Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-04-06
Modern House Plumbing.

PROF. FAvA CALLS ATTENTION TO SOME DANGEROUS
PRACTICES.
Prof. Fava, in his lecture at Columbia COL
lege, Wednesday evening, on house sanitation,
made some interesting remarks on plumbing
He expressed regret i'll the interests of the
plumbers, as well as of the plumbing trade,
that SO little interest and understanding is
found in the public at large upon this vital
question. If public opinion and education,
said he, does not accomplish rapid turn with
in a short period of years, the coming genera
ton viii grow up under the most unfavorably
sanitary conditions. Legislation in regard to
plumbing is not half as strict as it ought to be
throughout the country. To illustrate this, he
showed on large diagrams the arrangements of
untraPped waste pipes. as they exist in
houses built previously to the restrictions
imposed by sanitary laws-where such laws
exist (and many of them are very recent)-or
in places without the reach of such legislation.
He showed the danger OF employing an ignorant
or careless plumber instead of an honest and
intelligent one. for the sake of q wrong
economy, by describing an arrangement in
which the waste-pipe of bathroom had been
properly trapped. while that from an adjoining
kitchen sink had been only tapped into the first
one because 1t was near at hand, without any
trapping, Thus ii had on one side the best
sanitary arrangement available. and On the
other side direct connection with the sewer
The greatest part of the work of the honest
plumber is not in the bright nickel-plated
faucets or in the beautiful tiles at the
bottom of bath-tub; it is in the unshowy
work, in the carefully-made connections
and corners, i'll the selection of good materials
and in many other points in which the public
Is little interested Gas If these not matters
of life and DEATH, and hardly ever thinks of
examining them, and still much less of asking
an expert. The pipes are placed in the most
inaccessible places. To hide them from sight,
they are placed out of reach of daily observa-
ton and control. II leak occurs it is only
detected after it has soaked and damaged the
ceiling, and. maybe. the furniture below.
Then to repair it the floor must be torn off at
great expense. Now as to sewers, the tendency
of our modern civilization and of the improve
ments which it generates seems to be to estab-
lish as many communications as possible be-
tween them and the chambers where we live,
sleep, and spend most of our time, relying
upon the fallacy that what we call sanitary ar
rangements protect and separate US en-
tirely from the poisonous sewer gases.
What does it avail to spend a
fortune in the building of house if the in
mates are to die from its unhealthy connections
with hidden enemy, the sewers below? The
speaker stated that traps are not an infallible
protection against the gases which can easily
be forced by peculiar atmospheric circum-
stances through the few pints of water which
they contain back into the rooms. He quoted
an example told to him by a prominent physi-
clan of this city. who called upon once to
VISIT famous theatrical star in one of the first
hotels, the owner of which took pride in sup
plying his clients with all the comfort existing
he found her and her mother in the choicest
and most sought for, and accordingly most ex-
pensive, room of the hotel, almost poisoned by
the --latest additional comfort" in the shape OF
bath tub placed in that very room. neatly
clothed by lattice work; but the smell of the
gas escaping through it had Immediately told
the doctor upon entering where the evil was.
An Improvement adding greatly to the eff
cheney of the trap is the ventilating pipe out
side Of the building, carried up to the top OF
the roof, which allows the gases from the
sewer TO rise and escape into the open air
before reaching the trap. But we shall soon
come to the conclusion, Prof. Fava said. that
these commodities must be set apart from the
rooms in which we live and hidden from the
lungs as We hide them from the eyes, if we dc
not wish to sacrifice altogether our health and
that Of those committed to our care to a refine.
ment of comfort.