FuelPrice of FuelFuel Consumption Per Brake H.-P. 10 HoursCost of Fuel Per Brake H.-P. 10 HoursGasolene10c per gal.1.25 gal.12.5cIlluminating gas$1.00 per 1000 cu. ft.180 cu. ft.18cNatural gas25c per 1000 cu. ft.130 to 160 cu. ft.3.25 to 4cProducer gas, anthracite pea coal$4.00 per ton15 lb.2.67cProducer gas, charcoal$10.00 per ton12 lb.5.35cBituminous coal, ordinary steam engine$3.00 per ton80 to 100 lb.10.7 to 13.4c
A photograph of a small (2 H.P.) gas engine made by the Foos Gas Engine Co. with pump complete is shown in Fig. 47. This pump will lift forty gallons of water per minute, with a suction lift up to twenty-five feet, to a height of about seventy-five feet above the pump. The pump gear can be thrown out of connection with theengine, so that the latter can be used for other purposes where power is desired.
Steam pumps.
Fig. 47.—A gas engine.Fig. 47.—A gas engine.
The use of a steam pump would probably not be considered for a single house unless a small boiler was already installed for other purposes. Not infrequently a boiler is found in connection with a dairy for the purpose of furnishing steam and hot water for washing and sterilizing bottles and cans. Where silage is stored in quantity, a steam boiler and engine are often employed for the heavy work of cutting up fodder. In both these cases it may be a simple matter to connect a small duplex pump with the installed boiler, as is done frequently in creameries, for the sake of pumping the necessary water-supply for the house. Whenever extensive improvements are contemplated, it is well worth while to consider the possibilities of one boiler operating the different kinds of machinery referred to. In Fig. 48 is shown a small pump, made by The Goulds Manufacturing Co., capable of lifting forty-eight gallons of water per minute against a head of a hundred feet. The diameter of piston is four inches and the length of stroke is six inches. It is operated by a belt from a steam engine used for other purposes as well.
Fig. 48.—Pump operated by belt.Fig. 48.—Pump operated by belt.
Fig. 49.—Duplex pump, operated directly by steam.Fig. 49.—Duplex pump, operated directly by steam.
Size of Pipes for Short Lengths To be increased as Length IncreasesApproximate Space Occupied Feet and InchesDiameter of Steam CylindersDiameter of Water PistonsLength of StrokeGallons per RevolutionRevolutions per MinuteGallons per MinuteSteam PipeExhaust PipeSuction PipeDelivery PipeLengthWidth33/430.019801.53/81/21-1/412 91 03130.033802.63/81/21-1/412 91 14-1/2140.044753.61/23/421-1/22 101 14-1/21-1/440.064754.81/23/421-1/22 101 15-1/41-1/450.08705.63/41-1/41-1/213 11 45-1/41-3/450.187012.73/41-1/41-1/213 11 461-3/460.226514.011-1/41-1/213 51 56260.296519.011-1/41-1/213 51 562-1/460.386525.011-1/41-1/213 51 57-1/22-1/260.386525.01-1/22433 61 662-1/260.486531.011-1/41-1/213 51 57-1/22-1/260.0486531.01-1/22433 61 97-1/22-3/460.0566536.01-1/22433 71 992-3/460.0566536.01-1/22433 81 1193-1/260.0796551.01-1/22433 91 11
Fig. 50.—Raising water by means of compressed air.Fig. 50.—Raising water by means of compressed air.
Figure 49 shows a cut of a small duplex Worthington pump which operates by steam, not requiring any intermediate engine. To show the variety of pumps made and the way in which the proportions vary with the capacityof the pumps, the preceding table is given of pumps of small capacity designed to work with low steam pressure.
Air lifts for water.
