Shepherd's pipe

“ A fire pressure is much greater. Therefore, all direct-pressure pipes of lead should be extra strong. Tank-pressure pipes, those which connect with a tank in the attic or above a water-closet, may be medium strong. The terms “extra strong” and “medium strong,” as here used, are definite in their meaning, and apply to regular grades of pipe. The interior fixtures of an ordinary dwelling-house are supplied with lead pipe five-eighths of an inch in diameter, or iron pipe three-quarters of an inch in diameter. ”

“ There is no advantage in coating the surface of the pipe. To prevent decay, such pipe should carry water under pressure or be laid in a saturated soil, so that the wood of which it is made will always be saturated, and coating the wood may interfere with this. Under these conditions the life of such pipe is not known, but it is evidently very great. Large quantities of wood pipe have been removed from trenches in Boston, New York City. Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, usually in perfectly sound condition. It was commonly made of logs of spruce, yellow pine, or oak, from 12 to 18 ft. ”

“ Wrought-iron pipes, with screw joints, are used by the Durham House Drainage Company, the joints being gas-tight. They have the advantage of being very durable and impervious to gases, but the disadvantage of being too permanent. If it is desired to change the position of a fixture, or to connect a new one, it is easy to break a hole in a cast-iron pipe, or to remove a portion of it, but where wrought-iron pipe is used this is almost impossible. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The commonest pipes are made out of wood, and are formed on the same principle as the well-known wooden pipes of Europe. But the Kaffir has no lathe in which he can turn the bowl smooth on the exterior, and gouge out the wood to make its cavity. Neither has he the drills with which the European maker pierces the stem, nor the dedicate tools which give it so neat a finish. He has scarcely any tools but his assagai and his needle, and yet with these rude implements he succeeds in making a very serviceable, though not a very artistic pipe. ”

“ The first kind of European pipes were walnut shells, a hole being bored in one side for the reception of the stem—a common straw. It is possible that we get from this early form of tobacco pipe the term "straw," as applied to modern long clays, if, indeed, they are not named like straw-berries, from the material which protects them from injury.
CARVED WOOD PIPE, 61⁄2 INCHES HIGH. TOBACCO PLACED BEHIND HORSE'S HEAD.
The custom of using a pipe common to an assembled company was, no doubt, partly due to the circumstance that tobacco was at one time a most costly thing. ”

“ The pipes usually are laid with a grade which follows down the slope of the land. A fall of one foot in fifty is sufficient. Water is always admitted at the upper end of each pipe-line to flow down by gravity, assisted by tank pressure. A pressure of about forty pounds is needed to produce a fine spray, and to send it across to meet the opposite jets. ”

“ The power of the water for the operation is dependent on a given volume deposited in a reservoir, and at sufficient elevation above the points of discharge, as on this depends effectivity to tear down the gravel. It is delivered to the miner by huge pipes made of wrought iron, and laid down to follow the curvatures of the surface of the ground; and the pipe I now treat of, belonging to the Excelsior Water Company, has a diameter of 40 inches on a length of 6,000 feet, and 20 inches on the rest of its length of 8,000 feet, being 9,000 feet in all ”

“ Sufficient earth should be removed from beneath the hubs to permit the joints to be made in a workmanlike manner.
The house sewer may be vitrified salt-glazed sewer pipe, concrete pipe, or cast-iron soil pipe. The latter, with poured and calked lead joints makes a permanently water-tight and root-proof sewer, which always should be used where the vicinity of a well must be passed; 4, 5, or 6-inch pipe may be used, depending mainly on the fall and in less degree on the quantity of sewage discharge. As a measure of economy the 4-inch size is favored for iron pipe. ”

