Sewage and sewerage of farm homes [1928]Warren, George M. (George Milton)
Science
Sewage and sewerage of farm homes [1928]
Warren, George M. (George Milton)
Sewage disposal, Rural; Sewerage, Rural
In plan the privy is 4 by 4½ feet. The sills are secured to durable posts
set about 4 feet in the ground. The boarding is tight, and all vents and
windows are screened to exclude insects. The screens may be the same as
for pit privies or, if a more lasting material is desired, bronze or
copper screening of 14 squares to the inch may be used. The entire seat
is hinged, thus permitting removal of the receptacle and facilitating
cleaning and washing the underside of the seat and the destruction of
spiders and other insects which thrive in dark, unclean places. The
receptacle is a heavy galvanized-iron garbage can. Heavy brown-paper bags
for lining the can may be had at slight cost, and their use helps to keep
the can clean and facilitates emptying. Painting with black asphaltum
serves a similar purpose and protects the can from rust. If the contents
are frozen, a little heat releases them. Of nonfreezing mixtures a strong
brine made with common salt or calcium chloride is effective. Two and
one-half to 3 pounds of either thoroughly dissolved in a gallon of water
lowers the freezing point of the mixture to about zero. Denatured alcohol
or wood alcohol in a 25 per cent solution has a like low freezing point
and the additional merit of being noncorrosive of metals. The can should
be emptied frequently and the contents completely buried in a thin layer
by a plow or in a shallow hand-dug trench at a point below and remote from
wells and springs. Wherever intestinal disease exists the contents of
the can should be destroyed by burning or made sterile before burial by
boiling or by incorporation with a strong chemical disinfectant.
[Illustration: Fig. 8.--Pail privy]
[Illustration: Fig. 9.--A well-ventilated privy in Montana]
A privy ventilated in the manner before described is shown in Figure 9.
The cowl, however, is open on four sides instead of two sides as shown
in Figures 7 and 8. The working drawings (figs. 7 and 8) show that the
construction of a privy of the kind is not difficult. Figure 10 gives
three suggestions whereby a privy may be conveniently located and the
approach screened or partially hidden by latticework, vines, or shrubbery.
=Vault type.=--A primitive and yet serviceable three-seat dry-earth privy
of the vault type is shown in Figure 11. This privy was constructed in
1817 upon a farm at Westboro, Mass. The vault, made of bricks, was 6 feet
long by 5 feet wide, and the bottom was 1 foot below the surface of the
ground. The brickwork was laid in mortar, and the part below the ground
surface was plastered on the inside. The outside of the vault was exposed
to light and air on all four sides. Across the long side of the vault
in the rear was a door swinging upward through which the night soil was
removed two or three times a year, usually in the spring, summer, and fall
and hauled to a near-by field, where it was deposited in a furrow, just
ahead of the plow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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