Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation have been standardised but all other spelling and
punctuation remains unchanged.
Italics are represented thus _italic_, bold thus =bold=.
There are many apparent subsections within the text variously indicated
by bold, italic and capital text. There is some, inconsistent,
correspondence between these and the sup-topics in the Contents.
Because of this no attempt has been made to establish a hierarchy of
these headings and they remain as printed in the original. Equally,
paragraph numbering is not always consistent but remains unchanged.
HAND-BOOK
OF
SANITARY INFORMATION
FOR
HOUSEHOLDERS,
CONTAINING
FACTS AND SUGGESTIONS ABOUT VENTILATION,
DRAINAGE, CARE OF CONTAGIOUS DISEASES,
DISINFECTION, FOOD, AND WATER.
WITH APPENDICES ON
DISINFECTANTS AND PLUMBERS’ MATERIALS.
BY
ROGER S. TRACY, M. D.,
SANITARY INSPECTOR OF THE NEW YORK CITY HEALTH DEPARTMENT.
NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,
1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1884.
COPYRIGHT BY
ROGER S. TRACY, M. D.
1884.
PREFACE.
The preparation of this hand-book was suggested by persistent
questioning about the matters it contains. Its purpose is to furnish
householders with information which has been so scattered, or buried so
deep in technical discussions, that it has not been easy for them to
find it for themselves. It is, of course, mainly a compilation, and the
only difficulties met with have been those incident to the arrangement
and condensation of a large mass of material. I have intended to give
credit, where credit seemed to be due, for everything borrowed, and,
if I have failed to do so in any case, it is not my fault, but my
misfortune.
R. S. T.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I.—AIR 7-21
Normal Air.—Contamination of the Air.—Test for
Carbonic Acid in Air.—Diseases caused by Foul
Air.—Composition of Sewer-Air.—Ground Air.—Ventilation.—Smoky
Chimneys.
II.—DRAINAGE 21-66
Privy-Vaults.—Tanks.—Pails.—Earth-Closets.—Water-Carriage.—Plumbing
Regulations of New York City Board of Health.—Explanatory
Remarks.—Drainage of Country Houses.—Subsoil
Drainage.—Defective Drainage.—Sources of Bad
Odors.—Examination of House-Drainage.—Peppermint
Test.—Summary.—Exclusion of Ground-Air.
III.—DISINFECTION 66-73
Directions issued by the National Board of
Health.—Comments.—Precautions in Special Diseases.
IV.—FOOD 73-85
Adulterations, and Methods of detecting them.
V.—WATER 86-90
Pollution of Water.—Filters.—Tests for Impurities.—Precautions.
APPENDIX A.—DISINFECTANTS 91-99
” B.—PLUMBERS’ MATERIALS 100-102
INDEX 103
HAND-BOOK
OF
SANITARY INFORMATION.
Necessary to continued good health are GOOD AIR, GOOD FOOD, and GOOD
WATER. It is the object of Sanitary Science to secure these.
CHAPTER I.
AIR.
Normal air contains 79 per cent of nitrogen, 20.96 per cent of oxygen,
and .04 per cent (4 parts in 10,000) of carbonic acid.
Oxygen supports animal life; carbonic acid, vegetable life; and the use
of the nitrogen, otherwise than as a diluent, is not known.
Very pure air contains 78.98 per cent of nitrogen, 20.99 per cent of
oxygen, and .03 per cent of carbonic acid.
Air begins to be very bad when the oxygen is reduced to 20.60 parts in
100. In mines, where candles go out, oxygen is reduced to 18.50 parts
in 100, and, in the worst specimen yet examined by Angus Smith, to
18.27. Air in which the percentage of oxygen has been reduced to 17.20
is very difficult to remain in for many minutes.
Aside from impurities due to local causes, the purest air is found from
six to forty feet above the ground, and the most impure from seventy to
ninety feet, where the air from chimneys is poured forth.
=Air is contaminated by the products of respiration and the bodily
emanations of healthy persons, and by the products of combustion.=
An adult man, in ordinary work, gives off in twenty-four hours from
twelve to eighteen cubic feet of carbonic acid, according to his size;
women, children, and old persons less.
Edward Smith found that an adult asleep exhaled about nineteen grains
of carbonic acid per hour, and, when he walked three miles an hour, the
amount was increased to 100.6 grains.
W. R. Nichols, of Boston, found in passenger-cars 23.2 parts of
carbonic acid to 10,000 parts of air, and in the Berkeley Street sewer
10.4 parts per 10,000. Wilson found in Portsmouth Prison, in cells
containing six hundred and fourteen cubic feet of air, always occupied,
7.20 parts per 10,000, and in cells containing two hundred and ten
cubic feet, occupied only at night, 10.44 per 10,000.
Besides the carbonic acid, there is exhaled from the lungs a small
amount of organic matter, of unknown composition. It forms a glutinous
coating on the furniture, walls, and windows of closed rooms,
decomposes rapidly, imparts a peculiarly offensive odor to the air of
a badly-ventilated room, and poisons those who inhale it. Its quantity
is so small that it has so far defied analysis. In a room contaminated
by respiration alone, the odor of this substance begins to be perceived
when the carbonic acid has increased to about 7 parts in 10,000, and 10
parts in 10,000 may be considered the maximum amount of carbonic acid
allowable in dwellings.
The following table shows how much carbonic acid artificial lights
produce per hour:
Petroleum, slit-burner, 10 candle-light, 1.98 cubic feet,
Petroleum, round-burner, 7.6 ” 2.15 ”
Oil-lamp, 4 ” 1.09 ”
Candle, 1 ” .39 ”
Coal-gas, slit-burner, 7.8 ” 3.25 ”
Coal-gas, flat-burner, 10 ” 3 ”
A five-foot gas-burner produces as much carbonic acid per hour as five
men.
As the most poisonous element of the breath can not readily be detected
by analysis, the amount of carbonic acid is taken as a measure of the
impurity of air contaminated by respiration.
=Test for carbonic acid in air= (Pettenkofer’s method):
Shake up a definite volume of the air in a closed vessel with a
definite amount of lime-water. The carbonic acid unites with the
lime, forming carbonate of lime. This compound, being insoluble in
water, renders it turbid. The degree of turbidity may be judged of
by looking through the water at a cross marked in lead-pencil on the
inside of a piece of paper pasted on the opposite side of the bottle,
and a standard may be fixed by shaking up ordinary external air in a
sixteen-ounce bottle, as described below, which will show the degree of
turbidity produced by 4 parts of carbonic acid in 10,000. Lime-water
can be bought of a druggist, or made by shaking distilled water with
slaked lime, allowing it to settle, and pouring off the clear liquid.
With a common hand-ball syringe, the end of the rubber tube resting
on the bottom of the bottle, pump in air, until the bottle is filled
with the air to be tested. Put in half an ounce of lime-water, cork the
bottle, and shake it up well. Let it stand for five minutes, and if the
water becomes turbid, as if a little milk had been dropped into it, the
presence of carbonic acid in the air will be indicated in the following
proportions.
Size of bottle. Amount of lime-water. Parts in 10,000.
16 ounces 1-2 ounce A little less than 4
12 ” ” A little more than 5
10 ” ” ” ” ” 6
8 ” ” 8
6 ” ” A little more than 10
4 ” ” ” ” ” 15
_Dangers of such Contamination._
Air contaminated by the products of respiration and by bodily
emanations (perspiration, etc.) contains substances which have been
ejected from human bodies as useless or injurious. What all systems
reject can not be healthy for any, and it is found that long-continued
exposure in an atmosphere laden with these impurities produces anæmia,
general debility, and poor nutrition, conditions likely to result in
the development of scrofula and consumption. It is believed, too, that
typhus fever may originate in this manner, while when such poisons are
inhaled in a more concentrated form, as in the famous Black Hole of
Calcutta, nausea, vertigo, convulsions, and even death are produced.
=The air is at certain times and places contaminated by the products of
respiration and the bodily emanations of diseased persons.=
In certain diseases, commonly known as =contagious=, organic matters
are thrown off by the lungs and skin of the sick, which tend to
reproduce these diseases in the bodies of other persons. The exact
nature of these poisons is in most cases unknown, but they are
generally believed to be living microscopic organisms (bacteria,
bacilli, micrococci, etc.), which multiply their kind in the blood of
the person who has inhaled them.
Of such diseases, the dangerous ones are small-pox, measles, scarlet
fever, typhus fever, and diphtheria, and their contagious quality is
marked very nearly in the order in which they are here mentioned.
The less harmful of these diseases are whooping-cough, chicken-pox,
mumps, and German measles.
There is strong evidence that consumption is contagious, though not as
markedly so as the diseases above enumerated.
