COAL, COKE, AND GAS: HOW TO USE THEM TO THE BEST ADVANTAGE
I
Of all labour-saving forces at present available, I think we must
regard electricity and gas as the most important.
Often, however, it is not for us to choose which we will employ. We
must needs use gas if electric current is not available, and we must
count the cost of both before deciding whether or no we may employ
either.
Counting the Cost.
Counting the cost is not so simple a matter as it seems, for it does
not suffice to ascertain the price of gas per 1000 feet, and of
electricity per unit, and of coal and coke per ton, and of wood per 100
bundles, because you have also to ascertain what you can save in labour
and in other items before you can arrive at any just conclusion.
Let us suppose that you decide to build a house and warm it by hot
water, to light it and to cook by gas or electricity. In that case you
could save the cost of grates, chimneys, the kitchen range, fenders,
fireirons, coal boxes, chimney sweeping, a considerable amount of
cleaning, and the labour of the people who would be needed to handle
the coal and do the cleaning.
So you must consider the matter carefully, not forgetting that it is
further complicated by the fact that you may find it difficult to
obtain servants, and that it might pay you to use gas or electricity
even though coal was cheaper, because of the scarcity and high cost
of labour. You have also to consider that the cost of coal, gas, and
electricity depend to some extent on the people who use them. One cook,
for example, will burn nearly double the coal burned by another and
obtain no better result. It is the same with gas and electric current.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXIV_
ELECTRICAL KITCHEN OF A SMALL FLAT. ALL LIFTING AND STOOPING IS AVOIDED.
(The British Electric Transformer Co.)]
The Coke Furnace.
Now, taking into account the fact that no water company has yet been
sufficiently enterprising to provide a supply of hot water, I think the
cheapest and most labour-saving method of warming houses and providing
hot water is by means of a coke furnace or possibly two furnaces. These
should heat all the radiators and supply all hot water. My personal
experience of a coke furnace is that it needs but little attention, and
that coke is light, clean, and easy to handle as compared with coal.
These furnaces do, however, need some coal to light them. The procedure
is as follows:--
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXV_
A DINING-ROOM HOT PLATE. (Messrs. Townshends, Ltd.)]
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXVa_
THE "DREADNOUGHT" WASHING-UP MACHINE
Which may be worked by hand or by electricity. It is made in various
sizes and obviates the necessity of putting the hands into greasy water
or of wiping the plates, cups, etc. Silver may be washed in addition to
china in the machine]
How to Light a Coke Furnace.
First thing in the morning, rake out the furnace and keep the clinker
(burnt coke). Put in paper, some sticks, and a shovelful of coal.
Light. When burning up add some fresh coke. When well alight, and the
water hot, add more coke mixed with clinkers. If the water is quite
cold it takes some fifty minutes to get it really hot, though a warm
bath would be ready in thirty minutes. If, however, the furnace is
banked at night, the water would still be warm at 6.30 in the morning.
In my own house, we need three hot baths before the 8.30 breakfast, and
the furnace must be lighted by 6.30 to 6.40 to obtain them. If the cook
comes down late she uses more coal to get the furnace burning quickly.
After breakfast the cook feeds the furnace with a little more coke, the
rubbish and some more coke on top. Rubbish should not be put in unless
the fire is fairly hot. The furnace heats a large radiator, water
for two bathrooms, two sinks, and three hand-basins. In winter, the
furnace is banked up after lunch, and not made up again until before
dinner, and the supply of hot water is constant, and there can be hot
baths at night if needed; but if all the hot water is run off at night
and the furnace is not made up again it naturally takes longer to heat
the water in the morning. In summer the furnace is let out after the
rubbish is burned; and with a small household the water for washing up
is heated on the gas.
One cook who came down late used far too much coal to light the furnace
(which is bad for it, as it fouls the flue with soot), threw away all
clinkers, and would not burn rubbish, and therefore consumed quite
one-third more coke than the present cook, and obtained no better
result.
Still, all things considered, I know no better or more economical
method of heating the rooms and providing hot water in a household of
any size than the coke furnace. This I should not say were gas and
electricity cheaper, because, of course, a water heater which is set
going by turning a tap or switch is obviously more labour-saving than a
furnace.
