Drain pipe

“ The only kind of earthenware drains which ought to be permitted inside a house are glazed socketed pipes, well formed, well kilned, and properly laid down, the whole of the pipes having been set on a concrete bed, and afterwards covered over with properly made concrete, so as to prevent any possibility of sewage reaching the subsoil, and especially water-tanks. It is not every glazed socketed drain-pipe that is fit for laying down, for the most abominably shaped pipes are often met with. ”

“ This ventilation of the soil, waste, and house drain pipes prevents the bad effects on health from the odors, etc., given off by the slime and excreta adhering in the pipes, and it is accomplished by two means: (1) by extension of the vertical pipes to the fresh air above the roof, and (2) by the fresh-air inlet on the house drain.
By these means a current of air is established through the vertical and horizontal pipes.
Every vertical pipe must be extended above the roof at least two feet above the highest coping of the roof or chimney. ”

“ If it must be put in the kitchen, it should have the place farthest from the fire.
The drain pipe of the refrigerator, which carries off the water from the melting ice, sometimes empties into a pan, sometimes connects with other pipes which carry the water out of the house. It should never connect with the other drainage of the house, nor lead to any well or sewer which receives other drainage. No traps or plumbing contrivances are perfect enough to protect food which is shut up closely with the opening of a pipe connecting even remotely with the drainage system. ”

“ In a lateral drain 200 feet long, the pipes being thirteen inches long, there will be 184 joints, each joint having an opening of six-tenth square inch area; in 184 joints there is an aggregate area of 110 square inches; the area of the opening at the end of a two-inch pipe is about three inches; 110 square inches inlet to three inches outlet; thirty-seven times as much water can flow in as can flow out. There is, then, no need for the water to go through the pores of the pipe ”

“ If the slope of the ground is sufficient to permit of such an arrangement, it will often save much labor in pumping or bailing. The drain pipe may be of pump logs, tile or pipe of any kind, and should be fixed in the lowest part of the bottom, or as near it as the level of the ground will allow. Still better would be a regular flume reaching from the bottom of the pond to the top. A bulkhead may be put in to raise the water as high as may be required, and a wire screen the whole size of the flume set a short distance in front of the bulkhead. ”

“ The water in the pan should not be allowed to become stagnant.
If this pipe passes to a drain, it should not be attached to the drain, but drip into it. The small amount of fresh air passing up the drip pipe from the room is advantageous. Because some air does flow thru here, the drip pipe and the drain pipe must be clean and free from gases and odors.
The drip pipe should be straight and free from places in which dirt may collect. It must be removable, so that it can be cleaned. The doors of the refrigerator must shut so tightly that frost or dew will not form about their edges on a hot day. ”

“ Opal glass has been dropped because of its fragility in lighter weights. There are, however, some manufacturers who use tile with excellent result.
Another important feature is the drain pipe, more important almost than the exhaust on the motor. If this pipe is not constructed solely to carry off odors and [111] waste materials from the cleanest ice and not to import insects, gases and warm air from the sewage of the town, it will collect a very tidy packet of typhoid, diphtheria or any home-seeking germs. ”

“ The worst laid tile is the measure of the goodness and permanence of the whole drain, just as the weakest link of a chain is the measure of its strength."
The simple laying of the smaller sizes of pipes and collars in the lateral drains, is an easy matter. It requires care and precision in placing the collar equally under the end of each pipe, (having the joint at the middle of the collar,) in having the ends of the pipes actually touch each other within the collars, and in brushing away any loose dirt which may have fallen on the spot on which the collar is to rest. ”

“ Boiling water and ammonia should be poured down the drain pipe once a day, which treatment must be supplemented once a week with a dose of disinfectant—chloride of lime, copperas, or potash in boiling water. An occasional inspection by a plumber makes assurance doubly sure that the condition of the drain pipe is as it should be. All refuse ought to be burned at once or put into a covered garbage can and disposed of as soon as possible. The can itself must be scalded every day with sal soda water, thoroughly dried, and lined with thick, clean paper. ”

“ The water is to come in at high pressure, and run in iron or lead pipes up every house, scale every wall. There is to be a tap in every room, and under every tap there is to be the entrance to a drain-pipe. Where water supply ends, drainage begins. They are to be the two halves of a single system. Furthermore, there are to be numbers of plugs opening in every street, and streets and courts are to be washed out every morning, or every other morning, as the traffic may require, with hose and jet. ”

“ We confess to some original misgivings that a pipe resting only on an inch at each end, and lying hollow, might prove weak and liable to fracture by weight pressing on it from above; but the fear was illusory. Small particles of soil trickle down the sides of every drain, and the first flow of water will deposit them in the vacant space between the two collars. The bottom, if at all soft, will also swell up into any vacancy. ”

“ All branch pipes should be collected in one main pipe, for which a 2 inch tile pipe will answer in most cases. This main drain should be continued with proper fall to a ditch, ravine or water course. There must never be any connection between such subsoil drains and any foul-water drain, sewer, or with a cesspool or sewage tank.
If the dwelling stands on a hill-side, exposed to subsoil water flowing over an impervious stratum, the foundation walls of the house nearest to the hill are very apt to be wet, often even so much as to have the subsoil water percolate through the cellar walls. ”

“ All wrought iron and steel pipes must be equal in quality to “standard” and must be properly tested by the manufacturer. All pipe must be lap-welded. No plain black or uncoated pipe will be permitted.
Each building must be separately and independently connected with a public or private sewer, or cesspool, except where a building is located in the rear of the same lot with another building, when its plumbing and drainage system may be connected to the house-drain of the front building behind the house trap and fresh air inlet which shall be used for both buildings if sewer connected ”

