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being mixed into the paint to save on the cost of material and
labor. Second, the paint is not properly applied, painters
slighting the work in order to finish it as quickly as possible.
Third, the woodwork is not dry enough to receive the paint.
The best safeguard in securing the right kind of paint is to
use only some well-known brand of white lead, employing a
painter who, using the best grade of cold pressed linseed oil, will
392 SUCCESSFUL HOUSES AND HOW TO BUILD THEM
tained with one coat of white oil paint followed by two more
coats of enamel paint. This will leave the wood with a moder-
ate luster. The best enamel jobs require two coats of white
oil paint, finished with two to five more coats of enamel. This
produces paint almost as hard as tile and quite as durable. Of
course each coat should be thoroughly dry, rubbed before the
for plasterwork are on the market, and almost any shade can
be obtained. Most paints for plaster contain a proportion of
glue mixed with the color. Any painter can mix his own kal-
somine. Glue should always be used as a binder.
Plaster walls are frequently covered with canvas (a coarse
material something like cheesecloth), glued to the wall like
wall paper. This makes an excellent sur-
WOOD FRAME
face for the ordinary oil paints used.
PUTTY Three coats are usually required to cover
canvas, though plaster, tinted directly,
OLAS5 requires but one coat of kalsomine. When
kalsomine is used, however, it is a good
flattened out. Such glass breaks easily, and shows imperfections, but
it is used for small lights where inexpensive glass is desired.
only for the largest houses where funds permit a more generous
expenditure than is usually the case in small houses, though there
are many little mechanical devices desirable for the latter as
well. The houseowner should remember, however, that it will
be well for him to consider carefully, not to say cautiously, his
mechanical needs before he invests in, for instance, an auto-
matic gas water-warming apparatus, or before he decides to
buy an electric soft-water compression tank, for modern ap-
placed in outbuildings. Not too far from the well is the best
location, whether in the basement or in a separate building, and
it is excellent practice to have the pump so low down (as when
process is voluntary, the engine being run for a few hours sev-
eral times a week, according to the capacity of the outfit and
amount of water required.
Instantaneous Gas Heaters. Automatic water-warming ap-
paratus for delivering hot water to the various fixtures has
recently been developed, and it will be well for us to examine
some of the different methods of heating water, voluntarily
and automatically. In another chapter the ordinary coal
heater used for warming water is described, and all matter
pertaining to the range boiler is discussed in detail. In this
chapter we will devote a little space to a brief description of
water-heating apparatus in which gas is used as fuel.
USEFUL APPARATUS AND APPLIANCES 405
ing range boilers,' water is heated at the top of the tank first,
and it is not necessary to warm the entire
tankful to get water for a bath.
^Automatic Gas Heaters. Latest types of
gas" water-warming apparatus are clever,
automatic devices for maintaining a con-
stant supply of hot water without burning a
full head of gas at all times. They are really
a development of the instantaneous heater, AUTOMATIC GAS
with an automatic device added for lighting HEATER FOR 24-
HOUR HOT-WATER
the burners, so that the mere opening of SERVICE.
a faucet at any one of the fixtures turns on
gas and heats the water. Automatic gas heaters are usually
located in the basement or kitchen. The apparatus consists
of a coil of pipe through which water enters cold at one end
USEFUL APPARATUS AND APPLIANCES 407
the release of pressure at that point opens the gas valve, admit-
ting gas to the burners which are ignited by the ever burning
pilot light, instantly blazing up to full power, heating water of
any amount wanted. When the faucet is closed again, the gas
valve automatically shuts off, and only the pilot light is left
burning.
Automatic apparatus of this kind is a great convenience,
though it will be found expensive to operate, unless reasonable
expense.
Laundry Clothes For the laundry there are many
Drier.
desirable devices to reduce labor and turn out work at less cost.
410 SUCCESSFUL HOUSES AND HOW TO BUILD THEM
economy is
practiced economy of wear and tear, time and
labor. As a matter of fact, the washing machine, which may
cost no more than a sewing machine, is quite as useful. It will
minimize labor expenditure
and maximize convenience.
Some washing machines are
hand machines, especially
designed to be easily oper- WRINGER
ated and to wash the clothes
clean in the shortest time.
Hand scrubbing cannot com-
with a good pattern of
CLOTHES
pete CHUTE
hand machine.
Power machines are most
convenient of all, and they
are economical in operation.
To run these, some use water
power by means of a little
water motor attached to
the faucet. Others use elec-
ELECTRIC WASHING AND WRINGING
tric motors. Of electric ma- MACHINE.
"
chines the oscillating" type
is one of the best, in which clothes are washed by the violent
rocking, back and forth, of the tub. A wringer is attached to
the shaft. Two cents' worth of power is all that is required to
do the washing of a family of ten, and the time consumed is just
half a day. Everything that can be washed by hand can be
washed by machine, with less labor and, quite often, with very
much better results.
Vacuum Cleaner. Vacuum cleaners have done as much to
simplify housekeeping as anything ever introduced. Brooms,
dusters, mops, and pails seem relics of olden times, for it is
really true that vacuum cleaners actually clean, though a
412 SUCCESSFUL HOUSES AND HOW TO BUILD THEM
place to another ; second, once you have got the dirt out of your
house it is easier to keep it out than it is to allow it to accumulate.
