t-*' ifkV ^E Details ^1. .:^P^ ;s ^* '4 >*! Water-Works Construction. ^^ Cornell University Library TD 345.B59 some details of water-wo£,cons^ 3 1924 004 930 933 All books are subject to recall after two weeks. Engineering Library DATE DUE AI4*^«% IBZZ i : ^: ^ f^-^-.^ "'^'^JM^W^ 1 1 ; 1 GAVLOHD PRINTED INUSA Cornell University Library The original of tiiis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924004930933 SOME DETAILS OF Water-Works Construction. BY WILLIAM R. BILLINGS, Superintendent of Water-Works at Taunton, Mass. (From 1879 to 1888.) ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SKETCHES BY THE AUTHOR. New York : THE EXGIXEERING & BUILDING RECORD. © CORN-ELL \ LIBRARY '-^ Copyright, 1888, By The Engineering and Building Record. THE ENGINEERING AND CLILDING RECORD PRESS, 82-B4 I-aLTON STREET, in . 1 . INTRODUCTORY NOTE. COME questions addressed to the Editor of The Engi- neering AND Building Record and The Sanitary Engineer by persons in the employ of new water- works indicated that a short series of practical articles on the Details of Constructing a Water- Works Plant would be of value ; and, at the suggestion of the Editor, the preparation of these papers was undertaken for the columns of that journal. The task has been an easy and agreeable one, and now, in a more convenient form that! is afforded by the columns of the paper, these notes of actual experience are offered to the water-works fraternity, with the belief that they may be of assistance to beginners and of some interest to all. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter I. l'\GK. Materials for Main Pipes — Method of Lining with Cement — Tool-Box — Derrick — Tools — Transportation — Distributing Pipe 9-24 Chapter II. Field Work — Pipe Plans — Taying Out a Line — Time Keep- ing — Tunneling — Sheet-Piling 211-36 Chapter III. Trenching and Pipe - Laying — Caviiig — Bell - Holes — Rock Work — Laying Cast-Iron Pipe— Derrick Gang — Cutting Pipe. 37-45 Chapter IV. Laying Cement-Lined Pipe — Joint-Making on Iron Pipe — Strength of Joints — Quantity of Lead 46-56 Chapter V. Hydrants — Gates — Specials — Field Notes — Back - Filling — Pulling Sheet-PiUng — Filling Pipes 47-66 vi TABLE OF CONTENTS. Chapter VI. PAGE Service - Pipes — Materials — Tapping Mains — Corporation Cocks 67-73 Chapter VII. \Viped-Joint and Cup-Joint — Air-Pump and Blow-Pipe — Weight of Lead Pipe — Tapping Wrought-Iron Mains — Service- Boxes — Meters 74-8 1 Chapter VIII. Notes on Two Miles of 16-Inch Main — Items of Cost — Tem- porary Supply — Cost of Line 82-8^ Chapter IX. Table of Weights and Dimensions of Cast-iron Pipe — Pipe- Joints — Tables of Cost— Handling Water — Close Sheeting — Eg£-Shaped Conduits — Circular Conduits go-g6 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PAGE FiGURK I. — Lining Cone 12 ■J.— Tool-Box 14 ■j . — Derrick 15 4. — Carrying Stick ib 5. — Tamps 17 6.— Cutting-off Tool 18 7. — Yarning and Calking Tools rg 8. — 'Calking Hamnmer 20 9. — Lead Kettle 21 10. — Pipe Plans 27 ir. — Pipe Plans 2q 12. — Time Book 32 13. — Sheet Piling 35 J 4. — Feathers and Wedges 39 15. — Bell and Spigot Joint, 48 16. — Clam.p-Jack 52 17. — Thread Diagram 54 18. — Main-Pipe Plug 60 ig. — Main-Pipe Sleeve 61 20. — Sheet-Piling Lever 63 21. — Tool Wagon 65 22. — Various Joints and Corporation Cock 70 23 . — Air-Pump and Blow-Pipe 76 24 — Tapping Machine 78 25. — Meter Well 80 26. — Plan and Profile of Pipe Line 85 27. — Temporary Supply 88 28. — Section of Pipe-Joint ; qi CHAPTER L THE DISTRIBUTING SYSTEM. Materials — Salt-Glazed Clay — Cast Iron — Cement*- Lined Wrought- J r 071 — Thickness of Sheet Metal — Methods of Lining — List of Tools — Tool-Box — Derrick — Calking Tools — Furnace — Transportation — Handling Pipe — Cost of Carting — Distributing Pipe. T N considering the subject of which this boqk treats, it will be the writer's endeavor to be brief and practical. He assumes that those for whom these papers will have the most interest have had little or no experience in actual con- struction, and desire information and suggestion upon the simplest details. MAIN PIPES. Materials, — Cast iron, wrought iron with cement or with a protecting coating by some special process, wood, and steel are the materials used in making pipes for the distributing systems of town and city water-supplies. Salt-glazed vitrified clay pipes have been used by Mr. Stephen E. Babcock, C. E., of Little Falls, N. Y., in that village, and also at Amsterdam and Johnstown in the same ro MAIN PIPES. State, for conduits in gravity systems. At Little Falls the conduit is over 30,000 feet in length and is mainly of 18 and 20 inch pipe. The low first cost of clay pipe would certainly entitle its claims to careful investigation in planning a low- pressure gravity system of supply. Mr. Babcock has prepared a very elaborate set of specifications for furnishing and laying this pipe, which would be of value to any one who wished to use it. The writer frankly acknowledges a preference for cast-iron pipe for all but special cases. He is not unmindful of the fact that the town of Plymouth, Mass., after an experience of thirty years, is this summer (1887) extending its distributing system by adding 20,000 feet of 4 to 16 inch cement-lined wrought- iron pipe ; nor that the town of Dedham, Mass., has had no reason thus far to regret that its water-mains are of this material. Without going further, the cities of Fitchburg and Worcester, Mass., seem to offer experience with this sort of pipe to justify the opinion that the chances for poor work and poor material are greater with it than with cast iron, and the advocates of cement-lined pipe admit, I think, that honest and skillful work is indispensable to the success of this method. We must admit that when made and laid upon honor, cement- lined pipe has an advantage over cast iron in not reducing its original diameter by incrustations, nor is the " advantage out ' when we reply that the cleaning machine of Mr. Keating or of Mr. Sweeney may be used to restore tuberculated iron pipe to its original diameter, for the application of these machines cannot be effected without expense. With its acknowledged advantages of strength and ease in laying, cast-iron pipe is heavy and, in its larger sizes, expensive MAIN PIPES. II to handle. This Umits the length in which sections of it can be used, and so does not permit of any reduction in the number of joints to the mile. In the effort to produce something which should be free from these disadvantages of cast-iron pipe, wrought-iron pipe treated by a protective process is now upon the market, and has been introduced to a limited extent. Of this it is fair to say that it is still on trial, and some time must yet elapse before its durability can be said to be proven. Of wood, the writer has no knowledge by actual experi- ence, but its use seems to be limited to a small territory in the West. Unlike cast-iron pipe, which is bought ready for use, cement-lined pipe is put together in part at some convenient yard or shop in the town which is to use it, and its final con- struction is carried on in the trench where it is to lie. The foundation of this sort of pipe is a sheet-iron drum nine feet in length, made in three sections in the i6-inch and larger sizes, and in single sheets in the 4 to 14 inch diam- eters. The thickness of metal varies with the sizes ; for example we may use, For 4-inch pipe, metal of 21 Birmingham Gauge. " 6 " " 19 " 10 " " 17 " 12 " " 15 " 14 " " 14 "16 " ' 14 with double-riveted seams, using 12-pound rivets for 16, 14 and 12 inch pipe, lo-pound for lo-inch, 6-pound for 6-inch, and 5-pound for 4-inch pipes. MAIN PIPES. The first step in the making of this sort of pipe is the put- ting nito these drums a lining ^ to ^ of an inch in thick- 1 ■ : L/MJVG ^iCOJVE^ Figure MAIN PIPES. 13 ness of cement mortar mixed sand and cement half and half. The pipe is placed on end over a hole in a low platform, and a lining cone is let down into it from a crane, a derrick, or a simple windlass, and drops through the hole in the plat- form just far enough to allow the pipe to be entirely filled at its lower end with the mortar. Enough mortar is then shoveled mto the top of the pipe from a high platform to make the lining, and the cone is drawn slowly through. The surplus cement as it falls over the top during the upward movement of the cone^ is shoveled back into the mixing-box, or into another pipe if there be one at hand ready for lining, but no cement that has once set is fit to be used again. After the cone is drawn the pipe should stand 20 minutes or more before it is moved ; it is then taken to the grouting table, the ends scraped, and the whole surface examined for defects. If at any points the cement has settled into wrinkles these should be scraped down, and any holes filled with pure cement. With platforms and swinging crane arranged to place ten pipes on end at once for lining, eight men can fill 100 14-inch pipes in a day, and three men more can grout and patch them. The grout can be poured in with a dipper, and then spread by rolling the pipe and applying from each end common dust- brushes fastened to long handles. Before applying the gfout the lining is brushed with water, using the long-handled brushes. The lining cones are made either of cast iron or of sheet- metal, but if the latter is used they must be filled with cement to give them weight. u LIST OF TOOLS. LIST OF TOOLS. Whatever be the material chosen for main pipe, the trench- ing tools will be the same. In the matter of pipe cutting and jointing, cast iron and wrought iron call for very different treatment and appliances. During days which are too stormy for work and over night, all tools should be securely packed in tool-boxes, which may be built according to the following sketch : The same carpenter who makes the boxes can make also a derrick after the sketch given in Figure 3, which will be found strorg enough for pipes weighing a ton and easy to handle as soon as three men get the knack of carrying it. This should be made of straight-grained 4x4 sticks, 14^ feet long, held together at the top by a i-inch bolt. The link of Ji round iron drops one foot, and 3/^ carriage-bolts should LIST OF TOOLS. 15 be put through the end of the sticks to keep them from split- ting. The large cleat on the right is to be bolted on with two ^ carriage-bolts about 20 inches from the bottom of the leg, and a hard-wood pin driven in about the same distance from the bottom of each of the other legs. For pipes larger than 20 inches a 4-leg derrick with a windlass may be found more convenient. For 6-ihch pipe two 8-inch double blocks will give power enough, but for 16-inch a quadruple and triple block in com- bination will be needed. The number of picks and shovels required depends, of course, upon the number of men that are to be employed. One shovel to a man is enough, but if the digging is likely to be hard, double the number of picks will not be too many, to l6 LIST OF TOOLS. allow time for sharpening. A shovel with a welded strap does better work than one in which the strap is riveted, and for anything but scraping up from a platform, a round point is better than a square point. 1 w FicriRE 4. Provide three, four, or half a dozen steel crowbars 5^ to 6 feet long, 2 or 3 sledges weighing, say, 10, 15, and 20 pounds^ LIST OF TOOLS. 17 and 2 tunneling bars, if the digging will permit of this sort of work. The tunneling bars are easily made by welding on to a piece of i-inch pipe 8 or 10 feet long a chisel-shaped piece, of steel 2 or 3 inches wide. For ledge-work, drills made of i^-inch octagon steel, forged to cut a i^-inch hole, with sledges weighing 6 to 8 i8 LIST OF TOOLS. pounds, and a spoon for scooping out the dust and drillings, will be required. Carrying sticks for lifting 4, 6, and 8 inch pipe, of the shape shown in the sketch Figure 4 (page 16), are useful ; larger sizes of pipe are handled more easily by rolling. QiTTVUGi \iT? \00\^ Figure 6. Skids 6 feet long of 2x4, 4x4, or of 4x6 spruce, according to the weight of the pipe, will be needed to throw across the trench. When water is not available for back-filling some kind of tamp will be needed, and sketches of two patterns are given on page 17 (Figure 5). LIST OF TOOLS. 19 YAnNfNGt //TOV C^UA/i//V6ld0U Figure 7 LIST OF TOOLS. If any considerable amount of rock-work is expected, either as ledge or boulders, a second derrick will be needed, with some spare rope and a few pieces of chain. ^--^^ mi^m ■ — a ' < J C^V.V\\\>iG. m m m;' m i m will '/IH Ki\nn^?v ! \ ! ■ 1 m Bill 'a^vJ^H ID 1 Ir/iH • 11 \ 1 |j Figure 8. For cutting cast-iron pipe provide two or three long- handled chisels, such as blacksmiths use for cutting off cold LIST OF TOOLS. 