♦SCIENTIA-FACI'TSALWM- 
®S£ ||»NITARY J|GENCT 
A 
DESCRIPTION OF 
THE PNEUMATIC TEST. 
A Scientific Method 
of Inspecting 
with on Account of lllustrativeCases 
met with in Practice. 
By feedericludor, Sa nitary Architect. 
Published by the Agency at its Office, 
95 A\ilK St. Boston. 
/-%, 1893. 
i34&d&L6C cTeoctcrt, 
MANAGER. 
So/c Propr/e/or of /fie 
Pneumo/tc Test. 
Process one/ flppc/ra/us 
Pa/en/ec/, /£#4-. ADVERTISEMENT. 
The Sanitary Agency is the sole proprietor of the Pneumatic Test, 
and undertakes the inspection of buildings, giving a full report upon 
their sanitary condition. 
The terms of the Agency for conducting an inspection depend upon 
the difficulties encountered. An ideal case of great simplicity, where 
everything is in perfect order, costs $20, including a report. 
Ordinarily the cost is from $25 to $30. Persons ordering the test 
will save expense by giving the Agency full information as to the 
accessibility of the open extensions of the pipes on the roof. The 
inspectors are provided with very complete appliances for reaching 
pipes on any part of a roof, but do not ordinarily fetch them unless 
notified that they may be required. 
The Agency arranges to repeat tests each year at a greatly re- 
duced price, and when several neighbors form a club to have an 
annual inspection made with verification by the Pneumatic Test, the 
price is still further reduced. 
SPECIFICATIONS. 
Those who intend to have plumbing work done, either new work, 
alterations, or repairs, are advised to obtain a copy of our General 
Specifications, for sale at our office, or sent by mail, price $2.00. 
These, if followed, will insure good, substantial, proper work, and 
avoid all dangers incident to plumbing when unskilfully designed, 
or constructed contrary to the rules established by the best practice. 
The Specifications are copiously illustrated by diagrams and wood- 
cuts, forming, in fact, a concise treatise on plumbing. 
REPORTS. 
After inspection a full report is given which is a statement of the 
exact condition of the entire plumbing apparatus. It is not merely 
a criticism of the apparatus, consisting of a tedious description of 
fixtures, etc., but states at once the defects, if any are found, 
classified under the separate heads of Design and Workmanship, and 
enumerates the alterations and repairs required, if any, making the 
latter more clear by sketches if necessary. The reports are models 
of brevity and clearness. THE PNEUMATIC TEST. 
FREDERIC TUDOR. 
BY 
COPYRIGIIT. 
PUBLISHED BY 
THE SANITARY AGENCY, 
95 MILK STREET, ROOM 71, BOSTON. 
1893- 2 
THE PNEUMATIC TEST. {See page 6.) 
Hg.l 
Explanation, a is the air-pump; b, the peppermint 
canister; c, the manometer or pressure gauge ; d, hose 
supplying water to work the air pump ; e, hose conveying 
air to drain ; /, hose transmitting pressure to manometer ; 
g, outlet for spent water and relief trap for discharging 
surplus air. THE INSPECTION OF PLUMBING. 
Perhaps comfort is a better friend to disease than hard- 
ship is. At any rate, a large proportion of the diseases of 
man are diseases which thrive upon his attempt to live 
above and in spite of the laws of nature. As if that were 
possible ! Man pretends to be proud of his civilization, 
being blind and foolish, and not understanding that his 
civilization is but an artifice of nature to prevent over 
population. Civilization, culture, and refinement ought 
to be the means to an end, but man has always mistaken 
them for the end itself, and perishes in a slough of materi- 
alism. In nothing is our disregard of the laws of nature 
more evident (to those at least who will stop to think 
about it) than in our construction, arrangement, and use 
of the house. Primarily, of course, this is a shelter from 
the elements, from excessive heat and cold, and wind and 
wet. By the perfection of artifice, we have created 
domestic life, that is, artificial life, hot-house life, and have 
made the house a world in itself shut out from the life- 
giving sun and life-sustaining air. Much more than half 
of the diseases of mankind are diseases of the house, 
diseases which thrive upon the absence of light and air, 
and upon the infections which take their place. For ex- 
ample, in Boston all the best houses are built over a buried 
morass, without adequate precautions to exclude the gases 
arising from the decomposing mud beneath. Added to this 
perpetual malaria is a careless construction of drains in an 
artificial soil which has not yet settled to its final perma- 
nent level. Bostonians abuse their climate ! Forsooth, 
they don’t live in a natural climate, but in the artificial 
noxious climate of their own houses, a malaria just as 
certaiidy existent as that of the Campagna ; they fall sick 
in it, and then lay the blame on the climate. There is 
just as good air in Boston as can be found in any populous 
locality, and in point of climate it has many advantages, 
the only disadvantage which the writer is prepared to 
admit being the prevalence of severe wind and dust-storms 
in winter. The much-abused East winds, on the whole, 4 
are a blessing, the air being perfectly pure and cool and 
dry* They may be and probably are a shock sometimes 
to the being who has become depraved by subsistence 
solely upon the stewed malaria of a Back Bay house, but 
it is pretty certain they never made a well man ill. It 
is the foul, tainted air within the houses which, by repeated 
attack upon the throat or lungs, or by infecting the blood 
with malaria, undermines health, and sometimes spreads 
misery and mourning right and left. This is not the act of 
God, it is the direct consequence of foolishness and care- 
lessness of the victim or of the people who are responsible 
for his welfare. 
