Origin of P trap

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Looks like quantum physics strayed a bit too far...

I HAVE though been searching since the topic appeared.

Aside from the "official" definition of "a trap with a horizontal outlet and vertical inlet" everything in my library and on the web makes reference to its resemblance to the letter "p".

Seems to make sense when you consider OTHER traps and how they are named.

S trap definitely looks like the letter "s"

Drum trap resembles a drum.

Bottle trap resembles a bottle.

Alan R. Mercurio

But why?

Why doesn't a mouse trap look like a mouse??

~

Sorry, I'm just being silly today!


Your friend in the industry,

Alan R. Mercurio

Oil Tech Talk

Gary Usa

origin of p trap

hiya guys how we all keeping,and that all your backs are being treated like kid gloves,here i a liitle explanation for you,the p trap i thought sttod for putrification


If all the waste did not go through the p-trap, putrification odors would result. Manufacturers and inventors continued to search for improvements. The first improvement was combining the pool of water in the bowl with the p-trap. These toilets, known as "wash-downs", were on the market shortly following the wash-out. However, both wash-outs and wash-downs often failed to consistently remove heavier waste from the bowl. By the end of the century, sanitaryware manufacturers had discovered that by diverting some of the water from the cistern to the bottom of the bowl, a jet flush was created that pushed waste out and if they changed the shape of the p-trap exit it would act like a siphon pulling the waste out. The modern flush toilet (as seen in the right below) was born. English historians credit a pottery in Chelsea, the Beaufort Works, as the first to develop a toilet with a flush tube to the bottom of the bowl in 1886, although an American had received a patent in America 10 years earlier for a similar
concept.


take care

all the best

gary uk

Mike T., Swampeast MO

Bottle Trap

If you've never seen one, here's a little picture. I hadn't even heard of it until I had to order one for my pedestal sink as I HATE keeping the flex-type tail piece in there.

[Deleted User]

its probably lost to history

and is now subject to the wimms of the instructor who teaches the apprentices...when i was an apprentice, i was taught the ''p'' in p-trap stood for pneumatic, since its dealing with air/odor, altho i was never able over the years to confirm this in writing...altho interestingly enough in my really really old books its not called a p-trap, but a 1/2 s-trap..there was also a 3/4 s-trap made entirly of lead. i like the putification meaning tho, and will add that to the list of possible explanations..its all historical speculation i think, these days...there are some self proclaimed guru's who i'm sure will tell us both were all wet,,,but you bring an interesting twist to it that i havent heard of before...i like that..hows the back doing?

[Deleted User]

put in 16 of those

in a school science lab last year, they were sort of a pain cause the didn't offer the flexibilty of the p-trap as far as swinging the trap goes..they were the plastic polypropelyne versions billed on the specs as ''acid traps''.