XIV Doing Chores by Electricity
Chores were my salvation in youth, and those chores were not trifles. I was made to feel that the whole family depended on my milking the cows, bringing in the eggs, keeping the wood box full of wood, the water pail full of water brought from the old well, churning the butter, feeding and watering the animals, and performing a multitude of regular daily and weekly tasks. As I grew older my responsibilities were allowed to increase proportionally so that I might feel some measure of the dignity of being a mainstay and a support of the family. Long before I reached manhood occasional opportunities were presented for me to play the full part of a man. These sometimes came during a temporary absence or sickness of my father, but more often, as I learned afterward, by his skilfully eliminating himself from the situation so that I might try my powers.
We attempt in the present generation to furnish a substitute for the old time chores by our daily programme in school or in summer camp, but I often wonder whether this round of trifles can make men. Can one grow great without having a chance to feel occasionally that the world depends upon what he does?
The great advantage of Millville to us all lies in the fact that my wife is a good organizer. She immediately saw that the introduction of electricity into the cottage enabled her to assign chores to us all. These chores were assigned so that the establishment ran like clock-work. On Monday morning in a large room, called the wash room, she arranged the soiled clothes in five piles. Pile No. 1 contained sheets and pillow cases; No. 2, white shirts, shirtwaists, and other starched clothes; No. 3, underclothes; No. 4, towels, etc., and No. 5, coloured clothes. Here stood a washing machine run by electric motor and a wringer run by the same motor (Fig. 143). By the side of it sat a tub for rinsing water and next to that a tub for bluing water. Two boys placed a wash boiler over a two-burner oil stove, put five pails of water into it, and cut up one cake of laundry soap which they also put in. When this was boiling hot, about half of it was poured into the washing machine. The other half was to take its place later in the washing machine. The first pile of clothes was put in and the motor run for five minutes. This batch was then run through the wringer into the rinsing water, and then again through the wringer into the bluing water, and then through the wringer a third time into the clothes basket, and hung upon the line out doors in the clear sunshine, which did more than all else to make them sweet and clean. A basket of such clothes from the line makes you want to plunge your face right into it and take a good whiff. There is nothing like it except a mow full of new hay. The piles of soiled clothes follow one another through this series of tubs on about a fifteen to twenty minutes headway, so that the whole family washing is done wholly by two boys inside of two hours. Each pile after the first is given ten minutes in the washing machine.
On Tuesday the ironing is done with electric irons (Fig. 144). On Friday the house is cleaned by the vacuum cleaner, run by electricity (Fig. 145).
On Saturday a lot of baking is done in a series of fireless cookers (Fig. 146).
The sewing machine runs more than ever before. I hear “It is such fun to sew with an electric motor.” And the electric fan which Harold installed for his mother over the sewing machine “makes that the coolest spot in the house.”
Chores do not take all of the time, nor most of the time. They are simply the important things which must be done right on time. Meanwhile there is plenty of time for other things and a vast lot of experimenting goes on down at the mill. It is my chief entertainment to stroll down there every day and look on. One day I found this project on trial: On the floor (Fig. 148, f) of the room over the wash room at the mill a large dripping pan A, was set on blocks of wood so that one corner was lower than the rest. A rubber pipe, B, brought water to this pan from the mill pond, an inverted faucet, c, regulating the flow. The overflow from the pan fell into a funnel, d, the stem of which went through a hole in the floor. A short piece of rubber pipe connected this with the nozzle, e, of a gardener’s sprinkling can, which hung from the ceiling in the compartment for the shower bath. Electric lamps attached to a board, g, were inverted over the pan of water, so that the bulbs of the lamps were immersed in the water. The electric current for these lamps was controlled by a switch, h, placed by the side of the water faucet. When one wanted a shower he could have it as cold or as hot as he chose by adjusting properly the switch and the faucet. Moreover, it was not necessary for him to wait, for warm water flowed immediately.
In discussing this the boys said that a 32-candle-power lamp used 110 watts, and that since 96 per cent. of the energy supplied to the lamps went into heat each lamp transformed 105 watts of electrical energy into heat. But 100 watts sufficed to raise one pint (one pound) of water five degrees in one minute. They used seven lamps or about one horse-power, and adjusted the flow so that the shower delivered one quart of lake water per minute warmed for a tepid bath.
The next time I sauntered down to the mill the boys were working on what they called an electric shower bath. They had fastened upon the wall of the bath room an electric bell (Fig. 149), and placed on a shelf near by a battery of two dry cells, P. The switch which closed this primary circuit was on the wall by the side of the faucet and electric heating switch (Fig. 148). One of the wires, S, for the secondary circuit was carried up and connected to the pan A (Fig. 148). The other wire was fastened to a sheet of zinc about a foot square, which lay upon the floor of the shower bath. The idea was that when one was taking a shower bath, if he chose to vary his sensations he might step upon the sheet of zinc, close the switch in the primary circuit and let the secondary current pass through his body by way of the shower. They said that it was particularly prescribed for slow people.
Speaking of chores, of course the most insistent chore was to keep the storage batteries stored. This process gave rise to many questions, through which the information contained in the next chapter was brought out.