HOME AND EDUCATION

...This would not only make them more adjustable but would make it easier to clean out under them...

...Louis Brandeis, presenting the case of the shippers before the Interstate Commerce Commission, said that he could tell the railroads how they could save one million dollars a year...

...Trays on which clean or soiled dishes may be piled or food carried to or from the refrigerator are step-saving...

...How are the housekeeper's bricks and mortar, or in other words her household furnishings, utensils and commodities, brought to her...

...Coming to the matter of household utensils, we know that there is an endless variety of so-called labor-saving devices on the market, all said by their promoters to be invaluable and indispensable...

...The person who washes dishes at this sink holds the mop in her right hand and the dish in her left...

...Housekeepers must work for a law providing for the marking of the net weight on all packages, and for many other laws affecting the home...

...How may the kitchen and the space between kitchen and diningroom or between bedrooms and bathroom be so arranged as to save steps...

...On being pressed to explain this statement, he pointed to a long series of careful experiments made for the purpose of showing how certain kinds of work in which time-honored methods were employed, such as bricklaying and shoveling for instance, could be done with fewer motions and consequently less energy, and how individuals might by the proper adjustment of their periods of work to their periods of rest, use their energy to the best advantage...

...No one can tell offhand how high a sink or stove should be even for a person of given height...

...A woman told me recently that she adopted the following plan in determining the height of hers, and found it satisfactory...

...Paper towels, which now come on rollers, save work and are not expensive if properly used...

...Adjustable tables and ironing boards are now on the market...

...Secondly, if Mrs...

...Electric toasters and coffee machines for use on the dining room table seem likely to put an end to the world-old warfare between the late comer to breakfast and the monarch of the kitchen...

...Gilbreth would probably approve of the latter plan...

...Most people have what is called a "uniform breakfast," the same all the year round, and the dishes used are usually about the same...

...Not enough dishes...

...But with our present aluminum or enameled utensils we need not take their weight into consideration...

...A word about kettle closets...

...When one leans over, however, the support provided by the backbone is partly lost, and a great strain comes upon the muscles of the back...

...It has been discussed ever since Mr...

...and Mrs...

...Some of them have proved themselves to be so...

...Gilbreth worked out a plan by which 350 bricks could be laid in the same length of time that 120 had been laid before, and with no greater strain upon the workman...

...Those who do housework as well as those who lay bricks need to remember that when the body is in correct standing position, the backbone supports the upper part of it with very little strain...

...Frank B. Gilbreth, the wife of a New York contractor...

...The result of this observation was the invention of an adjustable platform by which the bricks could be kept at the height at which the work was being done...

...But to come back to the analogy with bricklaying...

...To save the labor of running up and down stairs to attend to a furnace, would certainly be a boon to house keepers...

...Take flour for example...

...The large plate in one place, the small plate in another, the oat meal dish in a third, spoons in one part of the silver basket, knives in another, and so on...

...They have been banished from up-to-date hospitals and sleeping cars, and yet it is difficult to keep them out even from the houses which people build for themselves, while in rented houses they are almost universal...

...In this respect there has been a great gain in convenience of late...

...Why should these not be left on the tray after they are washed and kept there until the next breakfast...

...Why should the numberless places where dust may collect, shown in the door and baseboard in our second illustration and particularly in the place where the door, floor and baseboard meet, ever be found in a kitchen, or for that matter in any part of a house...

...Or consider the stove...

...This question of what we may call the lateral arrangement of the parts of a sink as distinguished from the vertical of which we spoke in considering the disadvantages of stooping, suggests many other fields of inquiry...

...If stooping unnecessarily increases the amount of energy expended in doing a piece of work, it is justified only if it provides a change of position which rests the body, or a gymnastic which tends to develop it...

...Take the one matter of woodwork...

...How shall we plan the space between dining room and kitchen so as to save steps...

...and Mrs...

...The question is not to the point...

...This meant that in order to raise the brick, he was obliged to raise also the whole upper part of his body, in comparison with whose weight, the weight of the brick was insignificant indeed...

