Part 8

The foregoing abstract of Burton’s paper is replete with valuable information. One obvious inference to be drawn from it is that where the occupant of a dwelling has serious doubts as to its sanitary conditions and cannot rely on his own observation for ascertaining the facts, he should forthwith engage the services of a specialist like the author of the paper to aid him in coming to a decision.

One of the most instructive lectures on house sanitation was that delivered by Prof. Corfield at the Parkes Museum in 1883. He considers that the best plan in the examination of a house is to begin at the top of it, proceeding downwards, and noting the different mistakes that are likely to be made in the sanitary arrangements in various parts of the house. Following out this idea, we will deal with each item in descending order.

_Rain-water._--The first thing which we must consider is that we have to get rid of the water that falls on the roof. The water from the gutter in front of the house may be disposed of in one of several ways. It may be conducted by a pipe outside of the house down the front into the area; or it may be conducted by a gutter through the roof, or, perhaps, through one of the rooms in the upper story into a gutter, over the middle of the house, between two parts of the roof, and down the middle of the house by a pipe into the drain; or it may be conducted direct from the gutter by a pipe, not outside the house, but inside the house, passing down through one or two stories, inside the rooms, perhaps through the best bedroom in front of the house, through the drawing-room, carefully hidden by some casing made to look like an ornament, through the dining-room and kitchen into the drain in the basement. Smells having been perceived in different parts of the rooms, especially in the bedrooms, various sanitary arrangements may be improved, and even made as perfect as they can be, by a kind of amateur tinkering prevalent nowadays in sanitary matters; and yet this defect which is so exceedingly serious, which is known to give rise to serious disease, is entirely overlooked--perhaps for years. The same is the case when the rain-water is carried in a gutter through the roof into a gutter between the two roofs in the middle of the house, and down by a rain-water pipe inside the house. In such cases similar disasters may occur.

But there is an additional danger from the fact that these inside gutters are in themselves most pernicious things. Soot and rotten leaves collect in them, and air blows through them into the house; and especially when these gutters are under the floors of bedrooms, this foul air is often the cause of illnesses which occur in these rooms. Even gutters which are not themselves directly connected with the drains, and which are open at both ends, but in which decayed leaves and soot accumulate and give off foul air into the rooms, may be the cause of sore throats.

Another plan to dispose of the rain-water is to carry it in a gutter right through the house to the back (the gutter may pass through the roof or the garrets), and the same remark applies to this method of construction as to those just described, except that it does not imply necessarily a defective pipe running down to the drain.

Well, then, the rain-water from the roof should be conducted by pipes placed outside the house; and there is no reason why this should not be always the case. If these pipes are not disconnected from the drains below, but are connected with them either directly, or even indirectly (with a bend in the pipe to hold water), in either instance cases of disease will arise in the rooms, the windows of which are near the rain-water pipes.

It is exceedingly difficult to persuade people upon this point; but such is the case. When the rain-water pipes starting from the top of the house below the bedroom windows, and frequently behind parapets, so that any air that comes out at the top comes out exactly close to the bedroom windows, and when these pipes come down straight into the drains and so ventilate the drains, foul air from the drains gets into the house, and disease is the result. But it is more difficult to make people understand that even when these rain-water pipes are trapped at the foot they are almost as dangerous as the untrapped ones, because foul air from the drains will pass gradually through the water in the traps into the pipes, so that these pipes are always filled with foul air and contain gases that have come from the drains.

As soon as it rains, water passes down, and the air of these pipes is displaced, comes out at the top, and so if these tops are near the windows of rooms, cases of disease will happen in those rooms.

The rain-water pipes ought to discharge on to the surface of the areas, where there ought to be siphon gullies connected with the drains.

_Ventilating Pipes._--While on the roof we can look around and observe the ventilating pipes: 1st, whether there are any or not; 2nd, of what size; 3rd, whether they have cowls or not; and 4th, in what positions they are. If we observe that they end at the top, near to chimneys, we shall see that there is liability, on account of the down draught, of the foul air from these ventilating pipes passing down the chimneys.

Chimneys often have down draughts, and if ventilating pipes are placed near them, the foul air may pass down into the rooms. If, on the other hand, although not ending near the tops of the chimneys, they are placed close to the chimneys or to walls so that their tops are sheltered, they will not act properly, and they ought to _be carried above the ridge_ of the roof, and end away from walls or chimneys. The same rule applies to chimney tops, they should not be sheltered by higher buildings.

_Cistern._--The first thing we come to inside or just below the roof (or perhaps on the roof), is the cistern.