=The air may be contaminated by the products of the decomposition of
the excreta of healthy persons.=
The contents of cesspools, privy-vaults, and sewers, are generally
composed of discharges from the bowels and kidneys, various matters
washed off from the bodies of animals and from culinary and household
utensils, and dissolved soap, constituting a mixture which rapidly
decomposes and affords a fine soil for the nourishment and propagation
of microscopic organisms.
Air contaminated in this way, popularly known as =sewer-gas=, contains
sulphide of ammonium and sulphureted hydrogen (which cause the
characteristic odor of rotten eggs), carbureted hydrogen, nitrogen, and
carbonic acid (odorless), and certain undetermined organic matters.
Professor Nichols analyzed the air of the Berkeley Street sewer in
Boston, a type of a badly-constructed and badly-ventilated sewer. The
sulphureted hydrogen, etc., were in too small quantity to be measured.
The highest percentages found were, of oxygen, 20.90; of nitrogen,
79.26; of carbonic acid, .4 (40 parts in 10,000). The lowest were,
oxygen, 20.48; nitrogen, 78.89; and carbonic acid, .05 (5 parts in
10,000).
Letheby found that sewer-water (containing 128.8 grains of organic
matter to the gallon) excluded from air yielded, for nine weeks, 1.2
cubic inches of gas per hour. In one hundred volumes of this mixture
there were 78.83 parts of marsh-gas (carbureted hydrogen), 15.90 parts
of carbonic acid, 10.19 parts of nitrogen, and .08 of sulphureted
hydrogen. Examination of sewage-mud in the Seine by Durand-Claye gave
72.88 parts of marsh-gas, 13.30 of carbonic acid, 6.70 of sulphureted
hydrogen, 2.54 of carbonic oxide, 4.58 of nitrogen, and some other
gases. Such mixtures are sometimes found in long-closed cesspools and
privy-vaults, but not in sewers proper.
Of these gases, sulphureted hydrogen and carbonic acid are very
poisonous, and when they are inhaled in concentrated form produce
almost immediate unconsciousness, and often death. When less
concentrated, sewer-air may cause nausea and vomiting, followed by a
low fever which sometimes kills, and, if not, results in a tedious
convalescence. As a rule, it is so largely diluted that it produces no
immediate effects, excepting the discomfort due to offensive odor, and
the mental anxiety resulting therefrom.
The effects usually attributed to the continued breathing of diluted
sewer-air are general _malaise_, loss of appetite, anæmia, impaired
nutrition, and therefore diminished power of resistance to attacks of
disease which are not directly attributable to sewer-air poisoning. It
is doubtful whether these effects are due to the constant introduction
of sewer-air in minute quantities into the blood, or to the inhalation
of particles of organic matter floating in such a contaminated
atmosphere.
=The greatest danger, however, in the breathing of sewer-air is that of
inhaling with it the living particles= (bacilli, etc.) =contained or
developed in the excreta of diseased persons=.
The diseases believed to be propagated in this way are =cholera=,
=typhoid fever=, and =dysentery=. The discharges both from the mouth
(stomach) and bowels are known to be poisonous.
It believed by many that the poisons of typhoid fever and diphtheria
may be developed _de novo_ by the decomposition of the mixtures found
in cesspools and sewers.
There also seems to be a connection, imperfectly understood, between
bad drainage and malarial fevers, and perhaps cerebro-spinal meningitis.
The origin of yellow fever is not yet ascertained.
Surgical erysipelas, puerperal fever, and hospital gangrene, are
only developed on and about wounded surfaces, and seem to be due to
the organisms developed in the secretions of such surfaces, where
ventilation and drainage are bad.
=Air may be contaminated by the products of organic decomposition
rising from the ground and drawn into the house through furnace-flues=,
etc.
=Ground-air= contains from 1.49 to 80 parts per 1,000 of carbonic
acid, and frequently contains products of organic decomposition. A
damp soil is also very unhealthy, as shown by Bowditch and others.
“A persistently low ground-water, say fifteen feet down or more, is
healthy; a persistently high ground-water, less than five feet from
the surface, is unhealthy; and a fluctuating level, especially if the
changes are sudden and violent, is very unhealthy” (De Chaumont). Such
soils are especially productive of consumption.
VENTILATION.
The contamination of the atmosphere by the respiration and bodily
emanations of human beings and other animals is unavoidable, but the
noxious matters thus added to the air are being constantly changed in
the following ways:
=1. Oxidation.= The organic matters, which have been mentioned as
especially injurious, are gradually decomposed by the oxygen of the
air, and changed into harmless substances, which either remain as
constituents of the atmosphere, or are washed into the earth by rains.
=2. Vegetable growth.= Plants absorb carbonic acid (which is composed
of carbon and oxygen) through their leaves, and give back oxygen
to the air, retaining the carbon for their own nourishment. There
is thus a constant interchange between animals and vegetables, the
former exhaling carbonic acid and appropriating oxygen, and the latter
appropriating carbonic acid and exhaling oxygen. The small percentage
of carbonic acid always found in the air is, therefore, essential to
vegetable life, while harmless to animals.
It is necessary, for the proper purification of a contaminated
atmosphere, that it should be largely diluted with fresh air. Hence
arises the need of the constant change of air in dwellings.
Air expands when heated and so becomes lighter. Local differences of
temperature, created by natural and artificial means, therefore bring
about currents in the atmosphere, the cooler and heavier column of air
always descending, and the warmer and lighter always rising. This fact
is taken advantage of in ventilation.
It has been estimated that, to keep the air pure, three thousand cubic
feet of fresh air per hour are required for a male adult, and that a
sleeping-room should contain at least twelve hundred cubic feet of
air-space for each occupant.
When the temperature of the external air is such that the doors
and windows can be constantly open, they afford the best means of
ventilation for dwellings. An exposure to draughts, however, is
dangerous to many persons, and it is desirable, therefore, in cooler
weather, to devise means of admitting fresh air without creating a
draught. At a temperature of 60°, a draught is perceived when the air
moves at a higher rate of speed than three feet a second. Now it is
obvious that a draught may be rendered harmless if the entering current
of air is guided in such a direction as not to strike the occupants
of a room. This is accomplished simply and cheaply by either of two
devices: If the lower sash of a window is raised a few inches (say
four), and the space between the bottom of the sash and the window-sill
is filled by an accurately fitted board, there will be a space between
the panes of the two sashes, through which air will enter, spouting
upward toward the ceiling and not falling until its momentum is so much
diminished that it will not be felt as a draught. The other plan is to
make the upper portion of the upper sash movable, so that it can be
tilted inward at such an angle as to direct the entering current upward
(essentially the Sherringham valve, though this is made of iron, with
side-cheeks to prevent a lateral outflow of air).
There are various patent apparatuses for the admission of fresh air
through windows without draught, but they are mostly modifications of
the methods above mentioned.
In weather when artificial heat is necessary for comfort, thorough
ventilation is not difficult, provided expense is not considered. As
the removal of the foul air, however, involves a considerable waste
of heat and consumption of fuel, the means of procuring the best
ventilation at the least cost becomes a problem of great intricacy,
which has not yet been satisfactorily solved.
=Fireplaces=, or open grates, are excellent ventilators. An ordinary
fireplace renews the air of the room four or five times hourly,
removing in that time from fifteen to twenty thousand cubic feet of
air. But only about 12 or 14 per cent. of the heat given off by the
fuel is utilized, the rest passing off by the chimney. The objections
to the fireplace as a sole means of heating are, its wastefulness, and
the fact that it warms only by radiation, so that the room is unequally
warmed, and may be too cold in one place and insupportably hot in
another.
=Stoves= and =furnaces= can not be relied on for ventilation, the
ventilating power of a close stove being only one tenth of that
required for a single adult.
Modern fireplaces are sometimes built with a metallic flue extending
upward into the chimney. Between this flue and the masonry is an
air-chamber opening to the external air and communicating with the
room near the ceiling, so that fresh air from outside the house is
continuously warmed, and discharged into the room at a temperature of
80° or 90°. The Galton fireplace (Fig. 1) is of this kind, and utilizes
35 per cent. of the fuel.
The best combined heating and ventilating arrangement at present seems
to be that which warms the fresh air by means of a soapstone furnace
or steam-coils, and removes the foul air through a fireplace. In
milder weather, gas may be burned in the chimney at a slight expense.
According to Morin, seven cubic feet of gas burned in a flue eleven
inches square and sixty-six feet high, will draw thirteen thousand
three hundred cubic feet of air per hour from a room.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.—Galton’s fireplace.]
The =dampers= of stoves should never be in the pipes, for they dam
back the gases which ought to enter the chimney, and force them into
the room. The fire should be regulated by dampers which prevent the
access of air, and not its escape after contamination.
Ventilating =flues= in walls do very little good, unless special means
are provided to heat them (e. g., gas lights or lamps).
The common whirling ventilators in window-panes are of very little use.
