The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-04-29

1t was but few weeks ago that considerable
excitement existed IN regard to the prevalence of
and think fairly, attributed to the bad sanitary
condition of the schoolhouse there located. The
city closed the school and ordered the house put
in good condition, and the expense, evidently,
was not counted. mason and a good mason was
employed and charged to do the work well, and it
was thoroughly done according to the best of his
knowledge This is the result: six or eight-inch
stoneware running trap was set into or under the
foundation wall OF the building, without an arch
over 1t, (the former trouble, was told by the ma
was largely traceable to broken (settled) trap
under one of the school snks). Well jointed first
class iron soil pipe with fresh air inlet brought
through the wall runs from the trap for distance
of sixty feet under the floor, receiving the various
trapped fixtures right and left, and ends in the
central fue of a three-due chimney. To prevent
the forcing of the main trap under the wall by
sewer gas ascending the HILL the street sewer
was vented by connecting with it an iron pipe
through the wall and across The cellar about
twenty feet, and ending in the central f1ue of
another chimney. The flues either side of the one
in which this pipe was entered, are pierced with
Yent1ating holes for the various school-rooms
through which the chimneys pass. This is the
scheme that the public were invited by card in
improved the former condition of the building,
but wish to explain what would and should have
been avoided by submitting such plans to board
of inspectors acquainted with even the primers of
sanitary literature.
In the first place, the earthen-ware OF cement
of the building. and should be differently placed
and secondly, the ventlating of the street sewers
OF that vicinity "a very good thing to do by carry
ing the pipe on the outside of the house to its top
into leaky chimney f1ue with adjacent flues open
to the school-rooms is a proceeding fraught with
danger. The use OF a chimney f1ue, even If heat
ed, which those spoken of are not, has SO often
proved bad and been condemned that it is sur
prisins that it should find approval in our midst.
The fact that chimney fues, even when new are
far from gas tight and the by-no-meanS lnfrequent
occasion OF a downward draught has made, and
Will continue to make, such a scheme wholly dis
aif adf no llalfra hmm
is recent, and because it belongs to the public.
could cite cases of defective plumbing where the
illness and death brought about in consequence
would make hanging seem a just punishment for
the men who botched the work
To give less serious instance. In 1878, A.
moved into house that had just been plumbed
with the then modern conveniences. Gradually
it dawned upon him that the illness in his house
hold might have cause in his own kitchen. He
traced the concealed 4inch soil pipe to a point
below the kitchen floor (there was no cellar
der the L., where he found it entered 6-inch ce-
ment pipe standing on top Of 12-inch brick drain
on the drain, and its gas was pouring out through
the space between the 4 and 6-inch pipes at rate
sufficient to saturate the kitchen at times. The
plumber said it was the mason's duty to make the
cement Joint, and the mason blamed the plumber.
A plumbing law, with inspectors services, would
ago, the city of Croydon, England, was severed
In the most perfect manner, as was at the time
supposed. An outbreak of diphtheria and other
zymotic diseases followed, and to the surprise of
every one it was confined to the houses of the
weather. classes, in the highest and
finest parts of the city. 1t was found
that the pressure OF the sewer gas was greater
there, and that in times of rainfall the gas would
be forced to the higher levels and through the in
dividual house traps Relief Immediately follow
ed the placing. of ventiating pipes upon the out
side of sufficient number of buildings to relieve
the gas pressure. The case may not be inappca-
BILE to the late trouble npon Munjoy Hill, Portland
In city without regulations plumbers come in
for too large share of blame for imperfect work.
A contractor puts up a house, runs from the
street in q trvl n nf
stone-ware or cement pipe and in most cases
across the house under the cement floor to its
rear. At this stage the various plumbers are in
terviewed, and as there is no legal standard OF
work the lowest bidders get the Job and It is fair
to assume that it is made to yield profit. 1t is
this class of work that desolates our homes The
government requires the work of boiler makers to
Be inspected to see if the boilers can safely do the
work assigned them. 1t should be the same with
that of plumbers. No city in Maine is large
enough to support the plumber who, in competi-
ton, figures the cost of work upon the standard
now demanded in cities where regulations exist.
The landlord should be required to furnish his
tenant with plan and certificate of inspection.