“ It would be infinitely better to run the pipes at once through the wall to the outside. Few persons have any idea of the carelessness of plumbers’ work—of the bad junctions, and of the rapidity with which pipes get out of order and decay. When a leaden pipe carrying water is led into a water-closet discharge pipe, it is frequently simply puttied in, and very soon the dried putty breaks away, and there is a complete leakage of gas into the house. Even if well joined the lead pipe will, it is said, contract and expand, and thus openings are at last formed. ”

“ When water from a well is pumped to an elevated tank there is the same necessity of providing about 20 feet difference in level between the tank and the highest fixture, but the length of pipe involved being small, the friction losses are not great. It should be noted even here that too small a pipe may reduce the pressure, a 1/2-inch pipe causing a loss of 47 feet in a 100-foot pipe line. ”

“ Teit by the Indians for the making of the flange or other thickening at the mouth of the pipe stem was to prevent the string used in attaching the pipe to the wooden stem slipping off. According to all of them, wooden stems were always used with tubular pipes as with elbow and simple bowl pipes; for a person cannot smoke any kind of stone pipe more than a few draws before it becomes too hot for the lips. To Mr. Teit's mind, no matter how small the bore of the pipe, a regular stem must have been used for smoking. ”

“ Samples taken from pipes in use from three to nine years are quite sound, and it is concluded that the wood will last as long as cast-iron if the pipe is kept constantly charged. The bands are the only perishable portion, and their life is taken at from fifteen to twenty years. Other portions of the second conduit for a length of nearly 3 m. were formed of concrete piping, 38 in. diameter, formed on a mould in the trench, the thickness being 21/2 to 3 in. ”

“ Fittings
"Durham" or "screw pipe" work is the name used to denote that the job is installed by the use of wrought-iron or steel screw pipe. We speak of a "cast-iron job" meaning that cast-iron pipe was used for the piping. A completely different method of work is used when screw pipe is employed for the wastes and vents. When screw pipe is to be used or considered for use, it is well to know something concerning the various makes of screw pipe. Nothing but galvanized pipe is ever used. ”

“ Further, long pipes are divided into four classes, clay, china, wooden, water or hookah pipe. The first of these, clay, is that kind usually known as a churchwarden, either because it bears the same relation to ordinary pipes as a churchwarden does to the common herd of men, or because churchwardens, with that subtle understanding for which they have always been noted, perceiving the dignity of the pipe, determined to make use of it, and so by its being used by them it got the name. ”

“ To avoid these conditions, the piping should be of brass or lead and the storage tank should be of copper. The installation cost of brass and copper is greater than steel, but they will not have to be replaced in two or three years, as is the case with other material. A valve should be placed on the cold-water supply to control the entire hot-water piping system. A pipe with a stop cock should be placed underneath the boiler and should extend [129] into a sink in the basement so that the boiler can be drained at any time for cleaning or repairs. ”

“ The hot-water flow pipe close to a water back or coil frequently becomes thickly covered with scale. If the pipe is brass, it may be disconnected and treated with acid and then washed out with hot water. If the pipe is galvanized iron and in bad condition, it will probably be more satisfactory to replace it with new pipe. ”

“ Cast-iron pipes rarely exceed 48 in. in diameter, and even this diameter is only practicable where the pressure of the water is low. In the Thirlmere aqueduct the greatest pressure is nearly 180 ℔ on the square inch, the pipes where this occurs being 40 in. in diameter and 13/4 in. thick. These large pipes, which are usually made in lengths of 12 ft., are generally cast with a socket at one end for receiving the spigot end of the next pipe, the annular space being run with lead, which is prevented from flowing into the interior of the pipe by a spring ring subsequently removed ”

“ Investigation justified the assumption that wood pipe under a pressure of 130 lb. would give satisfactory service for 25 years, on which basis it would be less expensive than cast iron, and therefore it was used. Cast iron was considered preferable to steel for pressures not exceeding 310 lb. on account of its greater durability.
Wood Pipe.—Machine-made, spirally-wound, wood-stave pipe, made in sections from 8 to 12 ft. long, with the exterior surface covered with a heavy coat of asphalt, was selected in preference to unprotected, continuous, stave pipe. ”

