Cleander

“ A cleaner which is perfectly adapted to one sort of apartment will be entirely unsuited for another, and the ideal cleaner will be one which can be readily adapted to all conditions likely to be met in the building in which it is installed. ”

“ In the case of the stationary cleaner, the mechanism is larger and the air producer and dust collector are in the cellar or basement, and the dust conduit impartially spreads itself throughout the house through walls and ceilings and politely connects at convenient intervals with the cleaning tool, via the agency of the vents in baseboards. With this cleaner the only thing that is manipulated by the worker is the cleaning tool which “bites the dust.” ”

“ Dealing further with the sanitation of the factory and workshop after personal cleanliness, the next most important measure is cleanliness of the workroom and purity of the air. Workrooms should be light and lofty; and have floors constructed of smooth impervious material easily kept clean. The walls should be lime-washed or painted with a white oil paint. Angles and corners which can harbour dirt should be rounded. Cleansing requires to be done as carefully and as often as possible, preferably by washing down or by a vacuum cleaner. ”

“ In fact, the reckless way in which house and street cleaning are handled is really appalling. Dusting should always be done with a damp cloth, and carpets cleaned by a closed sweeper well filled with wet tea leaves. The street-cleaning problem is simply a question of water supply. ”

“ To supply the needs of this class is evidently the field of the portable cleaner, as even the poorest of these machines is more effective in the removal of dust and dirt than the broom and carpet sweeper.
The selection of a portable cleaner by one who must necessarily resort to the use of such a cleaner should be made with care. The motor should be looked into and only one which has brushes readily removable and one in which the condition of the brushes can be easily noted should be selected. Lubrication is important. ”

“ An ideal vacuum cleaning system would be one which, when installed in any building, will displace all appliances used for dry cleaning in the semi-annual renovating or house cleaning, the weekly cleaning or Friday sweeping and the daily supplemental cleaning. If our system be truly an ideal one, the premises should never become so dirty as to require any semi-annual cleaning at all, and, if the daily cleaning be anyway thorough, there need be no weekly cleaning. ”

“ Every one must fight the fly; and the moral of that is: the incinerator is one way of getting rid of garbage and at the same time starving out the fly.
There is no room in the house in which cleanliness is so important as in the kitchen; therefore, the garbage can, in most instances, militates against its absolute cleanliness. To be sure, there is one good can on the market with an automatic lid which is raised with the foot so that stooping is unnecessary. One touch by the foot on the pedal opens the can, and as soon as the foot [121] is taken off the pedal, the lid closes. ”

“ When a large quantity of air is available, nearly as good results in cleaning this character of surface can be obtained by the use of the straight rubber-tipped corner cleaner, with a round opening about 3⁄4 in. in diameter, as illustrated in Fig. 32. A very high velocity will be obtained through this renovator which will pull the dust out of inaccessible places. This form of cleaner is also very effective for cleaning the corners of rooms, where the floor and walls intersect, [63] veritable dust catchers that they are, the cleaning of which is fully as important as it is difficult. ”

“ This cleaner, as well as all other portable cleaners, discharges the air from the exhauster directly back into the apartment cleaned, and is open to the same objection that was raised against the early compressed air cleaners. While all the dust may be caught by the dust bag, the microbes are allowed to escape with the air and the cleaner is not a sanitary device by any manner of means. ”

“ Street Cleaning Methods Four methods are used in American cities for street cleaning, hand sweeping, machine sweeping, flushing by machine and hose and squeegeeing.
All experts advocate the sweeping of streets by hand, commonly called the patrol system. The implements used in patrol cleaning are broom, pan scraper, squeegees, can carrier and cans. ”

“ Vacuum cleaners, which have the usefulness of curry-combs, with the additional advantage of suction to draw into a receptacle the dust, scale, and dandruff removed [Pg 56] from the animal’s coat, have been adopted for grooming the horses of New York City’s park department. The cleaner is driven by an electric motor, and is so light as to be easily carried from place to place. ”

“ The details of the plant should be such as to permit cleanliness at all times and hosing and washing so as not to permit garbage dust or dirt to accumulate, flies to breed and material to decompose. All material, so far as possible, should be enclosed during the process of disposal, and the odors eliminated or confined or deodorized. The handling of material in the plants, so far as possible, should be eliminated, where mechanical means can economically be adopted. Special attention should be paid to ventilation and the elimination of dust where men are required to work. ”

“ While the responsibilities of the dweller in the city are shared by the city officials, in that the city supplies the water and provides the sewer to carry off the waste from the kitchen, lavatory, and [175] toilet, yet the householder needs to see that absolute cleanliness is observed, that the pipes are regularly flushed, and the traps kept in good working order, that no decomposing substances are permitted to give off their poisonous gases in cellar, alley, or yard, and that the cellar and foundation walls are free from excessive moisture. ”

“ To preserve the neatness of a house, there must be regular attention on the part of the mistress. I am a great enemy to the system of periodical scrubbings and general house-cleanings, which prevails to so great an extent, and especially in the country, where, when the appointed day comes round, carpets are taken up, and floors, even though they be delicately clean, are washed, whether the weather be suitable or otherwise, the health of the family being left to take its chance. The day of general house-cleaning is no other than a day of commotion and discomfort. ”

“ We should therefore always insist upon the degree of cleanliness which we understand to promote the greatest possible prevention and dilution of filth, as our hygienic aim; and we shall furthermore do well, if we remove not only from our houses, but from the neighborhood, and keep removed, all that seems to us to be dirt, and offends our innate æsthetic feelings. ”