2i iron (see Figure 6, page i8), and a pair of light sledges or striking hammers. For cutting wrought-iron pipe boiler- makers' chisels and hammers are the proper tools. For making lead joints in cast-iron pipe, yarning and calk- ing tools and short-handled calking hammer. One yarning- ^ I iron and four calking tools varying in thickness from ^ to ^ of an inch make a convenient set. A furnace or lead-kettle of the pattern indicated in Figure 9 is common among water-works contractors. There should be a second door opening orv^ the grate at the point on the 'sketch where the shell is broken away to show the interior. 7.1 TRANSPORTATION. TRANSPORTATION. Before the arrival of the pipe arrangements should be made to have men and teams ready to begin work at a few hours' notice ; for, as a rule, vessel captains and railroad com- panies are in a hurry to be rid of their cargoes. Some trust- worthy man should be selected to oversee the unloading and keep tally. In cast-iron pipe it is customary to mark the weight of each piece with white paint inside the bell, and if a memorandum is made of the weight of each piece as it leaves the car or vessels, the pipes will be counted and a check on the weight given in the bill of lading will be obtained. The pipes may be piled up on the wharf, or taken directly from the cars on to the drays or low gears that are to cart them. If ihey are to be put directly upon the drays little or no blocking will be needed. Strong and careful men with carrying sticks, and some skids in the absence of a derrick, will soon discover the easiest method of handling the pipe and avoiding shocks and blows. If the pipe is coming out of a vessel and is to be piled up on the wharf, 2x4 spruce sticks in market lengths should be placed between the tiers, and strong skids used to roll the pipe from the deck ashore, and blocking be freely applied to prevent bunting, striking, or rolling. In the experience of the writer, six active and fear- less men easily took 16, 6, and 4 inch pipe from a vessel and piled it securely on a wharf faster than the crew could get it out of the hold with a steam derrick. In carting cast-iron pipe convenience and necessity will determine the kind of vehicle to be used, but in carting cement-lined pipe it is well to insist that the wagon shall have TRANSPORTATION. 23 springs that the chances for cracking the cement lining may be reduced. The cost of carting must vary so much with circumstances that the writer can do no more than quote some figures from his own experience. Three bids were received in the spring of 1887 for carting an average distance of about two miles over good roads and streets with no steep grades : 680 tons of 135-lb. 16-inch pipe. 100 " 34-lb. 6-inch pipe. 100 ** 20-lb. 4-inch pipe. One of $T per ton gross. One of 67! cents per ton gross. One of 64 cents per ton gross. • At the lowest figure the teamster appears to be satisfied that he is making a fair profit, but his horses and men are working hard for it. When the town of Middleboro, Mass., constructed its water-works the writer was informed that the carting was done for fifty cents per ton, but the average hauls were short and the roads good. Considerable judgment is required on the part of the teamsters who deliver the pipe on the street to distribute it so that it will not fall short or run over in laying, so that it will not cause excessive risk to night travelers while it is awaiting the coming of the workmen, so that it will not be in the way of entrances to private estates or of merchants whose teams wish to receive or discharge goods. If circumstance will per- mit, it will save time for the pipe-layers to have the pipe laid on the street with all the bells pointing one way, and that in the direction of the movement of the gang. This with refer- 24 TRANSPORTATION. ence to bell and spigot pipe ; with other patterns this condi- tion does not exist. In directing the teamsters on which side of the street to deliver the pipe, consider on which side of the trench the bulk of the dirt is to be thrown, and have the pipe dropped on the side opposite to that, and thus avoid having to lift the pipe over an embankment of loose earth. CHAPTER 11. FIELD WORK. Engineering or None — Pipe Plans — Special Pipe — Laying Out a Line — Width and Depth of Trench — Time-Keeping Book — Disposition of Dirt — Tunneling — Street-Piling. T T is well understood by the' readers of The Engineering AND Building Record that the best preparation for any- considerable amount of main-pipe laying is found in a careful survey of the proposed line, which shall take note of every feature which is likely to affect the work. Cross streets or roads, existing or proposed, brooks, bridges, drains, culverts, sewers, gas-pipes, and old water-mains, if there be any, should be indicated on plan and profile, and forethought given to schemes for avoiding and overcoming evident obstacles. Let me warn the novice that, in spite of his most earnest forethought, obstacles that could hardly be foreseen even by one of experience will almost certainly arise, and he can at best only strive to reduce the number of the unexpected diffi- culties. The need for laying pipes to line and grade is an imperative one on the main line from a reservoir in a gravity system ; is almost as necessary with any main larger than ten or twelve 26 FIELD WORK. inches, though perhaps less important in the smaller pipes through the streets of a town. A town may build a respectable system of water-works with a wonderfully small amount of engineering, but money saved at the outset in this way is generally expended at a later date in correcting blunders and repairing defective work. The writer calls to mind at this moment an instance in which a defective length of pipe which was made a part of a submerged river-crossing has since caused an expenditure of not less than $2,000 at different times for repairs ; enough to have paid for a reasonable amount of engineering and thorough inspection. Let us suppose that full surveys and drawings have been made ; in what form, then, shall they be put, so as to be intelligible to the foreman in charge of the gang? If an assistant engineer is constantly on the trench, he may not need a full drawing ; his own notes made at the office may be sufficient, but this arrangement is not always practicable. We give herewith Figure 10, a sketch copied from blue prints used by Mr. R. C. P. Coggeshall in his work at New Bedford, Mass. These sheets are not large, 10x15 inches or less, and are given to the foreman a few days before the beginning of the work, so that he may get the gates, hydrants, and specials on the ground in advance of the digging. The writer has followed essentially the same plan, but in his drawings no attempt is made to show the form of the special castings. Single or double lines, with the names of the castings and size of gates, the whole drawn to scale of forty feet to one inch, are used as shown in Figure 11, page 29. If a draughtsman is available the first method is certainly to be preferred, but if one must be his own engineer, super- FIELD WORK. 27 -ZJ //v^ J^'IGUKE 10, 23 FIELD WORK. intendent, and draughtsman, as is often the case in small towns, the second method has its advantages. These pipe plans represent the best practice, but if the earth could be thrown off some main-pipe systems, as the valet of Frederick the Great used to throw the bed-clothes off his master in the morning, the easy curves and special angles which the foregoing plans provide would not be found. I once heard a man of wide experience in handling pipe say that he could lay cast-iron pipe in the crookedest town that was ever laid out on the cow-paths, if he had single branches and plenty of pipe. Such work. is not to be com- mended, but it has been, and probably will be, done. It would be outside the scope of these papers to describe methods which may be employed in locating a pipe-line and staking out the curves and angles according to railroad prac- tice, but some beginner may be glad to receive suggestions as to simple working methods. When he is given a gang of men, a quantity of straight pipe, and told to lay a main on B Street from a given point to a branch on S Avenue, his instructions will probably include the location of the branch with more or less accuracy, but on reaching the scene of operations he may find that this branch points all askew for B Street, and the street itself straggles along to a junction with the avenue in a tangential, uncertain sort of way that is more picturesque than satisfactory. The first comforting fact is that we can swing around the sharpest curve which is likely to present itself by cutting the pipe into short pieces and making the joints as one-sided as we dare. FIELD WORK 2g 1< ^~^ v^/^ ' V ^^ N x; -?. ■^-, " '•^a^ . ^s c^" ?J S ^^ "S j: ^ ^ ^ Ssi f3 '^ ^ \ H <0 '^ •i \ J^ 1^ . 11 4 ^ ^vWn^-"^ •■•n 1 i 1 1 1 s Ss.^NNNsNNsXNNX'^-lSvy A' / A/^q SyT 'i^ ? -i 5 ^:^ fl^ "c 5 1 Figure ti. 30 FIELD WORK. We must have a line of some kind — sash- cord or clothes- line are first-rate for the purpose — so thafwe can fasten one end of it to a point in the ground nearly over the branch, say i8 inches to the right of it. Now let a man take the ball or coil of line and stretch it in the direction in which the branch points, as nearly as can be judged. Suppose the line is to swing to the right, let one laborer drive his pick into the ground close to the line, on the right of it, and 12 or 15 feet from the fastened end. Keep the line stretched, swing it to the right again, and have another pick driven into the ground 25 or 30 feet from the fastened end. When a hundred feet or more of the line have been stretched in this way, set a half a dozen men to picking a rut along the left side of the line. Make them follow the line ; don't let them walk backwards, and see that they all pick on the same side of the line ; it is safe to say that half of them won't if you let them alone. The sections may be measured by laying down a shovel-length« four times, or, if the digging is sandy, 15 feet is not too much. The width of the trench may vary from 28 to $6 inches, depending on the size of the pipe, though if the soil is known in advance to be sandy, and likely to cave, it may be cheaper to start the trench four feet wide on top, and slope it towards the bottom, rather than to use bracing. The depth to which pipe may or must be laid is controlled by more than one consideration. In northern latitudes protection from frost is first to be thought of, and the amount of covering required for this de- pends upon the nature of the ground, the size of the pipe, FIELD WORK. 31 and the quantity of water flowing during the T^ours of mini- mum flow. In loose, gravelly and stony ground the temperature will frequently fall below 32° Fah. for a depth of 5 or 6 feet, and hydrant-branches and service pipes have frozen under such conditions. In compact earth, free from large stones, the ground is not frozen more than three or four feet, and under good sod the distance is even less than that. These figures will hold good, I think, as far north as the isothermal line of Portland, Me. Any section of a main pipe-line which is sure of a good circulation may be laid at any convenient depth without regard to temperature, and examples may be cited of main pipes which cross bridges without any protection from freez- ing except that afforded by the current of water constantly moving through them. Exact information upon this point is desirable. There is a sort of unwritten law, in New England at least, that the axis of all pipes should be five feet below the surface. If the amount of work on hand justifies the employment of not less than forty or fifty men, it will require the attention of one capable man whose duty shall be those of a foreman of the trenching gang. The right man in this position will have no lack of "work. He can keep the time for the whole gang, lay out the trench in advance, see that the damage from the excavated dirt is reduced to a minimum, keep private driveways open, look after the bracing of the trench if this be found necessary, see that the trench is dug to the line and grade given, keep the unoccupied side of the road as free as possible, and, finally, 32 FIELD WORK. pick out the fellows who are trying to shirk and get rid of them. Time-keeping, if one wishes to know with exactness the cost of the whole or any portion of a season's work, is an > i \ 7 — Sfal c4 ^-r fFo ^faZ h ^, ^,'1 ^ / r D/c r S-" / /7 7^^ o 7- n n 7, n TtH o ^ If ^ n 7?r n -f _/^ J -^ n -BF a r^ ^, 7- (ycnni If ,f -^ f n r.jt n () n cs.r 7 n ■A r ( ' 7 n r n (? n f) a n ,0 n -R/f p fo n • a /n n ??// n n' n 11 n T-r, n /T- A '7rt 19. ~6 /.^ ff / /.-? n 7^ r? /-^ Af /■7 r7 AT /^^ /^ n /n n CK n //T n b?// n n n J r n n 7i^ n fi? n n /(r n .S^5L_ o f^9 ,^ ■>^L,. ///
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important detail, and a convenient and well-designed time-
book is almost indispensable to good results. A sample page
FIELC WORK 33
from the time-book in use by the writer will illustrate one
method which has been well tried and is not found wanting
(see Figure 12).
