Real  Estate   Record





AND BUILDERS' GUIDE.





YoL. XXI.





NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, APEIL 13, 1878.





No.  526.





Publisheil Weekly by

TER3IS.
ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO.
Communications should be addressed to

C.  W.  SWEET,

Nos. 345 AXD 347 Broadway.





THE HYGIENICS OF BUILDING.
V.

DRAINAGE.

Ancierit Drainage.—In the first place let us
brush away the cob-webs of ancient practice.
The principal defects and vices of past methods
may be defined iu five specifications, to wit: the
use of crockery pipes, buried pipes, unvented
piijes, the mason-work stench trap, and party
sewer connections. Let us consider these sepa¬
rately.

Croclrei'ii Pipes.—In years gone by a lively
controversy was waged concerning the respective
merits of crockery and iron soil pipes. Either
kind found many aud zealous chainpious. Th.e
argument in favor of crockery pipe centered iu
its cheapness. It was supposed also to possess
superior resistance to the action of acids, aud also
this prime recommendation that its interior sur¬
face was smoothly glazed, and thus admitted of a
free and ready pas.sage of sewage. In point of
fact aud experience, it has been demonstrated
that crockery pipe has no greater resistance to
acids than iron pipe, if indeed it has as much. A
strong argument against the use of crockery pipe
is its extreme brittlencss, being liable to yield
readily to tho least strain of superimposed pres¬
sure. Its last and fatal condemnation lies iu the
dilliculty of making a satisfactory joint either
with pipes of its kind or with iron pipe. The
usual, aud about the ouly method of sealing the
joints of crockery pipe, or of closing the opening
made in it for the introduction of au iron pipe, is
by the use of cement This joiufc is proverbially
unreliable, and yields to the action of acids long
iu advimce of the disintegration of the pipe
Itself. For use in modern dwelling houses the
crockery pipe must be discarded. AA'^hatever ser¬
vice it may render iu the drainage of farm lands
or open lots, thero is no use which a skilfiU
mechanic can make of it in modern house drain¬
age.

Jinned Pipes.—As if to add to the condemua-
tiou of crockery pipe, the former custom w-as
invariably to bui-y it in the cellar bottom, and
also to use it in making underground connections
Avith cess-pools. The pi'actice of burying
pipes, whether earthen or iron, is thor¬
oughly condemned by sanitarians. The objec¬
tion to this practice is not altogether theoretical,
but mechanical and practical. Whether crockery
or iron pipe is buried in the soil one result is likely
to ensue, to wit: its rapid disintegration. The
action of the sewage gases from ^vithin, and of
mineral salts from the earth on the outside, are
pretty apt to cause a rapid decay. The practice
of burying pipes, particularly under cellar floors,
is objectionable from the dmiger of some great
pressm-e being imposed upon them, such as the
dumping of coal and the chopping of wood, or





even the fall of footsteps, auy of which forces is
apt to cause the loosening of the joints, or, at all
events, the dislocation of their continuity in a w-ay
to causo obstructions aud prevent effective drain¬
age. The moment joints are loosened or a frac¬
ture is made two conditions are apt to result: the
escape of sewer gases iuto the cellar, aud the dis¬
tribution of sewage matter under the cellar bot¬
tom. If the surface of the cellar floor is tightly-
sealed w-ith cement, the outlet of sewer gases may
be confined to the pipe, but the percolation of the
sewage matter is likely to go on until the w-hoIe
uuder-surface of the house is flooded with a putrid
and filthy mass, causing one of the most baleful
conditions of defective sewerage. This ancient
custom of burj'iug soil pipes w-ithiu house enclo¬
sures must be totally given up and avoided by
any builder who desires to make his buildings
conform to the modern standard.

Unvented Pipes.—Another untenable practice of
tho past is that of running up a soil pipe into the
dwelliug without providing a vent for the same
at the root The common supposition iu former
days was that the connection of the roof leader
w-ith the main soil pipe afforded sufficient egress
for foul air and gases. But modem science has
proved that this expedient alone is not sufficient,
and that it is unjustifiable aud even criminal to
carry soil piiies into the upper stories of houses
without also carrying them to the roof aud there
providing a proper vent

