Sewer History: Photos and Graphics


	Appliances used in the maintenance of sewers at Providence, Rhode Island, 1899. Note the emergency apparatus photo in the lower right. Source: Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume XLI, No. 13 (30 March 1899) insert facing p. 200.
	Table Showing Data (for the Fiscal Year 1907) Relative to Sewerage and Sewage Disposal in Certain American Cities and Towns. Part II. Source: "Sewerage Statistics: Collected and Tabulated by the Sanitary Section of the Boston Society of Civil Engineers," Journal of the Association of Engineering Societies, Volume 42, No. 3 (March 1909), insert between pp. 146-147.
	Shone Pneumatic Ejector in brick chamber, circa 1909."The ejector is simply a large iron pot or vessel placed under the roadway into which the sewage of the district flows until it is full, when compressed air is automatically admitted on top of the sewage, ejecting it in a few seconds in to the main outfall sewer..." Source: Colonel E. C. S. Moore, Sanitary Engineering, Volume I, 3rd Edition revised by E. J. Silcock (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1909), p. 54.
	Shone Pneumatic Ejector, section view, circa 1909. Source: Colonel E. C. S. Moore, Sanitary Engineering, Volume I, 3rd Edition revised by E. J. Silcock (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1909), p. 56.
	Adams' "Autaram" or Sewage Lift, circa 1909. This device lifts sewage using the air compressed by a column of sewage or water. Source: Colonel E. C. S. Moore, Sanitary Engineering, Volume I, 3rd Edition revised by E. J. Silcock (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1909), p. 63.
	Installation of Adams' Sewage Lift (see above) in an underground urinal, circa 1909. Source: Colonel E. C. S. Moore, Sanitary Engineering, Volume I, 3rd Edition revised by E. J. Silcock (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1909), p. 65.
(955 Kb)	Plan for the 8th St. and Olympic Boulevard Pumping Plant, 1924, Los Angeles, California. Source: Tom Bates Collection of Pumping Plant Plans, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(571 Kb)	Plan for the Earldom Avenue Sewage Pumping Plant Wet Well Structure, 1934, Los Angeles, California. Sheet 2 of 6. Source: Tom Bates Collection of Pumping Plant Plans, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(457 Kb)	Plan for the Earldom Avenue Sewage Pumping Plant, 1934, Los Angeles, California. Sheet 3 of 6. Source: Tom Bates Collection of Pumping Plant Plans, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(754 Kb)	Plan for Lankershim Boulevard Sewage Pumping Plant, 1939, Los Angeles, California. This includes the motor room, pump room, and sections. Sheet 2 of 5. Source: Tom Bates Collection of Pumping Plant Plans, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
For Reference	The Crossness Pumping Station Website includes photos of the engines and architecture. The Abbey Mills Pumping Station, Thames Water info, and photo on Images of England (search Pumping station) Links via Wikipedia
Sewage Disposal Plant at Field's Point, Providence, Rhode Island
	Sewage Disposal Plant at Field's Point, Providence, Rhode Island. The plant includes a pumping station and press house. Plans date from 1895 to 1900. For further information, see History of Sewage Treatment in Rhode Island: 1884 Recognizing the need for a system to treat the waste, the City Council sends City Engineer Samuel M. Gray to Europe to study the latest methods of treating household and industrial waste. His recommendation: a system of interceptors by which sewage would be collected from neighborhood sewage lines and conveyed to Field's Point, a small peninsula on the west bank of the Providence River. There sewage would be processed by the chemical precipitation method, already in wide use in England. 1901 The Providence Sewage Treatment System is put into operation. The chemical precipitation plant, the third of its kind in the United States, is the largest of its type ever built. The system consists of a pumping station at Ernest Street to lift sewage to Field's Point for treatment. Source: Paul Nordstrom of the Narragansett Bay Commission, and Tom Bates. Per Mr. Nordstrom: "When we took over some of the City of Providence facilities in the early [nineteen] eighties, we immediately tried to get the facility on the national historic register because we understood it to be one of the earliest in the country."
The MAZAS Pumping Station (4 page booklet)
	The Mazas pumping station, Paris, France. Since 1884, the Mazas pumping station has been lifting wastewater from the lower part of the 12th district and protecting it against floodwater. Source: "The MAZAS pumping station" (Paris, France: Mairie de Paris, 2000), page 1. Courtesy of Bruno de Ville d'Avray, Mairie de Paris / Direction de la protection de l'environnement, Section de l'assainissement de Paris; and Lucien Finel, previous Deputy to the Mayor of Paris (in charge of water and sanitation management).
	The Mazas pumping station, Paris, France: The water lifting role. Source: "The MAZAS pumping station" (Paris, France: Mairie de Paris, 2000), page 2.
	The Mazas pumping station, Paris, France: Route followed by effluent through the Mazas pumping station; Protection against the flooding of the river Seine. Source: "The MAZAS pumping station" (Paris, France: Mairie de Paris, 2000), page 3.
	The Mazas pumping station, Paris, France: General pumping station design. Source: "The MAZAS pumping station" (Paris, France: Mairie de Paris, 2000), page 4.