With the aid of this book we have been able to tell with
satisfactory exactness at the end of a season's work where
every dollar of the pay-rolls has been expended.
For example, the page here given tells us that Jack Cade
is number 49 in the gang ; that he is paid $2.25 per day ; that
on the first day of August he worked only during the fore-
noon, in the derrick -gang on Bay Street ; on the second he
made a full day in the same position ; on the third he did not
begin until the middle of the forenoon, finishing out the day.
As pay-day comes once a week the space belonging to Sunday
is utilized to put down the footing of total time for each week.
On Tuesday, the seventh, Cade during the forenoon worked on
Bay Street and on High Street after dinner, and Ck. shows
that he was employed in calking joints. In Tim Daley's
record B. H. stands for "bell-hole digging," B. F. for "back
filling," Tr. for trenching, and C. S P, (construction service-
pipe) shows that Daley was taken from the main pipe gang on
those days and sent to dig service-pipe trenches.
In working through the streets of a town, especially in
the portions occupied by well-kept estates, it is well to remem-
ber that a man with a newly-painted fence or a bit of smooth
grass-plot is very unwilling to allow gravel or clay to be thrown
against his fence or on to his lawn, even if the street be
narrow and the workmen cramped for room. A few hemlock
boards do not cost much and may save considerable growling,
for if they are judiciously placed against the fence they will
protect both it and the lawn. Under these conditions, however,
34 FIELD WORK.
there is some danger, if the dirt reach nearly to the top of the
fence, of straining the structure and throwing it out of line.
If this happens the fence must be straightened and the bill
paid.
When tunneling is impracticable driveways and cross-
streets may be kept in constant use by opening the trench half
way across the space, leaving just driving room, and then
digging on as usual. When the pipe-line is brought up to the
undisturbed portion, the last two or three joints may be made
without waiting for others, then enough of the trench immedi-
ately filled to furnish new driving room, and the undisturbed
portion dug out by the derrick gang in quick time.
Bracing, if done to any considerable extent, is expensive
work, but as it is not right and does not pay in Massachusetts
to expose men to risk of injury, bracing the trench is some-
times not to be avoided.
If the tendency to cave is only slight and the trench is not
more than five feet deep, sufficient support may be given by
single planks running along just below the edge of the trench
and held in place by short pieces of 4x4 joist, which are cut a
little longer than the distance across the trench between the
planks, and then driven in place with sledges.
In loose gravel or sand this sort of bracing amounts to
little or nothing, for the stuff will run out from under the
planks and finally tumble everything into the ditch.
Water-pipes are seldom laid to a depth which requires the
thorough bracing and sheet-piling of deep sewer-work, but a
simple sketch and a few words of explanation will make plain
the vital points involved in the construction of ordinary sheet-
piling. After excavating to a depth of four feet, a trench
FIELD WORK.
35
which must go four feet deeper, in quicksand, for example, it
may be braced as indicated in Figure 13. Lay the 4x6
stringers B along the bottom of the trench and put a lo-foot
Fig. 13.
plank between each end and the bank. Cut cross-braces C long
enough to drive in hard, and then fix the top stringers Tin the
same manner ; the next is simply driving plank to make the
sheet-piling complete.
36 • FIELD WORK.
It is not always easy to cut sticks of just the right length to
be used for cross-braces C, and screw-jacks are economical in
time and labor if much sheet-piling is to be done. We may
use short jacks and a piece timber shorter than the w^dth of
the trench by the length of the jack, or, in narrow trenches,
jacks of sufficient length to enable one to dispense with a
timber brace may be preferred.
The one thing needful to make sheet-piling thoroughly
effective is to keep the ends of the plank as much below the
bottom of the trench as is possible, and to this end each plank
should be driven frequently if only a little at a time. If the
ends of the plank are chamfered and pointed, so as to help to
throw them back against the bank and sideways against the
plank last driven, better work can be done than with square-
toed plank. If the amount of driving is considerable it will
pay to protect the ends of the planks by a wrought-iron cap.
Driving is to be done with wooden mauls, six inches or more
in diameter and twelve inches long, bound with rings of
wrought iron.
CHAPTER III.
TRENCHING AND TIPE-LAYING.
Caving — Tunneling — Bell- H/yles — Stony Trenches — Feathers
and Wedges — Blasting — Rocks a?id Water — Laying Cast-
iron Pipe — Derrick Ga?ig — Handling the Derrick — Skids
— Obstructions Left in Pipes — Laying Pipe in Quicksand —
Cutting Pipe,
A TRENCH which is troublesome on account of caving
grows worse the longer it is open ; if, therefore, the
trenching gang is a good distance ahead of the pipe-layers,
and water and quicksand are found within two or three feet of
the surface, it is wise to send the diggers ahead on to dry
ground, or make some other arrangement, so that the last two
or three feet in depth of the wet trench will not be opened
until pipe can be dropped into it. When caving occurs in
wet, heavy ground some warning of the impending trouble is
given by cracks in the surface, running nearly parallel to the
side of the trench ; but in sandy gravel the drop comes with-
out warning and men may be seriously injured. In any case
the tendency to caving is increased by the weight of the exca-
vated material piled up on one edge of the trench, and, if cir-
38 TRENCHING AND PIPE-LAYING.
cumstances will permit, it is well to keep men on the bank to
shovel back the material as fast as it is thrown out.
In soil that will allow it, tunneling will often save the pub-
lic and individuals much inconvenience by carrying the trench
under crosswalks, driveways, and railroad crossings, and the
only tools needed are the tunneling-bars, mentioned in the Hst
of tools, and long-handled shovels. A little practice and bold-
ness in this detail will give very satisfactory results.
With cast-iron pipe, when the digging is good and the
trench stands up well, it pays to put three, four, or half a
dozen men at work digging bell-holes ; that is, enlarged places
in the trench, spaced so as to come about the joints of the
pipe, and large enough to give a man room to swing his ham-
mer and get at all parts of the joint without unnecessary
fatigue. There is little or no danger of getting the bell-holes
too large, and plenty of room for the calker will do not a little
toward insuring tight and strong work. The bottom of the
trench should be dug out eight or ten inches for a length of
four feet beyond the joint, and the sides worked out on the
same scale to give ample shoulder room. These directions
will have a queer sound when one is trying to make joints in
quicksand, and at such a time fixed rules amount to but little.
No end of grit, plenty of hard work, with some little planning,
will make joints in places that seem all but hopeless for the
first half-hour.
In these cases, bell-hole digging and joint-making must be
done together, and some suggestions upon this detail will be
given later.
Neither stony nor rocky trenches offer any serious difficul-
ties, and even in ledge-work it is simply a question of time
TRENCHING AND PIPE-LAYING.
39
and money. If the bottom of the trench comes in rock which
must be worked out by drilHng and blasting, the ledge should
be cut away to a depth which will allow sand six or eight
inches in depth to be spread upon the rock, in which the pipe
may be imbedded. If boulders are encountered which are too
large to be taken out by the derrick, they should be well cleared
from the confining earth by digging before applying powder or
dynamite ; this gives the explosive a fair chance, and digging
is cheaper than drilling and blasting. Large pieces may some-
FlGURE 14.
times be worked off from a boulder or ledge which projects
into the trench, without using explosives, by means of small
hand-drills and "feathers and wedges." To do this, drill %-
inch holes with a short steel drill and stone-mason's hand-
hammer along the desired line of fracture, eight or ten inches
deep and six inches apart ; drop a pair of feathers made of ^-
inch J^ -round iron into each hole and drive the wedges between
each pair. The " feathers and wedges " are shown in Figure 14.
In blasting, the nitro-glycerine preparation known to the
trade as "forcite-powder " is comparatively safe and gives
40 TRENCHING AND PIPE-LAYING.
better results than common gunpowder, for it will shatter
rocks more thoroughly and with less tamping. To fire a i^-
inch hole three feet or more in depth, take a whole forcite-
cartridge, cut off perhaps half an inch in length, and set a
percussion-cap pinched on to the end of a piece of fuse into
this short piece of the forcite by boring out a small hole with
a knife. Lower this into, the hole and cover it with the re-
mainder of the cartridge broken into small pieces between the
fingers, and fill up the hole with earth tamped down with a
stick.
Such a charge as that will let daylight into any rock that a
pipe-gang is likely to encounter, but the blast should be care-
fully loaded with logs, timbers, or railroad-ties chained together,
and covered with brush to arrest small pieces which may do
damage if allowed to fly. This forcite-powder may be used to
loosen a troublesome boulder, by simply poking a hole into
the bank alongside of it and tucking in a little of the explosive
folded in an er.velope and held in place by a slight packing of
earth, or a cracked and seamy rock may be thoroughly split by
dropping an envelope full of the powder into one of the cracks,
and firing by cap and fuse in the usual manner.
Rocks which appear in the bottom of a wet trench are
unwelcome enough, but it will not do to leave them in such
shape that a pipe will be supported by them in the middle,
with the weight of the back-filled earth bearing on the ends,
lying in soft ground. If the expense of getting out the rock,
seems too great, the depth of the trench should be reduced
until a firm and even bearing can be secured.
On all trenches that do not stand up well or that must be
made wide to get out rocks, the long three-legged derrick,
PIPE-LAYING. 41
illustrated on page 15, will be found exceedingly convenient,
for its range is wide, and it can straddle fences in a right
handy fashion.
PIPE-LAYING.
Cast-Iron Pipe. — When a hundred feet of trench has been
bottomed out it is time to make up the derrick gang, and
begin the work of putting the pipe into the ground. For six,
eight, and ten inch pipe six men are enough, and they should
be strong, active, and intelligent laborers. Men who are
employed in this gang generally expect perhaps twenty-five
cents per day more than the average digger, and good men in
the place are worth it. It is not well to let the fellows who
may be first chosen for this gang think that they are indispen-
sable, and if one of them happens to be off a day, do not
hesitate to take any good man out of the trench to fill the
vacant place.
The first thing that a green lot of men must learn is to
raise and carry the derrick, assuming that it be of the three-
legged style referred to in a previous chapter. It is to be
raised, first, just as a ladder should be, by footing the bottom
and walking it into an upright position ; then let one man
grasp the pin of the middle leg with one hand and the leg with
the other, a man at each of the other legs holding them firmly,
and carry it straight away five or six feet ; spread the other two
legs the same distance, and the derrick stands alone, though
perhaps not very firmly. A little study of the structure will
now show that the legs may be spread as far apart as need be,
provided always that lines joining the feet of the derrick
form either an isosceles or an equilateral triangle, the line
42 PIPE-LAYING.
joining the two outside legs being the base. In placing over
the trench, the middle leg should stand on the side which has
the largest quantity of earth piled upon it. The man who is
to carry the third leg, as the derrick is moved along from pipe
to pipe, should grasp the pin firmly when the time for moving
comes, throw his weight towards the trench, and be careful to
keep midway between his comrades who are carrying the out-
side legs, and they in turn should walk as close to the edge of
the trench as practicable, resist the push of the derrick firmly,
and keep about ten feet apart.
A man at each leg, another to carry the rope, and two men
in the trench, make an ordinary derrick gang ; for handling
i6-inch pipe more men will be needed in hoisting and placing.
