Currently, there are a variety of ways to plumb a residential house or a commercial building. Since the beginning of time, humans have consistently changed plumbing products and the specifications plumbing is to be installed. The Irrigation system is said to be the first plumbing system created by mankind.
Since the beginning of America, the material used for water service lines has been changing. The first water service line was wooden, specifically from the Elm Tree. Wooden water service lines were commonly used until the early-1800s. Philadelphia was the first city to adopt cast iron water mains. Since that time, the material used for water service lines has been cast iron, ductile iron, galvanized iron, copper, steel, and a wide variety of plastic.
For many years, the water closet, commonly known as the toilet, was a problem for sanitation and created serious health hazards. Until the sanitation problem was solved, bathrooms were never attached to houses. There were separate out-houses and bath-houses. In many areas, bath-houses were illegal to use in the winter time.
Cincinnati, Ohio is home to the first American manufactured bathtub which was encased in mahogany and lined with sheet steel. Made in 1842, this bathtub measured 7 foot by 4 foot and weighed nearly one ton. The invention of the first pipe thread sealant, Tyte-Unyte by J.C. Whitlam, was also made in Ohio.
The idea of separate sanitary and storm sewers was originally an American development. As plumbing systems become modernized, many countries established codes in which builders must abide by. In 1848, the English Public Health Code was passed. This health code was the plumbing code model in which the entire world adopted and modified to call their own.
In 2011, the Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act was signed into law reducing the allowable lead content in plumbing water service lines. On January 4, 2014, businesses will no longer be able to sell valves, fittings, and fixtures with lead levels, specifically on wetted surfaces, higher than 0.25% of the weighted average limit.
It will be interesting to see what will change in the future!
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