XVILABOR-SAVING DEVICES FOR THE HOME

The need for labor-saving devices to help in housekeeping is more evident in the small house than in the larger house, although the cost of such machinery often prevents its installation in the former, whereas in the latter it is more to be found, since the person who builds a large house is apt to have more funds to draw upon. Yet labor-saving devices really belong to the small house, for the large house is still run by the servant, but the small one is kept by the lady of the house. She rightly objects to working in the old-style kitchen, which was very large and ugly, and the useless up-keep of many rooms that are really not needed is not to her liking, so that in practice the small house is in a way a labor-saving device in itself, since it reduces the amount of house to be kept, and makes the kitchen small and attractive. Then, frankly, labor-saving machinery is more becoming to this house, which is in itself designed to save labor, and money wisely spent upon such devices is by no means out of proportion to the cost of construction, even if in direct comparison it shows a larger percentage ratio to the building cost in the small house than in the large house.

The fundamental needs which demand mechanical power in place of brawn can be classified into the following:

But before such machines could be developed to a point of usefulness, some source of power had to be found which could be used by the average family. This to-day is electricity. If the house cannot tap in on some public generating plant, then it is not at all too costly a proposition to install a private generating plant run by a gasolene-engine. The rapid spread of public-service wires throughout the country and the increasing demand for private generating plants is evidence that, where money permits, the people are ready to take advantage of the power of electricity to reduce the labor of keeping house. This electric energy which is being more widely distributed has called forth invention after invention of labor-saving machinery. It would not be hard to compile a list of some five hundred or more such machines, good, bad, and indifferent. Pick up any magazine and glance through the advertisements, and a fairly comprehensive list of housekeeping machines can be made, or look through some one of the popular scientific magazines and page after page will be found devoted to new inventions along this line. For example, in the latter, this is a small list made from a page of one of these magazines: A combined electric toaster and heater, a special brush on a long wire handle for cleaning the drain-pipe of the refrigerator, an electric clothes-wringer which has rollers soft enough not to break the buttons, a combined crib and wardrobe, the latter being under the mattress, a dust-pan which is heldin position by the foot, a counterbalanced electric light that can be hung over the back of a chair and an electric water-heater to fasten to the faucet.

Under this classification ought to be included machines which reduce the need of cleaning, for they accomplish the same results, but in a negative way.

One of the dirtiest and meanest jobs about the house is the sifting and shovelling of ashes from the furnace. The light ashes are bound to be tracked through the house on the feet, or float in the rising warm air to the rooms above, while the sifting process is going on. The continued need of removing ashes and putting more coal in the furnace to make more ashes often disgusts the housekeeper so much that the apartment-house looks very attractive, for here this dirty work is done by the janitor.

Now the modern oil-burner, suitable to heat the furnace of a small house, represents a real labor-saving device, because it eliminates this problem of the ashes, but it requires electric power to make it practical, since a mechanical movement is necessary to properly atomize the oil for burning. Looking impartially at the latest inventions along this line that are now on the market, one cannot help but admit that they are highly desirable from the labor-saving point of view, if not always from an economical one. The easy control of the fire of one of these oil-burners is admirable. In mild weather the flame can be turned down quite low, burning perhaps only twelve gallons of oil in twenty-four hours, but if the weather suddenly becomes cold the flameis easily advanced to meet the conditions. No extra shovelling of coal is required in cold weather, and the worry of banking the fire in the evening is eliminated.

But one must not forget the various improvements which have been made in coal-burning furnaces to eliminate the ash-and-coal-shovelling labor as much as possible. There is the self-feeding boiler, which has a large magazine of coal which can be filled once a day and which automatically supplies the fire with fuel as it burns up. Then, too, there is the large ash-pit in which the ashes may accumulate for some time before removal is necessary, or the revolving ash-collector sunk into the floor below the furnace into which the ashes may be dropped and taken out in cans.

THE PORTABLE VACUUM CLEANER

For cleaning purposes, one must recognize the enormous grip that thevacuum cleaner has had on the popular mind, and nearly every housekeeper would own one if money permitted it. Perhaps the installation of pipes throughout the house for a central cleaning-machine in the cellar is a little too expensive for the small home, but certainly electric base plugs should be located in the rooms to which the portable type of cleaner can be attached. Such outlets should be placed in central positions in order to permit the moving of the machine to all parts of the various rooms.

UP-TO-DATE LAUNDRY

The laundry should be equipped with electric outlets to which an electric washer can be plugged. These machines usually require about 300 watts. Electric irons require about 600 watts. If laundrylabor-saving devices are to be bought as a complete equipment, a small fortune can be spent upon them, for there are electric wringers, electrically driven mangles for ironing flat work, a special ironing-board with electric iron attachment, and electrically heated clothes-driers. A plan of a well-equipped laundry is shown in the cut.

DISH WASHER AND TABLE

KITCHEN DRESSER OFWHITE ENAMELED STEEL

If we consider the machines used in the kitchen for cleaning purposes, a considerable list can be made, but the gas and oil stove and fireless cooker should not be forgotten, since they accomplish cleaning in a negative way, for they eliminate the dirt and ashes of the old-fashioned coal-range. Then, too, the automatic gas water-heater, and also the oil water-heater, give the best material for cleaning that is known to mankind—hot water. But as electricity becomes more available we have the electric stove and the electric water-heater, which is superior to the gas and oil heater, as far as labor-saving is considered. Then there is the electric dish-washer, which performs all the washing, rinsing, and drying operations. The dishes and other tableware are securely held in removable racks while being washed, thuspreventing breakage. When not in operation this dish-washer can be used as a white-enamel-topped kitchen-table. One must not forget the electric silver-polisher and knife-grinder and other smaller instruments for cleaning that can be operated by a small motor.

