Part 4

A simple type of chemical closet is shown in Figure 14, and the essential features are indicated in the notation. These closets with vent pipe and appurtenances, ready for setting up, retail for $20 and upward. A chemical tank closet, retailing for about $80 per seat, is shown in Figure 15.

The Department of Agriculture occasionally receives complaints from people who have installed chemical closets, usually on the score of odors or the cost of chemicals.

DISINFECTANTS AND DEODORANTS

Disinfection is the destruction of disease germs. Sterilization is the destruction of all germs or bacteria, both the harmful and the useful. Antisepsis is the checking or restraining of bacterial growth. Deodorization is the destruction of odor. Unfortunately in practice none of these processes may be complete. The agent may be of inferior quality, may have lost its potency, or may not reach all parts of the mass treated. A disinfectant or germicide is an agent capable of destroying disease germs; an antiseptic is an agent merely capable of arresting bacterial growth, and it may be a dilute disinfectant; a deodorant is an agent that tends to destroy odor, but whose action may consist in absorbing odor or in masking the original odor with another more agreeable one.

Those desiring more explicit information on disinfectants and the principles of disinfection are referred to U. S. Department of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin 926, "Some Common Disinfectants," and 954, "The Disinfection of Stables." and to publications of the U. S. Public Health Service.

Of active disinfecting agents, heat from fire, live steam, and boiling water are the surest. The heat generated by the slaking of quicklime has proved effective with small quantities of excreta. Results of tests by the Massachusetts State Board of Health show that the preferable method consists in adding sufficient hot water (120° to 140° F.) to cover the excrement in the receptacle, then adding small pieces of fresh strong quicklime in amount equal to about one-third of the bulk of water and excrement combined, covering the receptacle, and allowing it to stand 1½ hours or longer.

Annual Report, Mass. State Board of Health, 1914, pp. 727-729.

Among chemical disinfectants a strong solution of sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) or potassium hydroxide (caustic potash, lye) is very effective and is useful in dissolving grease and other organic substances. Both chemicals are costly, but caustic soda is less expensive than caustic potash and constitutes most of the ordinary commercial lyes. Chlorinated lime (chloride of lime, bleaching powder) either in solution or in powdered form is valuable. For the disinfection of stools of typhoid-fever patients the Virginia State Board of Health recommends thoroughly dissolving ½ pound of best chlorinated lime in 1 gallon of water and allowing the solution to cover the feces for at least 1 hour. The solution should be kept in well-stoppered bottles and used promptly, certainly within 2 or 3 days. Copper sulphate (blue vitriol, bluestone) in a 5 per cent solution (1 pound in 2½ gallons of water) is a good but rather costly disinfectant. None of the formulas here given is to be construed as fixed and precise. Conditions may vary the proportions, as they always will vary the results. The reader should remember that few, if any, chemical disinfectants can be expected fully to disinfect or sterilize large masses of excrement unless the agent is used repeatedly and in liberal quantities or mechanical means are employed to secure thorough incorporation.

Health Bulletin, Va. State Board of Health, June, 1917, pp. 277-280.

Among deodorants some of the drying powders mentioned below possess more or less disinfecting power. Chlorinated lime, though giving off an unpleasant odor of chlorine, is employed extensively. Lime in the form of either quicklime or milk of lime (whitewash) is much used and is an active disinfectant. To prepare milk of lime a small quantity of water is slowly added to good fresh quicklime in lumps. As soon as the quicklime is slaked a quantity of water, about four times the quantity of lime, is added and stirred thoroughly. When used as a whitewash the milk of lime is thinned as desired with water and kept well stirred. Liberal use of milk of lime in a vault or cesspool, though it may not disinfect the contents, is of use in checking bacterial growth and abating odor. To give the best results it should be used frequently, beginning when the vault or cesspool is empty. Iron sulphate (green vitriol, copperas) because of its affinity for ammonia and sulphides is used as a temporary deodorizer in vaults, cesspools, and drains; 1 pound dissolved in 4 gallons of water makes a solution of suitable strength.

PREVENTION OF PRIVY NUISANCE

The following is a summary of simple measures for preventing a privy from becoming a nuisance:

1. Locate the privy inconspicuously and detached from the dwelling.

2. Make the receptacle or vault small, shallow, easy of access, and water-tight.

3. Clean out the vault often. Do not wait until excrement has accumulated and decomposition is sufficiently advanced to cause strong and foul odors.

4. Sprinkle into the vault daily loose dry soil, ashes, lime, sawdust, ground gypsum (land plaster), or powdered peat or charcoal. These will absorb liquid and odor, though they may not destroy disease germs.

5. Make the privy house rain-proof; ventilate it thoroughly, and screen all openings.

OBJECTION TO PRIVIES

All the methods of waste disposal heretofore described are open to the following objections:

1. They do not take care of kitchen slops and liquid wastes incident to a pressure water system.

2. They retain filth for a considerable period of time, with probability of odors and liability of transmission of disease germs.

3. They require more personal attention and care than people generally are willing to give.

By far the most satisfactory method yet devised of caring for sewage calls for a supply of water and the flushing away of all wastes as soon as created through a water-tight sewer to a place where they undergo treatment and final disposal.

KITCHEN-SINK DRAINAGE

A necessity in every dwelling is effective disposal of the kitchen-sink slops. This necessity ordinarily arises long before the farm home is supplied with water under pressure and the conveniences that go with it. Hence the first call for information on sewage disposal is likely to relate merely to sink drainage. This waste water, though it may not be as dangerous to health as sewage containing human excrements, is still a menace to the farm well and capable of creating disagreeable odor.

The usual method of disposing of sink slops is to allow them to dribble on or beneath the surface of the ground close to the house. Such drainage should be taken in a water-tight carrier at least 100 feet downhill from the well and discharged below the surface of the ground. Every sink should be provided with a suitable screen to keep all large particles out of the waste pipe. An approved form of sink strainer consists of a brass plate bolted in position over the outlet and having at least 37 perforations not larger than one-fourth inch in diameter. Provided a sink is thus equipped and is given proper care and the land has fair slope and drainage, the waste water may be conducted away through a water-tight sewer and distributed in the soil by means of a short blind drain. A simple installation, consisting of a kitchen-sink and pump and means of disposal as described, is shown in Figure 16.

CESSPOOLS

Where farms have water under pressure an open or leaching cesspool is a common method of disposing of the sewage. Ordinary cesspools are circular excavations in the ground, lined with stone or brick laid without mortar. They vary from 5 to 10 feet in diameter and from 7 to 12 feet in depth. Sometimes the top is arched and capped at the ground surface by a cover of wood, stone, or cast-iron. At other times the walls are carried straight up and boards or planks are laid across for a cover, and the entire structure is hidden with a hedge or shrubbery.