Vill 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
June, 1912 
a 
Spencer Turbine 
Vacuum Gleaners 
have recently been chosen for the largest vacuum 
cleaning installation in the world— 
Nineteen machines for the General Hospital 
Buildings, Cincinnati, Ohio 
Proven superiority in efficiency, simplicity and durability of the Spencer 
Turbine Cleaners makes them logical installations for the great buildings of 
today and the greater buildings of tomorrow 
The mammoth 
Banker's 
with Spencers, 
Spencer Turbine Cleaners in the basement have pipes running up through 
the building to each floor, with hose attachment for cleaning. 
are made in 12 sizes, from 42 H. P 
Woolworth Bu id ine—tallest 
Trust, both being erected in New York City, are being equipped 
z ! ., l-sweeper, to 40 H. 
capecity—for the smallest residence or the tallest skyscraper. 
in the world—and the 
Machines 
P., 16 sweepers 
On request a free Catalog and list of 
Installations will be furnished as references. 
‘—., Spencer Turbine Cleaner Company 
638 Capitol Avenue, Hartford, Conn. 
Branch offices or Selling Agencies tn all Principal Cities 
Cornell Sectional Cottages 
. Complete 
Painted Ready-to Set Up 
Garages, Stores, Churches, Schoolhouses, Playhouses, Studios, etc. 
for handling and are quickly and easily erected simply by bolting sections together. 
is not necessary to set them up, as all sections are numbered and everything fits. 
class material in the largest and best portable house factory in America. 
Built in sections, convenient 
Skilled labor 
Built of first 
Buildings are substantial 
and as durable as if built on the ground by local contractors. Are handsomer and COST 
MUCH LESS. We build houses to meet every requirement, We pay freight. 
by mail on receipt of 4c. stamps. Wyckoff Lumber & Mfg. Co., 410 Lehigh St., Ithaca, N.Y. 
Att catalog 
HEAVY LOAD ON 
A HOT DAY 
NO PLAYTIME 
FOR HER 
IN NEED OF 
FRESH AIR 
SUGGESTIONS 
A lawn sociable by 
your class, Sunday 
school or club. 
A card party at your 
summer hotel or 
camp. 
A subscription 
among your friends. 
A list of people to 
whom we may send 
either this appeal, 
or others similar to 
it, without mention- 
ing your name. 
THE BATHING HOUR AT SEA BREEZE 
FROM STIFLING TENEMENT TO 
SEASHORE AND COUNTRY 
Do you know that the New Yorker living below 
Fourteenth Street has an average of only 18 square feet 
of breathing space? Can you imagine anyone more in 
need of fresh air outings than these dwellers in sultry 
homes, hemmed in by scorching pavements > 
Neither opportunity nor money is theirs with which 
to seek pure air. For them fresh breezes and outdoor 
freedom are made impossible by congestion. Every 
penny of their small earnings goes to satisfy pressing needs. 
Mothers, children and babies, broken with toil, ill- 
nurtured, or frail, appeal through us to you for a bit of 
sunshine and relief from care in the country, or at Sea 
Breeze, our seashore Home at Coney Island. 
Wou'd you not enjoy your vacation more if you 
knew that you were enabling or helping 
A convalescent mother to regain lost health? 
A worn-out widow and her children to be care-free for a week 
or two? 
An aged and friendless woman to gain new life and cheer? 
A weary shop girl to enjoy a glorious week of freedom? 
An under-nourished baby to get fresh air and pure milk? 
An anemic school boy or girl to win a new start for the next 
year ? 
Won't you help them? The trouble of sending a 
contribution is nothing compared to the joy that it will 
bring to some of these stifling homes. 
NEW YORK ASSOCIATION FOR IMPROVING 
THE CONDITION OF THE POOR 
R. FULTON CUTTING, PrREsiDEN? 
A “DIP IN THE TENEMENT DISTRICT 
A HAPPY LITTLE 
MOTHER 
WHO SAID WE ARE 
AFRAID? 
HOW THE WAVES TICKLE 
MY FEET 
Send contributions to 
ROBERT SHAW MINTURN 
Room 207 
105 East 22nd Street 
New York City 
Treasurer — 
ANTECEDENTS OF THE FIRELESS 
COOKER 
HE first definite mention of the fact 
that food could be cooked without con- 
tinual heating is said to have been made by 
the great chemist Justus von Liebig, in 
the year 1847, although Juvenil, the Roman 
poet, informs us that the basket which con- 
stituted the sole house furniture of the poor 
Jewish beggar woman of Rome was filled 
with hay for the purpose of keeping warm 
the bits of food which were given to the 
beggars. 
The action of a fireless cooker depends 
upon the fact that a non-conductor of heat 
surrounding a cooking yessel prevents loss 
of heat from any material which is put 
into the vessel in a hot condition, so that 
the material to be cooked remains for a 
long time at a high temperature and be- 
comes “done” without further heating. In 
the.case where a certain food requires an 
average time of four hours’ cooking it is 
only required of a fireless cooker that it 
retain sufficient heat for that length of time 
without allowing the temperature to fall 
below 70 deg. Cent. 
Sixty years ago the peasants of Baden 
were accustomed to the use of the so-called 
hay box, a simple box provided with a lid 
and filled with straw, in which the farmers 
placed hot food in the morning for their 
dinner in the harvest fields at noon. 
In certain other European districts one 
will occasionally find the practice of wrap- 
ping cooked food in cloth and placing it in 
the still warm bed to remain until the next 
meal time. In the middle of the last cen- 
tury the hay box of the peasants of Baden 
found its way to Paris, where it under- 
went various modifications in which other 
poor conductors of heat were employed in 
place of hay. At the World’s Fair in Paris 
(1867) there was exhibited a fireless cooker 
under the name of “Cuisine automatique 
norvegienne.” In this fireless cooker the 
non-conducting material consisted of cheap 
Norwegian fur. 
The first public manufacturer of fireless 
cookers was Johann Heinrich Meidenger 
of Carlsruhe, who made many experiments 
on the heat conductivity of the walls of 
ice boxes. He found that finely chopped 
hair, wool, hay and shavings were good in- 
sulators for the purpose. Meidenger’s fire- 
less cookers astonished the German public 
to a degree which we can scarcely compre- 
hend. The action of an old box in which 
anyone could within three or four hours, 
cook food without fire was regarded as 
downright inexplicable. 
The first quoted price for fireless cookers 
was 22.5 francs (about $4.50). 
The fireless cooker has been the means 
of effecting important changes in certain 
industries of Berlin, notably the cigarette 
industry, in which both men and women 
were employed. It was the custom in this 
industry to allow the women to cease work 
an hour or so before lunch time in order 
that they might have an opportunity of pre- 
paring a warm meal for their husbands 
and families, who were frequently co- 
workers. Employers on hearing of the fire- 
less cooker introduced it to their work peo- 
ple, and by persuading them to adopt it 
made it possible for the married women 
workers to remain at work an equal length 
of time with their husbands, since the 
workers could bring their lunch with them 
and have it smoking hot at lunch time. 
Certain of the German State railroads 
have provided certain classes of their em- 
ployees with fireless cookers in order that 
they might have warm food without the 
necessity of leaving their posts. 
