Principles of domestic engineering; or, The what, why and how of a home; an attempt to evolve a solution of the domestic "labor and capital" problem - to standardize and professionalize housework - to re-organize the home upon "scientific management" principles - and to point out the importance of the public and personal element therein, as well as the practical

Front matter

PRINCIPLES OF OMEStlC ENGINEERING

Mary Pattison

Class TX

Preface

This book Is presented not for Its literary value, but as a record and result of the Housekeeping Experiments conducted at Colonia.

It is a sort of report to the public for the public's interest, and also a contradiction to the sometimes justifiable criticism that the work of Club Women is apt to be dilettante, and their plans unmatured. This undertaking was carried on, as designed by, for, and with, the Club Women of New Jersey. The original intent being, to rouse the thought of the women of the State to possibilities of greater housekeeping — returns to purse — personality — and public progress, through the introduction into the home of modern machines, modern methods, and modem motives ; the elimination of human and material waste — through freedom from mere tradition and social custom — and the conservation of time, health, money, and beauty in closer domestic co-operation ; as well as the establishment of a Home Economic course in the State College, which course is now existent.

The idea was to meet what has been generally termed the "Servant Problem." To do this the social and economic — as well as the personal — factors concerned in this phase of capital and labor have been pointed out, together with the unjust results to both sides in our present custom and form of contract, and the immense profit that will follow in the wake of professionalizing — on a business basis — such essential and potentially high class labor.

Our hope is to bring the masculine and feminine mind more closely together in the industry of home-making, by raising housework on the one side to the plane of Scientific Engineering; and by proving on the other, fuller individual returns for every complete and right domestic activity, to the end that the Home may develop progressively more and more as the efficient unit of the State.

The present volume is larger and very different from the

PREFACE

booklet report intended in the beginning. It has developed of itself, unintentionally, taking this form through unexpected University interest.

An unconventional feature included at the end of the book is a list of approved household articles and where to procure them. Because these are questions constantly asked, and because the author feels that the educational and commercial interests should have closer co-operation, she has seen fit to include this partial list of Business Houses.

In no case has any profit accrued to her in so doing, and in only two instances have the firms listed known their names would appear.

In conclusion, if there is anything of value within these pages suggestive to the present home-maker, or helpful to future ones, it is the result of pleasant and profitable hours of research, study and test ; and the interested co-operation of other women, particularly those of the Club in Colonia, who have been untiring in their kindly service to the idea — the Conservation of the individual Home.

M. P.

Colonia, New Jersey.

Part I The Practical Home First Chapter

WHAT IS A HOME?

One's purpose, object, or ideal in producing a home — What it is — What it should stand for — Its meaning to the family and to each member thereof — The difference between home and institution — Why the conservation of the private home is worth while — Why not live in hotels or blocks of living — The more important, the economics of money, or of men and life — The difficulty of mass development — The small group the ideal order Page 29

SECOND CHAPTER

general StTRVEY OF THE HOME

The status of the modern home — A general outlook upon the home as it is — The different classes of homes — The points of relation between them all — The evolution of the home, and the reason for a new conception — Why it is as it is — The practical working out of an ideal from present conditions — The results from the large number of questionnaires sent out by the Station and upon which the work was founded Page 35

THIRD CHAPTER

THE BUDGET

In the practical production of the home, the Budget, or the money available, is of prime importance — The value of the Budget in establishing standards and educating for the business of purchasing — Considered as a developer and as a controlling factor Page 47

FOURTH CHAPTER

Why the Servant Class should be eliminated — The evolution from the slave — The Mediaeval form of contract — The old-time "Member of the family" sort extinct — Some appalling statistics of the present day — The very small percentage of people who keep servants — The Specialist — The limitation they put upon the progress of the home and the actual scarcity of them in the field — The cost of servants — Their degenerating effect upon the family. . .Page 52

