It had to have been a male that named plumbing fittings because men are visual and women are…thoughtful.
When I started my apprenticeship, one of the first things my dad taught me was if I thought about sex, I would start to understand why fittings were called what they were. I remember laughing at him incredulously and to my astonishment he was serious. Plumbing fittings with sexual references? No wonder it was a male dominated trade!!
My dad had his head buried in a cupboard, disconnecting a sink, when he started to rattle off fittings that I would need to know… half inch female union, half inch male line union, tit of a trap, hex nipple, stopcock… plumbers crack. The last one was a joke.
Funnily enough, thinking about sex helped me discern the difference between fittings when a plumber would ask me to go and get a particular fitting off the back of the truck.
A male line meant the fitting would insert into another fitting. A female union would be a fitting that could have something inserted into or screwed into it, no pun intended. (Now you know why my dad hid his head in a cupboard when he explained this to me!)
The tit of a trap is a small ‘nib’ opening in a sink trap. It’s sole purpose is for a dishwasher waste hose connection. The end of the tit on a trap is rounded like a boob.
A hex nipple is a fitting with male pipe thread on either side of a hex shaped middle (so a spanner or shifter can easily grasp it) and it connects two other fittings together.
A stopcock is a ball vale or a water tap that turns water off or on, on a main water line. In the UK there is an all female plumbing firm called “Stopcocks”. It’s a common plumbing term and a rather interesting name for an all female plumbing company.
Of course, having been in the industry for over 6 years, I now can immediately tell the difference between fittings. There are also some fittings that are male line on one end and female on the other.
As you can see plumbing is an interesting trade and is definitely not all about water and sewerage.
Have you ever come across any funny terms for fittings or products? Do share.