The first point to observe is the material of which it is made. Lead cisterns (and so, too, galvanised iron cisterns) are affected by certain kinds of water; and it is important, in certain places, that cisterns should be used which are not capable of being affected by the water. Galvanised iron cisterns cause certain forms of poisoning with some waters. However, as a matter of fact, both lead and galvanised iron cisterns are used enormously, without any serious results following from their use.

A cistern is provided with an overflow and waste pipe. If the cistern is on the roof you would think it the natural thing that the overflow pipe should discharge on to the roof or leads, or into an open head; but, as a matter of fact, it is generally not the case. (By an “overflow” pipe is meant a pipe from the top, and by a “waste” pipe a pipe starting above the level of the water and passing through the bottom of the cistern.)

Overflow pipes were not in fashion at all until recently. The fashion was to have a waste pipe, and the most convenient place to take that into was some pipe passing down the house, which might be a rain-water pipe, but more frequently it was the pipe into which the water-closets discharged, which is called the “soil” pipe.

When this is the case the waste pipe of the drinking-water cistern becomes the ventilator of the pipe into which the water-closets discharge; and so in nine cases out of ten the ventilator of the house drain and of the sewer under the street, and, indeed, one of the ventilators of the main sewer. So foul air passes continually by means of this ventilator into the drinking-water cistern at the top of the house. Now foul air in sewers and drains contains matters in suspension, and often the poisons of certain diseases, such as typhoid fever; it gains access to the water in the cistern and contaminates it, and the main cause of typhoid fever in London and many other large towns is the connection of the drinking-water cisterns with the drains by means of the waste pipes.

Of course the remedy for this--the first remedy--is to put a trap on the waste pipe, as, for instance, connecting it with the trap in one of the closets or sinks. This, of course, is only a palliative, it is not the true remedy. The true remedy is to disconnect this pipe and make it discharge by itself, no matter where, in the open air. Sometimes this pipe is made to discharge into the same pipe that the sink waste-pipe discharges into. It is the practice in London to have a separate pipe for the various wastes and sinks not discharging directly into the drain, and usually carried outside the house. It is also the practice to make the waste pipes of cisterns to discharge into the same pipe. This is entirely wrong. Because, although disconnected at the foot, it is to be regarded as a foul-water pipe, and foul air passes through it up the waste pipe into the cistern. So this practice is to be condemned.

Now from the cistern, besides the waste pipe, there are pipes which supply the water to different parts of the house; there are pipes from the cistern to supply water to the taps, which are called “draw-off” pipes; and pipes from the cistern to supply water to the closets; and, as a rule, the same cistern is used for the supply of water to the closets direct and the taps at the upper part of the house. This plan may or may not be very dangerous.

There are two ways of supplying the water-closets in the upper part of the house with water. The one is to have what is called a spindle valve in the cistern, which fits a hole in the bottom of the cistern, and which is raised by a ball lever being pulled by a wire, which arrangement necessitates a contrivance called a valve box, which has a small air pipe, and with this arrangement there is liability for foul water to be jerked in the cistern. Moreover, the pipe from this valve box passes into the pan of the water-closet and becomes full of air, which air is liable to get into the valve box in the cistern. This arrangement, therefore, is decidedly bad. But there is another, in which the valve which supplies the water-closets is under the seat, and the pipe from the cistern is full of water; and that is now becoming the more usual plan. With that plan there is nothing like so much danger as with the other method; in fact, so little, that many people hesitate to condemn this arrangement.

However, to put it on no other grounds, it is clearly desirable not to have cisterns supplying drinking-water and the water-closets direct. It is better to lay down a right principle, and abide by it, than to see how you can avoid it. The best rule is that water-closets should not, for the reasons stated, under any circumstances be supplied direct from the cistern supplying the taps; Prof. Corfield lays down the rule that _every tap is a drinking-water tap, because any one may draw water at it_.

_Housemaid’s Sink._--The housemaid’s sink is often placed in a small closet just under the stairs, without any window or any sort of ventilation whatever (and we know what kind of things are kept in the sink!), so that in such a position it has not by any means a very savoury odour. The housemaid’s sink should under no circumstances be in such a position. It should be against an outside wall, and have a window. As a rule, the material used for the sink itself is lead, wood lined with lead. Now lead is not a good material. Grease, soap, and so on, have a tendency to adhere to lead, and it is very difficult to keep such sinks clean, and it would be better to have the sink of glazed stoneware.

