage muds, 
92 ; legal aspects, 97, 118. 
Streams, self-purification of, 73 ; purification from bio- 
logical point of view, 75 ; minute animals powerful 
agents in self-purification of, 89, 92, 93. 
Street surfaces, character of drainage from, 154. 
Sub-surface disposal, Lenox, Mass., 560 ; see Irrigation. 
Sugar, effect on nitrification, 199. 
Sulphates, ferric, and ferrous, see Ferrous and Ferrous 
sulphates under Chemical precipitants. 
Sulphate of alumina, see Alumina, under Chemical 
precipitants. 
Sulphuric acid, use in brass manufacture. 46 ; iron 
manufacture, 48 ; cotton manufacture, 52; (oil of 
vitriol) amount used in one carpet, blanket, and cloth 
mill, 64; may cause actionable pollution if discharged 
into streams, 100 ; action of, to produce super-phos- 
phates, 160. 
Summit, N. J., effect of frost and snow on intermit- 
tent filtration, 285 ; intermittent filtration, 522. 
Swan, Chas. H., 443. 
Swindon Water-Works v. Wilts and Berks Canal, 100. 
Swine plague, see Hog cholera. 
T.hnia solium, or tape-worm, 30. 
Tanks, precipitating and settling, intermittent or 
continuous, 205; capacity necessary, 206; vertical 
system, 206 ; for mixing chemicals, 208 ; experimen- 
tal, at Lawrence. 210; Coney Island, N. Y., 370 ; 
Round Lake, N. Y„ 372 ; White Plains, N. Y., 375 ; 
Fast Orange, N. J., 390; Long Branch, N. J., 402 ; 
Mystic Valley Works, 408, 410, 413 ; Worcester, 
Mass., 435, 438. 439 ; State Insane Hospital, Worces- 
ter, Mass., 458 ; Pullman, Ill., 463 ; Massachusetts 
Reformatory, Concord, 471, ventilation. 473; Med- 
field. Mass., 490; Insane Hospital, Rochester. Minn., 
501, 502 ; Marlborough, Mass., 505 ; Massachusetts 
School for the Feeble-Minded, 507; Lawrenceville, 
N. J., School. 511. ventilation, 512 ; Gardner. Mass., 
518 ; Hastings, Neb., 529; Trinidad, Col., 544 ; Am- 598 
INDEX 
herst, Mass., Lenox, Mass., 561; Chautauqua, N. Y., 
World's Columbian Exposition. Chicago, 565. 
Receiving, Hospital for the Insane, London, Ont., 
493, 496 ; World's Columbian Exposition, 565. 
Screening, Lenox, Mass., 560. 
Sludge, see Sludge tanks, 561. 
Tape or intestinal worms, 30. 
Taps, water, proportion of, to population, 120-122; 
definition of, 124. 
Temperature of air and natural soils and its relation to 
broad irrigation and intermittent filtration, 303. 
Temperatures, air, Lawrence, Mass., 304 ; London, 
Dantzic, Providence, Michigan, Alabama, 306; 
eight places in Michigan and seven in Alabama, 
307 ; Berlin, 308; State College, Pa., 322 ; Maine 
State College, Orono, Me., 323: St. Anthony Park, 
Minn., 324 ; Lincoln, Neb.. 325 ; Fort Collins, Col., 
327; Central New York, 328; Auburn. Ala., 331, 
332; deductions regarding effect of different tem- 
peratures on sewage purification, 339; Dantzic, 421; 
Worcester, Mass., 421, 424, London, Eng., 424. 
Relations to sewage flow, 148. 
Sewage, at Lawrence, Mass., 304, 305; Berlin, 
Germany, 309; theoretical results with filter 
beds with sewage and air at various tempera- 
tures, 313; remedies for low temperatures, 333; 
Berlin, Paris, Worcester. Mass., 426; Pullman, 
465 ; Medfield, Mass., 492. 
