SANITATION AND VENTILATION, AS REQUIRED IN A MODERN HOUSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9010, 15 October 1892, Page 1 (Supplement)

SANITATION AND VENTILATION, AS REQUIRED IN A MODERN HOUSE.

No. 11. [BY EDWARD WITHY.] The rain water pipes should never be connected to the drains, bub should either discharge upon such a grating as that just described or else into an open channel communicating with one. Where they are connected to a drain the foul air will flow up them in dry weather and may enter a window or find its way in ab the eaves or under the slates. On one occasion when visiting at a friend's house in London in the summer time I left the bedroom window open and woke in the nighb to find the room filled with thei vilest smell. In the morning I looked out of the window to discover the probable cause. Underneath was the top of a bay window with a small and innocent-looking pipe in one corner to carry off the rain. My host got a plumber at once and found that this pipe was carried direct, without any trap, into the drain which led to the main sewer in the road. Tho small pipe was made of zinc, and was perfectly blackened inside by the foul gas for which it may have been for years the principal outlet. The danger in such cases, however, is nob confined to houses connected with pubHb sewers. In a house, to the sanitation of which I had devoted much care and which had its own cesspit, I noticed a bad smell on the top of the porch. The London experience occurred to me, and I went at once to the head of the rain water pipe. There was a most offensive odour rising from it. The tops of two bay windows were fitted in the same way, and above each there was a bedroom window. I found the rain water pipes connected directly to the drain, and had them at once cut off above ground, so that they should discharge into the open air. The reasons which make foul air so ready to enter a house will be dealt with presently under the heading of " Ventilation." Plate 2 shows a system of water-wastes arranged in the way described. As each principal part is named it will probably explain itself pretty fully. WATER WASTES.

The next; point with which I will deal is the connection of the soil pipe with the drain. " This should be done in such a manner as to ensure the carrying out of the same principle as that adopted in connecting the water-closet and soil pipe. This principle is the prevention of the escape of four air from the pipe into the house when each discharge is made. In the case now under notice we must similarly prevent the passage of foul air from the drain into the soil pipe. The trap which form 3 the connection must not, therefore, be of the old air-tight description, but must contain a vent open to the air from the house side of the water-seal of the trap. If such an opening is provided it will prevent any foul air from passing into the soil pipe, because it supplies an easier outlet. This opening will at the same time answer for the fresh air inlet required at the foot of the soil pipe. Care must, of course, be taken that this vent shall not be directly under, or near to, any of the windows of the house. Plate 1 shows the position of this intercepting trap and fig. 1 gives a detail of it. The final point of importance is the ventilation, where practicable, of the drain connecting the house with the main sewer. This will not be possible in a public street, bub there are many cases where a house stands well back from the road, and others where there is- a private cesspib in the grounds. To ensure real ventilation, here, as in other cases, an outlet merely is not sufficient, but an inlet must also be provided. Both should' be kept well away from windows or much-frequented paths, and the outlet should be carried up as high as possible. An exhaust ventilator on the outlet and an inlet ventilator, such as a cowl arranged to keep its mouth instead of its back to the wind, will greatly add to efficiency of the ventilation. Of the two arrangements possible the better one would be to have the inlet ab the end near to the house and the outlet at the distant one.

