Seldom-used words - M to A

[beachbum1958]

.....

 

[Weird Harold]

Handley, beachbum, and Harold, ancient sanitation is a very interesting subject to me. I am not so sure putting our fecal matter in fresh water is the best way to go with so many people living on the earth. Fresh water is a limited resource, after all.

What else could we use? For those near the sea, salt water will work, but has the problem of corrosion and salt build-up. (it would also make the effluent unusable for fertilizer.)

Using fresh (not necessarily potable) water to move fecal matter (and other biological waste) is cheap and efficient. I can't think of any other way to move bio-waste away from habitations just off-hand that isn't more expensive or exposes worker to the bio-waste or both.

 

[beachbum1958]

What else could we use? For those near the sea, salt water will work, but has the problem of corrosion and salt build-up. (it would also make the effluent unusable for fertilizer.)

Using fresh (not necessarily potable) water to move fecal matter (and other biological waste) is cheap and efficient. I can't think of any other way to move bio-waste away from habitations just off-hand that isn't more expensive or exposes worker to the bio-waste or both.

Our house in Oxfordshire is in the process of having a combined horizontal/vertical flow sewage filtration reed-bed (also known as a constructed wetland) installed, with additional forced-bed aeration, to speed up the aerobic activity and purify the waste solids faster.

We have a septic tank, but no mains sewerage, as we're almost 2 miles from the branch sewer in the nearest village, and it's not economically viable to run a branch line up to us. To complicate things even further, to get to us, the sewer pipe would have to cross Crown Land, and excavations and civil works are prohibited on the Crown Estate, so, until we came up with the reed-bed idea, we were stuck with a buried tank under the lawn.

We also wanted a more ecologically sound and sustainable method of dealing with effluent than having a huge tanker come along every month to pump out that horrible thing, and my wife was always taken with the idea of a wetland of our own, to complement our managed woodland on the other side of the river. The woodlands are our heat-farm, our central-heating furnace burns wood, not gas or fuel-oil, plus we trade excess wood and shredded timber for charcoal to keep our fuel stocks topped-up.

We also have solid-fuel Aga-Rayburn cookers with back-boilers for our domestic hot water, reducing our dependency on fossil-fuel generated power to as low a level as we can get without being medieval about it all. We do generate a lot of ash, but a local ecological farming combine are happy to take it all to supplement their organic fertiliser stocks.

The reed bed is going to be 50m x 50m (2,500 square metres), and the bods from both Oxford University Ecology and Environmental Engineering Department and The Waterways Authority calculated that the amount of reed we've allowed for will aerobically filter and purify better than 15 cubic metres/day, with a quality of better than 10mg/L for BOD (Biochemical Oxygen Demand) and Suspended Solids, and 3mg/L or less of Ammoniacal Nitrogen; their calculations show the actual quality will be nearer 5:3:1.

The reed-bed will be draining into the river that runs through our property, and the water effluent will, while not potable, be significantly cleaner and of better quality than the water in the river we take our brown crayfish from. We'll be planting a mixture of common river reed and Reed mace ('cattail'), and the beds have an estimated life of 25 years before replacing the filtration media and re-seeding.

 

[Weird Harold]

The reed-bed will be draining into the river that runs through our property, and the water effluent will, while not potable, be significantly cleaner and of better quality than the water in the river we take our brown crayfish from. We'll be planting a mixture of common river reed and Reed mace ('cattail'), and the beds have an estimated life of 25 years before replacing the filtration media and re-seeding.

Sounds like a good, ecological, alternative to a septic tank or sewage mains connection.

But the point remains that you'll be using water to transport the bio-waste to, and through, the reed-bed. That's the part that Allard wants to replace to save fresh water for other uses.

Your system does address one major concern about using fresh water for sanitation: the water leaving your system is clean enough for irrigation and with a little further treatment can be made potable. Using fresh water for sanitation is only a temporary loss of clean water if even minimal treatment is applied.

 

[oggbashan]

This place in Lancashire has a large reed bed to deal with effluent from the visitors' toilets.

http://www.brockholes.org/

There is a slight smell in hot weather at the start of the reed bed. I think the effluent has to be pumped (solar and wind power) to the reed bed.

