How did "street" become fitting name?

No definition needed for "street." I know what one is.

But how in the world did the name come about? I've posted the Q on other forums, and struck out.

My guess would be it was the first elbow fitting used in the street to connect a smaller line to the side of a larger main line without the need for a tee in the main line. Sounds good huh? And since it screwed into whatever, it naturally of course was a male! threaded fitting forever more called a street fitting. It is a male elbow in your area right. lol

Guessing:

'street' is short for 'terminating at the street'.

Anyone got access to a 600 series Delta pressure balanced valve? I gots to needs one bad.

A customer tried to fix his and broke it off in the wall. Two shower valves in the shower enclosure....needs a match to go back.

This subject was discussed years ago in my apprenticeship but I can't remember what the truth was about street fittings.

I use them often in both water lines and drain.

street

They were used in the "street" to connect to the city mains so they became street elbows. The term "fire plug" comes from the days of wooden water mains. When the fire wagon arrived at the fire, they would cut a hole in the pipe to obtain water, and then put a "plug" in the hole afterwards. Since the "fire plugs" were at the location of a fire, when they started installing fire hydrants the term fire plug remained with them.

damn you are old hj

I've been told there are quite a few old wood mains in covington still. I doubt that they are operational though.

They dug one up about 15-20 years ago in Lebanon OH in the middle of the city. No one on the street dept. knew it was there. They guessed it was put in some time in the late 1800s. I think they said it was oak.

wood

There are still some active ones in Australia.

i saw wood drains in Prague after the August 2002 floods, when they were rebuilding and reparing.

david

~10 years ago, a section of wooden gas main was found during an excavation in the warehouse district of Minneapolis. It was saved and now serves as a teaching aid. Of course it had been unused for ~60 years, but the pipe itself dated back to the 1870's. Way back from the wet-gas days.

Which ironically leads to the origin of another term: drip leg.

Conveyance of what we now call natural gas in the old days needed a bit of upkeep. Since a majority of the original gas mains were wood, water vapor was added to the gas to help keep the wood moist and swelled up to prevent leakage. (A sidebar to this for anyone in the Mpls area, this is why MinneGasCo/Relaint's pumping station is right off the river, east of 35W in Burnsville) The byproduct of this was the need to remove condensed water prior to using the gas at an appliance. Hence the drip leg was born.

Nowadays it may be called a dirt leg or sediment trap. It is still required prior to all controls/fixtures up here in the north, at vertical-to-horizontal changes in direction and when gas enters from an unconditioned space to a conditioned space.

I call the t&p drain pipe a drip leg.....slang in dez parts.

The gas utility company in my area states "Our gas is so clean that you do not need a drip leg at the fixture."

Sounds good but in the game of cards, it's the piping, not the gas that has particulates and dirt/debri. I couldn't tell you how many times oil from the threading collects in those drip legs. It's second nature for me to install them even though not required.

Anyone getting hustled in your area to join BNI? It's a business networking system where you have to join, you meet once a week and trade information amoungst yourselves for referrals. I am not interested whatsoever in regards to joining......sounds like a big amway pyramid scheme. I get letters from painters/siding guys/electricians and handymen trying to get me to become part of thier network.

Man! Forget HJ, you guys are ALL OLD!!! lol... we better tap as much info as possible from you before you decide to golf for the rest of your lives

ps... sure did miss the ol' forum, how the hell is it possible that MPMark is not filling this thread with wise old saje advice?

Kristi said:

Man! Forget HJ, you guys are ALL OLD!!! lol... we better tap as much info as possible from you before you decide to golf for the rest of your lives

ps... sure did miss the ol' forum, how the hell is it possible that MPMark is not filling this thread with wise old saje advice?

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Old? Only my wife gets away with calling me that! I'm only in my high, lower thirties, lol.

Old?

I wasn't "old" until after my heart attack, and I still do not appreciate feeling my age.

hj said:

I still do not appreciate feeling my age.

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I appreciate yr experience and willingness to share it.

hj said:

I wasn't "old" until after my heart attack, and I still do not appreciate feeling my age.

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I feel your pain. Hope you're doing well and since you're able to feel your age, you're much better off than the alternative... My wife says "you're only as old as those you feel". Or is it the one you feel? ummm she is younger than me... maybe that's femspeak!