The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
New Handy Site On Plumbing
Nothing is visible; the tank and filter bed are built deep in the ground. There are no spots to yield odors or to breed flies and disease germs. The "Perfection" sewage system works silently and efficiently, giving great convenience and promoting health.
Once installed this system needs no further attention. Fifty years may elapse and it will still be performing its work in the same efficient way. Being made of reinforced concrete, the tank itself is indestructible, and the bacterial action on the waste entering the tank, which reduces it to water, wilbe the same in the tenth, twentieth or fiftieth year as in the beginning.
An examination of a tank after five years' service revealed only about one-quarter of an inch of soft substance, showing that it never need be cleaned out.
CONNECTIONS FOR COLD WATER SUPPLY
In most instances water is supplied to residences, apartments, and also factories from the "city main." Plumbers merely extend a line or two, according to the size of building, and connect to the main. As far as sizes of these extensions are concerned it has been arbitrary, most plumbers using a 3/4" supply for small buildings and 1" to 2" for larger ones, basing the size of the supply on the number of fixtures to be supplied. They have disregarded the length of the run and the pressure. In many instances the consequence has been that at certain times, when several fixtures were being used at the same time, hardly any flow of water could be obtained out of the fixtures. This is due to the fact that a large majority of plumbers, being practical but not theoretical men, do not know of any rule to determine accurately the amount of water that can be delivered through a certain size of pipe when the length of the run of pipe and the water pressure is known. With long run and low pressure a larger supply pipe will naturally be required. That the plumber knows, but how much larger?—That's the stumbling block. There are several formulas or rules for ascertaining this, but they are so complicated that a man with a common education cannot understand them. The two tables given here are so plain that any plumber can use them and determine if 1" pipe or 24" pipe is required. The author also gives a few examples showing how the tables are used.
The laws of gravity are the basis for the science of hydraulics, of which the main factor of every problem is VELOCITY. All bodies falling freely descend at the same rate,— in round numbers, 16 feet for the first second and at the end of which the velocity has increased to 32 feet per second. This is the basis on which are formulated the laws of falling bodies, which, exhibiting what is known as VELOCITY OF EFFLUX, together with loss by friction, must be considered when calculating the flow of water.
