I find it designated “back,” “front,” “tubular,” and “pipe”
house-drainage, and all with the object of carrying off all fæces, soil
water, cesspool matter, &c., before it has had time to accumulate.
It is not by brick or other drains of masonry that the system is
carried out or is recommended to be carried out, but by means of
tubular earthenware pipes; and for any efficient carrying out of the
projected improvement a system of _constant_, and not as at present
_intermittent_, supply of water from the several companies would be
best. These pipes communicate with the nearest sewer. The pipes in the
tubular drainage are of red earthenware or stoneware (pot).
The use of earthenware, clay, or pot pipes for the conveyance of
liquids is very ancient. Mr. Stirrat, a bleacher in Paisley, in a
statement to the Board of Health, mentioned that clay pipes were used
in ancient times. King Hezekiah (2nd Book of Kings, chap. 20, and 2nd
Book of Chronicles, chap. 32) brought in water from Jerusalem. “His
pool and conduit,” said Mr. Stirrat, “are still to be seen. The conduit
is three feet square inside, built of freestone, strongly cemented;
the stone, fifteen inches thick, evidently intended to sustain a
considerable pressure; and I have seen pipes of clay, taken by a friend
from a house in the ruins of the ancient city, of one inch bore,
and about seven inches in diameter, proving evidently, to my mind,
that ancient Jerusalem was supplied with water on the principle of
gravitation. The pools or reservoirs are also at this day in tolerably
good order, one of them still filled with water; the other broken down
in the centre, no doubt by some besieging enemy, to cut off the supply
to the city.”
The new system to supply the place of the cesspools is a _combined_,
while the old is principally a _separate_, system of house-drainage;
but the new system is equally available for such separate drainage.
As regards the success of this system the reports say experiments have
been tried in so large a number of houses, under such varied and, in
many cases, disadvantageous circumstances, that no doubts whatsoever
can remain in the minds of competent and disinterested persons as to
the efficient self-cleansing action of well-adjusted tubular drains and
sewers, even without any additional supplies of water.