Sewer Inspection

The sewers which carry the daily wastes of Los Angeles' 1,250,000 inhabitants to the Pacific Ocean constitute as remarkable an engineering achievement as the main which brings pure water over mountains from a lake 233 miles away. The main channels of the Los Angeles sewers measure 50 miles in length. To inspect them, to see that they were free of corrosion and cracks, has been the job for the past 16 years of a husky, ruddy, straw-haired athlete named Reuben Brown, 45, assistant superintendent of sewer maintenance. Mr. Brown enjoys his inspections, has in the course of them made many an odd find of money, jewelry and glass eyes.

One section of the Los Angeles sewer system which no live eye has seen since the city's discharge started flowing through it, 220,000,000 gal. per hr. at the rate of 3 ft. per sec., is the 6-mi. tunnel under the Del Rey Hills to the ocean. Last week Reuben Brown prepared to travel those six subterranean miles in a non-sinkable 9-ft. punt.

For motive power he had short oars. A miner's lamp attached to his steel helmet, a searchlight on the boat's prow, an under water lamp hanging overside, all served by electric storage battery, were to supply light for close inspection of the tunnel walls. All electrical connections were shielded against sparking in the presence of sewer gas whose explosive power, Mr. Brown told reporters, was such that 36 cu. ft. of it was equal to one ton of dynamite. Last week Mr. Brown made a preliminary test of his equipment. He put on woolen basketball socks, sneakers, short hockey pants. He ate a huge breakfast of hot cakes and bacon. Then he got into a rubberized suit, hung a gas mask on his chest, a radio transmitter on his back. His crew lowered him and boat through a manhole into a sewer main, paid out 500-ft. of flexible steel cable attached to the stern of the punt. Thus insured against immediate catastrophe, Mr. Brown sculled into the hot and humid black stink. Two hours later he was hoisted out of the manhole, oozing sweat and four pounds lighter.

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