INCANDESCENT LAMPS

MISS N NEVIN

This is the one appliance absolutely necessary to the utilization of central station lighting service, and the one usually ignored when merchandising possibilities are being considered. Its alliance with the "Contracts Secured" is so assured that beyond pursuing the Company's policy for lamp service our sales managers and their subordinates give the incandescent lamp little or no consideration.

We influence the customer in the selection of those types of lamps best suited to the proper illumination of his home, store, office or factory, and thereafter our service usually consists of a practical demonstration as to the relative illuminating qualities of lamps and the delivery of the selected packages and the installation of the material.

Compare this method with the elaborate service attention given by most central stations to the sale of other appliances and consider the available possibilities if lamp service were to be made a prominent feature of the Company's sales department.

The central station does not recognize nor acknowledge as competition any other illuminating service available to the customer, relying upon the superiority of electric service as a settled question. The installation is made and then allowed to continue according to the demands of the customer, yet sockets filled do not necessarily mean sockets burning.

Is there not considerable value to be considered in the establishment of a lamp maintenance service, with or without charge according to each company's policy, i. e., a corps of men whose duty it would be to follow up all secured customers, to recommend the proper types of lamp for each installation, bringing into use by explanation and practical demonstration those sockets which while always filled are never used, and by genuine service proving to the consumer the efficacy of proper illumination under any and all conditions? Consider the revenue obtainable if every kitchen in your residential field burned one, 100-watt lamp.

There is a "watt-hour" element in the merchandising value of every lamp sold which is above and in addition to the part it plays in making up the sum of kilowatts connected.

The portable lamps sold by any central station will average two sockets per lamp, and have an average burning use of three

Nors daily or twenty one hours per week. If this fact were metlered equal in importance to the sale of the lamp and the ning thereby secured, is there not reason to believe that lamp it and maintained with the same degree of enthusifat flat iron business is sought and maintamed, would prourrent revenue of sufhcient value to justify the effort? ist, is the "Lamp Maintenance Man" a merchandising **** n or not?

The customer requiring lamps, either purchased or on free renewal, 18 always in search of our service, and it has been in those central stations where the merchandising and devartments have been allied that a great deal of appliance msness now secured from such customers would otherwise have 'es liited

These central stations are handling all lamp distribution h their appliance stores, making exchanges over counters ** fere per ewa's or taking orders for lamps, and the foundation this business is the illuminated show case displaying other es and the general atmosphere of the shop These, toith the intelligent service of the clerks, has in sales reves, to the satisfaction of the two departments and the management that it is well worth while to merchandise

RANGES

W G STETSON

De chairman of this Sub Committee finds it extremely diffi write an effective report on the range situation, for the

at the activity in ranges in his own particular district great as to completely cloud his vision of the aspect range sit iation as a national issue, which is the aspect that ene essarily be taken by the National Electric Light Associa the reports of its committees The Sub Committee has, 11 un ieual opportunities for stufying the progress of be ause of the necessity of a;;lving as much of for as it could oht im to its own uses

ח !

National Association has this year a Range Con matter el of the men who last year polished a report for the Veral Convention of the Northwest Electr 11,tan! Assox ation in Portland, Oregon, and from a tech

point of view nothing can be added to that report that is not being considered by this Committee for its report to be read at the Chicago Convention, but that report would never sell a range to a domestic customer and was never intended to.

All that this Committee can do is to take the merchandising phase of the electric range into consideration. This can perhaps best be done by setting forth the following known facts.

No range business of any amount can be done without the conjunction of two factors, (a) an economical cooking rate, and (b) a satisfactory range at a reasonable price.

No extensive cooking on any known type of electric range can ever be economically performed at a rate exceeding five cents, and the volume of the cooking business obtained will vary in direct ratio to the reduction of the cooking rate from five cents to zero. Far be it from us to attempt any discussion whatever of rates. Unquestionably there are central stations that can and will make cooking rates, and there are others that cannot, but it is a fact that not only among the hydro-electric stations of the West but also among the steam stations of the East, there are now on record splendid examples of what can be done in the way of selling electricity for cooking, with rates which compare favorably with the cost of any other form of fuel of anything like the same efficiency and convenience. It is unfortunate that even the central stations themselves have always tried to consider the question of a cooking rate on the dollar for dollar basis, whereas it might be and very frequently is much more economical to cook by electricity even although the monthly bill may exceed in amount of money a similar bill for another fuel.

