Drainpipe

“ The round pipe, or the pipe, as it seems, par excellence, to be termed by English drainers, though one of the latest, if not the last form of tiles introduced in England, has become altogether the most popular among scientific men, and is generally used in all works conducted under the charge of the Land Drainage Companies. This ought to settle the question for us, when we consider that the immense sum of twenty millions of dollars of public funds has been expended by them, in addition to vast amounts of private funds, and that the highest practical talent of the nation is engaged in the work. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Although the rain-fall in England is much less in quantity and much more regular than in this country, yet it is believed that the use of two-inch pipes will be found abundantly sufficient for the admission and conveyance of any quantity of water that it may be necessary to carry off by drainage in common soils. In extraordinary cases, as where the land drained is a swamp, or reservoir for water which falls on the hills around, larger pipes must be used. ”

“ When once well fixed, it has no tendency to move. I would, therefore, advocate cast iron in lieu of lead soilpipes. In fixing the soilpipe which is to receive a water-closet, the trap should form part of the fixed pipe; so that if there is any sinking the down pipe will not sink away from the trap. It is, however, not sufficient to provide good material. There is nothing which is more important in a sanitary point of view than good workmanship in house drainage. ”

“ In this case the court at the net is two inches higher than at the ends, and on porous soil this will be sufficient to carry off the water. When the drain pipe is placed near the net the tilt from the ends toward the center should be from one to two inches.
We have more difficult drainage problems in very thick loam and clay soils. Artificial drainage of a more elaborate nature is required here, or else the courts will be muddy and sticky for days after rainstorms. Drain pipes must be laid under the courts at various places, and tilted toward one particular point. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If steam enters a soil-pipe, it heats the water in the traps, injures joints on account of the extreme changes of temperature induced, and hastens corrosion of the pipes.
Fig. 25 shows a system of house-drainage for a city house planned in accordance with the above rules.
Fig. 26.—Field’s flush-tank.
In country houses, where there are no sewers, the best method of disposing of the house-slops is subsoil drainage. The house system may be the same as that already explained for city houses. The fluids are conducted by a pipe with tight joints to a flush-tank (Fig. 26) near the house. ”

“ The better the fall the quicker the drain will act and the more permanent it will be, as it will tend to clean itself and not fill up with silt. It is important that the outlet be entirely free, and it should be protected with stones or mason work. The roots of some trees, particularly of willows and elms, are attracted by tile drains, and often fill up the pipes. When the drain goes near such trees, therefore, it is well to cement the joints. In general practice, however, the joints should not be cemented, because a large part of the drainage water enters at those places. ”

“ 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. ”

“ All drain pipes should be proved to be watertight by plugging up the lower end of the drain pipe and filling it with water. In no case should a soilpipe be built inside a wall. It should be so placed as to be always accessible. 2. The pipes should be generally 4 in. diameter. In no instance need a drain pipe inside a house exceed 6 in. in diameter. 3. Every drain of a house or building should be laid with true gradients, in no case less than 1/100, but much steeper would be preferable. When from circumstances the drain is laid at a smaller inclination, a flush tank should be provided. ”

“ The lateral drains themselves constitute the real drainage of the field, for, although main lines take water from the land on each side, their action in this regard is not usually considered, in determining either their depth or their location, and they play an exceedingly small part in the more simple form of drainage,—that in which a large tract of land, of perfectly uniform slope, is drained by parallel lines of equal length, all discharging into a single main, running across the foot of the field. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Remembering that on the map, the line of steepest descent is exactly perpendicular to the contour lines of the land, it will be profitable to study carefully the system of drains first laid out, erasing and making alterations wherever it is found possible to simplify the arrangement.
Strictly speaking, all angles are, to a certain extent, wasteful, because, if two parallel drains will suffice to drain the land between them, no better drainage will be effected by a third drain running across that land. ”

“ No single drain should be very long, and the smaller should enter the larger pipes at an acute angle, to avoid arresting the flow of water. Near trees or hedges the sockets must be set in cement, or the roots may force admission and choke the drain, and the outflow ends should be examined periodically to ensure efficient working. In laying the pipes, it is necessary to employ a practical man who understands the business, and will consider the peculiar requirements of the case. ”

