George E. Waring, Jr.

George E. Waring Jr. (July 4, 1833 – October 29, 1898) was an American sanitary engineer and civic reformer. He was an early American designer and advocate of sewer systems that keep domestic sewage separate from storm runoff.

Early life Waring was born in Pound Ridge, New York, the son of George E. Waring Sr., a wealthy stove manufacturer. Trained in agricultural chemistry, he began to lecture on agricultural science. In 1855, he took charge of Horace Greeley's farm at Chappaqua, New York.

Career

Draining Central Park View of Willowdell Arch with the team that created Central Park. Standing on the pathway over the span, from Right: Frederick Law Olmsted, Jacob Wrey Mould, Ignaz Anton Pilat, Calvert Vaux, George Waring, and Andrew Haswell Green. Photographed in 1862.

In 1857, Waring was appointed agricultural and drainage engineer for the construction of New York City's Central Park. An enthusiastic equestrian, he and his horse "Vixen" would often use the park's construction as jumping obstacles.

Civil War Service At the beginning of the American Civil War, Waring resigned from the Central Park project to accept a military commission as major. He departed New York in the early summer, and drilled for a month in Washington, DC, occasionally meeting President Lincoln as he reviewed the troops. Waring departed Washington, DC, on July 4, 1862, and fought at Battle of Blackburn's Ford.

In 1876 William Smith patented a jet siphon water closet, an innovation that caught the attention of Waring, who developed the design for larger pieces of sanitary ware (toilets). In 1881, William Paul Gerhard, another historically important sanitary engineer became Waring's chief assistant.

Memphis sewer system

Memphis, Tennessee, had suffered several severe cholera epidemics (1849, 1866, 1873) and yellow fever (1867, 1873, 1878 and 1879), with over 5,000 fatalities in 1878 alone. Sanitary conditions in the city were poor, with many domestic wells close by privies and drained by a fetid bayou. Many buildings had standing water underneath because of the poorly-draining clay soil. Civic leaders recognized the need for better drainage and a sewer system that would keep domestic waste away from the wells, although they were wrong in their belief that yellow fever was spread by inadequate sanitation practices. It was, in fact, spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, which breeds in stagnant water. The financially strapped city and the state legislature were unable to raise sufficient funds for construction of a conventional combined sewer system, due to the mass exodus of residents for fear of yellow fever. The situation in Memphis aroused the sympathy of the nation and was largely responsible for the creation of the National Board of Health, a predecessor to the United States Public Health Service. The Board sent Waring to Memphis, where he designed what he thought was a system Memphis could afford. Waring's design called for the separation of sewage waste from storm water runoff, an innovation that reduced the size of the pipes required to carry septic sewage. Until this time, this idea had not been used in the United States on a large scale. Memphis constructed a separated sewer system according to Waring's plans, and its era of epidemics came to an end.

New York City In 1895, Waring was brought to New York City, where sanitary conditions had become intolerable. Horses were leaving an estimated 2.5 million pounds of manure and 60,000 gallons of urine on the streets every day. cleared only haphazardly by "ragtag army of the unemployed." His body was cremated and the ashes were placed in an urn, and buried in the family plot in Stamford, Connecticut.

Legacy

An avenue in the North Bronx near Pelham Parkway was named in his honor, Waring Avenue. Memphis has a street named for Waring (Waring Road) running from Walnut Grove Road north to Macon Road at Wells Station Road, going through the Berclair neighborhood.

Waring's publications

Jersey cattle, being an essay on this breed. Judd, New York, 1872. Wedding at Ogden Farm, in Scribners Monthly Illustrated Magazine. May 1876 – October 1876, Scribner and Company, New York, 1876. The Handy-Book of Husbandry: A Guide for Farmers, Young and Old. in Scribners Monthly Illustrated Magazine. E.B. Treat & Co., New York. Waring's Book of the Farm; Being a Revised Edition of the Handy-Book of Husbandry. A Guide for Farmers. Porter & Coates, Philadelphia, 1877. A Farmer’s Vacation, in Reprinted (with additions) from Scribner's Monthly Illustrated Magazine. James R. Osgood & Company, Boston, MA. 1876. The Sanitary Condition of City and Country Dwelling Houses. - Sanitation, Household - 1877 - 145 pages. Draining for Profit and Draining for Health. Whip and Spur.- Boston, Ticknor and Company - 1892 - 245 pages. Modern Methods of Sewage Disposal. D. Van Nostrand Co., NY. 1894. How to drain a house, practical information for householders. D. Van Nostrand Company, New York. Street-cleaning and the Disposal of a City's Wastes. Doubleday and McClure Co., NY 1897, 230 pp.