Tag Archives: sewage

Sewage Contraption

17 Tuesday May 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Nothing says ‘Great Report’ than having a long title. (I had heard or read somewhere that long titles made books/reports more impressive)

1887: The Sanitation of Cities and Towns and the Agricultural Utilization of Excretal Matters Report on Improved Methods of Sewage Disposal and Water Supplies. By C. W. Chancellor, M.D., Maryland State Board of Health. To His Excellency Henry Lloyd, Governor of Maryland: Dear Sir, In pursuance of a resolution passed by the State Board of Health on the 19th day of November, 1886, and approved by your Excellency, authorizing me to proceed to Europe to investigate the most recent plans in practical operation for the disposal and utilization of household sewage, especially with reference to the sanitation of Maryland towns, and to report thereon, I herewith present the result of my labors. Undertaking the investigation with no preconceived notions of my own as to how the problem was to be solved; determined not to be influenced by appeals in favor of any particular scheme, however highly recommended; anxious to receive testimony from all parties, to hear all that could be said and to see all that could be seen, I have been guided not only by a fairly intimate acquaintance with what has been made public during the last ten or fifteen years on the “vexed question” of town sewerage, but by such experience as could be derived from a personal examination of. the principal systems in operation in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Holland.

Evils Resulting from the Improper Disposal of Sewage – It cannot be too often repeated that the “water-carriage” plan of Tout a L’egout is without doubt the worst devised system of sewerage imaginable for getting rid of excrementitious matters, and should the attempt be made to treat the sewage of Baltimore city in this way, it will undoubtedly prove an expensive and fatal blunder. (Not only does this guy get to go to Europe to do this report – he starts speaking French!)

The bottom line of this nearly 200 page report is that he wants to sell his own invention for sewage removal:

sewage catcher

The Reader’s Digest version of his invention: Waste enters through down-pipe ‘F’. The heavier solids go into ‘E’. Liquid is pushed up through a layer of wool ‘D’, travels to ‘A’ where it is filtered, then out of ‘a’ to the nearest stream.

Greenmount Cemetery

16 Monday May 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Sewage History

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

This Saturday, Kathy and I will be doing a walking tour of Greenmount Cemetery in Baltimore. I had previously done this tour about a year ago but it was very disorganized – by myself. I roamed around aimlessly, searching for famous people among the 9,000+ graves. This time we will be part of a tour given by historian Wayne Schaumberg. Some of the more notable headstones I hope to see are of Johns Hopkins, Enoch Pratt, John Garrett (B&O Railroad), Bodine (photographer), Booth (performer and assassin), Mayor Swann (Swann Lake which became Lake Roland in Robert E Lee park which is now Lake Roland Park) and Mayor Chapman (Lake Chapman, which is now Druid Lake) The Findagrave website lists all the graves.

Here are some sewerage notes and photos from the Sewage Commission:

1866 – We (Commission) constructed a wall on Greenmount Ave to Hoffman and extended the tunnel under Hoffman. Then made the necessary lateral sewer and inlet to carry off the surface water from the avenue (Greenmount). It is a great improvement for the Cemetery Company.

1887 – Monument to Hon. John Lee Chapman, ex-mayor – By Ordinance No. 105, approved October 10, 1887, the Mayor and City Commissioner were directed to have a monument constructed and erected in the lot where repose the remains of John Lee Chapman, one of the mayors of Baltimore; and to contract with the Greenmount Cemetery Company to keep the lot in good and proper order forever. Under this ordinance a contract has been made with Messrs. Bevan & Sons for the construction and erection of the monument at a cost of four hundred and seventy-five dollars, the plan presented by them having been approved. The contract will be made with the Cemetery Company in due time for keeping the lot in order.

1906 – Tablet to commemorate the beginning of sewer construction. On November 20th the Chief Engineer was authorized to design a suitable tablet to commemorate the beginning of sewer construction at the intersection of Ensor and Lanvale streets; the tablet to be placed in the face of the wall of Greenmount Cemetery, which is only a few feet from the point at which ground was broken for the work. The Chairman was requested to obtain permission from the Cemetery authorities to insert the tablet at the point named. The Chairman accordingly communicated with Mr. John A. Whitridge, President of the Greenmount Cemetery Company, and obtained permission from him to place the tablet as desired. A suitable tablet of bronze has been designed and will be placed in position as soon as completed.

1908 photo – Diver – SWC 3. Outlet of Gay St drain, Gay and North showing diver at work. (The 1908 Annual report includes this photo but the caption reads Gay at Pratt Sts.)

