Quiz Time ??

[Plouasne]

Anybody like to join me, in asking a few questions about plumbing and plumbing materials, and see what answers you get back, for a kick off

1) Where would you expect to find flood valves and what would be the reason for fitting them

2) A reverse acting equilibrium ball valve with a pet cock on the side of the body, and what would it more than likely be used for

 

[Winston]

Would a flood valve be used in low lying area where they are prone to flooding thus prevent flood water coming up through the drainage.

Equilibrum valve with a isolation would that not be suitable for a cold water storage tank part 2 and it could be used for a wc.

I am never very good a tests

 

[Plouasne]

Winston,

Sorry, No and No

I will wait a bit to see if anybody else wants to answer before I post the answers

 

[Winston]

I win I win as no one else has entered

 

[Plouasne]

Sorry Winston, your answers were wrong, top marks for trying though

1) Where would you expect to find flood valves and what would be the reason for fitting them

A) Flood valves are fitted to stop a building floating; when the surrounding water level gets to high the valves open and flood the basement, to help weight the building down, flood valves were fitted in the sub basement at the South Bank Theatre, circa 1970

2) A reverse acting equilibrium ball valve with a pet cock on the side of the body, and what would it more than likely be used for

A) I have only seen one of these, and that was in 1957, the ball valve would be fitted with the ball upside down, and so stop the water from running in, the pet cock on the side was to allow a dribble of water in to the tank and when the water level rose the ball would start to lift and open the valve, these were fitted into automatic flushing tanks to give a strong flush of water to clear a very flat or very steep drain run of any deposited solids
I did see an automatic flushing tank built into the head of the drain run, in Saltash Cornwall where the houses were built running down a steep hill
This was a brick built chamber in the pavement, about 3 feet cube, where a reverse acting equilibrium ball valve would have been fitted, there was also an automatic flushing tank fitted to a range of W/C's in a job one of my colleges was working on near Birmingham, when I was in the drawing office

 

[Plouasne]

A couple more ??

1) Where could you find a "puff pipe", its an old fashioned term and use would now be banned

2) The Grevac "anti-vac" trap, what does it look like, and what is its principle working method

Have another "crack" at these Winston, you were on the right track last time

 

[Winston]

Is the Grevac anti vac trap a glassed bottomed trap where solids may be disposed off and also useful if valuables have mistakenly been thrown away?

The only thing I can think off regarding the puff pipe is was it a bellow for a plumber to check that flues had a sufficient flow? really confused .

How long have you been plumbing and what made you want to become a plumber ?

 

[REDSAW]

It was for a small pipe, called a puff pipe, which connected the trap to the soil stack. They became obsolete about 50 years back after BRE research led to the adoption of the modern single pipe soil stack system. The old ventilated separate soil and waste stacks can still be seen on the backs of some old blocks.

a grevac was collated with the above in victorian properties circa 1860-1920

 

[Winston]

Blimey he has been plumbing a while then

 

[Plouasne]

Is the Grevac anti vac trap a glassed bottomed trap where solids may be disposed off and also useful if valuables have mistakenly been thrown away?

The only thing I can think off regarding the puff pipe is was it a bellow for a plumber to check that flues had a sufficient flow? really confused .

How long have you been plumbing and what made you want to become a plumber ?

Don't worry about these questions too much, its more on how far I can go back in history

A Grevac trap was a patented form of anti siphon trap, it was a tubular form of trap, with a slight "jump up" on the tail of the trap, also there was a second pipe from the tail of the trap going to the bottom part of the inlet side of the trap, this pipe was above the trap proper, and the idea of the jump up was to break the water up so that it was not a solid plug and also at this turbulence where the other pipe joined would allow air to break the siphoning action in the trap by letting air back to the base of the trap

A puff pipe was a lead pipe taken off a lead basin waste, where the run would encourage self-siphoning, normally an inch or inch and a quarter, the end was turned over to form a roll, with either a cross wire or gauze fitted to the end which was built into an outside wall, close to the basin, to allow air into the waste, so that the water would not self siphon out of the trap

I started to cut my plumbing teeth by reading a Froy's 1938 catalogue, which was as thick as a bible if not more so, I wanted to become a Chef, but my old man wanted me to be in the building game, hopefully a chippy, so that we could go it alone, but wood and me dont mix and I wanted to be something as faraway as possible, hence the plumbing, reckon that I've about 60 plus years of knowledge about plumbing somewhere in my head

It was for a small pipe, called a puff pipe, which connected the trap to the soil stack. They became obsolete about 50 years back after BRE research led to the adoption of the modern single pipe soil stack system. The old ventilated separate soil and waste stacks can still be seen on the backs of some old blocks.

a grevac was collated with the above in victorian properties circa 1860-1920

I think that you are thinking of the 1 pipe system = 2 pipes, the 2 pipe system = 4 pipes

Grevac traps were still being sold in the late '50's