Practical suggestions by Mr. Rogers Field, M. Inst. C.E., as to water supply, drainage, and sewage disposal for lunatic asylums / issued by the Commissioners in Lunacy.

  • Field, Rogers.
Date:
1892
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Practical suggestions by Mr. Rogers Field, M. Inst. C.E., as to water supply, drainage, and sewage disposal for lunatic asylums / issued by the Commissioners in Lunacy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Water-closets. . r It Water-closet apparatus. Method of flushing closets. throughout, not less than 8 lbs. per foot and preferably 10 lbs. per foot with soldered joints. (36.) Water-closets should as far as possible be placed in projecting blocks, and be cut off from the building by a neck or lobby not less than 5 feet wide with ample cross ventilation. There should be plenty of windows in the walls of the closet block, and a door at each end of the neck. In some cases the neck or lobby is enlarged and the lavatories arranged in the neck ; but this plan is not such a good plan as placing them in the block itself, and should never be adopted in new buildings. The urinals and slop sinks should, of course, be in the blocks. The closet partitions should be planned, so that there is no post or bar on which the patients could hang themselves. The closet doors should be half doors, swinging clear of the floor about 18 inches, and opening outwards. The closet floors should be of impervious material, such as concrete and cement or tiles. (37.) A simple and efficient kind of water-closet apparatus for asylums is that known as the short “ Hopper-closet/5 A good form should be chosen in which the basin and trap are self cleansing and the trap is not unsealed, when a bucket of water is quickly poured into it. “ Wash-out” closets are not suitable for asylums, as the basins and traps generally become foul. Excellent Hopper-closets are made in enamelled iron, very suitable for asylums, the trap (which is also of enamelled iron) having a flange at the outlet, and a brass ring with bolts for making a secure joint between the trap and the lead branch. Thick fireclay closets are also now made which will stand rough usage. White earthenware closets may be used for the officers and attendants, and in wards where they will not be likely to be broken. When a stoneware or fireclay trap has to join a lead branch, special precautions must be taken in making the joint. A good way is to solder a brass socket to the lead branch, to take the end of the trap, and then make the joint with Portland cement, a rubber ring or coil of tarred yarn being first pushed tightly in. Water-closets should be so fixed that no accumulation of filth or rags can take place behind them, and the space under the seat should be left exposed. (38.) Many different plans for flushing patients' closets have been tried in asylums, such as (a) the simple “ stool valve ”; (b) the “ seat action ” ; (c) the door action ” ; (d) the automatic flush tank applied to a range of closets; (e) the waste-prevent¬ ing cistern actuated by a simple pull. The first three of these plans cannot be recommended. The fourth plan (automatic flush tank) is a better one ; but if adopted it must be very carefully designed, and it has (amongst others) the disadvantage that, in the case of a closet being choked and not noticed, an overflow may take place when the tank discharges. The best plan on the whole is the last one (waste-preventing cistern) as experience shows that the objection which is raised to it, that the patients will not use the pulls, has not much weight. The