George E. Waring Jr. was an American sanitary engineer who pioneered separate systems for sewage and stormwater drainage. He designed the 'Waring system' of small, separate sewer pipes for towns such as Lenox, Massachusetts, reducing the disease-carrying sewage that had previously mixed with street runoff in combined sewers, and in the 1890s he reorganized New York City's Department of Street Cleaning, introducing uniformed sanitation crews ('White Wings') and systematic waste collection that sharply reduced urban filth and disease. His work established sanitary engineering as a distinct discipline within civil engineering. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
FAQs
Why did Memphis build George E. Waring Jr.'s separate sewer system?
Memphis could not afford a combined sewer, so in 1880 the National Board of Health sent Waring, who designed a cheaper separate system of small pipes.
Memphis had suffered repeated cholera and yellow fever epidemics, with over 5,000 deaths in 1878 alone, and its civic leaders wanted a sewer system to keep domestic waste away from the wells. The city and state could not raise enough money for a conventional combined sewer system. In 1880 the National Board of Health sent Waring, who designed a system that separated sewage from storm water runoff, an innovation that reduced the size of the pipes required. Memphis built it to his plans, and its era of epidemics came to an end. Civic leaders were wrong in believing that yellow fever was spread by inadequate sanitation, since it was spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
Connections
In Field
Source George E. Waring Jr. (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Source George E. Waring Jr. (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributorsLead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia articletier 2Quote, Lead paragraph of the cited Wikipedia article
George E. Waring Jr. (July 4, 1833 – October 29, 1898) was an American sanitary engineer and civic reformer.
Sources
1. George E. Waring Jr. (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationLead section
George E. Waring Jr. (July 4, 1833, October 29, 1898) was an American sanitary engineer and civic reformer.
- In Field: Environmental Engineering
In Group: Sanitary and Environmental Engineers, Lead paragraph
was an American sanitary engineer and civic reformer
View the Source Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.