112 
House & Garden 
"LJERE’S the most practical idea 
ever conceived as a built-in 
feature for the modern home or 
apartment—the Simplex Ironer 
In - 'The - Wall permanently con¬ 
nected and compactly enclosed. 
Open the door, and the Simplex 
Ironer appears at the pressure 
of your finger—noiselessly and gent¬ 
ly it swings into full working posi¬ 
tion. And it’s so easy and econo¬ 
mical to operate — does beautiful 
work — irons everything — the one 
servant every family can afford. 
The Simplex Ironer In-The- 
Wall will appeal to the woman who 
appreciates having a place for every¬ 
thing, and everything in its place, 
and who takes pride in the owner¬ 
ship of a modern home. 
Finger Tip Control 
at the feedboard — 
makes it safe and easy 
to operate a SIMPLEX 
IRONER. 
TALKING POINTS IN THE HOME 
{Continued from page 110) 
have come into the electric bell stage, with 
its consequent comple.xities and need for 
lessening the strain in living. The inter¬ 
communicating telephone in the home is 
far from an extravagance; it is a thera¬ 
peutic and a mitigator of modern strain. 
FEATURES TO DEMAND 
In this apparatus and the installation 
of it there are certain things which are 
but fair to demand. Among them are: 
Simplicity of operation. 
Parts easily fixed because they are not 
only simple and visible but easily removed 
as well. 
Manufacturer must understand your 
needs. 
The dial must be pleasant to your use, 
if a dial type (automatic). 
Be sure to have your switch-board large 
enough to accommodate more extensions 
in the future. 
Be sure and have the manufacturer 
inspect the installation before the con¬ 
tractor gets too far away. 
Be sure and have an occasional inspec¬ 
tion of the installation. 
Unless it is installed by the manufac¬ 
turer, be sure that he O. K.’s the installa¬ 
tion before accepting it as a finished job. 
CH.ARGING .AND RE-CHARGING 
In order to make an electric thing 
function it has to have electricity fed to 
it; so, too, do the intercommunicating 
telephones. In the case of all the systems 
the electricity is fed to batteries from the 
electric light system. The cable telephone 
uses a series of battery cells which you 
must renew frequently; the automatics 
have self-charging systems which take 
care of their renewal automatically. One 
way that this is done is by the use of a 
motor generator; in another method it is 
necessary only occasionally to take a look 
at the voltometer to be sure the batteries 
are properly charged. Should the dial 
reading be too low all you have to do is to 
move the switch until the dial registers 
the proper number of volts. The auto¬ 
matic generator is more expensive than 
the manual type, and whereas it is excel¬ 
lent for large installations, the manual 
adjustment is ample for the usual uses 
and is a comfortable, able and simple 
current restorer. Then, too, it is good 
because it is one less bit of machinery to 
care for. 
Thus you can see from all the foregoing 
that the automatic is not as elaborate 
even as the cable system, for in the auto¬ 
matics you don’t have to think much 
about re-charging and not at all about re¬ 
filling, except (as is the case with any and 
all batteries) the usual drink of distilled 
water once or twice a month. This bit of 
labor, of course, is well known to all mo¬ 
torists. 
On the larger systems, above six or 
fifteen aggregations, the dial is the best 
type, otherwise you will have to have too 
large a layout of buttons. For example, 
the receiver on your desk with a twent)' 
station phone would have to have twent)’ 
buttons on the instrument, whereas if you 
have the dial system you can dial or com¬ 
pose any figure without a lot of room used 
up for buttons and numbers. Of course, 
on the dial, the numbers can be unlimited, 
like the station possibilities. But with the 
cable type you will have to have a new 
installation and new set of instruments if 
your needs grow. All these telephone 
manufacturers can give you table or desk 
phones, wall phones, European phones 
(the microphone, or the kind that has the 
receiver and transmitter in the same 
horizontal). They all make very good 
fixtures and the manufacturers will be 
glad to prescribe what they consider 
wisest for you to get for each need. 
The best manufacturers, of course, sell 
the best made instruments, and these pay 
better in the long run. Cheap instru¬ 
ments, no matter how good the rest of the 
system is, will make the best installation 
wear out and become useless. So don’t be 
too sure when you get any telephone de¬ 
vices which are at bargain prices. 
In the last analysis, buy the best. Tele¬ 
phones when in your home become an 
asset in reselling or renting it. They be¬ 
come, too, an integral part of your home. 
If your home means anything to you, you 
will never risk a cheap thing to reduce the 
dignity of it. 
If it is necessary to have one of these 
phones outdoors there is the “mine” type 
of phone which is weather-proof. It is 
encased in rustless metal and the casing 
opens. The receiver, button or dial, is 
inside. 
In the automatic phones any kind of 
arrangement can be achieved. For exam¬ 
ple, when one of the engineers of a large 
and important intercommunicating tele¬ 
phone system was finishing the sale of a 
system to one of the big moving picture 
magnates, the American Czar said: 
“I never want to be on a busy wire. 
You must fix my system so that I can 
break through to any extension. I must 
never be unable to talk to anyone in 
the building.” So the Czar’s phone was 
so arranged that now he can interrupt 
with delightful 61an at any time and pur¬ 
sue his way whether he discommodes 
people or not! 
THE HOUSE THAT IS MINE 
{Continued from page 62) 
Ask your Architect to 
include in his plans 
a Simplex Ironer 
In - The - Wall — or 
write direct for full 
particulars. 
AIMERICAN 
IRONING 
MACHINE CO. 
stew ADAMS STREET 
CHICA.aO 
simplicity or be part of a group among 
cypress trees? Of course, we must pre¬ 
tend that it shall have no printing, no 
names, no advertisements, no signs, no 
railways” etc., etc. All a mass of pre¬ 
tences. 
My answer to this gentleman was more 
energetic than polite. “I don’t want my 
building to pretend anything. It shall be 
first of all a home, strong and weather¬ 
proof, and later it may be beautiful; 
but whatever it is, it shall be honest. I 
will not put up a box and pretend it is a 
beam; I will not mark off cement in 
squares, and pretend it is tile or paving 
stone. If I can afford nothing better than 
a tar-paper shanty, it will stand up as a 
tar-paper shanty, honest in the sight of 
God and man—honest and unashamed.” 
I know there are millionaires’ houses in 
New York and other cities, in which 
everything is a fake. All the celling beams 
are cheap boxes nailed on. The wood¬ 
carvings are plaster casts grained like 
wood. Their marble columns are steel 
uprights covered with enameled tin. 
I have heard the owners defend these 
trashy things as “much cheaper and just 
as good to look at”. That is, a chromo 
is as good as the original Titian, because 
at a distance it looks like it; the fake 
mountains of the scenic railway at Coney 
Island are as pleasing to the eye as the 
real mountains; or a drug shop complexion 
on the face of a woman as good as one 
God-given in evidence of health. 
Nay, nay, there shall not be in my cot¬ 
tage one nail, stick, shred or brick that is 
not exactly what it pretends to be, and i 
beautiful, therefore, in its sincerity. 
4 th: My home must be of beautiful 
colors. Color is, of all, the easiest feature 
to get in a house, and the one most 
ignored by builders. In such cases as 
they have thought about it, they have 
{Continued on page 114) 