Soil, observations abroad and at Berlin, 308, 309 ; 
effect of intermittent filtration, 315 ; heating ef- 
fect of sun on wet and dry soils of different 
colors, 319 ; American observations. 321; State 
College. Pa., 822; Maine State College, Orono, 
Me., 323 ; St. Anthony Park, Minn., 824 ; Lin- 
coln, Neb., 325; Fort Collins, Col., 327, 328; 
Central New York, 328; Auburn, Ala., 831, 332; 
remedies for frost and estimates of cost, 333, 334 ; 
deductions regarding effect of temperatures of 
soil and air on sewage purification, 339 ; winter 
effect on broad irrigation, Massachusetts Re- 
formatory, Concord, 473. 
Texas fever, 26, 27; literature, 28. 
Thames River, study of sewage muds from, 94, 95. 
Tidd, M. M., 504. 
Tide-gates, use of, at Boston, 179. 
Tide-water, proposed discharge into, at Providence, 
R. I.. 442 ; decided on in connection with irrigation, 
Los Angeles, 556. 
Tidy, Treatment of Sewage, 30. 
Toronto, Ont., sewer gagings at, 144. 
Troy, N. Y., effect of uncontaminated water supply in 
preventing epidemic of typhoid fever, 10, 11. 
Trenches, filter, experiments with, at Lawrence, 270; 
advantages of, 288; for burying night soil and gar- 
bage, Hemlock Lake, N. Y., 353, 354. 
Trinidad, Col., irrigation, 543. 
Tuberculosis, in animals, 27 ; literature, 28. 
Tunnel, Boston main drainage. 184. 
Tunnels, waler supply, at Chicago. 170, 176. 
Typhoid fever, period of incubation, cause, walking 
case of, 5 ; germs of, in air of sewer in Jackson 
prison. 6 ; in drinking water, epidemical Lawrence, 
and Lowell, 6,9 ; vitality of bacillus and spores 
contrasted, 7 ; one of the preventable diseases, 7 ; 
at Schenectady, Cohoes. West Troy, and Albany, 
N. Y.. 10, 11 ; water-borne disease, 12 ; at Lausen, 
Switzerland, 15 ; in Massachusetts cities, 17, 18 ; at 
New York. Philadelphia, Chicago, Massachusetts 
cities, 18-20 ; at Rochester, N. Y., 20, 21 ; in ani- 
mals, 28: travellers attacked by, in uninhabited 
regions, the saprophytic theory of, explanation of 
mysterious cases, 29 ; spores, formation of, 7 ; vi- 
tality of, 8. 
Underdraining in broad irrigation, 232. 
Underdrains, discharge from, at South Framingham 
into Beaver Dam brook. 80, 82 ; in Lawrence ex- 
perimental tanks, 274, 286: White Plains. N. Y., 
374; East Orange. N. J.. 390; Pullman. Hl., 463; 
Rhode Island State Institutions, 475, 476; South 
Framingham, Mass., 487 ; Hospital, London, Ont., 
498 ; Massachusetts School for the Feeble minded, 
509; School for Boys, Lawrenceville. N. J., 513; 
Gardner, Mass., 520 ; Summit, N. J., 524, 527. 
Uniformity coefficient of filtering materials, 167. 
United States Fish Commission, experiments to deter- 
mine effect of manufacturing wastes on fish, 3-16. 
Urine, use of, to cleanse wool, 50, 51 ; in sewage, 150: 
amount from mixed population, 155; nitrogen, phos- 
phates, and potash in, 155. 
Van Buren, Robt., 369, 567. 
Van Valkenburgh, J. J., 485. 
Vaughan, Dr. Victor C., studies of typhoid, 6, 7, 29. 
Vaughan and Novy, paper, Experimental Studies on 
the Causation of Typhoid Fevers, 7. 
Ventilation, of pump well. Atlantic City, N. J., 562 : 
sewage reservoir. South Framingham. Mass., 486; 
Redding, Cal., 550 ; settling tanks, Massachusetts 
Reformatory, Concord, 473. 
Voelcker, Dr. Augustus, papers by, 159. 
Wadsworth ». Tillotson, case of, 98, 
Walcott, Dr., 418. 
