A FIRST brief in the bag of a young barrister can hardly delight him more than the first set of tools in the brand new bag does a young plumber. And the heart of the young barrister can hardly beat faster when he rises in court to make his first speech than beats the heart of the young plumber when he takes his cloth to wipe his first important joint in a shop full of quizzing joint-makers.

2. Though the making of a good joint in his first effort in a new shop may not mean so much to a young plumber as the making of a good speech in a new circuit to a young barrister, it means much. And no learner should relax his practice until he can make a perfect joint - underhand, upright, or branch - upon any size of piping, from 1/2 in. to 6 in. diameter. And though great perfection in joint-making may not secure him a knighthood, it will secure him a good name among his fellow-craftsmen.

3. No wiped soldered joint is perfect which is not true in form, strong in body, clean at the edges, and free from solder inside.

4. For joints to waste-pipes, soil-pipes, and ventilating-pipes, at least two things are absolutely essential, viz.: (a) that the joint shall not only be sound, but shall show itself to be so; and that (b) it shall be free from solder inside,free from tears, spurs, strings, ribands, or droppings. The former for keeping in liquids and bad air, i.e., both water-tight and air-tight; and the latter to keep the pipes free from any place, points, or projections, in which hair, paper, or excrementitions matters could lodge, catch, or collect.

5. However thick the solder may be upon a joint, and however clean the wiping may be, if the solder has been wiped beyond the edges of the shaving in any part, i.e., if the joint is not wiped clean at its edges, how is it possible to be quite sure that it is sound without testing it hydrauli-cally or in some other powerful way.

6. If the makers of joints overwiped at their edges were present at the examinations, to say that they had used irons in making them, and that the ends of the pipes had been tinned previously to being coupled together, an examiner would perhaps be able to decide upon their soundness; but joints should be so wiped that they may be seen at a glance to be sound.

7. It is of the utmost importance that all joints to soil-pipes, waste-pipes, and ventilating-pipes, inside a house, should be so wiped that they can be readily seen to be sound and reliable. In pipes which are to be constantly charged with water - as service-pipes - defective joints will tell their own tale, graphically, before the plumber leaves the premises; but in foul liquor-carrying pipes, which are never so tested, the first intimation of any .defect in the joints of soil-pipes may be a serious illness of one or more of the occupants of the house.

8. Joints being necessary evils, the utmost care should be taken to reduce them to the smallest minimum, and this is always done by the skilled in the art of joint-making. The solder is so well apportioned over the joint, the outer edge of the junction of the pipes is so well covered with solder, and the joint altogether is so cleverly, cleanly, and strongly wiped, that its durability will be co-extensive with the pipes on which it is made.

9. As some men can wipe a long joint easier and better than a short one, and vice versa, a little latitude, or rather longitude, should be given them. But any great divergence from a good standard length and strength (Art. 24) should be strongly discouraged, especially among technical students, for to say the least it shows a strong need for further technological teaching when some students make an underhand or upright joint upon 4 in. pipes only 1 in. long, and others 5 1/2| in. long. And yet such joints are not only made by students, they are also made by plumbers in different parts of- the country, and fixed in our houses. This great difference in the strength of joints not only applies to joints made underhand or upright upon soil-pipes, etc., but also to branch joints. The joints illustrated in figs. 32 and 33, and 34 and 35, are taken from specimens sent to the City and Guilds of London Institute for examination. The Scotch plumbers are generally the chief sinners in making the short joint, though Aberdeen plumbers should be excepted, as they err on the other side; and the West of England plumbers the long and heavy uuderhand and upright joint; but as far as length is concerned some London plumbers could give eighths of inches and yet beat any record.

Fig. 32. - Underhand Joint, too Short and too Light.

Fig. 33. - Underhand Joint, too Long and too Heavy.

Fig. 34. - Branch Joint, too Short and too Light.

10. For plumbers arbitrarily to so prepare and make their joints, so shave their pipes, that one plumber uses 50 or 75 per cent. less solder, or 50 or 75 per cent. more solder upon his joint than another plumber, proves one or more of several things, viz., dishonesty or ignorance; waste or want of skill. Dishonesty if less solder has been put upon the joint wilfully than good strength requires; ignorance if the joint from custom has not been made strong enough for its work; waste if much more solder has been left upon the joint, from want of thought, than circumstances require; want of skill if much less or much more solder has been wiped upon the joint than necessary, because the joint-maker, in his difficulty to make the joint, could not regulate the thickness of the solder in his wiping.