1911 – More photos of alley work and obstructions. Photograph of reconstruction of old rubble masonry drain in Greenmount Cemetery, showing gravesites.

Looking at the maps from back then, I was amazed at how close the Jones Falls is to the cemetery.

81_6_335r 81_6_4488 81_6_4842 81_6_4844 Untitled-1

…but for the Grace of God

11 Wednesday May 2016

Posted by in 12 steps, Addiction, Baltimore, Health, Recovery, Writing

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

While doing research, for my upcoming book on Baltimore’s Sewage History, I come across tidbits of information that I find interesting or that just hits home with me in a way that makes me grateful for my life today. Since re-doing this blog a while back, I have been trying to refrain from writing on my personal life; that this blog will be about historic information concerning the Department of Public Works. Water and Sewage. But as usual, something I read strikes a chord with me. As in the case of the paragraph below. This comes from The Reports of the City Officers and Departments Made to the City Council of Baltimore for the Year 1904. Of course the majority of this two volume report concerns the Great Fire of Baltimore for that year, but as in most reports, regardless of what was happening at the time – various wars, droughts, pestilence, etc. – the reports always, after a brief notation on whichever calamity was occurring, become ‘Business as usual’.

“Report from City Charities on addiction – Amanda Orr* is representative of a class of persons who cannot resist the temptation of liquor. She has been committed to Bayview and the House of Correction many times for drunkenness and disorderly conduct. The only remedy for this class is to be confined indefinitely until cured of their disease in some place where they can be held in restraint and given healthy work and proper treatment. Incurable cases should be confined for life. This method of treatment is the most humane for the victim of the drink or opium habit and discourages the intemperate use of liquor and drugs. It is also much the cheapest method for the public in the long run. We need legislation to provide for indeterminate commitments for such cases.”

*State’s Attorney’s Office, Court House, Baltimore, February 21, 1905.

To the Police Justices of Baltimore City.

Dear Sirs—Allow me to call your attention to Section 868 of the City Charter, which provides for the commitment of paupers, habitual beggars, vagrants and vagabonds, lately construed by His Honor Judge Stockbridge in the Amanda Orr case. Under the decision of His Honor Judge Stockbridge in that case, the magistrate committing under said section should always commit said paupers, habitual beggars, vagrants and vagabonds to the House of Correction, and not to Bayview, except in special cases provided for in said Section 868 of City Charter. Before the magistrate can lawfully commit such pauper, etc., to the Almshouse (Bayview), it must positively appear that the person to be committed is not able-bodied, or is aged, or is seriously crippled, or infirm. In case of any doubt on the part of the committing magistrate as to the physical condition of the party to be committed, the magistrate by a short detention of the pauper, etc., at the station-house, can easily satisfy himself as to the alleged infirmities of the pauper, vagrant, etc., by the examination of the pauper by a physician. It is suggested that if this policy be pursued the State may be saved the trial of many habeas corpus cases and illegal commitments avoided. If you will be so kind as to leave this letter on file in your office for the benefit of any magistrate sitting in your absence, you will greatly oblige

Yours very truly,

Albert S. J. Owens,

State’s Attorney.

What’s this have to do with Baltimore’s Sewerage History? Being an alcoholic/addict I have lived in the gutters of Baltimore – waiting to be swept away at any minute like the other garbage laying there. Washed into the harbor…but for the grace of God….

I was Amanda Orr. Think of all the Amanda Orr’s since the above was written, who didn’t know they had a choice to ‘not use’.

Odorless Excavating Apparatus

29 Friday Apr 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Health, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Baltimore, situated as she is, with one main water course through her center (Jones Falls), she had plenty of water for the people. Pure, clean drinking water….until people started dumping their sewage into it. Many Health Commissioner’s Reports talk about what to do with the sewage of Baltimore. Contractors were hired to haul it away. Here are a couple HCRs on what happened over a few short years in Baltimore, until a proper system of sewage could be built.

1865 – The withdrawal of a large share of the water flowing in this stream (Jones Falls), by the completion of the lake and storage reservoirs (Lake Roland, originally called Swann Lake), with the extension of the water works in the city, has left too small a portion of water to keep the original course clean if nothing was thrown into it; but to this deficiency of water add its use as a receptacle for every species of offal from factories, foundries, tanneries, stables and dwelling houses, and we are not surprised at its present condition. We have had one of these sources of nuisance carefully examined, and find that not only are most of the privies attached to dwellings on the streets adjoining the Falls drained into it, by means of private sewers, but that wherever a sewer leading to it can be reached, this sewer is connected with privies for drainage purposes.

