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Archiver > CHESHIRE > 1998-08 > 0902320272


From: Terry Jacombs <>
Subject: [CHESHIRE-L] Plumber/Glazier
Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1998 13:31:12 +0100


Hi all,

I have had a request to summarise the answers I received to my query and as I cannot remember which answers I received personally and which were also posted to the lists, I am putting this on the three lists the original query went to to. Apologies for those who fine this repetitious.

Plumbing was around in Roman Empire times, although not quite as we know it and probably not known in Latin as Plomb!

Plomb was the Latin for lead and is still the root of the chemical symbol for lead Pb. So the original plumbers were workers in lead, and glass in windows was from early times (15/1600s in rich houses?) fixed in by lead (and until relatively recently lead was still used for this purpose).

So the plumbers naturally became involved in fixing glass becoming plumbers and glaziers. and its use as an occupation in the late 1700s would not have been unusual.The later use of the term plumber evolved naturally as lead pipes became used for transporting water (and gas), throught the nineteenth centrury.

Kind regards

Terry Jacombs
Cheltenham, UK

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