DRAINAGE AND UTILISING WASTE OF CITIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 127, 3 June 1867, Page 3

DRAINAGE AND UTILISING WASTE OF CITIES.

A novel system ' of, drainage for the houses of cities, patented by Captain Liernur, is about to be introduced at the Hague, the residence of the King of the Netherlands, and a town of 80,000 inhabitants. It consists of an arrangement for daily inodorous emptying aud scouring of the passages for excietaj by pneumatic action, and the immediate removal and utilisation of the produces, without allowing lime for the pestilential process of fermentation, which evolves the intolerable gases of our ordinary sewerage. The abseuce of water in the products removed is of no little advantage for fertilising purposes. A plough, which at ouce distributes and'covers these products beneath the soil, forms another item of the apparatus. The system of house excretion is quite simple. A straight vertical water pipe extends from the basement to the top of the house, and emerges open, like a chimuey. Into this the necessary openings are made, on each floor if desired, with air-tight lids, but entirely clear of i valves, traps, or other machinery. A strong current of air sets through them in the direction of the outlet above whenever they are opened. All the housepipes connect with a street pipe, which ends in a reservoir of boiler-iron sunk beneath the roadway at the principal street-crossings, the whole being constructed air-tight. Each house-pipe is closed by a valve, operating at the edge of the sidewalk. Every night a sufficient number of waggons go their rounds, each provided with a powerful air-pump, steam engine, and detachable tender carrying an air-tight reservoir. First, the air-pump is coupled to the reservoir beneath the street-crossing, and sufficient vacuum created. Then the valves of the housepipes are opened, one at a time, with a sudden movement. The pressure of the air from the open top of the pipe has already forced the contents as far as the valve, aud ou opening it the mass is shot into the reservoir, with a rush of air like a concentrated hurricane scouring the interior of the pipe throughout. Experiment, it is said, has shown this necessary work to be very thorough. Each valve is again closed before another is opened, and during this process the steam continues its work, nmintaiuing the vacuum. When all the valves have been opened and closed, the tender reservoir is coupled on and the contents of the street reservoir are thrown into it by pneumatic pressure. When filled, it is met and relieved by another I tender, and goes its way to the peudrette manufactory ; or the reservoir is shipped to the nearest rural station, and there tiecanted into the barrel reservoirs of the patent plough, and emptied under the surface of the soil. The economical estimates reported are as follow: — One steam-engine of 10 or 12 horse-power, with three tenders of 90 cubic feet each, suffices for nightly service of a population of 10,000 working seven or eight hours. The quantity removed is one pound and three-quarters, or '; 48 cubic inches per day, for the average of all persons; the liquid being to the solid as a little more than six to one, and i much the more valuable intrinsically. I The least agricultural value of the fertilising products in Europe is stated at one shilling sterling per cubic foot; making the iucome from this source, if the work were performed without charge to the inhabitants, over 22,000 dol. per annum for the services of one engine truck and three tenders, requiring half-a-dozen horses and as many men, with some further charge for fuel aud freight to the country. The Scientific American ssljv : — ln the city of New York, probably' a full half of all of this agricultural wealth is wasted in the sewerage, and at the same time converted into a source of disease instead of profit. After all this waste and mischief, j however, we are informed that there remain, at the very lowest calculation, . 500,000 cart loads, or 25,000,000 cubic feet, of nightsoil, carried out of the city in the most primitive and offeusive manner at the rate of 2,000 loads nightly on 250 nights of the year. This, or all it can use. the poudreite manufacturing company takes of the city at 4000 dol. per annum for carrying it to that liberal purchaser. . At the European valuation, this manure,, allowing half of it to be rubbish, would be worth 2,755,000 dol. At a low American valuation, say five dollars per hundred feet, it would amount to 312,400 do!, or, for the whole city, 624,000d01. Hints from this system might be adopted in villages, aud by builders of isolated houses.

The London Guardian is in a positiou to state that the work whic-h. her Majestyhas been for some time reported to be engaged in writing, is not merely in a forward state, but is actually printer], stitched, bound, and at Je.'ist a fortnight ago was distributed among her own perdonul friends and those of the late Prince Consort. Our readers will be rather startled to learn that a new edition of Winckelman's "Allegory of Art," which was published in 1766, is about to appear, prepared by the author himself. The fact is that his own large paper copy covered with a vast number of corrections, additions, &c, on almost every page, was discovered some time ago in the Albany Library, of which he was keeper. — Pall Blall Gazette. N A lawyer neither young nor handsome, when examining a youn^ lady witness in court, desiring to perplex her, said, "Miss, upon my word, you are very pretty. 1 ' The young lady replied, £> I would return the compliment, sir, if i were not under oath." Hollowai/s Ointment and l J ills. — Happy Health. However provident, however careful man maybe, he is still destined to he assailed by sickness, and it is wisdom to be provided with a remedy against such a calamity. The Ointment and Pills, discovered by Professor Holloway, are acknowledged by every person who has tried them to possess the highest merits in curing bad legs, bad breasts, old wounds, sores, and ulcers, and such blemishes as have been contracted by imprudencies. Inflammations and glandular swellings are surely removed, while the Pills purify and strengthen this system. Thus, even in moderately good health, occasional doses of them prove highly beneficial, by their tendency to preserve the body from impurities and weaknesses, whereas in obstinate cases they never tail to root out the most inveterate diseases. 2522