I've got a question that relates to the transition from wells to city 
water in the late 19th or early 20th century.
I've got examples from two urban house lots in Braddock, Pennsylvania.  
In both cases, there was first a circular brick well. Excavation of the 
fill in each well revealed the same treatement: a ceramic segmented 
drain pipe coming into the well through a break in the side wall, and 
then extending down through the fill, beyond the limits of our 
excavations (about 5-6 feet).
Putting your sewage down a former well seems like a really bad idea - in 
terms of polluting the drinking water. Is this what people were doing in 
the early 20th century as they refitted their houses for city water???
Also, if the drain pipe was put in after the well was filled, there 
would have been evidence of a pipe trench, but none such was found.  but 
if the drain was put in before the well was filled, how were the 
segments kept together, running down the center of an open air shaft? I 
didn't find evidence of any supporting frame either. does this mean the 
drain and fill were put in simultaneously, filling the well as the pipe 
was laid (from the bottom up)?
Any information on construction practices or sanitation rules of the 
period would be helpful.

Meli Diamanti
Archaeological & Historical Consultants, Inc