“ In constructing a drain, it is of importance that the bottom be cut out just wide enough to admit the pipes and no more. Pipes, when accurately fitted in, are much less liable to derangement than when laid in the bottom of a trench several times their width, into which a mass of loose earth must necessarily be returned. This is easily effected in the case of soils tolerably free from stones by the use of draining spades and the tile-hook which are represented in the accompanying cut. ”

“ Drain pipes from a dwelling-house are usually five or six inches in diameter. It is quite as important that they be not too large as that they be large enough. Where a pipe is too large, there is not enough water in the bottom to keep it clean. The illustration here given will make clear this point. A six and eight inch drain is shown with the same quantity of water in each. It is common in cases of drain connection with a vault that no trap in the drain or soil pipe itself be used. Where sewer connection is made, a vitrified trap of the same size as the drain is used ”

“ Fig. 11 - STONE AND TILE BASIN FOR SPRING WITH DRAIN. 5. Where a ledge of shelving rock, of considerable size, occurs on land to be drained, it is best to make some provision for collecting, at its base, the water flowing over its surface, and taking it at once into the drains, so that it may not make the land near it unduly wet. To effect this, a ditch should be dug along the base of the rock, and quite down to it, considerably deeper than the level of the proposed drainage ”

“ It is a common error, to imagine that some large stone water-course must be necessary to carry off so large a flow as will be collected by a system over a ten or twenty-acre field. Any one, however, who has watched the full flow of even a three-inch pipe, and observed the water after it has fallen into a nearly level ditch, will be aware, that what seems in the ditch a large stream, impeded as it is by a rough, uneven bottom, may pass through a three inch opening of smooth, well-jointed pipes. ”

“ The outlet is the place, of all others, where obstruction is most likely to occur. Everywhere else the work is protected by the earth above it, but here it is exposed to the action of frost, to cattle, to mischievous boys, to reptiles, as well as to the obstructing deposits which are discharged from the drains themselves. In regular work, under the direction [177] of engineers, iron pipes, with swing gratings set in masonry, are used, to protect permanently this important part of the system of drainage. ”

“ Yard and Area Drains.—The draining of the surface of the yard or other areas is done by tile or iron pipes connecting with the sewer or house drain in the cellar. The "bell" or the "lip" traps are to be condemned and should not be used for yard drains. The gully and trap should be made of one piece; the trap should be of the siphon type and should be deep enough in the ground to prevent the freezing of seal in winter. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Overflow-pipes from fixtures must, in each case, be connected on the inlet side of the trap.
38. Every safe under a wash-basin, bath, urinal, water-closet, or other fixture, must be drained by a special pipe not directly connected with any soil-pipe, waste-pipe, drain, or sewer, but discharging into an open sink, upon the cellar-floor, or outside the house.
39. The waste-pipe from a refrigerator shall not be directly connected with the soil or waste pipe, or with the drain or sewer, or discharge into the soil; it should discharge into an open sink. ”

“ Shedd and Edson, of Boston, whose experience as draining engineers entitles them to a high rank among American authorities, have been in constant communication with us, throughout our labors. The chapter upon Evaporation, Rain fall, &c., which we deem of great value as a contribution to science in general, will be seen to be in part credited to them, as are also the tables showing the discharge of water through pipes of various capacity.
Drainage is a new subject in America, not well understood, [22] and we have no man, it is believed, peculiarly fitted to teach its theory and practice ”

“ A consideration, too, of the varying inclinations of surface, of which instances will frequently occur in the same field, necessitates a departure from uniformity, not in direction only, but in intervals between drains. Take, for instance, the ordinary case of a field, in which a comparatively flat space will intervene between quickly rising ground and the outfall ditch. It is clear that the soak of the hill will pervade the soil of the lower ground, let the system of drainage adopted be what it may ”

“ 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 principle which justifies the use of pipe sewers is precisely that which has been described in recommending small tiles for agricultural drainage,—to wit: that the rapidity of a flow of water, and its power to remove obstacles, is in proportion to its depth as compared with its width. ”

“ This has thus far, been our own poor and unsatisfactory mode of protecting our drains. It is only better than none, but it is not permanent, and we hope to see some successful invention that may supply this want. So far as we have observed, no such precaution is used in this country; and in England, farmers and others who take charge of their own drainage works, often run their pipes into the mud in an open ditch, and trust the water to force its own passage. ”