Most people don’t know much more than the basics about home plumbing here in the Greater Birmingham area. After all, what’s there to know? You turn a faucet on, water comes out. You flush a toilet, water flushes out the bottom of the bowl to wherever. Doesn’t get much simpler than that, right?
But the truth is, your plumbing system is an intricate network of pipes, fittings, and fixtures. And in today’s fast-paced, convenience-oriented society, an over-flowing toilet or lack of hot water is enough to stop you in your tracks.
And then there’s the history of plumbing, loaded with all kinds of interesting factoids.
Here’s just a few to help earn you a few extra points on trivia night.
- Rock star Ozzy Osbourne was a plumber’s apprentice before he decided to make a splash in the music industry.
- A typical household wastes 9,000 gallons of water each year running the faucet while waiting for hot water.
- Nintendo’s Mario of Super Mario Brothers, perhaps the most recognized game character around, is a plumber.
- Some urinals in Japan have voice-activated flush mechanisms and respond to as many as 30 different languages.
- It takes 6 seconds for water to burn the skin at 140 degrees, at 160 degrees it only takes half a second.
- Contrary to popular belief, the direction the water swirls in the toilet bowl has nothing to do with whether the toilet lies in the northern and southern hemisphere, but rather the direction the rim jets are set.
- Henry S. Parmalee of New Haven, CT, is credited with inventing the first automatic sprinkler head in 1874.
- Even after it was found harmful to humans, lead was used to solder pipes all through the 1980s.
- Albert Einstein was named an honorary member of the Plumbers and Steamfitters Union. What did he do to receive such an honor? He said if he had to do it all over again, he would have become a plumber.
- It is estimated that up to 38% of a home’s water use is used for toilet flushing.
And you thought a plumber’s life was a dull one? Not for a minute. Take, for example, the kinds of things we’re likely to find when we unclog a toilet drain line – things that shouldn’t have been there in the first place. But that’s a story we’ll save for another time.
For now, simply remember that for all your home plumbing needs, Eagle Service Company is ready, willing, and able to complete the job with your 100% satisfaction guaranteed.
