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Real estate record and builders' guide: v. 21, no. 526: April 13, 1878

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Real Estate Record AND BUILDERS' GUIDE. YoL. XXI. NEW YOEK, SATUEDAY, APEIL 13, 1878. No. 526. Publisheil Weekly by TER3IS. ONE YEAR, in advance....SIO.OO. Communications should be addressed to C. W. SWEET, Nos. 345 AXD 347 Broadway. THE HYGIENICS OF BUILDING. V. DRAINAGE. Ancierit Drainage.—In the first place let us brush away the cob-webs of ancient practice. The principal defects and vices of past methods may be defined iu five specifications, to wit: the use of crockery pipes, buried pipes, unvented piijes, the mason-work stench trap, and party sewer connections. Let us consider these sepa¬ rately. Croclrei'ii Pipes.—In years gone by a lively controversy was waged concerning the respective merits of crockery and iron soil pipes. Either kind found many aud zealous chainpious. Th.e argument in favor of crockery pipe centered iu its cheapness. It was supposed also to possess superior resistance to the action of acids, aud also this prime recommendation that its interior sur¬ face was smoothly glazed, and thus admitted of a free and ready pas.sage of sewage. In point of fact aud experience, it has been demonstrated that crockery pipe has no greater resistance to acids than iron pipe, if indeed it has as much. A strong argument against the use of crockery pipe is its extreme brittlencss, being liable to yield readily to tho least strain of superimposed pres¬ sure. Its last and fatal condemnation lies iu the dilliculty of making a satisfactory joint either with pipes of its kind or with iron pipe. The usual, aud about the ouly method of sealing the joints of crockery pipe, or of closing the opening made in it for the introduction of au iron pipe, is by the use of cement This joiufc is proverbially unreliable, and yields to the action of acids long iu advimce of the disintegration of the pipe Itself. For use in modern dwelling houses the crockery pipe must be discarded. AA'^hatever ser¬ vice it may render iu the drainage of farm lands or open lots, thero is no use which a skilfiU mechanic can make of it in modern house drain¬ age. Jinned Pipes.—As if to add to the condemua- tiou of crockery pipe, the former custom w-as invariably to bui-y it in the cellar bottom, and also to use it in making underground connections Avith cess-pools. The pi'actice of burying pipes, whether earthen or iron, is thor¬ oughly condemned by sanitarians. The objec¬ tion to this practice is not altogether theoretical, but mechanical and practical. Whether crockery or iron pipe is buried in the soil one result is likely to ensue, to wit: its rapid disintegration. The action of the sewage gases from ^vithin, and of mineral salts from the earth on the outside, are pretty apt to cause a rapid decay. The practice of burying pipes, particularly under cellar floors, is objectionable from the dmiger of some great pressm-e being imposed upon them, such as the dumping of coal and the chopping of wood, or even the fall of footsteps, auy of which forces is apt to cause the loosening of the joints, or, at all events, the dislocation of their continuity in a w-ay to causo obstructions aud prevent effective drain¬ age. The moment joints are loosened or a frac¬ ture is made two conditions are apt to result: the escape of sewer gases iuto the cellar, aud the dis¬ tribution of sewage matter under the cellar bot¬ tom. If the surface of the cellar floor is tightly- sealed w-ith cement, the outlet of sewer gases may be confined to the pipe, but the percolation of the sewage matter is likely to go on until the w-hoIe uuder-surface of the house is flooded with a putrid and filthy mass, causing one of the most baleful conditions of defective sewerage. This ancient custom of burj'iug soil pipes w-ithiu house enclo¬ sures must be totally given up and avoided by any builder who desires to make his buildings conform to the modern standard. Unvented Pipes.—Another untenable practice of tho past is that of running up a soil pipe into the dwelliug without providing a vent for the same at the root The common supposition iu former days was that the connection of the roof leader w-ith the main soil pipe afforded sufficient egress for foul air and gases. But modem science has proved that this expedient alone is not sufficient, and that it is unjustifiable aud even criminal to carry soil piiies into the upper stories of houses without also carrying them to the roof aud there providing a proper vent Mason 'J'raps.