98 
House & Garden 
FAUCETS AND THE WASTE LINE 
This Simple Piece of Equipment Is TVell Worth Understanding 
by Those Who Plan to Build or Remodel 
ETHEL R. PEYSER 
T HE tearful faucet is even more irri¬ 
tating than the weeping woman. 
If you have ever been annoyed 
by the drip! drip! drip! of a faucet near¬ 
by, you will probably realize why the manu¬ 
facturers of brass goods and plumbing have 
been, all through modern times, devising 
and arriving at means and methods to pre¬ 
vent faucets from leaking. 
However, a leaky faucet is generally due 
to the need of a washer or washer adjust¬ 
ment. The washer being truly a wedding 
ring, uniting comfort and workability. 
Another cause for leaking faucets is the 
sand hole which will appear in the best of 
regulated moulds at times. No one can tell 
if there is a sand hole until time “tells”, 
for it is only revealed later and is caused 
by erosion and the wear of the water rush¬ 
ing through the pipes. The hole then occa¬ 
sions the drip from the faucet. 
B UT there are other things for faucet 
ease which we can consider here, if 
perchance we intend to build or re¬ 
habilitate our old plumbing system or re¬ 
lieve some special faucet disease in some 
plague spot in the home. 
After all what we want from our faucets 
is water—water, going in one direction in 
a firm, unrebellious stream. This is the 
first and most necessary thing. The splashy 
faucet may have its beauty points but has 
no utility factors. To have our clothes, 
floors and walls in a continual irreligious 
baptism is not only wasteful of water but a 
deteriorating influence among your posses¬ 
sions. 
In order to obviate this splashing habit 
some makers place a little piece of tin about 
14" long wound in a coil and released in 
the mouth of the spout of the faucet. Its 
springiness holds it in place and the water 
comes through in a solid phalanx without 
the dew-drops splashing house and gar¬ 
ment. 
This is one way of ending the “splash”, 
but when you buy faucets always remem¬ 
ber to get the non-splash type; however, this 
may be accomplished by your particular 
manufacturer. 
The leaky faucet is an extravagance too. 
Have you ever stopped to think of the waste 
of water and of money, that leaking faucets 
provoke? One set of figures we have on 
this matter, computed by James B. Clow &: 
Sons, tells the following: 
Water just leaking drop by drop Cost 
15 gallons per day $.00375 
105 gallons per week .02625 
5475 gallons per year 1.36875 
Water just leaking through 
Cost 
l /U aperture 
17,425 gallons per day 
$4,356 
121,975 gallons per week 
30.493 
6,360,125 gallons per year 
1590.031 
Water just leaking through 
Cost 
" aperture 
70,488 gallons per day 
17.622 
493,416 gallons per week 
102.354 
25,728,120 gallons per year 
6432.03 
All these figures, of course, are taken 
under a normal water pressure condition and 
is the same for each set of figures. 
A S far as we are concerned, a faucet 
has a handle, a “spout” valve, valve 
seat, stem escutcheon (the visible 
flat back of all enclosed plumbing to hold 
it to wall) and an index, usually of china, 
to tell you whether the water is cold or hot. 
The size, shape and style of all these and 
their adaptability are geared in accordance 
with our conditions. 
One thing delightful about the faucet is 
that there is so little difference in the price 
between the various kinds, that you can 
have what you like! 
In the old time faucet and probably still 
in left-over stocks, the faucet was so 
threaded that if the lining wore out or the 
thread wouldn’t hold, the whole faucet had 
to come out, be remodeled or renewed in 
full. It was not only a long job but an 
expensive one. 
The new faucet, instead of having the 
thread on its own walls has a lining which 
fits in it (it looks like a cartridge in shape) 
which if it gets worn can easily be lifted out 
and another lifted in—simply by unscrewing 
the nut under the handle. Then too, if the 
washer wears out in these new faucets it is 
quite simple to renew it, because with a 
screw-driver you off with the old and on 
LEVER, ''HANDLE 
SCREW UNDER HANDLE 
'STEAM REGULATOR. 
The seven points indicated on 
this diagram are desirable fea¬ 
tures in a faucet. Courtesy of 
the Standard Sanitary Company 
with the new! 
Another element in the later fashions in 
faucets is the fact of an adjustable flange, 
that part of the faucet between the valve 
and shaft of the faucet where it goes into 
the back or wall. In the “ancient” regime 
the faucet flange would have to be pulled, 
pushed or hammered to make it “stick out” 
just the right distance from the “backing.” 
Now by a series of nuts, which can be 
easily wrenched the faucet is spaced and 
without danger of destroying enamel backs 
or metal or plaster backs by undue ham¬ 
mering, knocking or straining. 
L AUNDRIES, slop sinks, lavatories, 
kitchens and bath tubs are as care¬ 
fully fauceted as the diamond is 
faceted and almost as “nicely.” 
What then is to be the choice of faucets 
for all these various destinations? 
First of all, when you start buying fau¬ 
cets you may hear the word “bib”. Don’t 
for a minute think it has anything to do 
with an infant’s life. It hasn’t. It is sim¬ 
ply a plumber’s term for faucet and it is 
generally used in connection with laundry, 
kitchen and slop sink faucets. 
There are about four large types of 
faucets. First, the compression type, a 
faucet in which the action of closing the 
water supply is done by screwing the stem 
of the handle down into the seat of the 
valve. This takes about two and one-half 
to three turns to close. It also gives a 
steady stream. The handle for this is 
better equipped with the non-lever or 
turned style. 
Then there is a quick compression faucet 
on the same principle except that it takes 
but one turn of the handle to do the trick, 
and the water gushes out suddenly and 
well. A handle of the lever type is best 
here because one swoop effects the shutting 
off or opening up of the water. 
The Fuller Faucet or bib always has a 
lever handle, and it is a faucet where the 
washer at end of the stem is drawn to the 
opening instead of being pressed down 
against the valve seat. In other words, 
it is drawn back and forth by the lever. It 
often makes shutting off the water quite 
difficult, yet it has admirers. 
There is another faucet too, the one that 
shuts itself off as soon as you draw your 
hand away. This is only good for places 
where you know water is going to be wan¬ 
tonly wasted. But, I adjure you, if you 
want to keep your sanity, never have it 
affixed to anything that is used by respon¬ 
sible, self-respecting water appreciative peo¬ 
ple! For to have a faucet which stops run- 
(Continued on page 148) 
