The dials here are a simpler arrangement, as they merely represent the usual numeration—units, tens, hundreds, thousands.
This metre is in an especially instructive condition, because the 1,000's dial gives no reading. The hand has not yet reached 1.
THE REFRIGERATOR
A refrigerator serves its purpose better if it is placed in a pantry or on an enclosed porch. If it must be put in the kitchen, it should have the place farthest from the fire.
The drain pipe of the refrigerator, which carries off the water from the melting ice, sometimes empties into a pan, sometimes connects with other pipes which carry the water out of the house. It should never connect with the other drainage of the house, nor lead to any well or sewer which receives other drainage. No traps or plumbing contrivances are perfect enough to protect food which is shut up closely with the opening of a pipe connecting even remotely with the drainage system. Properly the drain pipe of the refrigerator should empty into an open basin or sink in the cellar, which in turn drains off into the ground.
The next point of importance after the disposal of its drainage, is to keep the refrigerator clean. Guard against spilling things on its shelves, wash the ice before it is put in, if it is not clean, and do not keep in it things with a strong or penetrating smell—An innocent dish of cold-slaw unthinkingly put into the refrigerator produces an odour which will startle the person who next opens the door.
A refrigerator needs cleaning once or twice a week. It should not be cleaned oftener than is necessary because cleaning wastes the cold. For this same reason wash it with cold water unless something greasy has been spilled in it, and never leave the doors open one second longer than is necessary.
Collect beforehand everything required for the cleaning, that, when the work is once begun, it may be finished quickly. One needs cold water in which there is baking soda, borax or boracic acid (2 oz. to the qt.), a brush for scrubbing, cloths for wiping, something long and slim with which to clean the drain pipe and a tray or pan to hold the ice while the ice compartment is being cleaned.
Take the food out of the refrigerator, then the ice. Quickly but thoroughly scrub and wipe dry the compartment for the ice, not forgetting the drain pipe. In many refrigerators the drain pipe can be removed for cleaning. Replace the ice and shut it in. Then scrub and wipe the other compartments or shelves, and include the pan and the floor under the refrigerator in this cleaning.
It is hardly necessary to say that rubbish and unsightly objects ought not to be tucked away behind or under the refrigerator. Its surroundings should be as clean and well-aired as possible.