Report on the purification and utilization of the sewage of Glasgow and suburbs; with appendices.

  • Young, John, inspector of cleansing, Glasgow.
Date:
1888
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Report on the purification and utilization of the sewage of Glasgow and suburbs; with appendices. 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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    satisfactory method of purification. The earliest opportunities were accordingly embraced of acquiring additional adjoining lands. The result was that, in 1880, 1227 acres of suitable land had been secured, over which, with the exception of about 100 acres, the sewage flows by gravitation; and in 1882 the system of supplementary irrigation was complete. The Board farms the whole of the land, no portion of it being sublet. The sewage flows from the tanks at Saltley to the centre of the irrigation farm at Tyburn, a distance of 2| miles, in a conduit 8 feet in diameter. It is drawn from this conduit into open brick carriers, which again discharge into secondary carriers of earth, and thence into the flooding carriers. The brick carriers are constructed with only a slight fall, jumps being provided in the inverts at suitable intervals for drawing down the water. The statement of income and expenditure for 1885 shews the balance cost of the Precipitation Works to have been £11,491 6s. 3d., and of the Irrigation Farm £2,813 14s. 2d. additional. Remarking upon this statement, Mr. Till concludes his able paper as follows:—“ The great loss, as will bo seen from the statement, is in the work of Precipitation at the outlet (which comprises the lime, wages, machinery, expenses, and other charges connected with intercepting and dealing with the mud from the tanks). The amount expended under this head (exclusive of rent) was £10,715, for which sum 4,778 tons of lime were provided for precipitation, and 135,476 cube yards of mud were arrested in the tanks and dug into the land; the corresponding income is practically nil. Since the opening out of the irrigation land the expenses of Precipitation at the outlet have undergone some reduction, and there is every prospect not only of a further reduc- tion in the future, but also of a gradual increase in the receipte from the Irrigation Farm as the demand for the farm produce is developed; but, bearing in mind the large initial outlay in pur- chase of land and the construction of works, and the annual expenses in disposing of so large a volume of sewage, it is not to be expected that assistance from the rates can be dispensed with until, in the somewhat distant future, the large annual sum now required for interest and repayment of loans shall cease. It should, however, be remembered, in dealing with sewage farm accounts, that, after all, the great item on the credit side of the balance-sheet (although it is one that cannot be represented by a money value) is the satisfactoiy disposal of the sewage.” In reply to my queries and inquiries on the spot, Mr. David Tough, who has had 21 years’ experience of sewage farming (although he has only been two years farm manager at Birming- ham), went to considerable trouble to give me the following supplementary details up to date :— The population of drainage district is about 650,000; the area is 47,275 acres; the rainfall about 22 inches per annum; the water supply 16 million gallons per day; and the daily average