It is a dangerous thing to bring a sewer into the house, 
into the sleeping chamber. If it must be done, then let 
the occupant he on his guard and leave no point unde- 
fended. But who thinks of it? No one, hardly; yet 
every one should. Every occupant of a building should 
know of his own knowledge or have assurance from some 
one who ought to know that the drainage is perfectly safe. 
The owner of the house should be certain of it, because, 
if he is the occupant, he is responsible for the welfare of 
his family. If he is the landlord and lessor, he should be 
certain of it, because if he states that it is so as a fact, 
when it is not, and his tenant’s health should be injured, 
he will become liable to him in damages. This is an impor- 
tant law which should be well understood, because a case 
might arise where the illness of the tenant might, in 
fact, have had another cause. If the landlord cannot 
prove this (and it is pretty sure to be beyond the domain 
of proof), and on the other hand the tenant can show that 
the defective drainage would be an adequate cause, then 
he can recover in damages. 
The tenant should be certain that the drainage is perfect, 
because no man should enter into and inhabit any build- 
ing which he does not know to be perfectly healthful, and 
he has a right to insist that the shelter which he buys for 
his family should be not only four walls and a roof to 
keep out the rain, but a shield against discomfort, and a 
*This is proved by unquestionable meteorological evidence. certain barrier against disease. In short, the occupant 
of every house should have assurance that the drain- 
age is perfect. The only safe way, when it is a ques- 
tion of plumbing, is to get and know the facts, not to 
rely upon appearances, or opinions, or reputation of 
plumbers, or tests with peppermint, or any conjecture de- 
duced therefrom, but upon nothing short of concrete 
demonstrated facts. 
Are the pipes properly proportioned, the fixtures suit- 
able, and the work well arranged ? That is a matter of 
opinion, and an expert can give it. But is the work well 
done ? Are the pipes and traps safe ? And are the joints 
all tight, without a single fissure or pin-hole for sewer air 
to enter ? These are questions that can only be answered 
after an actual trial of the pipes and joints. No plumbing 
work should ever be put to use until it has been tried and 
proved to be perfectly tight under the actual conditions of 
use. 
In the following pages will be found a concise account 
of an original and perfect process of trying or testing com- 
plete systems of plumbing apparatus, with examples 
which illustrate its efficiency and show plainly enough 
that the process, ‘ ‘ The Pneumatic Test ” (patented), is be- 
yond comparison superior to any other aid to inspection, 
and the only one which develops all the facts. As to the 
plumbers’ tests, it is a common remark of the householder 
that one is at the mercy of plumbers; if they are asked to 
examine the drains, they come in and go all over the house 
in a mysterious, solemn way, there is a strong odor of pep- 
permint, and they announce that the pipes are all out of 
order, and that the only safe way is to replace the whole 
apparatus with new modern work. It is done; and six 
months later, if another plumber is invited to give an 
opinion on this very sani3 new plumbing, there will be 
the same odor of peppermint, and the same advice to rip 
the pipes all out.* 
The truth is, that the plumber’s method of testing is 
worse than worthless, because it is misleading. He is as 
* See the case of A F M , page 19. 6 
apt to get the odor of peppermint with a perfectly good 
job as with a bad one, and some plumbers who are not 
strictly conscientious do not hesitate to produce the odor 
anyhow and scare the householder into giving them a 
job of work, while the fairly honest man will give his 
trade the benefit of the doubt, and advise new work as the 
only guarantee of absolute safety. This is the general 
result of asking a plumber to report upon the condition of 
the traps and drains in any house, so much so that people 
are actually afraid to admit that they have any doubt 
about their plumbing, and go on simply hoping that the 
accident of sickness will not strike in their individual 
household. # 
Have the public, then, any safeguard in this matter ? 
Is there any means whereby the suspicion and doubt 
which all refined people feel respecting plumbing may be 
replaced by confidence and positive knowledge ? 
Many who read this pamphlet will be surprised to learn 
that there is a method of testing drains, which, by steady 
growth, beginning as long ago as 1875, was finally per- 
fected and patented in 1884, and has since that time been 
practised in Boston and vicinity with unfailing success 
and gratification to its patrons. In the last year named 
(1884) there was held in Brighton, England, an exhibition 
devoted wholly to hygienic and sanitary subjects and 
apparatus, where the merit and value of this process 
were considered so exceptional by the committee of 
awards that a special gold medal and diploma of honor 
were created for it, ranking it above all other exhibits 
whatsoever. 
