CHAPTER VI.

KITCHENS.—THE KITCHEN A WORKSHOP.—WORK TO BE DONE IN A KITCHEN.—A PLAN.—FITTINGS.—DISH-WASHING CONVENIENCES.—SINK AND TABLES.—CHINA-CLOSET.—PANTRY.—COMBINATION PANTRY.—PANTRY FITTINGS.—WORK IN A PANTRY.—A DOUGH-BOARD.—FLOUR-BIN.—PANTRY STORES.—CUPBOARD.—REFRIGERATOR ARRANGEMENTS.—PANTRY UTENSILS.—A DRY-BOX.—SOAP-BOX.—VENTILATION OF KITCHEN.—GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF KITCHEN PLANNING.

The kitchen existed in its state of greatest cleanliness and order a good many years ago in New England, where it was largely used as a sitting and dining room. As people became more prosperous, they moved out of the kitchen; they had a separate sitting-room. It was then that the kitchen began to decline. After this it was often literally as well as figuratively separated from the living part of the house.

The public has not suffered through lack of information on cookery and general housekeeping topics. Little has been said, however, about the house itself, with regard to its arrangements for facilitating the manifold operations of housekeeping. The subject is a broad one, and may be treated with some respect to detail. As the heart of the house, the kitchen may be given serious consideration.

In the modern house the kitchen is merely the place where the food is prepared for the table. The controlling idea and its arrangements should be to afford facilities for doing the work with as little labor as possible.

The kitchen is the workshop of the house. It should be arranged and planned according to the same general principles as any other workshop. A manufacturer arranges his foundry, his mill, or his printing-house, with reference to the saving of labor, for the purpose of saving money. When we save labor in a kitchen, we save the energy of the housekeeper, and, possibly, money.

An article on this subject was probably never written that did not pretend to describe the “model kitchen.” It is safe to say that no such kitchen was regarded as “model” by all readers. A model kitchen is something which is out of reason. No two housekeepers have the same requirements. Housekeeping practice varies greatly. Again, the kitchen that can be built to one floor-plan cannot be built to another. In describing a kitchen, it is in mind to set forth certain general principles for the benefit of those interested.

There is little difference between the requirements of a kitchen for a house of moderate cost and an expensive house. Work of the same general character is done in every kitchen. The conveniences are more a matter of thought than of money. Elaborate details add much to the cost, but little to the convenience. There is little or no difference between the cost of a well-planned kitchen and one which is poorly planned.

To state the case broadly, a kitchen should be arranged solely with reference to the work which is to be done in it: the cooking, dish-washing, the care of the kitchen itself, and possibly the laundry work. This latter work should be removed from the kitchen—in any event, the washing should be done elsewhere—when it is at all possible. The steam and odor from the washing, which not only fill the kitchen but permeate the house, are enough to render whatever food there is in the kitchenunfit for use. It is altogether possible to arrange in the cellar of any house that is being built, and in many that are already built, at a trifling cost, a laundry in which the washing and ironing may be comfortably done. Of course this does not contemplate set tubs; but set tubs are not found in houses where the washing and ironing are done in the kitchen, and it is possible to do this work both well and easily without their use. There is little or no objection to doing the ironing in a well-ventilated kitchen. It is clean work, and while doing it the servant may attend to any cooking which is necessary, and see that the other work of the house moves forward.

Fig. 2

The kitchen the plan of which is here given (Fig. 2) has been in use for three years under the varying conditions of one or two servants, and at times none at all. These are the conditions under which most housekeepers operate. There have been no emergencies in which the kitchen and pantries have not proven themselves ample, and none in which the housekeeper thought that they were too large and complicated. It is as necessary in houses where the means for maintenance is simply moderate, that a kitchen should not be too large as that it should afford ample facilities for accomplishing any work which may be done.

The kitchen itself is thirteen and one-half by fourteen and one-half feet. In it are placed the range, tables, sink, drain-board, etc., and the kitchen safe. The room has been found large enough for the work which is to be done there, and not so large that the tables, range, and safe are so far apart that time and strength are wasted moving from one to another. The kitchen has one large window in it, which is three feet from the floor. This permits the placing of a table, ironing-board, or chair under it, and thus gives additional wall space. There are two windows in the pantry, and a draught is secured through them, the kitchen window, and the transom over the door. The door is glazed.