The smaller sizes of pipe can be brought from the side of the
road to the trench by means of the carrying-sticks. These
sticks thrust into a pipe give good lifting hold, and two stout
fellows at each end, shoulder to shoulder, will carry 4-inch
easily, and 8-inch without overwork. Skids of 4x4 spruce
thrown across the trench may support the pipe while the der-
rick is put in place over it ; a sling of rope is then to be passed
around the pipe enough nearer to the bell than to the spigot
end to cause the spigot end to fall easily into the trench when
the pipe is lifted by the tackle from the skids. As the skids
are removed to allow the pipe to be low^^red into the trench,
let one of the gang bunt the pipe with the end of the skid
to clear the pipe from sticks, stones, and dirt. This is not
enough, however, and it should be the duty of the men in the
trench to look through the pipe as it comes down to them and
make sure that no one has, either maliciously or carelessly, left.
therein an old hat, or a pair of boots or overalls. These
PIPE-LAYING. 43
remarks are not in jest, for just such combinations of what the
doctors might call incompatibles have been made.
As the pipe is lowered, one of the trenchmen enters the
spigot into the preceding bell, his comrade assisting as best he
can, but before the pipe rests on the ground it is well to swing
it like a ram against the pipe already laid to make sure that the
joints ready for calking are all " home." As sbon as the pipe
rests on the bottom, the foreman should straddle the trench
at a convenient point ahead of the derrick, align the pipe just
laid, and look back over the line for joints which may be
improved.
The trenchmen should carry bars with them to throw the
pipe, and not try to use shovels for levers. Attention should
be given to vertical alignment, as well as horizontal, and if
grades are not given by an engineer, and no use is made of a
carpenter's level on the pipes, the vertical ahgnment may be
kept within bounds by keeping the joints of the same width
at the bottom as at the top. If the bell end of a pipe when it
rests on bottom is found to be too low, raise it with the der-
rick, throw rather more than enough loose dirt under it, and
then drop the pipe down hard on this two or three times. As
soon as the pipe is in position a few shovelfuls of earth should
be thrown on to the centre of it to hold it, and if the trench
is bad, the section between the joints may be half-filled at
once, as this will support the bank and counteract any ten-
dency to caving. With 4 and 6 inch pipe and a troublesome
trench, two or three lengths may be put together on the bank,
the joints made on dry land, and then with two derricks and
careful slinging three lengths may be put into the trench at
once without straining the joints. The few joints that must
44 PIPE-LAYING
be made in the trench may, in quicksand, seem at first like
hopeless cases, but persistence and no thought of ultimate
failure have conquered the worst cases that have come in the
experience of the writer. In such instances it is useless to
attempt to get the sand down so as to make the joint right
through without stopping to dig out again. Let the calker
stand on the pipe while a good man with a shovel, perhaps a
lot of sod, and some pieces of plank, clears away and holds
back the stuff so that the joint may be yarned if not poured.
If the sand rises as soon as the shoveling ceases, let the calker
do all he can by quick work, and then rest while another
attempt with planks, sod, pails, and shovels is made to make
room for him. In general, whatever means are employed to
make and maintain room for joint-making in quicksand, let
the preparations be thorough ; let the plank be driven as deep
as possible and well braced, sods provided in large quantities ;
have pails or a good ditch-pump, and good strong men who
are not afraid to "pitch in."
In order to locate gates or special castings in a particular
spot, or to bring a joint into a more accessible location, it is
frequently necessary to cut pipe.
For this use an 8 or lo pound sledge and the long-handled
cutting-off tool illustrated in Chapter I.; put a skid under
each end of the pipe, placing one directly under the line of
cutting and get a firm and even bearing on the ground for its
whole length. A line for the cutter to follow may be had by
winding the end of a tape-line about the pipe and marking
along the edge with chalk, but a little practice will enable one
to guide the cutter as the pipe is slowly rolled on the skids,
so as to make a square cut. The blows of the sledge should
PIPE-LAYING. 45
be rather light for the first time around, aiid then when the
cut is well marked so that it may be easily followed, the blows
may be swung in with vigor.
The pipe should at some stage of the work be carefullj'
inspected for cracks, which are oftenest found at the spigot
end. If a crack in a spigot end is very slight and so short as
to be more than covered by the bell, we may not think it
worth while to cut the pipe, but a long crack obliges us to
waste nearly twice its length of pipe, for the cut must be
made at least six or eight inches above the visible end of the
crack, and even then the jar of cutting may cause the crack
to run still farther into the sound metal.
CHAPTER IV.
PIPE-LAYING AND JOINT-MAKING.
Laying Cement-Lined Pipe — " Mud'' Bell and Spigot — Yarn —
Lead — Jointers — Roll ^Calking — Strength of Joints —
Quantity of Lead.
CEMENT-LINED PIPE.
^1 rROUGHT-IRON pipe after being lined with cement is
not ready for immediate use. It should be allowed
to dry for one or two weeks, the time varying with the
weather, and -the readiness with which the mortar sets, and a
careful man will not subject the finished pipe in the trench to
pressure for five weeks after laying, unless the pressure be
very light. No derrick is needed in laying this pipe, for if
circumstances do not allow the men on the bank to band the
lengths to their comrades in the trench as easily as they could
lift a piece of stove-pipe, two pieces of rope will furnish
means for easy lowering.
The cement bed and covering is " mud," in the language
of a cement-pipe-laying gang, and is mixed sand and cement,
three to two, in a mixing-box on the bank.
It may be conveyed in the trench in any convenient
manner ; in V-shaped troughs, ten feet long, with handles at
CEMENT-LINED PIPE. 47
each end, or in pails, or in wheelbarrows. Before placing a
length of pipe, a bed of a dozen pailfuls of cement is spread
along the bottom of the trench, thicker than the covering
desired, and the pipe, with the rivets down, is pressed firmly
into it; *' mud " is then brought in sufficient quantities to
allow the pipe to be plastered an inch in thickness, leaving
the joints uncovered. The cement is spread with rubber
mittens, and the men in the trench who handle the** mud"
wear rubber leggings.
The joints are covered with pure cement, and are often
made by the foreman of the pipe-layers, who can easily keep
ahead of his men, for to a practiced hand the operation is
simple and rapid.
The exposed pipe-ends are first covered with cement even
with the finished pipe, and a sheet-iron sleeve is then slipped
along so that its centre is directly over the joint. A pin of ^-
inch wire stuck into the trench will locate the butt joint of
the two pipes, and make the placing of the sleeve an easy and
certain matter, and the sleeve is then in turn covered with the
pure cement.
This pure cement will crack, perhaps, and must be patched,
a'nd for this the regular '* mud " will answer.
To protect the covering from too sudden drying, the pipe
should be lightly covered as soon as it is laid, but the final
covering should be delayed forty-eight hours.
The specials for cement-lined pipe can be made by any
good sheet- iron worker.
Tee and Y branches are to be soldered at their junction
and strengthened by knees of JS^-inch flat iron, one inch wide,
riveted to the metal.
48
JOINT-MAKING.
Plugs are simple cylinders filled solid with "mud," but they
are to be braced in the trench with a heavy stone.
JOINT-MAKING.
There is not, to my knowledge, any standard form for a
cast-iron pipe-bell or socket. This is unfortunate. The lack
of agreement in this particular is, it is true, not nearly so un-
fortunate as the still greater lack of uniformity which prevails
y"
y
^"^■=^1^
-wmt) -^ ^
^cll
% 4^v^V>/.
^
Figure 15.
in the thicknesses which are specified for cast-iron pipe, but a
standard is desirable.
The general form of a bell and spigot pipe-joint is shown
in Figure 15.
In practice, the two lines which in the sketch run through
the word *' and " should form one, and they will when the
spigot end is pushed "home." A space is left in the sketch
JOINT-MAKING. 49
to make the parts more distinct. A water-tight joint capable
of standing great pressure is secured by using a soft compres-
sible substance in combination with molten lead. For the first
substance one may use jute, hemp, old rope, old rigging, oakum,
or almost anything of this nature, as the principal office of the
"yarn," as it is oftenest called, is to prevent the molten lead
from running into the pipe. It has been suggested that the
yarn in the joints of a distributing system may, by its compres-
sibility, serve to mitigate the shocks which come from the water-
hammer, and again that the yarn will in time decay and may
then furnish feeding-ground for noxious animal or vegetable
life which may appear at one time or another in any water-
supply.
At present these suggestions belong to that class of prob-
lems which are of special interest to the investigator. Of the
first we may say that it has a reasonable appearance, and of
the second, that if it be true the elastic cushion is lost when
decay is complete.
The writer's experience has led him to adopt for yarn the
article known to the cordage trade as 12-thread Russia gasket,
tarred.
A larger size may be needed for 24-inch and 48-inch pipe,
but the 12-thread has worked well on all sizes up to and in-
cluding 16-inch.
For lead, use any soft pig, such as the " Omaha" or the
" Aurora " brands.
In a gang of fifty, one man can find enough to do in yarn-
ing and pouring th^ joints. Let the yarn be cut into pieces
long enough to go around the pipe and lap a little.
50 JOINT-MAKING.
The yarner takes a bundle of these " ends " as large as he
can conveniently carry from one bell-hole to the next, a couple
of cold chisels, a yarning-iron, and a hammer, and, going to the
first joint that is ready, he should, to begin with, see that the
joint-room is even, or alike all around the pipe, and if it is not
the chisels should be driven into the small places so as to
crowd the pipes into line. This, of course, provided the pipes
are intended to be in line, and one is not trying to get around
a curve by " taking it out of the joints." The relative amounts
of lead and yarn to be used per joint do not seem to be deter-
mined by any hard-and-fast rule. Referring to Figure 15 we
can see that there is little except stiffness gained by putting in
more than enough lead to reach back of the semi-circular
groove, say one-quarter or one-half an inch, so that the depth
and form of the bell must determine to a great degree the
exact depth of lead in the joint.
Yarn is cheaper than lead, but the time consumed in yarn-
ing may, with lead at a very low figure, make it cheaper to
put in only a shred of yarn and save time by filling up the
joint with lead.
I think some contractors have figured in this way, for
joints of their making which I have had occasion to dig up
seem to have been made upon that principle.
Tarred stuff of some sort packs better and is easier to
handle than dry rope or strings. The tarred Russia gasket,
bought in 100-pound coils, is convenient to use for slings and
lashings, and is just as good as ever for yarning after any
other use. To guide the molten lead into the joint, we must
have either a *' roll" made of ground fire-clay upon a rope-
yarn core, or a jointer. If a jointer is used, the yarner carries
JOINT-MAKING. 51
it with him in the trench, but a clay roll must be kept in
shape and ready for use by the lead-boy. The patent jointers
are made of canvas, rubber, and sheet-steel. They are very
convenient, and can be obtained of dealers in water-works
supplies. They are especially useful in wet places, for they
do not easily blow out if a little steam is formed, and the clay
roll will frequently give trouble in this particular. For mak-
ing a good clay roll we require finely-ground fire-clay, a piece
of board somewhat longer than the finished roll, a strand of
rope, and a pail of water. Mix two double handfuls of the
clay into dough, and after enough kneading to get out the
lumps, roll the mass into a short thick club. With a stick or
a chisel cut a slit lengthwise of the club and half-way through
it, and lay therein a strand of rope a foot longer than the out-
side circumference of the pipe. Bring the two edges of the
slit together, and then, by working, stroking, squeezing, wet-
ting, and rolling, the roll may be drawn out to an inch in
diameter, and eight or ten inches longer than the outside cir-
cumference of the pipe. This roll-making is the work of the
lead-boy, who should keep the roll, when not in use, lying on
the board covered with a wet cloth, and mend and wet it as
the wear and tear demand. When he has packed the proper
amount of yarn into the joint, the yarner should call out
" roll " to the lead-boy, who will bring him the roll by the two
rope-ends.