FIFTH CHAPTER

AN AUTO-OPERATIVE HOUSE

A simple system of indexing and cataloging that tells the place of everything in the house — A simplifying method of self-showing to the stranger who would take charge at a moment's notice — A great relief to the woman who feels she is indispensable in order that the house may be kept running — Periodical housecleaning unnecessary — Mutual dependence makes for an order of independence Page 59

SIXTH CHAPTER

How to spend — Training in the knowledge of values — The materials one should buy and what each purchase means to other housekeepers — The shop, the dealer, the trade, and the standard of business in the town — Honest labels — Textiles — Proper weights and measures — Inspected foods, package goods, cold storage, etc., and the conditions in delivery Page 65

SEVENTH CHAPTER

The route the material takes from the receiving station, or place of entrance in the house, to the final use — The storage of each class of goods — Their classification and the ease of accessibility Page 73

EIGHTH CHAPTER

THE INSTRUCTION BUREAU

The housekeeping library — The classification of all household instruction, receipts, patterns, designs, plans, etc. — A reservoir of perpetual education in all home-making subjects — A convenient way of keeping one's self up to date in household matters — A reference of the best-known ways — A source of instruction to which one adds and takes as occasion suggests Page 80

CONTENTS NINTH CHAPTER

HOUSEHOLD EQUIPMENT, UTENSILS AND DEVICES

The result of the Experiment Station's tests in machinery and devices of all sorts — Those constructed upon the best principle and with standard material — A detailed description of their use, care, cost, and profit, and where and how they should be purchased — Their inter-dependence — The Machine and the Servant Page 84

TENTH CHAPTER

Analysis of the different departments of housework — What is Drudgery — Why it should be eliminated — Machine labor generally cheaper than hand labor — The difference in the quality of work — What sort of work should be done by hand and what by machine — Ignorance the only excuse for drudgery Page 96

ELEVENTH CHAPTER

What is time and motion study — The three motives in all movement — Analysis of each piece of work, or operation, into its units — The use of a stop watch — The standard time for each task — The elimination of waste motions — Examples in the study of units — Scraping a plate, cutting bread, etc. — The organization of one's surroundings so that the greatest efficiency may result — Planning ahead and dispatching — The head and the hand in each task — How they should work together — Why they should not work together — Records and results of special tasks studied at the Station — Preparing vegetables — Getting a breakfast — Washing dishes, dusting stairs, washing, ironing, etc Page 103

TWELFTH CHAPTER

Kitchen atmosphere of beauty, health and well-being should permeate entire house — not a place to get away from, but to attract with charm of hospitality, activity, ease and contentment — A revaluation needed — Fire and civilization — The kitchen stove the pivot — Comparative cost of coal, alcohol, gas and electricity — Cost of cooking vegetables, meat, etc. — Description of a studio kitchen — A Pullman car kitchen — The kitchen at the station — Ugly fixtures a common difficulty — Cleanliness and beauty — The real meaning of the kitchen — Home, fire and food Page 112

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER

Laundry work in the home affected by machinery — The scientific way to wash — A description of the laundry at the Station, and why it was so arranged — Some records in special tasks — Modern possibilities in ironing — Comparison with the old way — Co-operative laundries — Why a machine should be used by more than one family Page 122

FOURTEENTH CHAPTER

What one should eat to be strong — Food adulterations — How to feed a family — A list of foods worthy one's time in preparation — Some simple ways of procuring the required nourishment — The danger in denatured foods — "Brown rice" and whole grains — Foods in season — Simplicity in preparation — The value of flavor — The futility of most "made dishes" — Some successful menus — The importance of knowing the right temperature for each article to be cooked — Easy methods of serving — The use of the fireless cooker — Some results in bread making — The three classes of foods — An efficiency breakfast — An efficiency luncheon — Fashion in foods — Scientific food values Page 1 29

FIFTEENTH CHAPTER

Definition of System, Principles — from which each must develop an individual system — The object of a flexible system — What it means to run a house on the efficiency system — Why it is the only means of growth — The meaning of the days of the week — The psychology of system — The Taylor System — Emerson's twelve principles — The value of immediate records — Standards and schedules — Planning and dispatching Page 144

