Home Mahcrs' Coitfcnitcc. 315 



old fashioned marble slab toi) is not nearly so gootl as these modern 

 white enamel steel types and is of equal or greater cost. They can be 

 mounted against the wall or in the comer without the use of brackets 

 which catch dust and dirt. 



Where a closet is installed in the house the low down tank is more 

 noiseless and easier to keep in repair than the higher ones. The ordi- 

 nary white china siphon type of bowl is satisfactory. The soil pipe 

 from the closet should be of four inch iron having joints sealed with 

 oakum and lead. It must connect with the roof by an air vent. Since 

 a closet forms a trap in itself there is no necessity for a trap in this 

 soil pipe, although it is quite common to insert a large trap where 

 the main drain pipe for the house leaves the cellar. 



The matter of sanitary drainage and sewage disposal is a large 

 subject in itself. There are various forms of septic tanks and other 

 complicated devices for handling sewage, but these need be considered 

 usually only in the largest systems. For most houses a four inch or six 

 inch glazed sewer pipe into which the drain pipes empty as they leave 

 the cellar is sufficient. This glazed tile should have cemented joints 

 and it should extend for 100 feet or more from the house or beyond 

 all danger of contamination of wells. From this point on the expense 

 may be lessened somewhat by using ordinary red drain tile. The fall 

 of this drain should not be less than one foot in the hundred, and two 

 or three feet would be much better. For simple systems, this tile may 

 empty in any convenient low ground where the sewage will be ab- 

 sorbed by the soil. It may, of course, be emptied into a stream, but 

 this is more or less dangerous for people living below. One of the 

 safest systems is to run this sewage onto a sand bed twenty or thirty 

 feet square provided for the purpose, allowing the material to be ab- 

 sorbed in this bed. It is most satisfactory in larger systems to arrange 

 two beds using them alternately. Another system is to empty the drain 

 tile into several branches of tile on a lower level, these all running 

 shallow and laid with open joints. If these are laid in sand so much 

 the better. Whenever sewage is dissipated through loose surface soil 

 the odor is quickly absorbed and, for all small systems especially, where 

 a closet is not provided, the opening of the tile in an open drain or in 

 any convenient low ground is sufficient. The main essentials are a tile 

 of sufficient size with a good fall and cemented joints; a convenient 

 area of low land on which the drain may empty. Care must always 

 be taken, however, to preserve the drinking water from any possible 

 contamination from this drain. 



