BEFORE preparing the ends of lead pipes for soldering, the pipes should be carefully rounded and straightened up on the bench, and all bruises and indentations taken out of them. To accomplish this it may be necessary in many cases to drive a mandrel through the pipe.

2. Sometimes, either from carelessness or from an accident, a pipe receives a blow after it is fixed, and in a place where no dummy can reach its interior, for the indentation to be dummied out again; in such cases a dent in a pipe can generally be drawn out by soldering the return end of a piece of copper to it, and pulling the other end with the strength equal to the purpose.

3. A vertical pipe which is not fixed quite perpendicular reflects want of care as well as the want of a true eye in the man who fixed it; for however incorrect his eyesight might be, he ought to find no difficulty in fixing a pipe quite upright with the aid of a plumb-line.

4. Lead soil-pipes, ventilation-pipes, waste-pipes, and light service-pipes should be secured to their places by lead tacks soldered to the pipes, and fastened by pipe-nails, wall-hooks, or screws. And in many cases it is also better that the service-pipes, whether strong or light, should also be secured by soldered lead tacks, i.e., instead of bruising the pipe and contracting its water-way by driving in a wall-hook to grip the pipe, as shown at B, fig. 102, a narrow piece of stout lead should be soldered to the side of the pipe, as shown at a. Such tacks are called face-tacks.

5. It is the bad custom with many plumbers to secure lead soil-pipes, ventilation-pipes, and rain-water-pipes with ears or lugs soldered, or burnt, to the lead pipe; but it surely wants no plumbing experience to know that a lead tack or a pair of lead tacks gives a much greater support to a pipe than a pair of ears. In the case of a lead tack, 10 in. by 9 in., or 9 in. by 9 in., the length of soldering upon the pipe is at least three times greater than the length of the soldering upon a pipe when a lead ear is used; and with the tack these wall-hooks can generally be fixed as shown at E, fig. 104, whereas with a lead ear only one pipe-nail or one screw can be fixed. The ear is generally soldered to a pipe to match the lug of a cast-iron rain-water-pipe; but when a lead pipe - soil-pipe, waste-pipe, or ventilation-pipe - is to be fixed where it will be much in sight, tacks can still be soldered to the pipe, and the astragal kept further apart, as shown in fig. 60, Chap. XVIII.

Fig. 102.

Fig. 103. - Showing a Pair of Tacks, Back View.

A double tack, as shown at d, fig. 105, does not afford the strength of a pair of tacks; for, as will readily be seen by a glance at the two kinds, figs. 103 and 105, the solder in the former has a larger surface-holding upon the pipe than that of the latter.

6. The strength of a lead tack, whether cut from a piece of sheet lead or cast in a mould, should be of greater strength than the pipe, e.g., pipes equal in substance to sheet lead weighing 6 lbs. to the sup. foot should have tacks of 7 lbs. lead, and pipes 1 lb. heavier should have tacks of 8 lbs. lead. Stronger pipes than 7 lbs. lead would be well secured by tacks of the same strength as the pipe, - 8 lbs. soil-pipes,

Fig. 104. - Showing a Single Tack, Back View.

Fig. 105. - Showing a Double Tack, FRont View.

8 lbs. tacks; 10 lbs. soil-pipe, 10 lbs. tacks. The wall-hooks should be driven in close to the pipe, as shown in fig. 104.

7. Two pairs of tacks to a 10 ft. length of 4 in., 4 1/2 in., or 5 in. pipe give great security; and even three tacks, fixed alternately one on one side of the pipe and one on the other, give good support to pipes of 4 in. diameter and under. For smaller pipes - 3 in., 2 1/2 in., 2 in. - tacks of a smaller size than those shown in figs. 103 and 104 should be used, and when fixed to woodwork face-tacks would be preferable to folded-tacks. When the pipes stand in conspicuous places it is better to fix them with astragals and tacks - a pair of tacks and a pair of astragals every 6 ft.

