August, 1920 
51 
THE 
PERMANENT KITCHEN 
Equipment in Kitchens and Laundries Must Be Permanently Installed If the 
Householder Expects to Save the Maximum of Time and Labor 
KATE HAMMOND 
W E Americans lose a great deal in con¬ 
tentment and comfort because of the 
habit of considering our abiding-place as tem¬ 
porary. Even our homes are designed with a 
canny eye to the market. We anticipate the 
day when we shall be more prosperous and 
shall want a larger home in a more exclusive 
neighborhood. And so, with these thoughts in 
mind, we often plan the new home, not as we 
would really want it ourselves, but to con¬ 
form to the imagined ideas of possible pur¬ 
chasers. 
Nowhere in the home is this so true as in 
the workrooms. Think of a refrigerator on 
castors!—it is almost as ridiculous in con¬ 
ception as a folding furnace or a portable 
porch. Yet most refrigerators actually are 
built with castors attached—on the theory, ap¬ 
parently, that a rolling refrigerator is more 
convenient for the movers to handle when the 
anticipated day of migration arrives! 
So long as we build to sell and 
design homes which are more con¬ 
venient to move from than to live in, 
we will have these anachronisms. 
But when we learn to look upon 
our homes as permanent, then, and 
only then, will we have kitchens and 
laundries and pantries which will 
banish drudgery and put the busi¬ 
ness of home-making upon a reason¬ 
able and efficient basis. 
laundry is while the plans are in the archi¬ 
tect’s hands. It is a sound principle of engi¬ 
neering that a dollar spent at the draughting- 
board will save from ten to a hundred dollars 
on the finished work, and this rule-of-thumb 
applies quite as forcefully in the design of 
home work-rooms. Drudgery, monotony, vexa¬ 
tion and a very considerable percentage of 
feminine ills can be “planned” out of the new 
home by competent household engineering, just 
as increased production, economy and relative 
freedom from labor trouble can be “planned” 
into a factory or office by competent efficiency 
engineering. 
Nor is there anything mysterious or so very 
difficult about it. We must understand the 
work to be done: we must be familiar with 
the machines and equipment available for do¬ 
ing this work: then we must arrange and in¬ 
stall these machines in such positions and with 
such accessory equipment (such as lighting) 
as to enable the housekeeper to do her work 
with the minimum of physical exertion and in 
the minimum of time. 
Kitchen and Laundry Plans 
The Fixed Equipment 
Practically all the major house¬ 
hold machines of the present day 
should be considered as fixtures. 
Washing machines, clothes dryers, 
ironers, ironing boards with their 
accessory electric irons, dishwashers 
and refrigerators all require conve¬ 
nient and adequate connections to 
gas, electricity, water supply and 
sewer. 
A very considerable amount of ac¬ 
cessory equipment, such as the mo¬ 
tor-driven coffee grinder, silver pol¬ 
ishing wheel, pantry plate warmer, 
toaster and percolator require spe¬ 
cially provided connections if they 
are to be utilized regularly, conve¬ 
niently and economically. 
Yet how often do we find electri¬ 
cal connections made with annoying 
cords which dangle from the light¬ 
ing fixture, washing machines and 
dishwashers being filled from kettles 
or by means of a length of hose, the 
dirty water and sludge being drawn 
off into a pail and emptied by hand. 
Where a number of small electrical 
table appliances are in service, mul¬ 
tiple socket attachments not infre¬ 
quently are used which overload the 
electric circuits. Gas connections 
for ironers and for certain types of 
washers which require superheating 
are provided through unreliable and 
odoriferous tubes. 
The time to provide for an effi¬ 
cient kitchen and a labor-saving 
Efficient arrangement is found in the kitchen 
plan. The breakfast nook set by windows is 
an excellent and pleasant scheme for a small 
family or a household where no servants’ din¬ 
ing room is provided. It has two electricity 
outlets for table equipment. In the pantry are 
china cupboards and refrigerator, the latter 
filled through a door from the outside. In the 
kitchen itself the dishwasher, sink and cup¬ 
board are in logical proximity. The range andi 
fireless cooker are side by side. There are: 
four outlets for electricity. A special comer 
within easy reach of the stove is reserved jtor 
hanging up pots and pans. 
Logical work is also afforded in the laundry, 
of which plans are here shown. The clothes 
arrive via a chute in the center of 
the room, directly over the sorting 
table. From this point they are 
placed in the tubs for overnight 
soaking, and thence pass step by step 
to the washing machine, rinsing 
water, dryer, back to the table for 
sprinkling, and then to the ironing 
machine or board. The hamper of 
ironed clothes, whether finished on 
the machine or by hand, is but a step 
from the doorway that leads upstairs 
from the corner of the room. 
Smaller Conveniences 
A kitchen for logical, labor-saving work provides a pan¬ 
try for china and refrigerator, a breakfast nook and 
equipment placed in groups according to the nature of 
the work 
Soiled clothes reach the laundry sorting table vta a 
chute. The equipment is placed in logical sequence 
around the room. Space is also found for an ice 
machine 
The gas heater of the dryer, which 
serves also for boiling the clothes 
when necessary, is but a step from 
the washing trays and machine. The 
small ventilating fan is so located 
as to minimize both the steam of the 
tubs and the heat of the dryer. The 
cupboard in which soap, cleaning 
compounds, bluing and starch are 
kept, has a glass door which saves, 
according to careful estimate, not 
less than two hours every year sim¬ 
ply by enabling the laundress to 
select the right article more prompt¬ 
ly and to return it without hesitation 
to it proper place. 
This last detail may appear to 
be an exaggeration of refinement, 
but it is just these details which, 
taken together, make up the differ¬ 
ence between everlasting puttering 
and efficient work. Summed up, they 
constitute an important feature. 
Labor - saving machinery and 
equipment have now reached such 
a stage of development that there is 
no longer an excuse for drudgery. 
It only remains for us to arrange 
these machines logically, install 
them permanently and utilize them 
intelligently. We thereby place our 
housework on a business basis. 
And that, after all, is what house¬ 
keeping is—the greatest business in 
the world. 
