Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/351

 Aprin 26, 1872: THE BUILDING NEWS. 331 fixed, as above stated, the cost of getting is to be added to that of filling and wheeling, at the rate of 14d. per cubic yard for as many getters as are proved to be required to keep each barrow road in work. ‘hus, if the stuff be easily got one getter may get as much as two men can fill, in which case 14d. is to be added to each of the foregoing prices, making the first 34d., the second, 3$d., and the third 44d. per cubic yard. But in some cases it requires 2 getters to keep a barrow road in work, in which case 24d. is to be added, making respectively 43d., 5d., and 53d. per cubic yard, and so on for any num- ber of getters required. In working in shale it often requires 3 getters to each barrow road. If we take an average. example in excavating clay or marl, which requires 2 getters to keep 2 fillers at work, each of whom will fill 14 yards a day, and taking it to be wheeled 3 runs, the estimate will stand as follows :— 2 getters 2 fillers 3 runners 1 tipman 8 men at 3s.aday = 24s., for which 28 cubic yards will be removed, being at the rate of 104d. per cubic yard, but to this must be added 1d. for plant and superinten- dence, making 113d., and in practice this would be called 1s. per cubie yard, to include a legitimate profit. It is true that while we have taken the wages at 3s. per day all round, some of the workmen would receive less, but others would generally receive more. A. man who knows how to use a pick, and is able and willing to use it, is not in general well satisfied with less than 3s. 4d. a day, but fillers often receive no more than 2s, 10d., while the tipman, having less hard work to do, will probably receive his 2s. 8d. a day. Wheelers are always worth 3s. a day, at the least, for if they do not shift the stuff out of the way with due speed there is a general hindrance of the whole work. There is a peculiar knack in wheeling and tipping loaded barrows, one part of which consists of giving as little motion as possible to the body in the act of tipping, for when the barrow is un- necessarily turned over the labour of re- covering it is considerable. A man who handles his barrow well throws out the dirt with very little apparent motion, the effect being produced by a jerk of the wrist. The part of wheeling forms no exception to what we said before, that to excavate and remove earth in a proper manner is an art, capable, certainly, like any other art, of being learnt by precept and example, but requiring both physical and mental aptitude for it. Errata.—Referring to the first and second columns of page 292, the letter m, as repre- senting the ratio of the horizontal to the vertical measurements of the slope, should have been n. ——__—___—_ HOW TO BUILD SCIENTIFICALLY WITH THE AID OF MODERN IN- VENTIONS.—XII. SANITARY. i is curious to find what perfect informa- tion is possessed on this, and every other subject by the writers for the daily press ; so that, considering how much during the last few months they have written, the worldshould thoroughly understand this in particular. I mean, of course, if we were to judge such writers’ information and knowledge by the estimate they, in their writings, appear to set upon it. It is certainly remarkable (and I fear it shows how little is real education spread amongst the middle classes) that the most effective style of leading article in the daily papers is that which abuses one or other of the professions, accusing its profes- sors of gross ignorance, stupidity, unac- countable dogged persistence in error, while all the time the method to be pursued was plainly visible. The writers of such articles then explain what ought to be done; and the public think the ‘‘ leader” clever, and full of common sense, and the profession attacked, stupid and behind the age; the fact pro- bably being, that the remedy proposed is either something which has already been found to be useless, or else will not effect the objects desired. If any one thinks that Tam overdrawing the picture let him read all the letters and leading articles in the daily papers, when sanitary matters were.so much diseussed, in consequence of the illness of the Prince of Wales; he will then, I trow, have no hesitation in confirming what is here advanced. It is certain that if more informa- tion were imparted to the upper and middle classes on technical questions, such articles would not be written, because their absurdi- ties would be detected. Such writers may be reminded of the lines— “____ And fools rush in Where angels fear to tread.” The scientific world must, however, find the remedy (if remedy there be) for the existing defects. I propose limiting my remarks to that which more properly belongs to our profes- sion—namely, the drainage and sanitation of houses, because we are compelled to connect our drains with the sewers over which we have no control, and also because drainage works would appear now more properly to appertain to the engineer. What, then, are the defects which still exist? (1) The impossibility of haying water-closets without the chance of injury to health ; (2) the difficulty of ventilation with- out draught; (3) the absence of any good and cheap system of warming; (4) the un- necessary labour in bed and dressing-rooms, in filling baths, &c., and removal of used water. First, then, as to the water-closet. There is the common bricklayer’s closet, the pan closet, and the valve closet. Doesit not seem that we are retrograding when it is stated that of all the closets invented the common bricklayer’s closet may be made the safest ? Yet such is the fact, if only plenty of water is used. Perhaps I shall best explain this by pointing out the defects in other closets. Pan Cxoser.