TESTING STONEWARE PIPES USED IN RETICULATION SEWERS. Lilt. 



SYDNEY SEWERAGE: TESTING STONEWARE PIPES 

 used in RETICULATION SEWERS. 



By W. E. Cook, m.c.e., m. inst. c.e. 



[Read before the Engineering Section of the Royal Society of N. S. Wales, 

 December 18th, 1901.] 



Before describing the method of testing the stoneware pipes used 

 in the reticulation sewers in Sydney, a short description of the 

 way in which the pipes are manufactured will not be out of place. 

 The principal material of which the pipes are made is dark coloured 

 shale, known as Wianamatta shale. This is ground by a disin- 

 tegrator to a uniform powder, to which a small quantity of water 

 is added, and the whole is then mixed to the consistency of very 

 stiff puddle clay, in which condition it is fed to the machine for 

 making the pipes. The pug is thrown or shovelled into a hollow 

 vertical cylinder, whose internal diameter is the external diameter 

 of the barrel of the pipe. The mould for the exterior of the collar 

 is fixed under the floor, above which the piston works when forcing 

 the pug downwards through the cylinder, above described, and 

 into the collar mould at the lower end of the cylinder. 



The exterior collar mould is made in two pieces, which are 

 opened when removing a moulded pipe, and remain open till the 

 mould for the interior of the collar is placed in position and held 

 there by a piston from below. A square board is placed between 

 this piston head and the interior collar mould, to enable the work- 

 men to remove the pipe when completely moulded. When the 

 pressure of the top piston is applied, the collar is formed while 

 the lower portion remains fixed. The upper piston is then with- 

 drawn, the lower piston is set free to move, so that when the 

 pressure is again applied to the top piston, the pug is forced down 

 inside the cylinder, and outside a bell-shaped piece of metal whose 

 exterior diameter at the base is the interior diameter of the pipe, 



