Cleaning traps.

Even where there is no trap on the main drain, the drain-pipe itself may clog with grease if it is laid with insufficient fall or is exposed to cold air. Contrary to the general belief of plumbers, a small pipe is less likely to choke with grease than a large one, for the reason that the current is more rapid in the small pipe, and the surface of the stream is smaller, so that the warm, greasy water from the kitchen and pantry sinks reaches the sewer or cesspool before the grease has had time to become chilled and adhere to the sides of the pipe; but, as servants of a certain class are apt to put old rubber shoes, rags, scrubbing-brushes, and other articles of various kinds down the drain, the diameter of the main pipe must be sufficient to accommodate such objects without complete stoppage, five inches being generally enough. Cooks and other servants also differ greatly in regard to the amount of grease which they waste through the sinks; so that, while one may keep a drain free for years, another will choke it in a few months The stoppage from this cause is likely to occur where the pipe passes through a cold place in the cellar. In such a place the walls of the pipe become so cold as to solidify the particles of grease carried past them by the current. These solidified particles attach themselves to the sides of the pipe, and in their turn become cold, and catch and solidify others, until the pipe gradually fills with a mass so hard as to require a chisel to remove it.

Grease.

Every main drain-pipe in a house, and the principal branch drains, ought to be laid with a Y branch and brass cleanout screw at every change of direction, so that the whole length of the pipe can be reached and scraped out when required. If this is done, the clearing out is a simple operation, and in an hour or two the pipes are in perfect order again. Where, however, this precaution is neglected, it is often necessary to break the main pipe, or cut large holes in it, to reach the accumulated grease; and after this has been removed, with great difficulty and expense, the holes cannot be properly stopped, but are usually covered with patches of sheet lead, tied on with wires, which afford a very imperfect protection against the escape of sewer-gas. Where the drain-pipe is so laid as to make it necessary to cut into it to remove grease, the choked pipe should be entirely removed, and a new one substituted, and one or more Y branches put in, to enable proper cleaning to be done. The expense of this will not be very much greater than that of cutting a pipe and protecting it again, and it will soon be repaid in the saving of cost in subsequent cleanings.

Cleanouts.

The lesser traps, connected with the various plumbing appliances, which are necessary to prevent air from the waste-pipes from entering the rooms, are also liable to fill with sediment or grease; but, as they are usually accessible, and fitted with cleanout screws, there is seldom any difficulty in clearing them of deposit when clogged. The trap under the kitchen sink is most troublesome in this respect, as it is sure to choke with grease at more or less frequent intervals; but the intervals may be greatly prolonged by an occasional treatment with caustic potash, which can be obtained in small, iron cans, and, by converting the grease into soft soap, facilitates its solution and removal. The simplest way to apply the potash is to turn out half the contents of a can over the strainer of the sink at night, and leave it, with a slight drip of water from the warm-water faucet to dissolve it, and carry it down to the trap. In the morning the potash will have disappeared, and the flow of waste water from the sink will be found much freer than before. It is important to use caustic potash, instead of caustic soda, which is sometimes substituted for it, as the latter forms with grease a hard soap, which is much less easily removed by a stream of water than the soft soap formed by the potash. Neither caustic soda nor potash should be allowed to touch glazed earthenware or porcelain, or the enamel of an enamelled-iron sink, as either of them will dissolve the glaze; but they will not affect brass, lead, or iron.

Fixture-traps.

Potash treatment.

It will be necessary to return to the subject of waste-pipes and traps in connection with the treatment of plumbing troubles; but some consideration of the different appliances used in dwelling-houses should precede this.

The kitchen sink, the pantry sink, and the laundry wash-trays are only so many different forms of the same apparatus, into which hot and cold water are conducted through pipes and faucets of various shapes, for use, and from which, after use, the water flows away through some sort of trap into the drain. The kitchen sink may be of plain iron, galvanized iron, enamelled iron, solid earthenware, soapstone, or slate, according to the taste of the owner, and with or without a high back of the same material, to prevent spattering the wall. The water is generally allowed to escape from a kitchen sink through a brass strainer, to separate the solid matters thrown into it, and prevent them from choking the waste-pipe; and, as there is never any occasion for filling the kitchen sink with water, it has no overflow.

A pantry sink, on the contrary, is filled with water when in use; and, in order to prevent it from overflowing, it is always provided with some sort of pipe, generally protected with a strainer, which opens into the sink, near the top, and communicates with the waste-pipe, so that any surplus water that may be drawn escapes through this overflow-pipe, instead of flooding the pantry floor. In order to keep the water from running out through the waste-pipe at the bottom of the sink, when the latter is to be filled, some sort of plug must be provided; and in this plug, and the overflow, are found the principal variations of the apparatus. The older pantry sinks were of tinned copper, with a rounded bottom, like a wash-basin, with a hole in the bottom, which could be closed by a brass plug, attached to a chain, and an overflow consisting of a simple pipe, connecting with the main waste-pipe, and entering the side of the sink, with a grated opening. This form of pantry sink had several disadvantages, one of which was that, when careless servants put several dishes at once into them, the rounded bottom afforded the dishes an opportunity to slide down, and come into collision with each other, to their damage; while another defect was that the plug and chain interfered with the dishes, and, when hastily pulled out, often fell upon, or displaced dishes, and broke them; so that this form is now generally abandoned in favor of the flat-bottomed sink, which may be either of tinned copper, or of German silver, the latter having the advantage that its bright appearance can be renewed indefinitely by polishing, while tinned copper soon loses its coating of tin. In order to avoid the use of the plug and chain, as well as to provide an overflow-pipe more easily cleaned than the old one, most copper and German-silver pantry sinks are now made with a recess, in which stands a short pipe, open at the top and bottom, the lower end of which fits into the opening of the waste-pipe. When this "standing-waste," or "stand-pipe," is in place, and the water is turned on, the sink fills to the top of the stand-pipe, and the water then overflows through it; while, by lifting the stand-pipe out of its socket, all the water in the sink can escape through the waste. As the stand-pipe overflow is very much shorter than the old-fashioned fixed overflow, and is readily cleaned, its use prevents the sickly odor characteristic of pantries in old houses, which proceeds, usually, from the decomposing grease which lines the overflow, and is inaccessible there. By recessing the stand-pipe it is kept out of the way of the dishes, and the plug and chain are, of course, unnecessary where it is used. Most of the solid earthenware and enamelled-iron pantry sinks, which are often used in preference to those of copper, are fitted with recessed stand-pipes in the same way.