Mason 'J'raps.—The mason-work stench trap is
one of the crudest devices of uui nstructed mechan¬
ical genius. It consists of a pit or a cube, about
two feet iu dimensions, sunk in the bottom of the
cellar. The house soil-pipe enters it on one side
so that this pit or sink becomes a receptacle for
the entire sewage of the house, aud tho outlet for
it is by another pipe fitted to the opposite side
continuing out to the street sewer. Midway be¬
tween these two sides, aud pai-allel with them,
there is let into the lateral sides a drop flag, w-hich
usually extends to within four or six inches of tho
bottom of the sink. This was supposed to consti¬
tute an effectual aud reliable seal against the In¬
gres of odoi-s, gases, and rats from the sewer.
This system exists to-day in many thousand cellars
in this city as the only device that builders of tho
past generation could invent for the sanitary pro¬
tection of buildings. This contrivance is nothing
but a perpetuation of the ancient privy-sink, and
possesses no merit to recommend it, w-hile it is
open to fatal attack ou mechanical and sauitm-y
grounds. The advantages w-hich it w-as supposed
to secure are more efficiently attained by-
more modern contrivances; aud it is doubtful
whether auy practical good results from its use.
It provides a lodgment for excremeutal deposits,
wliich should be hun-ied into the main sewer with
the utmost dispatch. It becomes, besides a mag¬
azine of active gases, which must find their way
either through the joints of the flag cover, or else
through the soil-pipes leading into the house. An
intelligent examination of the obvious effects of
this stench-trap wiU satisfy the least experienced
person that it is prejudicial to sound sanitary
conditions. Where it now exists it should be
abolished, and its further use in new building
should be entirely done away with.

Party ISetcer Connections.—^It is a common prac¬
tice with careless builders even at this late day,





to make one sewer connection serve for the drain¬
age of two, three or more houses. In a rock bot¬
tom the sa\ing effected by this expedient is very
large, while iu earth bottoms tho economy of
this method is obvious enough to commend it to
unscrupulous builders. It is the natural out¬
growth of the buried pipe system. To make one
sewer connection serve three or more houses, it
becomes necessary to run the soil pipes of some
hou-ses through aud under the cellars of others.
AVhen pipes are buried out of sight, usually under
the cellar floor, builders can trail them whitherso¬
ever they choose. It would be a safe assumption
in auy ca.se where the main house soil pipe is thus
buried, that there is not an independent sewer
connection. Honesty and sanitary security re¬
quire all plumbing and soil pipes within the house
walls to be fully exposed to view and made easily
accessible. Under these circumstances, it would
be possible to readily determine, in examining a
row of houses, whether independent or party
sewer connections have been mado.

The objections to the party sower connection
are social, mechanical and legal, sufiicient, to¬
gether or singly, to utterly condemn it. Adjoin¬
ing households are not ordinarily conducted
with equal care, consequently, under tho party
seAver system, the more cautious household is apt
to bo iucommodeil by obsti-uctious which may
choke the joint pipe through tho remissness or
bad practice of a careless neighbor. Besides the
joining of pipes in this w-ay involves long
stretches of horizontal pipe aud other mechanical
conditions exceedingly favorable for causing ob¬
structions iu the pipe. This arrangement of pipes
was once deemed to con.stitute an easement, and
to create dominant and servient estates, but these
doctrines have beeu exploded. The mau ou whose
lot the actual sewer connection exists may
summarily order off all joint users of the connec¬
tion as intruders.

Modern Jh'ainngc.—The science of modei-n
drainage is already crystallizing it:self iuto three
distinct schools, to wit: the exponents of the
principle of exclusion, of ventilation aud of a
mixed principle of exclusion and ventilation
combined.

Fxcluaion.—The dogma of this school is, that by
the introduction of numerous well distributed
traps a perfect exclusion of sewer gas from soil
pipes may be effected, and thus the necessity^ for
ventilation may be done aw.iy with, and all ap¬
prehension of the invasion of sewer gases may be
allayed. In the practice of this school, a trap is
placed on the main soil pipe where it first enters
the buildiug, pu all standing pipes as they rise in¬
to the iuterior of the house and upon all fixtures
within the house. This theory seems to be plau¬
sible enough, but the difliculty is that it utterly
fails in practical working. A multiplicity of
traps is foimd to be a hindrance to proper drain¬
age, inasmuch as two or more consecutive traps,
unprovided with intermediate vents, are sure to
give rise to au air-bound condition. That is, the
column of air between the seals of two traps will
have resistance enough to impede, if not to
wholly obstruct the flow of drainage. On the
other hand, a suction force exerted in the main
sewer having sufHcient power to unseal one trap
in the scries, Avill be sure to unseal all the others.
Thus the system -wiU be left exposed to the in-*