The waste pipe of the housemaid’s sink, as a rule, is connected directly with the trap of the nearest w.c. There is a grating in the sink, and there is no trap in or under the sink, but the waste pipe is connected with the trap of the nearest water-closet. This is a bad arrangement. A worse arrangement is for the waste pipe to be connected with the soil pipe of the water-closet, in which case some kind of trap is generally placed on the waste pipe of the sink. This trap is frequently what is called a “bell” trap, and is placed in the sink. The disadvantage of the bell trap is, that when you take the top of it off you take the bell with it. The bell is the arrangement which is supposed to form the trap by the edges of it dipping in the water in the iron box; and you see at once, when the bell is removed, the trap is removed and the waste pipe, wherever it goes, is left wide open, and, if connected with the soil pipe of the water-closet, the foul air comes up into the house. Very frequently also the waste pipe of the sink has underneath it what is called a D trap. A D trap is a trap which the water passing through it can never clean; so it retains foul water; and therefore, even under sinks, such traps ought not to be allowed on account of the foul matters which accumulate in them.

The waste pipe of the housemaid’s sink should not be connected with the water-closet or soil pipe; neither with any pipe that goes directly into the drain. Its own pipe should not go directly to the drain, which is very frequently the case, but through the wall of the house into an open head or a gully outside. Very frequently the housemaid’s sink is supplied with water, not from the cistern on the roof, but from the cistern not only supplying the nearest water-closet, _but actually inside the nearest water-closet_, in which case, no matter what valves you have, you are supplying your sink with water which is kept in a cistern inside the water-closet, and that is far worse than supplying a sink with water from a cistern which also supplies the water-closet, with a reasonably protecting valve.

Close to the housemaid’s sink, and very frequently over it, is the feed cistern to the hot-water apparatus, which has also an overflow pipe, and the same remarks refer to this overflow pipe, except that it is a thing much more liable to be overlooked, as to the overflow pipe of the drinking-water cistern.

_Water-closets._--In the great majority of instances, the apparatus of this closet is what is known as the “pan” closet, that is, a closet apparatus which has a conical basin with a tinned copper bowl, called the “pan,” from which the closet gets its name. In order that this “pan” which holds water, may be moved, there is a contrivance underneath called a “container,” which is generally made of iron, and allows room for the pan to be moved. On pulling the handle the water is discharged into the pipe below. The container being generally made of iron it is liable to rust. Now the disadvantage of this apparatus consists in this large iron box, which is under the seat of the closet, being generally full of foul air. The contents of the pan are splashed into it, and it becomes coated with foul matters which decompose and continually give off foul air. Every time the handle of the closet is pulled some foul air is forced up into the house. That foul air is kept in this box between the trap which is below it and the pan which contains the water above it. In order to allow of the escape of this foul air it is not uncommon to have a hole bored in the top of the container. You would suppose that hole was intended to fix a ventilating pipe to, but nothing of the kind; the hole has been made merely to allow the escape of foul air into the house. Sometimes a ventilating pipe is attached to this hole and taken out through the wall, but that is the exception. This form of closet is the worst form of closet apparatus yet devised, and is very generally in use.

An attempt has been made to improve it by having a stoneware container, with a place for ventilation at the side, only it is an attempt to improve a radically bad arrangement, and not worth further consideration. Underneath this closet apparatus you will, as a rule, find, if you take the woodwork down, a tray of lead, called the “safe” tray. But there is no other word in the language that would not be a better description of it than this word! This tray is intended to catch any water that may escape from leaky pipes, or any slops that may be thrown over; and so it is necessary that this tray should have a waste pipe. The waste pipe in nine out of ten cases, probably in much greater proportion, goes into the trap immediately underneath the closet, and so it forms a communication for foul air from this trap to get into the house.

In some instances it goes directly into the soil pipe, and forms a means of ventilation of the soil pipe into the house. Sometimes a trap is put on this waste pipe, and it is then connected with the soil pipe, which goes on well so long as there is any water in the trap; but as soon as the water becomes evaporated, foul air gets into the house again.

Sometimes (to show the ingenuity which people often expend upon bad things) this waste pipe has a trap, and a little pipe from the water supply fixed to feed the trap; but all these ingenious plans have been devised in order to improve upon a principle radically wrong. The pipe should be carried through the wall and end outside the house as a warning pipe.

Scarcely any water ever comes out at all; if any does come out, it shows there is something wrong, so that this pipe should pass through the wall, and be made to discharge outside the house.

In order to prevent wind blowing up the pipe, it is usual to put a small brass flapper on the end. Its weight keeps it shut, and the pressure of water opens it.