Machines of this kind include a great variety of small inventions intended to safely store the food, prepare it for cooking, and cook it. There is the small electric refrigerator, the thermonor which keeps foods chilled by evaporation of water, the ordinary ice-box, with its special door to put ice in from the outside, the special receiving-box in the wall into which the milkman can place his milk-bottles in the morning or the butcher his meat. Then for the small house is the very important kitchen-cabinet, with its special place for the keeping of flour, sugar, dish-pans, and a hundred other things that are needed to be handy at the time of preparing the food. Electrically operated coffee-grinders, meat-choppers, bread-mixers, egg-beaters, toasters, coffee-percolators, chafing-dishes, samovars, frying-pans, teakettles, radiant grilles, and other similar devices are but a few suggestions of the multitude of inventions actually on the market and found practicalas labor-saving machines. Why should one sweat at the brow on a hot summer day freezing the ice-cream when an electrically driven motor can do the same work at the cost of a few cents? Why should one swelter in the hot kitchen during the jam and jelly making season when an electric fan can give the necessary cooling breeze, and the electric stove apply the heat more to what it is cooking than to the surrounding atmosphere? Of course the answer is that the cost of such equipment is too high, but we are gradually learning how to make these articles cheaper, and also learning how much energy they save us. Old traditions are breaking down in the kitchen, and the new machines are accepted more readily than they used to be. No longer does the younger generation think that what was good enough for father or mother is good enough for it. Grandmother used to wear her fingers down peeling potatoes and carrots, and stain them black, but daughter prefers to use a simple scraping device of hard stones set in a waterproof substance, which acts like rough sandpaper upon the skins of the vegetables, and then grandmother used to chop meat in a bowl, but now it is put in at one end of an electric grinder and comes out hash at the other. The older generation of cooks were not attracted by labor-saving devices, but the point of view to-day is different. That is the reason that the small house is attracting more buyers to-day than formerly, for its small up-keep and its small and cheerful kitchen are means of escape from too heavy household duties.

A TABLE-SERVICE WAGON

The electric dumb-waiter belongs to this class, but it is not installed in small houses very often. However, every one can afford theclothes-chute, which guides the dirty clothes down to the laundry. The table-service wagon is a very convenient help in serving a meal and removing the dishes when there is no maid to wait upon the diners. Then there is the china-closet which opens through to the kitchen from the dining-room. The dishes are washed in the kitchen and placed in the closet, and at the next meal they are taken out from the dining-room side without waste of steps. The old ash-can need not be lugged out of the cellar if a small telescope hoist is installed, and the coal can be put into the cellar through a metal coal-chute, instead of through the window. Wet clothes from the laundry can be hung out of the window on a revolving drier without going out into the yard, or placed in an electric drier in the laundry on rainy days. The transportation of small objects about the house can be very much reduced if machinery for this purpose is installed in the beginning. Most people think it is worth the price, and as soon as they see a way to paying for it they are certain purchasers.

There is no need of getting up at five o’clock in the morning to turn the draft on in the furnace so that the house will be warm bybreakfast. An electric thermostatic control can be made to do this, and in fact it can be regulated to keep the house in good temperature all the day. It is not necessary to light a fire to have hot water if an automatic gas-heater is next to the boiler, which lights the gas with a pilot-light when the faucet is turned on or when the temperature gets below a predetermined number of degrees. One does not need to worry about burning the roast in the oven if an automatic clock-timer is on it, which turns off the gas after the meat has cooked the correct number of hours. Food in a fireless cooker never worries the housekeeper, for it will not burn, and she knows it will be ready to serve when taken out. She does not have to stay home to let the delivery boy in with the vegetables, for he can put them into a small metal box built into the wall, which has a door that permits him to put his goods in, but does not permit any one getting an arm into the house, and the ice-man can deliver ice without calling her to the door. And so it goes; each new invention along this line removes the need of thinking of the small things about the house and of being continually on hand and a slave to them.

We often forget the elegance of the modern bathtub, but think of the labor of our forefathers when the bath night came around. The water had to be heated on the stove, the tub gotten out and filled with cold water from the pump, and then warmed up with the water in the teakettle, and after all was finished the water and tub had to be removed. It was quite an event, and there is no wonder that a bath was taken only once a week. But what is it to have a bath to-day, with plenty of hot water, a thermostatic control of its temperature, a fineshower, and a warm bathroom. But such things as a bathroom with its modern lavatory, water-closet, and bathtub and tiled floor and wainscot are commonplace things, and are always expected to be installed in a house. One does not question the advisability of spending money on this equipment, and so it will be in the future with much of the machinery which we hesitate to buy to-day on account of the additional cost in the construction of the house.

If one is willing to spend the money, electrically operated shampooing-machines can be installed, curling-irons, vibrators, ozonators, hair-driers, shaving-mugs, heat-baths, etc., but these seem luxuries to us yet. But will the next generation look upon them this way? A very elegant bathroom may also be equipped with built-in receptacles in the tile wainscot for holding soap, sponges, toilet-paper, tumblers, tooth-brushes, etc. Fine white-enamelled medicine-cabinets are not uncommon to see built into the walls. Glassrods for towels and glass shelves for miscellaneous objects add much to the practical up-keep of the bathroom. Faucets over the bathtubs and lavatories are now covered with white enamel and have porcelain handles, so that the work of polishing nickel ones is done away with. Water-closet bowls are designed with such deep water-seals and with such powerful flushing-jets that they do not need the cleaning that the older types required. Tubs are built into the walls and down on the floors, so that dirt cannot collect under them, as it did under the old leg-supported tubs. Thus each year brings forth more improvements that are helping to reduce the labor of keeping house.

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