No More Cast Iron Water Pipes

1895

In the opinion of practical and experienced judges the days of cast iron water pipes as compared with steel are nearing an end. They are considered to represent too much dead weight for too little strength. In fact, it is asserted that able engineers long ago reached the conclusion that the most costly and least satisfactory way of protecting iron against oxidation is with mere bulk of its own substance, and those concerned in the future of the cast iron pipe admit that it is destined soon to take its place among the materials forced into disuse by the progress of arts. Many claim that a welded steel tube is the ideal conduit for high pressures. — Kansas City Times.

Economy in Small Ways

1896

The little leaks in the household expenses, says the Jenness-Miller Monthly, are the most mischievous. The big ones are prominent enough to compel attention. Do you not, for example, trust all your tradespeople implicitly? You can't afford to do so.

The head servants in the Vanderbilt and Astor, and other wealthy families have among their chief duties that of weighing the household supplies. Dry goods measurements in the large shops are generally very accurate because the employes are under strict orders to be exact. But grocers and butchers will bear watching. Get for yourself or your kitchen priestess a set of measures and some scales, and after you and she have learned to use them, you will be amazed to see how much you have been paying for that you haven't had.

Even in the most reliable shops — so called — the weighing is very lax. Butchers claim that the deficiencies in their weights are all due to the waste in trimming. Very well, order the meat sent untrimmed. You will get fresher meat, and what you trim off will often give you nice bits for the stock pot, suet, etc. Try it and be convinced.

A quick-witted housekeeper says she has earned many a dollar in plumbers' bills by buying a force cup and learning to handle a wrench. Despite washing soda and potash, now and then something unmeltable slips through the sink strainer and clogs the pipe. All the more modern plumbing has a nut at the bottom of the "goose-neck," just below the sink. By setting a pan beneath this, and with a wrench loosening and then removing the cap, the obstruction will generally be found right there. Sometimes the force-cap applied over the strainer in the sink will be sufficient to clear the pipe without taking the cap off the gooseneck. If both fail, no harm will have been done, but one or the other, or both, succeeds often enough to make it worth while to exercise one's ingenuity a bit.

Note About Some of Our Town Folk

Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 22, 1907

Concert size cylinder records, six inches in length, containing the latest songs and most popular music, just received by Reton Bros. & Co.

Pupils of Miss Helen Marie Hein will give a piano and violin recital at her home at 8 o'clock this evening. Fifteen members of her advanced class will participate in the program.

Mrs. John Hawn, who has been a patient at St. Mary's hospital in Milwaukee during the past few weeks, is steadily improving and it is expected that she can return home within another week.

Marty Lee returned Sunday morning from Crystal Falls, Mich., after an absence of several months. Marty will remain here during the summer, being employed at his trade as a plumber, and will catch for the local base ball club.

A spark from a passing locomotive or from the foundry furnace ignited a moulding cast in the yards adjoining the John Rice foundry at about 4 o'clock Saturday afternoon. The department was summoned, but no damage resulted.

A richly furnished, rubber tired and leather upholstered opera coach has been added to the livery equipment of John W. Archibald, the enterprising Strongs avenue hustler.

Henry Coll, a Chicago architect, is engaged in preparing the plans for the proposed Polish brewery, and it is expected they will be ready for the contractors in a short time.

Jas. A. Bremmer, the one armed veteran of the civil war who has been in poor health all winter, suffering with stomach trouble, left here last Monday for Minneapolis to take treatment in a hospital. It is hoped that Mr. Bremmer will return fully recovered.

An enormous log drive, the largest of many years, in charge of forty men, was started at Tomahawk on Monday, May 13th, the logs being destined for Merrill, Wausau and other points along the Wisconsin river.

E. O. Westerfield, of Hatley, visited here Friday and Saturday with his brother-in-law, Dr. W. H. Wilson. The latter spent Sunday at Hatley and secured a nice string of brook trout during a few hours fishing.

—The Gazette, Stevens Point, Wisconsin, May 22, 1907.