The Washington times., 1921-04-03
? HOUSEHOLD drudgery Is hard work.
~ Nobody denies that.

Nobody denies that.
Is it as hard or harder than the
physical labor that men perform?
II used to be said that the average
farmer "out West" was living with his sec
ond wife or with his third. He used up
two or three wives during his lifetime;
the women were literally worked to death.
The Government States Relations Service
has been making study of these matters.
3 1t is particularly interested In finding out
Just how much energy is consumed in the
performance of the various household
tasks which the average woman is obliged
to undertake.
For instane1 a certain amount of energy
is consumed in taking care of baby.
How much is it?
The experts had made to order life-size
model Of year-old infant--a doll of wood
for which an outfit of clothing was pro-
vided, including shirt. two underskirts,
knitted Jacket, socks, bootees and bonnet.
A woman dressed and undressed this
manikin seven times in two hours. not IN
haste, but doing the job in an ordinary,
way The amount of energy she expended
per hour was exactly measured.
To accomplish this she was put into an
alright case the size Of a small bathroom.
with walls of heavy plate glass. Oxy-
gen, supplied from tank, kept the air
fresh inside So completely was the box,
with it's temporary occupant, under scru-
tiny, so to speak, with the help Of electri.
cal and other ingenious contrivances. that
even the woman's breath was analyzed.
The main problem, however, was to de-
termine the amount of heat given of by
the woman's body for this was the exact
measure Of the amount Of energy which.
as an engine, she developed
The heat representing energy) was
measured by thermometers of extraordi.
nary delicacy, recording the hundredth
part of degree. IL the woman In the box,
rose from her chair, they went up little.
II she stretched out her arms, the mus
cular effort raised the temperature, as
noted by the instruments outside, percept-
ibly.
A current of cold water was kept flow
ing in and out of the box: The quantity Of
water used and it's rate of flow being
known, the amount of heat It absorbed and
carried out of the chamber was readily as
certained. and thereby was determined
Just how much energy the woman's body
engine developed.
When the woman sat perfectly still in
her chair the energy she developed was
sixty-one "caloriesv per hour. Il took that
much to keep the machinery Of her body
running-to operate her. heart-pump and
maintain her. digestive and other vital
functions.
Anybody may notice that the body OF a
sleeping person gives off considerable heat,
which represents energy consumed in op-
Grating the vital mechanism At death the
production of energy ceases, and the body
quickly turns cold.
While the woman was engaged in dress
:, ing and undressing the dummy child her
output OF energy, as measured by the ther-
mometers, was eighty-five calories per
hour. Hence 1t appeared that twenty-four
calories were expended in the muscular ef-
fort which this labor demanded.
"A calory is the amount of heat required
to raise the temperature Of pint OF water
-four degrees Fahrenheit Thus the energy
expended in dressing and undressing the
wooden baby for one hour was equivalent
to the amount Of heat needed to raise q
quart OF water from freezing point to sew
enty degrees of the thermometer.
The experts declare this to mean that
baby-dressing is to be classed as "moder-
ately heavy labor" But they confess that
the test was not altogether fair. inasmnch
as the dummy child weighed less than four