THE PLUMBER.

Casting Lead.

In trades connected with building, the work of the Plumber is of so much importance that it must come next to that of the Bricklayer, and the Carpenter. At one time the Plumber (who takes his name from the Latin word forlead[2]) was principally employed in making leaden roofs of churchesor large public buildings and in forming casements for windows; window frames being then made of strips of lead soldered or riveted together and holding the little diamond-shaped panes of glass between their edges. In those days all the water used in the house was carried from the well or from the conduit in the main street, or was brought in casks set upon wheels from the nearest running stream: while rain-water for washing was collected in tubs or vats as it ran off the roofs. Not much more than a century ago the poets wrote of the misery of the streets of London on a wet night, when there were no waste pipes to carry off the rain from the overcharged gutters on the tiles, and nobody could venture out of doors without being half drowned by the sudden discharge of a shower bath from some overhanging gable. Then, as there was no proper system of pipes for carrying off the wet, there was very little drainage except by means of open gutters, and the bye-ways, as well as some of the principal thoroughfares and large houses, were extremely unhealthy.

[2]Plumbum.

We are not quite perfect even yet in these respects, and there are still neighbourhoods in London where a few Plumbers might be able to make vast improvements; but we are a great deal better off than our great grandfathers were. The Plumbers do not make quite so many leaden casements as they made in the olden time, but they are well employed in constructing roofs; carrying water into houses by means of leaden pipes; making cisterns to contain a good supply of it, and providing other pipes and gutters for conveying all the dirty water and drainage into the sewers that are under the roadway, where it runs quite away from the streets, and (in London at least) goes into the sea from near the mouth of the Thames at Erith.

Ladle. Grate. Soldering Iron.

Now as the Plumber has to do a great deal of his work in roofs and other places where he is liable to fall, he should be clear-headed, and able to go up a ladder or look over a ledge at a height from the ground without being afraid, and this is all the more necessary because he has to handle tools, and sometimes to pour melted solder out of a hotiron ladlewhile he is at his work on these places. For the purpose of melting the solder he has to carry hisfire grate and melting potwith him to some place near where he is at work, since unless the solder can be used rapidly it cools, and will not make a sound joint. The rest of the Plumber’s tools are thepouring stickfor applying the melted solder in the places where it is required, thesoldering ironwhich is made red-hot, and passed over the soldered joints to smooth them and make them all firm and sound; thechisel,shave hooks,drawing knife, andchipping knife, for cutting the lead andscraping it on the surface, or at the edges that are to be fastened together; thehammersandmalletsfor beating the lead into shape and flattening the ridges, thebossing malletand dresser for bringing the sheet of lead to a proper shape, and forming it over the ridge of a roof, thechased wedge, the screw-driver, thedunringand theturnpinfor various uses in making roofs, laying down leaden pipes and fixing taps, and thesucker hookused in repairing or fixing pumps when the part of the pump called the sucker requires to be rectified.

Pouring Stick. Chipping Knife. Dunring. Drawing Knife. Chased Wedge. Shave Hook. Turnpin. Shave Hook.

There are other tools beside these, such as planes for making the surface of the lead smooth and even, gouges and centre-bits for circular openings in the lead to receive nailsor clamps, measuring rules and compasses, and pads of carpet or cloth to hold under a pipe when it is being soldered, that the solder may be pressed round the joint before it cools, and without its dropping on the ground.

Mallet. Hammer.

Plumbers now buy their sheet lead as well as their leaden pipe at the warehouses, but those in a large way of business formerly cast the lead themselves. For this purpose they used a casting table, which is a great wooden bench about six yards long and two yards wide, made of smooth planks, and with a raised wooden frame round the edge. On this table the Plumber spreads a layer of finely-sifted sand, which was made level by a strike—a flat piece of wood with two handles—drawn from end to end of the table; after this the surface was made still more smooth by a planer, which was a flat plate of copper fastened to a handle.

Sucker Hook. Screwdriver. Dresser. Bossing Mallet. Chisel.

A trough called the pan ran along the whole length of the table, and into this the melted lead was poured from the melting pot. There were two ways of making the sheetlead: one of them was to tilt the trough up, and pour out the lead on to the table, two men immediately passing a wooden strike over it so as to spread it evenly over the whole surface. In this case the thickness of the sheet of lead depended on the distance between the edge of the “strike” and the surface of the sand. Another way was to have a narrow opening all along the bottom of the trough, the trough itself moving from end to end of the table as the lead flowed out. When this method was used the thickness of the sheet depended on the size of the opening, and the rapidity with which the trough was moved along the table.Neither of these methods are now used, the lead being rolled into sheets by machinery.

Water-pipes are made by lead being cast in moulds with a steel rod passing through their middles, according to the size required. The lead is poured into the space between the rod and the mould. After it is cool the rod is drawn out by machinery, and the mould which is made in halves is opened and the pipe taken out. The pipe is then much thicker and shorter than is required for use, but it is afterwards drawn between powerful iron rollers with grooves cut in their surfaces, an iron rod being again placed inside it. As these grooves gradually decrease in size, and the pipe is drawn through several, it is very considerably lengthened, and at the same time diminished, in thickness, by the time the operation is finished. Another method of making lead pipes is by the use of theforcing pump, which pumps the melted metal out of the boiler into a mould containing a “mandril,” or pipe of the required size. Pipes made in this way do not require to be rolled.

Forcing Pump.

The work which the Plumber is called upon to do on the roofs of houses requires experience before it can be properly performed. The foundation of the roof which is to be covered with lead is made either of boards or plaster, so that the surface may be even, and if it be of boards they must be thick and well seasoned to prevent their warping.The foundation slopes a little in order to carry off the rain towards one end. When the roof is so large that it needs two widths of lead, there are three ways of joining the edges of the lead together: one is by fastening to the roof long slips of wood (flat at bottom and round at top) at the places where the lead will be joined. Over these strips the edge of the first sheet of lead is folded and hammered down quite close, then the edge of the second sheet is folded and hammered over that, so that water cannot get between them. This is called “rolling.”

Another method is to bring the two edges up just as though they were to be sewn together, then to fold them tightly one over the other, and hammer them down: this is called “overlapping,” but it is not so good as rolling for keeping out the rain.

The third way is tosolderthe edges together: the solder, which is in constant use by the Plumber, being a metal made by mixing lead and tin together. These two metals when mixed adhere very strongly to the lead that they are meant to join, and the surface to which they are applied is made hot enough to unite with the solder by means of the soldering iron, while very often a little resin, borax, or tallow is placed on the surface of the lead to cause it to combine more rapidly with the molten metal.

Besides the fixing of roofs the Plumber makes leaden cisterns, fixes rain-water gutters, and waste pipes, and arranges taps and drains; and in some of these operations he will use zinc instead of lead. Not the least important part of his business, however, is the construction and arrangement of pumps, and for this purpose it is necessary that he should study mechanics, and those branches of science which refer to the properties of water, and to thelaws which govern the air and other fluids. He is always the best workman who goes to his business with a knowledge of the natural laws and scientific facts connected with it, and a very little study will save a world of blundering; during which the ignorant man will remain a labourer, because it takes him half a lifetime to learn his business.

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