23. Kitchen Sink.
The proper arrangement and disconnection of a kitchen sink is shown in Fig. 23; a, stoneware trough; b, 2 in. stoneware waste pipe; c, stoneware gully or trap; d, iron grating; e, house wall; f, pipe leading to sewer.
The sinks in the basement have their waste pipes very frequently either directly connected with the drains or connected with the drains by bell traps. Of course this is a most dangerous state of things. For when the top of the bell trap is taken off, an opening into the drain is directly made. If the bell trap gets broken, no one is told of it, and the drain is ventilated into the house for months. On the other hand, if the top is left on and the bell trap is in a place where water does not get into it continually, or at all, the trap will get dry, and so become a ventilator of the drains into the house; so that this plan of having ventilating pipes in the sinks, or of having bell traps in the floor of basements, is most dangerous, still more dangerous if the sinks are not used. Some think in this way:—Oh! this sink is not used, there cannot be any harm in it! But there is, and much more harm too. For the water in the trap dries up, and so foul air comes into the house.
The sinks, then, ought not to be directly connected with the drains, but should discharge through trapped gullies in the area; and not only so, but the waste pipes of the sinks, whether upstairs or downstairs, ought to have siphon traps, with traps and screws fixed immediately under the sinks. These waste pipes are foul pipes even when not connected with the drains, and if you do not have siphon traps immediately under the sinks, foul air will come in, especially during the night, and you will have a very serious nuisance caused in the house in this way. The same remarks about cisterns upstairs apply to cisterns in the basement. The water-closets in the basement are simpler forms of closets, and they are very frequently supplied from water cisterns by means of pipes which have merely a tap which you may turn off or on. This is a most mischievous plan, as the cistern may be emptied and foul air enter it. The closets in the basement, therefore, ought to be supplied by means of water-waste preventers, the best kind being the siphon-action water-waste preventers, which discharge two gallons of water as soon as you pull the chain. These “preventers” are not only to prevent the water being wasted by the handle of the closet being fastened up, but also cut off the direct supply of the closet from the drinking-cistern water.
Grease Traps.—A much-discussed subject is the grease trap. In small houses it is not needed; but in large houses, unless some provision is made for catching the grease sent down the scullery sink, the drains will soon be choked. Eassie gives a caution against having the grease trap too large for its work, and as to the importance of cleaning it out regularly, say once a week.
Disconnection Traps.—Whether the house drains into a sewer, a stream, a cesspool, or upon a piece of irrigation ground, one thing which must never be omitted is a disconnection trap or chamber between the house drain and the outfall. These traps—which should be placed close to the house—prevent any smell from the outfall passing into the house, and inasmuch as they have an inlet for the taking in of fresh air between the siphon and the house, this fresh air will course along the underground drains, and be discharged at the ventilating continuations of the soil pipes, or at the tops.
24. Disconnection Chamber. 25. Disconnection Chamber.
Where the house is so large that the air inlet of these siphons would not suffice, the latter are replaced by a chamber as shown in Fig. 24. The sewage flows into the air chamber formed by the half-open pipe a, being ventilated through the grating b; thence it passes through the siphon c to the sewer in the direction of the arrow. There is a raking entry into the sewer side of the siphon at d, closed by a plug, thus preventing any smell from the sewer or drain beyond the siphon entering the air chamber a. If the sewers are at a great depth, the walls of the air chamber are made thicker, and a manhole is built the length of the open channel, an arch being turned over when the siphon is fixed, as in Fig. 25. The sewage passes from a through the siphon b to the drain c, d being the air inlet. (Eassie.)
