Volume 1

First report.

  • Great Britain. Royal Commission on the State of Large Towns.
Date:
1844
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: First report. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    26/428 (page 22)
    .casons for tlio lquiry into eUils. are termed first-class sewers/ the expense of construction has been reduced from 21s. to 15s. per loot, and of the sewers for side streets from 15s. to 10s., amd in some cases to 8s. Qd. per foot; and, by an improved construction, the expense of traps to prevent the escape ol loul air from gully-shoots into the streets, is reduced from 30s. to 10s. each., while in other metropolitan districts the charge for putting in each trap is still 3/. In the same division, by the adoption of a system of cleansing by flushing or flooding with water, the accumulation of deposits of de- composing substances has been prevented in a large pro- portion of the sewers; and by rendering unnecessary the mode of cleansing by hand labour and cartage (at once unhealthy and expensive), 50 per cent, of the former expense has been saved. The investigation of such details has appeared to us to be of the highest practical importance, as affecting the question of expense and efficiency. The statements we have received, are subject to considerable modifications in different places, from the varying prices of labour and ma- terials ; but hitherto, at almost every step in the progress of this detailed inquiry, it appears that the practical course of efficient improvement is not incompatible with the re- duction of existing pecuniary charges, independent of the vast gain in the public health, convenience, and comfort. Mr. Foden,2 architect, in his evidence affords examples of works in use, and gives instances in support of similar conclusions advanced by other practical witnesses, that under appropriate arrangements water may be carried into houses, proper house-drains and means of cleansing intro- duced, and branch-sewers formed at nearly one-half the annual or weekly expense now incurred for the proper cleansing of the cesspools alone. We have appended an estimate made by Mr. Coulthart,3 of Ashton-under-Lyne, of the expense of all the works deemed requisite for the sanatory improvement of that town, as contrasted with the pecuniary saving of the ex- penses attendant upon excessive sickness and mortality, ourse of inquiry To the subject of the advantage to be derived from the pplication of the sale and improved application of the refuse and sewage of