The most disagreeable work of a kitchen, and that which takes much time, is the dish-washing. It is possible to make this work lighter and pleasanter than is usual. The necessary conditions are plenty of water, hot and cold, a place where the dishes will drain themselves, an abundance of table room for them both before and after washing. In the kitchen given the sink is placed next the kitchen flue. This gives a place for the pipe duct next the warm bricks, which prevent freezing even in severe cold weather. During the three years in which this kitchen has been in use they have never frozen, even when the temperature was twenty degrees below zero. The exact construction of this kitchen pipe-duct and other kitchen wood-work is given elsewhere. The range, which is usually next the flue, is, in this instance, placed at some distance from it. There is no reason why this should not be done, as it has been in many instances, with no disagreeable results.

The sink is not enclosed, but stands upon legs. Enclosed sinks are places which cannot be kept clean even with the utmost vigilance. The brushes, scrub-rags, and buckets, which are usually kept there, are in this kitchen provided a place elsewhere.

Fig. 3

At the left of the sink is a table; at the right, a drain-board, which is inclined toward the sink, and provided with grooves. At the right of this is a swing-table on the same level. The soiled dishes are placed on the table at the left, washed in the sink, which is provided with cocks for hot and cold water, drained on the drain-board, and, when wiped, placed on thetable at the right. A glance at the plan will show that they are then beside the door which leads to the china-closet, and may be quickly placed where they belong.

It may be well to say a few words about the china-closet. The shelves are placed in a passage which leads from the kitchen to the dining-room, and are separated from the passage by doors. This passage is lighted by a window, and has two doors leading into it—one from the dining-room, and one from the kitchen (Fig. 2). These doors are swung on double swinging hinges, so that they may be opened by merely pushing against them, and will then swing back noiselessly into a closed position. One may pass through doors of this kind with a tray full of dishes without touching them with the hand. This arrangement dispenses with the necessity for a slide, and also does away with the noises and odors from the kitchen, which so readily find their way to the rest of the house where a slide is used. However, if a slide is really desired, it can be placed over either the table at the left of the sink or over the swing-table at the right, and be convenient from both kitchen and dining-room.

The china-pantry could be readily enlarged into a butler’s pantry, by extending it across the end of the dining-room, and placing the end window of this room on one side, thus bringing two windows on the same wall. There is a movable shelf under one of the permanent shelves in this china-closet, which can be drawn out in order to place a tray of dishes on it while they are being put away, and which can be pushed out of the way when not in use. This shelf is also of service as a place upon which to arrange the different dishes needed for the several courses of a meal, and in this way facilitates the table service.

InFig. 4, the combination idea is carried out in pantry and china-closet. The pantry-cupboard projects into the room ina way to form a partition between the pantry and china-closet, and, at the same time, admits of a passage between the kitchen and dining-room with a separation of two doors.

Fig. 5indicates an approved form of construction of china-closet and pantry, such as may be used in most of the pantries and china-rooms which are in this book.

Fig. 4

The work which takes the most time is the preparation of food, and every well-planned kitchen has its arrangements for lightening this burden. The first consideration is the location of the utensils, and the table and sink where the meats and vegetables are prepared. All should be near enough to the range so that there are no unnecessary steps to be taken. The number that are taken where the sink is in one corner of the kitchen, the table in another, and the range removed from both, is innumerable. In this kitchen the table proper and the sink are together, and they are but a step from the range.

There is a small swing-table attached to the wall at one sideof the range. This provides a place for utensils, such as spoons, and forks, and dishes, such as those holding pancake batter, which are in constant use during cooking, and which cannot be held in the hand while the cooking is in progress. This alone saves many steps. The drain-board is a good place for draining vegetables, and to place utensils which are used in the preparation of food. Above the sink are hooks, etc., upon which to keep small utensils. In localities where there is much dust coming in from the outside these utensils must be kept elsewhere, behind closed doors.

