Official Proceedings for the Annual Convention Volume 14 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ...presented a very valuable report dealing more particularly with sanitation. Your committee proposes, very briefly, to review the more recent investigations made in the method of treatment and final disposition of sewage. Experiments have been steadily progressing, both in the United States and Great Britain, dealing more particularly with the treatment of sewage upon filter beds. In Columbus, Ohio, through the efforts of Mr. Griggs, who was then city engineer and is a member of this Society, a valuable series of experiments was carried out, and as the result of these investigations the experts expressed a preference for trickling filters. The result of this work has been of incalculable benefit to engineers and municipalities. We only refer briefly to this as no doubt the members of the Society have had an opportunity of reading the full report upon the results of these experiments. While a number of small places dispose of their sewage by septic tanks and bacteria beds, no large plants similar in magnitude to those at Birmingham and Manchester have as yet been installed in America. From the experience in England it appears that much better and more satisfactory results are now obtained from filter beds. Where the sewage is either distributed by revolving sprinklers, or by jets, it has been found that a much greater quantity of sewage can be treated per acre by this method than by the contact beds; and while at Columbus, from the results of the experiments, it has been decided to distribute the sewage by means of jets, we doubt very much whether this method of distribution will be a success in the more northern parts of this continent. When septic tanks were introduced a few years ago we were assured that the sludge problem had been solved. This...