Compressed air is also a source of power for raising water from a deep well; but it is neither economical in first cost of apparatus nor in operation. The principle is shown by the diagram of Fig. 23, and explains without words how air pressure may be carried down into the well through one pipe and thereby force the water of the well up into another pipe far above its natural level. The machinery needed involves an engine or motor and an air compressor, the latter taking the place of the ordinary pump. It has the single advantage that it avoids the maintenance of valves and similar deep-well machinery at a great distance below the ground, the air pump not requiring any mechanism in the well.
In Fig. 50 is shown a plant installed by the Knowles Pump Co. for a hotel where the air compressor furnished compressed air to raise the water from the deep well into a tank, whence a steam pump lifts the water to a reservoir, not shown.
Fig. 51.—Wooden tank.Fig. 51.—Wooden tank.
Water tanks.
The standard form of wooden tank in which water may be stored and from which it may be delivered to the house fixtures is pictured in Fig. 51. Figure 52 shows a galvanized iron tank for the same purpose. The tables appended, taken from catalogues of firms building such tanks, showthe dimensions, weights, and costs of the two kinds of tanks.
1-1/2 In. Cypress2-In. Cypress2-In. PineLength Of Stave, FeetDia. Bottom, FeetCapacity, GallonsNo. of HoopsPrice Galv. Hoops, ExtraWeight Lb.PriceWeight Lb.PriceWeight Lb.Price23662$ .30105$ 9.30127$12.00110$10.50331083.4014612.0018215.0015713.20241252.3515014.3018617.5016015.50442834.6526021.0032126.0027723.00252072.4519019.8024024.0020721.002-1/252723.6524721.3030526.0026323.50353373.6526722.8033228.0028725.00454674.8534225.8042532.5036728.505559741.0040928.9050837.0043832.0025-1/22522.5023322.5031727.5025124.002-1/25-1/23123.7527524.0034131.7029428.00263042.5026523.5033128.0028425.002-1/264003.7531026.3038731.0033428.004668841.2544331.8054641.0047335.005688041.4052036.9064548.0055741.0066107251.6060042.0074455.0064247.002-1/275503.8538129.0047538.0040932.0057121041.6063045.0078058.0067550.0067147452.0073851.5091066.0078956.5077173862.3582958.00102874.0088963.00285512.8040831.0050640.0043635.002-1/2872531.2047235.0058745.0050739.0068194352.6088061.00108378.0093868.0088263973.50111376.00136397.00119384.0099382585.201770124.401539108.00610309354.301458107.00126691.00810420076.201867131.001630113.001010530898.102277155.001994135.00121065161110.002653179.002323157.00612449456.301930138.001685120.0010127714911.352910200.002555174.00121293241114.003393231.002984201.00
No.Height Ft.Diameter Ft.Capacity Bbl.Weight Lb.Price1505860475$ 47.50151664134035.00152687253052.50153865443043.00154889664065.0015581015087585.0015610812075073.00157101018097095.0015810122701400128.0015912123241600150.00
There are many combinations and forms of these structures, and a detailed description of their characteristic construction and cost would occupy too much space for this present work. By referring to the pages of any agricultural, architectural, or engineering magazine, advertisements may be found of firms who build such towers and who may be depended upon for satisfactory work.
Fig. 52.—Iron tank.Fig. 52.—Iron tank.
If the tank is to be placed inside a building, it may be built of steel or of wood, although a lining of lead, copper, or galvanized iron is of advantage in the latter case. If the tank is out of doors, protection against frost must be carefully attended to, both to prevent an ice cap forming in thetank—the cause of many failures of tanks—and to prevent standing water in the connecting pipes being frozen. If the tank is to be placed inside the building, care must be taken to have it water-tight and to have the supports of the tank ample for the excessive weight which will be thereby imposed. Wooden tanks are likely to rot, and if left standing empty, become leaky. They are, therefore, less worth while than iron tanks.
Fig. 53.—Hand pump applied to air-tank.Fig. 53.—Hand pump applied to air-tank.
Pressure tanks.
