Drainage systems and water supplies: technological advance

• Flushing toilets:


  Water used to flush away human waste, usually into rivers and waterways, had been an intermittent use since the Neolithic times.
• Flushing toilets:


  However, it was not until the Industrial Revolution, and the advances in technology that came with it, that the flushing toilet became a feature of many people's lives.
• Flushing toilets:

  1775, the invention of the S-trap by Alexander Cummings. This seated toilet bowl, preventing foul air coming up from the sewer. It was Joseph Bramah who combined this invention with a float valve system for a cistern to build the first practical, workable, flush toilet.
• Flushing toilets:

  George Jennings established a business manufacturing toilets and accompanying sanitary ware. His South-Western Pottery was opened outside Bournemouth in 1856 and, by 1861, was employing 97 men and 18 boys, indicative of the immense popularity of these new water closets, particularly among the m/c. Jennings was granted a patent in 1852 for his invention of an improved water closet, whereby the pan and water trap were constructed in one piece so that a small amount of water was retained in the pan. He improved the construction of valves and drain traps.
• Flushing toilets:

  By the end of 1950s, building codes required all new-build homes to be equipped with a water closet.
• Flushing toilets:


  Thomas William Twyford who, in 1875, developed and sold the first 'wash out' trap water closet that proved immensely popular. Throughout the 1880s, Twyford was granted further patents for his inventions that improved the flushing rim and the outlet. In 1888, he applied for, and was granted, a patent whereby the toilet pan was refilled with a small quantity of clean water. This remained the standard water closet throughout the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
• Sewerage:


  Human and industrial waste was piled up on land, and rivers offered an easy and cheap solution to the problem of disposal. Rivers moved without the need for the expense of installing and maintaining pumps, and they eventually emptied into the sea: they could be seen to be self-cleansing.
• Sewerage:


  Local authorities were reluctant to move away from the traditional method of disposal. Given the prevalence of the belief in the miasma theory of the spread of disease throughout most of the 19th century, a quick and apparently efficient removal of waste into the river system seemed ideal.
• Sewerage:


  Before the development of a sewer system in the latter part of the 19th century, such as sewerage as existed did not carry away waste matter in a effective way. Rough walls, inadequate connections between sewers of different sizes, intermittent volumes of water and inadequate slopes meant solids accumulated and only a heavy storm would flush the sewers.
• Sewerage:


  A system of flushing gates to control the flow of liquids through the sewers was invented by the engineer John Roe in 1842, whereby cast iron gates were fixed in the sewers and only opened when there was a sufficient accumulation of water-borne sewage behind them to enable the force of the water to clear off any deposits.
• Sewerage:


  It was not until the 1870s and 1880s that these were combined with hydraulic pumps to ensure a constant flow of water through the sewers and make them virtually self-flushing.
• Sewerage:


  Construction of an effective sewerage system involved, the production of millions of bricks and tonnes of cement, as well as a transport infrastructure to deliver them to where they were needed.
• Sewerage:


  These remained the perennial problem of into what the sewers were to be flushed.
• Sewerage:

  Discharging untreated sewerage into the natural water system became a problem as more was understood about the transmission of disease, and Chadwick's idea of spraying it onto fields as a fertiliser was not well received.
• Sewerage:


  Some cities attempted to treat the sewage before discharge by adding sedimentation systems to their sewers.
• Sewerage:


  However, the breakthrough came in 1912 when scientists at Manchester University developed the sewage treatment system of activated sludge, whereby the sewage was biologically treated to make it safe.
• Water supply:

  The provision of water was in the hands of private companies for the most of the 19th century. Whether or not individual companies took advantage of new technology was very much up to the shareholders who were guided by the need to make a good profit on their investment. Some companies did invest in modernising, using the latest equipment and taking up-to-date advice.
• Water supply:


  1802: the Lambeth Waterworks expanded its operations to supply Kennington and replaced its wooden pipes with cast iron ones. 6 years later, the West Middlesex Waterworks Company also installed cast iron pipes.
• Water supply:

  1822: the Southwark Water Company extracted water from the river Thames using stream engines to pump it into a cistern at the top of an 18 metre high tower. It was collected there before being piped to customers.
• Water supply:

  1829: the Chelsea Waterworks company became the first in the country to install a sand filtration system to purify the water taken from the River Thames.
• Water supply:

  1838: the Grand Junction Waterworks company built a pumping station near Kew Bridge at Brentford on the River Thames to house 3 steam pumps. The water was taken from the middle of the river and pumped into filtering reservoirs and a 62 metre high water tower that used gravity feed to supply the area.
• Water supply:

  As the century progressed, more and more companies built reservoirs to enable a reliable supply of water to be pumped to houses.
• Water supply:

  A major problem was that water companies in London and elsewhere extracted drinking water from rivers that were polluted by industrial and faecal waste.
• Water supply:


  Further change had to wait until the knowledge that disease could be water-borne was combined with the science of removing impurities and the will of the people and the government that this should be done.