As a rule, fresh air should enter a room near the ceiling, and foul air
be removed near the floor.
In very cold climates, dangerous draughts are often produced by the
cooling of the air in contact with the window-panes, so that it falls
and sweeps along the floor. This danger may be prevented by double
windows, which also save fuel. Double windows may be utilized in
ventilation, by raising the lower outer sash a few inches, and lowering
the upper inner one.
_Smoky Chimneys._
When a chimney smokes, the draught is downward. This may be, caused—1.
By an obstruction in the flue or stove-pipe. 2. By a higher chimney in
the same house, the air coming down the shorter chimney, and going up
the other. The remedy is to equalize the heights, or close the doors
between the two. 3. If, when the fire is started, the air outside is
warmer than that in the chimney, the heavier column will of course
fall. This effect will vanish in a few minutes, when the flue becomes
heated. 4. The doors and windows of the room may be so tight as to
prevent a sufficient supply of fresh air to burn the fuel. If so,
they must be opened. 5. The chimney may be lower than the adjoining
wall, and the wind from certain directions, striking the wall, may be
directed down the flues. This may be remedied by extending the chimney
above the wall, or by capping the flues with one of the various cowls
that prevent a downward draught.
CHAPTER II.
DRAINAGE.
=How to prevent the contamination of the air by the products of
decomposition.=
There is no evidence to show that the emanations from fresh
house-slops, or the excreta of healthy animals, are injurious to
health, but it has been proved that when these matters decompose they
become dangerous. The bubbles of gas which rise to the surface of
such decomposing matters, when they burst, throw up solid particles
of organic matter in the air, which float about for some time before
falling to the ground. It is, therefore, essential to health that
all such matters shall be removed from the vicinity of human beings
promptly, before decomposition sets in, or else so manipulated as to
prevent decomposition, or promote rapid oxidation.
The lower animals seem to recognize by instinct that their excreta
are dangerous, and they deposit them (except when penned up by men)
in places remote from their abodes, or else carefully cover them with
fresh earth. Man alone retains his excreta in carefully prepared
receptacles near his place of residence, until the accumulation is so
large that he is forced to remove it.
The ordinary =privy-vault= should never be allowed. Its only advantage
is its cheapness, while it involves constant danger of contamination of
the water of adjoining wells or cisterns. Many an epidemic of typhoid
fever has been unmistakably traced to this source. If such a vault is
a necessity, it should be made water-tight, be small and frequently
emptied, the contents should be frequently disinfected, preferably by
being covered with fresh earth, and it should be built in such a spot
that the current of ground-water (which furnishes the well-water) shall
be from the well toward the vault, and never in the opposite direction.
Better still is a =movable tank=, in which the excreta are received
and covered with fresh earth daily. This can be emptied over a garden
or field without offense. In villages where sewerage is impossible,
=pails= are sometimes used. They have tight covers, and are removed
frequently (once or twice a week, clean ones being substituted at
the time of removal by the proper authorities), the contents being
converted into poudrette at some place remote from habitations.
A better means of disposing of the excreta, where water-closets
can not be had, is the =earth-closet=, of which there are several
varieties. These are so constructed that they resemble a water-closet
in appearance, but the excreta are caught in a receptacle beneath
the seat, and covered with earth, when the handle beside the seat is
raised. Dry earth is an excellent disinfectant,[1] and when excreta are
thus mingled with it they are gradually oxidized and disappear, so that
after a time the same earth may, with proper precautions, be used again.
[1] Its disinfectant properties have been shown to be due to the
presence of microscopic organisms, which decompose the excreta in the
act of nourishing themselves. A little chloroform paralyzes them,
and deprives the earth of its disinfecting properties, which return,
however, when the chloroform is washed out, and the organisms recover
their natural vigor.
The earth for these closets must be dry, and sifted of coarse
particles, and enough must be deposited upon the excreta to cover them
and to absorb the urine.
Its advantages, as compared with the water-closet, are, that it is
cheaper, requires less repair, is not hurt by frost, is not injured
when improper substances are thrown down it, and requires no water. Its
disadvantages are, the trouble of collecting and drying the earth, the
necessity of frequently removing the soil, the dust sometimes caused
by its use, and the necessity of providing additional means for the
disposal of slops.
A perfect method of disposal of excreta and other house refuse would
be one which would insure their prompt and rapid removal in such
a way as to prevent the contamination of the air of any inhabited
locality during such removal, or after their final deposition. The most
convenient and economical means yet invented of accomplishing this
object is =water-carriage=; i. e., the matters referred to are conveyed
from the house, with the addition of sufficient water to insure a
rapid flow, through a series of pipes and tunnels into a large body of
running water, or over the surface of the earth, under conditions which
insure their rapid conversion into harmless substances.
The water-carriage system includes bowls or sinks for the deposit
of refuse matters, connecting-pipes to remove such matters from the
house, and public sewers for their further conveyance away from human
abodes. The construction and care of public sewers belong to the local
government; we have here only to do with house-drainage.
The essentials of house-drainage are: 1. The primary receptacles
(bowls, sinks, water-closets, etc.) should be of such material and so
constructed as to be impervious to fluids, and easy to clean and keep
clean. 2. The pipes should be of such material as to be as durable as
possible, and so laid and connected as to form gas-tight conduits, and
to insure the rapid passage of whatever enters them, so as to prevent
the formation of deposits or incrustations. 3. The drainage system
should be so planned and constructed that neither the atmosphere of the
house nor the drinking-water can be polluted by anything escaping from
it, and no noxious matters can enter it from any other house.
The following plan of construction is that recommended by the Board of
Health of New York city:
1. All materials must be of good quality and free from defects; the
work must be executed in a thorough and workmanlike manner.
2. The arrangement of soil and waste pipes must be as direct as
possible.
3. The drain, soil, and waste pipes, and the traps, must, if
practicable, be exposed to view for ready inspection at all times, and
for convenience in repairing. When necessarily placed within partitions
or in recesses of walls, soil and waste pipes must be covered with
wood-work, so fastened with screws as to be readily removed. In no case
shall they be absolutely inaccessible.
4. It is recommended to place the soil and other vertical pipes in
a special shaft, between or adjacent to the water-closet and the
bath-room, and serving as a ventilating shaft for them. This shaft
should be at least two and a half feet square. It should extend from
the cellar through the roof, and should be covered by a louvered
sky-light. It should be accessible at every story, and should have a
very open but strong grating at each floor to stand upon.
Shafts not less than three feet square in area are required in
tenement-houses, to ventilate interior water-closets.
5. Every house or building must be separately and independently
connected with the street-sewer.
6. Where the ground is made or filled in, the house-sewer—that is to
say, the portion of the drain extending from the public sewer to the
front wall—must be of cast-iron, with the joints properly calked with
lead.
7. Where the soil consists of a natural bed of loam, sand, or rock, the
house-sewer may be of hard, salt-glazed, and cylindrical earthenware
pipe, laid on a smooth bottom, free from all projections of rock,
and with the soil well rammed to prevent any settling of the pipe.
Each section must be wetted before applying the cement, and the
space between each hub and the small end of the next section must
be completely and uniformly filled with the best hydraulic cement.
Care must be taken to prevent any cement being forced into the drain
to become an obstruction. No tempered-up cement shall be used. A
straight-edge must be used inside the pipe, and the different sections
must be laid in perfect line on the bottom and sides.
8. Where there is no sewer in the street, and it is necessary to
construct a private sewer to connect with a sewer on an adjacent street
or avenue, it must be laid under the roadway of the street on which
the houses front, and not through the yards or under the houses.
9. The house-drain must be of iron, with a fall of at least one quarter
inch to the foot, if possible, and not more than one inch to the foot.
10. Where water-closets or a school-sink discharge into it, the drain
must be at least four inches in diameter.
11. It must be hung on the cellar wall or ceiling, unless this is
impracticable, in which case it must be laid in a trench cut at a
uniform grade, walled upon the sides with brick laid in hydraulic
cement, and provided with movable covers, and with a hydraulic concrete
base of four inches in thickness, on which the pipe is to rest.
12. It must be laid in a straight line, if possible. All changes in
direction must be made with curved pipes, and all connections with
Y-branch pipes and one-eighth bends.
13. Any house-drain or house-sewer, put in and covered without due
notice to the Health Department, must be uncovered for inspection at
the direction of the inspector.
14. A running or half S-trap must be placed on the house-drain at
an accessible point near the front of the house. This trap must be
furnished with a hand-hole for convenience in cleaning, the cover of
which must be properly fitted and made gas and air tight with some
proper cement.
15. There must be an inlet for fresh air entering the drain just inside
the trap, of at least four inches in diameter, leading to the outer
air and opening at or near the street curb, or at a convenient place
not less than ten feet from the nearest window. No cold-air box for a
furnace shall be so placed that it can by any possibility draw air from
this inlet-pipe. The inlet-pipe should never be carried up to the roof
inside or outside the house.