Fig. 5

For the preparation of bread, cake, pastries, etc., the pantry is provided. In it are places for everything which can be used for such preparation. One can go out of the heat and noise of the kitchen into a little room which holds everything that can possibly be needed, and there prepare those articles of food which take the most time and careful attention. InFig. 2are two windows; under one is the dough-board. This is a tablefastened to the wall at a convenient height for moulding and general work of this character. On one end is a piece of marble, twelve inches wide by sixteen long, which is used for moulding purposes. The advantages of such a piece of marble are numerous. It is as easily cleaned as a dish and requires no scouring, and, as dough does not readily stick to it, moulding can be done without the trouble which comes from the use of a board. This piece of marble is not fastened to the dough-board, as is sometimes done. Where it is set into the board there will always be creases in which dough will lodge, and it can only be cleaned with the greatest trouble. Where it is free, it can be raised from the board occasionally, and everything thoroughly cleaned.

At the right of the board is the flour-bin, which contains places for various kinds of flour and meal. Next to it is the refrigerator. Over the refrigerator is a window which opens on the porch, and through which the ice may be placed without the iceman going through the kitchen with his wet feet and dripping load.

At the left of the dough-board are shelves for keeping stores. The lower shelves are enclosed by doors and provided with a lock, so that extra stores may be placed there for safe keeping, where this is found desirable. The upper shelves are exposed. On them are kept sugar, tea, coffee, baking-powder, and kindred stores, which are in every-day use, and can be reached easier if there are no doors to be opened and closed. They should be kept in air-tight cans, which prevent their exposure to dust, insects, and air. Back of the door opening into the kitchen are hooks for the utensils which more properly belong in the pantry than the kitchen.

Many housekeepers prefer to keep the refrigerator in the cellar, on account of the waste in the ice. This waste, to themind of the writer, is a small matter. The time spent by either housekeeper or servant in going into the cellar could much better be occupied in doing something else which would save more than does keeping the refrigerator below. Then, again, when it is kept in the pantry it can readily be provided with a zinc drain to the outside, which saves some little labor. In the cellar such a drain would only be possible where sand could be reached. A refrigerator should never, under any circumstances, be drained into the sewer, as is sometimes done.

The utensils which properly belong to the kitchen are kept in an old-fashioned kitchen safe, rather than in a closet opening out from the kitchen. A safe is more readily cleaned than a closet, and the perforated metal doors render the upper part of it an excellent place for storing cold food, which it is not desirable to keep in the refrigerator. Then if, as may happen in any kitchen which is left to the care of servants, vermin should take possession, the safe can be moved from the room, and trouble from this source avoided.

The entrance to the cellar is near the table, as marked. At the head of the cellar are placed brooms, mops, and dust-pans, and above these, well away from the head when going below, is a shelf upon which two buckets can be placed.

Back of the range is a small wooden box, thirty inches long by twenty-two inches wide and twelve inches deep, which is provided with a door and shelves. These shelves, as well as the top and bottom, have holes bored through them in order to allow the passage of hot air. In this box scrubbing-rags and brushes dry at once, and never have a bad odor. The box is of the same wood as the other kitchen finish, and looks as if it were a part of it.

A soap-box, with construction similar to the above, may beprovided. It should have a tin-pipe connection with flue or other ventilating apparatus. It will dry the soap and render its use less wasteful.

The ventilation of the kitchen is an important matter. The ideal kitchen has no rooms over it, and has ventilators in the ceiling. But this is not possible in most houses, and a substitute must be provided. An inverted sheet-iron hopper placed over the range, with an opening into either the flue or the outside of the house, will carry out the odors from cooking. An opening into the pipe-duct which holds the plumbing pipes will keep them from freezing in cold weather at the same time that it helps ventilate.

An important consideration in a kitchen is to build it so that it will not readily accumulate dirt, and can be easily cleaned. A large amount of time is spent in every well-kept house in cleaning the kitchen. The floor should be of oak, maple, or other hard wood, oiled, waxed, or finished with regular floor-finishing. The casings and doors are, of course, kept in better condition, with less labor, when of hard wood. Where this is not attainable, poplar, or other similar wood, finished with a varnish which will stand warm water, will prove a very good substitute. The tables should be either of oak, which requires little scrubbing, or poplar, which is so easily scrubbed that it is always white enough to delight the heart of the most particular housekeeper. A kitchen finished in this way is much less care than when the floor is of soft wood, and the finish a soft wood painted.

All kitchens in this book are planned according to the principles here set forth. They do not pretend to be exactly like this one, but the same general principle runs through all.

