Plumbing, from the Latin for lead (plumbum), is the skilled trade of working with pipes for water, drainage and natural gas. Plumbing originated during the ancient civilisations such as Persian, Chinese, Indian and Roman civilisations as they developed public baths and needed to provide fresh water and drainage. The piping used to convey the water and waste was often made of lead. Now we understand the dangers of lead, which is highly toxic if consumed and dangerous to the environment. As a result, nearly all manufactured plumbing products and materials are lead free, today.

A plumber is someone who installs or repairs piping systems, plumbing fixtures and equipment such as water heaters and boilers.

A plumbing fixture is a device which is part of a system to deliver and drain away water, but which is also configured to enable a particular use.

The most common plumbing fixtures are: water closets (WC) (known as toilets in the USA, loos, flush, toilets or lavatories in Britain), urinals, lavatories (also called bathroom sinks), kitchen sinks, utility sinks, bathtubs, showers and bidets.

Each of these plumbing fixtures has one or more water inlets and a drain. In some cases, the drain has a device that can be manipulated block the drain to fill the basin of the fixture. Each fixture also has a flood rim, or level at which water will begin to overflow. Most fixtures also have an overflow, which is a conduit for water to drain away, when the regular drain is plugged, before the water actually overflows at the flood rim level. However, water closets and showers (that are not in bathtubs) usually lack this feature because their drains normally cannot be stopped.

Each fixture usually has a characteristic means of connection. Normal plumbing practice is to install a valve on each water supply line before the fixture, and this is most commonly termed a stop or "service valve". The water supply to some fixtures is cold water only (such as water closets and urinals). Most fixtures also have a hot water supply. In some occasional cases, a sink may have both a potable (drinkable) and a non-potable water supply.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia Article: Plumbing