Wall, Norval W„ 543. 
Waller, Professor Elwyn, 72. 
Ward, L. B., 37. 
Waring, Col. George E., Jr., 3, 42, 150, 417, 494, 532, 
560. 
Warington, Robert, 160, 188, 189, 192. 
Water, analyses, see Analyses ; -borne diseases, list of. 
12. 
Consumption, in American cities, 119; conditions 
affecting, 120-123 ; does not follow any law, 
123 ; detail of, at Detroit, 126 ; at Rochester, 
138; relation of consumption of, to sewage flow, 
146. 
Course, see Stream, Streams, pollution of, etc.; 
right of property in, how derived. 97 ; actionable 
pollution of, 100 ; Angell on prescriptive right to 
pollute, on law of water-courses, 103; acquisi- 
tion of adverse right in, 103 ; no natural right 
to pollute. 117. 
Drinking, should be legally protected, 114. 
Meters, effect in reducing waste, 125. 
Polluted, the cause of disease, illustrative cases, 
literature, 40 ; when actionable pollution arises, 
100. 
Rights, may be taken for public water supplies, 
may include prescriptive right to pollute, 106. 
Supplies, effect of introduction of uncontaminated, 
to cities, 20 ; rules for the protection of, Roches- 
ter, Fredonia. Norwich, Cobleskill, Oneonta. 
Amsterdam, Mt. Vernon, and New York, N. Y., 
71 ; |>ollution of, in sewage-laden streams, 92 ; 
relation to sewage flow, 119, 146; Chicago, first, 
170, present, 176, contamination of, 177. 
Taps, proportion of, to population, 120-122. 
Waters, Massachusetts act to protect purity of inland, 
578. 
Waterford, N. Y., effect of uncontaminated water sup- 
ply in preventing epidemic of typhoid fever, 10, 11. 
Way, Professor J. T., 155. 159. 
Wayne, Pa., surface irrigation, 532. 
West, use of sewage for irrigation in, 539. 
Weston, W. Va., sewer gagings at Insane Hospital, 
140. 
West Troy, N. Y., epidemic of typhoid fever at, effect 
of discontinuing use of polluted Mohawk River 
water, 11. 
Wheeler, William, 470. 
Whitney, Professor Milton, work on soil physics, 165. 
Williams, Benezette, 460. 
Williston, Professor S. W., 46, 55, 56. 
Wilson, J. M., 528. 
Winogradsky's paper on the nitrifying organism, 193. 
Winsor, Frederick, 37. 
Wolff and Lehmann, 155-158. 
Woollen manufacture, great pollution of streams from, 
50. 
Woolf, Albert E., 563; Electric Disinfecting Co., 563. 
Worcester, Mass., sewage discharge into Blackstone 
River, 44 : chemical precipitation, 415. 
Worthen, William E., 419. 
Wurtz, Henry, 58. 
Zoospores, number present in water of Beaver Dam 
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A PRACTICAL TREATISE 
ON 
Water ■ Supply Engineering: 
RELATING TO THE 
Hydrology, Hydrodynamics, /nd Practical Construction of 
Water-Works, in North America. 
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By J. T. FANNING, C. E„ 
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CONTENTS. 
SECTION I.-Collection and Storage of Water, and its Impurities. 
Chapter I.-Introductory. Chap. II.-Quantity of Water Required. Chap. III.-Rainfall. 
Chap. IV.-Flow of Streams Chap. V.-Storage and Evaporation of Water. Chap. VI.- 
Supplying Capacity of Watersheds. Chap VII.-Springs and Wells. Chap. VIII.-Impuri- 
ties of Water. Chap. IX.-Well, Spring, Lake, and River Supplies. 
SECTION TI -Flow of Water through Sluices, Pipes and Channels. 
Chapter X.-Weight, Pressure, and Motion of Water. Chap. XI.-Flow of Water through 
Orifices. XII.-Flow of Water through Short Tubes. XIII.-Flow of Water through Pipes 
under Pressure. Chap. XIV.-Measures of Weirs and Weir Gauging. Chap. XV.-Flow' 
of Water in Open Channels. 
