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.
PLATE XXXVI