 

[beachbum1958]

This place in Lancashire has a large reed bed to deal with effluent from the visitors' toilets.

http://www.brockholes.org/

There is a slight smell in hot weather at the start of the reed bed. I think the effluent has to be pumped (solar and wind power) to the reed bed.

We try and limit our use of potable water to just that; drinking, cooking, and bathing. The toilets are fed by a pair of cisterns holding filtered rainwater we collect off the roof (it's England, so we're ensured an abundant supply...). The same cisterns also provide the water for the central heating as a closed system, and, because it's rainwater, there's no problems with build-up of haematite sludge and limescale in the pipes and radiators, the way one would have with ground-sourced water. They're also the irrigation source for my wife's vegetable, fruit, and flower gardens.

The bed we're installing is a mixture of vertical (gravity-fed) to break-down waste solids rapidly, which then turns into an horizontal flitration system, filtering through bio-media to initiate the aerobic process. This is being supplemented with a pumped aeration stage, fed by a solar-powered pump, to further hasten the aerobic action of the sewage treatment bio-media. The secondary aeration may not be necessary, given the size of the reed-bed, which is far in excess of what a household of five would require, and the fall is gradual enough that the flow through the reeds will be constant without being too rapid to be effective. The aeration pipework is only being installed in case we ever need it.

 

[AllardChardon]

Handley, beachbum, Harold and Og, I have heard of the wetlands approach to the problem, which is very effective. I have also heard of Humanure, which is more like the Chinese. If you are interested in more info, search Humanure Handbook and all the instructions are there. Whatever the solution, it would be great to stop using fresh drinking water to flush away poop and pee.

laura - noun (ca.1752) a monastery of the Eastern church

 

[oggbashan]

Handley, beachbum, Harold and Og, I have heard of the wetlands approach to the problem, which is very effective. I have also heard of Humanure, which is more like the Chinese. If you are interested in more info, search Humanure Handbook and all the instructions are there. Whatever the solution, it would be great to stop using fresh drinking water to flush away poop and pee.
...

There is in trend in the UK to build houses to use 'grey' water - water that has been used for baths, showers and washing up - to flush toilets. The problem as always is that water is bulky and heavy to store. The cost of building storage can outweigh the cost of using potable (drinking) water. There can also be an energy cost for raising the grey water high enough to be used to flush toilets.

In parts of the UK there is enough rainfall to provide ample and excessive water so using potable water isn't a problem. We have been in contact with friends in Lancashire. So far this August, which hasn't ended yet, they have had more rain in the month than I get in a wet year. They have had five serious flood alerts in August and the local stream came within four inches of flooding the main village street. That is unprecedented in August.

In my part of England we have almost the lowest annual rainfall of the whole UK and no reservoirs. All our water comes from underground water and some years that can fall very low. The local water company has been planning a reservoir for the last twenty years. It might be built within the next twenty...

I have six waterbutts around my house. Even in the driest summer they supply enough water to keep my pond topped up, to water the garden and to wash the cars. The overflow from the waterbutts goes to the gutter in the road and into the sea fifty yards away.

The water butts also reduce my bill for potable water. I am charged per cubic metre supplied and my bill for sewage is based on 90% of the potable water supplied.

 

[Handley_Page]

I have not needed the contents of my water butt this year - so far.
Surface water (from the roof, etc.) drains into the soak-away beneath the soil; everything else to the foul water drain.

 

[AllardChardon]

Very interesting set-up you have, Og, thanks for sharing. Flooding is a problem for every type of sewage system, I would suppose.

Launfal - noun (15c) a knight of the Round Table of the Arthurian legend

 

[oggbashan]

Very interesting set-up you have, Og, thanks for sharing. Flooding is a problem for every type of sewage system, I would suppose.
...

Older houses (pre-1960s) in England were usually built with rainwater and sewage piped into the same system.

The idea was that rain flushed solids through the sewers.

But with increased density of housing the amount of rainfall that went into the sewage system became excessive. Heavy rain could cause the pumps to be overloaded, or the pipes themselves to be overfull causing the sewers to overflow spreading dilute sewage over gardens and roads because it ran off hard surfaces such as house roofs, roads and driveways very fast.

Now modern estates have two types of drainage - rain/surface water and foul sewage. The surface water often goes through an attenuation system such as a surface pond or underground cistern. Those attenuation systems take the first runoff and reduce the peak flow by storing some of it to be released at a slower rate.