Underneath the safe-tray you will find as a rule a trap of some kind, and generally the trap that is found is a D trap, a trap whose name indicates its shape, and which cannot be washed out by the water that passes through it. The pipe from the closet passes so far in it that it dips below the level of the out-going pipe, and thus forms a sort of dip-trap. The pipe which is the inlet from the closet is not placed close to the edge, but a little way in, to form a receptacle for all kinds of filth!

You will see it is impossible for the water that passes through it to clear the contents out, so that the trap is simply a small cesspool, nothing more nor less. Into that trap various waste pipes are frequently connected.

There is another form of D trap in which there are two waste pipes going into the water near the bottom of the trap (probably the waste pipe of the safe and the waste pipe of the cistern).

The D trap, then, is a bad form of trap, because it is not self-cleansing. The water cannot possibly keep it clear of sediment. So that some trap should be used which is self-cleansing, and the water which passes through it is capable of keeping it clean. Now that trap is a mere ∾-shaped bend in the pipe, to which we give the name of siphon, not because we want it to act as a siphon--for if it acts as a siphon it is of no use!

A curious thing about siphon traps and pan closets is, that the form of trap which was used first in connection with water-closets was the siphon trap, which we now praise; and the form of trap which supplanted it was the D trap, which we are now condemning and taking out wherever we can. A still more curious thing is that the form of water-closet which we now condemn (the pan closet) was the form of closet which supplanted the closet we are now using (the valve closet). The valve closet was invented long before the pan closet. Bramah valve closets fixed forty years ago often act tolerably well now, and at the present day they are only taken out because they are really actually worn out.

The valve closet, which we often find upstairs in old houses instead of the pan closet, has no large iron container under the seat, but it has a water-tight valve under the basin, and so requires a small valve-box; so that there is no great collection of foul air immediately under the basin of the closet. The valve closet, however, has a disadvantage in that it requires an overflow pipe; because the valve is water-tight, and if servants throw slops into it, or the supply pipe to it leaks, the water goes on running and the basin fills, and, if there were no overflow pipe, it would overflow on to the floor; so that probably the pan closet ousted the valve closet because it was found that people could go on throwing in any amount of slops and using it in the roughest manner without getting their ceilings damaged. However, the valve closets, as they were originally made, generally had overflow pipes which went into part of the apparatus below. Occasionally these overflow pipes are connected with soil pipes or the trap of the closet below, but these are exceptional instances.

One of the water-closets in the basement is very frequently in an exceedingly improper position--either in the scullery or actually in the kitchen. These w.c.’s ought all to be outside the house.

If closets are in the middle of the house they ought to be done away with, and should be put against an outside wall. This might be done by sacrificing a bit of some room which can be spared, or by converting some small bedroom into a bath-room and closet, or still better, by making a sort of tower outside the house.

The merits and demerits of the various kinds of water-closet were discussed in a paper by Emptage before the Congress of the Sanitary Institute at Glasgow. To be rightly considered wholesome and adapted for general use, a closet should, in Emptage’s opinion, possess the following qualifications:--

1st. The water seal of its trap should be in sight, should stand up in the basin, and be quite safe from either momentum or siphonage.

2nd. It should be so thoroughly flushed that at each discharge every part of the basin and trap would be properly cleansed.

3rd. It should be as well adapted for the discharge of slops as for a w.c.

A closet possessing these advantages is perfectly safe to use anywhere, and the only kind which, in his opinion, comes up to this standard, is that known as the “direct action.” Within the last few years several inventors have turned their attention to the manufacture of this kind of closet, and there are now several in the market to choose from, each of which has some advantage peculiar to itself.

Emptage has found:

1st. That these closets, when properly trapped, flushed, and ventilated, are perfectly safe and wholesome, and are free from the evils and annoyances attendant upon most other forms.

2nd. That to ensure a thorough flush out, the water must fall with an avalanche-like action direct upon the surface of the water in the basin.

3rd. That those basins which show an O G section are more readily flushed than those which have sides in the form of inclined planes.

4th. That with a suitably shaped basin 2 gal. of water, delivered in 5 seconds, will thoroughly cleanse the closet.

5th. That the ordinary round P or half S trap should never be used beneath these closets, because no reliance can be placed upon the safety of its seal.

6th. Care is required in fixing these closets to ensure adequate ventilation to the trap, because, owing to the exposed position of its seal, it is liable, unless so guarded, to be destroyed at any moment by the discharge of a pail of slops: but if properly protected, it is quite safe from this action.

Where the position is such that this necessary protection cannot be given, on no account should a “direct-action” closet be used. It is better, under such circumstances, of the two evils to choose the lesser, and fix a good “Bramah” pattern valve closet and D trap.