Our Schools in War Time—and AfterDean, Arthur D. (Arthur Davis)
History
Our Schools in War Time—and After
Dean, Arthur D. (Arthur Davis)
Education -- United States; World War, 1914-1918 -- War work -- Schools
Of course the old drying methods of grandmother's days must be
rejuvenated. Mr. Fred P. Reagle, supervisor of manual training in
Montclair, discovered one of the old-fashioned evaporators and had
a large number made up by the boys in his school and passed out to
neighboring communities. Here is an old home industry which may be
revived in the home or the community.
Mr. Reagle, in describing his evaporator, writes:
I was obliged to build something which could be used anywhere
regardless of the availability of steam heat, electric fans, or
coal. Furthermore, it was necessary to construct from common stock
material and to use some stock stove. I hit upon the idea of using
a common laundry stove which could burn either wood or coal. I
made 20 frames, covered with galvanized wire, to hold the fruit.
The control of the air circulation was obtained by means of an
adjustable sliding door beneath the stove. The heated air passes
around and over the stove and through the fresh food products,
taking out the moisture and going out through the adjustable
ventilator at the top. The evaporator has a capacity of from 5 to 8
bushels of fruit and vegetables a day.
Another activity for domestic-science teachers of more experience will
be in the training of cooks for the army, or, as the director of the
School of Practical Arts (Teachers College) believes, "in the training
of people to train cooks."
The following quotation from a letter written by Sir Robert Blair of
London to Superintendent Maxwell of New York City shows what was done
in London:
In the summer recess, 1915, 264 of our domestic-science
teachers volunteered part of their holidays in order to help in the
work of training 2500 soldiers to cook and to meet the ordinary
requirements in this line of the private in the field. The War
Office drew men from different units from all over England and
brought them to London in two great groups and paid 1/9 a day for
the up-keep of the men. The soldiers were billeted in the school
buildings and the preparation of their food formed the basis of the
cookery instruction. Each group was taken for a period of ten days.
The War Office was most appreciative of the work done by these
domestic-economy instructresses. The War Office did not ask us to
repeat this the following summer, although it was repeated to some
extent in other parts of England. The War Office, however, did ask
us to lend them 30 carefully selected teachers of cooking for the
purpose of visiting army canteens and giving advice both on cooking
and (what I believe is more important) on quantities used.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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