In endeavouring to make sanitary arrangements do not be deceived by the supposed efficacy of deodorisers when applied to the various openings. It isn't the mere smell of the foul air which we wish to remove, bub to prevent the entrance of the disease germs which ib carries with it. Foul air requires constantly diluting with pure air, and, at the same time, carrying away to a distance from our houses and our lungs. Disinfectants, when used in connection with drainage, are mere useless shams. If there is any foul air entering our houses we had better know of its presence by the smell'and then take effectual measures to stop its entrance. Don't let us be guilty of the folly of allowing it to come in and then of using mere palliatives to drown the voice with which ib warns us. The foregoing pages may serve to describe, and to explain the reasons for adopting, an improved design for our systems of sanitation, and I will now deal with details of construction and offer criticisms upon some of the appliances in common use. Ib will be self-evident thab the very best design may fail from the outset if the details of construction are faulty. HOUSE drain. The drain pipe 3 leading from a house, whether to a cesspib or bo a public sewer, should be constructed of earthenware socket pipes glazed inside and out. They should never be builb of brick or stone for the following reasons; —(1) Ib is 'almost impossible to make them tight and (2) quite impossible to keep them so; (3) their inner surfaces are always more or less rough and, as a consequece, they retain portions of the discharges and become very foul; (4) they cannot be made, when of small size, of the best sectional form for allowing a good flushing effect to the liquids discharged into them. An error in laying drains, and one formerly very common, is to make them boo large in diameter. Ib is now considered better to make them as small as possible, consistent, of course, with their ability to carry off what is required. The reason is thab the flush of water being more concentrated, goes through with greater speed and force, lb thus keeps the drain clear and also comparatively clean. If a 4-inch pipe will do the work, a 6-inch should never be used. In most ordinary dwelling-houses the best authorities, agree vh&b tbe ioxmn

is ample. * The area of a 6-inch pipe is two and a-quarter times that of a 4-inch and is only necessary in a large house having more than two water-closets. The next important matter its the jointing of the pipes. The first point to attend to is to keep the socket end uphill, and the second to see that the next pipe lies fair and straight in it. If a sharp turn is required a bend exactly suiting it should be used. If a gradual curve is necessary probably a little care in selecting those pipes which have not been made quite straight may be sufficient. All the pipes should be solidly bedded and a small trench made under each socket to give free access for filling the lower side of the joint. The second point is the proper filling without leaving any of the material to project inside the pipe to form an obstruction. To prevent this a small gaskin of hemp dipped in liquid cement should be fastened round the pipe and pushed home to the bottom of the socket. When this is done the socket should be well filled all round with Portland cement nicely finished off, taking as much care with the under part as with the upper. It is further desirable to inserb a well-padded and close-fitting plug, called a mouse, into the first pipe and, by means of a strong cord, to draw it forward 'past each joint after it is made. This will wipe toff any cement which may have oozed past the gaskin. Clay is often used for filling, bub there are several peculiarities which render ib unfit for a jointing material:(l) lb shrinks in drying; (2) if it is nob very hard the weight of the pipes may cause them to compress it on the under side and thus form a vent on the upper; (3) and both these defects, by enabling the water to commence a run, lead to the clay filling being constantly reduced, with the frequent result of undermining other parts which were perfect and ultimately causing the collapse and stoppage of the drain ; (4) and worst of all, it is possible for fibrous roots to find their way through the clay and to choke the drain. There are several reasons which make it desirable that drains should be tight:(l) They are often under a house and always come close to its walls ; (2) if they leak the liquid will impregnate the ground and cause an unhealthy condition; (3) it may contaminate the water of a well and produce typhoid fever ; (4) foul gas may arise and be attracted into the house by the warmer air; (5) the escape of the liquid reduces its flushing power and therefore increases the deposition of sediment so that the risk of the drain becoming stopped, and the certainty of its becoming fouler than otherwise, is rendered greater. In cases where it is necessary to lay a drain under a house ib should be entirely bedded in and covered by cement concrete so as more effectually to guard against leakage or the cracking of a pipe as the result of settlement of the ground or foundations. Wherever a branch has to be connected to a drain it should be done through a socketted junction pipe set ab the proper angle and entering in the direction of the fall of the drain. The insertion of a branch into a hole chipped out of the drain should never be tolerated. It is difficult to make tight; the broken chips enter the drain and the end of the branch is very likely to form a permanent obstruction. A proper junction saddle should be procured and cemented to the drain in these cases, great care being taken in making the hole. INTERCEPTING TRAP.

