impossible to detect any but _very_ defective work.

The price customers are obliged to pay for soil pipe, either "heavy" or
"extra heavy," is very high indeed, even taking off the discounts, and
amounts (as I figure it) to $70 per long ton for 4" pipe. The present rate
for the best water pipe of the same caliber is about $38 (now $29) per
long ton, and the additional charge for soil pipe should guarantee the
very best iron in the market, though it appears to be rarely furnished.

It is asserted that all soil pipe is tested to a 50-pound water pressure.
I beg leave to question the absolute truth of this, unless it be
acknowledged that pipe is sold indiscriminately, whether it bears the test
or not, for more than once I have found a single length of soil pipe (5
feet) that could not bear the pressure of a column of water of its own
height without leaking.

Having obtained a satisfactory lot of soil pipe and fittings, the next
trouble comes with the lead calking. Unfortunately, it is frequently found
that very shallow joints are made instead of deep ones, and hard lead used
instead of soft. My rule is, soft lead, two runnings and two calkings. By
soft lead I mean pig lead, and by hard lead I mean old pipe and scrap lead
that may have been melted a dozen times. Incidentally it may be remarked
that it is quite difficult to calk a tight joint on the heavy pipe; the
process will crack the hub.

The fixtures used in a house are of minor importance--there are dozens of
good patterns of every class. If they are carefully put in, and provided
with suitable traps placed just as close to the fixture as possible, the
result will usually be satisfactory.