When it has risen to a certain point it opens a valve, which admits the water supply, which discharges the water collected in the catch basin. This water is discharged into a sink installed for the purpose, or, if it so happens, into any similar cellar fixture which may be convenient. This sink should be trapped and vented just as any

other house fixture. The action of the cellar drainer depends upon the creation of a partial vacuum by passing water or steam under pressure through a jet, thereby producing a suction which draws the water out of the catch basin or other receptacle into the discharge pipe, the pressure forcing it up to the point of delivery. It will be observed that both surface water and the water used in

operating the drainer are discharged. When the float falls it closes the valve and the device is ready for its next operation.

Some manufacturers claim that the cellar drainer will lift water through 12 feet, but it would appear that 8 to 10 feet is about the limit. Even so, however, the drainer covers a wide range of work. It is made in various sizes, capable of caring for 50 gallons to 1,200 or more gallons per hour. The minimum pressure required is generally about 15 lbs. The greater the distance through which the water is to be lifted the greater will be the amount of water necessary to operate the drainer. In addition to its use in connection with the drainage of cellars, it is often used in draining cesspools, wheel pits, catch basins, into which refrigerator lines discharge, and for many other purposes.

The subject of the disposal of sewage and surface water collecting at points below the sewer level has become a very important matter, and as it relates to large work, will be taken up at a later point, in a chapter devoted to that subject. It will readily be seen that in handling large volumes of drainage from public toilet rooms located underground, the use of any such device as the cellar drainer would be out of the question entirely, such work needing powerful apparatus working on a different principle, and often required to discharge many thousands of gallons per hour.

CHAPTER XIV

FIXTURE WASTES

ANYONE who is acquainted with the work of the plumber well knows that it is not fine fixtures and nickel trimmings that make up the sum total of a sanitary plumbing system. Indeed, the sanitary character of the plumbing system depends much more upon the manner in which the concealed piping is installed than upon that part of the work which is exposed to view. A bath room, for

instance, may be provided with every luxury in the form of highgrade fixtures and brass work and trimmings, and apparently be all that could possibly be asked for, and at the same time the piping under the floor and in the partitions may be of the most unsanitary character and of the poorest workmanship.

In Fig. 117, for instance, the sagging of the lead waste results in double-trapping the fixture, which is always a serious matter. In the running of long lines of lead waste, the proper supporting

of the pipe is a matter of much importance, and a matter which is
often sadly neglected. Another instance of the double-trapping
of a fixture is to be noted in Fig. 118. The latter does not come

so much from carelessness as it does from ignorance on the part of
the workman, or from an attempt to complete the work with the
least possible expense to the plumber. These glaring errors, how-
ever, are very much less in evidence in sections that come under

Bath Room Jixtures

FIG. 122.-One Waste Entrance only for the Three Bath Room Fixtures.

the plumbing inspector's control than in the smaller towns that are
not thus favored.

Many of the most objectionable features connected with the
installation of fixture wastes, however, come from the neglect to
provide proper facilities for carrying the waste away, rather than

from work that is installed with such errors as those shown above. It is a very common practice, for instance, to serve two fixtures by one trap, as in Figs. 119, 120, and 121. This practice arises

Bath Room Jixtures

Waste into Separate
Fitting

FIG. 123.-Connections Preferable to Those of Fig. 122.

most often in the case of the kitchen sink and wash trays, and in the case of lavatory and bath tub, and is a practice that is followed in a great many cities having plumbing ordinances which require a separate trap under each fixture. Briefly stated, the principle

FIG. 124. Separate Waste Entrance for Each Fixture.

involved is, that as far as possible, each fixture should be separately trapped, and have a separate entrance into the drainage system, and the consideration of the latter is the chief feature of this chapter. It may, perhaps, be considered to best advantage in the