Investigations on the purification of Boston sewage made at the sanitary research laboratory and sewage experiment station of the Massachusetts institute of technology, with a history of the sewage-disposal problem / By C.E.A. Winslow and Earle B. Phelps.

  • Winslow, C.-E. A. (Charles-Edward Amory), 1877-1957.
Date:
1906
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Investigations on the purification of Boston sewage made at the sanitary research laboratory and sewage experiment station of the Massachusetts institute of technology, with a history of the sewage-disposal problem / By C.E.A. Winslow and Earle B. Phelps. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    Moved by the magnitude and gravity of the sewage-disposal prob- lem as it concerns householders and communities, an anonymous friend of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in 1902, pre- sented to that institution the sum of $5,000 a year for three year's, for the purpose of making experiments on sewage purification and of giv- ing the widest possible publicity to means or methods by which the present too often crude and imperfect systems may be improved. In a letter which constituted a virtual deed of gift, the donor designated a preference for the following lines of activity: 1. For keeping up with the investigations of tlie best workers in all countries. 2. For utilizing this knowledge in the work of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 3. For original experiments. 4. For distributing all over the country the results of the work in such words that he who runs may read. 5. For inciting students to make plain and simple statements of the results of their studies. The gift thus made was gratefully accepted by the authorities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the planning and organi- zation of the work to be done were assigned by them to the writer, head of the department of biology, who had for some years served as lecturer in the Institute on sanitary science and public health, and had also gained considerable experience in sewage purification during a connection of several years with the work of the State board of health of Massachusetts. In view of the limited means available and the long-continued and well-known investigations of the Massachusetts State board of health at the Lawrence experiment station, dealing chiefly with the sewage of an inland city; in view, also, of the increas- ing use of harbors for the disposal of the sewage of seaboard towns, with the growing dangers of contamination of shellfish, polhition of bathing beaches, and the like; and especially in view of the desira- bility of maldng the new work of practical educational value to the students of the Institute of Technology, who might carry away with them into active life and to all parts of the country the results of per- sonal knowledge of the work, it was decided to establish a sanitary research laboratory and sewage experiment station on the main trunk sewer of the soutli metropolitan system of the great seaboard city of Boston. The precise point finally chosen, near the corner of Massa- chusetts avenue and Albany street, has proved very convenient and favorable. Here a piece of land formerly occupied by a livery stable was secured on a long lease, the stable itself was turned into a tank house, and a smaller building on the premises was fitted up as an office, with chemical and bacteriological laboratories comiected. Open space enough remained for the construction later of outdoor filters and a large trickling filter. Permission was obtained for makmg connections with the main trunk sewer of the south metropolitan