In almost all households gas or electric heaters are practical,
because if used carefully they are not too expensive, and in small
houses or flats where the mistress is her own maid, or depends upon
help from a visiting worker, I should certainly recommend the abolition
of either coke or coal from the labour-saving point of view alone.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXVI_
AN ELECTRIC COOKER SUITABLE FOR ORDINARY USE
Oven, grill and toaster plate, warmer and hot plate. (Messrs. Crompton
& Co.)]
Some Figures.
I find that in the two years we have used the furnace we have consumed
120 sacks of coke, but part of it was mixed with the coal burned in the
drawing-room. I must also admit that during part of this time the fuel
was carelessly used. In addition to the coke burned in the furnace,
coal was needed for lighting it. We used nine tons of coal in two
years, for the drawing-room fire (a large old-fashioned, extravagant
grate) and for the furnace. These were partly war years, and coal
cost on an average 35s. a ton, and the coke 1s. 2d. a sack; roughly
£11 10s. for furnace and drawing-room fire per year. In addition, the
gas bills for two years have been, for cooker and five fires (one
of the latter lighted in dining-room for about three hours a day,
another burned a good deal in Christmas holidays, fire in servants'
hall used in the afternoon in cold weather, and two bedroom fires only
for an hour or two in the evening when _very_ cold, except during a
three-weeks' illness, and one or two days when people had colds), about
£40. Gas is at the war price (in London) 3s. per 1,000 feet, and (for
"war reasons") inferior in quality to what it was before the war, and
the figure includes meter and stove rent (two stoves, kitchen, and
servants' hall).
When considering these sums it must be remembered that this is a small
London house, and that the furnace in the kitchen heats that and keeps
the smoking-room above from ever being very cold. The large radiator
in the hall, heated from the furnace, makes an enormous difference to
the warmth of the house; also the drawing-room fire was not lighted in
the morning except in really cold weather. To the coal, coke, and gas
bills must be added 14s. worth of wood during the two years. Old boxes
were chopped up, so that if all the wood had been bought it might have
amounted to 18s. or £1, say £32 10 0 for a year's fuel.
Had we used a coal range and coal fires and had no radiator, I
calculate that the cost of coal would amount to at least £35, and that
we should have used more wood, and certainly we could not have run the
house without more help.
=When counting the cost of heating, lighting, and cooking, allow for
expert's figures. The average servant, and for that matter, the average
mistress, is not an expert, and until she is, will not be able to
obtain the best value for the money spent as does the expert.=
In another household known to me, the furnace is larger and more coke
is used, and it is made up at about seven o'clock, at midday, and again
at night. This furnace heats water for two bathrooms, three sinks, four
hand-basins, and radiators all over the house. The house is always
beautifully warm, and only a small fire "for company" is needed in the
drawing-room. In this house there is a coal range for cooking, but in
hot weather an oil stove is used. The quantities of fuel used are for
two years: 13 tons coal, 18 tons coke, 8 tons anthracite, 234 gallons
of oil.
In a maisonette of three floors, gas is used for cooking and for water
heating and nursery ironing ring, and coal for dining-room fire,
drawing-room in late afternoon and evening, and nursery when necessary.
(Child goes to a kindergarten.) The cost for coal and gas for the year
1915 was £28 10s. In flats where the bathroom is near the furnace less
fuel is needed.
In all of the three cases mentioned the labour bill would have had
to be increased had coal been in use everywhere. Furthermore, a gas
expert tells me that with more careful use the bills could be reduced;
but as one is seldom able to secure the services of experts, allowance
must be made for careless usage of fuel when counting the cost.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXVII_
A GOOD TYPE OF ELECTRIC FIRE
(Messrs. Crompton and Co.)]
The Use of Gas.
Let us deal now with the question of gas, and suppose that the hot
water is provided by a gas circulator, that it is, for various reasons,
not feasible to put in radiators, and that a gas cooker and gas fires
are used.
There are various kinds of circulators, rubbish destructors, cookers
and fires, and so great has been the improvement in their mechanism
and appearance that I really do not think any objection on the score
of health or appearance can be made now to the use of gas. One
disadvantage is, possibly, that some of the best and most modern fires
and cookers cannot be hired. Still, one does not hire one's fireplaces
and coal ranges, so why do we always expect to obtain gas fires and
cookers on hire?