There are very good reasons why wainscoting should not be used in a kitchen, and no compensating advantages. The bead-joints and extra wood-work thereof make labor in the impossible task of keeping it clean. The less wood-work there is in a kitchen, the better. There are various kind of water-proof proprietary plaster finishes which may be used in finishing the walls and ceiling of a kitchen. Where they are not used, a white skim coat should be put on and painted after about a year’s use.

CELLAR.—FUEL DEPARTMENTS.—FURNACE CONVENIENCES.—COAL-BINS.—CEMENT FLOORS.—LIGHT IN THE CELLAR.—A CELLAR-CLOSET.—OUTSIDE CELLAR-DOOR.

The cellar was originally a hole in the ground. In the modern house, that is arranged to please the house-keeper, it is well lighted; provided with a smooth cement floor that is easily cleaned; is not open as one room, but has apartments—one for a laundry, another for fuel and furnace, and still others for fruits and general stores. In the matter of fuel there is no reason why the entire winter supply should not be in the basement. It is certainly a great deal worse to go outside of the house in winter time from a hot, steaming kitchen, than it is to go into the basement for the fuel. However, there is some objection to storing wood in the cellar, for the reason that it brings bugs, ants, and vermin into the house.

Coal-bins should be constructed with hopper bottoms,—with bottom and sides slanting from level of outside grade-line to cellar floor,—where the location will admit of it. When there is not a cellar under all of the house, it is generally possible to arrange the coal-bin under the part without cellar, and slanting down to the part so used. This is illustrated in planNo. 11, Chapter XX. There the coal is put through the windows into the bins, and slides down to the opening in cellar. For each shovelful of coal taken away from the lower opening, another will take its place. This is particularly true with crushed coke, or anthracite coal, or nut and egg sizes of other fuel. The lump sizes require a larger opening than the usual twenty-inch-square opening for the coal mentioned. These bins should be lined on the bottom preferably with bricks laid in cement. If this is not used, two-inch oak boards will do. Partitions of the same material should be used to separate the various bins. With an arrangement of this kind a large amount of storage capacity can be provided. Under some circumstances this plan cannot be adopted. In such a case the ordinary bins may be used.

As houses are now planned, the first tier of joists are placed from twenty to twenty-four inches above the grade-line. Where it is not possible to secure that height for cellar-windows, areas may be built of brick or stone, and additional light provided. Light is the enemy of disorder and uncleanliness; where there is exposure there will be less disorder.

It is not necessary to have the cellar under the whole house, for reasons as mentioned, and on account of the cost. It is sometimes important that savings of all kinds be made. The furnace may be set in a pit with its face directed to the cellar. It is best that the opening from the hoppered coal-bins, above described, be close to the furnace. If it can be opened at the side, so that one can stand in the pit and throw coal in the fire-box, it is better than any other arrangement.

The ordinary cellar is seven feet in the clear, and, for this reason, it is nearly always necessary to pit the furnace. This is done by digging an extra depth, and lining the area and opening with brick.

Near enough to the furnace to be warm, should be a closet for canned fruit, made of flooring-boards, if not of more substantial material, and provided with a door and lock. It should be shelved with board about seven inches apart. Other winterstores, like potatoes, cabbage, etc., should be kept in a dark cellar with an earth floor. It is the opinion of farmers and others that vegetables keep best when lying next the ground. The cellar-involving arrangements here outlined may be seen in planNo. 11. The outside door, which leads into the cellar, should bolt on the inside, and the upper cellar door on the outside. There should be doors provided to separate the different rooms. Where cost is an item, they may be made of two thicknesses of flooring. Cellar-windows should be hung on hinges, and provided with bolt fastenings; catches are not secure.

A LOW-COST LAUNDRY.—BLUE MONDAY.—BASEMENT LAUNDRY.—LOW-COST CONVENIENCES.—INEXPENSIVE LAUNDRY FITTINGS.—HOT AND COLD WATER ARRANGEMENTS.—A LABOR-SAVING LAUNDRY.—A PLACE TO DO FRUIT-CANNING.

The term “Blue Monday” probably originated on account of its being general wash-day, and a day in which everybody about the house undertook to do an impossible amount of work with limited resources.