In order that scientific readers, physcians, and others 
to whom this subject is one of special interest, may have 
a clear understanding of this process and of its usefulness 
and merit as compared with all other processes, it is 
thought best to lay before them somewhat in detail a de- 
scription of the apparatus employed and the mode of 
applying the test and ascertaining the condition of the 
drains by its means. In the first place, it is only just to 
state that the first conception of the process and its gradually developed perfect adaptation in all its details 
to its purpose are wholly original with its inventor, the 
writer, by whom it has been constantly made use of for 
nearly fifteen years under all possible conditions. The 
process has been widely imitated by plumbers and ex- 
perts, but never in its entirety; parts of the apparatus, 
which are indispensable to accurate results, have never 
elsewhere been employed, and are here described for the 
first time. The proprietors are unwilling to admit that 
the process, simple though it be, is capable of intelligent 
use except by trained and experienced persons. This is 
why other experts condemn an imperfect job outright; 
they are unable to specifically locate the imperfections or 
to determine whether they are remediable or not; they 
are forced to condemn as a whole what they have evi- 
dence to show is defective in part only. With them 
the mere existence of an undetermined defect becomes 
the basis of a conjecture that all is wrong. If there 
happens to be an imperfect link in a chain, and this link 
can be detected and be repaired or replaced, then the 
chain can be made good throughout and the expense of a 
new one which would be no better, and which itself 
might be defective, will be saved. This is what the 
Pneumatic Test does in plumbing work : it infallibly dis- 
closes all defects, or demonstrates to a certainty the per- 
fect condition of the apparatus. 
THE PNEUMATIC TEST. 
The apparatus required for making the test comprises the 
following things: movable plugs (Fig. 2) for closing the open 
F'S- 2- 8 
ends of pipes exterior to the building ; an air-pump having 
a capacity three or four times greater than a gas-fitter’s 
testing pump, or, much better, a trombe,* operated by 
water supplied by a garden hose ; a canister packed with 
cotton waste moistened with oil of peppermint, so con- 
structed that it can be placed in circuit with the pump and 
pipes without escape of the odor except into the latter ; a 
large relief trap, for each open end, forming a temporary 
water seal of adjustable dip, usually set at about one half 
inch, and large enough to relieve the system of pipes and 
traps within the house of pressure in case any fixture 
should be discharged while the test is being made, and 
thus prevent any trap being forced or siphoned out; a 
manometer ; clay or putty for closing leaks around plugs ; 
tools, such as screw-driver, hammer, Stillson wrench, etc. 
The relief traps can be replaced by carefully fitted check- 
valves (see Fig 3) or McClellan automatic vents, and in 
case the trombe is used, the oil canister may be replaced 
by an atomizer operated by vacuum instead of pressure. 
Two or three persons are required to make the test, the 
application of which is as follows : — 
The soil-pipe and trap-vent pipe extensions above the 
roof, and the fresh-air inlet at the foot of the system, are 
all closed, first selecting one to which the air-pump is 
attached. To this is also attached the peppermint can- 
ister, a relief trap, and the manometer (see Fig. 1). 
Air is now pumped in, when, if the drains are tight and 
the traps are in order, the existence of pressure within the 
system, due to the accumulated air, will be made evident 
by the manometer. If everything is all right, the supply 
of air may be cut off, and the pressure will not fall, 
proving the pipes to be in perfect order. If, however, 
anything is wrong, the escaping air will prevent the 
accumulation of any pressure, and the manometer, 
although its level may be disturbed, will quickly re- 
turn to zero if the pump is stopped. The temporary 
plugs are, in this case, all removed and the pump is 
kept in motion till the odor of peppermint appears at all 
* For an explanation of the principle of the tromhe, see Ewbank’s Hydraulics 2. /ascu 
Vacuum Valve. 
F/&3, 10 
the open ends, which are then closed again, and pumping 
is kept up till the odor carried along by the air escaping 
from some leak is detected within the house. This is 
traced up and temporarily stopped with putty. If it is 
the only one, the manometer will promptly manifest it; if 
not, pumping is continued till all the leaks, one after an- 
other, are traced up, marked, and temporarily stopped, 
and until a pressure can be established which is retained 
even after the pump has ceased to work. 
An assistant, meantime, has been preparing a schedule 
of the leaks as they are revealed, noting their location 
and description, which is afterwards used as a guide by the 
repairing plumber, who checks off each item as soon as it 
is completed, until he has gone through the whole list, 
and the entire system of pipes has been thus put in per- 
fect repair. 
It will be seen that the process is both analytical and 
systematic. It develops all the facts and avoids all con- 
fusion. It also gives valuable assistance in tracing out 
old lines of drains and disused connections, such as are 
apt to exist where alterations have been frequently made. 
Compared with this rational and practically perfect sys- 
tem of testing, what other system is there which merits a 
full description ? 
The water test, some one says. But it must be re- 
membered that the water test is not practically applicable 
to a system of pipes after it has passed into actual use 
without great inconvenience, expense, and risk of damage 
to the house by escaping water. It is limited in applica- 
tion to new work, must be applied before any interior 
finishing or decoration has been begun, covers only part 
of the ground, and does not in fact test the integral sys- 
tem of pipes and traps when completed for use. This is 
fully appreciated by many architects, whose custom is to 
require the Pneumatic Test to be applied to all finished 
new work before accepting it. 
