ELSEWHERE I have enlarged upon the advantages gained by exposing closets to view, as in the now much-used pedestal kind - whether of the wash-out or wash-down pattern - but though an open closet possesses the great advantage of showing its surroundings at a glance, it does not prevent servants indifferent to their duties from sweeping the dirt out of a closet-room round into any little place behind the closet-trap. And as it has now become the bad practice with many men to treat such closets as if they were urinals, it will generally be found that there is more filth outside such closets than inside. At any rate, closets so treated are not so wholesome as closets so inclosed that no sweepings can be swept round behind them, and no urine allowed to run down outside them.

2. During the last year or two hundreds of closets have been fixed in exposed positions without inclosures, and the consequence has been that when such closets have not been broken by frost they have often been rendered useless by the water in their traps becoming frozen. (Chap. XXIII., Art. 13.) An inclosure to a closet not only deadens the sound of the incoming water, but it forms a great protection to closets from frost; and one great advantage of a lid to a closet-seat is that - when, it is put down - it shuts out the cold air and helps to keep the water in the closet from freezing.

3. Water supply to closets. - It would hardly be possible to over-estimate the value of good water flushes to a closet for keeping it clean and wholesome; and though the quantity is unwisely limited to two gallons by many companies, it is no reason why the plumber should weaken the power of such a flush, either by using poor flushing appliances, or by badly bending the service-pipe.

No water-waste-preventer, or flushing-cistern, should be used which will not allow the full flush to pass into the closet by one pull of the flushing-handle. And the supply of water to the waste-preventer, or flushing-cistern, should be so arranged that a second flush may be given to a closet, when so needed, in quick succession to the first; the very outside limit that a flushing-cistern should take to recharge itself should be two minutes, though half that time with a good arrangement is ample for the purpose. In hundreds of cases, where inefficient flushing-cisterns have been fixed, and incompetent plumbers have executed the work, a second flush of water could not be given - even though the first failed to free the closet from filth - without waiting at least five minutes for the little flusher to fill, and I have counted eight minutes while so wasting my time.

4. Where there are no restrictions, it is better to fix three-gallon flushing-cisterns, as shown at c, fig. 140, and in some cases four-gallon ones, or even larger. For instance, when a closet discharges into a soil-pipe which empties into a branch drain, with its receiving end remote from the main drain, a larger quantity of water is required to cleanse the closet, soil-pipe, and long length of branch drain, than would be the case with a closet fixed upon the main drain, or within a very short distance of it.

Fig. 142.- Service-Pipe badly Bent, Supply Restricted.

As the flushing-pipe to the closet (s, fig. 140) would only be charged with water during the time of the flushing it needs no protection from frost; but where the flushing-cistern would be likely to freeze, it should be inclosed, and the service-pipe to it protected from frost (Chap. XXV., Art. 13) and cased in. When the back of the flushing-cistern would stand upon the internal face of an external wall of the house, especially a north wall, it should have a piece of board fixed behind it to break the contact.

To deaden the noise of flushing to anyone in a room at the back of a closet flushing-cistern, a board fixed behind the cistern (c, fig. 140) and the flushing-pipe is very valuable, especially with a sheeting of india-rubber between the board and the wall. A silence-pipe should be fixed on the nose of the ball-valve, and the flusher should be fitted with a cover.

5. When there is no water company to interfere with the supply of water to closets, there is no better way of supplying a valve-closet than by a valve-and-regulator apparatus attached to the closet, as directly the closet-handle is pulled, and even before the contents of the basin have passed out, water is made to enter the closet to dilute faecal matters and cleanse the basin before the bottom valve is closed again. And no matter how carelessly the handle may be returned to its place, how suddenly it may be dropped, sufficient water will be retained in the basin, or will come into it after the flap-valve has been closed, to recharge the basin.

6. The service-pipe should be of such a size, that a flush of about three gallons of water can be sent into the closet in about five seconds. Where the head of water upon the supply-valve is under 3 ft., the service-pipe should be 2 1/2 in., and the supply-valve 2 in. With a foot or two more head of water, 2 in. pipe and 1 1/2 in. valve will give a good flush. With 8 or 10 ft. head of water, 1 1/2 in. pipe, and 1 1/2 in. or 1 1/4 in. valve. From about 10 ft. to 15 ft., 1 1/4 in. pipe and 1 1/4 in. valve. Above 20 ft., 1 in. pipe and 1 in. valve. Instead of supplying a valve-closet from a service-pipe with a greater head of water than 30 ft., it is better to fix a small cistern over the closet - a cistern holding not less than six gallons of water; and, for the sake of appearance, the cistern could be of wood, panelled, and lined with lead. The cistern could be painted to match the surroundings, or it could be inclosed in polished mahogany.

7. Where water companies insist upon a water-waste-preventing arrangement to a valve-closet, instead of fixing an ugly water-waste-preventer over the closet, it is better to fix an " under-the-seat" waste-preventing supply-valve for flush and after-flush, such as those made by Messrs. J. Tyler and Sons, or Messrs. T. Lambert and Sons, or any good waste-preventing valve of which the company may approve.

8. All apartments in which water-closets or slop-sinks are fixed should be so ventilated that the air in the room may readily be changed by proper inlet and outlet tubes or shafts. And the ventilation should be so planned and arranged, that no effluvia from the closet apartment - or only after such offensive air had been much diluted - should enter the house; and that should chiefly be from what had hung about the clothes of the person using it. Especially should this be the case in all public water-closets, and, indeed, in every closet likely to receive several visitors in quick succession, or its last visitor would be likely to beat a hasty retreat, under the impression that he had found out a secret way to the lower regions. This subject is too large to go into here, but it may be worth while to caution the zinc-worker - for he is the man (not the plumber) who does this kind of work in London - to be careful with the jointings of such ventilation tubes, and see that they are all air-tight, to prevent the effluvia escaping through them into any other apartment, or in fact into any part of the house.

Fresh air should be made to enter the closet apartment as near its doorway as possible, so that whatever air was sucked into the house through the closet apartment should be diluted with the fresh air brought into the room through the Tobin - the fresh-air inlet.

The outlet should be from the ceiling, from the highest part of the room, and preferably over the closet-seat. And the shaft from it should be carried up above the roof, with a cowl fixed over it to prevent down-draught. Or it may be taken into some general W.C. air-shaft, when fixed in large buildings, with some artificial means for inducing an up-draught.