A simple and very satisfactory method of storing water, and at the same time making provision for pumping water, is to place in the cellar or in a special excavation outside the cellar a pressure tank similar in shape to an ordinary horizontal boiler. The water in this tank is forced up into the house through the agency of compressed air, pumpedin above the water, either by hand or by machinery, and in some cases automatically regulated so that the air pressure in the tank remains constant, no matter whether the tank contains much or little water. The village supply of Babylon, Long Island, is on this principle, the tanks there being eight feet in diameter and one hundred feet long,—much larger, of course, than is needed for a single house.
Fig. 54.—Engine applied to air-tank.Fig. 54.—Engine applied to air-tank.
The accompanying diagram and figures show the method of installing this system, which is known generally as the Kewanee system, although a number of other firms than the Kewanee Water Supply Co. are prepared to furnish the outfit necessary.
Fig. 55.—Windmill connection with tank.Fig. 55.—Windmill connection with tank.
How the air-tank may be used in connection with a hand force pump is shown in Fig. 53. The water is pumped from a well into the tank, usually in the cellar, whence it flows by the pressure in the tank to all parts of the house. Figure 54 shows the tank with a gas engine and a power pump substituted for the hand pump. Figure 55 shows the using of a windmill in connection with the tank and also shows the relation of the tank to the fixtures in the rest of the house.
A generous supply of water for a house brings with it desires for the conveniences necessary to its enjoyment. As soon as running water is established in a house, the kitchen sink fails conspicuously to fulfill all requirements, and a wash-tub seems a sorry substitute for a modern bath-room. A single pipe supplying cold water only, no matter how pure the water or how satisfactory in the summer, does not afford the constant convenience which an unlimited supply of both cold and hot water offers, and the introduction of running water is usually followed by an addition to the kitchen stove whereby running hot water may be obtained as well as running cold water. The next step is the equipment of a bath-room, affording suitable bathing facilities and doing away with the out-of-door privy.
Installation of the plumbing.
These things are reckoned as luxuries, not among the necessities of life, and it must be understood at the outset that such conveniences cost money, both for original installation and for maintenance; the water-back in the stove will become filled up with lime if the water is hard, the boiler will become corroded and have to be replaced, theplumbing fixtures will certainly get out of repair and need attention, and there will be, year by year, a small but continuous outlay.
Again, it is idle to propose installing plumbing fixtures unless the house is properly heated in winter time, and this calls for a furnace for at least a portion of the house. Usually the kitchen is kept warm enough through the winter nights, so that running water may be put in the kitchen without danger from frost; although the writer knows of a house where it is the task of the housewife each winter night to shut off all water in the cellar and to clean out the trap in the sink drain in order to prevent freezing in both the supply pipe and drainpipe. Usually a water-pipe may be carried through the cellar without danger of freezing, but in most farmhouses heated by stoves, except in the kitchen and sitting room, water-pipes would, the first cold night, probably freeze and burst.
Various makeshifts have been employed to secure the convenience of a bath-room without adding to the expense by installing a furnace. In one house the bath-room was placed in an alcove off from the kitchen, with open space above the dividing partition, so that the kitchen heat kept the bath-room warm. This is not an ideal location for a bath-room, but, in this case, it avoided the necessity for an additional stove or furnace. In another house the bath-room was placed above the kitchen, with a large register in the floor of the former, so that the kitchen heat kept the room warm; and in still another case the bath-room was over the sitting room, and a large pipe carried the heat from the stove below into the room above. The stovepipe also went through the bath-room andhelped to provide warmth. It is better, all things considered, to defer the installation of a bath-room until a furnace can be provided, since then there is no danger of frozen water-pipes at intermediate points where the cold reaches the pipes. A full list of fixtures and piping required is as follows:—
1st. A tank in the attic to store water in case the main pipe-flow or pump-capacity is small. This tank, of course, is not needed if the direct supply from the source is at all times adequate for the full demand.