In another aspect it may be objected that the maxi- 
mum pressure employed in this test is too feeble to be of 
any practical value, being equivalent to a column of water only three quarters of an inch high, or one thirty-sixth of 
a pound per square inch. In reply to this, it should be 
pointed out that this pressure, slight as it may be, is yet 
many times greater than any pressure which can be put 
upon the pipes and traps in actual use. If a bridge will 
carry safely a train of locomotives weighing five hundred 
tons, it will certainly carry safely a train of cars weighing 
only one hundred tons. It is not necessary to require a 
proportionally severer test than this, and by analogy, if 
the drains are proved to stand with success a pressure of 
three quarters of an inch of water, they are certainly 
perfectly safe under a pressure of about one eighth inch, 
which is about the maximum realized in actual use. 
Theoretically, there should be no pressure whatever, but 
this is hardly attainable, at least not at those times when 
the pipes are flushed by the discharge from some fixture. 
One feature which should not he lost sight of is the fact 
that this test can be applied without interfering in any 
way with the regular use of the plumbing apparatus by 
the occupants of the building. 
Unfortunately in most cases a great deal of time is lost 
in getting access to the pipes on the roof. They are often 
so placed as to require temporary scaffolds in order to 
reach them, giving the inspectors some risky climbing to 
do. Then old unfit work, such as catch-basin traps, are 
frequently combined with new work, and the pressure is 
lost through the old joints of the masonry. Where work 
is properly constructed and if it is in good order, the test 
can he completed in about an hour, but this happens 
almost never. Owing to the inaccessible location of the 
outlets, and the unsystematic way in which plumbers lay 
out and connect up their work, often two or three hours’ 
time is consumed simply in getting ready, when, in per- 
fect work, less than one minute suffices for completing the 
test. The most difficult cases are those which combine 
inaccessibility of the outlets with complicated or obscurely 
located branch drains and imperfect joints, making a great 
number of leaks to be traced up; such cases sometimes 
use up a day or even a day and a half of the time of three 12 
persons accustomed to the work. This, however, is much 
cheaper than condemning the whole apparatus, as is the 
usual custom, because the inspector is unable to find out 
what the matter is, when it may be that after all only a 
few trifling repairs may be required. Even if it should 
prove that the drains are seriously defective, it is better to 
know exactly what the defects are, and act with full 
knowledge of the facts ; there is no satisfaction in guess- 
ing in matters of this sort. 
To more effectively illustrate the kind of facts which 
are developed by this process, and the convincing way in 
which it replaces doubt, supposition, and error by positive 
knowledge, a few examples are quoted from experience 
obtained. 
A FEW CASES. 
House of J G . The owner was urged to have the 
plumbing renewed by a prospective tenant, a physician, whose sus- 
picions were doubtless aroused by the fact that some of the fixtures 
were old-fashioned. The test, although completed with difficulty, 
showed everything within doors to be in perfect order, except that 
the hand-hole plate on the running trap had never been properly 
fastened down, also that in the yard there was a leaking cesspool 
trap, neither defect being of much importance. 
Six years subsequently. Another tenant demanded an engineer’s 
certificate. Inspection showed that the former tenant had gained 
his wish and the old-fashioned fixtures had been replaced by modern 
ones. The test revealed every one of three new water-closets to be 
very imperfectly connected to the soil-pipe; in one case, the calk- 
ing lead did not even fill the socket (Fig. 4), and it had always been a 
dangerous defect from the day it was finished. These leaks were re- 
paired, and the work wras then found as a whole to be perfectly 
tight, showing there had been no depreciation in the original work 
after six years’ use. 
House of Mrs. W E . Inspected by plumbers three 
months previously, who said they left everything in order. The 
owner declared that the odor of peppermint hung about the house 
for a week after. The Pneumatic Test revealed a half-dozen imper- 
fect joints in the main horizontal, a bad joint in a third story branch, 13 
three leaking trap screws, and a hole in the kitchen sink waste-pipe; 
the latter having been “ burnt”;by a too hot soldering iron when 
originally put in place,—a dangerous accident, but fortunately 
/%4. 
rare with careful workmen. The peppermint test failed to reveal the 
latter mentioned serious leak, because it was not on the main line of 
soil pipe, but was cut off from it by a grease trap. The peppermint 
went off by the main line. Yet the kitchen branch was connected to 
the main by a 1J inch back-air pipe, and sewer air could flow freely 
from either to the other. See the case of A A H 
below. Such instances as these are proof of the unfitness of the 
peppermint test. It ought not to be called a test at all. 
R F . A summer and health resort in a wealthy town. 
In the summer of 188- a prominent citizen died in the hotel of 
typhoid fever, there being other cases of sickness besides. The 
drainage being suspected, the establishment was speedily abandoned 
by nearly all the guests. Thereupon, at the request of the pro- 
prietor, the local Board of Health, consisting of three persons, of 
whom two were physicians, inspected the house, and gave him a 
written certificate signed by them, and stating that they had inspected 
the premises and found the drainage and sanitary conditions perfect. 