16. No brick, sheet-metal, earthenware, or chimney-flue shall be used
as a sewer-ventilator, nor to ventilate any trap, drain, soil, or waste
pipe.
17. Every vertical soil-pipe and waste-pipe must be of iron, and, where
it receives the discharge of fixtures on two or more floors, it must
be extended at least two feet above the highest part of the roof or
coping, of undiminished size, with a return bend or cowl. It must not
open near a window, nor an air-shaft which ventilates livingrooms.
18. Soil, waste, and vent pipes, in an extension, must be extended
above the roof of the main building, when otherwise they would open
within twenty feet of the windows of the main house or the adjoining
house.
19. Horizontal soil and waste pipes are prohibited.
20. The minimum diameter of soil-pipe permitted is four inches. A
vertical waste-pipe, into which a line of kitchen-sinks discharge, must
be at least two inches in diameter, with one inch and a half branches.
21. Where lead pipe is used to connect fixtures with vertical soil or
waste pipes, or to connect traps with vertical vent-pipes, it must not
be lighter than D-pipe.
22. There shall be no traps on vertical soil-pipes or vertical
waste-pipes.
23. All iron pipes must be sound, free from holes, and of a uniform
thickness of not less than one eighth of an inch for a diameter of two,
three, or four inches, or five thirty-seconds of an inch for a diameter
of five or six inches; and, in case the building is over sixty-five
feet in height above the curb, the use of what is known as extra heavy
pipe, and corresponding fittings, are required, which weigh as follows:
2 inches, 5½ pounds per lineal foot.
3 ” 9½ ” ”
4 ” 13 ” ”
5 ” 17 ” ”
6 ” 20 ” ”
7 ” 27 ” ”
8 ” 33½ ” ”
10 ” 45 ” ”
12 ” 54 ” ”
24. Before they are connected they must be thoroughly coated inside
and outside with coal-tar pitch, applied hot, or some other equivalent
substance.
25. When required by an inspector from the Board of Health, the
plumbing must be tested with the peppermint or the water test, by the
plumber in the presence of the inspector, and all defective joints made
tight, and other openings made impermeable to gases. Defective pipe
discovered must be removed and replaced by sound pipe.
26. All joints in the iron drain-pipes, soil-pipes, and waste-pipes
must be so calked with oakum and lead, or with cement made of iron
filings and sal-ammoniac, as to make them impermeable to gas.
27. All connections of lead with iron pipes must be made with a brass
sleeve or ferrule, of the same size as the lead pipe, put in the hub
of the branch of the iron pipe, and calked in with lead. The lead pipe
must be attached to the ferrule by a wiped joint.
28. All connections of lead pipe should be by wiped joints.
29. Every water-closet, urinal, sink, basin, wash-tray, bath, and every
tub or set of tubs, must be separately and effectively trapped, except
where a sink and wash-tubs immediately adjoin each other, in which case
the waste-pipe from the tubs may be connected with the inlet side of
the sink-trap; in such a case the tub waste-pipe is not required to be
separately trapped.
30. Traps must be placed as near the fixtures as practicable, and in no
case shall a trap be more than two feet from the fixture.
31. All exit-pipes must be provided with strong metallic strainers.
32. In no case shall the waste from a bath-tub or other fixture be
connected with a water-closet trap.
33. Traps must be protected from siphonage, and the waste-pipe leading
from them ventilated, by a special air-pipe, in no case less than two
inches in diameter for water-closet traps, and one inch and a half for
other traps. Except in private dwellings, the vertical vent-pipes for
traps of water-closets in buildings more than four stories in height
must be at least three inches in diameter, with two-inch branches to
each trap, and for traps of other fixtures not less than two inches in
diameter, with branches one and a half inches in diameter, unless the
trap is smaller, in which case the diameter of branch vent-pipe must
be at least equal to the diameter of the trap. In all cases vertical
vent-pipes must be of cast or wrought iron.
34. These pipes must either extend two feet above the highest part
of the roof or coping, the extension to be not less than four inches
in diameter to avoid obstruction from frost, or they may be branched
into a soil-pipe above the inlet from the highest fixture. They may be
combined by branching together those which serve several traps. These
air-pipes must always have a continuous slope, to avoid collecting
water by condensation.
35. Traps of fixtures near the fresh-air inlet may be ventilated by
being connected with it.
36. No trap vent-pipe shall be used as a waste or soil pipe.
37. Overflow-pipes from fixtures must, in each case, be connected on
the inlet side of the trap.
38. Every safe under a wash-basin, bath, urinal, water-closet, or other
fixture, must be drained by a special pipe not directly connected with
any soil-pipe, waste-pipe, drain, or sewer, but discharging into an
open sink, upon the cellar-floor, or outside the house.
39. The waste-pipe from a refrigerator shall not be directly connected
with the soil or waste pipe, or with the drain or sewer, or discharge
into the soil; it should discharge into an open sink. Such waste-pipes
should be so arranged as to admit of frequent flushing, and should be
as short as possible, and disconnected from the refrigerator.
40. The sediment-pipe from kitchen boilers must be connected on the
inlet side of the sink-trap.
41. All water-closets within the house must be supplied with water from
special tanks or cisterns, the water of which is not used for any other
purpose. The closets must never be supplied directly from the Croton
supply-pipes. A group of closets may be supplied from one tank; but
water-closets on different floors are not permitted to be flushed from
one tank.
42. The valves of cisterns must be so fitted and adjusted as to prevent
wasting of water, especially where cisterns are supplied from a tank on
the roof.
43. The overflow-pipes from water-closet cisterns must discharge into
an open sink, or where its discharge will attract attention and
indicate that waste of water is occurring, but not into the bowl of
the water-closet, not into the soil or waste pipe, nor into the drain
or sewer. When the pressure of the Croton is not sufficient to supply
these tanks, a pump must be provided.
44. Tanks for drinking-water are objectionable; if indispensable,
they must never be lined with lead, galvanized iron, or zinc. They
should be constructed of iron, or wood lined with tinned and planished
copper. The overflow should discharge upon the roof, or be trapped
and discharge into an open sink, never into any soil or waste pipe or
water-closet trap, nor into the drain or sewer.
45. Rain-water leaders must never be used as soil, waste, or vent
pipes; nor shall any soil, waste, or vent pipe be used as a leader.
46. When within the house, the leader must be of cast-iron, with leaded
joints; when outside of the house, and connected with the house-drain,
it must be trapped beneath the ground or just inside of the wall, the
trap being arranged in either case so as to prevent freezing. In every
case where a leader opens near a window or a light-shaft, it must be
properly trapped at its base.
47. No steam exhaust or blow-off pipe from a steam-boiler will be
allowed to connect with any soil or waste pipe, or directly with the
house-drain. They should discharge into a tank or condenser, the
waste from which, if to be discharged into the sewer through the
house-drain, must be connected on the sewer side of the running trap.
48. Subsoil drains must be provided whenever necessary.
49. Yards and areas should always be properly graded, cemented,
flagged, or well paved, and properly drained; when the drain is
connected with the house-drain, it must be effectively trapped.
Front-area drains must, where practicable, be connected with the
house-drain inside of the running trap.
50. Cellar and foundation walls must, where possible, be rendered
impervious to dampness, and the use of asphaltum or coal-tar pitch, in
addition to hydraulic cement, is recommended for that purpose.
51. No privy-vault or school-sink will be allowed in any cellar or
basement; nor shall the general privy accommodation of a tenement or
lodging house be allowed to be in the cellar or basement.
52. No privy-vault, or cesspool for sewage, will be permitted in any
part of the city where water-closets or a school-sink can be connected
with a public sewer in the street.
53. School-sinks must be of cast-iron, not more than two feet in depth,
connected at the upper end with the Croton supply, and at the lower end
with a drain leading to the street-sewer, and provided with an outlet
at the lowest point and on the bottom so as to admit of a complete
discharge of the contents whenever the outlet is opened and the sink
flushed with water.
54. The sink must be set so that the flange will be at least two feet
below the yard surface, to prevent freezing. It must be at least ten
feet from any window, or as near that distance as practicable.
55. The waste-pipe from a hydrant-sink in the yard must be properly
trapped, especially where it discharges into a school-sink, a
privy-vault, or cesspool, or the house-drain.
56. Open light and air courts must be properly drained.
57. When a privy-vault or cesspool must necessarily be used, and the
water-supply of the premises is from a well, they must be at least
fifty feet from the well; and the privy-vault must be absolutely tight.
_Explanatory Remarks._
2. =As direct as possible.= To insure an uninterrupted flow. When a
pipe has to pass an obstruction (a beam or post) an =offset= is used
(Fig. 2).