...In considering this matter of the height of things which we commonly use, we are naturally led out of the kitchen and into the other rooms where work is done...

...Let us suppose that the breakfast of a certain family calls for a fruit plate, an oatmeal dish, a large plate, a cup and saucer, three spoons and a knife and fork for each person...

...It is much more scientific to cut out unnecessary motions from the work and then, if necessary, to take formal gymnastic exercises directed toward the development of unused muscles...

...The bricklayer was accordingly taught what Cleveland Moffett writing in Hampton's for March, calls "a neat trick of hand and eye" by which he could work with both hands at the same time, thus greatly increasing his efficiency...

...Brandeis referred...

...You do not want them in your house, and I do not want them in mine...

...Are there not enough questions in efficiency connected with housework to make the establishment of an experiment station to be conducted by housekeepers, for housekeepers, almost a necessity...

...Bread mixers seem to have come to stay while cake mixers have not yet won a complete welcome...

...The housekeeper might by means of one of these instruments estimate the amount of distance she travels in doing her housework...

...In our issue of March 26, 1910 we told of a magazine rack made in such a way that the magazines are held upright with the minimum surface exposed to the dust, and at a height where their titles can easily be read...

...But if the place where the work is done is too low, there must be added to the energy necessary for the work itself enough more energy to support the body...

...The trouble is that housekeepers have no means of getting them tested except by buying them and trying them themselves, and no adequate means of communication among themselves by which one woman may profit by the experience of others...

...Then there is the question of the form in which our food materials come...

...We give a picture of a "left-handed" sink so set as to come up against the wall at the left-hand side...

...Suppose Mrs...

...Such kettles were necessarily carried at the side with the arms stretched downward, and for this reason they were as conveniently kept on low shelves as elsewhere...

...Wheeled trays are also on the market...

...We probably sacrifice a great deal to old-time ideas of order...

...Study the motions involved in putting them away...

...Perhaps they can best get time for this by gaining efficiency in the home itself...

...Gilbreth noticed that according to the method in vogue at the time they began their study, the bricks were thrown at the bricklayer's feet, and that every time he wanted a brick he had to lean over and get it...

...We are in favor of having the General Federation of Women's Clubs establish it and of having it called the Ellen H. Richards Housekeeping Experiment Station...

...What good purpose do its decorations serve...

...The convenience of bureaus and other bed-room furniture set up on legs so that there are no very low drawers to stoop to and no spaces underneath in which the dust may collect has repeatedly been demonstrated...

...This arrangement, of course, upsets every other operation in connection with dishwashing, the convenience of arrangement of the soiled dishes, and the transfer of dishes from the rinsing pan to the drainer or from the drainer to tray or cupboard...

...One trouble we have is that people do not have convenient places to put them...

...La Follette has made this clear in her course of lessons published in this Department...

...Gilbreth instead of studying bricklaying had gone into the average kitchen, what would she probably have discovered...

...But we are paying dearly for the time saved and the worst of it is that we do not half the time know how much we are paying...

...Consider how many times dishes, for example, are unnecessarily handled...

...Is raised ornamentation upon dishes, toilet sets and furniture worth the trouble it makes...

...Then she had the top of her sink set at the height of the lower side of her hand and the top of the stove at the height of the upper side...

...Even a very strong woman may use her strength inefficiently...

...Would she not have found processes in which the worker lifts or supports the weight of the whole or part of her body in lifting or supporting utensils no heavier than a brick...

...After the dish is washed, she must lift it up and over the hand which holds the mop, thus not only interfering with the motion of the right hand, but also cutting off the sink from sight...

...The tireless cooker is a help but it involves a great deal of lifting...

...She stoqd with her elbows at her side and the lower parts of her arms and her hands extended straight out in front of her, the palms being turned down...

...This is in a sense a different problem from the first, but it all comes back to a question of the amount of work done against the force of gravity, for every time one takes a step he raises the body a fraction of an inch and the fractions of an inch may mount up tremendously in the course of a day...

...A few of the newer devices may be mentioned here...