2d. A main supply pipe from the outside source or from the attic tank connecting with and supplying the kitchen sink, the hot-water boiler through the kitchen stove, the laundry tubs, the bath-tub, the wash-basin, and the water-closet tank. It is wise, in order to save expense, to have all these fixtures as close together as possible; as, for instance, the laundry tub in the basement directly under the kitchen sink and the bath-room fixtures directly over the kitchen sink.
3d. A hot-water pipe leading out of the hot-water boiler to the kitchen sink, to the laundry tubs, and to the bath-tub. Although not essential, it is desirable to carry the hot-water pipe back to the bottom of the hot-water boiler, so that the circulation of hot water is maintained. This will avoid the necessity of wasting water and waiting until the water runs hot from the hot-water faucet whenever hot water is desired.
4th. The necessary fixtures, such as faucets, sinks, tubs, wash-basins, kitchen boiler, water-back for the stove, water-closet, tank, and fixtures. These may be now taken up in order and described more in detail.
Supply tank.
The attic tank may be of wood or iron, and its capacity should be equal to the daily consumption of water. Its purpose, as already indicated, is to equalize the varying rates of consumption from hour to hour and between day and night. The minimum size of this tank would be such that the flow during the night would just fill the tank with an amount of water just sufficient for the day's needs. Of course, the additional supply entering the tank during the day would reduce the size somewhat, but the basis for computation given is not unreasonable.
Several accessories must be provided for such a tank. An overflow is essential, and this is best accomplished by carrying apipe out through a hole in the roof. This must be ample in size, provided with a screen at the inside end, and be examined frequently to make sure that the overflow remains open. A light flap valve to keep out the cold in winter is also a desirable feature for the overflow pipe. The tank must be water-tight, and while it is possible to make a wooden tank water-tight, it is wiser to line a wooden tank with lead or sheet iron. The latter can be painted at intervals, so that it will not rust, and is safer than wood alone to prevent leakage.
Care must be taken to give sufficient strength to the wooden tank; it should never be made of less than two-inch stuff, and should not depend upon nails or screws alone for holding the sides together. Figure 56 shows a suitable way to put together such a tank. Certain firms that make windmills and agricultural implements generally can furnish wrought-iron tanks, warranted to be water-tight, of suitable size to go in an attic. Such a tank, aswe have already said, should hold about five hundred gallons and should therefore be a cube four feet on a side or its equivalent. It needs to be very carefully placed in the house, or else its weight will cause the attic floor to sag. A tank of the size named will weigh a little more than two tons, and such a weight, unless special precautions are taken, cannot be placed in the middle of an attic floor without causing serious settlement, if not actual breaking through, of the floor.
Fig. 56.—Construction of a wooden tank.Fig. 56.—Construction of a wooden tank.
A good way of placing such a tank is to nail the floor joists onto the bottom of the rafters, so that a truss is formed, and the box or tank is properly supported on the floor and also hung from the rafters by iron straps bolted both to tank and rafters. If possible, this tank should be placed directly over a partition carried through to the cellar, in which case no settlement is possible.
Main supply pipe.
The main supply pipe, except when pressure is very great, is most satisfactory when made of three-quarter-inch galvanized iron pipe. Even with a high pressure, half-inch pipe is unsatisfactory because of the great velocity with which the water comes from the faucets andbecause the high pressure causes the packing in the faucets to wear out rapidly. This three-quarter-inch pipe should have a stop-and-waste, as it is called, just inside the cellar wall, so that if the house is not occupied at any time, the valve may be shut and the water in the pipes drawn off, to prevent possible freezing. The pipe should never be carried directly in front of a window or along the sill of the building unless protected by some kind of wrapping. The laterals and the different fixtures are taken off from this main supply pipe as it rises through the house, and the pipe is capped at the top.
Hot-water circulation.
