The boy's book of trades and the tools used in themAnonymous
General
The boy's book of trades and the tools used in them
Anonymous
Industrial arts -- Juvenile literature; Vocational guidance -- Juvenile literature
The rest of the Glazier’s tools are a _square_, and a _straight edge
rule_ for cutting against, a _two-foot rule_, and compasses for
measuring; _pincers_ for breaking off the edges of glass that have been
partially cut through; and the _diamond_, which is used for cutting, and
is his principal tool. This is made of a small unpolished diamond fixed
in lead, and fastened to a handle of hard wood.
THE PLUMBER.
[Illustration: Casting Lead.]
In trades connected with building, the work of the Plumber is of so much
importance that it must come next to that of the Bricklayer, and the
Carpenter. At one time the Plumber (who takes his name from the Latin
word for _lead_[2]) was principally employed in making leaden roofs of
churches or large public buildings and in forming casements for windows;
window frames being then made of strips of lead soldered or riveted
together and holding the little diamond-shaped panes of glass between
their edges. In those days all the water used in the house was carried
from the well or from the conduit in the main street, or was brought in
casks set upon wheels from the nearest running stream: while rain-water
for washing was collected in tubs or vats as it ran off the roofs. Not
much more than a century ago the poets wrote of the misery of the streets
of London on a wet night, when there were no waste pipes to carry off the
rain from the overcharged gutters on the tiles, and nobody could venture
out of doors without being half drowned by the sudden discharge of a
shower bath from some overhanging gable. Then, as there was no proper
system of pipes for carrying off the wet, there was very little drainage
except by means of open gutters, and the bye-ways, as well as some of the
principal thoroughfares and large houses, were extremely unhealthy.
[2] Plumbum.
We are not quite perfect even yet in these respects, and there are
still neighbourhoods in London where a few Plumbers might be able to
make vast improvements; but we are a great deal better off than our
great grandfathers were. The Plumbers do not make quite so many leaden
casements as they made in the olden time, but they are well employed in
constructing roofs; carrying water into houses by means of leaden pipes;
making cisterns to contain a good supply of it, and providing other
pipes and gutters for conveying all the dirty water and drainage into
the sewers that are under the roadway, where it runs quite away from the
streets, and (in London at least) goes into the sea from near the mouth
of the Thames at Erith.
[Illustration: Ladle. Grate. Soldering Iron.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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