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NEW DEVELOPMENTS

RD CUTLER

This subject was treated so fully in the 1915 report, and was preceded by such careful investigation among central stations as well as manufacturers, that it was not deemed advisable to repeat the investigation in preparing this year's report. It seems better to comment upon the actual developments of the year.

The Committee found a wide and insistent demand for additional development in domestic ranges, branding irons, washing machines (for set tubs), dish washers (household size), refrigerating equipment (household size), brooders, section immersion coils, garage radiators, lamp socket radiators, hot-plates, circulating water heaters and towel or hand driers. Greater efficiency was asked for in dish washers, household refrigerating equiments, broilers and air heaters.

In general these conditions still exist although some progress has been made.

Interest in domestic ranges has increased tremendously. Many new types of ranges have been announced during the year. chiefly by gas-range makers. These manufacturers were able to start with much of the experience of the earlier electrical development, and have added to this experience great assets in the shape of manufacturing facilities, tools and equipment. To be sure these gas-range manufacturers will be forced to go through considerable development work before the perfect range is produced and will have troubles to overcome, but their efforts should be encouraged by the electric central station industry, for their competition in the electric range development is valuable and healthy, and with their previous experience they should be able to assist largely in supplying the central station demand for a low-priced, efficient electric range.

Among the ranges made by electrical manufacturers the efficiencies are improvivng. There still are sharp differences of opinion as to the relative merits of the radiant and non-radiant forms of heating units, with no definite decision for either type. A small but valuable addition to the range line during the year was a portable, lamp socket, household range, combining an oven, a warming shelf and two hot-plates, one open and one enclosed, which will prove a ready seller in apartments and country districts.

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No particular advance has been made in branding irons, cers, se tion immersional coils, hot plates, circulating water 1 towel or hard driers

e washing machines to be applied to set tubs have been od lat have not had withoient time to prove their perThe same is true of household dish washers, garage dators atol lary so ket radiators

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Kergerang emprents of household sizes have been and are being tested by many stations, but the first cost to be h„h, and they are regarded as being in the ental stage No one machine has been very generally day yet It is certain that a good machine for $100 or

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ih in de vand and it is encouraging that several new nes are nearly ready for the market. Apparently the mistake of facturers is in overestimating the required capacity for A machne that would cool air to a degree reprethe comun pition of fifty pounds of ice per day would be ent for thousands of homes, and the manufacturer of such be at a cost not to exceed $50, with a low operating ould find a demand even greater than the demand for

New styles of lamp socket radiators have proved more ent than the earlier ones. No very great additi nal improvecan be expected from heaters limited to the capacity of

sata, e ra butors are not vet wh ly satisfactory, there beng

est on as to the safety of any open type of unit in this ation and the durability of certain types which heat the ver m er ulat on sy tems has not yet been prove!

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ore unusual deve' pment this year has been the adaptation e c'e i'i. n. top of both the installed an! the portable types tea; h Te tremendous improver ent in motor tven; anns and or, ans has been the vil ̧ect of n. ; hevnsideraon the jurt of the Connitee, wh; h his or operated with trical prano man ifacturers as far as thus was pas de the merchan, long pont of view

It is recut et. d to the next viceeding Mer Lan living
ter at a sub committee be arpentel torde at least
tal study of the therapeut il ele tre dev.
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y increasing in number and w1 hire, resent a very p

teresting phase of our business; certainly to the class of instruments used by surgeons, doctors, nurses, etc. One of the latest developments along this line brought to our attention is an electrical device for the purification of milk by electricity, to produce an effect similar to pasteurization. The central station will probably never be equipped to pass judgment upon this appliance nor to advise its specific use, but this field of electric consumption should not be wholly neglected.

The better known household devices, such as the iron and toaster, and the electric hollow-ware lines for domestic uses, have all shown improvements which have been readily accepted by the public; and in many cases prices were reduced from time to time during the year resulting in sales quite large as compared with those of devices which use other forms of heat. In other words, the electrical household devices were approaching the same volume of business that has been attained by the alcohoi and gas lines of household devices, when a general rise in prices was announced. We are assured that this increase has not been as great in electric hollow ware as in the alcohol and gas lines. It will, however, require very strenuous efforts on the part of the electrical selling industry to maintain the growth of the sale of electric appliances in the face of this blow. Although the public were on the point of looking upon electrical appliances as not much more expensive than other lines, they are unable to so consider them at the present time, and it is hoped that this general rise in price is temporary. We do not question the necessity of the rise, we merely trust that the popularizing of electric appliances will not be handicapped longer than is absolutely necessary by the uniformly higher scale of prices.

