Waste fittings and the outlets of baths have always been made too small. Slow emptying takes valuable time, and results in the ad herence of scum, which necessitates careful cleansing of the bath before it is used again.
The fittings of baths are not interchangeable unless the oblique ness of the tub walls and the depth and drilling agree. The styles of fittings are universally applicable, except that double bath-cocks (Fig. 9) are never placed on Roman baths. All double cocks are provided with detachable coupling and sprinkler, which, fitted to hose, provide a means of spraying the Independent spray, needle, shampoo, a n d overhead shower fixtures, simple and in combina tion, with or without cur tains, are made for use with the various tubs, the tub serving as a receptor for the falling water.
The cheapest serv iceable bath fittings are a Double Cock and Con nected Waste and Over flow. These are shown in Fig. 10. Bell Supply and Waste fittings, a spe cial type of which is shown in Fig. 11, are singularly popular, the water being retained by a ring valve tached at the bottom of the overflow pipe, and operated by means of a knob projecting above and through the top of the waste standpipe. This takes the place of the ordinary plug and chain used with the simple overflow. The supplies are made and fitted in combination with the waste arrangement, with the valve handles projecting above the rim of the bath, the two supplies being delivered into a common yoke-piece, where they mix and flow through a common passage to the bell-piece fitted through the vertical wall near the bottom of the bath. With the usual slotted-bell delivery, these fittings are a nuisance in one respect. Water cannot be drawn into a vessel through the bell for any ulterior purpose; and as no vessel of considerable capacity can be filled at the lavatory faucets, or at a sitz or a foot bath, the sink faucets are the only resort unless a slop sink is available. Nozzle-delivery bells, which afford some relief in this respect, are made; and hand sprays used in conjunction with them avoid the expense of special shower fixtures, which would other wise be essential if shower or spray were desired at all.
A modification of these fittings, termed "Top-Nozzle Supply and Waste" (Fig. 12), overcomes this objection to the strictly "Bell Supply"
type. It has a high nozzle delivery projecting into the tub, and is fitted for spray attachment. The inward projection is much- less than with a double cock, which, in a short bathtub, would occupy much needed space. The noise of falling water, obviated with the bell placed low, is the same with the double cock; and the mixing space, intermediate tween that of a cock and the lar bell delivery.
An element of danger is in herent in a bell-supply outlet placed so low down as to be sub merged when the tub is in use. If the supply is opened when the tub contains dirty water, and the pressure of water is lowered by accident or by opening faucets elsewhere, it is quite possible that the fouled water will be drawn back through the bell or nozzle into the supply pipes, thus, perhaps, contaminating the water for domestic use. For this reason, cocks which discharge near the top edge of the fixture, above the level of the water, are increasingly used at present.
For private use, where both children and adults are to be regu larly served, the bathtub is the only fixture answering the require ments. As the physical conditions of the members of the family are, or should be, mutually known, and the tub will be regularly cleansed between baths, any possible chance of communicating humors of the skin through the bath can be guarded against. For institutions and general public use, the tub bath is open to serious objections, some of which apply as well to private use. The water for a tub bath is at its best when first drawn into the tub; and the per son, before bathing, is certainly in condition to pollute it more or less. As the bathing process nears completion, these conditions are exactly re versed. Tubs used by the public may not be carefully cleansed between times of use, and the bather is ignorant of the condition both of the tub and of the person who used it previously. In institutions for the insane and feeble-minded, un scrupulous attendants have been known to bathe several persons in the same water. Large pools are better, but still not ideal; nor are they always suitable or practicable.