3. The =soil-pipe= is that which conveys the contents of water-closets
to the house-drain: the =waste-pipes= are intended to carry other
refuse fluids only. The =house-drain= is the large pipe which receives
the contents of the soil and waste pipes and conveys them outside the
house.
A =trap= is a bend (with or without an enlargement) of the pipe,
intended to retain a sufficient amount of the fluids that enter it to
occlude the pipe and prevent the backward flow of air. The effective
=water-seal= is represented by the total depth of water in the trap,
minus the inside diameter of the pipe, and should be at least one inch.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.—Offset.]
[Illustration: Fig. 3.—S-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 4.—Half S-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 5.—D-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 6.—Bag-trap.]
Traps are of various kinds, and many are patented. The accompanying
figures represent the principal types.
Fig. 3 is the S-trap. Fig. 4 is the half S-trap. There is also a
three-quarter S-trap. Fig. 5 is a D-trap, formerly much used, but now
mostly out of date, because it retains dirt. Fig. 6 is a =bag=-trap.
It has no advantage over the S-trap, and uses more material. Fig. 7 is
a =bottle=-trap, much used in Boston. This also retains dirt. There
are varieties of it, the distinguishing feature of all being that the
fluids enter them at the bottom and flow out at the top.
[Illustration: Fig. 7.—Bottle-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 8.—Bell-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.—Running-trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 10.—Mason’s trap.]
Fig. 8 is the =bell=-trap, so called from its shape. Much used for the
drains of paved areas, yards, and cellars; liable to retain dirt, and
needs frequent cleaning; not a good trap. Fig. 9 is a =running=-trap,
used in house-drains and other pipes that are nearly horizontal. Fig.
10 represents a =mason’s= trap. Is built of brick or stone and cement.
Used in brick-drains and sewers, in receiving-basins at street corners,
etc. Requires frequent cleaning, and should never be used inside a
building. Fig. 11 represents the method of trapping a cesspool. The
same plan is also used for =grease=-traps, the outlet-pipe dipping
below the surface of the contents so that it is never obstructed by
the grease, which floats on top.
[Illustration: Fig. 11.—Trapped cesspool.]
A few patent traps are shown as samples:
[Illustration: Fig. 12.—Adee trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 13.—Bower trap.]
Fig. 12 is the Adee trap, a modification of the D-trap. Fig. 13 is the
Bower trap, claimed to be secured against siphonage or back pressure by
a rubber ball which floats up against the entering-pipe. Modification
of the bottle-trap. Fig. 14 is Bedell’s trap, with a metallic flap
or valve, and an opening on the sewer side of the valve, to relieve
pressure. Fig. 15 is Stewart’s trap, intelligible from the diagram.
Traps are also made of iron or glass, with a mercury seal, which, it is
claimed, are proof against siphoning, pressure, or evaporation.
[Illustration: Fig. 14.—Bedell’s trap.]
[Illustration: Fig. 15.—Stewart’s trap.]
4. A =louvered sky-light= is one with slats at the sides inclining
outward, so that air can escape but rain can not enter.
6. =Calked with lead.= (See 26.)
7. =Tempered-up cement.= Cement which has been used once, and has been
broken up and ground, for using a second time.
9. =House-drain=, of iron. (See “Bad Odors, 2, _a_.”)
10. =Water-closets.= Four principal classes, with innumerable
varieties, mostly patented.
1. The =pan-closet= (Fig. 16). Its chief advantage is its cheapness
and the ease with which it can be repaired. Its disadvantage is the
odor that usually attends its use. When the handle (_a_) is raised,
the contents of the pan (_b_) are thrown against the side of the iron
container (_c_), and some filth adheres there and decomposes, filling
the container with a noisome stench, which escapes into the room every
time the closet is used. An abundant flush, an enameled container, and
proper ventilation of the container, reduce this nuisance materially.
Generally condemned by sanitarians.
[Illustration: Fig. 16.—Pan-closet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 17.—Hopper-closet.]
2. =Hopper-closets= (Fig. 17). Rather unsightly, because the water and
floating matter in the trap are visible, and matters often cling to
the sides, but, with an abundant flush suddenly discharged, are very
inoffensive.
3. =Plunger-closets=, of which the Jennings closet (Fig. 18) may be
taken as a type. The handle lifts a plug, which allows the contents of
the bowl to run out, and, when the plug is dropped in place, the bowl
is filled again from a ball-cock. These closets are liable to get out
of order; the plungers or plugs lose their rubber flanges and leak, and
the plunger-chamber is apt to retain filth.
[Illustration: Fig. 18.—Jennings closet.]
4. It is evident that if the hopper-closet could have its trap bent
to one side out of sight, and its hopper enlarged toward the bottom,
so that nothing would strike and cling to its sides, it would be an
excellent one. Of such a type are the Tidal-Wave and National closets
(Fig. 19), _a_ being the water-pipe, which discharges into a flushing
rim, and _b_ a vent-pipe to relieve pressure between the two bodies of
water during a discharge, and prevent siphoning.
[Illustration: Fig. 19.—Tidal-wave closet.]
[Illustration: Fig. 20.—Y-branch.]
[Illustration: Fig. 21.—Quarter bend.]
A water-closet, to be well flushed, should have a discharge of three
gallons of water in five seconds, sent directly downward all around the
rim.
=School-sink= (also called trough-sink or privy-sink). An iron trough,
having a sewer-connected opening with a movable iron plug in the bottom
at one end, for the discharge of its contents, and a pipe at the other
end, from which it is filled with water. It is practically an elongated
water-closet. (See 53.)
12. =Y-branch= (Fig. 20), so named from its shape. There are also half
Y-branches.
=Eighth bends.= There are also quarter bends (Fig. 21), sixth bends,
and sixteenth bends. These are used in pipe-connections in order
to discharge the contents of the branch pipes in the same general
direction with the current in the main pipes, for, if the discharge
enters at a right angle, a deposit is apt to form opposite the point of
connection.
14. =Trap in house-drain.= Intended to cut off all communication
between the house and the street sewer. If a contagious disease occurs
in one’s own house, he can be sure that the excreta are disinfected,
and that disease-germs can not escape into the air, even if the pipes
happen to be defective; but he can not be sure that such excreta are
properly disinfected in other houses. The only safe way, therefore, is
for each house to be cut off from all others by the means described.
The objections to the trap on the house-drain are, that it forms
a slight obstruction to the flow of drainage, and is liable to be
obstructed by deposits, and that it favors “cushioning,” i. e., the
forcing of smaller traps, when the air in the drain is compressed
between this trap and a down-coming mass of water. (See “Bad Odors,”
1, _d_.) The first of these objections is met by making the trap a half
S one, so that the fluids fall down one limb with sufficient force to
wash out the bottom of the trap thoroughly with each discharge, and
the second by the fresh-air inlet, which relieves the pressure that
otherwise might force the traps.
15. The =fresh-air inlet= affords free entrance for air, and, as the
main lines of pipe are open above the roof, the difference in length
of the pipes will give rise to a constant current of fresh air through
them, in one direction or the other. (See “Bad Odors,” 1 _c_.) This
results in the oxidation of whatever filth may cling to the pipes, and
dilutes offensive gases so that they are rendered harmless. It has also
been shown that the various microscopic organisms, which are believed
to be the specific cause of certain diseases, increase in virulence,
when they propagate in the absence or with a deficient supply of
oxygen, while the intensity of their action is diminished if they grow
where oxygen is plentiful.
16. =Ventilation in chimney-flues.= (See “Bad Odors,” 1, _c_.)
17. =Vertical pipes of iron.= Iron resists corrosion and the assaults
of rats better than lead, and lead pipes are sometimes occluded by
pressure and settling. Branch wastes are generally of lead because it
is easily cut and bent, so as to be used in difficult situations.
=Return-bend= or =cowl=. To prevent senseless persons from throwing
things down the pipe, and thus obstructing it.
20. =Diameter of pipes.= The inside diameter is always meant.
21. =D-pipe.= (See Appendix B.)
22. =No traps on vertical pipes=,, at the foot of such pipes, because
they would prevent the free circulation of air, and thus render the
fresh-air inlet practically useless. Also to prevent “cushioning.”
23. =Cast-iron= pipes are made in five-foot lengths, with an
enlargement at one end, called the hub or bell, and a bead around the
edge of the other end (the spigot-end). The spigot-end of one pipe
fits loosely into the hub of another, sufficient room being left for
calking. (See 26.)
24. =Pipes= are =tarred= by being heated to 500° Fahr. and then dipped
perpendicularly into a hot bath of coal-tar pitch mixed with a small
proportion of heavy coal-oil. This coating prevents corrosion, or at
least greatly retards it.
