Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-08-11
HELPS FOR WOMEN.
Philosophers Who Directed Their
Genius to Inventions
MAKING WOMAN'S WORK EASIER.
The English Style of Living Coming Into
Fashion.
KEEPING A HOUSE COOL In SUMNER
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH,


rushed in so many degrees warmer that it
seemed as if the world had been simmering
over night. The moist depressing heat
gives one sympathizing idea that it is in
land, in closely built towns and country
houses, with only the breeze between them
and the sun. How do people live without
east winds, cooled by icebergs off Labrador
and the strengthening of salt air?
Why does not some genius study new
subject and go about telling people how to.
live comfortably? Notably, there was such
a one, the Polish exile aud philosopher,
Count Lehmsnowski, yet remembered in
the interior where he used to lecture in a
benevolent way. But the best Of his work
was always done nights and mornings when
he stayed, in giving valuable hints about
health and conveniences and how to man
age, from cooking a foreign dish to the
routine of crops or choosing a vocation.
He was q man of very sincere mind, and
that wide, clear sagacity for which nothing
was too vast or too small to be of interest,
and have heard him spoken of almost
adoringly for the help his advice had
given on
PRACTICAL MATTERS
on which the comfort of narrow lives turned.
The philosophers like Franklin and Count
Rumford, and Horsford, of Harvard, found
their genius never better employed than devils
ing aids for domestic economy. 1t is to Frank
lin we owe the open parlor stove and 20 other
conveniences under patent to-day. The best
cooking ranges and utensils are copied direct
from Rumford's designs 100 years ago, which
never have been improved upon. have heard
one of the old Gloucester folk tell of the first
cooking stove ever brought to the place, more
than 50 years ago, which drew almost as much
wonder from the neighbors as the railway en-
gine years later. People harnessed teams and
drove up from Marblehead and Ipswich to see
the new cooking machine. We are apt to think
we are at the completion of improvements
when we have hardly begun on the ideas the
fathers have written and stored away. Life
goes SO much easier with intelligence, and a
tour among the inventions for GOODNESS and
comfort discloses great alleviations for days at
$50 in the shade with humidity
We must eat if it is summer, and that neces-
sity adds fearfully to the distress and mortality
of heated months 1t is a very serious fact
that many women die every summer from
overwork and overheating. They could endure
the work If it were not for the heat of that
Meloch of a cooking stove. Kerosene stoves
are great boon, but even an oil stove equal to
the needs of a family creates oppressive heat
The ideal arrangement is this square. close shut
1apanned box. about two feet square, on four
high legs, under a tin hood higher than ones
A large entry lamp under the box supplied the
heat Lifting the cover of the box, behold
A COMPLETE COOKING BATTERY
of white ware jars, one with chicken, another
with beef roasting, three more with vegetables,
and dumplings light as sponge. Another pair
hold brown bread loaves steaming to perfec-
tion; square tin holds a loaf of white bread,
which will be finished in the oven at one side.
Observe the convenience. The cooking box is
SO high there is no stopping to stir the food or
look in the oven. There is no anxiety about
burning food in these thick pots of fire proof
ware, so nicely is the heat adjusted, and conse-
faces, standing over the fire. The box, or oven
as sy you pie please, Sc is OF paper pulp: nre proof as
heat into tse sr Sss spa 81 S0I Sbeg
opened are drzwnat once into the chimney by
the tin hood, under which one might fry fish
without anyone in the next room being the
wiser. This is the invention and practical di-
version of very busy and very practical
man, Mr. Edward Atkinson, diplomat. fnan-
cier, writer on political philosophy. secretary
such PHILOSOPHERS of common life as the ablest
men of all times have been.
Tho idea of the cooking box Is an old one
used by the shrewd peasantry abroad, and ap-
proved by every old writer on the economy of
heat, but it was left for Mr.. Atkinson to inn
expense of fuel. and the heat fell to the lowest
degree, while making cookery absolutely an
exact science in practice.
BETTER THAN THE BALLOT.
The flavor impaired or rather developed in
such cooking. the tenderness and richness of
meats, the sweetness of bread and fine quality
of vegetables, is remarkable, and the gain in
substance of food pays for the oil burned
thrice over. The whole process is SO free of all
the evils of common cooking that one would
imagine women reaching for the new invention
en- masse, but the intense conservatism of or.
binary women in all matters outside their self
interest stands stupidity unaware what light
ening of their burdens is here presented. Such
an invention would do more for them than the
ballot If they only knew il, and think the
Western women will know how to appreciate
it.
The value Of the cooking oven depends ON
the non-conducting property of paper pulp
What is good TO keep heat in will keep it out
and the next application Of the material is the
convenient refrigerator of compressed wood
pulp. This has the advantage of not needing
double walls, and being light enough to wheel
into any place, unlike the common behemoth
refriserators. The ideal Refrigerator Of wood
pulp is decorated with nlckf plate scrolls and
oil pictures to be ornamental enough for an
ordinary dining room or side hall. 10 nv taste
the decoration is its only drawback being too
much in cheap chrome style. When will deal
ers learn to send out few at least of their
household wares in severely good and plain
finish to suit artistic notions? But we must
forgive its panel of lakes and mountains and
gilt finishes for its lightness and cleanliness.
till good taste has its renaissance in manufac-
lures as well as art This refrigerator is a nice
thing for apartments, being oval In shane a
yard high by 2 inches through and weighing
only 40 pounds. The ice is put in the TOP and
the provision chamber has a full circulation OF
air with large door, which will commend itself
TO every housekeeper.
THE ENGLISH STYLE
The demand in cities now by families who
have been abroad and found the immense ao.
vantage Of some foreign ways is for lodgings
on the English plan, where rooms are let
furnished and people buy what they fancy for
food, and the landlady cook, and serves it for a
certain sum extra By this way, people get
more variety and more to their own tastes than
in the usual boarding house fare with more
economy and entire privacy. They pay the
market price for every article they consume.
and only for what they have, and pay the
hostess price for cookery and service For
such menages, all sorts of nice, portable, we'll
nnisbed domestic contrivances will be in de-
mand, and such a refrigerator as this wood
hber one Will not be the least benefit where
each family can keep its food with proper san
itary precautions, and none of the ''coId meat"
suspicious which sound so vulgar in English
lodging house novels With this there viii be
no need TO keep the baby's milk on the window
sill or the mammals bottle of porter If she |
must have that detestable compound. or any
keeping ginger pots and Swiss fruit among the
tooth brushes and medicine bottles in the
dressing closet.
Next comes the indurated fibre bath tub.
which Is a boon in houses without complete
water service. 1t is a question in country or
suburbs, where the prices of water service are |
exorbitant whether it Is not best TO adept in |
dependent plans. 1t costs near Boston el2 first |
payment to the water company for making
connections between the town pipes and |
houses 500 at least for house plumbing and
fitting bathroom, and 50 yearly tax for each |