Surface water from my house roof runs into my water butts and only goes into the sewage pipework once two of the six water butts are full. The other four water butts overflow into the road drainage system and straight into the sea fifty yards away.

If there is very heavy continuous rain after a longish dry spell:

At high tide a large brown stain spreads across the sea from the dirt washed off the roads and from the road drains.

At low tide there is an instant delta formed of brown mud deposited as the water runs out of the large bore drain pipe. That delta is washed away by the incoming tide. I have used the heavy rain to demonstrate to geography students exactly how a delta is formed. They might get wet in the heavy rain but most are fascinated to see a river delta being formed in seconds as they watch. In really heavy rain after a month without rain that delta can go from nothing to a feature thirty metres wide in ten minutes.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, thank you for sharing the details of your sewage system and how a delta can form rapidly. You are a most interesting gent.

I love the sound of this word;

latterly - adv (1678) 1. LATER 2. of late: RECENTLY

 

[AllardChardon]

Hello to everyone.

Once I read this definition, I had a much better understanding of the objects on some altars;

latten - noun (14c) a yellow alloy identical to or resembling brass typically hammered into thin sheets and formerly much used for church utensils

 

[NaokoSmith]

The National Botanic Gardens of Wales are proud of their water recycling facilities, and other green technologies.

I am just here indulging in some lucubration, as I'm finding it very hard to sleep tonight. I'm sure that word must have been brought into the thread before! I like the way it looks like it means something dirty but actually doesn't.

 

[AllardChardon]

Naoko, what a wonderful place, thanks for posting it. I should do the very same thing right here at my house. Someday I may, but the County Building Department will have the final say, that is for sure.

Just because I didn't know the definition to your post off the top of my head, I've decided to add it here for others, like me;

lucubration - noun (L lucubration-, lucubratio study by night, work produced at night, from lucubrare to work by lamplight; akin to L luc-, lux)(1595): laborious or intensive study; also: the product of such study — usually used in plural

Editor's Note: (taken from Merriam-Webster website)

Imagine someone studying through the night by the light of a dim candle or lamp. That image demonstrates perfectly the most literal sense of lucubration. Our English word derives from the Latin verb lucubrare, meaning "to work by lamplight." (Yes, that Latin root is related to lux, the Latin word for "light.") In its earliest known English uses in the late 1500s and early 1600s, lucubration named both nocturnal study itself and a written product thereof. By the 1800s, however, the term had been broadened to refer to any intensive study (day or night), or a composition, especially a weighty one, generated as a result of such study. Nowadays, lucubration is most often used as a plural and implies pompous or stuffy scholarly writing.

 

[oggbashan]

...
I am just here indulging in some lucubration, as I'm finding it very hard to sleep tonight. I'm sure that word must have been brought into the thread before! I like the way it looks like it means something dirty but actually doesn't.

...

Just because I didn't know the definition to your post off the top of my head, I've decided to add it here for others, like me;

lucubration - noun (L lucubration-, lucubratio study by night, work produced at night, from lucubrare to work by lamplight; akin to L luc-, lux)(1595): laborious or intensive study; also: the product of such study — usually used in plural

Editor's Note: (taken from Merriam-Webster website)

Imagine someone studying through the night by the light of a dim candle or lamp. That image demonstrates perfectly the most literal sense of lucubration. Our English word derives from the Latin verb lucubrare, meaning "to work by lamplight." (Yes, that Latin root is related to lux, the Latin word for "light.") In its earliest known English uses in the late 1500s and early 1600s, lucubration named both nocturnal study itself and a written product thereof. By the 1800s, however, the term had been broadened to refer to any intensive study (day or night), or a composition, especially a weighty one, generated as a result of such study. Nowadays, lucubration is most often used as a plural and implies pompous or stuffy scholarly writing.

Studying by lamplight has negative associations for a long time.

Apart from being pompous and too scholarly it also means trying too hard or trying to compensate for procrastination. You should have studied or worked during the day.

"Smells of the lamp" is a description of an over-intense work, too clever by half, that is meretricious and without real substance. A modern version would be academic research that relies too much on Google and not enough on the author's originality.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, thank you for bringing my last entry into the present. I truly appreciate that. We usually call it, "Burning the midnight oil," but without the negative connotations. I guess Americans pride themselves on overwork. I use to be that way, now I am just happy to work around my house at my own pace on my own schedule.