SIXTEENTH CHAPTER

How to supply the demand for skilled labor — The formation of a labor corporation in each city, with expert workers for all parts of housework — Nature of such contracts — Time of service — Comparative cost with old methods — Some results from the Station's records — The possibilities of an eight-hour day, etc Page 154«

SEVENTEENTH CHAPTER

STANDARDIZATION

What Standardization means to the home and to one's habit of thought — ^A summing up of approved standards throughout the home, in conditions, equipment, material, operations and results — The education in scientific management — Home standards of Art, Philosophy, Science, Business and Religion Page 162

Part II The Personal Home First Chapter

PERSONAL FREEDOM

The family exists that the individual members may best develop — The value of establishing independence in the very young — All phases of personal dependence to be avoided — The dependent wife — The independent grandparents — What individual independence means in relation to personal freedom — The highest human efficiency centers in individual independence Page 171

SECOND CHAPTER

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FAMILY

The family as the larger order of individual — Its organization aroimd an Ideal, or object of common understanding and sympathy — The purpose of the home a united ambition — Coming together at stated yet informal intervals as a club would meet — The family gathering for weekly discussion, and a program — When each should be heard, even the youngest — The constitution and by-laws simple, but to the point — Such meetings the modern evolution of the family prayer-meeting — All fault finding should be reserved for the proper time, or presented in writing — Criticism should be invited, even from the youngest — The whole efficiency system as it applies here — The wonderful results possible Page 175

THIRD CHAPTER

CO-OPERATION IN HOME ACTIVITIES

As the Efficiency System is better understood in the organization of the family, it becomes a co-operative force in maintaining the family — The difference between functional and authoritative management — Example in making a bed — Other records from the Station — How discipline enters here and makes for self-determination and control — The morning housework — Co-operative entertaining without servants Page 1 80

FOURTH CHAPTER

the home and the money problem

Money not the real solution — Ability the answer in most cases — The danger of a money-making ideal, or habit — The virtue in ingenuity — Our whole thought of money needs to be reversed — The best people depend on their capability, not on their cash — The power of public opinion — The personal note — The servant problem and the highest bidder — What to do with leisure — Time our only concern — The value of labor versus money — The big personal result the most important Page 185

FIFTH CHAPTER

the cultural value of housework

The relation of the home to all that is finest in life — The isolated, detached, and commonplace attitude toward housework the cause of drudgery — The thoughtful and efficient worker — The literary side of the home — The art side — The historical, psychological, ethical, sociological, etc. — The meaning of culture, and the relation of every part of housework to a larger and deeper background of understanding than is generally allowed — The appalling waste through not appreciating this cultural value — Every detail should be considered in the light of broad knowledge — The necessity for the widest possible perspective — Woman the source and sustainer of life, yet knows little generally of natural science Page 189

CONTENTS SIXTH CHAPTER

TRAINING FOR DOMESTIC ENGINEERING

What is meant by Domestic Engineering — How does it resemble and how differ from other forms of engineering — The keynote and the kind of training required — Self-knowledge the foundation — Business training — Mechanics — Manual skill, etc. — The principal fault in Woman's education — Cultivated intuition the highest feminine achievement — A list of subjects that could be made practically useful Page 193

SEVENTH CHAPTER

Their expression through furnishings, coloring, texture and composition — Their relation to each other, and to the family life — The rooms as the mind and feeling of the house — The family the soul, and the house itself the outer form, or body — Fashion in furnishing — The logical way to furnish a house and the right use of a room Page 198

EIGHTH CHAPTER

Real hospitality — The Home and the Guest — What is meant by Domestic Independence — How it becomes the keynote in home-making — No one thing will make for greater progress in the home than this feeling of being equal to the situation — The Efficiency System in relation to visitors, guests, and entertaining — How to help people to look after themselves — The joy in producing one's own keep — The value of a Bulletin Board in the home — The independent going and coming — The model guest Page 204

