Sewer History: Photos and Graphics


(377k)	Poster showing wagons used for sewer cleaning, Paris. The wagons ran on rails and had thick plates that could be lowered into the sewer for cleaning. Source: 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).
	Night soil van, circa 1884. Samuel M. Gray, Proposed Plan for a Sewerage System, and for the Disposal of the Sewage of the City of Providence (Providence: Providence Press Company, Printers to the City, 1884), Plate 4, opposite page 16.
	Advertisement for steel wagons and carts, manufactured by the U.S. Sanitary Co., Washington, D.C., 1897. These wagons were often used to haul materials cleaned out of sewers, night soil, and /or garbabe collected from homes. Source: Supplement to Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume XXXVII, No. 18 (6 May 1897), p. XXIV (facing p. 171).
	Appliances used in the maintenance of sewers at Providence, Rhode Island, 1899. Note the wheel derrick and cart in the upper left. Source: Engineering News and American Railway Journal, Volume XLI, No. 13 (30 March 1899) insert facing p. 200.
	Horse-drawn covered tip-cart for refuse, including materials removed from sewers during cleaning operations. Source: National Clay Pipe Institute.
	Sewer rod truck. Wood sewer rods were used to clean sewers from the 1870s - 1950s. Source: Courtesy of David Woodward, City of Coronado, CA.
	Sewer rod truck. Wood sewer rods were used to clean sewers from the 1870s - 1950s. Source: Courtesy of David Woodward, City of Coronado, CA.
	Sewer rod truck. Wood sewer rods were used to clean sewers from the 1870s - 1950s. Source: Courtesy of David Woodward, City of Coronado, CA.
	Sewer rod truck. Wood sewer rods were used to clean sewers from the 1870s - 1950s. Source: Courtesy of David Woodward, City of Coronado, CA.
	Sewer maintenance equipment, Eastern Europe. Date unknown. Source: Richard Beck, recieved from the private collection of Dr. Wolfgang Wagner, University of Berlin, Germany.
	Sewer maintenance equipment, Eastern Europe. Date unknown. Source: Richard Beck, recieved from the private collection of Dr. Wolfgang Wagner, University of Berlin, Germany.