A new word for me, but one I instantly love;

latitudinarian - adj (1697) not insisting on strict conformity to a particular doctrine or standard: TOLERANT; specif: tolerant of variations in religious opinion or doctrine

 

[Handley_Page]

Og, thank you for bringing my last entry into the present. I truly appreciate that. We usually call it, "Burning the midnight oil," but without the negative connotations. I guess Americans pride themselves on overwork. I use to be that way, now I am just happy to work around my house at my own pace on my own schedule.

A new word for me, but one I instantly love;

latitudinarian - adj (1697) not insisting on strict conformity to a particular doctrine or standard: TOLERANT; specif: tolerant of variations in religious opinion or doctrine

The term 'latitude' was much in circulation about that time, I think. Then came "Longitude".

 

[oggbashan]

...

A new word for me, but one I instantly love;

latitudinarian - adj (1697) not insisting on strict conformity to a particular doctrine or standard: TOLERANT; specif: tolerant of variations in religious opinion or doctrine

Although first used later, the sentiments expressed by that word had a particular meaning during the English Civil War. Oliver Cromwell was a latitudinarian and had to deal with some very fanatical people among his supporters on the Parliamentary side. He tried hard and succeeded in keeping them together.

"I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken." Oliver Cromwell

All the disparate groups had in common was a hatred of the Roman Catholic Church. One of my local booksellers used to specialise in Protestant Polemic books published during our Civil War. One fanatic would publish a book in favour of a particular sect; another would publish a book rubbishing the first book; another book would be published suggesting that the first two authors were heretical and so on...

The modern Church of England (and Episcopal) is latitudinarian in governance. They allow considerable variations from High to Low Church but have severe problems with African branches that are violently opposed to gay clergy (and some of them to women priests. That opposition still exists in a minority of English parishes). It has been hard for successive Archbishops of Canterbury to continue a latitudinarian stance when some opponents of tolerance are so vehement in their opposition.

 

[AllardChardon]

Og, an excellent explanation of my last entry. I found it very interesting that Oliver Cromwell practiced the doctrine. Thank you for the information.

I have tried to keep our American political circus out of this thread, but, I must admit, it has taken up a fair amount of my time, just trying to figure out what is truth and what is not.

I used to resemble the following entry more often than not;

latish - adj (1611) somewhat late

 

[Handley_Page]

Og, an excellent explanation of my last entry. I found it very interesting that Oliver Cromwell practiced the doctrine. Thank you for the information.

I have tried to keep our American political circus out of this thread, but, I must admit, it has taken up a fair amount of my time, just trying to figure out what is truth and what is not.

I used to resemble the following entry more often than not;

latish - adj (1611) somewhat late

And me

 

[AllardChardon]

Great news. I have just returned from Santa Clara and the first ever Alien Con 2016, a convention produced by The History Channel and Ancient Aliens. What a Blast!!! If you have any questions, just ask.

latifundium - noun (1869) a great landed estate with primitive agriculture and labor often in a state of partial servitude

 

[Handley_Page]

Great news. I have just returned from Santa Clara and the first ever Alien Con 2016, a convention produced by The History Channel and Ancient Aliens. What a Blast!!! If you have any questions, just ask.

latifundium - noun (1869) a great landed estate with primitive agriculture and labor often in a state of partial servitude

I can think of a few things in the modern time that resemble it.

 

[AllardChardon]

The second definition of the second entry of this word caught my eye;

lather(1) - noun (before 12c) 1.a. a form or froth formed when a detergent (as soap) is agitated in water b. foam for froth from profuse sweating (as on a horse) 2. an agitated or overwrought state: DITHER <worked himself into a ~>

lather(2) - verb (before 12C) 1. to spread lather over 2. to beat severely: FLOG

 

[oggbashan]

...

latifundium - noun (1869) a great landed estate with primitive agriculture and labor often in a state of partial servitude

That word describes the Roman farms that supported Roman Villas throughout their Empire. But they were run with slave labour and produced much of the agricultural produced needed in the towns and cities.

Owing a latifundium was very profitable. Despite Roman authors writing about the joys of a bucolic existence, the reality was very highly organised farming on an industrial scale.