page_title: Plumbing
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Plumbing / Water pipes / History
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Ancienne conduite d'eau, vestige de la machine de Marly, sur le coteau de Bougival montant vers Louveciennes (Yvelines, France) English: Old water pipe, remnant of the Machine de Marly, on the hillside of Bougival towards Louveciennes (Yvelines, France).
context_page_description: Plumbing is any system that conveys fluids for a wide range of applications. Plumbing uses pipes, valves, plumbing fixtures, tanks, and other apparatuses to convey fluids. Heating and cooling, waste removal, and potable water delivery are among the most common uses for plumbing, but it is not limited to these applications. The word derives from the Latin for lead, plumbum, as the first effective pipes used in the Roman era were lead pipes.
  In the developed world, plumbing infrastructure is critical to public health and sanitation.
  Boilermakers and pipefitters are not plumbers although they work with piping as part of their trade and their work can include some plumbing.
context_section_description: Lead was the favoured material for water pipes for many centuries because its malleability made it practical to work into the desired shape. Such use was so common that the word "plumbing" derives from plumbum, the Latin word for lead. This was a source of lead-related health problems in the years before the health hazards of ingesting lead were fully understood; among these were stillbirths and high rates of infant mortality. Lead water pipes were still widely used in the early 20th century and remain in many households. Lead-tin alloy solder was commonly used to join copper pipes, but modern practice uses tin-antimony alloy solder instead in order to eliminate lead hazards.
  Despite the Romans' common use of lead pipes, their aqueducts rarely poisoned people. Unlike other parts of the world where lead pipes cause poisoning, the Roman water had so much calcium in it that a layer of plaque prevented the water contacting the lead itself. What often causes confusion is the large amount of evidence of widespread lead poisoning, particularly amongst those who would have had easy access to piped water, an unfortunate result of lead being used in cookware and as an additive to processed food and drink (for example as a preservative in wine). Roman lead pipe inscriptions provided information on the owner to prevent water theft.
  Wooden pipes were used in London and elsewhere during the 16th and 17th centuries. The pipes were hollowed-out logs which were tapered at the end with a small hole in which the water would pass through. The multiple pipes were then sealed together with hot animal fat. Wooden pipes were  used in Philadelphia, Boston, and Montreal in the 1800s. Built-up wooden tubes were widely used in the USA during the 20th century. These pipes (used in place of corrugated iron or reinforced concrete pipes) were made of sections cut from short lengths of wood. Locking of adjacent rings with hardwood dowel pins produced a flexible structure. About 100,000 feet of these wooden pipes were installed during WW2 in drainage culverts, storm sewers and conduits, under highways and at army camps, naval stations, airfields and ordnance plants.
  Cast iron and ductile iron pipe was long a lower-cost alternative to copper before the advent of durable plastic materials but special non-conductive fittings must be used where transitions are to be made to other metallic pipes (except for terminal fittings) in order to avoid corrosion owing to electrochemical reactions between dissimilar metals (see galvanic cell).
  Bronze fittings and short pipe segments are commonly used in combination with various materials.
caption: Old water pipe, remnant of the Machine de Marly near Versailles, France
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