8. Whether sheet-lead tacks or cast-lead tacks are soldered to a pipe, they should all be of uniform size. The whole of the tacks for a stack of soil-pipe, ventilation-pipe, or rain-water-pipe should be cut out together, so as to insure their being of one size, and also for quickness; and after feathering one of the edges with a rasp, for fitting against the side of the pipe, each tack should be soiled about 3 inches on the soldering face, and an inch on the opposite face. The tacks should then be shaved for soldering. The shaving should be about an inch wide, and a corresponding length and width should be shaved on the pipe, after soiling it. The tacks should all be fitted on the pipe, so that they may be soldered on in one heat. In soldering on a pair of tacks, as shown on fig. 103, pour the solder on each alternately, and then wipe them quickly one after the other. Your mate should be ready with his knife to cut off the ragged edges of the soldering, and to square it with the edges of the tacks - or the plumber can do this himself. Some plumbers manage to solder on tacks very well without an iron, but others prefer an iron.

9. I have seen ventilation-pipes 3 in. and 4 in. diameter, and 23 ft., and in some cases even 30 ft. long, resting on the edges of tiles on a high-pitched roof, with only the support gained by the joint where the pipe has passed up through the roof. Such pipes should be supported every 5 or 6 ft. by a wood block covered with lead, to which the pipe should be soldered. The block should be kept narrow, so as not to look conspicuous or unsightly; and to prevent leaves, etc., accumulating round it, the top end should be arrow-pointed.

10. To prevent the sun expanding and drawing a lead pipe with soldered joints out of its true line, and, in time, breaking it, lead soil-pipes and ventilation-pipes on south fronts should be fixed in an angle where they will be screened from the sun, or where they will get some shade. Where there are no windows near such pipes, and where they are exposed to the rays of the sun, it is a good plan to fix them with telescope joints, to allow the pipes to expand and contract.

11. The plumber generally arrives upon the scene too late to ask for proper chases where he may so fix his pipes that each and all of them shall be readily accessible. But a good wide chase is very convenient for future examinations and other purposes. Each pipe should also be labelled.

12. Instead of securing "horizontal" pipes inside a house with lead tacks or wall-hooks, no matter what the size of the pipe may be, or what its purpose, it is better to support them on wood ledges or on boards hollowed out to receive them, to prevent the pipe sagging in any part. Plumbers rarely forget to give a soil-pipe or waste-pipe a fall, but they often forget to give service-pipes a fall, the consequence is, that when it is required to empty a service-pipe for repairs, or to prevent the water in it from freezing, it cannot be done.

13. This last severe winter (1890-91)1 ought to stimulate plumbers to mend their ways in fixing service-pipes. The following extract on pipe-freezing is taken from my "Lectures." "No service-pipe should be fixed on the external nor on the internal face of an external wall, especially a wall facing the north or east, without being cased in and thoroughly protected. When possible, service-pipes should be fixed on the cross walls inside the house, and never on the main walls; for the cold penetrates through the external walls and, reaching any pipe fixed on its face, though inside the house, freezes the water in it. If a pipe must come down on the internal face of a main wall, then an inch board should be put between the pipe and the wall, and the pipe cased up, and the casing filled with cocoa-nut fibre or silicated cotton. All service-pipes in roofs should be boxed in, and the boxes filled with this fibre. I do not like sawdust, for that decays; nor hair-felt, for that becomes full of moth, and rots; and besides, to cover pipes with such material where bad air could reach it would be to harbour smells, for the effluvia coming from persons using the water-closets would hang about such stuff and cause it to become 'stuffy.' Where the service-pipe could not be boxed or cased in, and where the cold air could reach it - as, e.g., under water-closet seats, where the pipe has to leave the casing to reach the supply-valve of the water-closet - the pipe should be bound round with two or three thicknesses of gaskin, and then be covered over with canvas, to protect it from frost. The cold air coming in through the overflow-pipe of the safe, and blowing upon an unprotected pipe, would soon freeze it.

1 In my own house there was not the slightest inconvenience from frost, owing to the care that was taken in fixing the service-pipes and cisterns ten years ago.

"If the positions of service-pipes are carefully considered, and the parts of questionable security protected in the manner described, no service-pipe in English houses need get frozen."

As a strong frost in very severe weather, and when continued for many days, often penetrates into the ground for a depth of two feet or more, even in sheltered parts, all mains and services should be laid at least two feet under the surface of the ground.

No service-pipe, whether it be the communication-pipe from a water company's main, or from a cistern, should be laid in any trench in which there is also a drain. The trenches for drains and service-pipes should be kept as far apart as possible.