This article in no way intends to be a plumbing article. All it means to do is tell you what there is new in the development of the bathroom and leave the choice to you. See Chapter XV on plumbing where we have taken up the necessities of plumbing fixtures. All you need to remember here is to buy your fixtures at the best possible shop and then get the best plumber obtainable to install them. The installation of all good plumbing work should be in the beginning, in the plans of the architect, for it is difficult and quite complicated to put in plumbing installation after the house is well advanced. There is nothing quite so important to the successful builder as the early consideration of pipe requirements. The plumber is equipped with the sanitary code, which, of course, the architect knows too, and any householder can get one to read and digest. However, with a licensed plumber, a good architect and a faithful builder, this is unnecessary. THE BATHTUB The most interesting fixture in the bathroom, to Americans and Britons, at least, is the bathtub. Aside from the kitchen stove, this is the nucleus about which our content is generated. Civilization has been kind enough to leave us two generally used types of bathtubs--the solid porcelain and the enamel over iron (enamel lined or porcelain over iron) tub. The tin tub has gone out, the glass tub is too perilous, and the porcelain or porcelain lined proves about the most satisfactory when we can’t have marble or old Italian basins for our bathing. Recent advances in methods of manufacture and design have made the choice between solid porcelain or enamel iron baths a matter of personal liking as influenced by their fitness for positions assigned to them in a room. On account of the losses sustained for the manufacture of clay products, selected grades of porcelain baths are of necessity higher in cost than the porcelain lined or enameled iron. The porcelain bath is fine in appearance, but it is not reasonable to expect the same perfection in shape and uniformity of glaze. This is due to the difference in methods of manufacture, and allowance should be made for the irregularities occasioned by the baking of glazed clay products. In the past when English porcelain baths were being imported it was perhaps considered distinction to have a solid porcelain bath. With the present extensive manufacture of these products in this country, this condition has, of course, changed. The porcelain lined bath is preferred by some on account of its requiring less hot water to hold the desired temperature. Against this is the fact that cheap porcelain lined baths should be avoided. There are some points in favor of the enameled tub. It doesn’t absorb so much heat from the water; hence a hot bath can be obtained in it more quickly. It is lighter in weight, therefore more easy to install in frame houses and its plumbing is easier to handle. Furthermore, greater uniformity can be had in its construction.