Hi,
All this talk about sewer mapping, prompts me to contribute:
Until recently, my husband worked for a company called Blackhawk Pipeline
Assessment. The parent organization also makes ground-penetrating radar
equipment and other geotechnical equipment. His division did something
called "trenchless technology." (which is a specialty in the engineering
field). Instead of digging up streets to assess the condition of what's
buried, big cities now send little robots with 360 degree cameras and
gyroscopes down into the system. These little "spies" move about like tiny
little caterpillar tractors beneath our streets. They feed signals to
computers that map sewers and other structures underground as well as record
any cracks or other decay/problems in the system. It’s a pretty amazing
piece of technology. On the other hand, I remember the day when we only
used to worry about alligators coming up our toilets! Beware, big brother
IS watching you and from the most unusual angles. <grin>!
Linda Derry
Site Director
Old Cahawba Archaeological Site
719 Tremont Street
Selma, AL 36701-5446
334/875-2529
[log in to unmask]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of George Myers
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 8:28 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Sewer Treatment History
>
>
> It is interesting to note that some of the old sewer systems
> are unmapped in Puerto Rico, and I read that the U.S.
> National Park Service is mapping some of the old systems or
> supplying money to. I read also that the first use of COGO
> (in the world?), computer based Coordinate Geometry, was done
> by IBM to site out a sewer network on the island of Puerto
> Rico involving a huge amount of RAM (random access memory) on
> the order of 32K! Probably the data was stored on a hard disk
> platter a meter or more in diameter! I once saw one hanging
> on a wall back when 5 1/2 inch disks were making an entrance,
> to replace an HX-20 notebook computer that had assisted Anna
> Roosevelt, Ph.D., in mapping a mound complex in the Amazon
> River, on the Island of Marajó in Brazil, which worked fine
> there, but succumbed to the humidity of the Hudson Valley
> while in use by Greenhouse Consultants, Inc. at the Wickers
> Creek Site.
>
> >Sewers, they must be hard to run without water!
>
> In the Bronx, NYC, there has been an ongoing conundrum over
> the placement of a Federally ordered filtration of reservoir
> water. Currently, the proposed filtration plant is in three
> locations, 1) along the Harlem River, The Harlem River is a
> tidal strait in New York City that flows 8 miles between the
> East River and the Hudson River, separating the borough of
> Manhattan from the Bronx and Queens. Part of the current
> course of the Harlem River is the Harlem Ship Canal, which
> runs somewhat south of the former course of the river,
> isolating a small portion of Manhattan (New York
> County) on the Bronx side of the river.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem_River
>
> 2) in the middle of a city park, and 3) alongside a prison in
> Westchester County. The preferred site has been the "public
> taking" of the park, currently a public golf course in the park.
>
> Originally, it was to be alongside Bronx's High School of
> Science, Lehman Community College, and a historic
> neighborhood, in the reservoir currently there. Has anyone on
> the list heard of the public taking of parkland for Federal
> compliance? (besides the former Federally funded sewer projects).
>
> George Myers
>
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