Plumbing and household sanitation by Putnam John Pickering 1847-1917

Author:Putnam, John Pickering, 1847-1917
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Plumbing, Sanitation, Household
Publisher: Garden City, New York, Doubleday, Page & company
Published: 1911-03-25T05:00:00+00:00

¥*\g. 302. Section of an All Porcelain Plug and Chain Basin.

Fig. 303. Section of Plug and Chain Basin with Overflow Passage Cast with the Basin In One Piece.

cleansing through water flushing action, is placed in such a position that it cannot be seen nor reached without disconnecting the whole fixture.

Our first subdivision of this class is the ordinary (a)

Plug and Chain Outlet Basin. We see here (Fig. 301) a concealed overflow pipe con-

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Plumbing and Household Sanitation.

structed of lead and so placed as to be altogether inaccessible. Being above in open communication with the air of the room, it taints it with the decomposing soap and filth with which its sides soon become coated, and this odor and the fear of sewer gas leads to the common practice among house owners of stopping up the holes in the earthenware leading into the overflow pipe at considerable inconvenience to themselves and increase in siphoning action upon traps below.

Fig. 303 bl8.

The ordinary wash-basin has no proper flange for connection with the lead overthrow pipe, and the joint in the majority of cases is not a reliable one at this point. The connection of the lead overflow pipe with the waste pipe must be made above the trap, and must be wiped with solder, so that two joints are necessitated at the overflow, which add both to the expense of the work and to the chances of imperfection and leakage. It is an exceedingly common thing to find the overflow pipe wrongly connected.

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Plug and Chain Basins.

It is sometimes entered below the trap, sometimes attached directly to the trap vent, and sometimes connected with the wastes of other fixtures in such a way as to open through the vent pipes an indirect avenue into the house for sewer air, as we have shown in our illustrations of "by-passes."

It forms, in short, an unnecessary and dangerous complication to the plumbing, which more than offsets any slight saving in the first cost of these cheap fixtures, and they should never be used.

The plug and chain feature which characterizes this type of basin is another defect. The chain, lying in every suc-

Vlg. 304. All Porcelain Plug and Chain Basin.

cessive formation of dirty water, collects gradually in the recesses of its links an unknown variety of filth, which cannot be absolutely removed, on account of its irregular form, without the use of special alkalies, or constant scrubbing with a brush, a process I have never seen ai>plied to it effectively. The length of wire used in an ordinary basin chain averages six feet, and has a surface of about fourteen square inches, a surface-which, in consideration of the peculiar adaptability of the form of the links for retaining dirt presents a very formidable area of pollution.* To those persons who use their reasoning powers in these matters, the idea of washing the face in water defiled by a chain transferred immediately from the dirty water of some un-

*A chain of average cleanness might easily contain more than

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