Some fires I have lately seen were really attractive, and would not
spoil the effect of any room.
Readers of this book who wish to see what can be done for them by means
of gas should visit the showrooms of the various gas companies, and
especially those of Messrs. Davis, 60, Oxford Street, W.
Good Advice.
Before deciding on any special fires, stoves, etc., the customer should
ask the gas company to inspect the premises and to give advice as to
the best method of dealing with that particular house or flat, because
the choice of apparatus must depend on the situation of the boiler, the
length of pipes needed, the height of the house, the position of the
bathroom, and the kind of grates available.
In some houses it would be out of the question to heat water by gas, in
others it would be possible and even economical.
But I regret to have to say that the gas companies do not always seem
to have employees capable of giving the best advice. In London, the Gas
Light and Coke Company have a clever staff, amongst whom are several
ladies known as the Women's Advisory Staff. These ladies are extremely
helpful, and when they have talked the matter over with the prospective
customer, will call in experts who deal with the questions of cost, of
fitting, etc. Two heads are better than one, and therefore I always
advise the would-be gas-user to pick the brains of one of these ladies
(who are trained cooks as well as gas experts), as well as those of the
male staff.
When the cookers and fires have been installed a lady will then call,
free of charge, and demonstrate the use of the various apparatus, and
it can also be arranged that the fires, cooker, etc., are inspected and
kept in order for a nominal sum per annum.
Gas for Water Heating.
Regarding the use of gas for water heating, it would be useless for
me to go into details, for only an expert who has seen the house can
know how best to deal with the matter, and whether to advise the use
of geysers, califonts, hydrotherms, etc.; or whether gas circulators
should be ruled out and a coke furnace substituted. Excluding the cost
of installation, and under suitable circumstances, it is estimated that
a large hot bath costs rather less than twopence, and one less full
and not quite so hot, rather more than one penny. The cost must vary a
little, as in summer time the temperature of the water before heating
is higher than in winter, also the size of baths varies.
When using gas for heating, the baths and fitted basins should not be
unnecessarily large, and note that a square-bottomed bath will need
more water to fill it than that which is curved. Do not forget that
every pint of hot water costs something to make it hot.
Many improvements have been made in geysers of late, and they are now
as fool-proof as any apparatus can be. But when one has to deal with
a girl who will turn on the gas in the oven and forget that she has
not lighted it, shut the door, and then, when the house reeks of gas,
arm herself with a lighted taper and start looking for the escape, it
is difficult to estimate against what depth of human folly the gas
apparatus must be made immune.
Geysers are now contrived so that the one apparatus will serve several
taps, and circulators are fitted with concentric burners, so that when
the water is hot the ring is put out and only the small inner burner
used.
Thermostats are fixed to reduce automatically the consumption of gas
directly the water reaches a certain temperature.
A cut-out system is also applied to existing cylinders and tanks of
unnecessarily large size.
When using a gas circulator the gas should be turned out when hot water
is not required--a detail which many people forget.
For example, one servant heats the water for baths, washing up and
cleaning, then the gas is put out after lunch, and is not lighted again
until hot water is wanted at night. Another keeps the gas burning the
whole day.
Gas for Lighting.
When electricity is available, I should not choose gas as an
illuminant, but when it must be employed it is now so arranged and
shaded that the effect is perfect and the blacking of walls and ceiling
reduced to a minimum. It may surprise some of my readers to know that
gas can now be fitted so that it is switched on and off from a wall
switch in the same fashion as electricity. Incandescent burners make
for economy, and now _bijou_ burners are to be had suitable for small
rooms, offices, etc., which consume less than the large burners.
Allowing for gas at 3s. per 1000 feet, one large incandescent burner
costs one penny every eight hours, a medium burner one penny for every
twelve hours, and a _bijou_ one penny for every eighteen hours.
Gas Fires.
When choosing a gas fire see that there is a duplex burner, so that two
or three jets can be turned out, leaving the centre jets burning. When
the room is warm the smaller fire will suffice to keep it so. The best
modern fires are noiseless and ventilated beautifully, and, as I have
already said, they are really pleasing in appearance.
