HEARTH AND HOME.

Press, Volume LXI, Issue 18549, 26 November 1925, Page 5

HEARTH AND HOME.

♦ LABOUR-SAVING DEVICES. Jt sometimes assumed when the use of electrical appliances iu American homes is discussed that it has extended over a long period. Actually it is a development ot' about twenty years. Trade estimates place the total sales Lw 1924 of appliances, fixtures, and Other electrical merchandise used by retail consumers (as contrasted with commercial and industrial users; at well over a billion dollars. Sales of elec l tricity to all consumers, residential, commercial, power and other public utilities amoui.ted to 1 .'270,000,1)1)0 dollars in 1823, and are estimated at 1 100X00 dollars for 1924. Of these totals about 50 per cent, represents sales of electricity for domestic consumption. Conditions resulting from the war are mainly responsible for tiie rapid advance in i lie. household appliance industry. Probably '.Hi per cent, of all k'uou.-j bought at retail are purchased by women, and the remarkable increase '■y, sab's of domestic appliances which lias taken place since 1914 may be said to reflect the economic and industrial changes that have affected th" average home. Between 1010 and 1920 the population, of the United States increased 1.) per cent. During the same period flie number of domestic and personal servants decreased nearly 2." per eeut. Hestricted immigration made the problem more acute. The labour-saving electrical appliance helped to fill the i)(;ed thus created. Equipment of Small Houses. Otis or causes, however, have been contributory. Within the past iwo or three years the tremendous building that has been going oil has been reflected in the I'M fid increase bi the number of domestic c^rJitomers. The growing popularity of apartment dwellings and small houses has favoured the use of electrical appliances. Willingness of the American public to try new things, comparativelv low rates of operation, effective advertising bv both light: and power companies and manufacturers of appliances —all these have helped advaice Ihe use of domestic appliances in the average American home.

The use of these appliances improves the load factor for the electric light company, and the expansion of the household appliance field came in part from (lie companies' efforts to eliminate the expensive off-peak periods that occur during the greater part of the dav.

Apart from its basic application to lighting, the wide field of utilisation in the home which electricity has already wou for itself is indicated by tili-o list of domestic appliances in common use. These include not only such wcll-knowni articles as the electric fan, electric iron, the washing machine, percolator and vacuum cleaner, but. curling irons, toasters, immersion heaters, refrigerators, ranges, player pianos, electric toys, grills, heaters, and numerous others of a constantly increasing list. Appliances in General Use. The household appliance field lias shown a most striking development within the past decade, and a great part of the expansion has occurred since the end of the war. Probably the real forerunner of the modern domestic, appliance was the electric fan, introduced a«feout 189f>. Its simplicity of operation bud dependable performance did much to popularise the use of electricity in the average home. To-day .the electric iron stands far abend among domestic, electrical appliances in Use, with the vacuum cleaner next, and the fan third. The first practical electric iron appeared on the market about 190i5 ot 1906, the vacuum cleaner and washing machine coming out about the same time. It is estimated that electric irons in use in the United States at the close of 1923 represented a total investment "of 42,500,000 dollars for eight and a half million irons with an average value of five dollars each. Three-fourths of the residential users of electricity owned irons. In addition to its convenience and comparatively small initial cost, the low operating cost of the iron, which averages three to six cents an hour, has been a factor in extending its use. The House Cleaners. Vacuum cleaners stand next, 000,000 dollars worth, or 4,300,000 machines, having been in use at the close of 1923. . This represents an average of 44 vacuum Cleaners per 100 wired homes. Operating costs of cleaners arc about one cent per hour. Next in popularity come electric fans, found in one-third of the wired homes and averaging about one-third cent per hour to operate. Out of every hundred wired homes, 29 are estimated to have electric washing machines, making (according to the latest figures) a total of 3,300,000 maelm:e3, worth 412,500,000 dollars. Of all branches, of the electrical appliance industry radio has shown the most rapid rate of expansion •in the past four years. Sales of apparatus are estimated by the trade to have jumped from around 2,000,000 dollars in 1920 to 120,000,000-150,000,000 . dollars in 1923, and 240,000,000 dollars or more in 1924. Country Supplies. Use of electricity has luuarallv developed more slowly on farms than in urban communities. The heavy expense of rural electrification and resultant high cost of current is the reason for the small proportion of electricallyequipped farms connected with central station lines. A mile of distribution line can serve 50 to 200 customers in a city; in the country the average is three customers to a mile. High voltage lines can be tapped to serve individual farms, but the equipment necessary is too expensive to make this plan feasible. A recently-completed survey of domestic. market possibilities for electric

household appliances shows that New York stands first as a potential buyer, Pennsylvania, Illinois, California, and Ohio eoming in the order named. It has been found that the ratio of prospective purchasing to population is lowest in the South and highest on the Pacific Coast. Customer ownership of electric light and power stock, an innovation in public utility financing introduced ten years ago, . hps grown rapidly in 'that time, the National Bank of Commerce states. Begun in 1914 by several companies in California, which sold shares of stock to 4044 customers, the movement gained tremendous impetus after the war. During 1923, 185 companies sold 1,806,300 shares to 279,18(3 of their customers.

It is estimated that about one-third of the 750,000,000 dollars required in 1923 for construction programmes was raised through customer investment. The United States and Canada stand far ahead of the rest of the world in household . use of electrical energy. Based on the 1920 figures, about twpfifths of the United States population lives in electrically-lighted homes, and approximately the same proportion in Canada. The domestic market is such than manufacturers prefer to give it most of their attention, but in many foreign countries where the demand exists American appliances are usual!v preferred by foreign purchasers. The best markets for American goods areCanada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia; and Mexico.