For nearly a quarter of a century electric appliance manufacturers have been dabbling with electric ranges and the output has been so small that the proportion of overhead expense which has necessarily had to be charged against the range has made the total price nearly prohibitive. It is only recently that range manufacturers have made the extremely simple discovery that there is no more reason why they should not make electric ranges than there was why the ordinary hollow-ware manufacturer should not make electric hollow-ware, or the sadiron manufacturer make electric irons. As a result of this discovery at least fifteen or twenty of the principal stove and range manufacturers have turned their attention toward electric ranges, and have not

produced various types at prices less than anything we have a. an before, but have produced ranges themselves which are are eft, sent, more convenient to use, and of far better appeare than anything that has come on the market since the busiThe mcreased absorption of ranges during the past twelve months has of course greatly helped in the reduction of terrain of overhead expense chargeable against them.

At the moment of writing this report all the electric range

turers with whom we are in touch report that their es exceed their capacity, in many cases they are obliged to ..., e orders piecemeal To give a concrete example of the e of this production one range manufacturer planned an

t for 1916 of 20000 electric ranges, and his orders ate that these ranges will all be sold long before the aris er de 1 or the total production reached. One fact stands in all this progress, and that is that the electrical manufac

!!conimne to make the heating units and the range manuto buy these units, furnishing as his share of the tion the body or shell of the range, with the construction h he is perfectly fanalar, and his engineers are qualified ir experience to give the best type for economy and finish

that if the range manufacturers in so purchasing their uits are obliged to pay m addition to the cost of the y sum as rovalty upon the patent, this royalty will not be ent to affect the total cost of the range materially, and comsense would mheate that this must be so, because, assuming with four dises and two baking or broiling units, the of these six units of themselves on,ht not to bear a **ionate relation to the cost of the shell and its wining be unfortunate if the heating unit, which, although after all a nr part of the construction of the total en its cost point of view, is allowed to overburden the ete angliate with an expense which will in any degree it more dith ult to sell rat ges to the everyday puba betri. ranges can be sold eventually to every housch 14m 1. Dowing the Ime of least resistance, we shall mod Les able to sell ranges in about the flowing of ler

1. The kitchenette apartment

The housekeeping apartment

(3) The detached house of moderate but not cheap construction

(4) The country residence

(5) The city residence

This summary should be modified by the statement that wherever a summer colony exists, and whatever form of construction its dwellings may take, it forms an ideal field for the absorption of electrical devices.

Taking these in detail, we will first consider the kitchenette apartment. For this purpose a small compact range is needed as near $25 in price as possible, which will compete with the $10 or $15 ranges for other fuel, although it will be found that in many cases kitchenettes can be equipped with electric ranges which could not be equipped with any other known type of range because of fire hazard, or restricted space, or the like. The price suggested may be regarded as low but it should be remembered that these ranges will be sold to the builder in lots of twentyfive, fifty or even a hundred, and he cannot be expected to pay the price the individual householder will pay for the same range. If the architect can be made to specify the built-in range, that would be one of the solutions of this problem.

The housekeeping apartment, as is also the case with the kitchenette apartment, presents no problem whatever from the collateral conditions of heating the kitchen or heating the water supply; and is an equally fertile field for the sale of a larger type of range, provided ranges are turned out which will have a capacity equal not only in heat but in size of equipment to the ranges in which other fuels are used.

It is easier to get the new apartment house than the old, but the getting of the new will compel the other to equip, or empty apartments will be the result.

The detached house of moderate but not cheap construction indicates that a large part of the labor of housekeeping is done by members of the family, and here is the ideal situation for an electric ranges, which needs no explanation or elaboration. It it the most economical way in which electric ranges will ever be used, until all those in domestic service are trained to the electric way.