“ The life of screw pipe is not as long as extra heavy cast-iron pipe. This is the only serious objection to screw pipe, which must be renewed after a term of years, while extra heavy cast iron lasts indefinitely. Screw pipe is never used underground. When piping is required underground, extra heavy cast-iron pipe is used. ”

“ Sometimes a wrought-iron pipe is used in a stove in lieu of a water back. It usually answers the same purpose, though its heating surface is not so great. It is best to use a pipe back where the boiler is not connected with soft water. The incrustation from the lime is such that the back soon becomes filled, and it is much more expensive to replace than one made of pipe. When the hot water is from the city water works, the supply is usually directly therefrom rather than from a tank in the attic. ”

“ All the fittings in the pipe system of a plant should be of the best quality, and the piping for high pressures should be extra heavy to withstand the test of time and usage. Water pipes, when of commercial wrought iron, should be galvanized.
In laying out a line of piping or in replacing a portion of an existing line the measurements should be taken from center to center of the various fittings; the allowance for the threaded part of the pipe can be made after the center-to-center and over-all measurements have been made and before the pipe is cut. ”

“ Another arrangement is to employ, instead of a cast or wrought-iron pipe, a number of round or flat-iron bars, fastened together at the top and bottom by rivetting to metal hoops in such a manner that intervals are left between each bar, through which the water can pass. Sometimes a solid pipe without the openings is used, but it is not found to be so satisfactory as the perforated pipe, because the latter allows a greater amount of water to pass through it into the soil, thereby furnishing a larger area of moist earth. ”

“ The number of heads that the carver has contrived to introduce into this pipe is really wonderful, the ingenuity of combination, together with force of effect, being worthy of all praise, especially when the rudeness of the workmanship is considered. Taken as a work of art, it is admirable; taken as a pipe, it is detestable. It is so heavy that the mere exertion of holding it is fatiguing, and it is so thick and clumsy that it does not at all adapt itself to the lips. ”

“ The pipes are of three kinds: (1) a simple valved insufflation tube or “blow-pipe,” by means of which the performer fills the bag reservoir; (2) the “chaunter” (chanter) or the melody-pipe, having according to the variety of the bag-pipe a conical or a cylindrical bore, lateral holes, and in some cases keys and a bell; the “chaunter” is invariably made to speak by means of a double-reed; (3) the “drones,” jointed pipes with cylindrical bore, generally terminating in a bell, but having no lateral holes and being capable, therefore, of producing but one fixed note. ”

“ Bran or saw-dust is effective in stopping the small leaks which cannot be reached by the wedges. The good effect of the latter is likely to be destroyed by a rapid emptying of the pipe. If the water is drawn out faster than the air can enter through the air-valves, heavy vacuums are formed down long slopes, and the air forces its way in through the joints and between the staves. The result is that the pipe will frequently leak badly for some time after it is refilled, although it may have been tight previously.
A full pipe and a steady pressure are highly desirable. ”

“ Of objects carved in stone but few, besides the specimens I have specifically mentioned, have come to light in this county. Of pipes, a small "mound" pipe from Beardstown and the frog (of serpertine) are the only fine specimens known. In our collection are the fox-head pipe and several coarse, heavy affairs, without beauty or symmetry, which were undoubtedly used for smoking tobacco; and pipes made of clay and burnt are not uncommon. ”

“ In such case the original source of the water may be a well or a mountain canon. I confess it still staggers me to see the miles of iron pipe through which a stream of irrigating water must often be carried from the mountain spring to the nearest field whereon it is to be used. A two-inch pipe, by the time it is laid, costs anywhere in the neighborhood of one thousand dollars a mile.
Wherever the water comes from, it is usually conveyed into a tank or a reservoir, and then piped or ditched about over the farm wherever needed. A hand pump is a rarity in southern California. ”