Nevertheless, I do not advise a gas fire, however good, as an economy
in a room which is used for hours at a time. The cost of an average
fire is said to be 1¼d. per hour, counting gas at 3s. per 1000 feet,
and it does not pay to burn 1¼d. worth of gas per hour for fourteen
or fifteen hours at a stretch. From the point of view of money-saving
it would be cheaper to burn coal.
On the other hand, supposing a gas fire is lighted in a sitting-room
in the morning, it can be turned out if the family are out in the
afternoon, and not relighted until shortly before they return, for
the advantage of gas and electric fires is that they are red-hot
practically at once, whereas a coal fire takes time to burn up and
become hot, and each time it is lighted it eats wood as well as coal.
Still, say what one will, a coal or wood fire is pleasanter to sit
with, and for that reason, unless I were quite servantless, I would
have one "live" fire in the house. Expert advice must be obtained when
putting in gas fires in order to be sure that the kind most suitable
is obtained, and the ventilation must be carefully attended to.
People often say, "Oh, I couldn't sit in a room with a gas fire,"
having no experience of a well-made, well-ventilated, and properly
fitted fire.
There are old-fashioned, badly fitted gas fires which deserve every
evil thing which can be said of them; but again there are many others:
there is even a fire which can be set alight by turning a switch at
your bedside, so that you do not set foot out of that warm refuge until
the temperature of the room has become pleasant to your lightly clad
form.
Gas Cookers.
When choosing a gas cooker there are many points to consider, and I own
that to my mind the ideal cooker has not yet been put upon the market.
It is, however, bound to come, and gas cookers, unlike ranges, are
easily changed.
The cooker should have a solid hot plate,[2] and not an open top, but
if this make cannot be obtained, a sheet of iron covering two-thirds of
the top of the cooker can be laid on it. One gas burner will heat this,
and several pans will simmer on it at the cost of one burner.
The ordinary cooker is generally fitted with one simmering burner and
about three boiling burners, which is wrong, for to one dish which
needs boiling for more than a few minutes, at all events, many need
to simmer.[3] The great fault of English cooks is that they cook
everything too fast, and the average gas stove does not discourage this
naughty practice.
Still, this difficulty can be overcome by using the makeshift hot-plate
as already described.
In addition to the boiling burners there should be a griller, which is
used for browning and toasting, as well as grilling.
The size of the cooker must depend upon the amount of cooking needed,
but it is no economy to have a very small one, because when the oven
is in use it should be employed for almost everything. The average
cook bakes a milk pudding in the oven and cooks vegetables and hashed
mutton and stewed fruit each on a boiling tap, and probably uses the
griller as well, and wonders why the gas bills are so high.
Which will you spend, brains or money?
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXVIII_
AN ELECTRIC COOKER
(The Jackson Electric Stove Co.)]
II
When planning out the bills of fare the cook must use more brains and
less gas.
For instance, let us say that she wants to serve hashed mutton (and
Heaven help that it may not be that grey and slimy mass endured in too
many an English home!), potatoes, Brussels-sprouts, milk pudding, and
stewed fruit.
Let her heat the oven and cook the mutton in a casserole. The potatoes
and sprouts can cook in the oven just as well as over a boiling tap,
the milk pudding is baked, and the fruit baked in a covered casserole.
Managing thus, all the dishes are cooked in the oven.
Then there will come a day when the oven need not be used at all, and
the meal be cooked on the top of the stove. After all, cooking is
carried out by heat, and it matters little in most cases if the heat
surrounds the pan as in the oven, or is kept directly under it as by a
tap.
Every oven should be supplied with a solid browning shelf, not a thing
with holes in it. This can be placed where needed, and by its use the
part of the oven above it can be kept 100 degrees cooler than that
which is below.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XXXIX_
AN ELECTRIC COOKER (OVENS, HOT-PLATE, GRILL, PLATE HEATER) FOR A LARGE
HOUSEHOLD
(Messrs. Crompton & Co.)]
The Cost of Cooking by Gas.
A moderate-sized oven, such as would be needed in a household of not
over eight persons, burns about 30 feet of gas per hour when full on.
Of that, 10 feet will be required to heat the oven, allowing twenty
minutes for that operation. Then the gas should be turned down so that
it burns at the rate of 15 feet per hour. Ten minutes later it is
turned down again and consumes 10 feet. Thus if you use the oven for
one and a half hours it should consume 22½ feet of gas.
