Before writing these articles I visited kitchens where coal, gas, or electricity were in use, and I have also cooked on coal ranges and gas and electric cookers. Excellent results may be obtained by all three, but there is no possible doubt that as regards labour and dirt-saving, gas or electricity is preferable to coal. At the same time, as one cannot in many cases use either, it is only fair to say that some of the modern coal ranges do their work admirably, at the least possible consumption of fuel. As, however, a coal range cannot be regarded as a labour-saving apparatus, I do not give any consideration to them in these pages, which are, as I have already said, devoted, not to ideal homes and dream homes, but to those where the scarcity of labour makes it necessary to save work, and ultimately cost, as much as possible. A FINAL WORD Just as the book was going to press I received this letter-- "I must tell you how thankful I have been for your labour-saving ideas. My cook left to make munitions; my housemaid's fancy led her to become the driver of a tradesman's cart; the parlourmaid remained, and still remains, bless her! I have had to rely on what temporary help I could obtain, for cooks so far turn a deaf ear to my entreaties. Had it not been for our gas fires, circulator, and cooker, our washing-rooms and our lift, Heaven knows what would have become of us. "As it is we really have managed extraordinarily well. Most people's houses are too full of things which no one wants. Most people eat too much and serve the food with unnecessary elaboration, and vast numbers of women spend their lives fussing over trifles and making unnecessary work for vast numbers of other women. "Will it be different after the war? "Let us hope so." The greatest Labour-Saving apparatus we possess is the Brain; it has not been worn out by too much use. This statement appears on the first page of this book, and again on the last. It bears repetition. [Illustration: _PLATE XLVI_ AN ELECTRIC RADIATOR (The Dowsing R. H. Co.)] INDEX Advantages, some financial, 63 Advice, useful, 149 Appliances, household, 49 labour-saving, 185-186 simplicity of labour-saving, 180 Architects, reasons for women, 31 Arrangements, advantages of labour-saving, 70 Basement, general description of, 65 house, disadvantages of, 54-55 Bath, 45 Bedroom, 45 Bills, gas, coke, coal, 146 Coke, economy of, 144 Colleges, need of training, 20 Companies, Electrical Supply, 183 Cook, wages of, 120 Cookers, gas, 83 good idea for gas, 154 Cooker, size of, 155 Cooking, advantages of advanced, 127 economy of electrical, 182 Cost, counting the, 141, 145 Current, electric, cost of, 182 how to avoid waste of, 175 Decoration, 44 Dinner bogey, how to abolish the, 133 Domestic premises, 41, 43 Domestic problem, solving of, 25