The owner, to save, if possible, the reputation of his house, desired 14 
to re-enforce this opinion by the testimony of an expert, and ordered 
the Pneumatic Test to be applied. The result showed that a five- 
inch elbow at the base of one of the upright lines of soil-pipe had 
never been calked; that in one of the other lines a number of calked 
joints had been destroyed by the action of steam, in one case the 
ring of lead being quite out of the socket and hanging loosely around 
the pipe ; that the meat-rooms and refrigerators drained directly into 
the soil-pipe through common bell traps. Everything was repaired 
and made right throughout, and proved to be in order by a final 
test. The house, however, only partially recovered its good name, 
and shortly afterwards and in the middle of the season was closed, 
in which state it remains to this day. 
Building occupied by the Boston Board of Health at No. 
12 Beacon Street. Test made in 1889. This and the adjoining 
house and a connecting building in the rear had been' recently 
purchased by the city. New plumbing had been put in under the 
direction of the city architect, and in supposed accordance with his 
specifications, which required each building to be treated separately, 
supplying an independent iron drain, and a main trap with air inlet, 
all to be connected to a new underground iron drain extending to 
the sewer. 
The test was desired by Dr. Durgin, the chairman of the Board, to 
be an object lesson to the inspectors, in which respect it did not prove 
wholly successful, for the reason that the inspectors looked for an 
immediate revelation of the condition of the drain, with a detailed 
explanation from the testing party. They had themselves exhaust- 
ively tested the house by pouring quantities of oil of peppermint into 
the top of the pipes, repeated during several previous days, and, not 
detecting the odor of the oil within doors, had pronounced the 
drains O. Iv. 
At the outset of the test made by the pneumatic apparatus it was 
discovered that all three houses had to be tested as one; the venting 
of the pipes had been so unsystematically carried out that about two 
hours were spent in tracing them out and closing them. Finally, 
when this was done and pressure was applied, the manometer indi- 
cated loss of air by leaks in the system, which fact was duly 
announced to the inspectors as being evidence that the drains were 
not tight. Unfortunately for the test, there was no odor of pepper- 
mint within the buildings, and as the test did not establish instantly 
the location of the leaks, the inspectors shortly left, evidently with a 
poor opinion of the process as compared with their own, which con- 15 
sists simply of pouring peppermint into the pipes and then trying to 
detect its odor within the house. Such a test can establish nothing 
more than a probability, for it can readily be shown that the condi- 
tions must be extremely bad if the odor can escape into the house in 
the absence of all pressure within the pipes. In the case of the test 
under consideration, parts of two days were consumed before all the 
facts were revealed; these proved to be that the main iron drain and 
the separate main traps had all been omitted (i. e., “ skinned out of 
the job”); all three drains connected without traps into an old 
system of brick drains with several branches extending to catch- 
basins, through whose numberless joints the air escaped before any 
pressure could be established. The only leak found and located was 
at the connection of the boiler blow-off to the old drain above re- 
ferred to, the odor escaping freely into the house at that point, 
although the pressure applied was so slight as not to be indicated by 
the gauge, which is very sensitive. It is not known what other 
leaks might have been discovered had the full pressure been em- 
ployed, which, however, was not practicable, owing to the bad 
condition of the drains. The failure of the peppermint test in the 
hands of the inspectors was chiefly due to the existence of a hot flue 
connection, which is and was at that time illegal (we are speaking 
of the official residence of the Board of Health of the City of 
Boston), which, of course, the imperfect process relied upon by the 
officials failed to detect, and whiqh they knew nothing about. It 
may fairly be claimed in this case that the test revealed a state of 
things which could not have been established in any way short of 
digging up the whole system, and which but for it would have 
remained a perpetual secret with the rascally plumber who scamped 
the job, and the inspector who permitted it. 
On the other hand, the Board of Health test revealed nothing, 
except that, relying upon it, the Board’s own inspectors were misled 
into pronouncing the job all right. 
Here are two cases which are interesting by contrast, the test in 
each case showing the exact contrary of what was expected: — 
House of T P . An old house with new plumbing was 
offered for rent. The new tenant, a well-known architect of large 
practice, for reasons satisfactory to himself, one of which was that 
he knew the plumber, would not sign papers until the plumbing had 
been thoroughly tested. The Pneumatic Test proved everything to be 
perfect both in arrangement and operation. 
House of C A . 
In this the entire construction, from 16 
foundation to ridgepole, was carried on under the personal super- 
vision of the owner, a wealthy manufacturer of large experience. 
His oldest son had died in the house of typhoid fever a few months 
previously. The reason for applying the test, however, was the 
fact that the house was to be let, and the lessee, F L 
A , demanded inspection before occupying it. The plumbing 
was “ one of ’s best jobs.” Neither the owner nor any member 
of his household had ever suspected for a moment the possibility of 
imperfections in the drains, and the first statement that the test 
indicated serious defects was received by all with incredulous sur- 
prise. The owner was sent for from his oflice by a member of the 
family, and he arrived in what may be well enough described as “ a 
state of mind,” and began to express himself very freely, evidently 
supposing the inspectors were merely giving an opinion about a mat- 
F/g. S. 
ter concerning which they could know but little. While he was still 
talking, the inspectors had exposed one of the defects, the character 
and danger of which were at once explained to him. He listened 
without a word and went away in silence, appearing to have been 
quite stunned by the shock of the discovery. Money could not 
measure the value which the knowledge then obtained would have 
been to him had he had it a year previously. The test showed that 
all the vertical lines, under the effect of expansion and contraction, 
had separated from the main horizontal (Fig. 5), and the latter to be 17 
of such a character that it had to be entirely replaced by new work. 
