How to deal with Stopped Drains

Progress, Volume VI, Issue 12, 2 October 1911, Page 836

How to deal with Stopped Drains

Most men, when they find that their lavatory basin obstinately holds the water they want to let out, relieve their souls through a big “D” and when they have done growling send for the plumber. But there is an easier way of dealing with the trouble. Take out the stopper and fill the basin half full of water or more, as circumstances may require how much you will learn with practicethen take a swab and job it straight up and down in the water. This starts a pumping action in the drain pipe, in sympathy with the violent disturbance in the basin. Keep it up awhile and generally you will find the sediment brought up from the trap and the pipe free. Prevention is, of course, better than cure. Think, therefore of the state of

the drain pipe in constant use, and imagine the accumulations going on every time you wash your hands. The first thought to strike you will be that this pipe requires flushing occasionally, just to keep it open. Then you will, if you are resourceful, get a short length of rubber tube, yon will find a cork to fit the exhaust outlet, and that cork you will bore through, after which you will fit the tube into the cork, and then you will put the cork into the outlet, stick the end of the water pipe into the other end of the\ tube, and turn on the AVainui pressure, as much as ever you can get. Result, complete clearance of drain pipe of all obstacles to progress. The plumbers in the neighbourhood may swear when, they hear of it, but that wont prevent them from being angelic, for certainly their visits will be rare as those of the angel of the proverb.