Mending is also done by
them, while socks and clothes too far gone to be mended are packed in
bundles and sent away to be sold.
The waste wash water from the baths and laundries entering the creeks
naturally causes trouble from troops down stream who may have to use
it. Horses will not touch soapy water, and the brewers object to
making beer with it; they say it spoils the beer.
Consequently the sanitary officers have in many cases been compelled
to put in tanks to treat this dirty water and purify it. This is
usually done by adding an excess of chloride of lime, which
precipitates the soap as a curd and carries the dirt down with it. By
sedimentation, and filtration through canvas, cinders and sand, the
water is clarified and turned into the creeks again clean. So
completely can this be accomplished that the experience at one bath
house is worth narrating.
This bath house was built on a little pond which accumulated in winter
and was not fed by springs or any other auxiliary source of supply;
consequently with the advent of warm weather it would have dried up
unless the water had been conserved in some way.
The sanitary officer in charge was equal to the task. With the advice
of engineers and the laboratory he built a plant which subsequently
worked to perfection. The water used to bath at least a thousand men a
day, as well as the wash water from the laundry attached to the bath
house, was collected and treated with acid to remove the soap; the
scum formed carried to the top all of the dirt, which was then
filtered off by means of sacking, cinders, and sand.
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