Talk:French drain

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Image of French Drain 2 Image of gutter and French drain 3 1859 Henry French 4 Physics of a french drain

[edit] Image of French Drain

The image is poor in that the drain shown appears to be incomplete and does not seam to function correctly.. Gregorydavid 10:06, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Granted it is difficult to photograph something that is buried underground..

Gregorydavid 11:09, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

French drain has no pipes —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.11.73.250 (talk) 16:45, 15 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image of gutter and French drain

One image in the gallery does not appear to be a gutter connecting to a French drain. It appears to be a gutter ready to be connect to a "perforated drain pipe".

French drains are usually trenches filled from bottom to trench surface with porous material like rock: not with soil. I have a fairly good volume of text about French drains on the page Drainage Info - some concepts may be convenient for explanation in this article.Mdvaden 04:43, 25 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 1859 Henry French

"It was invented in Concord by the farmer/judge Henry French (Harvard Graduate). When surface water (such as heavy rain) is invading any given area where there is a serious drainage problem, this could be the key to recovering flooded areas.

The French drain first came into the public eye in the year 1859 when Mr. French first published his book on farm drainage, in Concord, Massachusetts. The whole beauty of his idea came from careful observation. For it was not his diploma in law that showed him the ways of the land, it was his keen eye for observation and the ways of Mother Nature. He knew, like all simple farmers do, that water runs downhill, and just loves to accumulate in the most inconvenient of locations. Suffering from constant flooding, Henry French kept paying attention to water behavior until he figured out the best way to make sure water would run in the direction he wanted, without trying to go against Nature’s natural laws. Thus he figured out the concept of what we now call a French drain.

Not only did Mr. French discover this interesting style of drainage he also came up with many other drainage solutions and strategies for an ongoing problem. But what makes the French drain stand out from all the others? The fact that it is a drain that needs little to no upkeep." [1]

"You're all wet if you think French drains have anything whatsoever to do with France. In fact, they were invented in Concord by Henry French, father of sculptor Daniel Chester French, whom we must flood with congratulations for their effectiveness.

Henry French was a judge and farmer, and as the latter a veritable fount of information on drainage. He was a great local source to tap on the subject, one which farmers with wet fields, barns, and roads lapped right up. In fact, his knowledge was so deep and unsinkable, he wrote a lengthy book on the subject, one whose subtitle is so long it takes a moment to fully drink in:

Farm Drainage The Principles, Processes, and Effects of Draining Land with Stones, Wood, Plows, and Open Ditches and Espcially with Tiles< Including Tables of Rain-Fall, Evaporation, Filtration, Evcavation, Capacity of Pipes; Cost and Number to the Acre, of Tiles, Etc, Etc.

Published in 1859, one might anticipate this as being rather dry reading. And while there are sections which left this reader a tad parched, it is a surprisingly finely written work. Full of poetry, humor, allusions to and quotations from the great writers throughout history, it is pleasantly filled to the brim with smooth, flowing verbiage of high quality" [2] -69.87.204.228 23:13, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

[2] This has a footnote for the book mentioned above, I suggest adding this reading and footnote to the article. 209.244.43.122 (talk) 05:19, 13 February 2008 (UTC)

The reference at Henry_Flagg_French will be expanded into a bio article by the Exeter, NH historical society. Ahazred8 (talk) 00:02, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Physics of a french drain

Increasing depth would increase water flow out of the earth, more inclination would make greater the speed of water through the length of the trench. The ground water drains from the surface of the dirt into the gravel, this water does flow through the gravel slowly but the addition of a perforated pipe acts like a "highway" removing water from the trench faster, and the less water there is in the trench at any one time, the faster the rate of liquid removal from the soil.

Would someone find a reference for this so that an editor may add this information to the article? Also, the other material in the article may need more sources. 209.244.43.122 (talk) 05:19, 13 February 2008 (UTC)