Flexible sewer rod.

Source: Harold E. Babbitt, Sewerage and Sewage Treatment, 6th edition (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 278.

Tools for cleaning sewers -- often attached to wood sewer rods.

Source: Harold E. Babbitt, Sewerage and Sewage Treatment, 6th edition (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 271.

Turbine sewer machine.

Source: Harold E. Babbitt, Sewerage and Sewage Treatment, 6th edition (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1949), p. 279.

Early sewer maintenance equipment - winch powered by pony engine. Late 1940s, early 1950s.

Source: Mike Baker, Balar Equipment Corporation, Phoenix, Arizona.

OK Champion Corporation rodder truck, circa 1969. OK Champion is a company that evolved from the early endeavors of entrepeneurs in Hammond, Indiana, to fabricate sewer cleaning devices circa 1915. The company was originally called the Champion Potato Machinery Company and later changed its name to OK Champion.

Source: Water Pollution Control Federation Journal, March 1969.

Sewer worker, England, 1950. Workers called “flushers” wore protective clothing when they entered London’s sewers.

Source: Jon C. Schladweiler, Historian, Arizona Water Association.

Advertisement for bucket cleaning machine, manufactured by the Flexible Sewer-Rod Equipment Company, Los Angeles, CA, 1953.

Source: Sewage and Industrial Wastes, June 1953, p. 242a.

Advertisement for bucket cleaning machine, manufactured by the Flexible Sewer-Rod Equipment Company, Los Angeles, CA, 1953.

Source: Sewage and Industrial Wastes, March 1953, p. 122a.

Advertisement for flexible sewer rod, manufactured by the Flexible Sewer-Rod Equipment Company, Los Angeles, CA, 1953.

Source: Sewage and Industrial Wastes, May 1953, p. 200a.

Advertisement for flexible sewer rod, manufactured by the Flexible Sewer-Rod Equipment Company, Los Angeles, CA, 1953.

Source: Sewage and Industrial Wastes, February 1953, p. 76a.