NINTH CHAPTER

AN "efficiency" DINNER

Description of one of the efficiency dinners given at the Station — from the preparation of each article of food to the final bidding of the guests "good night." (This is an example that anyone can follow and improve upon.) Page 210

TENTH CHAPTER

CHILDREN AND THE EFFICIENCY SYSTEM

The welfare of children under this system — How they take to the idea without question, and become the best kind of students —

The nurse an abomination except in sickness and bodily helplessness — From the age of three, children should have instructors to make them self-reliant, not nurses to make for helplessness — The Efficiency Method and the Professional Playmate — The Day Nursery as an efficiency institution Page 215

ELEVENTH CHAPTER

THE BODY IN MOTION

The quality of bodily motion — A three-fold motive in every motion: (1) Accomplishment. (2) Exhilaration. (3) Beauty — How each can be best developed — The possibilities for bodily culture in the ordinary household movements — An efficient body, a strong body, a beautiful body, the result of housework Page 219

TWELFTH CHAPTER

THE BODY AND ITS GARMENTS

How the present standards in dress have been the result of the evolution and consciousness of the body — True standards in fashion — How one may dress "A la mode" and yet with another motive in mind — The influence of dress standards upon children — The economics of dress — Individuality — Beauty paramount, etc Page 224

THIRTEENTH CHAPTER

THE TRAINING AND BEAUTY OF THE HAND

Individuality and the hand — Its personal expression — The misuse of the hand — The proper use — Its quality, texture, and shape a matter of cultivation — The importance of proper movements — The best manner of using the hand in housework — Its care, color, and smoothness — The way to treat it — The cultivated hand a great asset — Housework as a hand beautifier Page 229

FOURTEENTH CHAPTER

THE FIVE SENSES

The co-ordination and co-operation of the senses in housework — The environment important as it affects the senses — The senses the real basis of spirituality — The higher cultivation of taste and smell — The value of touch — The sense of sight as an educator — Why noises should be avoided Page 2S5

CONTENTS FIFTEENTH CHAPTER

THE NEED OF BEAUTY IN EVERYDAY LIFE

Love of beauty a fundamental instinct — Should be given every chance for expression — Every intelligent effort should be made to push this instinct into its best use — Nothing can reach its maximum usefulness until it includes the element of beauty — The standards of beauty suggested in the Experiment Station — Color, tone, form, proportion, composition and expression — The home the center of the nation's aesthetic progress — The spirit and love of beauty as practical essentials in home life Page 240

Part III The Progressive Home First Chapter

THE HOME AND POLITICS

Nothing in the home that is not affected by politics and the government, from the building, its inspection, and the standard of the material used, to the last article of furniture purchased — From the gas, electricity, and water, to the box of matches and the bottle of milk — Home-making no longer a private undertaking, but a public function, affected by municipal and state conditions — The school, the library, the market, and the roads — The larger housekeeping means efficient government, and the best possible talent for public office — Food, clothing, and shelter are now political interests ; man's duty to provide these — woman's to guarantee their quality — The tools and weapons for their protection the obligation of man — The preparation for, and education in their use, the function of woman — Better homes will produce better citizens and better government — Better politics will make for better homes Page 247

SECOND CHAPTER

THE HOME AND SOCIETY

The relation between homes — How the standard of each affects the other — All have same fundamental character and same problems — The growing home the social unit — The real use of society — Fashion: its use and abuse — Society in the small and large circle, and the place the home should always hold — The social obligation in every act — The highest social standards — An efficient society — Our relation to each other the most important thing in life Page 251