The roll is wrapped about the pipe close to the bell, bring-
ing the two ends on top, and turning them out along the pipe,
forming a convenient pouring-hole. The roll should be
pressed firmly into place against the bell, and the molten lead
poured in not too rapidly. The lead should be hot enough to
52
JOINT-MAKING.
run freely, and the furnace should be frequently moved, so
that the hot lead need not be carried far enough to give it
time to cool. After the joint appears to be full, and the roll
has been removed, the yarner should examine the joint care-
fully all around, and especially on the bottom, to make sure
that the joint is well filled ; and if a cavity is found it should
be filled by a second pouring if possible, or by a plug of cold
lead. The calker follows, and should begin on the joint by
^^
^
^^r
^^^^
^/
^^^
C:vKWf-o^cw
Figure iG.
using his chisel, cutting off the lump at the pouring-hoie, and
then driving the tool lightly between the lead and the surface
of the pipe all around. Having, by this operation, lifted the
lead away from the pipe, he begins with the smallest tool and
drives back the lead, a little at a time, all round, and, follow-
ing with the larger tools, sets the metal in firmly with strong,
even blows.
JOINT-MAKING, 53
Calking is hard work and needs a muscular man to follow
it steadily, but it is not enough that he be —
" Darbyshire born and Darbyshire bred,
Strong in the arm and thick in the 'ed," —
for he should know when a joint is right ; but above all he
must be trustworthy and faithful, and certain to call attention
to any joint that he cannot get into proper shape without help.
The quantity of power required to pull apart a well-made bell
and spigot joint will surprise one who sees it measured for the
first time.
In the experience which the writer has had in endeavoring
to pull apart such joints the amount of force applied has not
been measured with exactness, but a heavy clamp-jack having
a pair of i^-inch screws with four threads to the inch, worked
with a lever about thirty-six inches long, was insufficient to
pull apart any but pipe from which the rim or bead on the
spigot end had been cut off so as to leave a smooth end.
Some notion of the force applied to the joints by this clamp-
jack, Figure 16, may be had by using the formula for -power
exerted by screw given in Goodeve's Mechanics :
in which
Then,
w r
P = tan {u + 0),
P = power applied at end of lever.
r = mean radins of screw-thread.
a = length of lever.
a == angle of thread.
S = angle of repose.
tan Q = coefficient of friction.
w = force exerted by screw.
V a
r tan ( cr -H S )
54
JOINT-MAKING.
In Figure 17, let B A represent the developed circumfer-
ence of the cylinder on which thread is traced, and P A the
Figure 17.
pitch of the thread, and P B A ^ tir = angle of thread.
Then
P A
tan 0: = — — - and substituting the values for this case, calling
i^ inches the mean diameter of the screw thread,
J = ^A inch. P A =
' TOff
inch.
.225
tan ir = j— = .053 and a = 3" 2'.
tan = .08 and = 4' 35'.
e -f ft = 7° 37'. tan a -f = .133724.
P = 100 pounds, a ^ 36 inches.
P a 3,600
>tan( a -h ) .75 X -134
^ 36,000 pounds.
This formula makes no account of the power expended in
overcoming friction at the pivot end of the square-threaded
screw, and the result above given should be reduced 15 or 20
per cent.
The same clamp-jack has been found useful in pushing a
hydrant off its branch for repairs.
As to the quantity of lead used in joint-making on cast-iron
pipe the following notes are offered. Four streets having a
JOINT-MAKING. 55
total length of 3,112 feet of 6-inch pipe consumed 1,997
pounds of lead, or :^-^ pound per running foot. Two streets,
1,79b feet of 8-inch required 1,514 pounds of lead, or j^d
pound per running foot".
During the past season the writer has directed the laying
of 10,000 feet of 16-inch, 1,915 feet of 8-inch, 1,479 ^^^t of
6-inch, 1,817 ^^^t of 4-inch pipe. For purposes of this calcu-
lation it is fair to say that the quantity of lead varies directly
as the diameter of the pipe, and that the above is equivalent
to 11,927 feet of 16-inch pipe, and to make the joints on this
23,579 pounds of lead were used, or 1.97 pounds per running
foot. This is larger, as of course it would be, than the amount
given by a single experiment on a short piece, for ten pigs
weighing 96.7 each (average weight) filled the joints on 550
feet of 16-inch, or 1.75 pounds per running foot.
The quantity of yarn used is not large, comparatively
speaking, and on the three small sizes, 4, 6, and 8 inch, with
the price at ten cents per pound, j% of a cent per foot is a safe
figure for estimating purposes.
The quantity of pipe laid and the number of joints made
in a day will, of course, vary greatly in different cases. If a
man is trying to see how many pipes he can get into a trench,
with the minimum amount of thought as to how they are put
in and jointed, he can make a wonderful record, and the man
who comes after him, and has to take care of the pipe-line
under the shocks of service, will appreciate more keenly than
any one else the value of such a record.
The following notes of actual work are offered, not in any
sense as instances of model performance, but as simple illus-
56 JOINT-MAKING,
trations : Time, July 6, 1887 ; gang 60 men, 16-inch pipe, 2
yarners, 2 calkers, 4 to 10 men digging beli-holes, 30 bell-holes
per day, 400 feet of pipe laid and jointed in ten hours.
CHAPTER V.
HYDRANTS, GATES, AND SPECIALS.
OTREET intersections are obviously suitable places for
hydrants and gates.
A hydrant so placed serves more territory than one placed
midway between cross streets, and at the intersection of impor-
tant thoroughfares and large mains the four-way hydrants
carrying four hose-nozzles are in every way suitable, if post-
hydrants are chosen.
For the narrow crowded streets of a large city the flush
hydrants are better than the post, but, as a rule, the small
water-works which have sprung up all over the country during
the last few years are fitted with hydrants of the post pattern.
If a post hydrant is not placed near a street corner, it is
well to put it on a division line between two estates, for the
chances that it will in the future be an obstruction are smaller
in this position than they can well be in any other. The dis-
tance apart for hydrants may be 200 or 500 feet, according to
circumstances, but the larger distance should not be exceeded
without the best of reasons.
It has become a well-established custom to place gates on
street lines, and the ease with which gates so placed can be
j8 HYDRANTS, GATES, AND SPECIALS.
found is a sufficient reason for not departing from the custom
except in some special cases. In unpaved streets a gate-box
located at a corner on a street line may be a source of trouble
if the travel about the corner is considerable, for the wearing
of the road will soon leave the box projecting above the sur-
face to a dangerous extent. In cases where this condition of
things is likely to obtain, the writer has thought it wise to
move the gate ten feet away from the street line, and it is fair
to ask if a uniform distance of ten feet would not have some
advantages over a strict adherence to street lines.
The superintendent or the engineer or his assistant should
follow the pipe-laying gang closely enough to locate every gate
and special before it is covered by the back-filling gang. If
one should perchance miss the location of something, he will
be both surprised and amused to see how wild and yet how
confident will be the guesses of a bystander who saw the gate
covered the day before, and then tries to assist one in find-
ing it.
In locating and making notes for future reference, a little
judgment is required to enable one to choose permanent and
easily-found landmarks.
Fences and stone-bounds come first, as a rule, and the post-
hydrants furnish excellent measuring points. Lamp-posts are
reasonably permanent, but trees and hitching-posts illustrate
the "mutability of human affairs" of Dominie Sampson. A
rough sketch, with no regard to scale, will be found more intel-
ligible after sixty days than a written description.
As a rule, it does not pay to build gate-boxes so that a man
can get into them to oil and pack the gates. In paved streets
where digging is both expensive and inconvenient for the
HYDRANTS, GATES, AND SPECIALS. 59
public, large brick manholes are of course demanded, but for
town and country the cast-iron gate-boxes, well known to the
trade, leave little to be desired.
The writer has heard of main-pipe specifications which
called for a bed of concrete under each gate and hydrant.
Under a hydrant in wet, uncertain ground the concrete may
have some value, but under a gate there seems to be no call for
it ; indeed, it may be a source of trouble should the pipe settle a
little and the gate be unable to follow. When a hydrant is
placed in an ideal manner, it has a firm foundation in a large
flat stone or good earth, good backing of stone or well-
rammed earth and perfect drainage. If a sewer is not
available, fair drainage may be secured by surrounding the
base of the hydrant with broken or round stone, provided the
ground has any absorbing power, and in clay, a small well may
be sunk at some distance from the hydrant, enough below it
and of sufficient diameter to contain three or four times as
much water as the hydrant-barrel will hold. A small drain is
then run from the hydrant to the well and the well is pumped
out as often as need be.
Frost-jackets seem to be going out of fashion. Without
doubt they have little value in sandy or gravelly soils. In clay
the action of the frost may be expended on the jacket and so
save the barrel some straining, but men of experience are not
wanting who declare that the use of frost-jackets may be safely
abandoned.
Generally speaking, the plugs for main pipe furnished by
the foundries are unnecessarily heavy, unless made from
special patterns.
6o
HYDRANTS, GATES, AND SPECIALS.
In Figure i8 is shown the pattern adopted and used by
the writer for the past five years.
c—
-JSr
^/^/////y//^/^^^
k"-
-^
Main Pipe: Plug.
Figure i8.
^
The following table gives- the dimensions for plugs to be
used with four, six, eight, and ten inch pipe :
Size of Pipe.
4
6
8
10
D
B
H
T
t
^%
4
6
V^
%
V4
6
6
'A
X
QJ4'
8
6
%
X
11^
10
6
%
X
The sleeve shown in Figure 19 differs from the ordinary
pattern only in having an inside rim which furnishes a sup-
port against which the joints can be made. The diameter of
this rim should be fixed with some care and with reference to
the outside diameter of the pipe with which the sleeve is to
HYDRANTS, GATES, AND SPECIALS.
6i
be used ; for unless the sleeve will slip over a pipe from which
the spigot end has been cut, the chief advantage of this special
casting will be lost.
6'
Figure 19.
Sleeves are all but indispensable in bringing two parts of a
pipe-line to a junction between two rigid points, and they may
be found useful in assisting one to use up pieces of pipe with-
out bells. Some foundries make their special castings with
bells all around, while others send out their single and double
branches, with spigots on one end of the main run. The
writer has found the ''bells all round " pattern to be the most
economical in the way of using up the pieces, but on every job
of magnitude cases will arise in which the spigot-end special
will save cutting pipe.
If practicable, main-line junctions should be made with
Specials a size or two larger than the pipe — that is, two 8-inch
62 BACK-FILLING.
lines may cross each other at right angles, though a lo-inch
double branch, and the New Bedford pipe plan by Mr. Cog-
geshall, given in a previous chapter, furnishes another case in
point.
BACK-FILLING.
The best possible work in back-filling a trench is done with
water, but oftener than not, perhaps, we must be content with
ramming and tamping the dry earth. If time enough is put
into it, and there is only one man shoveling to each man with
a tamp, good work can be done without water, but such a
method is expensive, and wuth contractors, as a rule, it is not in
favor. The best results with dry earth are obtained when the
dirt is spread evenly in layers, not more than six inches thick,
and each layer is thoroughly tamped and trodden before
another is added.
If he works as he should, the man in the trench will find the
pounding and treading harder than shoveling, and to even
things the shoveler and tamper may change places several
times during the day. If water is used it should not be in
such excess as to make ''pudding" in the trench, and the
amount of wetting must be proportioned to the absorbing
power of the filling. The water does its work by carrying
down the fine particles of earth as it soaks away, and more
than enough to do this thoroughly is not needed.
If the trenching has been properly done, the top of the
street — that is, the good gravel, or the macadam — has been put
by itself on one side and should be raked over, and the stones
and fine material separated ; the stones to be put in just under
the surface which is to be finished with the fine material. The
BACK-FILLING.
