Piaster

“ 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. ”

“ Pisé is a material readily obtainable by the settler, 81 of which cheap and durable buildings can be easily and substantially erected.
“For the construction of pastoral or agricultural buildings, especially in districts remote from railways, or from towns in which other building materials are cheap or easily procurable, pisé is particularly well adapted. In the country earth is plentiful and readily obtainable; in the city or town such is not the case, and this fact, combined with the very bulky nature of the material, prohibits its use in such centres of population. ”

“ To the selector or settler, who, like many of our successful pioneers, is not burdened with a superfluity of hard cash, but who possesses an abundant capital of energy, combined with a certain amount of handiness, pisé has an additional advantage (which it shares with slabs, wattle and daub, etc.) over most other building materials, in that it affords him an opportunity of erecting his homesteading largely as the result of his own labour. ”

“ The immense extent of its manufactures, and of the coal and oil trade of the city can be realized, from the fact, that within the limits of what is known throughout the country as Pittsburg, there are 35 miles of manufactories of iron, glass, steel, copper, oil, woods, cotton, and brass, without including manufactories of various other materials. ”

“ Water-pipes are made by lead being cast in moulds with a steel rod passing through their middles, according to the size required. The lead is poured into the space between the rod and the mould. After it is cool the rod is drawn out by machinery, and the mould which is made in halves is opened and the pipe taken out. The pipe is then much thicker and shorter than is required for use, but it is afterwards drawn between powerful iron rollers with grooves cut in their surfaces, an iron rod being again placed inside it. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The merits of pisé-work have been recognised in France, India, Mexico, and California for years past, and seeing its equal suitability for our climate, it is surprising that these merits have not led to its being more extensively used. The principal reason for this seems to be because our builders are averse to undertaking this class of work, and in consequence the bulk of it is placed in the hands of untrained men, who, whilst quite fitted to carry out the pisé-work, are not competent to undertake the other constructive work of a building. ”

“ But they always carry their little stools slung on their backs, and no one ever moves without his loved pipe. Upon their pipe they lavish all their artistic powers, which, however, are not very considerable. Precious as is iron in this country, being used, like gold in Europe, as a medium of currency, the pipes are all mounted with this costly metal. The bowls are made of clay, conical in shape, and having a couple of prongs on which to rest. They are very large, holding quite a handful of tobacco, and their mouthpieces are almost invariably made of iron. ”

“ All joints in the iron drain-pipes, soil-pipes, and waste-pipes must be so calked with oakum and lead, or with cement made of iron filings and sal-ammoniac, as to make them impermeable to gas.
27. All connections of lead with iron pipes must be made with a brass sleeve or ferrule, of the same size as the lead pipe, put in the hub of the branch of the iron pipe, and calked in with lead. The lead pipe must be attached to the ferrule by a wiped joint. ”

“ Similar spiral rings are formed in succession downwards, which collect the trickling streams, and conduct them into the nearest cistern; or rings, made of wood or cast iron, are inserted flush with the sides of the pipe; and the water is led from one ring to another, through perpendicular pipes, until the undermost ring is full, when it delivers its water into the nearest pump-cistern. Keeping the shaft dry is very important to the comfort of the miners, and the durability of the work. ”

“ The wire is now withdrawn, the jaws of the mould opened, the pipe taken out, and the redundant clay removed with a knife; after drying for a day or two, the pipes are scraped, polished with a piece of hard wood, and, the stems being bent into the desired form, they are carried to the baking kiln, which is capable of firing fifty gross in from eight to twelve hours. A workman and a child can easily make five gross of pipes in a day. ”

“ No stove pipe within the ... city shall project through the front door, front windows, front wall, or past the front corners of any house, shop or building, over or out upon any street, square or alley, or public ground of the ... city; and if any stove pipe shall so project as aforesaid, the same is hereby declared to be a public nusance, and as such shall be removed, and a fine of five dollars also imposed on the person or persons who shall so offend. ”

“ When hunting for the seat of trouble look at the spot where the pipe comes through the floor. A crack between flooring and baseboard may be the air leak that has caused the trouble. Next examine the pipe along an exterior wall or in the direct range of a window. Frozen pipes concealed in partition walls, unless they are accessible through a panel of removable woodwork, are not for the amateur. They are for a plumber who will know how to reach the trouble without doing other damage.
Many are the expedients that life in the country and friendly chats with your own handy man can teach you. ”

“ A hole some ten feet in circumference and ten to twelve feet deep, dug in the earth, walled with stone without mortar, may serve for catching and filtering the sewage. On top of the wall, which should not reach the surface of the ground by about two feet, lay two pieces of railroad iron, and on these place large flat stones, covering all with dirt, providing, however, for ventilation by means of a 4-inch iron pipe, which should be long enough to reach a little above the surface of the ground when all is completed. ”

“ I felt like a carpenter working at my bench with all my tool ‘en plein air.’” And I went on to say, as I had a good opportunity, there is no reason why your kitchen can’t be made like a tool chest. No man would tolerate breaking his very strong back to get a pan, or his nerve to pull out a drawer, which so often sticks, for a can opener! ”