—The mason-work stench trap is one of the crudest devices of uui nstructed mechan¬ ical genius. It consists of a pit or a cube, about two feet iu dimensions, sunk in the bottom of the cellar. The house soil-pipe enters it on one side so that this pit or sink becomes a receptacle for the entire sewage of the house, aud tho outlet for it is by another pipe fitted to the opposite side continuing out to the street sewer. Midway be¬ tween these two sides, aud pai-allel with them, there is let into the lateral sides a drop flag, w-hich usually extends to within four or six inches of tho bottom of the sink. This was supposed to consti¬ tute an effectual aud reliable seal against the In¬ gres of odoi-s, gases, and rats from the sewer. This system exists to-day in many thousand cellars in this city as the only device that builders of tho past generation could invent for the sanitary pro¬ tection of buildings. This contrivance is nothing but a perpetuation of the ancient privy-sink, and possesses no merit to recommend it, w-hile it is open to fatal attack ou mechanical and sauitm-y grounds. The advantages w-hich it w-as supposed to secure are more efficiently attained by- more modern contrivances; aud it is doubtful whether auy practical good results from its use. It provides a lodgment for excremeutal deposits, wliich should be hun-ied into the main sewer with the utmost dispatch. It becomes, besides a mag¬ azine of active gases, which must find their way either through the joints of the flag cover, or else through the soil-pipes leading into the house. An intelligent examination of the obvious effects of this stench-trap wiU satisfy the least experienced person that it is prejudicial to sound sanitary conditions. Where it now exists it should be abolished, and its further use in new building should be entirely done away with. Party ISetcer Connections.—^It is a common prac¬ tice with careless builders even at this late day, to make one sewer connection serve for the drain¬ age of two, three or more houses. In a rock bot¬ tom the sa\ing effected by this expedient is very large, while iu earth bottoms tho economy of this method is obvious enough to commend it to unscrupulous builders. It is the natural out¬ growth of the buried pipe system. To make one sewer connection serve three or more houses, it becomes necessary to run the soil pipes of some hou-ses through aud under the cellars of others. AVhen pipes are buried out of sight, usually under the cellar floor, builders can trail them whitherso¬ ever they choose. It would be a safe assumption in auy ca.se where the main house soil pipe is thus buried, that there is not an independent sewer connection. Honesty and sanitary security re¬ quire all plumbing and soil pipes within the house walls to be fully exposed to view and made easily accessible. Under these circumstances, it would be possible to readily determine, in examining a row of houses, whether independent or party sewer connections have been mado. The objections to the party sower connection are social, mechanical and legal, sufiicient, to¬ gether or singly, to utterly condemn it. Adjoin¬ ing households are not ordinarily conducted with equal care, consequently, under tho party seAver system, the more cautious household is apt to bo iucommodeil by obsti-uctious which may choke the joint pipe through tho remissness or bad practice of a careless neighbor. Besides the joining of pipes in this w-ay involves long stretches of horizontal pipe aud other mechanical conditions exceedingly favorable for causing ob¬ structions iu the pipe. This arrangement of pipes was once deemed to con.stitute an easement, and to create dominant and servient estates, but these doctrines have beeu exploded. The mau ou whose lot the actual sewer connection exists may summarily order off all joint users of the connec¬ tion as intruders. Modern Jh'ainngc.—The science of modei-n drainage is already crystallizing it:self iuto three distinct schools, to wit: the exponents of the principle of exclusion, of ventilation aud of a mixed principle of exclusion and ventilation combined. Fxcluaion.—The dogma of this school is, that by the introduction of numerous well distributed traps a perfect exclusion of sewer gas from soil pipes may be effected, and thus the necessity^ for ventilation may be done aw.iy with, and all ap¬ prehension of the invasion of sewer gases may be allayed. In the practice of this school, a trap is placed on the main soil pipe where it first enters the buildiug, pu all standing pipes as they rise in¬ to the iuterior of the house and upon all fixtures within the house. This theory seems to be plau¬ sible enough, but the difliculty is that it utterly fails in practical working. A multiplicity of traps is foimd to be a hindrance to proper drain¬ age, inasmuch as two or more consecutive traps, unprovided with intermediate vents, are sure to give rise to au air-bound condition. That is, the column of air between the seals of two traps will have resistance enough to impede, if not to wholly obstruct the flow of drainage. On the other hand, a suction force exerted in the main sewer having sufHcient power to unseal one trap in the scries, Avill be sure to unseal all the others. Thus the system -wiU be left exposed to the in-*