Most of the washings in this country are done in the kitchen. The wash-boiler is on the stove, and the servant or mistress of the house, or both, attempt to wash and do their cooking without seriously disturbing the routine of meals. There is a fussiness about everything pertaining to that day, which creates an atmosphere of blueness which is proverbial. The steamy, crowded kitchen, the almost inevitable wetness or slipperiness, the great physical exertion required, the carrying of water, the lifting of tubs, are all uncomfortable, and the work is done at a great disadvantage. In an expensive house, where there is plenty of money, Monday is not so blue. Immunity is purchased. Possibly the clothes are sent from the house to be washed in somebody else’s kitchen; maybe to be worn by some one else before they are returned, and often to be injured or destroyed by the strong washing-mixtures and soaps, which are made to save rubbing. This kind of immunity is expensive. It is too expensive for the large majority of people. It is annoying to all alike.

Laundry work will sometime be done at a cost which will admit of people of moderate means having this work done at a public laundry. At present, the general laundry work of an ordinary household cannot be done in this way, on account of the expense.

The general public laundry, where arrangements are made to do the entire family washing at a low cost, is a complete solution of the Blue-Monday problem; but until the laundry is an accomplished fact, such work will be done at home, and a family laundry must be considered in house-building. It would be a very easy matter to arrange a laundry which would meet all the desired conditions, if we were to operate independent of cost, but the large majority of people are not independent in this way. If it were not a matter of cost, we would have an independent room for the laundry work, with porcelain tubs, and hot and cold water running into all of them; we could have a steam-drier, and many other things, which it is useless to mention here. It is the laundry of the moderate-cost house which interests the largest number of people.

We must have a place to do laundry work which is a compromise between the foggy kitchen and the laundry with porcelain tubs.

As houses are now built, the first floor is usually from two and a half to three feet above the grade. This affords abundant opportunity of getting a well-lighted basement. If the basement is dark, put more windows in it, and whitewash the walls and ceilings. Cement the floor. Put in a slop sink, and give it a trapped connection with the vault or sewer. Provide a pump over this sink to connect with the cistern. If the city water is soft, this will be used and no pump will be required. Then a laundry stove is to be provided. Thus we have everything ready for use without much labor, and certainly at a very low cost.

The basement should be light under any circumstances. The floor should be cemented, the joists should be whitewashed, so that the only additions necessary to make the laundry work easy are a laundry stove, a place to throw waste water, and a supply of hot and cold water. If one does not care to heat the water in the ordinary boiler, there is a very simple device for heating water which may be placed in any laundry. An open tank, which will hold two or three barrels of water, can be placed over the stove and next to the joist. From it a connection can be made with the laundry stove by means of lead and iron pipe. This pipe should start from the bottom of the tank and connect with an iron pipe which enters the stove, and passes around the inside of the fire-pot, then to the outside and connects with another lead pipe, which empties into the tank again on a level above the first opening. Thus the cold water would come from the bottom of the tank, through the stove where it would be heated, thence upward and into the tank. This would give a hot-water circulating connection, and in this way provide hot water for use in the laundry. This arrangement would require a low-cost force-pump to force the water to the tank. There are many kinds of these pumps, which are substantial and can be secured at a low cost. The pipe from the stove could be supplied with a compression cock from which the water could be drawn into the tubs. The better way would be to have an independent tank connection. Lead pipe was mentioned as being the pipe to use in making the connection with the iron pipe in the laundry stove. Galvanized iron pipe would answer every purpose and cost a little less. Where set tubs are not used, the water could be readily distributed by means ofa hose pipe. If the above arrangement is too expensive, the stove only can be used for heating water.

Set tubs might be used instead of the ordinary wooden ones which were contemplated, and would save a good deal of labor, but the cost is something which all cannot afford. The arrangement described here can be reached by nearly every one of moderate means. It provides a place to throw slop water, and brings hot and cold water close at hand. It isolates the washing from the cooking, and the smell of washing from the whole house. It is very different from the conditions in most houses, where the water has to be carried from the backyard into the house, lifted to the stove, poured into the tubs, and afterward carried out, a bucket at a time, and emptied over the back fence, if the tub is not dragged out and emptied into the yard.