63
amount of crowning to be given the top of trench should
depend upon the thoroughness with which back-filling has been
done, the size of the pipe, and the character of the soil. If a
trench has been well filled a rise of six inches is ample, and if
this does not settle down even with the road after one or two
hard rains it will have to be cut down if the road surveyor does
not want to wait for wear and tear to level it. Some contract-
ors prefer to fill without much tamping, crown the trench a
0/^K Le. vc/^'\ i5(/f/^o/fr
Figure 20.
foot, and then either repair the road after a month or two or
deposit with the superintendent of streets a sum large enough
to cover the cost of repairs. If sand has been taken from the
trench it will ruin any road if allowed to come near the surface,
by working up through a thin layer of good road material. If
sheet piling has been used it may be removed after the trench
is half filled by means of a clamp and lever shown in Figure 20.
A 4x6 stick, a piece of chain, and a pile of blocks may be maae
64 FILLING NEW PIPES.
to do the same work, but not so conveniently. The apparatus
shown in Figure 20 is copied in part from a blue print pre-
sented at one of the meetings of the New England Water-
Works Association by Mr. William B. Sherman, M. E., of
Providence, R. I. The horse should be well braced with iron
rods, and may be protected on top by a plate of light tank-
iron.
FILLING NEW PIPES.
Pipes should be filled slowly and carefully, because under
certain conditions great damage may be caused by too rapid
filling. A long line should be filled one section at a time, and
no gate before an empty section should be fully opened until
positive evidence can be had that the section is filled. If the
(ine to be filled carries hydrants, the air can be allowed to
escape through them, but if these outlets cannot be had air-
cocks on the summits are necessary.
A special form of air-cock can be had in the market, but
for ordinary use any convenient form of corporation cock may
serve the purpose by arranging a lever-handle and a blow-off
pipe to be operated at will. In concluding the main-pipe
division of his subject the writer presents in Figure 21
sketches of a tool wagon for use in main-pipe or sewer con-
struction. The drawings are made from blue prints presented
by Mr. R. C. P. Coggeshall, Superintendent of the New Bed-
ford, Mass., Water-Works, at one of the meetings of the New
England Water- Works Association.
TOOL-WAGON.
R. C. P. Cogrgeshall, Superintendent, New Bedford Water-Works.
This tool-wagon was planned by Mr. Ashley, foreman of this depart-
m'^nt, and was built by the regular employees during the winter months, at
intervals whenever an hour or two could be spared. The cost as given
TOOL-WAGON.
65
f
i
'
<: :
'k
c.
1
1
\J
Section on C-0
Figure 21.
Section qnS'H
66
TOOL-WAGON.
below would in consequence probably exceed the amount at which this
tool-wagon could be built by contract.
Estimate of Cost.
Set of wheels and pole $3^ oo
Axles, Sio ; bolts, $3 13 00
Door-pulls, 50c., 4 bolts $1.40 i
6 pair hinges, $1 ; 4 pair back-flaps, 40c i
7 pair strap-hinges, $1.33 ; i dozen hooks, 60c 1
3 chain bolts, 90c.; 10 feet chain, $1 i
Screws, $4.16; nails, $2.15 6
303 feet I -inch matched pine, planed 15
153 feet i-inch matched spruce
130 feet 2-inch spruce, planed
Blacksmithing
Labor and painting
90
40
93
90
31
58
3 52
2 33
30 49
105 00
Amount ^ I214 36
4 sets of lead and gasket irons,
4 drilling hammers.
1 stone hammer,
2 dozen cold chisels,
6 diamond points,
6 cutting-out irons,
12 joint wedges.
2.
4 lengths hose.
3-
40 picks and shovels,
3 stone sledges,
6 striking hammers,
Hydrant key.
Contents.
! Goose-neck,
Paving-pounder and hammer,
3 stone chains,
3 wheelbarrows of wood,
2 buckets of clay,
6-foot measuring-stick.
20 dinner-pails.
5-
Tackle.
Nails and hammers.
6.
Small locker for spare tools,
Plug drill box,
9 lanterns and oil-can. '
Can, powder and fuse, 3 hoes, coil gasket, 6 pigs lead, furnace, 2
barrels coke, lead kettle and spoon, bell pole, saw, tamping bar, 12 buckets,
6 lantern sticks, 4 iron bars, 14 blowing-drills.
CHAPTER VI.
SERVICE-PIPES.
Definition — Materials — Lead vs. Wrought Iron — Tapping
Mains for Services — Different Joints — Compression
Union Cups,
T)Y common consent and general usage, the term service-
pipe is applied to the tube which conveys water from
the street-main to the premises on which it is to be used. In
the majority of cases the service-pipe proper ends just inside
the cellar wall, and the term house-pipes is a suitable one to
apply to the tubes which convey the water from that point to
the various fixtures in the building.
There seems to be substantial agreement among those best
qualified to judge that lead is the most suitable material for
service-pipes, but in spite of this the first cost of lead pipe and
the popular prejudice which is often found against it has pre-
vented its adoption in many recently constructed works. This
is not the place for a thorough discussion of the subject, but
those who care to follow it are referred to a paper by Mr.
Walter H. Richards, C. E., Engineer and Superintendent of
the New London, Conn., Water- Works, which was published
68 SERVICE-PIPES.
in the transactions of the New England Water-Works Associa-
tion for 1884, and to Professor Nichols' '* Water-Supply from
a Chemical Standpoint."
Lead pipe is to be preferred because it is the most dura-
ble, the most easily worked, and the smoothest pipe now in
the market. Its substitutes are plain wrought iron, tarred
or enameled wrought iron, galvanized iron, and wrought iron
lined with cement.
One's . choice really lies, then, between lead pipe and
wrought-iron pipe with some protecting coating. Tin-hned
lead pipe is not, to the writer's way of thinking, worthy of
much consideration. The tin lining is thin and easily broken
in working, and if the lead be exposed at any point the chance
for some galvanic action, followed by the formation of lead
carbonate or lead oxide, is too great to be taken. If any
combination of chemical and physical reasons in some special
case should render lead pipe unadvisable, a perfect though
expensive substitute may be found in pure block-tin pipe.
The experience of every city and town which uses lead for
service-pipe is, so far as I can learn, that a thin brownish
insoluble coating soon forms on the interior walls of the
pipe, and then all further action ceases. The cities of New
York and Philadelphia ; Boston, Worcester, New Bedford, Fall
River, in Mass.; Denver, Col., Atlanta, Ga., Chicago, 111.,
Wilmington, N. C, to go no further in this country, and Glas-
gow and Manchester abroad, use lead pipe, and this considera-
tion would seem to dispose of the question as to its healthful-
ness, leaving only the question of cost to be considered, and
upon this latter point Mr. Richards' paper referred to gives
some interesting figures.
TAPPING.
TAPPING.
Except for special reason, a main should not be tapped for
service-pipes until it has been filled and, better still, if possi-
ble, not until it has been thoroughly flushed.
Cast-iron pipes must be entered by means of some sort of
tapping machine. There are several machines for this work
upon the market, and one will not make a mistake in buying
any one of them, provided it is offered by trustworthy parties.
It is well to bear in mind, in selecting a machine, that it is to
be carried about, and perhaps knocked about ; that it is to be
used in all sorts of trenches, wet and dry, muddy, sandy, and
rocky, and, therefore, that it should be light, strong, simple,
and with as few wearing parts to collect sand and grit as
possible. It will be well for any man who taps a pipe under
pressure for the first time to choose, if he can, a section which
can be easily shut off, for it will be nothing strange if he has
to shut down and take off the machine to get the cock into the
pipe. Printed directions for operating are furnished with each
machine, and a week's work will make one independent of them.
That which is screwed, soldered, or driven into the main
pipe is the corporation cock ; at the sidewalk we have the
curb or sidewalk cock, and just inside the cellar wall should
be placed the house shut-off, or stop and waste cock.
In the early days of the Boston Water- Works sidewalk cocks
were not used, and to shut off the premises wholly from the
main the Water Department was obliged to dig down to the
corporation cock. This condition of things was unsatisfac-
tory, and, under the direction of Assistant Engineer Brackett,
sidewalk cocks are being inserted.
70
TAPPING.
As to the house shut-off just inside the cellar wall, there
seems to be no good reason why the Water Department, or
^^
7>//. fiLCC
SUJIQN OF U
LlAD Compression Join t
il
-—
1
%
1
1
^
\
i
i
Figure 22,
#.
CI,
the water company, should furnish that, except to secure uni-
formity and a first-class fixture. That there should be a good,
TAPPING. 71
sound, easy-working shut-off cock at that point there is no
sort of doubt, but who should furnish it may be left as an
open question. In Taunton it is furnished by the consumer.
Referring to Figure 22, in which is represented the partic-
ular pattern of corporation cock, with full ^-inch way
designed by the writer, for use upon the Taunton Water-
Works, the end M is the end which is screwed into the main.
The general form of this end is the same no matter
what is used for service-pipe. Something is saved in
the cost of manufacture by using the same thread at
S and M. Eleven, twelve, fourteen, or sixteen threads to
the inch are admissible, but fourteen has been found to give
good results in the practice of the writer. At the end S and
in the parts immediately following there is room for great
variation in form and method. With the nut u (shown also in
section) and the tail-piece forming a ground union-joint at
the end S, this form of cock may be used (i) with lead
service-pipe by making a wiped joint or a cup-joint between
the lead pipe and the tail-piece ; or (2) with any kind of
wrought-iron service-pipe by joining on to the tail-piece a
short piece of lead pipe, perhaps 18 inches, just as if the ser-
vice were to be of lead pipe, and then, by attaching a solder-
ing nut, as shown, and continuing the line with screw-joint
pipe.
There is a form of corporation cock in the market in which
the end S has a female connection so that wrought-iron pipe
may be screwed directly to the cock without the intervention
of lead pipe, but this form cannot be recommended for gen-
eral use, because the flexibility of lead pipe is needed to insure
safety against overstraining from settlement in the trench.
72 TAPPING.
In addition to the joints made with lead pipe by wiping or
cupping, there is one which may be called the compression-
joint. Some regard this joint as to be preferred to any joint
which depends upon solder, but the writer's experience does
not lead him to take this view of it.
The compression-joint was in use a few years ago in
Taunton, but was abandoned for a cup-joint. The corpora-
tion-cock then in use was shaped at the end S like the pro-
jecting part of N in the compression-joint shown in Figure
22, and tightness was secured by scraping the outside of the
lead pipe to a reasonably smooth surface, so that the cone-
shaped nut would draw the lead pipe firmly over the conical
projection ; the lead pipe having been first spread by driving
in a solid plug, ,
It is evident that this principle can be applied in a variety
of ways, and that castings can be designed to fit any combina-
tion of materials. For example, the cup-joint in Figure 22
shows how a wrought-iron service-pipe may be joined to a
lead connection from the corporation-cock. The lead pipe is
attached by a wiped or cup joint to the soldering nut, which
is tapped out to receive any size of wrought iron or brass pipe
that one chooses.
Still another form of joint has been brought to my atten-
tion, by Mr. J. G. Briggs, Superintendent of Water- Works at
Terre Haute, Ind., and shown also in Figure 22, as a union
lead joint. Mr. Briggs says the idea is not a new one, but
was used twenty years ago or more by an English company
who did a large amount of work at Rio Janeiro, Brazil, and
that in San Francisco the joint has been used for sixteen
years with good results. The lead pipe is put through the
TAPPING. 73
brass thimble, and the end hammered or riveted over on a pin
made for the purpose, and tightness secured by a washer. If
this washer be of lead it will last, but it would seem as though
a leather or a rubber washer would be too short-lived to be
wholly satisfactory. As to the merits of this joint the writer
has no practical knowledge, but the fact that Mr. Briggs favors
it would, in the vernacular of the stock market, be counted as
a *• bull point " for it.