THIRD CHAPTER

The school and the home — The heart or home sense in public institutions — The social cell organization a tool — The home — the only orderly educational foundation and means of growth for any nation — The intimate understanding of each other in work and play — Man and woman in the home — To serve the State a duty as well as a progressive necessity — Men only half the organism — The State needs the completed whole^ as does the home — America must be a progressive ideal example for the world — No more virtuous than Germany, France, or England except as we make ourselves so — Freedom the goal only as freedom is given to others — Intensive human cultivation should be the effort — Civilization should be made the great concern of every individual citizen — Beginning in the home Page 257

FOURTH CHAPTER

MUNICIPAL HOUSEKEEPING

City housekeeping the result of the standard of the imit housekeeper — The individual home insufficient unless active in municipal housekeeping — The larger businesslike methods are needed for the operation of the modern progressive home — City standards the result of what the people want — Hospitals, reform schools, jails, and charities reduced to a minimum in the efficient city — All these a form of waste — The meaning of streets, sewers, bad housing and sanitation — The public market, recreation and education — Home and city co-operation — The object in a City Beautiful Page 265

FIFTH CHAPTER

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE CONSUMER

The increasing importance of the home-maker as Consumer — She spends 90% of all that is spent for food, shelter, and clothing — The necessity of acting together as consumers — Organization of a Board of Buyers to co-operate with the local Board of Trade — The Housewives' League — The consumer, distributor and producer must come together in reducing the cost of living — The psychology of buying — The women to blame — Too slow in organization —

Ignorance in food standards — Waste in the manufacture of textiles — Comparative strength and wearing quality — The rented home — The standards of shops Page 269

SIXTH CHAPTER

HEAT, LIGHT, AIR, WATER

Sunlight and the efficient life — Artificial light in relation to cost and eye-sight — The eye and its use — Beauty in illumination — Public Stations for heat supply — The Thermostat — The most efficient house systems of heating — Required moisture — The over-heated house — Unpolluted air — The smoke and dust nuisance — Their cost and danger to health — Air and the perfect man — Public water supply — Its effect upon the home operations — The value of baths, public and private Page 274!

SEVENTH CHAPTER

EXTERMINATION OF THE FLY AND MOSQUITO

(Used as a basis of Sanitation)

Extermination of the fly and mosquito a hygienic necessity — Lessons from Panama — The habits of mosquitoes — Their local breeding places — The Board of Health and the public demand — No necessity for mosquitoes anywhere — Their effect upon children and animals, and upon outdoor life generally — These things a home menace with no excuse for being except ignorance — Cost of elimination slight — Co-operation and education essential Page 279

EIGHTH CHAPTER

A HOME MUNICIPAL LABORATORY

There should be a testing place for foods, and household equipment, that the honest efficient business man may be encouraged to higher standards, and the dishonest fake not allowed to be a public menace — Education should not stop at the High School — There should be a consultation place for grown-ups in how to spend, and how to live, for health and bank protection — Something like the Experiment Station on a larger scale should be a part of every municipality, with as little red tape as possible and as much reliable information — Women should control such a laboratory. . .Page 283

CONTENTS NINTH CHAPTER

MORAL STANDARDS

Public and private moral standards — An accepted policy at the Station — The efficiency method the result of practical working morality — Housework and its moral — The morality of hospitality and sociability — Children and the new moral policy — Moral education and moral practice — The Square Deal of Efficiency. .Page 287

TENTH CHAPTER

LOVE AND HOME

Love and Common Sense — Love and Personality — The power to love found in everyone — Systematic training of love nature — The development of personal interest — Love the greatest motive power in the world — Universal passion for expression of self — The State and Efficiency in vocation — The discipline of the unpleasant — Insight and understanding — Love and the home — Housework and personal temperament — Love for a great Cause — Love Moods — The Maternal, or feminine emotion in public life Page 293

ELEVENTH CHAPTER

The home the miniature world — The new democracy — The value of work — The lower task — The higher tasks — The middle tasks — The Scientific task — The relation of home-makers — Of housekeepers — Of house workers — Productivity — The efficient and progressive democracy — Housework and the new progressive idealism Page 298

Philadelphia.

