5th. That the ordinary round P or half S trap should never be used beneath these closets, because no reliance can be placed upon the safety of its seal.
6th. Care is required in fixing these closets to ensure adequate ventilation to the trap, because, owing to the exposed position of its seal, it is liable, unless so guarded, to be destroyed at any moment by the discharge of a pail of slops: but if properly protected, it is quite safe from this action.
Where the position is such that this necessary protection cannot be given, on no account should a “direct-action” closet be used. It is better, under such circumstances, of the two evils to choose the lesser, and fix a good “Bramah” pattern valve closet and D trap.
One word with respect to closet seats. It is the prevailing fashion to have them fit as closely as possible, and to keep the lid shut. Emptage thinks this is a mistake. If there are any gases to escape, they should be allowed to do so at once, rather than be kept boxed in, ready to belch forth into the face of the next visitor. For this reason, he would discard lids altogether, and, provided a suitably finished apparatus could be introduced, the riser also, and allow the floorcloth to run right under the seat, leaving no space in the room where bad air could be detained.
Eassie recommends one of the various kinds of “wash-out” closet, and specifies Jennings’s as being good in every respect, especially for nurseries. For general household use he favours the valve closet on the Bramah pattern. In other details he directly opposes Emptage, warning the householder above all “not to fix a D trap under the apparatus, but only a P trap or S trap of cast lead.” Care should also be taken to make sure that the waste pipe from the leaden tray, or “safe”—which is usually placed under a closet in order to avoid any damage to the ceiling below should the basin overflow—is not led into the trap underneath the closet, but taken direct through the outer wall, and with a small copper flap at the end of the 1 in. pipe, in order to keep out the cold air. A sufficient supply of flushing water is indispensable, and many houses can be much improved in this respect by simply enlarging the service pipe which conveys water to the basin. See also p. [991].
In country dwellings, where earth-closets can be used, the following system works well. The refuse to be disposed of embraces rain and surface water, wash-waters, ashes, and excreta. The water is partly stored and partly run into the nearest brook. The ashes and excreta (no closet being fitted inside the dwelling) are carried to the garden. The wash-waters are emptied into a sink, which communicates directly with either a small trap, through a grating (the pipe being disconnected with the trap), or, if there be a sufficient fall, to a garden, by an open gutter, or open tile drain. The ashes and excreta are mixed together, and removed by the agency of one or other form of “earth-closet,” taking that term generally for an apparatus which is not a cesspool, which has to be frequently emptied of its contents in a more or less dry state, and which is wholly above ground.
The contents of the water-closet are discharged, as a rule, into a separate pipe, called the soil pipe; but sometimes into a rain-water pipe with an open head near the windows, or even inside the house. The soil pipe is usually inside the house—probably because it ought to be outside! Even where water-closets are against an external wall, the pipe is often carried down inside the house. The closets themselves, like sinks, ought not to be placed in the middle of the house. They are very frequently under the stairs, close to bedrooms, or in the middle of the house, sometimes ventilating into a shaft. It is of course inevitable in these cases that the pipe must either be carried inside throughout the whole length of the house, or must run nearly horizontally under the floors of bedrooms, &c. Under such circumstances it is often not properly ventilated; and if not ventilated at all, the foul air makes its way out through holes, which it is capable of perforating in lead pipes.
The soil pipes are then frequently inside the house, and they are as a rule made of lead. They are very frequently not ventilated at the top, and the pieces are jointed together by merely being slipped into one another, with perhaps a little putty or red-lead. Of course these joints are not sound joints. The soil pipe goes down into the drain, and so the foul air gets into the house. The soil pipe, whether inside or outside the house, ought to have sound joints. If a lead pipe, soldered joints; if an iron pipe, the joints ought to be made secure in a proper way.
If any part of the soil pipe must pass inside the house, it should be of lead, and it can be made sound so long as it will last (and is not damaged by driving nails into it).
Iron pipes should not be allowed to be inside the house. It is so very likely that the joints will not be made perfectly tight, so that it is more undesirable to have iron pipes inside the house than it is to have lead pipes.