On the size of house drains, and the use and misuse of traps / by John Honeyman.

  • Honeyman, John, 1831-1914.
Date:
[1887]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: On the size of house drains, and the use and misuse of traps / by John Honeyman. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The University of Glasgow Library. The original may be consulted at The University of Glasgow Library.

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    ingress of external air, but I have no doubt that a good valve closet without any trap is hygienically a greatly superior appa- ratus. The external air is effectually excluded in this case by the water held in the basin; but it would be sufficiently excluded by the valve itself if we assume that the air in the house drain is innocuous ; there is therefore no use of a trap in addition to the valve, and without that obstruction the contents of the closet are'at once discharged into the drain and carried clear of the house in a few seconds. In this way you not only with certainty get quit of excrementitious matter, but also of water which has been in contact with it; whereas in trapped closets you may get rid of the former but not of the latter, and in many varieties you get rid of neither. It is about twelve years since I first ventured to use trapless closets, and I have recently had an opportunity of comparing some of these, which have been in use for more than ten years, with trapped closets of about the same age, with the following result: in no case was I able to detect the slightest smell from a trapless closet, however long I held the valve open, and in every case where the closet was trapped a most offensive smell was perceptible, if the valve were kept open for a few seconds. All my experience indeed points to this: that our best chance of safety lies in so con- triving our house-drains and plumber-work that there shall not be one single receptacle where stagnation is possible throughout our entire system, and that the pure air of heaven shall con- stantly permeate every nook and cranny of it. Besides plenty of air and a good scour, and periodical flush- ing, one thing more is desirable, if not essential, if the con- tents of our house-drains are to be harmless, and that is that they should be regularly cleaned. I may not enter upon this subject now, but venture to say that I see no difficulty what- ever in having this cleaning done periodically at less expense, and with very much less trouble to the occupants of the house, than a somewhat analogous operation to which we are quite accustomed—the sweeping of chimneys. There is indeed no reason why we should not have drain-sweeps as well as chimney- sweeps. [This discussion also applies to apaper by Mr. R.E. Middleton.] Mr. Daniel Emptage (Margate) opened the discussion, and re- marked that he agreed with Mr. Middleton that the best way to ventilate a sewer was by carrying a pipe from it to the top of every house, though he thought the pipe should be taken as close to the seal of the disconnecting trap as possible. He also considered that