H. Percy Boulnois

“ The paving of the lairs may be of asphalte, but care must be taken that near the door of slaughter-house, the paving is of pitchers or something that is not at all slippery, as here the frightened beast often struggles and draws back when he sees the “engines of destruction” in the slaughter-house, and smells the blood of those who have gone before. ”

“ The first of importance is that of durability, and although the life of a hard wood constantly exposed to attrition is amazing, as may be seen on the stairs of the Metropolitan Railway Stations, and in many cog wheels of old machinery, still some diversity of opinion exists as to what may be fairly put down as the wear per annum of the surface of a street paved with wood blocks. ”

“ It is, perhaps, true that it may be done in the latter manner at less actual cost to the ratepayers, but all public work should be done in the best manner possible, irrespective of cost, thoroughly, but without extravagance, and the result of such work, especially where it affects the cleanliness and the appearance of a town, soon fully repays any moderate extra cost that may thus have been incurred, irrespective of the enormous benefit that is conferred upon any community by the reduction of disease and the death-rate by a proper attention to such necessary sanitary work. ”

“ There seems to be no power on the part of any owner to dispute the question as to whether the works carried out have been necessary or not, or whether the cost of the works have been excessive; the only point upon which they can go to arbitration is that as to whether the proportion settled by the surveyor is accurate or not, and this point the arbitrator is left to decide. ”

“ In many cases the unprotected surveyor may be required to report to a protected medical officer the negligence of his own employers. No local surveyor or engineer can be expected to give cordial and active assistance in compulsory sanitary work when he is conscious that his action would be opposed to the views or the interests of his employers, the public upon whom he is dependent. The existence of such a distinction between the medical officer and surveyor under the same board will produce a want of harmony in interest, and must lead to a divergence of action between the two departments. ”

“ Too much binding material or too much water should not be used in forming a road with a steam roller. It is unfortunately frequently the case that a road is made quickly only to go to pieces with the traffic in a few weeks. The surface of a well-constructed macadamised roadway should after being rolled look almost like an encaustic pavement. If there is too much binding material in the joints of the stones, the first heavy rain washes it out and the surface of the roadway quickly goes to pieces. ”

“ The necessity of correct plans of the drainage of buildings cannot be over-estimated, especially for hospitals, asylums, workhouses, schools, or other public buildings, and even for the smallest dwelling house such a plan would often prove to be the greatest boon to the occupier or owner as well as at all times to the town surveyor, the medical officer of health, and the inspector of nuisances. ”

“ When any street within any urban district, not being a highway repairable by the inhabitants at large, has been sewered, levelled, paved, flagged, metalled, channelled and made good and provided with proper means of lighting to the satisfaction of the urban authority, such authority may if they think fit, by notice in writing put up in any part of the street, declare the same to be a highway, and thereupon the same shall become a highway repairable by the inhabitants at large, and every such notice shall be entered among the proceedings of the urban authority. ”

“ Whenever the permanent surface or soil of any street or public road is broken up or opened by the company it shall be lawful for the body having the control of the street or road, in case they think it expedient so to do, to fill in the ground, and to make good the pavement or surface or soil so broken up or opened, and to carry away the rubbish occasioned thereby, instead of permitting such work to be done by the company ”

“ I am strongly of opinion that the work of the collection of house refuse and cleansing the streets should be carried out by the local authority with their own officers and staff, and that executing this work by contract is a mistake and a false economy. ”

“ It would be most unjust to expect the owners of property to pay for a sewer larger than was required for the street in respect of which they were responsible, and if legal, the better plan would be for them to be charged with the cost of such a sewer as would be sufficient for their purpose and let any extra size that the surveyor found was requisite be paid for out of the public rates. ”

“ In small towns, except during abnormally muddy weather, it may be mixed with the house refuse and sold to farmers, or the road scrapings themselves may be used as an excellent sand, if thoroughly washed, to mix with lime or cement to form mortar for public works; excessive accumulations of mud, however, must be got rid of in the most economical and speedy manner possible, and this is effected either by filling up old disused quarries with it, or depositing it upon waste lands, or forming embankments for new roads, but in no case should it be used, as I have before stated, upon building sites ”

“ The person desirous of opening the street for the execution of any work has to apply to the surveyor for a licence, and at the same time deposit a sum sufficient to cover the expense of the work, such sum being estimated and fixed by the surveyor. The corporation then supply one labourer whilst the job is in hand, who, whilst working, takes care that the soil is properly rammed and the surface made good; a mason is also supplied to make any drainage or sewer connections. ”

“ In towns where the house refuse is not collected separately from the road scrapings, a judicious mixture of the two in the cart considerably assists in preventing any mud from splashing over or the dust from blowing about.
The employment of wooden carts for this work is bad economy, their rough usage, and the mode adopted for emptying them by “tipping,” renders their life a short one; a cart in constant work frequently costs from 4l. to 5l. per annum in repairs, and having but little of the original material of which it was constructed left in it at the end of six years. ”