Make up your mind be hard work the first time the house
it will
house has been kept, it has never before been thoroughly cleaned.
No amount of sweeping and dusting can do the work of vacuum
of them ask, "Are they safe ?" This is a very natural question,
for almost every one has heard of at least one instance where an
individual gas plant exploded, causing damage to life and
property. To any one who will take time to investigate various
the latest and best type are heavily built to stand the wear re-
quired, and every precaution has been taken to make them safe,
and safe they are when under the care of persons of even
ordinary intelligence.
No person not on suicide bent would think of turning on gas
in a room tightly closed, allowing it to collect for a number of
hours, and then suddenly enter that room with a lighted candle,
-but this and similar incidents have happened with a gas
every gas machine. For instance, one man opened up his gas
machine and thrust a candle down inside to see how it was
working. He found out but it cost him more than the infor-
mation was worth. Another man found the water seal of the
gas holder frozen and undertook to thaw it out with a red-hot
poker. Think of it a man of intelligence! He might just as
well have dropped the poker into a powder barrel.
Generally speaking, there are three systems of gas supply for
" "
country places (acetylene gas, gasoline gas, and bottled gas),
and manufacturers have brought their apparatus up to a high
state of efficiency. Acetylene gas machines in many cases
consist of a generator and a gas holder, the latter containing
fTOR.
IN CELLAR.
'/!![
OUTSIDE HOUSE
APPARATUS FOR GENERATING GASOLINE GAS.
line supply, and this is the reason why it is located away from
the house, as all supplies of gasoline should be. In one of these
systems under pressure (furnished by an air compressor
air
worked by water pressure, windmill, hand pump, or gasoline
engine) enters the carburetor, where it becomes impregnated
with gasoline, thus forming gasoline gas. From the carburetor,
gas passes to the governor in the basement of the house, where
the pressure is automatically regulated so that gas is made and
supplied just sufficient for the number of burners in operation.
Operators of this form of gas machine need only occasionally fill
the carburetor with gasoline when the supply gets low. Other
forms of gasoline gas machines are built on the same principle,
but the air pressure is maintained by a revolving drum (a
420 SUCCESSFUL HOUSES AND HOW TO BUILD THEM
WHILE the new house is being built, you will need to give
attention to artificial illumination. Remember, lighting fixtures
are chiefly for light ;
for ornament also, of course, but primarily
you buy them for reasons of actual utility. Poorly lighted
rooms or rooms expensive to light by reason of impracticable
methods give poor returns for the money, no matter how well
the fixtures look. A living room, dining room, or even a bed-
room in which the artificial light is not well distributed is a con-
stant source of annoyance.
Choose fixtures that will give the necessary degree of light
at minimum cost ;
locate them thoughtfully, and see that they
are kept in the condition necessary for efficient lighting. Attend
to these essentials and your lighting troubles will be little.
Consider the gas burner, as your duty does not end with the
selection of a good mantle. Those gas burners are best which
allow correct regulation of the mixture of gas and air, for you
must not forget that air is as necessary as gas.
You can easily test a good burner by lighting it and watching
the color of the flame. After adjusting the air
supply by manipulation of the key at the side,
see that the flame is blue. If it has streaks of
fires are caused every year by imperfect wiring than any other
cause, so it is necessary for the owner to get an electrical con-
tractor of known integrity, one who will do the work right.
Two methods of wiring a house for electric lights are employed,
what is known as "knob and tube" work, and conduits.
The former consists of stringing
insulated copper wire through
the building in the space occu-
pied by the studding. Where
wires pass through timbers a
porcelain tube is inserted in
the hole, forming a fireproof
-BC.U5H
BBA55 sleeve through which the wire
passes. This is the cheapest
method, and it will prove sat-
isfactory in cheap work if the
wiring is properly done by an
expert. The conduit method
is by far the safest and best.
Metal tubes are extended
throughout the house much
like gas pipe, and insulated
copper wire is drawn through
these tubes (conduit). Thus
CANDLE FIXTURE FOR GAS.
the wire protected by its
is
turned on, with the result that sparking occurs and a fire is
started.
After the wiring is completed it should be rigidly inspected
before the plastering is started, so that one may be sure the wir-
ing is in good shape before it is covered up. All joints should
be, not merely sol-
dered, but wrapped
with tape as well,
forming a complete,
insulated copper-
wire system for the
current. Do not
allow electricians to
cover the joints with
tape until every
joint has been in-
spected. Examine
every inch of the DOME LIGHT AT ENTRANCE.
wire to see that por-
celain tubes are used wherever wire passes through timber.
Instead of using conduit, through which insulated wires are
drawn after the conduit is installed, it is good practice on some
enter at the rear of the house, and just inside the wall a main
cut-out box is placed, consisting of a wooden or metal box lined
with asbestos (or a slate box). The main "jackknife" switch
contained in this box turns current on or off. From the cut-
out box, wires extend to the different fixtures, arranged in cir-
cuits with not over twelve
SILK SHADE ON
works best when
WIRE FORM. not overfull.
Kerosene is the
fluid most used for
isfactory as well.
In these denatured
alcoholis converted