The sitz bath is conveniently used for a foot-bath, thus making this fixture doubly useful. Indeed, the sitz bath is a more comfortable means of bathing the feet than is the foot-bath itself. Children's bath tubs, small, and elevated by legs to the height of a lavatory, are made, but no well-defined demand exists for them. Greater convenience to the nurse, the use of less water, and quicker filling and emptying, are the only points in their favor.
Foot-Baths. The foot-bath is a small rectangular tub with proper feet and rim, fur nished with supply and waste of the regular bath pat tern, diminished to suit. The sizes av erage say 12 inches deep, with 20-inch sides. The fee t make the total height about 18 inches. Fig. 18 gives a good idea of the usual enameled iron foot-bath fixture. Enameled iron and porcelain are the usual materials. They require even less water than the sitz bath, but, as before said, are not so convenient for the purpose as the sitz fixture, and are not installed except in the most spacious and elaborate bath rooms. The foot-bath would serve admirably as a child's bath, ex cept that it is too near the floor.
Bidet Fixtures. The majority of leading fixture makers do not now catalogue these. They consist essentially of a pedestal like a closet pedestal, with bowl and rim contracted in the center, giving an outline something like the figure 8. Proper fittings to operate the jet and waste are provided. Porcelain is the material. As men tioned before, Bidet jets are furnished in combination with receptor shower fixtures, as well as with sitz baths.
Drinking Fountains. Drinking fountains are now frequently used in stores, schools, and residences, the various fixtures adapted to such installations being readily obtainable. The basins or drip slabs for public indoor fountains, are often cut to order by the manu facturer; and the cooling and faucet arrangements are provided by the plumber. Porcelain, enameled-iron, and marble fountains of stock designs are made. For schools, trough-like basins, either with open spouts for continuous streams, or with self-closing faucets, as shown in Fig. 19, are frequent. The fixture shown. in Fig. 20, con sisting of solid porcelain, in which the recessed drain-slab and the high back constitute a single piece, is of recent design, pre sents an excellent appearance, and has the advantage of being easily kept in immaculate condi tion. The three deep waste out lets, above each of which is a faucet, afford facilities to many users in a short space of time.
One device which serves well for common use, is the ordinary lavatory, provided with a stiff perforated bottom fitting extending well up toward the top of the bowl. This, with a proper faucet on the slab, and a cup-chain fitted to the extra faucet-hole, makes a useful but not attractive fixture.
Recessed porcelain and enameled fountains designed to be placed in wall niches, and having concealed connections, as suggested by Fig. 21, are neat, and require very little room outside the finished wall line. Countersunk slabs with strainer waste, with back either integral or separate, as design or material dictates, are made in marble and porcelain. Marble fountains are adaptable to any location, because the slab and back can be cut to any shape or dimensions preferred. The fountain proper, faucet, cup, and pipe waste connection, with strainer, are all that is supplied by the makers.
A type of fountain shown in Fig. 22, is provided with a flowing jet of water from which one can drink without placing the lips in contact with any metal surface. The small central bowl or cup is constantly submerged and cleansed in the stream of water which passes outwardly over it, thus avoiding the danger incident to the common use of the same drinking cup by many persons. The surface does not afford lodgment to possible germs of disease, which are most liable to transmit contagion when allowed to become dry and adhere to a surface.
Lavatories. Lavatories are made from porcelain, enameled iron, marble, and onyx, in numerous patterns. The number of designs is so large that they are best understood if considered in the classes into which they may be divided. In marble and onyx fixtures, the slab, back, and bowl are necessarily separate pieces. In any but very accu rate fitting and erecting, t h e un avoidable join t s soon, if not from the beginning, in vite the tion of dirt. Poor workmanship, settling, abortive countersinks. and faucet bosses not cut free within the countersink, have in many cases brought slab types of basins into unjust repute, or, at least, have given basis for strong talking points against them, which have been effectively so used. If made and installed in the most approved manner, these styles, properly cared for, offer little reason for severe criticism. One fact, however, must be borne in mind when comparing marble with other materials used for plumb ing fixtures—namely, that marble is not an impermeable stone. Nearly all marbles (excepting only the very hardest and most dense) are quite absorbent, and depend upon the surface finish given to the slab to resist the entrance of liquids into the body of the stone. As soon as the surface becomes roughened by wear, the greasy and acid wastes penetrate into the pores, and the marble becomes permanently discolored. Only a limited observation of the bad condition of marble floors or urinal slabs which have been subjected to use for a few years, is necessary to confirm this statement.