I feel I need to click somewhere for more information. I'm just not sure where, though. posted by sourwookie at 5:08 PM on April 20, 2006
I remember watching a show about a sewer cleaning technique used in France (?) that used a giant wooden sphere (??) that would just roll down the sewer pipes and pop out the other end.
I don't see any pictures of that thing in this site. Anybody know what I'm talking about? posted by odinsdream at 5:09 PM on April 20, 2006
Too weird. I was just on this site the other day researching old sewer systems as our house was built in 1892. We have been having..umm..some issues. I am just curious thirteenkiller, how did you come across the site? posted by repoman at 5:18 PM on April 20, 2006
Hmmmm..... nothing about the blind albino aligators. I smell a cover-up. posted by longsleeves at 5:58 PM on April 20, 2006
Excellent link! It's not about the flashy design or the popular culture. It's a great source of primary literature that details the development of one of the most important advances for modern urban humanity. I wish more Metafilter was this interesting. posted by recurve at 6:35 PM on April 20, 2006
My mom was a fantastic sewer.
And quite the drawer, too.
She felt she could just beer self
When she had those things to do. posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:10 PM on April 20, 2006
Funny how topical MeFi can be sometimes, I was on my way to work this morning when the construction workers next door working on refurbishing a formerly abandoned house informed me that they had 'found a void' while re-doing some old sewer lines. Unfortunately that void is right out in front of our house. When I came home this evening a Seattle Utilities truck was stationed outside investigating with fiber optic cables. Many drill holes up and down the street had been drilled to allow further inspection by fiber optic cable. They said that when they had snaked the cable through the pipe it should be going to a sewer pipe. Instead it was going off to black space, unknown depth and dimension. Let's hope it doesn't end up like this. . . . posted by mk1gti at 9:55 PM on April 20, 2006
Thanks thirteenkiller—this has to be one of the shittiest posts ever on MeFi... ;-)
...and we take sewers far too much for granted. Can you imagine what cities with multi-million populations would be like without modern sewage systems?
Odinsdream: Giant Parisian sewer cleaning ball #1 and #2, plus a smaller caliber (near bottom of page). posted by cenoxo at 12:10 AM on April 21, 2006
The cleaning ball in link #1 looks like it is already drilled for bowling. posted by Cranberry at 12:37 AM on April 21, 2006
After Hurricane Wilma I got to learn a lot more about the sewer system and about lift stations than I ever wanted to know. Our lift station requires electric power and we were without power for over 10 days. Furthermore, the city's lift station was also without power, so running ours with a generator when the city's lift station wasn't working made things worse. It was not pretty. posted by mike3k at 7:56 AM on April 21, 2006
posted by sourwookie at 5:08 PM on April 20, 2006