It is well in building a new house to have an outside cellar-way to facilitate the use of the laundry below. In such a case the clothes can be carried into the yard without being taken through the kitchen. There will be times when the weather will not permit taking the clothes outdoors. In very cold weather it should never be done. It is murderous for a woman to have to carry clothes from a hot, steamy laundry or kitchen at eighty degrees to the cold, dry air of the outside. There is no woman so strong that she can stand this. All the clothes can be readily dried in the basement. Here is presented another argument in favor of the laundry below. The washing can always be done at the appointed time in spite of the weather. When one goes into a large attic he is apt to say, “What a splendid place to dry clothes.” People who dry clothes in the attic usually do the washing in the kitchen.

A basement laundry is a cool place in summer and a warm one in winter. There is no better place for ironing in warmweather, for even with a fire the basement is always cool. Nor can there be a better place for canning fruit. The conveniences of plenty of water, a fire, and yet a cool place for doing this extremely laborious work, will be readily appreciated.

THE SECOND FLOOR.—STAIRWAYS.—THE COMBINATION STAIRWAY.—IDEAL NUMBER OF BEDROOMS.—LARGE CLOSETS AND PLENTY OF THEM.—A LINEN-CLOSET.—PLACING OF GAS-FIXTURES.—SERVANT’S ROOM.—BATH-ROOM.—AN ATTIC.—ATTIC CLOSETS.—ATTIC ROOMS.

In many houses a combination stairway is used. By this is meant one in which the front and rear stairways run together in a common landing. In this case, there should be doors separating the rear from the front stairway, one at the beginning, and one at the end of the rear part. The combination stairway is a compromise. Oftentimes, however, one can secure other things which are desirable by its use. There are other compromises more objectionable than the combination stairway.

A stairway of this kind is not used as the most desirable thing, but as the least objectionable of other compromises; for instance, if one can secure, for a given cost, an additional room or two by using a combination stairway, the room is frequently preferable. No one can doubt but that a front stairway, entirely separated from the one in the rear, is the best thing to have; however, it is easy to understand that a combination stairway may be used for reasons above stated. In some of the plans a stairway is shown, starting from a stair-hall in the rear of reception-hall or room. Under such circumstances, a combination is not necessary. One can come from the kitchen and go upstairs without being observed from the other parts of the house. Again, combinations are sometimes used so that they apply to the servant’s room as a continuous stairway, and asa combination to the other parts of the house. This is true of several plans given.

It is almost superfluous to say that a stairway should be easy, still it is known that not all are so. The one in the front part of the building should always be made without winders; that in the rear, the same way if possible. Landings are preferable, and make a staircase beautiful. Stairways may be considered from a hygienic standpoint. This, however, is not necessary in this connection. Where there is only one stairway, it is not uncommon to have it start from the dining-room, and, if one stops to think about it, this is not a bad arrangement. The dining-room is centrally located, and the stairway may be used by the servants when this room is not otherwise in use. Certainly it is less objectionable than placing it in a hall through which all have to pass, or where it is necessary to pass through other rooms to reach the second floor from the rear. A combination stairway, or one that starts up from the dining-room, is less objectionable in a house where there is a bath-room on the second floor than it would otherwise be. Where the bath-room is so placed, it is not necessary that the slops be carried down or the water carried up stairs; and, in other respects, it is less necessary to use the stairway in a disagreeable way.

The rear stairway should be connected with the front part of the house by means of a hall on the second floor. It is generally found desirable to have a girl’s room near the rear stairway, and to cut off that part of the house from the front by means of a door. There should be means of lighting, artificial and otherwise, at the beginning and landings of all stairways.

In a young and growing family, five is the ideal number of rooms for the second floor. This number may be increased or decreased according to the size and development of the family.Where there are five rooms it affords, first, a family room in front, built over the parlor or sitting-room; next to that is a room in front for the very young children, and afterwards for the girls; then the room in the rear of the family room may be for the boys; the fourth room for guests, and the fifth for the servant. The guest-room view is to the side and the rear. There are cases where one must accommodate a large number of people with a smaller number of rooms, and, again, a larger number of rooms is thought indispensable. In connection with the size of bedrooms, we may say what was said before,—that their availability does not depend entirely upon their size. A room may be large and still not contain a place for a bed or other furniture. It may be moderately small and yet have space for all.