SECTION III.-Practical Construction of Water-Works. 
Chapter XVI.-Reservoir Embankments and Chambers. Chap. XVII.-Open Canals. 
Chap. XVIII.-Waste Weirs. Chap. XIX.-Partitions and Retaining Walls. Chap. XX.- 
Masonry Conduits. Chap. XXL-Mains and Distribution Pipes. Chap. XXII.-Distribu- 
tion Systems, and Appendages. Chap. XXIII.-Clarification of Water. Chap. XXIV.- 
Humping of Water. Chap. XXV.-Tank Stand Pipes. Chap. XXVI.-Systems ot Water 
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Sanitary Drainage and Removal of Organic Wastes, being a discussion of the relation of t his service 
to the Public Health; with a consideration of Modes of Infection and of the Pathogenic and Sanitary In- 
iluence of Bacteria. 
The SystemSeparate or Combined; Conditions under which each Is best, with a summary of 
previous discussions of the subject. 
The Depth of Sewers-with a view to the requirements of different conditions as existing In different 
portions of areas to be sewered. 
Cleansing velocity. Flushing and Capacity, as affecting the sizes and gradients of Sewers and their re- 
lation to volume of How. 
The Ventilation of Sewers, Its Importance, Methods, Rationale and Effect. 
Main Sewers, Intercepting Sewers and Tidal and other Outlets. 
The Preliminary Work of the Engineer preparatory to the making of a Anal Plan of Sewerage. 
Suggestions tor Sewerage Committees, with regard to the Engineering Control of the work, etc. 
The Buffalo Trunk Sewer. Description of the Purpose, Construction and Details of a Main Intercept- 
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The Main Sewer of Saratoga Springs. Constructed in 1874. 
Sewerage Disposalwith special reference to Purification by Agricultural Irrigation, with Details of 
Construction and Arrangement. 
The General Principles and Best Practice of House Drainage. 
Drainage Works In Holland. Drainage of Agricultural Lands and Reclamation of Marsh Lands. 
Early Work under the Separate System in the United States, Including Lenox, Mass., and Cumberland 
Mills, Maine. 
The case of MemphisAn account of Its former condition, of the Introduction and execution of Its 
present System of Sewerage and of the results secured. 
The Sewerage of Norfolk, Va. :-with an account of Its Main sewer Siphon and its Pumping Outlet. 
The Sewerage of Keene. N. H.; Pullman, Ill.; Omaha, Neb.; and Amsterdam, N. Y. 
The Sewerage of San Diego. Cal.:-with a novel method of disposal by means of a Harbor Reservoir 
automatically discharged during a portion of the ebb tide. 
The Plan of Sewerage of Owensboro, Ky.:-a Composite System, involving a Separate collection and 
Combined removal of Sewage and Storm water. 
Mr. Pontzen's Plan for Sewerage of Havre. France, and his application of Waring's System In Paris. 
Waring's System of Sewerage. Practical Details. The Dry Earth System. Typhoid Fever. 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
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The Sewerage of Memphis as constructed In 1880. The Sewerage of Memphis as completed to 1884. 
Plan for the Composite Sewerage of Owensboro. Ky. Profiles of the Different Elements of this Work. 
The Sewerage of Amsterdam on the Restricted System. 
The Plan and Profiles of the Sewerage of Keene. Plan of the Sewerage of Norfolk, Va. 
Project for the Sewerage of Schiedam, Holland, with the use of Siphons and local Wells as a substi- 
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Pontzen's Plan for the Sewerage of Havre, France. 
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Plan and Profile Illustrating the Sewerage and Sewage Disposal Works of the Insane Hospital at 
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The Underdrainage of the Sewerage Disposal Field, Norristown, Pa. 
Plan of Sewerage Disposal Field, San Luis Obispo, Cal. 
Two Plates showing the Arrangement of Agricultural Underdrains. 
Plates showing the Pumping Works and other Details of the Drainage of Haarlem Lake, Holland. 
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