Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 43.djvu/829

Rh machines are no novelty, but one whose good points are actively exhibited by an attendant attracts considerable attention. It can be put on or taken off the tub with wonderful ease, and adjusts itself to any article from the thickness of a handkerchief up to that of a door-mat. A washing machine for domestic use, shown in the Forestry Building, consists of a round, covered tub with a corrugated bottom and having an axle passing through the cover. The axle carries a corrugated disk on the lower end and is turned by a crank at the top. In the Machinery Building a German invention may be seen. Its tub is three or four feet high and stands on a low frame. It is worked by pushing a lever back and forth. This action turns the drum containing the clothes, and rotates in the opposite direction a stirrer shaped like a four-legged stool. The "self-heating" washer has a box-shaped tub set on legs. Inside is a washboard hung horizontally from a frame, which is pushed back and forth upon another similar board by a long handle. The tub has a metal bottom to which a flame can be applied by means of a gasolene attachment. This attachment can also be swung out and used for making starch or heating a flatiron. One of the most creditable of women's inventions to be seen is the well-known "cold-handled sadiron," with a detachable handle. Another woman's invention for the laundry, shown in the Woman's Building, is called a "convertible chair," and is described as a combination of clothes rack, ironing board, clothes receptacle, and bosom board. Still another is a waist and sleeve pressing board. Plain laundered articles are shown in the exhibit of the London Board Schools, each piece being marked with the name and age of the girl by whom it was done up. The Lette-Verein, of Berlin, also exhibits laundered articles in the Woman's Building.

One branch of domestic economy which is finely illustrated is the care of children. In the western end of the Children's Building is a large room occupied by the Fitch Creche and Training School for Nursery Maids. It is fitted up with bassinets and cribs of various styles, one crib being suspended from the ceiling, while on the floor is a square inclosure in which a baby may be safely left to creep about without watching. Here a class of girls is learning the proper care of infants under competent instruction, and here mothers may leave their babies to be cared for through the day while they are seeing the fair. The creche is an exhibit of the Kindergarten Society of Buffalo. Let no one imagine that sightseers are allowed to wander at will through the room; they can only look in through a glass partition. The middle of the Children's Building is occupied by a gymnasium and there is a playground on the roof, each being suitably fitted up. On the second floor are several rooms in which kindergarten, sloyd, and