Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1885-07-31
REFORM IN PIUMH >
The Pestience thar Turks in N water Pipe.
How TO Protect the Public.

port of the water department, points the
finger of warning to the need Of regulating
by law the work of plumbers, for the pro
lection of tho public health against the fatal
effects of ignorance and dishonesty. Hap
PLY the board OF health is just now engaged
in providing rules and regulations with
view of correcting the very evil complained
Of by Colonel Ludlow At the last session
of tho legislature bill was passed providing
for tho registration of plumbers after they
have shown themselves to he competent
N en-, and for an improvement in the present
n othod of draining closets into sewers BY
the provisions of this bill il is made obliga-
tory on builders to hereafter provide trap
for every new closet, with a water well
beneath, so that the contents will speedily
find their way to the sewer. Colonel Lud-
low thinks, however, that ga house sup
piled with a bath should also have direct con-
nection with the sewer, and so dispense with
the foul and dangerous practice of storing
putrescibe waste matters upon the premises,
to the great detriment Of the health of the
neighborhood and city.
The board OF health will ask councils to in
sert in the boards appropriation bill for 1886
an item for the payment of one chief inspec-
tor and six assistant inspectors Of plumbing.
1t is proposed te pay,the chiefinspector Sl,500
per annum and the assistants $1,000 each per
annum. A committee of the board. com
prising Messrs. Nanderslice, Davis Patter-
son and Cleeman, is now endcavoring,
with with the aid of a committee represent
ing the Master Plumbers association, to
draft rules and regulations for the examina-
tion and registration of plumbers and the
supervision of their work The joint COM
mttee has received copies of the plumbing
laws now i'm vogue in the cities of New
St Louis and Chicago. The committee has
been studying each of these, and it hopes to
obtian enough suggestions, so that il will be
enabled to produce taultless code of rules.
"The relations of the water department to
the plumbing business are extremely init
mate" says Colonel Ludlow. 1t is upon the
plumbing appliances in a houses that tho
water charges are made; but further than
this, the work of the plumbing is matter of
life or death to the inmates of the houes
Colonel Ludlow speaks of Philadelphia hav-
ing a higher death-rate than London, "not-
withstanding the greater age of the latter its
population of 4, 100000, compared to Phladel-
phia's l,000,000, and the average of eight per-
sons to each house, against less than six in
Philadelphia" lie says that Philadelphia
kills one person in a thousand more than
London, $50 that the lives of more than 100
persons are sacrificed every year and the
health of thousands more impaired" Among
the causes tor this condition of things Colo
mel Ludlow cites defective plumbing.
WHY PLUMBING SHOULD BE INSPECTED.
Colonel Ludlow entertains very earnest
and decided views respecting the need of
supervising the work of the plumber. In
his report for 1888 he particularly referred to
the necessity of establishing such law and
in his present report he deems it essential to
again invite attention to the subject. The
relation of bad plumbing to the waste of
water, and a consequent unnecessary charge
upon the city in the annual expense OF the
department, is again referred to in the pres
ent report. In speaking of the service OF the
pipes and connections with mains, the chief
engineer states:
"The pipes and fixtures may be of the
most worthless character, both in design and
material, and arranged and connected in the
most faulty and derelict manner without
any one but the owner, who seldom knows
anything of these matters, having the right
to object or interfere. In consequence the
appliances are more often defective than
good, and besides leaking largely in ordin-
airy use, frequently burst and flood the
premises until the water can be turned OIL,
whereby both the owner and the city are
victimized and put to large and unneces-
Sary expense.
A proper system of regulation and regis
tration would prevent all this, and the cost of
the service would be more than repaid in the
reduction OF expenditure for pumpage and
distribution, TO say nothing of the protection
of the taxpayer from rObberyan annoyance
As the case stands, any man, however incom-
petent, who chooses to do so, can call him
self plumber, and although there are or
dinances forbidding irregular attachments
and designed to punish crooked work, moth
ing short of small army of inspectors could
prevent it, and incessant dOmiciliary visiting
is both offensive TO the individual and repug-
nant 10 the private rights of the citizen to be
secure from unnecessary intrusion in his
home. If therefore, any means can be de-
vised by which this annoyance can he OBJ
Waited it should he adopted"
The danger from sewer from M
trapped and unventilated pipes, Colonel
Ludlow says, is in great measure due to
the work of the plumber. To protect family
from this hidden peril man is called in
without being required or able to submit the
least evidence of his qualifications for so
critical task. The chief speaks of physi-
clan being compelled to procure diploma
before practcing medicine, and of druggist
not being permitted to expose his wares for
sale or 10 fill prescription without suitable
guarantee that he is thoroughly conyersant
with the art of compounding drugs "But
the plumber" he continues, "whOse incom-
potency or dishonesty may be fully as deadly,
after possibly few months service with a
man no wiser than himself, puts out his sign
and invites the public to call him in and pay
him for work which may shortly bring grief
and desolation to the household. He ex-
bibits no proof of his knowledge and respon-
sibility, nor of his acquaintance with the best
known laws OF sanitation, and his work is
hidden from view in dark and secluded parts
of the house, behind walls and woodwork,
with no one TO examine his plans or to in
spect the result of bis labors when completed
"Hence the multiplicity of sewer connec-
tions without the semblance of trap, the
sewer-vent pipe leading into the hotair fiue,
instead of the smoke tlue, the ventilating
pipe terminating in the attic instead of pro
jecting through the roof, the disjoined drain
pipe in the cellar, the current of sewer gas
into the bed chamber tho overflow pipefrom
the cistern leading directly to the sewer pipe
the Joints of drain pipe open from original
defects or from settlement the rusty nail
driven through tho lead and the Other
laws of sanitation-the rotten pipes and leak J
fixtures perpetually out OF order, and the
source of perpetual annoyance and expense
causing foul drainage, damp and polluted
soil, and general unhealthfulness of tht
home. Hence the prevalence of Zymoti
diseases which yearly slay their victims an'
scken many more, impairing health, snap
ping vitality, causing loss of time and wage
and rendering the subject an easy prey,
not directly to the effects of contaminate al
and water, than TO the first preyalen
epidemic or source of disease.
City councils can do no wiser or more need
full thing for the protection of the public tina
to enact such legislation as shall provide 10
the examination and licensing of competen
plumbers and the rejection of the incon
petent and unworthy"
Hon A. A. KING, u. s. Senator from Vernon
says lit affords me great pleasure Ia state TIN