Applicability of Various Service Line Materials

Abstract

SINCE water works men first began to gather in groups and associations to talk over their problems there has probably been no subject so thoroughly discussed as that of service pipe. Discussions have covered size, rigid versus flexible connections, depth of laying, cost, proportion of cost borne by water taker, and other features, but the most violent discussions appear to have raged around the question What materials shall be used? There are literally scores of references in the water works literature to discussions, investigations and reports upon the subject of proper materials for service pipes. One of the earliest papers on this topic was one by the late W. H. Richards, Superintendent of the New London, Connecticut, water supply, published in the Journal of the New England Water Works Association for 1884, only two years after that Association was first organized.* From then on hardly a year has passed without something on the subject appearing in the publications of the American or the New England Water Works associations.