THE "QUEEN MARY"

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22350, 22 February 1936, Page 32 (Supplement)

THE "QUEEN MARY"

KITCHENS ON A BIG SCALE Women the world over will be interested in the equipment of the great liner, Queen Mary, which will make her maiden voyage in May. Take the Queen Mary's linen stock, for example, the total value of which is about £45,000, and comprises 500,000 articles. Bath towels and other towels match (there are 210,000 of these altogether), and have a graceful spiral design on them, intermingled with sprays of roses, and modernistic patterns distinguish table cloths and table of which there are respectively 21,000 and 92,000. The kitchen equipment is on a colossal scale, too. There are four kitchens, and they are electrically operated. The main one consists of the_ first class restaurant and private dining rooms, and the other section caters for the tourist class. Then there is a third class kitchen, and a Kosher kitchen, and the verandah grill kitchen. The first class section has two great electrically heated inlaid ranges, and these contain 12 ovens and 24 cooking plates. Every housewife will envy the chefs their possession of a special cooking range for vegetables. This is on a largo scale, of course. It has no less than three ovens and 27 roasting pans. There are innumerable electric friers and automatic toasters, egg boilers > and bread cutters, and machines for mixing and dividing dough, as well as electric mixing machines. Ten stockpots have a total cinmcity of 130 gallons. The Queen Mary has private suites which are complete flats. These consist of living room, bedroom, boxroom, bathroom, and servants' room, and, naturally, such things as lighting, hot and cold running water, and furnishings of the loveliest and latest type, with built-in bookcases and what not. It is a novel idea (and one which will appeal as much to women as to men) that of dancing to different coloured music! The orchestra may be playing a stimulating jazz tune, when by a mechanical menus (controlled by the orchestra leader) the lights in the ballroom can be made to turn orange, or red, or some vivid shade. Then, when a more sentimental air is played, a pale tint of green or a delicate rose can be " put on." The piano, by the way, is a lovely silver grey. The ballroom's colour scheme is gold and white, with a white floor. The children's playrooms, too, are eery attractive. In one| the walls have a design which is based on the arrival of the Ark on Earth after the Flood: and all the animals are shown. Instead of resting on Mount Ararat this Ark is set on a coloured board, the sloping sides of which can be used by the children for drawing on. Round the room are teddy bear cages for children to play in. An aoroplane flies round overhead on an air route (of wire I)