—The defect here is the re- ceiver, which my readers know is necessarily of large size, and which, if examined after some years’ service, will be found incrusted. I need say little more to show the need of improvement here, except that I must not omit to mention how this receiver often con- tains the gases which arise from the sewer, or from the pipes connecting therewith; so that when the handle is lifted, these gases escape into the room. It must be also remembered that when the handle is raised, neither this closet nor the valve closet, of which we shall next speak, are more or less than the ordi- nary bricklayer’s closet; if then, as has been so justly remarked, the strength of a chain ig its weakest link, a parity of reasoning would result in saying, that neither the pan nor the valve closet is better than the bricklayer’s closet; and probably this is true to a greater extent than is admitted. Further, if the new idea of passing the gas from the sewers into the atmosphere in many places, so that it may by admixture with the air become so much diluted as to be harmless, be correct, then probably the bricklayer’s closet will have an advantage over the other closets, in that it will emit its gases continuously, while the others being confined will emit them in volume from the receiver or container, when the handle is lifted. Therefore, if the room be well venti- lated, it would appear as if less danger at- tached to the simple syphon trap than to the more elaborate inventions of later date. Vatye Crioser.—The advantage claimed is the substitution of the smaller container for the receiver. The disadvantage, which must not be lost sight of, is the chance of the valve being detained and kept open by paper, ne- cessitating careful usage to ensure success in the action. The second objection is the cost, which is nearly twice that of the pan closet. Surely then, we may draw the infe- rence that something is needed which shall _ remedy the evils,and I would call attention to two recent proposals. First—Mr. Underhay is making his con- tainer in glazed stone-ware, so that no par- ticle of soil may remain, and also, at my suggestion, he is making a sample in iron, enamelled by the De Lavenant process, the object being the increased strength, the better joints, the non-liability to break- age, and the great endurance of the enamel. Of course, such process might be equally applied to the pan closet receiver, and I would urge its general adoption for that purpose. The second, is an ingenious cover to the water-closet, filled with charcoal, so fitted that on the person rising it slowly falls down pulled up, any effluvia arising is absorbed by the charcoal. I have only seena specimen model of this, so cannot speak from experience as to its success. I find I must reserve the divisions two and three for next week on account of space, and | will, therefore, treat next of the fourth defects. Tt does seem to me peculiar, that while for some years the bath in the bedroom-has been a necessity, the clumsy method of daily emptying it should not have been improved on. Has any one watched the servants bail out the water from the hip bath, or try to empty the sponge bath? which generally results in their saturating the carpets. But take the mere question of time, is it right so much time should be spent, when it might be avoided if only some one would think the. matter out ? Here, again, I suggest work for the inven- tive faculty. I tried some time ago and suc- ceeded to a limited extent, and I give the results for the benefit of those who will pursue the subject. One machine was on the principle of the syphon, so much used by distiller’s men, with one arm longer than the other, the air being extracted by an india- rubber ball attached, the longer arm running alone the floor into the sink on landing ; the other a small hand-pump to be placed by the side of bath with suction-pipe therein and pipe from pump to sink. As to this latter, the servants, I may as well mention, objected to the labour of working the pump, preferring to ladle outthe water. In the former my machine would not always act, the india- rubber ball not fully exhausting the pipe ; of course this could be remedied, but I have been too occupied to improve thereon. Perhaps I cannot better end this paper than by giving suggestions as to what a house should be, if built with the desire that sanita- tion should be easily accomplished. It is certain that, not only with the poor but also with the rich, the more easy it is to be clean, the more likely such a result will be attained. Suggestions. —Usually a house is considered finished when in reality it is a mere shell. To illustrate what I mean, let me say what I consider a house should have to complete it for economic occupation. There should be a furnace in basement (which would burn small coal), every room in the house should be warmed therefrom, except, perhaps, the sitting rooms, where the cheerfulness of the open fire might be desired. The existing flues in houses already built might be utilised to con- vey the heated air or water from such furnace. Each room would have a tap therein to regu- late the temperature. The saying herein would be the lighting andattending to the fire in each room, and the carrying upstairs of the coals and removal of the ashes. Where this is done, a ventilating pipe might very easily be carried up in a part of existing chimney, so that the foul air might be removed without interfering with the action of the flue. If such pipe were made of iron, the heat
 * and closes the orifice, the handle then being