There is nothing that will not change, given enough time. Sometimes changes come at a snail’s pace, like a tree growing, and sometimes with lightning speed like, uh, well, like lightning. The common denominator is, of course, change. No matter how tenaciously we cling to our old standby “that's the way it's always been done,” the facts of the matter dictate differently.
In 1905, the industrial revolution was shifting into high gear. Wooden water mains in large cities, such as New York, were being replaced by the new material called ductile iron. All of the technology and skill needed to effect repairs on wood water mains morphed into the skills necessary to install and effect repairs on ductile iron.
Likewise, long before the dangers of lead in potable water were known, lead water pipe was run in buildings. It was joined by lead wiping, and the journeyman plumbers of the day used mole skins — yes, actual mole skins — as insulation from the molten lead. These were used so often that they took on the contours of the mechanic's fingers, so that he had a “set” of them for wiping pipe of varying sizes. Even after the introduction of common threaded pipe (galvanized or brass) for potable water, lead piping was still used for DWV and was joined by wiping.
The skills of the mechanics that could lead wipe or lead burn sheet lead became less and less important as the changes in material advanced, but the skill needed for lead wiping was a requirement for practical tests standards for plumbing licenses as late as 1980 in some jurisdictions.
By the time of the stock market crash in 1929, the use of cast iron pipe for drainage, waste, vent, roof and other drainage needs rose in importance, but the use of molten lead was still ubiquitous because cast iron pipe was being joined using a bituminous fiber called “oakum” which was caulked by means of a hammer and special irons, which compressed the oakum and created a watertight seal between the hub of the downstream pipe and the spigot of the next piece of upstream pipe or of a fitting. The joint was held in place by pouring lead into the void between the top of the oakum and the end of the hub and “tapping it up” with a hammer and chisel to set the joint.
By the time of World War II, things had changed again, albeit slowly. Threaded brass pipe for potable water had become the standard in commercial, residential and industrial applications, and hub and spigot cast iron was the standard for sanitary soil piping, roof drainage and some vent applications.
Let's jump ahead a generation. Within 25 years of the end of World War II, the explosion of new products and materials spawned by the post war technological revolution that gave us transistor radios and the first computers, dictated rapid changes in the trade and how it was practiced.
The skill sets learned over five or six years by apprentices in the pre-war years suddenly ran smack into a new paradigm. It required rapid assimilation of information and skills in order to remain competitive both as a business owner and a journeyman who might be working for that business. The introduction of new materials, that not only replaced the old standbys, but were better and easier to handle or install, suddenly made it a very different world.
The skill sets learned over five or six years by apprentices in the pre-war years suddenly ran smack into a new paradigm.
In some areas, such as large cities, which were politically influenced, the walls were thrown up. Spurious objections to new materials included in the codes became commonplace because these new materials, which were superior to the old products in most cases, but which required less skill and manpower to install, threatened the “that's the way it's always been done” mantra.
Still, the new products came. Hub and spigot cast iron gave way to NoHub and DWV Copper, which gave way, in many cases, to ABS/DWV and PVC/DWV. Copper, brass and galvanized pipe gave way to Polybutylene (didn't go so well), which paved the way for PEX. Soldering or brazing large copper tube has been made almost obsolete by Viega's grooving/o-ring technology.
A more recent development has been the changes in plumbing fixtures and receptacles. The “Green Revolution” in plumbing products, which began in the late 1990's with the low water consumption edicts, got off to a rocky start when manufacturers tried to adapt existing water closet technology to comply with the low flow requirements.
We can all (well maybe not all, but some of us) remember installing 1.6-gpf water closets that were designed for a 3.0-gpf. They did not work, still requiring two or more flushes to achieve the desired result. Manufacturers got down to business and it only took five or ten years or so for them to come up with true 1.6 GPF units that actually work. Microprocessors have given rise to “automatic” faucets and other fixtures that incorporate electronics to make a jazzier, less “hands on” products and in the case of digital infrared flush valves, hands off. These changes in products require plumbers to actually learn about these electronics in order to properly service them. Talk about evolution!
The Brooklyn, N.Y.-born author is a retired third generation master plumber. He founded Sunflower Plumbing & Heating in Shirley, N.Y., in 1975 and A Professional Commercial Plumbing Inc. in Phoenix in 1980. He holds residential, commercial, industrial and solar plumbing licenses and is certified in welding, clean rooms, polypropylene gas fusion and medical gas piping. He can be reached at [email protected].