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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    NATURE 01? BEWAGE-DISP08AL PROBLEM. H hv E S Cliesbrough for the city of CWcago in 1855. On the continent Sxop?rsewe/system was constructed at Ilaxnbux-g after the great f n L9 bv Lindley an Enghsh engineer. Berhn began her sewer- h Lalil countries, though still sonxewhat -d^^- f ^^^^^^^^^^^ 1 T^rnm-Pss No law of saxxitatxon xs xiow more clearly recog Sa'x tle^^^^^^^^^ the wastes of huxxxan life nxust be diluted Th an adequate supply of water and quickly rex^oved froxxx the. '^ WrthlhrStebuS^^^^^^ of the water-carriage systexxi the difliculty - was shifted froxn the individual to the conxmuxxity. The msanxtary coxxditions surroimduxg the dwelling were reheved, but at sonxe poxnt on the outsldrts of the city the concentrated filth froxn its entxre popu- lation xxxust be disposed of. The vast volume of water in which the excretal elements are distributed makes the problem only more diffi- cult In England the average daily flow of sewage is about 25 gal- lons per capita. In London it is 34 gallons (R. S. C, 1902 b°) In the United States, on the other hand, the flow in several small Massa- chusetts cities is estimated at about 100 gallons (Fuller, 1903), while for the south metropohtan district of Boston it is over 250 gallons (Wmslow and Phelps, 1905). In the latter case the yearly flow of sewage amounts to 46 billion gallons—a fair-sized river. The organic matter to be treated includes during the year over 1,500,000 kilo- grams of nitrogen in the form of free axximonia alone. The treatment of such a voluxxxe of waste xxxaterial offers a problexn in apphed chem- istry of no mean magnitude. The undesirable constituents in sewage xxiay be considered under two heads—living germs axid dead organic matter. The first create disease; the second breeds nuisances. The gerixxs of alxxiost axiy dis- ease of ixxan or the lower anixxxals xxiay gain access to sewage, and, in the case of typh£)id fever in particular, the uxfection may be trans- mitted through its agency so as to cause epidexxiics on a disastrous scale. The experixxients of Jordan, Russell, and Zeit (1904) and of Frost (1904) indicate that typhoid bacilh ux water, and particularly in sewage-polluted water, for the most part die in a few days. Yet the statistics of Lowell, Lawrence, Chicago, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, and Newark indicate that the typhoid germs which survive a so- journ in sewage and water are sufficiently numerous to produce serious results. Therefore where shellfish are taken from an estuary into which sewage is discharged it is desirable to subject the sewage a Complete references to all literature cited in this report will be f oiind in the bibliography at the end. References in the text include the name of the authority (the initials in the case of the British commis- sions) and the date of publication, with a distinguishing letter in case more than one volume appeared in a single year. This serves simply to identify the article or book, the fuU title of which is given in the bibliography.