_The Demand_
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:
(_a_) Machines for cleaning.
(_b_) Machines for preparation of food.
(_c_) Machines for moving objects about the house.
(_d_) Machines designed to watch over various household cares.
(_e_) Machines to simplify and make pleasant the toilet.
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 held
in 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.
_Machines for Cleaning_
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 flame
is 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.
[Illustration: THE PORTABLE VACUUM CLEANER]
For cleaning purposes, one must recognize the enormous grip that the
vacuum 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.
[Illustration]
[Illustration: 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 laundry
labor-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.
[Illustration: DISH WASHER AND TABLE]
[Illustration: KITCHEN DRESSER OF WHITE 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, thus
preventing 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 for the Preparation of Foods_
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 practical
as 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.
_Machines for Moving Objects about the House_
[Illustration: 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 the
clothes-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.
_Machines That Automatically Keep Watch_
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 by
breakfast. 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.
_Machines to Simplify the Toilet_
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 fine
shower, 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.
[Illustration]
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. Glass
rods 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.