“Why, when steam is shut up it just presses harder than ever, but when water is heated it swells and it’s likely to burst open whatever it’s in, so there has to be an open tank up at the top of the house where it can go and swell around all it wants to,” laughed Dorothy.
“What are these affairs?” inquired Margaret who had been looking at two other arrangements near by.
“That one is a gas thing for heating water in summer when there isn’t any other fire. There’s a tiny flame burning all the time, and when the water is drawn out of the tank the flame becomes larger automatically and heats up a new supply.”
“That’s a fine scheme; you don’t have to heat the house up and yet the water is always ready. What’s the other?”
“That’s to burn up the garbage. In the kitchen there’s a tiny closet for the garbage pail. It’s ventilated from the outside. There is a thing that burns the garbage and makes it heat the water, but Mother decided that we had so small a family that there might be days when there wouldn’t be fuel enough to make a decent fire, so we’d better have the gas heater.”
“The other would be economical for a hotel,” observed prudent James.
“Here’s the refrigerating plant,” Dorothy said, motioning toward a tank and a set of pipes and a small motor.
“Going to cut out the iceman?” grinned Tom.
“We’re going to be independent of him. Mother doesn’t like natural ice, any way; she went over to the Rosemont pond last winter when the men were cutting and the ice was so dirty she made up her mind right off that she didn’t want any more of it. This thing will chill the refrigerator up in the kitchen and pipes from it are going under the flooring of the drawing room and the dining room so they can be made comfy in summer.”
“Hope you can cut them off in winter!” and Roger gave a tremendous shiver.