The more we think about the arrangement of houses, the larger appear the number of indispensables. It used to be thought unnecessary to have a closet in every bedroom; one was certainly enough in the family room. Now it is almost a necessity that there be two closets in the family room—one for the lady, and a smaller one for the gentleman. There should certainly be one closet in every bedroom, and, in addition to that, one which opens from the hall, to be used for bed-linen and general bedroom supplies. A suitable place for brooms and dust-pans is the attic stairway when a special closet is not provided.

In lighting bedrooms there should be at least one window for each outside exposure. Where the size will admit, there should be two windows placed so that the dressing-case can be set between them, either in the corner or otherwise. Most bedrooms are lighted artificially by bracket lights instead of the centre light. There should be one bracket on each side of thedressing-case; if not, a pendent light immediately over it. Centre connections for gas-fixture are usually provided, but in practice many houses are not supplied with the fixture.

Grates on the second floor make work: carrying of fuel and ashes is always disagreeable in the extremest degree. The placing of ash-pits in the cellar may make it unnecessary to carry the ashes, but still grates make work. At the same time it is very pleasant to have a grate in the bedroom; they are the best means of ventilation known.

The servant’s room is not usually very large, seldom large enough. It should be provided with a closet, the same as other rooms. The window in that room should be set high enough from the floor so as to admit of the placing of a trunk under it, without interfering with the light or in other ways appearing uncomfortable.

The bath-room and general plumbing work are considered in detail in the following chapter. It is sufficient to say that there should be as little wood-work as possible in the bath-room. Water-proof plastering should be used, and when this becomes soiled it can be washed and painted.

There is nothing a housekeeper appreciates more than a good attic and an easy stairway leading to it. Often attics are not plastered; they should always be floored at the same time the house is built. Where it is not possible to make divisions by plastering, and other substantial material, light wooden partitions will serve the purpose of providing means of classifying that which is stored in the attic, and prevent it from being in a continual state of disorder. The rooms may be fitted with shelves, closets, etc.

Where it is possible so to do, the attic room should be plastered. It makes the rooms below appreciably cooler in summer.In most of the plans herein illustrated, the roof is high enough to provide space for good rooms, with ceilings as high and as square as those of the rooms below. It is cheaper to provide rooms in this way than to spread over more ground; and there is certainly no valid objection to their use by the boys of the family.

PLUMBING.—IS PLUMBING ENTIRELY SAFE?—COMPLETENESS IN PLUMBING APPARATUS.—LABOR-SAVING PLUMBING APPARATUS.—SEWER CONNECTIONS.—SOIL PIPE.—A TRAP.—ACCIDENTS TO TRAPS.—FREQUENT USE OF PLUMBING APPARATUS DESIRABLE FOR SAFETY.—WATER-CLOSETS.—SIMPLICITY IN PLUMBING.—DRAIN CONNECTIONS.—TO KEEP PLUMBING APPARATUS FROM FREEZING.—CISTERN WATER SUPPLY.—GREASE SINK.—FLUSHING OF DRAIN.—BATH-TUB.

In considering the plumbing apparatus of a house, the question is often asked, “Are these things safe? Do they not endanger the health of the occupants of the house?” The answer is, The plumbing apparatus may be entirely safe. That it is not always so, we all know. We hear of many cases of typhoid fever, diphtheria, scarlet fever, and other diseases, which are traceable to, or aggravated by, defective plumbing. In some sections of the country so much trouble has been caused by poor plumbing, that the people, as a class, have come to be suspicious of all. The reason for this is the effort to cheapen the work. Suffering from bad work has led to safety. In larger cities this work is under the control of the city government. It may be said that it is possible so to arrange the fixtures and apparatus appertaining to plumbing that it is entirely safe. The question naturally follows, “How is this done?”

It may be said that good work is not a great deal more expensive than poor work. Again, good work is not always a question of money. It is one of knowledge or inclination on the part of the plumber.

One in moderate circumstances, who builds a house to cost from twenty-five hundred to four thousand dollars, should have well water or city water, and hot and cold cistern water in the sink in the kitchen. There should be at least a slop-hopper in the laundry. In the bath-room a water-closet, a tub, and generally a wash-stand. This latter feature is not absolutely necessary, as will be explained later. In the attic there should be a tank to hold the cistern water, which is connected with the fixtures using soft water below. A force-pump, or water-motor, may be located in the kitchen or basement to lift the water to tank. In more elaborate houses a completer plumbing apparatus may be used. There may be an especial sink in the china-closet. There may be wash-stands in the various chambers, and one on the first floor.