To provide hot water, a branch must be taken off at the level of the kitchen stove and run into the hot-water boiler at or near the bottom. The circulation in the tank and through the house is then provided for by a separate circuit running from the bottom of the hot-water tank to the water-back and back into the tank at a point about halfway up. The house circuit is then run from the top of the boiler around through the house, and if a return pipe is provided, it comes back and enters at the bottom. This hot-water pipe is also of galvanized iron and should be of the same size as the main supply pipe (see Fig. 57).
Fig. 57.—Hot-water attachment to the kitchen stove.Fig. 57.—Hot-water attachment to the kitchen stove.
The fixtures may be as elaborate as the purse and taste will allow, but some general instruction may not be out of place. There are many types of faucets, all good, and differing from each other only in some minor detail of construction. Experience with the so-called self-closing faucets or bibbs has not been entirely satisfactory, since, with high pressure, the packing very quickly wears out. Similarly, experience with those faucets that open and shut by a single turn of a handle shows that frequent renewals of packing are necessary. The simplest, most reliable, and the easiest faucets to repair are those in which the valve is screwed down onto the valve seat, which is a plane, and where the water-tightness is made by theinsertion of a rubber or leather washer that can always be cut out with a knife from a piece of old belting or harness. The faucets may be nickeled or left plain brass, and the advantage of the added expense of nickel is in the appearance alone. If the faucets themselves are nickel, then the piping also should be nickel; that is, brass nickel-plated. Galvanized iron piping and brass faucets do not, to be sure, have the same satisfactory appearance as highly finished nickeled faucets, but the one is quite as serviceable as the other.
Kitchen sinks.
In providing a sink for the kitchen, choice lies between plain iron and enameled iron. For special work, sinks have been made of galvanized iron, of copper, slate, soapstone, and of real porcelain. There is hardly any limit to the cost of a porcelain sink, and while an enameled iron sink with fittings costs from $30 to $60, a cast-iron sink of the same size will cost only $3 or $4. A good quality of white enameled iron sink, of size suitable for a kitchen, with white enameled back and a drainboard on the side, costing $30, is very attractive as an ornament, but it serves no more useful purpose than a $3 sink and a fifty-cent drainboard. Figure 58 shows an enameled iron sink, containing sink, drainboard, and back all in one piece. This is pure white, and when fitted with nickel faucets makes a very attractive fitting.
Laundry tubs.
If running water is to be put in a house, stationary tubs for the laundry, into which water runs by a faucet and which can be emptied by pulling a plug, are certainly worth their cost over movable wooden tubs in the labor saved.Stationary tubs may be made of wood, of enameled iron, or of slate.
Fig. 58.—Enameled iron sink.Fig. 58.—Enameled iron sink.
Wooden tubs are not as desirable as the others because in the course of time they absorb a certain amount of organic matter and have a persistent odor. They are, however, very inexpensive, a man of ordinary ability being able to build them himself at the cost of the wood only. Enameled iron tubs of ordinary size cost, with the fixtures, from $20 to $40 apiece, and a set of three slate tubs costs $25. To these figures must be added the expense of the piping to bring both hot and cold water tothe tubs, together with the two faucets and the drainpipe connections necessary. Figure 59 shows three white enameled iron laundry tubs costing about $75 installed.
Hot-water boiler.
The kitchen boiler is to-day almost always made of galvanized iron and is placed on its own stand, usually back of the kitchen stove, although it may stand in an adjoining room,—the bath-room, for instance,—and aid in keeping that room warm. Such a tank costs about $12, to which must be added the necessary piping, and it is always desirable to put a stop-cock on the cold-water supply entering the tank. Then if the tank bursts, the cold water may be shut off without doing harm.
Fig. 59.—Enameled laundry tubs.Fig. 59.—Enameled laundry tubs.
A drainpipe from the bottom of the tank is also desirable to draw off the accumulations of sediment.
Water-back, wash-basin, bath-tub.
