A Hot and Cold Water Service.
Another point which strikes me when coming to consider my labour-saving house is this. Why do not the Water Companies supply us with a Hot Water Service on much the same terms as they now supply us with a Cold Water Service?
Let us try and realise what this would mean to the householder. His home would be fitted with radiators and warmed by hot water. He would turn the radiators on and off as he needed them. He would turn a tap and hot water would be at his command at any hour, day and night, for baths, washing-up, and cooking. He would turn another tap and cold water would gush forth.
Imagine the economy of such an arrangement! Instead of millions of stoves heating water, there would be a few large furnaces doing the work. Imagine, too, the difference in the atmosphere when you eliminate coal from all dwelling-houses. The house is heated and provided with hot and cold water on every floor, in every room if you like, with no more trouble to yourself than turning a tap and paying the bill. When you do not have to cook water in addition to food you need far less fuel, and for this purpose electricity or gas are at your disposal. If you feel lonely when sitting in a room warmed by a radiator, you may have a small wood fire, and this, I admit, labour-saving faddist that I am, I should desire in one or two sitting-rooms.
When by turning a tap or a switch, water, gas, and electricity become our servants, we shall have done much to solve the Servant Problem.
PLATE VIII
A WELL-KNOWN LONDON DRAWING-ROOM SHOWING A GAS-HEATED "LOG FIRE"