Part 24 (1/2)
Of the same manufacture is the radiant grill shown in Fig. 14. This grill, you will note, is round, which particularly adapts it to the use of utensils ordinarily found in the kitchen of the average home. You will note that there are two dishes to this grill, a top dish with a broiling grid, to be used underneath the coils for broiling chops, and a shallower dish to be used above the coils for frying operations. There is furnished also a reflector which is so designed that it serves equally well as a cover for either dish and makes a very choice griddle for baking hot cakes.
While this particular grill is furnished with a wattage providing for operation from a lamp-socket, it is of the three-heat style already spoken of as so desirable in appliances of this character. A companion grill to this is of the same design, excepting that it is furnished in single heat only and lists at a somewhat lower price.
You will remember that in explaining the many advantages of the open-coil type of burner, it was stated as one of these that the housewife could use cooking utensils ordinarily found in the home, and because of this peculiar adaptability the round grills here spoken of and ill.u.s.trated are having an exceedingly large sale. These open-coil grills are also very efficient as toasters, the bread being placed on top of the grating, which protects the coils from injury. Where only chops, toast, and coffee are to be had for breakfast, chops can be prepared below the coils, the toast above, while the coffee gurgle-gurgles in the percolator.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 16.--ELECTRIC CHAFING DISHES]
Some people who have not felt any need of a grill have desired an open-coil stove, and of this same general type of manufacture there is the open-coil radiant stove herewith ill.u.s.trated (Fig. 15). It is equipped with the same kind of a burner or element with a reflector underneath, and can be used very efficiently with ordinary cooking utensils and is also very serviceable as a toaster. Using this stove in combination with the ovenette, which will be ill.u.s.trated further on, the owner is provided with a table range which meets most of the requirements in a small family.
A line of cooking utensils would not be complete without suitable designs of chafing dishes, and these are made in several styles, both with and without heating elements, the latter being used on the disc and open-coil stoves already ill.u.s.trated, while the former contains a heating element very much along the lines of the percolator. These are furnished, as you will note from the ill.u.s.tration (Fig. 16), with suitable cooking pans for the preparation of chafing-dish dainties.
Baking and Roasting.
It is only natural to suppose that manufacturers of electric stoves of both light and heavy duty should next turn their attention to ovens, since oven cooking is even primary to cooking that is done on open burners and is now coming to be even of more importance. The first oven herewith shown (Fig. 17) is of the lamp-socket type, equipped with three heats, providing a very efficient oven for small operations. The second one ill.u.s.trated (Fig. 18) is of standard size and accommodates a quant.i.ty of food equal to that of any large range oven. It is provided with a heavy wattage and therefore requires special wiring.
To meet the requirements of the many families in which such a small amount of baking is done, and to cater particularly to apartment-house dwellers, the manufacturers of the line of radiant stoves described and ill.u.s.trated have brought forth a small cylindrical oven called the ovenette. This little oven fits either the radiant stove or the round radiant grill. It is made of pressed steel and finished in highly polished nickel. This ovenette, in combination with either the radiant stove or the round radiant grill, provides complete cooking equipment upon which an entire meal can be prepared, whether it be heating rolls and preparing crisp bacon or chops for breakfast, or baking a roast, a loaf cake or even bread for the dinner. It will bake pies, cake, biscuit, potatoes, roast meats, etc., up to its capacity, at a less current cost than is possible with the larger oven and in less time.
This ovenette has what is called a middle ring, which makes it adjustable to two sizes when large or small quant.i.ties of food are to be prepared.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 17.--ELECTRIC LAMP-SOCKET OVEN]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 18.--ELECTRIC STANDARD OVEN]
So you see, the woman of today who utilizes current furnished through the light socket, can bring to her command genii as wonderful as those at the command of Aladdin when he stroked the wonderful lamp. Her household duties are made easier. There is far less preparatory work and she is able to place her home on a much more efficient basis than with ordinary methods.
The home electrical is not complete without containing at least some of the electrical appliances which have been designed for the purpose of alleviating pain. One of these is an electric heating pad made of steel units, so hinged as to make the appliance sufficiently flexible to be wrapped around an arm or limb and to conform to the curves of the body.
The other is a pad made of aluminum which is concave on one side and convex on the other and may be used in a wet pack. Each of these heating pads is covered with a high-grade cover of eiderdown which provides a soft contact for the skin.
Perhaps next in importance along this line of electrical appliances is the small immersion heater shown in Fig. 19, and which requires so little s.p.a.ce that it can be easily carried even in a woman's handbag.
This style of heater will quickly heat a gla.s.s of water by simply immersing the heater in the water. This device is very extensively used by mothers in heating milk for the baby, by men in heating water for shaving, and by doctors and dentists who require small quant.i.ties of hot water for sterilizing and other uses.
One thing most desirable in connection with practically all of the lamp-socket appliances described and ill.u.s.trated in this section is the very small cost of operation. Lighting companies have so reduced the cost of current within the last two or three years that a breakfast may now be prepared electrically for not more than a couple of cents, while one of the pads may be used an entire night at a cost of less than one cent in soothing rheumatic pains or in driving away the chill for outdoor sleepers.
[Ill.u.s.tration: ELECTRIC ALUMINUM COMFO]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 19.--ELECTRIC IMMERSION HEATER]
[Ill.u.s.tration: ELECTRIC FLEXIBLE COMFO (Metal)]
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 20.--ELECTRIC VACUUM CLEANER]
But one of the hardest domestic tasks is that of keeping the house clean. To obviate the difficulties encountered in this connection and to make the home sanitary, electric vacuum cleaners are provided by several manufacturers, a very recent acceptable type being ill.u.s.trated in Fig.
20. This type of vacuum cleaner, which is reasonable in price, is made of steel and finished in very highly polished nickel. It operates from any light socket and consumes but a very small amount of current, much less than is consumed by a toaster. It can also be purchased with different attachments with which curtains, radiators, clothes and walls may be cleaned. The possession in the home of one of these vacuum cleaners makes it unnecessary to take up rugs, carpets, tear down curtains and go through the semi-annual worry, wear and tear of house cleaning. The vacuum cleaner will do it better and many times quicker without removing a single article of furniture or disturbing a rug or curtain; and instead of scattering the dust-laden germs in the air, to be drawn into the nostrils and lungs of the family, the cleaner sucks them up into a dust-tight bag from which they can be deposited on a paper and burned.
The evolution in cooking and heating appliances for the home in the last ten years has indeed been rapid, but it is very recently indeed that the housewife has been able to satisfy the longing and the desire that has kept getting stronger from day to day, since first she began to use electric cooking appliances. She has been dreaming of that which would make her kitchen a domestic-science laboratory, and her dream can come true because now she can purchase an electric range patterned in general style after the more acceptable gas or other fuel ranges, but infinitely more efficient.
[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 21.--ELECTRIC RANGE]