Dear readers, I’m sure you will know of my curiosity of looking into holes, whatever kind they are. In today’s peering into a manhole I was alerted by the flashing yellow lights on the vehicle. They are almost magnetic in drawing me in.
The result of my peering was most interesting. The two engineers were fitting a devices into a waste water sewer manhole. While it’s not far from our home, I’ve never previously seen inside. It was much larger that I’d anticipated. The two devices that were fitted were a level sensor on the flow of the waste water – an HWM SonicSens3 – and a data logger for general sewer monitoring – HWM Intelliegens WW. The data is transmitted through an integral modem back to Thames Water. The internal battery is said to have a life of 5 years.
I do recall many years ago that this waste water pipe became blocked, and overflowed, requiring to be flushed and subsequently given an environmental clean of the surrounding area. Perhaps that’s why this particular manhole was fitted with these devices. The engineers did say that they already fitted three such devices that day, with more to do after this one.
Having taken a photo of the manhole interior I checked on the names on the devices and found that they are manufactured by a British-owned company. The company is Halma plc. I trawled round their website and became most impressed, there’s a high percentage of women in senior roles.