25. =Wrought-iron pipes=, with screw joints, are used by the Durham
House Drainage Company, the joints being gas-tight. They have the
advantage of being very durable and impervious to gases, but the
disadvantage of being too permanent. If it is desired to change the
position of a fixture, or to connect a new one, it is easy to break
a hole in a cast-iron pipe, or to remove a portion of it, but where
wrought-iron pipe is used this is almost impossible. The Durham system
also costs about twenty-five per cent more than the common one, and it
is not strictly correct to say that its use renders a house absolutely
secure against leakage of sewer-air, because it does not do away with
lead branch-pipes, in which frequent leakages occur, and all irregular
portions of pipe, with branches, etc., in this system are made of
cast-iron with calked joints, as in the ordinary system.
The =water-test= is applied by plugging the pipe carefully, and closing
all openings below a certain point, and then filling it with water to
that level. If there is any leakage, the water-level will gradually
sink. If the pipes are tight, it will remain the same.
=Peppermint-test.= (See hereafter.)
26. Oakum is packed into the space between the spigot-end of one pipe
and the hub of the other, and driven against the bead above mentioned.
This packing is called a =gasket=. Melted lead is poured in on top of
the oakum, and, when it has cooled, is driven in tight with a calking
iron and mallet. When ordinary pipe is used, the calking will sometimes
split the hub, and this furnishes an argument for the general use of
extra-heavy pipe.
=Iron-filings=, etc., making what is called a =rust-joint=.
27. =Ferrules=, or =sleeves=, are used because lead pipes are too soft
and yielding to withstand the calking. Lead can not be soldered to
iron, and therefore brass or copper has to be used. If iron ferrules
are used, the lead pipe must be turned up on the outside far enough so
that its edge shall be covered by the melted lead used in calking, so
as to prevent leakage of gas, as hereafter described. (See “Bad Odors,”
1, _b_.)
28. =Wiped-joints= are those always used for lead pipe, and are
indicated by a raised ring of solder surrounding the pipe.
29. A =trap=, with a good water-seal, is an effective barrier
against the passage of sewer-air or particles of organic matter. The
experiments of Carmichael, confirmed by Wernich and Pumpelly, have
amply demonstrated that sewer-air passes through the water-seal in such
minute quantities that it can not possibly harm any one, and that solid
particles of matter can not pass at all.
=Separate traps=, except, etc. (See “Bad Odors,” 1, _d_.)
33. =Siphonage=. (See “Bad Odors,” 1, _d_ 37.)
37. =Overflow-pipes= from fixtures. It is better to connect them with
the trap below the water-level. (See “Bad Odors,” 1, _d_.)
38. =Safes= are sheets of metal (generally lead) with turned-up edges,
placed beneath basins, sinks, water-closets, etc., to protect the floor
in case of leakage. The waste-pipes of safes are common sources of
nuisance. (See “Bad Odors,” 1, _c_.)
39. To prevent contamination of the contents of the refrigerator.
41. When water-closets are flushed directly from the common supply-pipe
of the house, as in the different kinds of valve-closets, the water in
the pipes, under certain circumstances, will be contaminated: e. g.,
if a person opens a faucet on one floor at the same moment that the
valve is opened to flush a water-closet on a higher floor, water will
be sucked back from the valve, and the air of the closet will follow
it. Check-valves have been used to prevent this, but they should not be
depended on.
[Illustration: Fig. 22.]
[Illustration: Fig. 23.]
[Illustration: Fig. 24.]
Various forms of =tanks= or =cisterns= for water-closets are here
shown. Fig. 22 represents a tank, _b_, which discharges water as long
as the handle (attached to the chain _a_) is raised. It gives a flush
also of the entire contents of the service-box _c_, after the handle
is lowered. Fig. 23 shows a waste-preventing tank, which is divided
into two compartments, _b_ and _d_. It will be seen that this allows
only the contents of _d_ to be discharged, with an after-flush from
_c_. Fig. 24 shows a tank, in which the chain _a_ is attached to the
seat, and is pulled down when the seat is depressed. It will be seen
that no water can flow while the closet is in use, but, when the seat
is released, the contents of _c_ are discharged with great force. In
all these figures, _e_ is a ball-cock. This cock is controlled by a
hollow copper ball, which floats on water, and is attached to the end
of a lever. When the water falls, the ball falls with it, and opens the
cock. When it is floated up to a certain point, it closes the cock and
stops the flow.
[Illustration: Fig. 25.—Drainage plan for dwellings.]
45. =Leaders= should not be used as soil-pipes, because, during a rain,
the ventilation of the pipes is interfered with by the downward flow
of water, which will also empty unventilated traps by siphoning. The
necessity of having leaders open flush with the roof also interferes
with proper ventilation.
47. If =steam= enters a soil-pipe, it heats the water in the traps,
injures joints on account of the extreme changes of temperature
induced, and hastens corrosion of the pipes.
Fig. 25 shows a system of house-drainage for a city house planned in
accordance with the above rules.
[Illustration: Fig. 26.—Field’s flush-tank.]
In =country houses=, where there are no sewers, the best method of
disposing of the house-slops is =subsoil drainage=. The house system
may be the same as that already explained for city houses. The fluids
are conducted by a pipe with tight joints to a =flush-tank= (Fig. 26)
near the house. This tank is so constructed that it empties itself, by
a siphon action, whenever it gets full, discharging all its contents
in a very short time, and thus washing out thoroughly the pipes into
which it empties. “The outlet-pipe from this tank is continued by a
cemented vitrified pipe to a point about twenty-five feet farther away.
Here it connects with a system of open-jointed drain-tiles, consisting
of one main, fifty feet long, and ten lateral drains, six feet apart,
and each about twenty feet long. These drains underlie a part of the
lawn, and are only about ten inches below the surface” (Waring). It
will be understood that the purpose of this method of drainage is to
have the organic matter contained in the house-refuse appropriated by
vegetation, and it must therefore be distributed within reach of the
grass-roots.
If water-closets are used, the following system is recommended in “The
Sanitary Engineer”: Collect all the sewage of the house in a small and
perfectly tight tank or cesspool, in which the paper and fecal matter
soon become macerated by fermentation and reduced to a pulp. This tank
should overflow into the flush-tank, the overflow-pipe dipping at least
a foot below the point of discharge, to avoid the scum. The siphon of
the flush-tank should be accessible by a man-hole, so as to be readily
cleaned. If thus arranged, and if no roots of trees are in the soil,
the distribution-pipes will not clog for a year or more, sometimes not
for ten years.
Pipes should be laid at a depth of eight inches, with a slight and
uniform descent of not over six or eight inches in one hundred feet.
Branches from a four-inch main to the two-inch distribution-pipes
should lead from the bottom of the former, instead of from the side, as
in ordinary drain connections.
There should be a grease-trap (see “Explanatory Remarks,” 3) attached
to the kitchen waste-pipes, in order to prevent clogging of the tanks
and pipes by the congelation of fat.
_Bad Odors._
=When bad odors in a house are traceable to the drainage, they will
usually be found to be due to one or more of the following causes=:
1. =To faulty construction.= (_a._) =Drains.=—These may be made of
brick or stone and cement. Such materials are pervious to gases,
even when sound, and are peculiarly liable to be channeled by rats,
especially where an iron or lead pipe enters them. Such a drain should
be replaced by an iron one.
(_b._) =Joints.=—=Cement-joints= are pervious to gases. =Putty-joints=
crack and so become pervious. A =lead= pipe is sometimes connected with
an =iron= one by means of an iron ferrule, the lead pipe passing inside
the ferrule and being turned over its lower edge, extending up on the
outside, the ferrule then being calked into the hub. When paper is used
for the gasket or packing, it rots away in time, and a passage is left
through which gas can escape as follows: up between the hub and the
turned-over lead pipe, over its edge, between it and the calking, down
between the lead pipe and the ferrule, across the lower edge of the
ferrule, and out between the inner surface of the ferrule and the outer
surface of the lead pipe. (See Fig. 27.) Sometimes a connection of lead
with iron is made by means of a =lead flange= fastened around the iron
pipe with wire, and sometimes the lead pipe is simply stuck into a hole
in the iron pipe and fastened with cement or putty. Such work should be
replaced by properly made joints as described in the above regulations.
(Or in “Bad Odors,” 2, _c_.)
[Illustration: Fig. 27.—Iron ferrule improperly calked.]
(_c._) =Pipes.=—If the =leaders= are not trapped at the bottom,
offensive gases from them may enter the nearest windows. A leader is
never of the same length as the soil-pipe, and, if there is direct
communication between them through the house-drain, there will always
be a current of air through them in one direction or the other. If the
external air is colder than that inside the pipes, then the heavier
column of air will be over the shorter pipe, and the current will be
down that one and up the other. If the external air is warmer than that
in the pipes, the heavier column will be that which includes the longer
pipe, and the current will be down that one and up the shorter. So, as
a rule, the current in winter is down the short pipe and up the long
one, while in summer it is reversed, and, as the short pipe often ends
near windows, the nuisance is greatest when these windows are open. Of
course, in such cases, the leader must be trapped.
