Abstract
THE magnitude of the underground works of London is scarcely understood by the public in general. They occasionally hear of this or that sewer or pumping station being completed, but as the greater portion of them is hidden beneath the surface of the ground, nothing but a personal inspection during the process of construction can give any adequate idea of the vastness and intricacy of our drainage system. The following facts, collected from the engineer's papers on the subject and reports to the Metropolitan Board of Works, may present to the mind some notion of these great works. There are about 1,400 miles of sewers in London, 82 miles of which are intercepting sewers of “The Main Drainage”. The area drained by the intercepting sewers is about 100 square miles. The total amount of sewage and rainfall which they will carry off is 63 million cubic feet per day, or equal to a lake as large as Hyde Park four feet in depth. There have been consumed in their construction about 340 million bricks, and upwards of 900,000 cubic yards of concrete. The total engine-power employed is 2,380 nominal horse-power, but this will soon be increased by about 400 horse-power on the construction of the Pimlico pumping station. The cost of these works when completed will be a little over 4,000,000l.
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The Metropolitan Main Drainage . Nature 1, 558–561 (1870). https://doi.org/10.1038/001558b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/001558b0