CHAPTER VII.
SERVICE-PIPES AND METERS.
Wiped- Joints and Cup- Joints — The Lawrence Air -Pump — Wire-
Drawn Solder — Weight of Lead Service-Pipe — Tapping
Wrought-Iron Mains — Service-Boxes — Meters.
'T^HE regulation wiped-joint is one of the awful mysteries
of the plumber's craft, and a description of its making
would avail but little. It is the plumber's shibboleth, and if
one of the trade can be found who will admit that any other
joint is its equal he may be counted as one out of many. It is
not to be denied that in many instances nothing can equal in
appearance and fitness a well-wiped joint, and a thorough
workman certainly knows how to make one ; but a well-made
cup-joint is equally strong — perhaps stronger — does not require
a tenth part of the solder, and is made more quickly and with
less practice.
A cup-joint is shown in Figure 22, and is made by expand-
ing the end of the lead pipe with a properly shaped plug,
scraping the inside of the cup with a jack-knife to give a sur-
face of clean metal, dropping a soldering nut or tail-piece,
properly tinned, into the cup, heating the whole joint by some
appropriate method, and finally by filling the thin annular
SERVICE-PIPES AND METERS. 75
space between the cup and the tinned brass casting with melted
solder. If these details are properly execHted a perfect joint
is the result. The ^vriter has had several of these joints sawn
in two and the bond is then seen to be perfect.
This joint was brought to the writer's attention by Mr.
Dexter Brackett, Assistant Engineer of the Boston Water-
Works, and a study of the method and its results will show
that this is not a "tinker's joint," for it is used in Boston,
Lawrence, New Bedford, and Taunton by the water depart-
ments of those cities, who have no sort of reason for using any
methods or materials but the best.
The only portions of the process of cup-joint making which
call for special mention are the method of heating the joint
and the kind of solder to be used.
We should note in passing, however, that while the plug is
being driven to form the cup, that this end of the lead pipe
should be firmly held in a vise between two cast-iron half-
round clamps that are cut out to correspond with the outside
shape of the cup. When under these circumstances the plug
is driven home, the lead forming the walls of the cup is com-
pressed, and anything like a blister or defect has a chance of
being closed.
For heating, Mr. Brackett uses, or did use, a sweating-iron,
and so did the writer until Mr. Henry W. Rogers, formerly
Superintendent of the Lawrence Water-Works, introduced a
blow-pipe and air-pump apparatus, which is a great improve-
ment in speed and convenience over a pair of hot irons.
The air-pump and the blow-pipe or lamp are shown in
Figure 23. A jet of water, whose size may vary with the
pressure under which it is to be used and the work to be done.
76
SERVICE-PIPES AND METERS.
from ^^-inch to ^-inch, induces a current of air to enter the
tee, and water and air together enter the separating chamber
C made of 2-inch brass or iron pipe. The water flows off
through the trap or bent pipe to waste and the air through the
smaller pipe to the lamp or blow-pipe. When the apparatus
is in operation the outlet for the air is so small that air accu-
mulates in the separating chamber and forces the water down
OF ibuowE.n mo Vunv as nftot und
- ii-ojuietfiNB ThHu /•JCCI a(iort T^p Bf CYunotlf'
Figure 23,
below the the top of the .trap a distance depending on the
special conditions which exist in any given case ; and the
pressure under which the air accumulates is measured by the
difference between the heights of the two water columns in
C B and T B. The lamp is a Bunsen burner and the quantity
of air from Jhe pump, and of common gas from a convenient
TAPPING WROUGHT.IRON MAINS.
77
jet, may be so regulated as to produce a flame hot enough to
make a bit of chalk glow like a calcium light. In fact there is
an excess of heat for joint-making purposes, and a little expe-
rience will be required to prevent one from getting the metals
so hot as to cause the solder to run through.
A very convenient form in which to use the solder is that
given by drawing the common sticks into wire, about ^-inch
in diameter. Wire solder has been for sale at a high price,
and a large consumer would find it cheaper to build a small
mill and draw the wire for himself than to pay twenty-five cents
per pound.
There seems to be no standard weights for the various
sizes of lead pipe, and an examination of a *' Table showing
weights of lead service-pipes used in various cities," which was
compiled by Mr. William B. Sherman, of Providence, R. L, as
an appendix to Mr. Richards' paper before referred to, will
show more clearly than anything else the absence of uniformity.
For any but excessive pressures, exceeding 150 pounds per
square inch, the following weights will be found sufficient :
Size Inches
Weight per foot. ..Pounds
3
3%
4
\y^
5>^
Wz
TAPPING WROUGHT-IRON MAINS.
There are more different methods of tapping cement-
lined or coated wrought-iron pipe of any sort than of tapping
cast-iron mains. Cast iron is seldom less than half an inch in
thickness, but with wrought iron the actual thickness of metal
is one quarter of an inch or less, and it is evident that such
78
TAPPING WROUGHT-IRON MAINS.
different conditions call for different treatment. Figure 24
shows in section the apparatus used for tapping wrought-iron
kalamein pipe, used by Mr. Frank E. Hall, Superintendent of
the Quincy, Mass., Water Co., and to whom I am indebted
for a drawing of the machine. A packing of sheet-lead is put
between the clamp and the pipe at the point to be drilled, and
if tightness is not secured by screwing the nuts down hard,
the lead can be calked up.
^t.T\-\0^ Qf T^P?\WG. \^lP^OUt■^\-^\ \Pv0^i ?wt.
Figure 24
With cement-lined pipe a similar clamp may be used, and
such a clamp is a regular article of trade. A corporation
cock may, however, be soldered or wiped directly on to the
wrought-iron pipe without any clamp, and this is now the prac-
tice in many places. A small portion of the outside coating
of cement is carefully broken away, the pipe is thoroughly
cleaned and tinned, the cock is then attached to the main by
SERVICE-BOXES— METERS. 79
soldering with an ordinary iron, or by wiping, and then, with
an arrangement similar to that shown in Figure 24, a hole is
drilled, passing the drill through the opened cock. After per-
toration the drill is withdrawn just far enough to allow the
tapper to close the cock, and then the tapping apparatus is
removed, the stuffing-box at P having kept the water back
during the operation. Any convenient form of drill may be
used, but Figure 22 shows the form used at Plymouth,
Mass.
SERVICE-BOXES.
Considerable ingenuity has been expended in efforts to
devise a cheap and satisfactory service-box. Wood was,
naturally enough, one of the first materials to be chosen, and
scored at first an apparent success when the stock was kyan-
ized, but even if the preserving process proved to be in some
cases successful, the frost made stumbhng-blocks of the boxes
by throwing them above the sidewalk level. Combinations of
drain-pipe, light and heavy castings, and wrought-iron pipe
with cast-iron bases might be described, but none of them, so
far as the writer can judge, are any better, if as good as a
simple cast-iron box in two principal parts sliding, telescope
fashion, one inside of the other. The extension shut-off boxes,
well known to the trade, give entire satisfaction, and at the
price at which they are now offered it will hardly pay for any
one to design a new pattern for any but special cases.
METERS.
Of making many meters there has been no end, and much
experience with some of them is a weariness to the flesh. Of
the six hundred or more that have been patented, six or less
8o METERS.
have come to any extensive use in this country, but in the
value of that half dozen the writer has an abiding faith.
T^WVC
nwwvci
^!L^1^cs^u Sunvossi.
Ww\Jv-VvAS\S
Figure 25,
The important points in setting a meter are perfect pro-
tection against freezmg, a firm support, accessibility, and in
METERS. 81
some cases protection against meddlesome fingers. Too much
care cannot be exercised in the first of these points, for a frozen
meter is worth its weight in junk only, as a rule, and meters
have been known to freeze in cellars in which the potatoes (so
the owner said) never froze. If a house is to be metered, and
the cellar is without a furnace, the safest place for the meter
is just below the cellar bottom, and if the ground is too wet to
allow this, and draining the cellar is out of the question, then
a tight double box, with a 2-inch air-space, affords the next
best solution.
Even if a house is not to be metered, it often is wise to
enter the service-pipe from the street below the cellar bottom,
as this affords protection to the pipe and secures cooler water
in summer. In some cases the only place for a meter is in a
driveway, a sidewalk, or a lawn, and in such cases a brick well
with a cast-iron cover, the whole costing nearly $25, offers the
best arrangement, as shown in Figure 25.
Meters should be well supported, either by a hanging shelf
or a brick pier if one wishes to avoid all chance of springing
the joints or the shell of a meter.
With lead pipe there is, of course, not the chance to hang
the meter by the pipe that there is when iron or brass is used.
It is quite important that a meter be so constructed as to have
the inlet and outlet in the same line, and the distance from
face to face of the inlet and outlet points exactly the same on
all meters of the same size, for the best have to come out
once in a while for repairs or cleaning, and then, with proper
construction, a piece of pipe may take the place of the meter,
with no inconvenience to the consumer.
CHAPTER VIII.
NOTES ON THE CONSTRUCTION OF ABOUT TWO
MILES OF 16-INCH WATER-MAIN.
'T^HESE notes are offered because the writer's experience
has led him to believe that detailed statements of cost
and of methods are not overabundant, and that a modest con-
tribution to this department of engineering literature, even if
it border on the commonplace, will not be unwelcome.
The city of Taunton, Mass., is supplied by direct pumping,
and there is no store of water for any emergency. The pump-
ing-machinery is in two portions, and under any ordinary con-
ditions either portion is competent to maintain the supply, but
we cannot, of course, be content with provision for nothing
but ordinary conditions.
For that district of the city which is more distant from the
pumping-station and higher than the City Square, the distrib-
uting portion of the system has been for some time inade-
quate, and, moreover, the small pipes have made it impossible
for the city to receive from a powerful pumping plant belong-
ing to a manufacturing establishment in that district the aid
which might be rendered should the public pumping-machinery
become disabled. The need for a new and larger main arising
COXSTRUCTION OF WATEU-MAIN. S3
from the foregoing conditions was easily made evident to tlie
proper authorities, and its construction was ordered.
The line was surveyed by the writer with one assistant in
April, 1887, and the accompanying illustration shows the main
in plan and profile, with its immediate connections.
The pipe began to arrive in May, and was carted on low
two-horse trucks for 64 cents per gross ton, over good roads
for an average distance of about ijA miles.
Referring to the plan, the work from A to B was without
special features or difficulties. With the exception of a short
stretch of quicksand and water at and near the first turn north
of A, the digging was good and the trench required no
bracing. The distance from A to B is 2,927 feet, and the cost
of labor for this section was 32.3 cents per lineal foot. This
includes all labor charged on the time-book, from the foreman
to the water- boy in a gang of about sixty men.
From the point B to the end of the line at E, an 8-inch
main was removed and a temporary supply maintained, so that
no consumer on the line was without water for more than an
hour or two at any one time. That the sections requiring
temporary supply might be as small as possible, two gaps in
the distributing system were closed ; the first one on Broad-
way north and south of Jefferson Street, between points F and
G ; and the second between the dead ends on Pleadwell Street
and on Fourth Avenue, which were brought to a junction, as
shown on the plan. The first connection gave Jefferson,
Madison, and Monroe Streets a continuous supply while Bay
Street was cut off, and the second made possible a temporary
surface connection, indicated by the dotted line, from Fourth
84 CONSTRUCTION OF WATER-MAIN.
Avenue to Third and Fifth Avenues, which came in use when
Whittenton Street was cut out.
It is to. be understood, of course, that Washington Street
continues in £w northerly direction (see plan), and b} cross lines
completes a circuit for Whittenton, Bay, and adjoming streets.