This house, although new, had been in a dangerous condition from its 
completion. 
Country House of II M W . Although the owner 
had sickness in the house during the latter part of the summer, the 
Pneumatic Test was ordered more with the view to furnish corrobora- 
tive evidence of the plumber’s statement that “ everything was 
all right,” than with the expectation of finding any plumbing defect 
to which the sickness could have been attributed. 
Inspection showed an extremely bad leak of sewer air in the 
laundry. Here was a large grease trap serving both laundry and 
kitchen (Fig. 6). A terrible stench came out of the waste pipe of the 
F/g. 6. 
tubs, which emptied into the grease trap. A large trap-screw or 
clean-out on top of this was removed, when it was found that there 
was a four-inch vent pipe connected to the top of the trap and that 
the laundry and kitchen waste pipes both entered it above the water 
line. Consequently, there was nothing to prevent a current of air 
Horn outside flowing into the house through the four-inch vent pipe, 
over the putrid grease in the trap, and thence into the house through the 
laundry-tub waste-pipe, except when the latter was closed by plugs. 18 
This was not all. The grease trap contained within it a stench trap 
formed of a half S lead trap upside down. The brass clean-out 
screw belonging to this had been removed and laid one side. 
Whether this was an act of carelessness or of confusion of mind on 
the part of the plumber, who might have had an idea to thereby 
improve the circulation of air, could not be determined, but there 
was no doubt about the effect. This was to make a direct untrapped 
connection between the cesspool and the house. The inspector asked 
the laundress if she had not been annoyed by this stench during the 
summer, and upon her replying yes, asked why she had not reported 
it. Her answer was, “I did, indeed, sir, but Mrs. W told me 
that the plumbers had cleaned out all the traps and pipes in the 
spring and had left everything in order.” 
The missing screw was replaced and the test completed, showing 
everything to be in perfect order. Advice was given, however, to 
abolish the complicated and dangerous grease trap and its append- 
ages. 
The following is an unusual case,— unusual only because it was 
that of one of the best built houses in the best location in Boston. 
It may be found commonly among the cheaper class of block-built 
houses in certain parts of the city :— 
House of D A . Every detail of construction of this 
house which had a bearing upon health had been most carefully 
attended to. After painstaking inspection the plumbing appeared to 
be perfect. The only questionable thing was the duct for cold air 
to the furnace, which was built up against the foundation party wall, 
which formed one side of it. The latter was built of Roxbury pud- 
ding stone, with joints only partly filled with mortar. On the other 
side of this wall there lived a distinguished physician, and the possi- 
bility of a defect here was not suspected. However, on testing the 
drains in the physician’s house the odor of peppermint promptly 
appeared at all the hot-air registers in the house of D A , 
having entered by way of the party wall and the furnace cold-air 
duct. The doctor gave the order for the immediate renewal of all 
his drains; but the only child of I) A- had already been 
dead some time. 
House of W M . Country plumbers’ work. There had 
been sickness in this house, followed by the death of the owner and 
one of his children. Those who remained desired to be reassured 
that the plumbing was all in order, having previously had entire 19 
confidence ill the judgment and careful superintendence of their late 
paterfamilias, a practical man of wide knowledge, and a successful 
manufacturer. 
The test showed what no ocular inspection would have detected 
without uncovering all the pipes, and tracing out each one, and 
accounting for each connection, and what no test short of the pneu- 
matic would have revealed positively. A receiver vent-pipe, appar- 
ently extending above the roof, had been connected to the main soil- 
pipe, where such a connection would have been least expected. The 
condition was that the drain was open into the house through the 
w. c. receiver, in which there was a vent opening, and another small 
one for the passage of the handle. 
The “ peppermint test” would have disclosed this defect only in 
the event of there being a strong indraft into the room. The Pneu- 
matic Test is independent of such accidents. 
House of A F M . An old house, had not been 
occupied for several years. The new' owner, before making altera- 
tions, sent a plumber to report upon the condition of the pipes. He 
poured some peppermint into them and reported that they would 
require to be renewred throughout at an expense of about Si,000. 
To be doubly sure, the owner sent another plumber, No. 2, with in- 
structions to examine and report. His recommendations were 
substantially the same as those of No. 1. In the mean time and 
before deciding upon making these radical alterations, which seemed 
to be called for with such unanimity, the owmer heard of the Pneu- 
matic Test and ordered it to be applied. Inspection made by its aid 
showed the whole system to be admirably arranged and constructed 
and to be in perfect working order and repair. 