The water-back is merely a hollow box made to fit the front of the fire box in the stove, usually shaped so as to replace the front fire brick. The cold water comes in at the bottom of the box, is heated by contact with the fire, and the hot water goes out through the other pipe into the boiler.
The wash-basin in the bath-room is either marble, enameled iron, or porcelain. The marble basins with a slab can be had for about $7.50, while the enameled iron basins cost from $6 to $40. To this must be added the cost of faucets and piping, together with the drain and the trap that belongs with the drain. The enameled iron basins which are being used to-day more than ever before have proved very satisfactory, have but little weight, can be fastened to the wall without difficulty, and take up less room than the old marble basin. A fancy porcelain basin costs about $75, and is no better for practical use than either of the others.
Much the same kind of material may be used for bath-tubs, although warning ought to be given to avoid the use of the old-fashioned tin-lined bath-tub. This lining will easily rust or corrode, is very difficult to keep clean, and while the first cost is less than the enameled iron tub, it has no other advantage. An enameled iron tub five and a half feet long will cost from $20 to $100 without fixtures.
Cost of plumbing installation.
A fair estimate of the cost of the plumbing in a house, including all the fixtures mentioned except the tank in the attic, including also the plumber's bill, is $150. Thisrequires very careful buying, and implies an entire absence of brass or nickel-plated piping. If a high grade of fixtures, including nickel fittings and nickel piping, wherever it shows, is used, the cost of the fixtures alone, not including labor or piping other than mentioned, will be from $150 up.
House drainage.
The term "plumbing" is generally used to include both the water-supply in the house, with all the fixtures pertaining thereto, and the carrying of the waste water to a point outside the house; it remains, therefore, to discuss the waste pipes connected with the plumbing fixtures.
Fig. 60.—Leveling the drain.Fig. 60.—Leveling the drain.
The house-drain, or the pipe which carries the wastes from the house to the point of final disposal, is generally made of vitrified tile, and in ordinary practice is five inches inside diameter. The lower end of this drain discharges into a cesspool, or settling tank, or into a stream, as local conditions permit. This house-drain should be carefully laid in a straight line, both horizontally and vertically, for two reasons. In the first place, the velocity of flow in a straight pipe will be greater, and therefore the danger of stoppage will be decreased, and in the next place, if a stoppage does occur in the pipe, it can be cleaned out betterif the pipe is straight than if it is laid with numerous bends. Such a pipe should have a grade of at least one quarter inch to a foot, and this is conveniently given by tacking a little piece of wood one half inch thick on one end of a two-foot carpenter's level and then setting the pipe so that with this piece of wood resting on the pipe at one end and the end of the level itself on the pipe at its other end, the bubble will be in the middle. Figure 60 shows the carpenter's level in position on a level board, which rests on the hubs of three pipes. The joints of this pipe should be made with Portland cement mixed with an equal part of sand, and the space at the joint completely filled. When nearing the house, it is very desirable that a manhole should be built so that if a stoppage occurs, it may be cleaned out without taking up the pipe. In city houses a running trap is always inserted just outside the house with a fresh-air inlet on the house side of the trap, as shown in Fig. 61. But for a single house this is not necessary, and it is wiser to omit the running trap.
The soil-pipe begins at the trap or at the cellar wall and runs up through the roof of the house, so that any gas in the drain or soil-pipe may escape at such a height as not to be objectionable. Through the cellar wall and up through the house the soil-pipe should be of cast-iron, which comes in six-foot lengths for this special purpose. Y's are provided by which the fixtures are connected to the soil-pipe, and the top of the pipe is covered with a zinc netting to keep out leaves and birds. This soil-pipe weighs about ten pounds per foot and is almost always four inches inside diameter. The length necessary is easily computed, since it runs from the outside cellar wall to the point where thevertical line of pipe rises and from that point in the cellar extends to the roof. Such a pipe may be estimated at two cents a pound with something additional for the Y's.