Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/124

 Monday Mechanics

��IN -the good old days when the only way to wash clothing was to carry it to the riverside and sop it up and down and rub it upon stones, there was good reason for calling the first work day of the week blue or drab or even black. To-day, however, fortunate home laundresses have at their disposal excel- lent mechanical helpers. The pity of it

��Can she see the washboard? No; it has sunk out of sight because the tubis are too deep.

A third fault is that the tubs are poorly lighted. Number four is that the tubs are against a wall and also in a corner, accessible from too few points. The only artificial light is a single electric bulb, a sixteen candle-power car^

���is, that these helpers fall far short of the mark because of lack of knowledge upon the part of women of how to operate them efficiently and because of really blame-worthy stupidity upon the part of the men who design and install the equipment.

For instance, notice the upper right- hand photograph, taken in the "conve- nient" laundry of an ordinary home. It is not an isolated instance. There are hundreds like it in other houses and apartment buildings. The bottoms of the set tubs are but fourteen' inches above the floor. The average height for women is five feet four inches.

��Above, the back-breaking hand tubs

found in most houses. Below, the

electric washer which pays for itselr

before it begins to wear out

bon, hung near the ceiling in the center of a very large basement room. Then the water inlets are flush with the back of the tub, so it is not feasible to attach a

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