About one hundred years ago began the movement which transferred machinery from the home to the factory. Up to that time practically all spinning, weaving, garment making and a large part of all the world's manufacturing was done in the workman's home ; and the wife and daughters (when they were not engaged in the drudgery of housework) spent the greater part of their time at the spinning wheel, the loom, or in needlework.

The transfer of machinery from the home to the factory marked an epoch in the progress of women. It shortened the hours of labor and gave them at least a small opportunity for reading, study and social enjoyment.

Little did they dream, however, that a similar blessing was to be conferred upon their great-granddaughters through the return of machinery to the household.

The work of Mrs. Pattison marks the beginning of this era in women's progress. The hours of labor are again to be shortened; and, strangely enough, her advancement this time will be due to the newer and higher application of the primitive tool.

Now, however, it comes as her servant, while in the old days it was her master.

Already the efficiency movement has begun to lighten the burden of a considerable portion of our activities.

Mrs. Pattison's work, however, extends this movement to by far the largest field which has yet been touched.

In her book she has shown us that through the introduction of labor-saving machinery into the home it is possible to diminish household work by one-half, and conserve one's self in the effort. And when we realize that in 90 per cent, of the families of this country the mother and daughters are doing all of their work without the aid of a servant, we begin to appreciate what a blessing Mrs. Pattison is conferring upon women through presenting the results of her investigations and her experiments.

Bringing these experiments to a successful issue has called for unusual qualities.

Patience, perseverance and mechanical judgment of a high order are required to install and try out all sorts of apparatus in a house ; and to finally select the best appliance for each purpose.

Only by using and discarding machine after machine is it possible to find the one best suited to perform each function; and this selection involves a large expenditure of money.

Plenty of people could be found who would be willing to spend their money freelj' in this cause. Few women, however, with ample means to employ servants would, for the sake of their poorer sisters and society, choose to do all of their own housework through a term of years and spend in experiments money which might have been used in increasing their personal comfort.

We are accustomed to associate the use of machinery with the matter-of-fact side of life. As eminent an authority as Ruskin has taught us that its presence acts as a blight to all of our artistic instincts.

It may, therefore, be a question in the minds of many whether its daily use might not tend to diminish the interest of the wife in the aesthetic side of her surroundings ; cause her to neglect her personal appearance and to care less for the delicate and dainty things of life — the distinctly feminine things that give a home its greatest attraction.

If this were true then the introduction of machinery in the household might indeed prove to be a doubtful blessing.

Mrs. Pattison is a living proof that this fact would seem to be ungrounded. She is a woman with artistic instincts and fine discrimination, and in spite of doing all of her own housework, — experimenting with the whole field of domestic machinery and writing her book, she has found time to select the very choicest from among the various homely styles that have been imposed upon us during the past few years ; and through her good taste and originality has brought about her the best of refinement, and has always been well and artistically dressed.

Mrs. Pattison is publishing, so far as I know, the first work in the field of household or domestic engineering; and if this be true, in a smaller way perhaps she is doing a pioneer work similar to that of Leonardo da Vinci in his "II Codice Atlantico," Newton in his "Principia," and Darwin in his "Origin of Species."

This association of Mrs. Pattison's name with the greatest of the past may cause some of the readers of this book to smile; but I am not sure that this new branch of engineering is not destined to do almost as much for mankind as the work of either of these great men has accomplished.

It is no small achievement to be a pioneer in a movement to lighten the burdens of many millions of people.

Teachers College, Columbia University.

The whole modern period in which we live may be summed up in the relations of the home and the machine. The industrial revolution of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries meant the transfer of industrial processes from the home to the factory so far as the production of goods for an outside market was concerned. Some production for immediate consumption within the family did not, however, yield itself to machine methods but remained within the home. Progress for the home to-day as far as housework is concerned is to be accomplished either by transferring housework outside the home to the machine, or by bringing the machine to the work left within the house. As a matter of fact progress will be ultimately secured along both lines.