The Labour-saving House

by Mrs. C. S. Peel

Electric Fires.

Various makes of fires are illustrated in this book.

A great advantage of the electric fire is that it is red-hot in a few seconds and may be placed where it is most required.

The Electric House.

Now let us see how things are done in a house which is worked by electricity throughout. A maid is awakened by an electric alarum (she cannot say that her clock was wrong, because all the clocks are controlled by a master pendulum). She goes downstairs, touches a switch, and sets the hot-water apparatus going. To warm or light a room, to set the cooker to work, needs but a touch. An electric service lift makes the laying and clearing and serving of meals a quick and easy matter. There are no heavy trays and cans and coal boxes to haul about the house upstairs and down. The cleaning of the rooms is eased by the use of electric vacuum cleaners, and when there is no dust and smoke from coal fires the house does not become nearly so dirty.

The breakfast dishes are kept hot on a heater. If more boiling water or more toast is needed, it can be obtained in a moment or two without leaving the dining-room. If you wish to speak to a servant, you do not ring and wait for her to run up or down stairs, you telephone your instructions.

In the Kitchen.

Let us descend to the kitchen. In the average kitchen the coal range is placed where it is difficult to see the contents of the pots and pans, and each time the cook wishes to put anything into the oven or take it out she must stoop. To stoop and then lift a weight from oven to table adds considerably to the labour of the day. In the intervals of cooking the fire must be made up, and not only must all the pots and pans be cleaned inside, but the outside becomes black and sooty, and must be scrubbed. Dampers must be pulled in and out, and the cooking of the household and supply of hot water attended to.

In an electrically fitted kitchen what do we see? A clean, bright-looking oven and a hot plate for boiling and simmering, and probably a grill, completed by a plate heater, all standing on a table placed in a good light and conveniently near the sink. The cook may sit at ease peeling apples and put out a hand to alter the heat of the oven or hot plate, or to move a saucepan. If she is a forgetful person, a red lamp reminds her of the fact that she has not switched off the current from any portion of the cooking apparatus no longer needed. This is not a fairy story. It is a statement of plain fact, and one into which the public must enquire if it will solve the labour question.