“ As a rule the buildings should not exceed four stories in height; the staircases should be about four feet in width, and broken by short landings, lighted by large windows open to the external air; the window-sills should not be less than three feet from the floors for the safety of young children, and for the same reason well staircases should be avoided. The steps of the stairs should only have a 6-inch ‘rise,’ for the more easy accommodation of old people and young children; they should be fire-proof, and well lighted with gas on an evening. ”

“ Where the town surveyor is in any doubt as to whether the conduit is a drain or a sewer, he should test from whence the sewage comes by passing diluted white lime or carbolic acid down the adjacent water-closets and watching whether it flows through the conduit or not, but even here he is sometimes at fault if the drains are old and dilapidated, as they do not reach the point he is watching and he is thus misled. ”

“ The soil of a cemetery should be of an open, porous nature, with numerous close interstices, through which air and moisture may pass in a finely divided state freely in every direction. In such a soil decay proceeds rapidly, and the products of decomposition are absorbed or oxidised. The soil should be easily worked, yet not so loose as to render the work of excavation dangerous through the liability to falls of earth. It should be free from water or hard rock to a depth of at least 8 feet. ”

“ Unless a footpath is raised above the roadway it is liable to be flooded.
Many materials are used for kerb, of which granite being the best is generally used in streets where there is much traffic, as the kerb is often subjected to severe blows from the passing vehicular traffic as well as a grinding action from the wheels of waggons and other heavy vehicles, especially on gradients where “hugging” the kerb acts as a drag or break. In such cases granite, although the most expensive in the first case, is certainly the most economical, and no other material should ever be used. ”

“ If the sanitary authority wish to interfere in the question of fire, why should not the protection of life be considered as much as property? Yet no clause can be discovered in the model byelaws rendering it compulsory to make some provision in dwelling-houses or factories for the easy escape of the inmates in case of fire. Indeed, as the Public Health Act does not authorise the enactment of a byelaw for such a purpose, such a clause would most probably be held to be ultra vires. ”

“ Hoardings and scaffoldings are now so scientifically erected as to be little or no inconvenience to foot-passengers. Care must, however, be taken to see that in the erection of a hoarding the doors or gates in it shall not open outwards, and the police should be instructed to prevent carts being backed in and left standing across the footpath.
The surveyor must exercise great discretion in the length of time he allows a hoarding to remain; without undue hardship on the builder, he must study at the same time the more important question of the public convenience. ”

“ The floor may be of asphalte or other impervious material, and be well drained, great care being of course taken to exclude rats.
The ventilation must be perfect, the building should always be of low temperature even in the hottest days of summer. All the group of buildings should, if possible, be surrounded by a free belt of air. Their position should be isolated with respect to other buildings, and of course it is highly necessary that they should be as far away as possible from any dwelling-houses, a disused burial ground being sometimes selected as a convenient site. ”

“ It must be recollected that probably the subways would have been constructed of sufficient capability to carry all the mains and wires then existing, with a margin for future extensions of size, but when we see the enormous growth of many towns, notably that of the metropolis, and the consequent increase necessary in the number and diameters of the mains, it is to be feared that sufficient space would not have been left, and competition between rival gas and water companies might consequently have been crippled. ”

“ Many hundreds of miles of roadways in this country are made with limestones; they often make an excellent surface, as they possess a considerable power of binding together, but weather and very heavy traffic affect them considerably: as they all have a strong affinity for water, their very power of thus cementing themselves together causes a quantity of dust in dry, and mud in wet weather.
[29] A flinty or quartzose stone seems to harden with exposure. This is notably the case in pebbles; old pebble paving taken up and broken makes a most hard and durable road metal. ”

“ A curious case of some difficulty in connection with dangerous buildings has come under my notice, where a house was built with the approval of the urban authority, and after completion and occupation the attention of the surveyor was called to the fact that a large piece of rock at the back of the house, from which the site had been excavated for the purpose of its erection, was in a dangerous condition and likely to fall at any moment and cause great damage to property, or even loss of life. ”

“ General Morin estimates the wear of a road due to horses’ feet to be two-thirds of all causes. There can be no doubt that the action of horses’ feet, shod as they are with heavy iron shoes with long toe pieces and heels, must have a destructive effect upon the surface of a carriage-way, and this may be easily observed when watching the ruts formed by any continuous line of traffic in a roadway. ”

“ The commissioners shall from time to time cause the houses and buildings in all or any of the streets [122] to be marked with numbers as they think fit, and shall cause to be put up or painted on a conspicuous part of some house, building or place at or near each end, corner, or entrance of every such street the name by which such street is to be known; and every person who destroys, pulls down, or defaces any such number or name, or puts up any number or name different from the number or name put up by the commissioners, shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 40s. ”