In the oven you should find two open grid shelves, a solid shelf, and
a drip tin. The drip tin must be kept at the bottom of the stove below
the gas flames. The dripping falls into this and does not become brown
as it would do if the tin was placed over the flames. The drip tin
must be kept in its place, as otherwise too much air would enter from
beneath the oven and stop the cooking.
If, instead of hanging the meat from a hook in the oven, it is baked on
a tin, use a double baking tin.
When roasting or baking meat, use the upper grid shelf for pastry,
and place milk pudding or some other food needing slow cooking above
the solid shelf, and then make the very best use of your oven while it
is hot. See "Cooking Mornings," p. 127.
The temperature of the oven to begin with, for most cakes, should be
280 degrees, for meat 300 degrees, for pastry and bread 340 degrees. An
oven thermometer can be procured, and is a great help to inexperienced
cooks. Quartern loaves take some three-quarters of an hour to bake, and
use about 25 feet of gas.
Large boiling burners, full on, eat about 24 feet of gas per hour. In
using boiling burners there is often great waste, as people will turn
them full on and have the flames flaring up the sides of the pan, which
is a waste of heat and causes a smell of gas. The flame should be kept
right underneath the pan or kettle.
The simmering taps consume about 8 feet of gas per hour, and a clever
person will, by using a three or four-tier pan, cook several dishes at
the cost of about 16 feet of gas per hour, allowing for heating over a
boiling tap at first and then simmering for the remainder of the time.
The griller uses as much gas as the oven per hour; but then, of
course, grilling is a quick operation. When using the grill, make it
red-hot and see that the grill pan is under, and getting hot at the
same time. The grill is used for toasting, and if you turn over the
toasted side of bread on to a cold surface, it makes it tough.
When the grill is hot, turn the gas down and watch the toast very
carefully, as it cooks very quickly. Always keep a large pan or kettle
of water over the griller, as it helps to throw down the heat. Do
not boil the kettle on a boiling tap and use the griller for toast,
but cook over the griller as well as under it; and this applies when
grilling chops, steak, bacon, sausages, etc., for the saucepans can
heat over the griller as well as over a tap.
On a modern stove, the grill is arranged so that half of it may be
lighted at a time for grilling small things. When grilling meat or
fish, cook with full heat for two minutes in order to seal the pores
and conserve the good of the food, then reduce the heat, turn, increase
the heat, and decrease again.
Thin steak needs about 12 minutes' cooking; thicker, 12 to 20 minutes;
chops, 10 to 12 minutes; cutlets, 6 minutes; and bacon 1 or 2 minutes.
Pancakes can be cooked by means of the griller first over the grill and
then by placing the pan under it, and omelettes can be made in the
same way without turning them.
If the oven is not in use, milk puddings, macaroni cheese, etc., may be
cooked on a boiling tap and browned under the griller.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XL_
AN ELECTRIC KITCHEN IN A PRIVATE HOUSE
Above each switch is a red lamp, which reminds the cook that the
current is on.
(The British Electric Transformer Co.)]
Utensils for Gas Cookers.
It is most important when cooking by gas to choose the right kind of
utensils. They should be thin and wide, rather than deep. A deep kettle
takes longer to boil and therefore costs more to boil than a shallow
one.
Block tin, enamel ware and earthenware casseroles and fireproof china
should be used; the two latter whenever possible, because by cooking
and serving in one dish you save labour in washing up and generally
have the food served hotter. Also food cooked in earthenware tastes
better than that cooked in metal pans.
Both cooker and utensils must be kept clean, for dirt, especially soot,
is a non-conductor of heat. They must also be dry. I have seen cooks
rinse out a pan and put it on the gas wet, forgetting that heat is then
wasted in drying the moisture on the outside of the pan.
In the same way they will boil one quart of water when they only need
a pint, and waste gas in that way.
[Illustration:
_PLATE XLI_
THE "BABY FIRE" IN AN ALTERED POSITION IS NOW USED TO BOIL A KETTLE AND
HEAT AN IRON.
(The British Electric Transformer Co.)]
[Illustration:
_PLATE XLIa_
THE "BABY FIRE"
A delightful invention for heating small rooms
(The British Electric Transformer Co.)]