House of A A II . Alterations had been made in 
the drainage of this house subsequent to the application of the 
peppermint test. A recurrence of diphtheria in the family aroused 
the suspicions of the attending physician that there remained undis- 
covered defects, but a new' application of peppermint gave negative 
evidence, and finally the Pneumatic Test was resorted to. 
This house had two sewer connections, one in front with a main 
trap, and another to a private sewer in the rear, untrapped; both 
systems were united before reaching the roof to the four-inch up- 
right, the junction being effected through the back-air pipes. Now, 
when peppermint w'as poured into the main pipe, the oil followed the 
main line out through the trapped branch, and the odor was pre- 20 
vented from reaching the nntrapped branch by the strong flow of 
sewer air coming from the private sewer towards the house, con- 
sequently the peppermint test completely failed. The scented air 
of the Pneumatic Test, however, being under perfect control, was 
forced to follow both branches to both sewer connections, back- 
ing down the back-air pipes and driving back the sewer gas in the 
untrapped branch till it found escape at several open joints and 
badly packed clean-outs on that part of the system, finally reaching 
the sewer, and by way of that, the adjoining house, which a test 
subsequently applied showed to be in a similarly defective condition. 
In this case the success of the Pneumatic Test was as pronounced 
as the failure of the peppermint test was complete. But failure in 
this kind of work cannot be tolerated, a single instance of it being 
sufficient to bring total condemnation. What we must have if we 
can get it, is positive, not negative, evidence. In matters affecting 
health and life we don’t care to be guided by conjectures and doubts 
when facts are within our reach. 
A very common defect is shown in Fig. 7. When the 
Fix 7 
main trap is placed within the main wTall of the house, as 
shown in the illustration, the house is not effectually insu- 
lated from the sewer. If there happen to he defective 21 
joints in the drain between the house and sewer (and 
there are very apt to be such defects, because these drains 
are never properly supported), the sewer air will follow 
along the pipe and enter through the foundation wall. 
For testing the soundness of these joints the Agency’s 
Engineers use an expanding plug (Fig. 8), which is floated 
F,S6. 
in through the trap attached to a long piece of pneumatic 
hose, as in Fig. 9, showing the drain laid open, and the 
plug in place expanded by means of the air-pump. The 
drain is then filled with water up to the top of the trap, 
when, if the joints are tight the water will stand at that 
level, but if there are leaks, it will settle away. It is 
possible with this apparatus to locate a leak with absolute 
exactness. It is permitted by the law to place the main 
trap within the house as shown in Fig. 7 ; but in the 
opinion of the Agency, this is a very serious blunder, and 
the Agency does not issue certificates for houses so ar- 
ranged. The right method is shown in Fig. 1, where the 
main trap is in a vault entirely separated from the house. 
This construction requires special arrangements for venti- 
lation which are not shown in the illustration. 22 
In justice to the proprietors of the Pneumatic Test, an 
account of it ought not to be concluded without contrast- 
ing with it the plumbers’ method of saturating everything 
with oil of peppermint in their so-called tests, and a 
statement of what the process is in their hands. It 
consists simply in the unstinted use of oil of pepper- 
mint. The writer knows of one case where ten pounds of 
oil of peppermint were poured into the pipes, quan- 
tities of it getting on to the hands of the men or their 
clothes. The plumbing foreman who stood by and saw 
this done, when arrainged by the writer for permitting 
such clumsy work and for throwing away nearly $40 
worth of a costly essential oil into an old drain without 
result, defended himself by the statement that forty 
9. 
pounds, wortli $160, were used in testing the drains of 
Mr. Vanderbilt’s house in Newport. The writer forbears 
to make further comment on this than to say that in his 
entire practice, covering fifteen years, he has not used so 
much as five pounds of the oil altogether. In new 
work the amount which is volatilized is only a small 
fraction of an ounce. It is never poured into the drain. 
In the city of Boston the Board of Health is willing to 
make tests of plumbing without charge on application by 
any occupant of a lodging or tenement house, and is 
frequently appealed to by lodgers and tenants, who want 
a disinterested opinion. The test made by them is simply 
the plumbers’ test above described, with the difference 23 
that the Board’s inspectors do not take any precautions to 
prevent the odor of the oil escaping within the house from 
other sources besides the drain, that is, from their hand- 
ling of it. They are careless about this, and after open- 
ing the oil, pretend they can discriminate whether the 
odor reaches their nostrils directly from the bottle or by 
way of the drain. Even the peppermint test, properly 
applied, requires two persons (the Board’s inspectors 
always act singly), and it is the custom with plumbers to 
have at least two persons make the test, yet even they 
do not take adequate precautions to avoid accidental 
escape of the odor of the oil. A large part of the elab- 
orate apparatus employed by the Agency in testing is, 
next to its labor and time-saving quality, largely designed 
to prevent all chance of any peppermint escaping any- 
where except through leaks, thus imparting the quality of 
certainty to the evidence obtained. In cases of satis- 
factory tests, no odor of peppermint is noticed anywhere 
when this apparatus is used. 
