The Holy Grail of PVC pipe fittings!

*While rummaging through the dank bowels of the plumbing section of a major big-box hardware store the other day, my eyes widened as my hand fell upon something amazing. I raised my hand in victory, holding the object up toward the ceiling. I gaped, I gasped, "This is indeed the Holy Grail! This is what we've spent all those years waiting for! We've finally found it." A ray of light shone down onto the small, plastic object--a one-half inch three-way Elbow PVC Fitting Connector.

I handed the white plastic item to Einida for inspection."Oh my," she exclaimed. "It is as you say. It really is the Holy Grail of PVC pipe fittings."

So many questions flitted through my mind: "When did they start making these fantastic joints? How could I not have known about this astonishing product earlier?  What finally convinced the pipe fitting manufacturers to give the world the one shape that it's been so desperately missing?"

Manically, I wheeled around and machine-gunned a nervous and pimply stock boy with more questions: "How many of these do you have in stock? When did you start carrying this product? Where did it come from? Where can we get more?"

The frightened lad was overwhelmed as he became aware of the full extent of his ignorance. His brain shut down and he was rendered mute.

Ah, but never mind him, I thought. He is but collateral damage in this long war which I have been waging.

The long wait for this particular plumbing joint is finally over. This discovery will radically change the construction methods of the Laboratory's PVC-related projects. My hands fidgeted in excitement as I fantasized about all the PVC cubes I could now build.

In times past PVC cubes were built with sixteen PVC joints. In order to make a single corner, you had to undergo the laborious and maddening process of cutting up tiny pieces of PVC pipe just to join two joints together.

Now, with my discovery of this new pipe fitting, it will take a mere eight corner joints to do the job. No more fussing with little pieces, no more running out of parts in the middle of a project, and no more complicated, unstable, multi-piece frames.

Inventors have long used PVC piping. The variety of joints and pipes in all sorts of shapes and sizes make plumbing PVC similar to such old-time connector toys as "Tinkertoys." They're used to build lightweight structures, furniture, stands, and cubes, and there are few limitations as to what you can do with these materials. My discovery of this particular joint greatly expands the possibilities of what can be done in this field.

Sadly, this store had only four joints in stock, so I wasn't able to buy enough of them to actually build the simple cube of which I had dreamed.  But I am already planning my next PVC hunting expeditions to other hardware stores.