38 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



January, 1908 



convenient height in the panel of the door, in which the 

 dishes are placed. This fits within a similarly shaped outer 

 shell, revolving the dishes into the room and practically 

 allowing no odor to enter with them. 



The kitchen must be placed where it can receive a cool 

 summer breeze — the best of cooks will give warning if she 

 is compelled to work all day long in a piping hot room. 

 Height of ceiling in it is of the greatest value, for the hot air 

 collects under the ceiling. 



Locate the range in as cool a position as possible. The 

 boiler, which is likewise a great source of heat, may be hung 

 against the ceiling, or, still better, taken out of the room en- 

 tirely and placed say, in a well-ventilated closet directly back 

 of the range, to which piping connections are convenient. 

 Then, most important of all, the kitchen must be made of 

 the proper dimensions. Its furnishings encroach more than in 

 any other room of the house upon its floor space. A small 

 kitchen, planned say twelve by fifteen feet, has dwindled 

 down to a hopeless working room when the dressers and 



by pipe coils, others by cast-iron water-backs. It is thus a 

 very difficult matter to definitely advise any special type of 

 range when a housekeeper asks which one is the best and 

 "whether to use the American type of cast-iron or the French 

 wrought-iron range." Unless the cook understands a French 

 range, she will generally complain of its working. The 

 range the cook is used to is generally the one she swears by 

 and from which she procures the most satisfactory results. 

 The French ranges are, owing to their perfected arrange- 

 ments and expensive fittings, the more costly. The extra- 

 heavy firebrick tiles, the duplex grates, the steel trimmings, 

 the wrought-iron protection rails, all increase their cost. 



To take two frequent types, a double oven, American 

 range, four feet six inches long, with water-back, costs 

 $85.00, while a French range of the same length costs 

 $140.00 or very nearly double. For the average sized fam- 

 ily a four foot six inch range should amply suffice. If large 

 dinners and meals at all hours of the day are required, larger 

 sizes will naturally have to be selected. A couple of plate 



lustrations Showing the Kitchen Cupboard and Barrel 



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R.t-^VK. tUVATION 



Tkom r- -£. LSVATION 



range and requisite plumbing fixtures have been set in place. 

 Eighteen by twenty feet is none too liberal for the average 

 house — the range, if not brick set, projects two feet six inches 

 and its hearth should project the same distance. This alone 

 takes one-quarter the size of our room. 



The selection of the range is naturally a most important 

 problem, affecting not only the kitchen but the entire do- 

 mestic arrangements of the family. Its selection should not 

 only be influenced by the amount of cooking required, but 



racks as well as the canopy are essential, whatever type is 

 chosen. By the side of the range, or united with it, may be 

 all manner of arrangements for special cooking, such as com- 

 bined roaster and broiler, special pastry ovens and confec- 

 tionery stoves. Whatever they may be, they should all come 



PLAN - DOOK3 OP-C-N 



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Door, closed 



also, often, by the amount of hot water used throughout the 

 house. It must have a fire large enough to heat the water- 

 back to create a sufficient supply of hot water, and at the 

 same time the fire must be so proportioned that it also heats 

 the ovens to do the necessary cooking, and burns with a rea- 

 sonable amount of attention. In purchasing a stove, one 

 must first assure oneself that there is good circulation of the 

 products of combustion around the oven, so that the oven 

 will be evenly heated all over, and, secondly, that the oven is 

 well ventilated — that ventilation is possible without chilling 

 the food which is cooking. The various range manufac- 

 turers have their own different devices for this, as well as 

 for the heating of the water — some accomplishing the latter 



J50MPTE1C PROJECTION 

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under the same canopy. The hearth, if the floor is laid of 

 any kind of non-fireproof material, should be run the total 

 width of the range and made to project two feet or two feet 

 and a half, so as to catch all coals that may be thrown out. 



Cleanliness, durability and practicability determine the 

 materials to be used in the various surfaces. Any wooden 

 floor, even the best of hard Georgia pine, will be found hard 

 to keep clean, or, if kept clean, hard to give a satisfactory 

 surface. Whatever finish or surfacing the wooden kitchen 