The peppermint test had some value before the adoption 
of the main running trap and the soil-pipe extension 
above the roof, constructions which are now quite general, 
and exacted by the plumbing ordinances of most well- 
regulated municipalities. Where these essentials are not 
found, there is commonly, but not always, an indraft 
from the sewer, caused by the aspirating action of the 
chimneys, and where pronounced defects exist in such 
cases the common peppermint test may reveal them, 
except when the condition prevails which is explained 
below. In the case of modern work, however, there is 
usually, but not always, an outdraft, since the soil-pipe 
extension itself acts as a chimney, when the pepermint 
test can show nothing. So, too, where the drain has no 
main trap, and there is no soil-pipe extension, the effect 
of the sun or the wind on the rain-water leaders may 
create in them a powerful outdraft, sufficient to protect 
the house for the time being from all sewer air, and pre- 
vent the discovery of all defects, although extremely bad 
ones may exist. There are thus occasions under which 24 
the peppermint test gives only negative results, even in 
the presence of the worst conditions. These remarks are 
equally applicable to the smoke test. It was to obtain 
positive results under all circumstances that the Pneu- 
matic Test was invented, and it hardly needs further 
demonstration to show that the ordinary tests, even the 
official tests of the Board of Health, are practically 
worthless except occasionally, when the defects are ex- 
tremely bad, and the conditions favorable for the test. 
In other words, such tests give results by accident, and 
are, therefore, untrustworthy. 
Note. Since the last edition of this pamphlet was issued, the 
Sanitary Agency has inspected 21 new buildings, all of the best class, 
and having the latest style of “ open plumbing ” with expensive' fix- 
tures. They were all designed and superintended by leading archi- 
tects, located in aristocratic neighborhoods and passed as perfect by 
the official inspectors using the water test. 
Of these houses only one was free from defects, i. e., did not leak 
sewer air, and even this was defectly designed in the respect of having 
the main trap within the cellar wall; one was found to have a branch 
from the soil pipe behind marble work left entirely open, and all the 
others leaked sewer air to a more or less serious extent. If less than 
o °Jc of the best new houses are found to be perfect, what is the prob- 
able condition of those less pretentious? THE SANITARY AGENCY ENGINEERING DE- 
PARTMENT. 
The Agency furnishes designs, plans, specifications, and superin- 
tendence of all branches of sanitary construction, including, besides 
plumbing and drainage, steam and water heating and ventilation, 
and in the case of new work acts jointly with the architect. This 
department, as well as that of inspection, is under the direction of 
Mr. Frederic Tudor, who, as sanitary architect, was employed by 
the trustees of the New Public Library, and by the city architect in 
the cases of the Roxbury High School and the Long Island Hospital. 
He has had charge of other public and private works of importance 
throughout the country, especially in New York and Albany, to 
which recommendation he adds the knowledge gained during twenty 
years’ experience in the practical consti’uction of sanitary apparatus 
in all its branches. 
CONSTRUCTION DEPARTMENT. 
The Sanitary Agency, in co-operation with a first-class plumbing 
house, carries on the work of plumbing, especially in the line of 
repairs. 
Where patrons employ a plumber regularly, the Agency prefers 
not to interfere to his disadvantage, and will aid him in the prosecu- 
tion of his work; if, however, employers have no preference, the 
Agency will gladly accept orders. It is the custom of the Agency 
to test its own completed work, and, after it has been proved to be 
in perfect order, to deliver to the owner a certificate to that effect 
without extra charge. 
REFERENCES. 
Mr. Tudor, by special permission, gives the names of a few per- 
sons which he has selected from among the hundreds for whom he 
has performed expert service : — 
Mr. F. L. Ames. 
Hon. Horace Gray. 
John Homans, M. D. 
Mr. Martin Brimmer. 
Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, D. D.* 
Mr. James B. Francis, C. E.* 
Gen. John Newton, U. S. A. Eng’r. 
J. P. Oliver, M. D. 
Gen. Francis A. Walker. 
Messrs. McKim, Mead & White, Architects. 
Messrs. Shepley, Rutan & Coolidge, Architects. 
•Deceased. The Sanitary Agency issue* only one grade of certificate, which is assurance that the tested work is at the 
date of the test in a perfect condition. It is evident that in the matter of plumbing there should not be degrees 
of safety, yet there may be degrees of excellence of materials and workmanship, or of both, indicating a greater 
or less degree of permanency. Consequently, the best class of work receives a certificate covering a period of 
five years from the date of the test, and meaning that, in the opinion of the Agency, the apparatus will remain 
in the same perfect condition in which it then is for a period of at least five years. We have had experience of 
apparatus being perfectly good after twenty years without any repairs whatever. Cases where the traps and 
fixtures are not up to the standard of modern requirements, receive a certificate for one year only. At the 
expiration of the term a new inspection will be made, if desired, at a reduced rate, depending chiefly upon the 
time required to make it. 
The Sanitary Agency believes that the time is at hand when self-interest will compel the proprietor of every 
hotel, apartment and boarding-house to keep the certificate of the Agency posted in a conspicuous place, and 
when without it no summer or health resort can exist. 
The certificate of the Agency, when a clean bill of health is given, adds value to real estate, in case of 
lease or sale, many times above the cost of the inspection. 
Certificates