1873 – The late City Council have distinguished their administration by the passage of an ordinance permitting the use of the “odorless excavating apparatus” for emptying privies in the day time. This is the inauguration of a new era, and destined to prove one of the greatest blessings of the age. As stated in a communication on this subject to the late City Council, your Commissioner holds that a large proportion of the cases of cholera infantum occurring in all large cities during the heated term are to be ascribed to the ancient and vile mode of doing this work, as well as to its transportation through the streets of the city, poisoning the air which is wafted into every open window.

1875 Odorless Apparatus2

1875 Odorless Apparatus1888 – The adoption of a proper system of sewers for the present privy-wells will assist the Health Department in its endeavor to bring the City to a point where the ordinary sanitary condition will be such that epidemics of disease, resulting from or aggravated by filth, could be avoided or reduced to a minimum. The danger is greater than the people realize; the trouble is deep-seated and not to be reached by the Spring ‘cleaning up’ nor even by inspection. In most of the houses of this City there exists a latent power for evil, which is liable when its hour arrives to exert itself to the full of its terrible might.

I don’t believe that this apparatus lasted too long. It is no longer mentioned after the 1876 report.

Dumps and Incinerators

21 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , ,

In the 1884 Street Cleaning report are listed the following five dumps: Canton, Spring Garden, Back Basin, Eager St. and South Baltimore. By the 1920s, Baltimore was burning its garbage at two incinerators. One at Sisson and 28th street. The other on Philadelphia road. What does this have to do with sewage? Both places are on streams. Sisson street on Jones Falls, which still has a household hazardous waste collection site (original building appears to be gone). And Philadelphia road, as seen in the one photo below dumped right into Herring Run, which empties into Back River then on to the Chesapeake Bay. These photographs come from glass plate negatives that were broken due to improper storage. If you have GPNs, handle them with care.

img008r

The horse drawn cart was replaced by the modern dump truck. Here they are backing into the Sisson Street Incinerator, also known as #1 incinerator.

img002r

Instead of just piling the refuse into a dump, hoping somehow it would disappear, the garbage was sorted and then burned. #2 Incinerator on Pulaski Highway.

img010r

Pulaski Highway #2 Incinerator showing how any liquids and washed down materials were dumped into Herring Run. And yes, there use to be Herring in that stream.

Garbage 1886

20 Wednesday Apr 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Health, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

1886 – From the Mayor’s Message: Health Department –  Garbage, etc. – The amount of garbage collected and removed during the past year was thirty-three thousand eight hundred and forty-nine cart-loads. Table G (below) shows the large number of dead animals, fowls, etc., collected and removed by this Department. The present methods of disposal of garbage and carrion are exceedingly unsatisfactory. Much annoyance and discomfort is experienced by residents adjacent to the present dumps, and frequent and continued complaints are made of the offensive odors. This annoyance, and menace to public health, can be obviated by burning them.

Chart gThis is a lot of dead animals. When this refuse was not picked up immediately and taken to the dumps (5 in the city), it was washed into the sewers which emptied into the Inner Harbor.

Jones Falls Flooding and Proposed Improvements

14 Thursday Apr 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, HISTORY, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

First map – July 1868. Showing Plat and Sections of Streets Submerged by Flood Exhibiting Proposed Changes Projected to Relieve the City Against Future Overflow by Latrobe, Trimble and Tegmeyer, Commissioners.

The area between the green lines is the flooded zone. The blue is the proposed changes. The grey being the actual Jones Falls. The smaller diagrams show the various streets and how high the water was when they flooded. It appears that the Falls rose about 20 feet in spots. The lower left diagram shows the proposed changes to streets.

A few things I find interesting is; the drawing of the skating pond as being the former City Reservoir (Possibly the second Mt. Royal?), The number of small dams, and all the businesses along the Falls that contributed to the pollution – gas, coal and oil factories, tannery, brewery, sugar refinery, lime kilns, oyster packing and taverns. Not to mention all the residences along the Falls. The City Dock and Block St. drawbridge I will write about later.

Plat and Sections of Streets Submerged

Second map – April 8, 1869. Revised Design for the Improvement of the Channel of Jones Falls and Drainage to Adjacent Portions of the City by H. Tyson. Note in upper left – The original design for this improvement will be found in the report made at the request of the Committee of Property holders of the Flooded District on the 31st of July, 1868.