“ Drain opened by hand where pipes enter the ground. a to e. Pipes under ground. e to f. Pipes above ground. g. Windlass or capstan, worked by horses. h. Wire rope attached to plow, and wound round the windlass. i. Pulley round which the rope runs to keep the plow in the line of the ditch. DRAINING-PLOWS AND DITCH-DIGGERS. [247]
The man who can invent and construct a machine that shall be capable of cutting four-foot ditches for pipe-drains, with facility, will deserve well of his country.
It is not essential that the drain be cut to its full depth at one operation. ”

“ No inconvenience can result from the fact that, on rare occasions, the drain is unable, for a short time, to discharge all the water that reaches it, and if collars are used, or if the clay be well packed about the pipes, there need be no fear of the tile being displaced by the pressure. An idea of the drying capacity of a 1-1/4-inch tile may be gained from observing its wetting capacity, by connecting a pipe of this size with [pg 082] a sufficient body of water, at its surface, and discharging, over a level dry field, all the water which it will carry. ”

“ The House Drain.—All waste and soil matter in the house is carried from the receptacles into the waste and soil pipes, and from these into the house drain, the main pipe of the house, which carries all waste and soil into the street sewer. The house drain extends from the junction of the soil and waste pipes of the house through the house to outside of the foundations two to five feet, whence it is called "house sewer." The house drain is a very important part of the house-plumbing system, and great care must be taken to make its construction perfect. ”

“ The pitch of all pipe should be in the direction of the flow of steam. Wherever a rise is necessary, a drain should be installed. All main headers and important branches should end in a drop leg and each such drop leg and any low points in the system should be connected to the drainage pump. ”

“ The fresh-air inlet pipe must be 4 inches in diameter for house [156] drains of 6 inches or less and as much larger as the building department may direct for house drains more than 6 inches in diameter.
Sec. 7. Laying of House Sewers and Drains.—House sewers and house drains must, where possible, be given an even grade to the main sewer of not less than 1⁄4 inch to the foot. Full-sized "Y"- and "T"-branch fittings for handhole clean-outs must be provided where required on house drain and its branches. No clean-out need be larger than 6 inches. ”

“ CONSTRUCTION DETAILS OF CALORIMETER TABLES
The plumbing includes separate lines of pipe to each hood and table; one each for cold water, steam at from 5 to 10 lb. pressure, compressed air, natural gas, and, in some cases, live steam at a pressure of 60 lb.
On each table is an exposed drainage system of 21⁄2-in. galvanized-iron pipe, in the upper surface of which holes have been bored, through which the various apparatus drain by means of flexible connections of glass or rubber. ”

“ This form of connexion is used between a water-closet and a fead trap. The joint shown in figs. 5 and 6 is similarly made when an iron pipe is substituted for a stoneware one, but instead of the Portland cement filling, molten lead is used and carefully caulked to form a water-FIG. 8.-Iron-flanged and. Bolted tight joint. In the water-carriage system of drainage each house has its own network of drain-pipes laid under the ground, into which are taken the waste-pipes which lead from the closets, urinals, 1<;i' 1. ”

“ Just consider; the drain pipes under the best conditions of aeration contain elements of danger, and those pipes are composed of a number of parts, at the point of junction of any one of which the poison may escape into the house. You thus perceive how necessary it is first to reduce the poison to a minimum by cutting off the sewer gas which might otherwise pass from the street sewer to the house drain, and in the next place being most careful in the workmanship of every part of your house drains and soilpipes. Reduce your danger where you can by putting your pipes outside. ”

“ After the usual time has been allowed for the cement to set the air test is applied, and the drain is claimed to be equal to, if not better than, a new drain, because the foundation is not disturbed by the process, and the risk of settlement, which is often the cause of leaky drains, is remote.
Every sanitary fitting should be trapped by a bend on the waste-pipe ”

“ The chimney-flues are also badly constructed, and a smoky atmosphere is all but constant. Overcrowding lends its quota of evils—as press-beds in every available corner testify. The drain-pipes are injudiciously laid inside instead of outside the basement, with leaky joints, owing to indifferent luting, and with pipes broken where they pass through the walls, owing to continuous settlement. A foul soakage of the soil around the unpuddled pipes speedily follows. The lead-work is also defective, dishonestly executed with thinnest material, badly junctioned to the drains ”

“ It is of the greatest importance that all drains should work well, and that the entrance of the sewage into them should not lead to disturbance in the filling material, especially should the tearing of portions of the filling material into the drain pipes be avoided. ”

“ Even now, when drain pipes are laid in the furrows, it is not advisable to level the ridges, because the water would take much longer to find the drains, and the growing crop would be endangered. It is not safe to drain this land deeper than about 2-1/2 feet, and many thousands of pounds have been misapplied where draining has been done on money borrowed from companies who insist upon 3 feet as the minimum depth for any portion of the drain, which would mean much more than that where the drain occasionally passes through a stretch of rising ground. ”

“ Showing Depth of Fluid and consequent Flushing Force of Three Drains containing an Equal Quantity of Sewage.
We may consider drains under the following heads: material, form, joints, gradient, ventilation, trapping. The first essential is that they should be water-tight, so that their contents do not percolate into the surrounding soil. Socketed glazed stoneware pipes and iron pipes best fulfil this condition. The best material for making stoneware pipes is Devon or Dorset, or similar fine clay, which makes a very strong pipe. Tested pipes free from cracks and flaws must alone be used. ”

“ It has been found by actual trial that it is not necessary to increase the size of the pipe sewer in exact proportion to the amount of drainage that it has to convey, as each addition to the flow, where drainage is admitted from street openings or from houses, accelerates the velocity of the current, pipes discharging even eight times as much when received at intervals along the line as they would take from a full head at the upper end of the sewer. ”