MARBLE DUST CHOKES A SEWER.

MARBLE DUST CHOKES A SEWER.

Soda water manufacturers on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan have a weakness for avoiding all avoidable expenditure of money. Instead, therefore, of carting away the marble dust used in their business, they dump it into the sewers in defiance of the law, whereby is caused defective drainage which is often puzzling to the inspectors and difficult to locate. This was found to be the case the other day by some employes of the department of public works who were attempting to clean out the sewer in Henry street, between Market and Pike street. While performing their task, they were overcome by a peculiar gas formed by acid and marble dust forced into the sewers as above related. The houses along the line of that sewer were filled with sewer gas and on exploration being made it was found that for a distance of sixty feet there was a deposit of marble dust thirty inches deep, which, when stirred up, gave forth a stifling gas sufficiently strong to overpower the inspecting foreman and to cause his removal to the street for fresh air. Several of the laborers were similiary affected, and the work of removing the marble dust could be accomplished only by the men working in relays for a few minutes at a time. The dust removed filled nine carts. A search throught the sewer, which is only four feet high,disclosed a pipe leading to the basement of a building at 80 Henry street, where Harowitz & Goodman manufacture soda water. A quantity of marble dust was found in the pipe; but an agent of the soda water firm,while admitting that marble dust was used, claimed that it was used in small quantities only, and furthermore assured the inspector that they had new and improved machinery which rendered the employment of mirble dust almost unnecessary. The spokesman for the firm strove to impress upon the inspector that, while no marble dust had been put into sewer by Messrs. Harowitz & Goodman, their predecessors who had occupied the premises for the same manufacture a year and a half ago had not been at all scrupulous as to how they disposed of the dust and the acid, which, though it had been put into the sewer over eighteen months ago (so it was asserted), was nevertheless able to generate a gas strong enough to turn black the silver watches of the laborers and to tarnish whatever silver money they had in their pockets. The matter has been placed in the hands of the city’s board of health.

Soda water manufacturers on the East Side of the borough of Manhattan have a weakness for avoiding all avoidable expenditure of money. Instead, therefore, of carting away the marble dust used in their business, they dump it into the sewers in defiance of the law, whereby is caused defective drainage which is often puzzling to the inspectors and difficult to locate. This was found to be the case the other day by some employes of the department of public works who were attempting to clean out the sewer in Henry street, between Market and Pike street. While performing their task, they were overcome by a peculiar gas formed by acid and marble dust forced into the sewers as above related. The houses along the line of that sewer were filled with sewer gas and on exploration being made it was found that for a distance of sixty feet there was a deposit of marble dust thirty inches deep, which, when stirred up, gave forth a stifling gas sufficiently strong to overpower the inspecting foreman and to cause his removal to the street for fresh air. Several of the laborers were similiary affected, and the work of removing the marble dust could be accomplished only by the men working in relays for a few minutes at a time. The dust removed filled nine carts. A search throught the sewer, which is only four feet high,disclosed a pipe leading to the basement of a building at 80 Henry street, where Harowitz & Goodman manufacture soda water. A quantity of marble dust was found in the pipe; but an agent of the soda water firm,while admitting that marble dust was used, claimed that it was used in small quantities only, and furthermore assured the inspector that they had new and improved machinery which rendered the employment of mirble dust almost unnecessary. The spokesman for the firm strove to impress upon the inspector that, while no marble dust had been put into sewer by Messrs. Harowitz & Goodman, their predecessors who had occupied the premises for the same manufacture a year and a half ago had not been at all scrupulous as to how they disposed of the dust and the acid, which, though it had been put into the sewer over eighteen months ago (so it was asserted), was nevertheless able to generate a gas strong enough to turn black the silver watches of the laborers and to tarnish whatever silver money they had in their pockets. The matter has been placed in the hands of the city’s board of health.