=Ventilating-pipes= sometimes end in chimney-flues. This is a bad
plan, for, if the flue is in use, the open end of the pipe will become
choked with soot and finally be rendered useless. If the flue is not
used, there will often be a down draught in it, and the offensive gases
may be conveyed through stove-pipes or fireplaces into the rooms of
the house. Such gases may even penetrate the walls of the flue and so
enter the house. If such a pipe is ever run into a flue, it should be
extended at least two feet above the chimney-top.
Ventilating-pipes are sometimes badly arranged, so that they actually
neutralize a trap and render it useless. (See Fig. 28.) In this figure
_a_ is the soil-pipe and _b_ the ventilating-pipe.
[Illustration: Fig. 28.—Faulty arrangement of ventilating pipes.]
=Safe-wastes= and the =overflow-pipes= of tanks and cisterns may be
connected with the soil or waste pipe. When they are, they are usually
trapped. It will often be found that the traps are empty and useless,
so that offensive gases escape from the pipes. With tank-overflow pipes
this is generally the case. Safe-waste traps are sometimes provided
with small feed-pipes, intended to discharge water into them every
time the fixtures are used. It will often be found, however, if the
end of the feed-pipe is pulled up out of the waste, that no water runs
through it, and it is useless, sometimes because it is too small and
is choked with dust and sediment, and sometimes because it is wrongly
attached to the source of supply. Safe-wastes, discharging into the
kitchen or cellar, may convey to the rooms odors of cooking or of
articles stored in the cellar (onions, turnips, etc.), or from the
servants’ water-closet, which is often offensive. If urine or other
offensive liquids from leakage flow through them, the upward currents
of air will be impregnated with odors from the filth that has clung
to the pipe long after the leak has been repaired. In any event these
safe-wastes constitute a direct communication between different rooms
of a house, which is not always desirable. It is better to do without
them. They are rarely of any use. If required, however, they should
either be trapped under the safe, and means taken to insure a constant
water-seal, or they may be closed by a piece of paper pasted over the
lower opening, which will prevent the entrance of any odors from cellar
or kitchen, but will give way in case of leakage. The safe-wastes of
water-closets often discharge into the trap of the water-closet. This
is a bad plan, because, if there is an obstruction in the trap, the
safe-waste is, of course, useless. If offensive odors are traced to
safe-wastes, the openings had better be sealed. If overflow-pipes are
the source, they must be disconnected from the soil or waste pipe and
made to discharge elsewhere (e. g., into some sink or water-closet).
[Illustration: Fig. 29.—Cushioning illustrated.]
(_d._) =Traps.=—If two traps are so arranged that the air is compressed
between them by an oncoming rush of water, the trap containing the
shallowest water-seal will be forced, and a certain amount of air
will escape through it from the interior of the pipe. This result is
due to “cushioning,” as it is called, and is illustrated in Fig. 29.
Such a fault is to be remedied by connecting the crown of one of the
traps with a ventilating-pipe, so that any pressure of the kind is
immediately relieved without disturbing the seal of the trap.
[Illustration: Fig. 30.—Double-trapped waste-pipe (air-bound).]
[Illustration: Fig. 31.—Two sinks with but one trap.]
If there are two traps on the same line of pipe (Fig. 30), so that a
part of the interior of the pipe is cut off from the external air in
both directions, it becomes “air-bound,” and one of two results will
follow, viz.: water discharged into the fixture above the higher trap
will remain in the bowl and not run down, on account of the compression
of air between the traps; or, if it does run out of the fixture, it
will displace an equivalent bulk of foul air, which will bubble up
through the upper trap and cause offensive odors. In such a case, the
lower trap should be removed.
If =two= or =more waste-pipes= (as in sets of tubs, in sinks, and
often in urinals) are provided with but =one trap= for all (Fig. 31),
there will be a constant current of air along the pipes, sometimes
emerging from one opening and sometimes from another. This air will
be contaminated by the filth that lines the pipes, and will often be
quite offensive. In such cases, each waste-pipe should be independently
trapped, or (as in the case of bath-tubs or urinals) the overflow-pipe
should be connected with the trap of the waste-pipe below the
water-seal, as in Fig. 25.
When a body of water sufficiently large to nearly fill a pipe is
discharged into it, it drags air along with it, and exhausts the air
in all branch-pipes to a greater or less extent. When this exhaustion
amounts to a diminution of the pressure in the pipe of about 1/350, the
water in an ordinary trap (with a one-inch seal) will be forced out of
it by the pressure of the external atmosphere, or in other words will
be sucked out of the trap into the pipe, leaving no water-seal in the
trap, and, therefore, allowing free exit for sewer-air. This effect is
known as the “siphoning” of the trap, and is most likely to occur when
the main pipe is not open at its upper extremity (is not ventilated),
and when the branch wastes are of the same size with the main one. This
fault is remedied by the ventilation of the traps, and of the main
pipes, as described in the regulations above quoted (17 and 33).
2. =To defects in the pipes.= (_a._) =Drains.=—Bad odors in cellars
often come from broken earthenware or tile drains, cracked by settling,
or from rat-holes in cemented drains. Earthenware or brick drains
inside a house should be replaced by iron ones.
(_b._) =Joints.=—=Cement= or =putty= joints are often cracked.
=Water-closets= sometimes become loosened from the floor and leak
fluids and gases. The covers of =hand-holes= of traps sometimes get
loose and leak gas. Sometimes =trap-screws=, instead of being at the
bottom of the trap, where they are covered by water, are at the top; if
these are loose, gases may escape. All such defects should be repaired.
(_c._) =Pipes.=—Both lead and iron pipes are corroded and in time
perforated by sewer-air. Such corrosion is most likely to occur at
points where gases come in contact with a dry part of the pipe, viz.,
at the crowns or domes of traps, and in ventilating-pipes. For this
reason, ventilating-pipes should never be made of thin iron (galvanized
iron), and should always be protected by a tar-coating. The crowns
of lead traps (especially of water-closets) are often bitten into
by rats in search of water. In all cases when the crown of a trap
is perforated, there is rarely any leakage of fluid to indicate it,
but offensive gases escape. All corroded traps and pipes should be
replaced by new ones, and not patched up. Holes in iron pipes may be
closed by iron bands surrounding the pipe, and fastened with red-lead
putty and screw-bolts (Fig. 32). A new joint may be made by means of a
saddle-hub (Fig. 33) carefully secured in a similar manner. Lead pipes
are sometimes protected against rats by being encircled by tin, or
packed in pounded glass.
[Illustration: Fig. 32.—Bands.]
[Illustration: Fig. 33.—Saddle-hub.]
3. =To carelessness.= (_a._) =Evaporation.=—If fixtures are not in
constant use, the water soon evaporates from the traps and gives exit
to sewer-air. This often happens in warm weather, and when a house is
vacant for a time. To prevent evaporation, a little oil may be poured
into the trap, to protect the surface of the water-seal, or it may be
made the special duty of a servant to keep the traps full of water when
the fixtures are not in use.
(_b._) =Dirt.=—The inside of a pipe often becomes coated with slime,
consisting largely of grease, especially in kitchens. This filthy
lining rapidly decomposes, and that portion above the trap may give
out bad odors. The pipes may be cleansed with a strong hot solution of
soda.
_Examination of House-Drainage._
If the object of an examination is to determine whether the drainage is
planned and constructed in accordance with the best methods of the day,
each point referred to in the above regulations should be carefully
investigated.
If the object is to determine the source of offensive odors, or if
there has been sickness in the house of such a character as to indicate
possible defects in the plumbing, the several sources of bad odors just
enumerated should each be carefully inquired into. A few additional
suggestions as to the method of examination will not be out of place.
It will be found much easier to determine the direction, number, and
situation of the main lines of pipe, if the examination is begun at
the roof and continued downward. If a beginning is made in the cellar,
confusion results.
“=Cushioning=” is determined by causing the discharge of a considerable
mass of water (as from a bath-tub or water-closet) into the main
pipe, at some distance above the suspected fixture. If there is a
regurgitation in the fixture under observation, there is certainly
an obstruction in the pipe at some point below the fixture. If the
obstruction is caused by something lodged in the pipe, the back-flow in
the fixture will be a steady one, because there will be some leakage
through the obstruction, while if it is due to compressed air, which
is elastic, the regurgitation will be by spurts, and the water in the
trap may even be thrown up to a considerable height.
“=Siphoning=” is also determined by filling the pipe with water in the
manner just explained. If the trap of the fixture under observation is
emptied by siphoning, a sucking or gurgling noise will be heard in it,
and a flame held over the outlet of the fixture will be drawn downward
by the inward current of air.