To Clean a Gas Stove.
A gas cooker is easily cleaned, and should be well washed with hot
water and a little soda, loose parts and oven too. Grease should be
rubbed off with newspaper as quickly as possible. The black part of the
stove is cleaned with enameline and the bright steel with very fine
emery-paper and oil, and then polished with a soft rag, or if plated
with a leather only.
The best kind of stove is mounted as high as possible so that it may
be cleaned underneath. Also it should be set high to avoid fatigue in
bending and lifting when using the oven, but not so high that the cook
cannot use the hot plate comfortably.
Be sure that no taps are clogged with grease, and remember that when a
gas stove smells it is because it is dirty or because the gas is turned
on too full and is not being properly consumed, or gas is escaping.
Well-managed gas cookers do not smell.
Now and then something may go wrong outside the cook's control, and
then the Gas Company must send some one to put it right.
But when cookers are intelligently used they seldom need attention,
and if it should become necessary to change them, they are moved
without much trouble or any structural work or dirt-making.
The Destruction of Rubbish.
In a household where coal and coke are not used, and in places where
the unsanitary habit of collecting refuse but once a week prevails, the
careful housewife will ask, what am I to do with the rubbish? I could
burn some of it in a coal range, and most of it in a coke furnace, but
if I employ gas only, what is to become of it?
The only thing then is to add a gas refuse destructor to your
apparatus. In one household known to me (a London flat) there is a gas
cooker, water circulator, stove for warming the kitchen when the cooker
is not in use, and the neatest little rubbish destructor--all fitted
into a surprisingly small space.
Warming the Kitchen.
The mere word "kitchen" suggests warmth, but the mistress who uses gas
must not forget that when the cooker is not in use (which may often
be from 1.30 to 6 or 6.30 in the evening, except for the boiling of a
kettle), and if the circulator is also turned out, the kitchen would
probably be too cold for the maids to sit in. When there is a servants'
hall this does not matter; but if the kitchen is also the sitting-room,
a small gas fire should be supplied.
Slot Meters.
In order to cater for people of small income whom it suits to pay for
the gas they consume in small sums, and also in some cases to check
the consumption of gas, slot meters have been introduced. No charge
is made for the meter, for the piping of the house or for the stove,
but in order to cover this more is charged for the gas. It may still
be sold at a nominal 3s. per 1000 feet (the price of gas varies in
various localities), but the person using a penny-slot meter obtains
less gas for a penny than he would do did he not require a meter. The
same applies to the "shilling-in-the-slot" meter. Small users, however,
often find it convenient to use slot meters, which entails no first
cost for installation and no quarterly rentals, and certainly when the
housekeeping allowance is small it is better to pay so much a day or
a week instead of having to face a quarterly bill; also the constant
production of pennies or shillings does bring home to the person using
the gas that it is not just gas but hard cash which is being used. In
some residential hotels and chambers each room is fitted with a slot
fire and the bathrooms with slot geysers, so that the guest knows the
exact cost of fire and bath, and pays it there and then.
Finally, all gas users should learn to read the meter, a simple task
which the lady demonstrator will teach or which can be learned from a
card of instructions. Then the meter should be watched. If an increased
expenditure of gas is noticed the matter should be inquired into, as
there may be an escape, or some one may be forgetting to turn out the
fire or lights when they are not needed.
But it is so expensive to fit up a "Labour-Saving House," you object.
That depends on many circumstances, the length of your lease, for
example. Allow for the interest on the capital you spend, and
possibly a sinking fund to repay it, and then count what you save in
cleaning, in wages, in fuel, etc. Often you will find that you get
back the money you have spent in a few years.
FOOTNOTES:
[2] See note on p. 155.
[3] When discussing this matter with a great gas expert I find that his
opinion is contrary to mine.
"I strongly disagree. The system is wasteful and unsatisfactory," were
his words.
With regard to simmering taps, he also holds a contrary opinion.
"I again disagree. You can easily turn down a boiling burner to
simmering point, but you can't turn up a simmering burner to boiling
point," he objected.
True, but to me that is the advantage of the simmering burner, for it
seems to me that nothing short of a burner which refuses to give out
more than a certain degree of heat will deter the English cook from
cooking too quickly and by too fierce a heat.
--D. C. P.