“ Whinery is of the opinion that on well paved streets the most efficient and satisfactory method so far devised with the apparatus now available is hand cleaning by the patrol system by day, followed with hose or flushing wagons or scrubbing squeegees during the night. While this is somewhat more expensive than plain machine sweeping he thinks that no other method yet devised will produce equally clean streets at a lower cost. ”

“ We let nothing escape into the free air, but believe that we Heed not regard what reaches the ground under the house and the air within the house. In the cities we insist very much on outward cleanliness, that the dirt must not be exposed, and cover it up beautifully in our houses and yards, so as to make the impression that there is none, as a dirty skin and foul linen may be covered by handsome outer garments. ”

“ Tidying a room means nothing now but removing a thing from one place, which it has kept clean for itself, on to another and a dirtier one. [1] Flapping by way of cleaning is only admissible in the case of pictures, or anything made of paper. The only way I know to remove dust, the plague of all lovers of fresh air, is to wipe everything with a damp cloth. And all furniture ought to be so made as that it may be wiped with a damp cloth without injury to itself, and so polished as that it may be damped without injury to others. ”

“ The solvent extraction process has proved to be of incalculable value to the firms specializing in the dry-cleaning of clothes, fabrics, and textiles in general. When the articles are likely to be charged with appreciable quantities of dirt, such as carpets, they are first subjected to a dusting treatment which removes the superfluous or free dirt. ”

“ I cannot but admire them for their courage in doing it, but, certainly, from the point of view of cleanliness my view is quite different; for, really and truly, I have always failed to see where the "cleanliness" comes in. Persons belonging to the wealthier classes have small baths of their own, in the steaming hot liquid of which bask in turns the family itself, their friends, the children and servants; and probably the same water is used again and again for two or three days in succession. ”

“ Cleansing agents.—Water is the great cleanser, and if it is not available in abundance and used freely, the washing is a failure. All other agents are merely aids to the water or substitutes for it. In primitive outdoor methods, still largely used in some countries, the flowing water is the only agent, and yet the result is fairly good. We aid the process by the use of soap or washing powders or ammonia. ”

“ It is being taken out of the hands of the individual houseworker, who is wont to scrub, sweep and dust in the intervals between marketing, cooking, laundry-work or sewing, and by whom it is performed well or ill, but always according to the standards of the individual household, which means that there are no accepted standards in sweeping, scrubbing and dusting. House-cleaning is becoming a specialized, skilled trade, performed by the visiting expert and his staff of professionally trained employés. ”

“ The Process.—We have spoken of the substances which more usually require the care of the housekeeper outside the kitchen and pantry, and of ways in which they can be cared for. It will be well now to describe the order in which cleaning is done, and to say a word about the appliances used.
The first thing when cleaning is to be done is to gather the appliances needed for the work. If possible one should have a broom closet in which all the objects used in cleaning can be kept, then no time is wasted in hunting them up. ”

“ It is your duty to keep clean. I have given the Teachers a new set of questions to ask the people. I say to them, ask the people whether they keep clean. Do you wash your bodies once in each week, when circumstances will permit? Do you keep your dwellings, outhouses, and dooryards clean? The first work of the reformation with some, should be to clean away the filth about their premises. ”

“ Every other act necessary to the cleanliness of a house can be done without turning it upside down and driving the family to the club or the tavern except—taking up carpets. Rugs can be gathered up and taken to the lawn or the roof to be cleaned. The walls and floor of a room can be wiped within an hour. Windows can be washed and furniture and brasses polished with people sitting undisturbed in the room where it is being done. ”

“ What do you think of a mother who keeps neither herself nor her children clean? Who likes to enter a cabin or cottage where the dirt has to be wiped off a seat before a decent man or woman can sit down upon it? A clean person will see that even the patched garments he is obliged to wear are at least free from dirt. No matter how poor the house is you live in, it should be kept clean. The Bible says, “Wash you, make you clean.” ”

“ This was sometimes the result of carelessness, and deeply-rooted habit of dirt and untidiness; sometimes the damage was willful. Our remedy was to watch the right moment for furnishing these appliances, to persevere in supplying them, and to get the people by degrees to work with us for their preservation. I have learned to know that people are ashamed to abuse a place they find cared for. They will add dirt to dirt till a place is pestilential, but the more they find done for it, the more they will respect it, till at last order and cleanliness prevail. ”

“ Pour out the water, rinse the can with clean water and ammonia and begin its usefulness again by putting into it the contents of the sink-strainer or the scraps that you [222] gather off the ground where the first rinse-water was poured.
The disposal of various forms of house waste in country places usually requires more care and attention than the same matter in cities and town. One gets little outside help, and the customary methods are often untidy and unsanitary. ”

“ The ideal cleaner must be able to accomplish the above stated requirements without the necessity of moving heavy pieces of furniture out of or about the apartment; that is, it must be capable of being efficiently operated under beds, tables and chairs, around the legs of other heavy furniture, behind bookcases, pianos, cabinets, etc., over curtains, draperies and hangings, over walls, behind pictures and over mouldings and carved ornaments, all without injury to any of the furniture or fittings of the apartment, and with the least expenditure of energy by the operator. ”

“ The word dirt in its strict sense comes from the Anglo-Saxon 'drit,' or excrement. 'Dirt,' then, is not earth or clean sand—not clean dirt, but dirty dirt, that is, matter soiled by some of the excreta of the human or animal body. Cleanliness must be insisted upon in a boys' Camp—not the cleanliness that makes a boy squeamish about working with his hands upon some necessary job, but cleanliness that makes him afraid of sharing his tooth brush or table utensils or his clothes. ”