STANDARDIZATION

J V GUILFOYLE

The recommendations contained herein represent the opinions and desires of as large a number of the central stations in this country as your Committee has been able to reach. The Committee, having been through a period of evolution and improvement in the matter of co-operation between the manufacturers of electrical appliances and the central stations, dealers, etc., desires to express the hope that as time goes on there will be a greater

exchange of ideas and recommendations between the central statory members of the Commercial Section and its manufactur

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i'e e recommendations are made in the hope that the manu

ters will cononder the important improvements which should le in the matter of assisting the central stations to handle, en men 1, display and stock the various appliances on the rer en bering that heretofore the stress has all been laid in the manufacturer's assistance in selling appliances. The tai vations have not only borne the expense and trouble of tenance and repairs, but have suttered from an expense 1 larger perhaps than we realize because of the impossitot korg proper records of it, which expense has been due e will nogh complete lack of standardization on the part of anifa turers of cords, plugs supports, finish and packing So far as the standardization of plugs and receptacles is conessed this Committee naturally defers to the report of the Wir Committee of the NFL. A but goes beyond the provisions e Wiring Committee in hereby recommending to the manuterers a careful study of the possibility of adopting a standard ent on the appliance end of the cord, so that when standta as completed the customer may have, for instance, a a 10 ft cord and a 15 ft cord, which he can use with te, whether percolator, iron, grill or other, that he en to possess The ultimate pertection of standardızaCome and un-piestionably in time both en is of the cord alke, simplifying the use of the cord to the last degree e Contintre desires to recommen 1 that except upon the stent den and of customers, the use of copper finished heating

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el, be attest t'e nevitable decolorat on and beatifice of a shances male in this hoish unless unt of 1 bp is expen led upon them to keep The Committee would be also to express its disal of the osa anal prate of making ho" w ware of is being that the best e'e trial apthan-es of this descrip are those to. de of copper, trised an! m ke' ; 'ated.

༥ རྩྭ་པན ng might be said for the stan 'ardization to a certain t of the wattage of „p; lan es, since there is attarently no ycle two s'i e toaster shon!! co nome to) watts ar¦ er o.. y 340 wat's

The Committee begs that the manufacturers give very serious consideration to the standardization of packing cartons or pasteboard boxes for appliances. Nearly all the central stations have suffered considerable loss in the past because appliances could not be kept in good condition in the cheap, thin, easily torn pasteboard or paper shipping boxes. One of the most important factors in completing a successful sale is delivery of the apparatus in first-class workable condition, and this can never be guaranteed unless the package in which the article is shipped is sufficiently strong to withstand the rough usage of shipment. These original packages should be prepared with the factor well borne in mind that the retailer often desires to make a big window display of a quantity of appliances; that these appliances must be taken out of their original boxes in order to make the display, and that they must be put back into the boxes later on in order to be delivered.

INDUSTRIAL APPLIANCES

CN LEWIS

If salesmen and representatives would bring in answers to the questions listed below, the manufacturer and the heating bureau would have something to work on. As it is now, our men usually report that John Smith wants to heat some water in a tank, and they do not know whether it holds five gallons or five hundred gallons, and have not the slightest idea what the man uses the water for or at what temperature. The result is that another trip must be made to get real information, and the second man may find a problem on which he could have looked up the necessary information had he known the approximate nature of the business before calling.

The heating bureau often finds it necessary to tell a customer that his scheme is impracticable and not to be thought of, yet the salesman has perhaps gone so far as to say, "Oh yes, we can do that nicely. See Mr. So and So of the Heating Bureau; I will have him call to see you tomorrow at 9.30 A. M.," not considering that possibly five other men have set that same day and hour for the unfortunate heating bureau, which may have only one man who can handle special problems,

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