Sewer History: Articles

Manholes, lampholes, grit basins

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In the very early collection systems (especially for "separate" sanitary sewage systems), narrow lamp-holes were installed for visual inspections of sewers, but it soon became clear that they were almost useless as a maintenance access point. Manholes corrected this problem, providing access to the sewers for inspection and cleaning. A second purpose of manholes was to serve as points of ventilation for the gravity sewers. (It was recognized early on that sewers need to "breathe.")

There are many types of manholes used at one time in the sewer system, including drop manholes, wellholes, and "flight" sewers. Many of these designs can be seen below.

See Tracking Down the Roots of Our Sanitary Sewers for more information.

Baldwin Latham, C.E., M. Inst. C.E., Sanitary Engineering, A Guide to the Construction of Works of Sewerage and House Drainage with Tables for Facilitating the Calculations of the Engineer (New York: Engineering News Publishing Company, 1884).

See page 45.

PDF of all chapters (17 MB)
PDF of map of Dantzic (Gdansk, Poland) (Plate I, 5 MB)
PDF of illustrations only (Plates II to XIX, 4 MB)

W. G. Kirchoffer, "Novel Sewerage and Sewage Treatment Plant at Mt. Horeb, Wis.," Municipal and County Engineering, August 1918, p. 61.