Milford chronicle., 1917-07-27
FLATIRON
HAS MANY NOVEL USES
Automobiles, Housewife, Plumber And
Carpenter Find Uses

Electric hatirons. primarily, are made
/ for ironing, hut that does not mean that
/ there are not scores of other uses to which
they have been put with marked success.
One physician even prescribes ironing
with an electric flatiiou as a means for
relieving rheumatism, New York artist
uses one for improving and restoring
valuable old oil paintings, travelling sales
men carry small electric irons with them
and use them on the road for heating
shaving water, and so it goes men in a
score of professions have discovered new
ways for using electric irons.
Perhaps one of the most unusual jobs
an electric hatiron was ever called upon
to do was discovered in a hospital. 1t
was customary in one institution to use a
gas jet for making steam in a vapor bath
cabinet There were many objections to
gas however In the first place it used
up all the oxygen in the air, making the
room close and gas-heatery, and was apt
to set fire to something. A hospital in
terne thought of the expedient of turning
an electric flatiron upside down inside
the bath cabinet and heating the boiler
with the upturued iron. The scheme
worked to perfection with the result that
the gas heater has been permanently dis
connected. When a vapor bath is wanted
the iron is inverted on a simple wire
stand and a snap of the switch soon starts
the water boiling.
Perhaps the real secret of the popular
ity of the electric iron is that i is prac
tically trouble proof. Electric irons have
been dropped in water, buried in the
ground, and have passed through fires
without injuring in the least their ability
to generate heat when properly connected
again. The heating specialists of the
General Electric Company have origi-
mated an unusual method of designing
and protecting the resistance unit which
makes the iron heat. In many types of
electric irons the heat is generated with
resistance wire cleverly woven between
two LAYERS of a substance which will not
permit the passage of electricity. This
wire sometimes burns out OF shortcircuits,
thus disabling the iron. The new method
of placing the heating element in an iron
is TO stamp out a resistance leaf or grid
from a single solid sheet of alloy or re-
sistance metal and clamp it firmly be-
tween two sheets of mica and two parts
of iron. The resistance element thus
makes a thin wafer of mica and metal
protected by two heavy pieces of metal,
one OF which is the polished shoe of the
iron and the part which carries the heat
to do the actual pressing
From numerous clippings of novel
uses of electric hatirons, trade magazines, !
and individual suggestions the following |
list of things an electric iron has been |
used for is compiled
/. Melting paraffin for sealing fruit
lars and jelly glasses.
2. Soldering tinware.
3. Removing old wall paper.
4. Mounting photographs with |
mounting tissue.
S. Heating element for hreless cooker |
made at home.
6. Boiling eggs.
7. For treatment of rheumatism.
s. For warming nursing bottle.
9. For keeping dishes warm on the |
table
10. Restoring costly oil paintings.
II. Thawing frozen water pipes in /
winter.
II. For keeping cTburater of auto
mobile warm in winter.
13. For keeping the feet warm in the
automobile.
a. Smoothing ont old legal papers
and deeds.
IS. For sticking on bookbindings
10. Popping corn.
II. Heating water for shaving.
is. Keeping wood glue hot
19. VulCanizing an automobile tire.
20 Sticking patches on inner tubes.