This map shows the flooded area in a darker tan with numbers indicating the depth of water in feet, i.e. 15’ at Saratoga and Holliday. The proposed Falls is in pink with proposed sewers in red. The Falls is green.

Interesting with this map are the cut-away views showing sewers of Brooklyn, NY and of London. Also the cut-away views of the new retaining walls with sewers running along the Falls. I especially like the Baltimore St Bridge drawing with boat. (They dredged the Falls a lot for the passage of ships to merchants. More on that later) Note the wooden pavements above the sewers in the lower diagrams to the left. Houses and businesses were also built over the sewers. If you are from Baltimore, note that Alice Ann St. was 2 words. Now it is Aliceanna. Canton Ave. is now Fleet St. The note/drawing on bottom shows bridges, then and proposed over the Falls.

Revised Design for the Improvement of the Channel

Pumps at Eastern Ave Pumping Station 1906-1960

30 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Pumping Station: The land for a pumping station, located at East Falls and Eastern Ave was acquired by arbitration. The contract for the construction of pumps and machinery was awarded to the lowest responsible bidder, on December 10, 1906, to the Bethlehem Steel Co. of Bethlehem, Pa. for $450,000.

Six Years Operation of the Baltimore Sewage Pumping Station by Keefer. 1915-1923 (From Public Works July 1924) At the present time there are only a few sewage pumping stations in this country equipped with vertical triple-expansion pumping engines. One of these is the Eastern Avenue Pumping Station. The design of this station started in 1906; construction work was begun in 1907, and it was put in operation on January 31, 1912. Since then the station has operated continuously and has given excellent service.

br010r

This photograph was taken soon after the original pumps were installed, showing Calvin Hendrick, engineer. The three sewage pumping engines now under contract will weigh 4,000,000 pounds or more. They will develop about 400 H. P. each when running at full normal load, and about 1,000 pounds of coal an hour will be burned under the boilers, on an average, when the plant now under contract is running at the designed capacity. Of the three engines included in this contract it is intended that one shall be always held in reserve, other engines being added as may be necessary to make this possible.

img021

From an undated photo, showing one of the newly installed centrifugal pumps. At the Eastern Ave. PS, since its installation, essentially all the incoming sewage was handled by the new 40mgd centrifugal sewage pump, the old reciprocating steam-driven pumps being used for standby purposes. Photograph found at the DPW Museum, in a box of fire and water damaged albums.

img031

1960 the new pumps.

Kerbs

23 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by in HISTORY, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

From the 1899 Commissioner’s Report on stormwater, sewers and streets – Referring to the present condition of the paved streets of Baltimore, I cannot say that they are in good or bad condition, as this is a relative term, and depends a great deal upon what residents are accustomed to, what advanced civilization requires and the willingness of the tax-payers to keep pace with the same. We have succeeded in the last year in repairing most of the places which were specifically complained of, and have done much to make the best of bad pavements. The kerb-stones are far from being in repair, but the citizens become so accustomed to seeing them lay over in the gutter, or partially so, that they have long since ceased to make an outcry concerning the same, especially as it involves an outlay on the part of the property-holder to repair his footway; but we have succeeded in resetting more kerb this year than any previous year, over ten miles.

1900 curb

The trapping of inlets to sewers

21 Monday Mar 2016

Posted by in Baltimore, Sewage History

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , ,

From the 1887 Annual Report of the City Commissioners – This, perhaps, has, as much as any other subject connected with the sewerage of cities, occupied the attention of inventors. Many plans have been devised, from time to time, and for which patents have been granted, for the construction of a perfectly sealed trap. Now, the bad features of all inlets I have yet seen, or know of, are done away with by the simple and comparatively inexpensive contrivance patented by one of the attaches of this office, Mr. Charles P. Kahler. By resolutions of your honorable body, two of these traps have been placed in the inlets to Howard street sewer, at the intersection of Conway and Howard Streets, and at the corner of Camden and Howard streets, which are working clearly up to the degree of efficiency claimed for them by the inventor. I have no hesitation in recommending this invention for adoption. Mr. Kahler can explain the principle involved in his trap more fully to those who may call on him than could be done in this report. A cut representing the improved inlet is annexed.

THE KAHLER PATENT INLET.

CityCommissioner 1872-1887

No. 1–Longitudinal section of Inlet.

No. 2–Section of valve or door with gum packing.

No. 3–Section through A. B.

No. 4–Section through C D.

M—Water mains.