“ E and F is a soil pipe 3, 4, 5, or 6 inches in diameter. Note, pipes draining water closets are called “soil pipes”; those draining other fixtures “waste pipes.” N and O represent water-closet flanges; F and H are roof connections; L exhibits double and single Y branches to receive waste-pipes from baths, bowls, or sinks. The plumber makes this connection, always trapping the lead waste-pipe and then soldering it to a brass nipple.
LEAD PIPE JOINTS.
Fig. 160.
It has been remarked that after learning how to make “a wipe joint,” everything is easy relating to the plumber’s trade ”

“ The uses of pipe are almost innumerable. Great quantities are used for conveyance of water, oils and gases, for ice-making and refrigeration, the heating and draining of buildings, for dry kilns, hospital beds and apparatus, electric light, railway and telegraph poles, pipe railings, for conduit work, etc. ”

“ A few samples of tobacco-pipes lay upon a counter, and one side of the warehouse was skirted with drawers full of "yards of clay"—my eccentric friend's ordinary expression when alluding to his pipes. In a dark corner, a strong man was savagely punching huge blocks of clay with a heavy wooden bar; in another corner lay a huge pile of clay-blocks in the rough state—apparently a heap of dirt, of little use to any body. A mild woman—the wife of the manufacturer—showed us about with a cheerful manner. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The peat is cut out by a gang of men, in large masses, cleared of coarse roots and sticks, and pushed on tram [Pg 136] wagons to the works, which, are situated lower than the surface of the bog. Arrived at the works, the peat is carried upon an inclined endless apron, up to a platform 10 feet high, where a workman pushes it into the pulverizing mill, the construction of which is seen from the accompanying cut. ”

“ The separating and sorting of the threads or pipes, which are now broken up into lengths of about three feet, is a widely-spread home-industry in Venice, and if we go down to the lower parts of the Lagoon city, where the people dwell, we shall see numbers of women and children seated before large baskets, out of which glass pipes protrude like the quills of a gigantic porcupine. With fingers spread wide apart, they carefully weigh and feel the contents of the baskets, till they have sorted all the pipes, according to their sizes. ”

“ Along the top of the vat a board is laid, with copper fillets fastened lengthwise upon it, to make the mould slide more easily along. This board is called the bridge. The maker stands on one side; and has to his left hand a smaller board, one end of which is made fast to the bridge, while the other rests on the side of the vat. In the bridge opposite to this, a nearly upright piece of wood, called the ass, is fastened. In the vat there is a copper, which communicates with a steam pipe to keep it hot; there is also an agitator, to maintain the stuff in a uniform consistence. ”

“ He sends one or two specimens of sewer pipes, well burnt, and of dense body. His contribution of Bristol ware, for excellence of make, glaze, and colour, is equal to any exhibited, and comprises, among many other things, an ingenious ascension filter, in which, by a certain arrangement of stoneware discs in the interior, the water is more exposed to the filtering material than in ordinary filters. A churn, entirely constructed of stoneware, by this exhibitor, is also well worth notice; it is stated to be exceedingly rapid in its action. ”

“ Enthusiasm roared and whirred from the concentrating mill where wheels were turning and bands were slipping; where a tub, ore-laden, was jerking and clanking through the hoister shaft; where men on an upper platform were shovelling the dump from the tub into great crusher rolls ”

“ The result is in most cases an improperly planned and defectively constructed building, which appeals to no one, but has a tendency to bring pisé into disrepute.
“The reason for a builder’s unwillingness to undertake pisé-work is not far to seek. For the successful carrying out of his work a builder relies upon skilled tradesmen; our tradesmen are trained in cities and towns, and as pisé is not a suitable material for such places, tradesmen do not become familiar with it. ”

“ On shelves against the walls, are ranged rows and piles of steel dies,—that pretty and costly piece of apparatus, which we find in almost all these manufactories—together with the inexhaustible stamping and cutting machines, the blow-pipe, the borax, and soft metal for solder, the pumice-stone and wirebed, the turning wheel, the circular saw, and the bath of diluted aquafortis, and the pan of box-wood sawdust, in which the pretty things are dried when they come out of "pickle." ”

“ The dirty offscourings of all ragdom, first seen in the original bales, and gathered from the four quarters of the globe, have endured many buffetings,64 many bruisings and tribulations, and having been washed come forth pure, sweet, and clean. From the washers the rags are precipitated through a trap into drainers, which are chambers made of stone and brick, with a false bottom, through which the water is allowed to drain. This rag pulp, now called half stock, is kept in this receptacle until the water and liquor are thoroughly drained off, when it becomes a white and compact mass of fibers. ”

“ With reference to this Charles Riggs, pipe maker, of Newcastle-under-Lyme, it is interesting to add that nearly a hundred pipes, each bearing, as a heel or other mark, the initials C R in various forms—found at Newcastle and other localities in the district—have come under my notice, and are, there can be but little doubt, examples of his workmanship. They are interesting too as showing the transition in the lifetime of one maker from the flat heel to the pointed spur. ”