Grit Chamber Practice: A Symposium: British Practice in the Design of Grit Chambers or Detritus Tanks

This subject at first sight might appear to afford little material for a paper, for more than one author with a wide experience of British sewage works has stated that there is little evidence of design in detritus tanks. This statement is hardly fair to British engineers, most of whom doubtless have evolved in their own practice types of tank which they find to meet their requirements. However, little information has been published in England on the subject of grit chambers, and English textbooks on the disposal of sewage are all but silent with regard to them. This is the more surprising considering that the large towns, with hardly an exception, are sewered on the principle of the combined system, and that the quantity of road detritus which finds its way into the sewers is often considerable. At Manchester, England, it is reported, as much as 300 tons of detritus sometimes reaches the outfall in 24 hours.