See ee ence ies a care asap ciate deck Sean numaiere isc es) 
Some houses are fortunate in the amount of space they can give to 
the well-appointed bathroom 
easier to repair and will not shock the plumbing by too 
rapidly stopping the stream—a condition known as water 
hammer. The combination faucets that deliver both cold 
and hot water from one spout are most convenient and the 
nozzle of the bathtub faucet may be ribbed to hold a rubber 
spray-tube. A fixture depends much for its sanitary quality 
on the character of its waste and overflow, of which the 
commonest arrangement consists of a rubber or brass 
stopper on a chain for a waste plug and a conduit running 
from the top of the fixture and behind it down to the 
regular waste pipe, for the overflow, objects to these ar- 
rangements as being unclean. The chain with its folded 
links presents an admirable harbor for dirt. Its total sur- 
face is rather large, in the average basin about fourteen 
square inches, it is difficult to clean and is nearly always in a 
filthy condition. Besides, it is in the way and if it breaks 
one must sometimes plunge the hands in murky water. 
Again, the concealed overflow pipe being seldom flushed 
and difficult to clean accumulates spatterings of soap and 
dirt which establish an unsanitary condition attended with 
unpleasant odors. ‘To correct these conditions he recom- 
mends the use of the standpipe overflow and combined waste 
plug as the best device with which he is acquainted. Briefly, 
this consists of a polished tube whose bottom rim forms 
the stop-plug and by extending to the top of the fixture and 
being copped with a grating it forms an overflow, thus 
doing away with the aperture at the top of the fixture and 
the objectionable pipe. The standpipe is straight and being 
removable is easily cleaned by the housekeeper. In order 
that it shall not be an obstruction, fixtures designed for its 
use have a little niche to receive it and large enough to clean 
behind it. There are numerous ingenious devices for waste- 
valves operated by cocks on top of the fixture near the fau- 
cets, but generally their concealed parts are open to spatter- 
ings from the waste and are inaccessible for cleaning. Some 
have the stopper so far down in the waste pipe that suds and 
dirt arise from it when clean water is turned into the 
fixture. 
The construction adjacent to fixtures plays, of course, 
an important part in sanitation. Ideal conditions are ap- 
proached by smooth, polished, light-colored surfaces that 
are unabsorbent and easily washed by rounded corners and 
edges and by tight joints. The best floors are made of white 
vitrified, unglazed tiles and the wainscots of glazed white 
tiles. Other floor materials are marble terrazzo and ce- 
ment, all of which require a concrete base. 
Interlocked rubber tiling sometimes makes a good floor 
and a good, cheaper floor is made of narrow strips of close- 
grained hardwood carefully laid and soaked with hot linseed 
oil. Flagstones may be used in a large laundry. Besides 
tile already mentioned, wainscots may be of glazed brick 
and cheaper ones of polished cement or rock-finish plaster, 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
July, 1912 
the latter sometimes painted, and enamel paint may be ap- 
plied to the walls and ceilings above wainscots, especially in 
a laundry where steam arises. Bathroom walls are some- 
times covered with sanitary, washable wall-papers. It is 
not uncommon, especially in kitchens, to put hard materials 
immediately next to the fixtures and leave the rest of a room 
in cheaper construction. In bathrooms having wooden 
floors the water-closet is sometimes set on a slate or marble 
slab. 
A cove at the junction of the walls and ceiling is good and 
tile corners, bases and wainscot caps are rounded. All wood 
trim should be free from moulding and have rounded edges. 
Boxing up fixtures is obsolete. They should be left open to 
air and light. It is not good practice to put storage closets 
under a sink. 
The hot water supply is a special problem. The com- 
mon method has been to heat the water by means of a 
water-back in the kitchen range and store it in a tank errone- 
ously called a boiler. Where gas has supplemented the 
kitchen range the boiler is connected to the furnace and in 
large houses where there is a steady demand for hot water 
in Summer it sometimes has a special coal heater, or if the 
demand is not steady a gas heater is more economical. For 
tanks containing not more than eighty gallons a round water 
heater will sufice, but larger tanks will warrant an inde- 
pendent automatic gas heater. By opening any faucet a 
pilot light will set it in operation and hot water flows almost 
immediately. Little instantaneous gas heaters can some- 
times be used to advantage in bathrooms. ‘They are not 
connected with the hot water pipes and serve only local 
purposes. Storage tanks or boilers are made of copper or 
of wrought iron, which is stronger and will stand more pres- 
sure. It would be wise to learn from your plumber the 
conditions that sometimes lead to the explosion or collapse 
of boilers. 
The piping is from a sanitary point of view, the most 
important phase of all house plumbing. A pure water supply 
is one of the chiefest concerns of sanitation, but as it has 
little to do with the observation that where water is silty 
or full of matter a good filter can be installed in the base- 
ment and periodically the pipes can be cleaned by pumping 
through them a solution of lye and warm water. Concern- 
ing drainage, however, much more must be said. We have 
already mentioned the sewer gas which arises in the drain 
pipes. It is the product of decomposing sediments which 
gradually coat the insides of pipes used for conveying waste 
matters. Scientists are coming to the opinion that sewer 
gas does not convey zymotic diseases such as typhoid, but 
as impure air has a weakening effect on the health of those 
who breath it and lessens the power of resistance to disease, 
it becomes the object of sanitary plumbing to exclude gases 
