Hmmm. It could also be wick wool. I still have a ball of the stuff that was
my fathers. It looks a bit like string, and was commonly used to pack the
stems of water taps.

Steve R.


"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...
I though maybe somebody else with more knowledge would have jumped in
here, but to me .......

The stuff Jim described in the OP sounds like Oakum. Not sure exactly
what the fibre is/was, but it was used also in the joints of soil
pipes. Came in a variety of shapes and sizes, and for let's say a 4"
sewer line joint a 3/8" piece, long enough to do the circumference a
couple of times, would be rammed into the joint first, like a gland
packing, and then lead poured in to seal it. It also kept the lead
from leaking into the pipe.

That's my recollection anyway.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

On 23 Nov 2003 16:40:17 -0800, jim rozen
wrote:

In article , JR North says...

Since organic weaves swell when wet, it makes sense for a
depression-era make-do job. Anything like the things you are
describing that last 50+years can't be faulted.

Quite right. I just suspect that at the time, that
may not have been a make-do. And the threaded part
of the joint was absolutely water tight, as I mentioned.
That was not what went wrong there.

One of the original owners of this house was a plumber,
so it has has some interesting features.

I strongly suspect that it had indoor plumbing at a time
(right around 1900) when many houses did not. The cast
iron waste lines are standard weight, very thin. But
clearly he wanted to add on another bathroom, because
there's a second vertical stack that ends up in the
wall in the attic, and hooks over the sill down in the
basement. Open at both ends. That was a puzzler until
I found out he was a plumber, he knew it would be easy
to put that in during construction, tough later.

It has the original central heat, circulating hot water.
But the pipes that carry heat to the second story
radiators do not travel upstairs through the walls,
they're exposed out in the open. So when the upstairs
zone fires you get some head downstairs too.

The quality of the work is strictly middle-poor. I can
see Mr. Frost saying to himself, 'this will hold it until
I can get back to it later.' Ha.

Later on he went on to become a city cop, my neighbor
to the south knew him then. He was a "mean" cop. Used
to sit in the driveway and wait to catch speeders on the
road out in front.

Jim

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