Birmingham Spades.
This poetical view of digging drains, meets us at every turn, and we are beset with inquiries for these wonderful implements. We do not intimate that Mr. Gisborne, and those who so often quote the above language, are not reliable. Mr. Gisborne "is an honorable man, so are they all honorable men;" but we must reform our tiles, and our land too, most of it, we fear, before we can open four-foot trenches, and lay pipes in them, without putting a foot "within twenty inches of the floor of the drain."
In the first place, we have great doubt whether pipes can be laid close enough to make the joints secure without collars, unless carefully laid by hand, or unless they are round pipes, rolled in the making, when half dried, and so made straight and even at the ends. In laying such sole-pipes as we have laid, it requires some care to adjust them, so as to make the joints close. Most of them are warped in drying or burning, so that spaces of half an inch will often be left at the top or side, where two are laid end to end. Now, if the foot never goes to the bottom of the drain, the pipes must be laid with a hook or pipe-layer, such as will be presently described, which may do well for pipes and collars, because the collar covers the joint, so that it is of no importance if it be somewhat open.
Again, we know of no method of working with a pick-axe, except by standing as low as the bottom of the work. No man can pick twenty inches, or indeed any inches, lower than he stands, because he must move forward in this work, and not backward. Each land-owner may judge for himself, whether his land requires the pick in its excavation.
In soft clays, no doubt, with suitable tools, the trench may be cut a foot, or more, lower than the feet of the workman. We have seen it done in our land, in a sandy soil, with the Irish spade, though, as we used sole-pipes, our "pipe-layer" was a live Irishman, who walked in the trench backwards, putting down the pipes with his hand.
We are satisfied, that the instances in which trenches may be opened a foot or two below the feet of the workmen, are the exceptions, and not the rule, and that in laying sole-tiles, the hand of a careful workman must adjust each tile in its position.
We have found a narrow spade, four inches wide, with a long handle, a convenient tool for finishing drains for sole-tiles.
Fig. 73.