My daughter is renting the basement apartment of a 100-year-old home. It's a fairly decent little place. Except for this. Can someone please tell me why there are cast iron pipes cut open, with air registers over them? Yesterday during the storm they were all full of flowing water. I checked a couple of them and they were all the same, cracked open cast iron pipe under the floor registers. What is going on here? I have more pictures if needed.
Edit: everyone, I'm grateful for all of the suggestions. Once she's finished unpacking, I'm going to do some investigating. It does not smell. .the water running thru it looks crystal clear. Well figure it out. Maybe.
My guess, and it is just a guess... it's a storm water control system being used as a basement drain, possibly flowing into the sewer line.
I've seen older houses where someone cut into the basmeny floor directly into a sewer line to put in a basement drain.
Based on you saying water was in there when it was raining, someone might have cut into the storm water mitigation line for a basement drain. Then someone tiled the floor and put a vent over the hole because that's what they found that fits.
With older houses, a lot of times, the storm water system was tied directly into the main sewer. If that's what this is, I'd be concerned about sewer gasses coming up from it.
Again, with only seeing one picture, it's just a guess.
Edit: It could also just be a cleanout for the storm water drain too.