...A very simple rack on the wall consisting of two or three horizontal strips of wood will serve to keep them out of the way...

...Do we select our furniture with a view to efficiency...

...It is of interest to housekeepers to know that a woman had an important part in the scientific study of bricklaying...

...Much of the inconvenience in this connection is probably due to the fact that we forget that heavy iron kettles are a thing of the past...

...The new way of cleaning silver by boiling it in an aluminum dish saves work, but most of us would like to know more than we do about the effect on the silver...

...It is an easy matter to have a' sink set at a convenient height and it is coming to be just as easy to set a gas stove properly...

...There are pedometers for sale for between one and two dollars which if hung upon the belt measure accurately the distance traveled...

...Is it not true that almost all tables, washtubs, ironing boards, sinks and stoves, and many cupboards are too low...

...This was Mrs...

...Some people have cupboards between the two rooms which can be opened from either side...

...Secondly, they discovered that while it was quite possible for a man to dip mortar with one hand and at the same time reach for a brick with the other, this was seldom done...

...In connection with the unnecessary lifting of the body or parts of the body against the force of gravity, read the Craftsman for February...

...The real work of washing dishes, ironing, or stirring cake is done with the muscles that move the arms...

...One of the first steps toward efficiency in housework would seem to be to impress architects, builders and designers of household furnishings with the needs and demands of the housekeeper...

...Well, there may be a question as to which costs more labor or dishes, but that merely indicates how many points are to be considered...

...Then she might try to reduce the distance, thus making an experiment in efficiency all on her own account...

...Dish washers are practicable for large establishments, and dish drainers, which make wiping unnecessary, for small ones...

...It is much more convenient to buy it in small sacks and to empty the entire contents into a receptacle with a sifter in the bottom than to bother to care for a barrelful...

...Why should not its surfaces be perfectly plain...

...The Craftsman people seem to think that they have solved the problem of a furnace which can be placed in the living room without either disfiguring it or making too much dust...

...Conducted, by BELLE CASE LA FQLLETTE and CAROLINE L. HUNT Efficiency in Housework EFFICIENCY, which may be defined as the ratio of work done to the amount of energy expended in doing it, is the topic of the times...

...Paraffin paper seems to have a growing usefulness as people realize its toughness and the fact that it may be used in place of dishes as well as in addition to them, when foods are put away in the ice-box or cupboard, for example...

...Efficiency was secured in that art largely through having the materials brought to the worker in just the proper position and condition...

...Even a mere man can turn a key and start the coffee dripping or the bread toasting, When the force of gravity sees an electric or other self-heating iron come into a laundry to save steps and lifting, it feels as if a large part of its job were being taken a way from it...

...Scientific management is the name of the new art to which Mr...

...Why should not all books be kept well up from the floor...

...Shall that be lowered and raised every time we want a cooking utensil or shall we have the pots and pans on a level with the place in which they are to be used or washed...

...Gilbreth should come into our kitchens, would she not find arrangements that make one hand interfere with the work of the other...

...What we must consider is the weight of the upper part of the body...

...But someone asks "When did women become so weak and helpless that they can not stoop or go up and down stairs...

...Cribs for babies and beds for invalids are now made high so that the nurse need not lean over unnecessarily...

...The hit-or-miss gymnastics which women get in housework are extremely unlikely to serve either purpose...

...In our issue of December 3, 1910 we gave a picture of a high tabie upon which a baby can conveniently be dressed...

...Why not save all these motions...

...Probably the solution of the cooking problem will come through some combination of tireless cooker with gas or electric stove...

...Finally, it was discovered that by sorting the bricks before they were brought to the bricklayer and...

...rejecting the poor ones so that he would not be obliged to turn them over for the purpose of examining them, by piling the bricks carefully in just the position in which the bricklayer was to use them instead of throwing them in a heap, and by having the mortar of exactly the right consistency so that the bricks would sink into it without being pressed down into place, still further energy might be saved...

...The result was that Mr...

...When the ovens were below it was a different matter, but there is no reason now why stoves should not be mounted on brackets as sinks are...