Brooklyn

Standing over a small tank of water in a Brooklyn factory, Zbigniew Solecki plunged a gleaming faucet into the water, then shot air at 60 pounds per square inch into it. He watched for rising bubbles, a sign that an unseen fissure had, unacceptably, let the air stream out. It is a rite of passage that Mr. Solecki performs dozens of times a day.

"Every last piece is pressure-tested before it goes out the door to China," said Jack Abel, the engineer who built the factory. "Or anywhere else."

Yes, he did say China.

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