Having laid the bouse drain properly the next thing is to choose an intercepting trap through which the soil pipe may enter it. Fig. 1 shows such a fitting. Probably the best material for this is glazed earthenware, because, being of the same material as the drain, a perfectly tight cement joint can be made. This trap serves the double purpose of preventing air from the drain entering the soil pipe and at the same time of providing a fresh air inleb to the latter. It must be placed outside of the house in every case, so that an efficient air inlet can be provided direct to it. In addition to the air vent and inlet this fitting must embody two other features—viz., (1) a sufficient water seal and (2) a good drop from the entering pipe to the surface of the water lying in the trap. SOIL PIPE VENTILATOR. The trap just described provides for the admission of fresh air at the foot of the soil pipe. This must be supplemented by an outlet above the windows and if possible above the ridge of the roof. When so constructed the air will be able to pass through the whole length of the pipe and thus to prevent any accumulation of injurious, or even offensive, air. It will be an improvement to put a good extracting ventilator upon the top to increase the air current. Of the two methods of providing an outlet on the roof I prefer that which is shown in plate 1. It consists in carrying up a twoinch galvanised iron pipe, with soldered joints, inside the house from the outside of the trap under the water-closet. If * there is a second closet its ventilating pipe can be branched into the main one. A thorough test of the tightness of these pipes should be made by filling them with water.

WATER-CLOSET. There are many styles of water-closets, but I think that none of them can compare with the modern ones which are made entirely in one piece of glazed earthenware. Any valves or movable pans are objectionable from the certainty of their fouling, and from their liability to leakage either from that cause or from getting strained. The old pan closet with the capacious trunk under it is simply an abomination without a single redeeming feature. It has been wisely condemned at home by the Local Government Board. There are two other, and more modern, valve closets which were designed to avoid some of the objections to the old one, but they do so very imperfectly and are, at the same time, more expensive than the simple earthenware form. No valve closet is convenient for pouring a large pailful of slops down because the valve presents an obstruction even if held up, which is not an easy operation to perform ab the same time. There are two principal varieties of the closet recommended, which are generally distinguished as the "wash-down" and the "washout" closet. Fig. 2 shows a section of the former ana Fig. sof the latter. For the former it is contended that the force of the flush goes directly downwards into the trap and carries all before it more effectually than it can do in the latter, in which it nrsb discharges into the pan and then flows over the rim into the trap. lam inclined, notwithstanding this, to prefer the latter because, owing to there being a larger surface of water immediately under the centre of the pan, its sides are less likely to become soiled. It will be seen that both of these closets are of the simplest possible construction, and that as long as they remain unbroken and are used frequently enough to prevent the water in the trap from evaporating, it is absolutely impossible for any return of foul air from the pipe to take place. Even if the water seal should be destroyed by evaporation, such air from the drain would find a readier exit upwards through the ventilating pipe rather than by descending between the lips of the trap into the pan. There is also the minimum of surface, and thab of the smoothest, for any foul matter to collect upon, and there is no mechanism to get out of order. . The closet should always have a flushing pipe not less than 1£ inch diameter, which should come from a waste-preventor cistern separate from all others, holding nob less than two gallons of water, and placed at least six feeb above the closet. The use of a separate cistern will prevent the possibility of contaminating any water used for drinking or washing. It should be placed in the room, where it is always accessible, and not above the ceiling, To ensure the most wholesome closeb arrangement the wooden casing round ib should be entirely dispensed with, and only a hinged flap should be provided as a seat. By adopting (his plan ib will, when the lid is raised, serve the purpose of a slop sink and urinal as efficiently as anything thab could be contrived for these uses, and, at i the same time, it saves the space and extra cost of providing and fitting them. I* expense does '■( nob stand in the way a very nice addition is bo cover the floor and surrounding walla for a short •■•pace with glazed tiles set in cement. You have tnen the most perfect arrangement, m my humble opinion as a householder, which baa as yet been suggested by the e *^* ra / o • J The detaileXfrrangements which,have "<> far been described are brought together, and the W iHK*fo.Pirt* n * B, W* a Plato 1. -