O tout-à-l’égout parisiense enquanto possibilidade técnica em Belo Horizonte (século XIX)

Abstract

The research highlights how the hygienist and sanitary debates, concerning sewage and drainage systems throughout the 19th century, found pathways for their historical implementation in the territory of Belo Horizonte through the techniques of the combined sanitation system known as tout-à-l’égout. The main objective of this research was to analyze the theoretical and technical conditions that enabled the emergence of the Parisian tout-à-l’égout technology as an applicable sanitation system in the environment planned for the New Capital of Minas Gerais by the end of the 19th century. Given the need to establish a critical temporal and spatial correlation among documents, books, authors, engineers, urban techniques, and machinery, we intertwined several methodologies from diverse disciplinary fields, primarily contemplating Milton Santos' geographical conceptual tools. Through the "Comissão Construtora da Nova Capital" (Commission Building the New Capital) report, we constructed a network of technical and conceptual ramifications and intersections that allowed us to delve into the history of the tout-à-l’égout's emergence both in Paris and Belo Horizonte. For the Parisian tout-à-l’égout technology to emerge within the technical possibilities of Belo Horizonte's territorial production in the 19th century, it was necessary for certain forces existing in the mining context to be condensed into social positions (locus of power-knowledge) and occupied by engineers and hygienists engaged in strong dialogue and information exchange with institutions and institutional networks of the "developed" West (mainly from Europe). Throughout the research, we understood that the technology of tout-à-l’égout only began to gain "historical effectiveness" and became a "principle of reality" in Belo Horizonte when it began to be related to local civil construction techniques, natural and technical fixtures available, the water and economic flows of the New Capital, and the people who lived daily in the given territory. This context determined the poor application and brief duration of the Combined System in Belo Horizonte.