=One trap to several pipes= (when it is suspected but not certainly
known because the trap is out of sight) may be detected by the fact
that there will always be a current of air in one direction or the
other through such pipes, and more or less odor will escape. If the
back of the hand is wet, it becomes very sensitive to such a current,
and by holding alternately the palm and the back of the hand, or even
of the forefinger (wet), over an opening, the existence and direction
of such a current can be easily determined. If the odors are from such
a source, it can then be made evident by covering all the outlets but
one with wet paper, so as to prevent the air-currents, when the odors
will temporarily disappear.
If a trap is accessible, it is easy to determine whether its water-seal
is preserved or not by tapping it from top to bottom with some metallic
substance, when the difference in sound will indicate the exact level
of the water inside.
Those parts of the plumbing which are not accessible to inspection
must be examined by introducing into the pipes some strong-smelling
substance, which will indicate defects by its escape through them into
the house. Oil of peppermint is often used for this purpose.
_The Peppermint-Test._
For testing the pipes of an ordinary dwelling, one ounce of the =oil=
of peppermint is sufficient. For a large building more may be needed.
The drug costs from twenty-five to seventy-five cents an ounce,
according to its quality and the place where it is bought.
It is best to introduce the oil into the pipes from outside the house,
if possible, so that the odor which inevitably attends the process
may be dissipated in the external air. The object being to ascertain
the location of defects in the pipes inside the house, the examiner
must feel certain, if he detects the odor of peppermint anywhere,
that the vapor has come to him from inside the pipes, and not from
the outside. If the ventilating-pipes are so constructed that the oil
can not be poured in from the roof, then it must be poured into some
basin or water-closet in the upper portion of the house. The peppermint
should first be mingled with a pailful of hot water to promote rapid
volatilization, and poured slowly down the pipe. After it is poured
down, the openings at the upper extremities of the pipes should be
closed, so that the pressure of the vapor inside the pipes may not be
relieved in that direction. If the odor of peppermint, thus introduced
with the precautions mentioned below, is perceived anywhere in the
house, it is an indication that there is an opening in some pipe,
through which sewer-air may escape. This opening may be a defect,
or it may be due to siphoning of traps, or to faults of original
construction. There will not usually be much difficulty in locating it
with considerable exactness.
_Special Precautions._
The peppermint should be kept on the roof, or on a window-sill outside
the house, until needed, for it is so volatile that the vapor escapes
through the cork, and if the odor gets into the house in this way, it
will vitiate the examination.
The person who pours the peppermint should remain on the roof or in the
room where he does it, with the doors closed, until the examination
is complete, for the odor will cling to his clothing and follow him
wherever he goes for an hour or more.
_Additional Remarks._
If bad odors have been noticed, and no defect can be found in the ways
above mentioned, they may be due to decaying animal matter (dead rats,
etc.), or (in the city) to defects in the plumbing of the adjoining
house, offensive gases from which may penetrate the wall.
The source of bad odors need not necessarily be in the immediate
vicinity of the place where they are noticed, for the walls of
buildings are full of channels and openings, through which offensive
gases may be carried by currents of air, so as to emerge at a
considerable distance from their origin. Thus, in winter, they are apt
to be most noticeable near a fire.
SUMMARY OF THE BEST METHODS OF DRAINAGE.
For =houses= where there are =public sewers=: water-carriage.
For =country houses=, if =isolated from sewers=, and where expense is
no objection: water-carriage with subsoil drainage.
In =villages= and =small towns, without sewers=: subsoil drainage (for
slops), and pails (for excreta), frequently removed by proper officers.
For =farm-houses=: subsoil drainage for slops, and a movable tank, with
dry earth disinfection, for excreta.
For =sea-side houses, isolated=: if there is vegetation, subsoil
drainage for slops, and earth-closets.
For =sea-side villages=: subsoil drainage and the pail system.
For =sea-side houses=, where there is =no vegetation=: for excreta,
earth-closets or a movable iron tank, with dry-earth disinfection;
for slops, a water-tight cesspool, with arrangements for emptying its
contents into the sea when the tide is ebbing.
=How to prevent contamination of the air from the ground.=
Have the house separated from the soil on which it is built by a layer
of asphalt between two layers of cement, extending over the whole
cellar-floor, through the foundation-walls and up above the point where
the ground touches the walls outside. Or have the house built without
a cellar, and with perforated underpinning, so as to allow a free
circulation of air underneath it. The subsoil should also be drained by
tiles laid at least a foot lower than the cellar-bottom.
The cold-air boxes of furnaces should draw their supply from the
external air. It is advisable to have a thin layer of cotton held in
place by wire gauze to filter the air as it enters them.
CHAPTER III.
DISINFECTION.
=How to prevent contamination of the air by the respiration, bodily
emanations, and excreta of diseased persons.=
It is not possible with our present knowledge to prevent the
multiplication of morbid germs in the human body, when they are once
implanted there, nor to prevent their discharge; but we can destroy
them after their exit from the body, and so protect other persons who
are not yet affected.
The following instructions for the management of contagious diseases
were prepared for the National Board of Health by Professors Chandler,
Henry Draper, Barker, Vander Poel, E. G. Janeway, and Ira Remsen.
_Instructions for Disinfection._
Disinfection is the destruction of the poisons of infectious and
contagious diseases.
Deodorizers, or substances which destroy smells, are not necessarily
disinfectants, and disinfectants do not necessarily have an odor.
Disinfection can not compensate for want of cleanliness nor of
ventilation.
I. _Disinfectants to be employed._
1. Roll-sulphur (brimstone) for fumigation.
2. Sulphate of iron (copperas) dissolved in water in the proportion of
one and a half pounds to the gallon; for soil, sewers, etc.
3. Sulphate of zinc and common salt, dissolved together in water in the
proportion of four ounces sulphate and two ounces salt to the gallon;
for clothing, bed-linen, etc.
II. _How to use Disinfectants._
1. In the sick-room. The most available agents are fresh air and
cleanliness. The clothing, towels, bed-linen, etc., should on removal
from the patient, and before they are taken from the room, be placed
in a pail or tub of the zinc solution, boiling-hot if possible.
All discharges should either be received in vessels containing copperas
solution, or, when this is impracticable, should be immediately covered
with copperas solution. All vessels used about the patient should be
cleansed with the same solution.
Unnecessary furniture, especially that which is stuffed, carpets and
hangings, should, when possible, be removed from the room at the
outset; otherwise they should remain for subsequent fumigation and
treatment.
2. Fumigation with sulphur is the only practicable method for
disinfecting the house. For this purpose, the rooms to be disinfected
must be vacated. Heavy clothing, blankets, bedding, and other articles
which can not be treated with zinc solution, should be opened and
exposed during fumigation, as directed below. Close the rooms as
tightly as possible, place the sulphur in iron pans supported upon
bricks placed in wash-tubs containing a little water, set it on fire
by hot coals or with the aid of a spoonful of alcohol, and allow the
room to remain closed for twenty-four hours. For a room about ten feet
square, at least two pounds of sulphur should be used; for larger
rooms, proportionally increased quantities.
3. Premises. Cellars, yards, stables, gutters, privies, cesspools,
water-closets, drains, sewers, etc., should be frequently and
liberally treated with copperas solution. The copperas solution is
easily prepared by hanging a basket containing about sixty pounds of
copperas in a barrel of water.
4. Body and bed clothing, etc. It is =best= to =burn= all articles
which have been in contact with persons sick with contagious or
infectious diseases. Articles too valuable to be destroyed should be
treated as follows:
(_a._) Cotton, linen, flannels, blankets, etc., should be treated
with the boiling-hot zinc solution; introduce piece by piece, secure
thorough wetting, and boil for at least half an hour.
(_b._) Heavy woolen clothing, silks, furs, stuffed bed-covers, beds,
and other articles which can not be treated with the zinc solution,
should be hung in the room during fumigation, their surfaces thoroughly
exposed and pockets turned inside out. Afterward they should be hung
in the open air, beaten and shaken. Pillows, beds, stuffed mattresses,
upholstered furniture, etc., should be cut open, the contents spread
out and thoroughly fumigated. Carpets are best fumigated on the floor,
but should afterward be removed to the open air and thoroughly beaten.
5. Corpses especially of persons that have died of any infectious or
malignant disease, should be thoroughly washed with a zinc solution of
double strength; should then be wrapped in a sheet, wet with the zinc
solution, and buried at once.
Metallic, metal-lined, or air-tight coffins should be used when
possible; certainly when the body is to be transported for any
considerable distance.
_Comments._
SECTION I. 1. Copperas, also called green vitriol.
2. About four tablespoonfuls of the zinc and two tablespoonfuls of the
salt, making a solution of the chloride of zinc.