Electricity in the Home

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 244, 5 January 1928, Page 12

Electricity in the Home

Tireless Servant in Diminishing Labour The aim of every housewife is ; surely to so manage her household j affairs as to ensure the greatest | amount of health, happiness and com- j fort to those vrho come under her j care, with the minimum of labour, j To use the words of Professor S. I Parker-Smith, I).Sc., “A home should j he a place in which it is a delight! to live, and not a place which is an eternal source of drudgery.” Such an ideal is, of course, worth j striving for, but in these days of i limited incomes, and lack of domestic | help, it would appear almost impos- , sible of accomplishment. If, however, we turn our thoughts i to electricity, and to the many handy ; labour-saving devices which it can be j made to operate, it will be found that with a little careful consideration on the part of the householder electricity can be used in the home in such a way as to enable the housewife to run her home efficiently and economically, and at the same time perform many of the daily routine tasks, hitherto considered as drudgery, quite easily. One has only to remember how “washing day” can be turned into "washing hour” by the use of the electric washer or the back-aching task of ordinary ironing turned to a pleasure with the aid of the electric iron, in order to appreciate the benefits of electricity in the home. ELECTRICAL APPLIANCES Broadly speaking, the use of electrical domestic appliances does away with half the labour which, whether the house be large or small, consists in removing dirt and dust made —for the most part by methods of heating and lighting which custom alone prevents us from finding intolerable. Electricity strikes right at the heart of this dirt trouble —the coal fire—by offering in its place pure heat without dirt, flame or smoke, available at the touch of a switch, for there is nothing so clean and convenient as the electric fire, which can be used in any part of the room, or in any room in the house. IN THE KITCHEN ■ The “workshop” of the home is the kitchen, usually associated with a hot, stuffy atmosphere, to say nothing of the odours which permeate the house when some particular dish is being prepared. These may be appetising, but are nevertheless undesirable. Here, then, the modern housewife will find the electric cooker a boon, for not only does it give perfect cooking results, but this without fumes or smoke and very little wasted heat. This, perhaps it should be explained, is by reason of the efficient construction of the electric oven which allows no heat or fumes to escape into the room, but concentrates pure heat on the dish which is being cooked. The reasons underlying the success of electric cooking are many. To begin with, it is by far the most convenient method of preparing food in the kitchen; a turn of the switch starts the heat. There is no fire to build —nothing to be lighted with a match —no fuel to bother about. The whole operation-Js as simple as turning on an electric light. The cleanliness of electric heat commends itself strongly to the housewife. It produces no smoke or soot, and consequently does not deposit dirt on the kitchen walls. The bottoms of utensils psed on an electric range need never be scoured. The range itself is easilycleaned because of the cleanliness of the heat medium. A kitchen free from gas and fumes is a healthier and safer kitchen for everyone. In electric cooking there is no open flame, no oxygen is taken from the air, and no gas can be given off. Cooking with electricity is safe, healthy, economical, and is the most convenient method of preparing food.