Septic tank (Mouras)
Fosa séptica (Mouras)
- Date
- 1860 (divulgada en 1881) · confidence medium
- Place
- Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France
- Credited to
- Jean-Louis Mouras
- Field
- Tools
What it is
A closed, buried cement tank into which a house's wastewater flows, where bacteria digest the solids before the liquid soaks away. It is the origin of individual sanitation without sewers.
Mouras built his tank in 1860 and patented it later; Abbé Moigno publicised it in the journal Cosmos in 1881.
What it led to
- wastewater treatment for isolated houses
- spread in the United Kingdom and United States from the 1890s and 1900s
- standardised septic tanks of the 20th century