■560 Silver Pipes—Peruvian Baths—Sliding Codes. [Book V.
fact, that some lesser tubes discovered among the sarae rubbish were ofsolid silver.
Nothing, says Blainville, could equal in richness the apartments of Ca-racalla’s baths. Columns, statues, rarest marbles and jaspers, and pieturesof an immense value were lavished on every one of them. The very pipes,both large and small, which conveyed water into the bathing apartments,were all of tiiefinest silver. This particular is reeorded by several [ancient]authors, and among others by Statius .
Ütho, in a feast given to Nero, almost deluged his guests with a mostprecious liquid perfume, which, “ by openmg certain Codes,” gushed outof silver and golden tubes that were placed in different parts of the room.
As water was conveyed by pipes into the houses and temples of ancientMexican and Peruvian eitles, it might thence be concluded, in the absenceof direct testimony, that Codes, at least wooden spigots, were in use also ;but there is evidence of the fact. We are informed, that in a palace ofAtabalipa , there was a bath or “ golden cislerne, whereto were by twopipes from contrary passages, brought both cold water and hot, to usethem mingled or asunder at pleasure.” (Purchas’ Pilgrim, 1073.) Nowthat these pipes were furnished with cocks, is expressly asserted by Gar-cilasso, in a passage we have already quoted. (See page 170.) Cisternsand pipes, both of silver and gold were used in the temple at Cusco .
“ Golden pipes” are mentioned by the prophet Zechariah , iv, 2 and 12.
We gave a figure of a siphon cock at Nos. 265-6, and shall here describea sliding one, contrived and used by us several years ago. A, No. 275 re-presents a short brass or copper tube, with a stnffing-box fitted to its upperend : the lower end is soldered to a pipe proceeding from a reservoir,or from a main in the Street. B a smooth and smaller tube, having itslower end closed, works through the stuffing-box : to its upper end,which is also closed, a knob or handle is fixed, and just below, there is aspout for discharging the water. At the middle of B, a number of holesare drilled through its sides, or they may be in the form of slits. Nowwhile these openings are kept above the stuffing-box (as shown in thecut) no water can be discharged ; but as soon as B is pushed down, so asto bring them below the stuffing-box, the fluid rushes through them andescapes at the spout. To stop the discharge B is then raised, as in thefigure. There should be one or two small projecting pieces near the lowerend of B to prevent its being pulled entirely out of A. The pressure ofthe water tends to keep B from sliding down, when the Instrument is notin use, even if the friction of the stuffing-box were not sufficient. Theexternal edges of the slits should be smooth to prevent them from catch-ing hold of the packing while passing through it. Of this, there is howeverbut little danger in small cocks, and in those of larger size, that part of Bthrough which they are made might be slightly contracted.
No. 276 represents one of these cocks attached to a cistern, with theopenings within the stuffing-box, and consequently the fluid escaping.The length of the slits should always be less than the depth of the packing.
No. 277 exhibits a stop-cock, or one whose ends are straight and alike,(such as plumbers solder in the middle of pipes.) A straight tube C Dis closed by a partition or disk in the middle of its length : as the waterwhich flows from the reservoir always remains in the end C, the object isto open a communication for it to pass into D. To accomplish this, slitsor other shaped openings are made through the pipe on both sides of thedisk, and a shorter but wider tube E, with a stuffing-box at each end isfitted to slide over C D. Thus, to allow water to pass into D, all that isrequired is to move E (by the two projecting handles) tili both series of