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P. Thompson

On Sun, 13 Aug 2006, wrote:

07-Aug
The other day, I was doing some digging at the side of my house, and
found something that I have no clue what it is or what it is for.
I was digging near the area where the sewer pipe exits the house. I
always assumed that the lateral is just a simple sloped pipe that heads
out to the municipal street sewer. However, after the lateral exits the
house for a few feet, it inlets into a little dry-well type structure
that is about 2 ft in diameter and covered with a round stone slab.

The oldest houses in the downtown area of Madison WI have something
similar. I always took it to be an artifact of the superstition that
people seem to have had in the 19th century with regard to sewers and
sewer gas and the like.