The pipe which is joined to the larger pipe, or main, is generally of iron, and is made with a screw and socket, that it may not be easily displaced by the pressure of the roadway or footpath, and this, passing into the basement of the house, supplies the gas to the meter. The meter is a mechanical contrivance, which is so constructed that the quantity of gas passing through it is registered by a plate something like a clock face, with a hand to point to the figures which represent the number of cubic feet consumed. There are different kinds of meters, and the construction of them varies very considerably, but they all answer this purpose: so that when the inspector visits the house once a quarter he may directly see what quantity is to be charged for. The pipe leading from the meter is fitted with a strong tap, by turning which, all the gas may be shut off from the tubes that convey it to the different burners in the house, and from this pipe the smaller pipes (made of a sort of solder or of lead) are taken to the various rooms. In order to carry the tubes through a wall, it is necessary to use the brick bit and the brick auger for boring a hole to receive it, while to support it against a wall or along the top of a ceiling the Gasfitter uses wall hooks, the hammer and the tongs for holding and bending the pipe to its proper direction. In kitchens and basement rooms the pipe is generally carried from the meter up the wall and along the ceiling to the place where the burner is to be fixed: but in upper rooms the pipe is taken up the house wall, and carried under the flooring of the room above to the centre of the middle joist, where a hole is bored quite through the ceiling of the room below. For this purpose the twisted auger is generally used; and for the preliminary work of taking up the floor and cutting a groove in the joist to receive the pipe, that it may not be injured by the pressure of the boards above, the saw and the hammer are required.
Wall Hooks. Nuts. Grease Pot. Hammer.
Twisted Auger. Saw. Blowpipe. Tongs.
Waxed Rushes. Rasp.
Of course one length of pipe is not sufficient to go to any great distance, and a joint has frequently to be made, the solder used for this purpose being so easily melted and so readily combining with the pipe itself, which is of almost the same material, that the flame from prepared tow blown to an intense heat by the blow pipe is sufficient for the purpose. The rasp is used for filing the surface at the ends of the pipes where they are to be joined, and the waxed rushes to try the joints in order to see that there is no escape of gas through some small hole. When the pipes are all laid and brought to their proper positions the fittings are fixed. Those which descend from the centres of ceilings are generally called chandeliers, and consist of a tube of metal fastened to the gas pipe, the end of which coming through the ceiling is furnished with an iron screw to fit the end of the tube. This tube is placed within a larger tube, from the bottom of which a still smaller one passes within the first. The gas therefore descends the tube from the ceiling, and enters the smallest tube, which communicates with the burners that spring from the largest. The larger tube is intended to receive water, in which the end of the first tube rests, so that the gas is prevented from escaping, while by a nice adjustment of weights running over pulleys attached to the larger, the burners can be raised or lowered, as one tube slides within the other ([see large cut]). The taps are placed at the burners to turn on or turn off the gas as it is required, and in order to fix and screw these, as well as to fasten joints in the fittings by means of screw nuts, the pliers and the wrench are used.