There may be, also, an additional water-closet on the first floor, or in the cellar, located where it is accessible to the members of the family. There are many ways of expending money in plumbing fixtures; but, with those first mentioned, one may be entirely comfortable, and derive all of the housekeeping benefits which may be expected from such conveniences. Unless the house be large, an increase in the number of fixtures would increase the amount of work done in keeping them clean, rather than save labor.

In the matter of safety, another question, which sometimes arises, is as to the danger from the plumbing apparatus where there is no sewer connection, or where it has to be made with a vault. The protection against sewer-gas is not from the sewer itself or the vault. It is entirely through protective apparatus in the house, and the manner of the connection with the vault or sewer.

One may consider the conditions of safety in plumbing apparatus under two general heads. First, as to the workmanship; second, as to design or plan of the apparatus. Nothing need be said as to the workmanship, excepting that the execution of the design, or the benefits to be derived from it, maybe entirely lost by defective workmanship. If the work is not properly executed, the design need not be considered. The result will be bad irrespective of the plan.

In considering the design of the apparatus, we will take into account the arrangement of the connections and fixtures. By the latter expression is meant the tub, the water-closet, the wash-bowl, and the sink, pump, etc. The connections which have to do with the safety of the apparatus are the traps and the waste pipes, or pipes which connect with the vault or sewer.

The main waste pipe inside the house is called the soil pipe. The smaller waste pipes from the fixtures connect with it. The soil pipe is of cast-iron, and usually four inches in diameter on the inside. It connects, full size, with the water-closet. Most other wastes are of lead, and are usually an inch and a half in diameter. In the soil and waste pipes there will naturally be the odors from the vaults and sewer, or from the foul matter which is in or passing through the pipes. Therefore, there must be means in each waste pipe, which connects a fixture with the main soil pipe, of preventing the passage of gas or air from it into the house. This is done by means of what is called a trap. The “S” trap is the commonest form; this name is given it from its shape, and illustrates its construction. If we take a letter S and turn it sideways we will get the form of such a trap. The right side or end would continue directly down toward the drain or soil pipe, and the left side would continue upward and connect with the fixture (seeFig. 6). The water from the fixture comes down and is forced upward through the bend by thepressure of water above, and from thence runs into the soil pipe or drain. Thus it will be seen that there is always a seal of water in the trap. There is always water in the trap as indicated by the depth of the bend of the S. There are hundreds of different forms of traps, but they are all constructed on the same principle; the idea being that the gas or air from the pipe would have to pass through the water in order to get into the house. The water in the trap is called the seal; it seals the passage of air as stated.

Fig. 6

There are many conditions under which a trap may fail to do its full duty. It may be foul in itself, or it may be rendered foul by the bad air in the drain. The trap may be siphoned by a heavy flow of water through the main drain, or it may be siphoned by a string or a rag which may readily find its way into the trap, and hang over the bend so that all of the water will run out. Again, the water in the trap may evaporate. All these dangers may be guarded against. In the first place, there should be means which allow fresh air to pass through all that portion of the main drain or soil pipe which is in or close to the house. The means of accomplishing this are various.

The soil pipe is ventilated by continuing up through and well above the roof with a full opening at the top. The smaller drains should be ventilated in the same way when far removed from main soil pipe or other connection. The traps should be ventilated by 1½-inch or two-inch connections with the outer air, as shown by cut.

Frequent use of plumbing fixtures contributes to safety. It causes a large volume of water to pass through the pipes. The flushing of the pipes and drains in this way makes them cleaner and thus safer. It is frequently said by those who haveplumbing fixtures in their houses that they use them as little as possible, because they are afraid of them. Nothing worse could be done. The water in the traps evaporates or becomes foul, and thus the gas has a free entrance to the house. A water-closet helps greatly to cleanse the soil pipe and outside drain. It discharges a large volume of water into it suddenly, in a way to keep it clean. It is not a bad plan to use the closet at least once a day, solely for the purpose of flushing the drain. In houses where there are a number of wash-stands distributed through the various chambers and halls there is danger from neglect in using them. The water seal in the traps may evaporate, and thus give direct sewer-air connection with the house. Particularly is this so in the guest’s room. A wash-stand is a more dangerous fixture for this reason than any other in the house.

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