The profile makes the proper positions for the blow-offs
self-evident, and they are all six inches in size. The only
portion of the pipe that cannot be drained by the blow-offs is
found on Whittenton Street a few feet east of the line of the
Old Colony Railroad, where a short trap exists, because of our
unwillingness to disturb and wholly relay a first-class lo-inch
drain which had been put in by the street department.
While this departure from the grade destroys the perfect
drainage at which we had aimed, it will probably in actual
practice be found to be of no real importance.
The position of the main i6-inch gates is shown on both
plan and profile ; they are of the ordinary upright bell-end
Chapman pattern, not geared, with the exception of the one
on Bay Street, near Maple Avenue, where the shallow trench
ol>liged us to use a geared gate lying on its side.
At two or three points the stems of the upright gates came
so near the street surface that the only box which could be
used was Morgan's AAA extension valve-box, or one of like
pattern.
The method followed in maintaining the temporary supply
was adopted after careful consideration of three alternative
methods ; it is not new, for since this work was finished we
learn that it is essentially the same as that followed by Mr.
Coggeshall in a similar case in New Bedford.
&6 ITEMS OF COST.
A temporary supply for consumers on a cut-out section
may be furnished (i) by carrying water in tubs or buckets
from the nearest available hydrant ; (2) by laying a screw-
joint pipe along the curb line, with stand-pipes at convenient
intervals from which the consumers can draw at their pleasure;
(3) by laying the screw-joint pipe as in the previous case, and
then connecting each service-pipe by means of hose at a point
near the corporation cock. The last method was adopted,
and it is made clear by the accompanying sketch, in which the
conditions represented are such that water under pressure
comes as far as the large gate in the trench. The section
which is temporarily shut off begins in front of the large gate
and extends to the next gate on the old line, which is coming
up, or to a point on the old line, which may be conveniently
plugged if the next gate is too far away. The temporary pipe
near the curbstone is common ij4-inch screw-joint pipe con-
nected with the hydrant by i^-inch hose and special brass
couplings, and supphes i-inch branches taken off at conve-
nient points, carried down as shown, and connected with each
service by ^-inch 4-ply extra heavy rubber hose having
special couplings, the nuts of which screw directly on to the
end of the i-inch cement-lined service-pipes, making a joint
with a leather washer.
ITEMS OF COST.
Purchase Street. — In making preliminary estimates i^ is
comparatively easy to get at the cost of materials, but the cost
of labor and incidentals is oftentimes uncertain to an aggra-
vating degree.
ITEMS OF COST. 87
The following figures of cost of labor are believed to be as
near the truth as it is practicable to get them without employ-
ing skilled clerical labor in keeping time.
Referring to the plan and profile it will be seen that Pur-
chase Street for more than half its length is straight and
practically level ; it is forty feet wide, and, with the exception
of a short section near Broadway, furnished sandy digging
with some tendency to caving.
The crossing of the brook near Bay Street and the locating of
the blow-off called for some comparatively deep digging — say
ten or twelve feet in depth for 100 feet. The old 8-inch pipe
was removed, and eighteen services were furnished with a tem-
porary supply, and the total labor on this street cost $729.62.
The distance is, say, 2,100 feet, so that the cost per lineal foot
was 34.7 cents for the section between B and C on the plan.
Bay Street. — This though not the most expensive section
was the most troublesome, for the difficulties were discourag-
ing. The street is forty feet wide, has a horse-car track
running through its entire length, with cars passing about once
in fifteen minutes ; from Maple Avenue to Britannia Street
the line follows a sewer-trench so closely that the caving of
the banks was almost constant. The digging was dry and
sandy. The sidewalk on the west side was appropriated and
all the excavated material was piled thereon ; planks were
thrown across the trench to enable the occupants of houses to
pass in and out, and hemlock boards against the open fences
kept the sand and gravel from the grass plots. The old 8-inch
main was removed, the supply maintained for fifty-three ser-
vices, the movement of the horse cars was not obstructed, and
88
ITEMS OF COST.
the total labor cost 41.8 cents per lineal foot — on section C D
on plan.
Whittenton Street.— Kere the digging was wet and dirty, but
as the street is 65 feet wide there was ample room. Old pipe
to remove, temporary supply to maintain for 30 services, and
four connections, new and old, made for the Whittenton Man-
ufacturing Company at and near E on plan made the total
cost of labor 47.4 cents per lineal foot. The mill connections
were the principal causes of this increase in cost.
THE TEMPORARY SUPPLY. 8g
The foregoing figures are largely in excess of the cost of
labor on ordinary pipe lines. For example, a detachment from
the same gang of men who laid the pipe referred to above, laid
about 2,000 feet of 8-inch pipe in new ground, good digging,
at a cost of 17.3 cents per foot for all labor ; two pieces of
4-inch, each about 530 feet long, for 13. i cents per foot, and
600 feet of 6-inch for 15.38 cents per foot.
THE TEMPORARY SUPPLY.
The cost of work such as this will, of course, vary greatly
with circumstances, for if new pipe and fittings must be pur-
chased the cost will be much greater than it would be if old ma-
terial and odd pieces can be worked up.
In this particular case we bought, expressly for this work^
about half of what we used. The labor for the temporary sup-
ply-pipes footed u-^ to $230.29, or about 3 cents per foot, while
the new material purchased cost nearly 4 cents per foot in
addition. A little less than 7 cents per foot for the 7,800 feet
of pipe required for the temporary supply was the cost as
nearly as can be ascertained. The pipe supplying Third and
Fifth Avenues, from the hydrant on Fourth Avenue, was laid
on the surface across the lots.
The total cost of the line and its connections maybe stated
as follows :
16-inch pipe, 135 pounds per foot (@ $34.50) $22,698 09
6 and 4-inch pipe 563 52
Gates, hydrants, valves, globe special casting's and
sundries 7-728 56
Old style special castings 200 00
Labor 4,429 02
$35,619 ig
CHAPTER IX.
TABLES OF COST.
'T^HROUGH the courtesy of Mr. Dexter Brackett, C. E.,
Superintendent Eastern Division of Boston Water-
Works, I am able to present detailed dimensions of the cast-
iron water-pipes used in that city, together with a table
showing the cost of pipe-laying under Boston's methods and
conditions :
IVeigkts ajzd Dimensions of Cast-iron Water-Pipes^ Boston Watet-Works.
16
16
Dimensions in Inches
Total
length .
a
b
c
'/
i
I
I
B
1.50
1.30
0.65
4.0
0.45
0.40
B
1.50
1.40
0.70
4.0
0.50
4c
li
1.50
1.50
0.75
4.0
0.55
0.40
b
1.50
1.60
0.80
4 5
o.fio
0.40
A
1.50
1. 6a
0.80
4.5
0.58
0.40
t!
1.50
1.70
0.85
4-5
0.65
0.40
A
I-7S
1.70
0.85
5-0
0.66
0.50
B
1-75
I. go
0-95
5-0
0.7s
0.50
A
^■75
i.go
0.95
5-0
0.73
0.50
B
1-75
I. go
0-9S
t;
o.8<;
0.50
A
2. CO
2.10
1.05
S-"
c,8i
0.50
B
2.00
2.10
1.05
5-0
0.94
0.50
A
2.00
2.30
115
5-0
0.9s
0.50
11
2.00
3.30
1. 15
5-0
I. ID
0.50
A
2.00
2.50
1.25
50
1.04
0.50
B
2,00
2.50
1.25
50
I. 25
0.50
A
2.00
2.70
>-35
S-c-
I 12
0.50
B
2,00
J.-JQ
1-35
■5.0
1.35
0.50
2. CO
2.70
1.35
4.0
1 .00
50
2.00
3-00
1.50
5.5
1.25
0.50
2.25
^.40
1.70
6.0
1-375
0.50
Total
weight of
pipes.
Weight per
running
foot laid.
Feet.
Inch.
Lbs.
Lbs.
12
4
260
21.7
12
4
418
34.8
12
4
Go I
50.1
T2
4H
815
67.9
12
4^
935
77-9
12
A'A
1,050
87.5
12
s
I1413
117. 7
12
s
i»6i5
134.6
12
5
r.945
162.1
12
5
2,252
187.7
12
5
2.588
215.7
12
5
2,985
248.8
12
5
3.6go
^07.5
12
5
4,336
361.3
12
5
4i929
470.7
12
5
5,882
490.2
12
<;
5.897
491.4
12
5
7.055
587-9
12
4
6,266
522.1
12
S'A-
7,917
659-7
12
6
10.959
913.2
TABLES UF COST.
91
1^ -
- - — — J<
Ftgl-re 28. ^
for 4-inch, 6-inch and 8-inch pipes 0.6 inch.
*' lo-inch and i2-inch '' 0.8 "
" larger sizes " o,>>5 "
" The pipe-joints are composed of hemp gasket and lead
the lead being about 2^ inches in depth and thoroughly-
calked. The quantity of lead required for different sizes of
pipe can be expressed by the formula / = 2 ^, in which /^
pounds of lead per joint, and d ^ diameter of pipe in inches,
and as the pipes are usually twelve feet in length, the quantity
of lead required per lineal foot of pipe equals one-sixth of the
diameter of the pipe in inches."
The average cost per lineal foot of water-pipe laid in
Boston is shown in the table on page 92.
The centre of pipe is laid five feet below surface of
ground. Labor at $2 per day. Pipe, i}4 cents per pound.
Special castings, 3 cents ; lead, 5 cents per pound. Cost of
rock excavation, $3.50 to $5.50 per cubic yard, measured to
neat lines.
By permission of Mr. Eliot C. Clarke, C. E., we are able to
present the following useful tables of cost of excavation and
brick-work. These tables, with others, were calculated espe-
cially for sewer-work, but apply, ot course, to water-conduits
as well, and the compilation of them was made for use during
92
TABLES OF COST.
surveys made for the Massachusetts Drainage Commission in
1885:
Cost of Handling Water pe?' 100 Linear Feet of Trench.
SLIGHTLY WET-Hand-pump
QUr I'E WET — One steam-pump ; one lint
8-inch pipe at 20c. per foot; wells every
Sooieet; moving engine, etc., every 500
teet ; rent of pump and engine, $3 per
day; one engineer, $2 soperday; fuel..
VERY WET—Two steam pumps; 12-inch
pipe at 36c. per foot ; wells every 250 feet ;
two engines; three engineers; fuel
5 feet
Deep.
%h CO
117 oc
10 feet
Deep.
15 ieet I 20 feet
Deep, j Deep.
25 feet
Deep.
$7 00 §9 50 $12 00 § [8 00
73 50 76 50 T03 45 127 45
119 oo' 126 00 164 00 226 00
Average Cost per Lineal Foot of Water Pipe Laidiit Boston.
a.
a.
in
<— [A
en
4J
c
B
c
U l-H
J3
s
H
«
4
45
6
50
8
55 1
10
60 1
12
0.58-
-.65
16
0.66-
-.75
^0
0-73-
-.85
24
81
-■94
30
93
36
I
04
40
I
12
48
*
25
21.7
35.
50.
68.
78-88
118-135
162-188
216-250
308
410
490
6bo
i 0.70
1.00
1-35
1.70
2.00
2 70
3-35
$0 38 %o c>5
57
83
I 27-1 42
1 87-2 12
2 55-z 94
4.00 3 44-3 95
5.00 4 92
6.00 i 6 t;8
6.70 I 7 80
8, CO 10 40
'3
17
21
25
29
34
40
48
$0 QJ.
3
5
6-
7
u c
%o 25
27
30
34
37
45
55
68
80
1 00
1 30
^ 75
$0 70
93
I 26
I 60
1 84-1 99
2 57--2 82
3 40-3 79
4 47-4 98
6 12
8 04
9 65 .
12 83
TABLES OF COST.
93
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94
tabll:s of cost.
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TABLES Of COST.
95
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i-t
m
to
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