Punch,  26 (1854), 22–23.

The Domestic Reformer; or, How Mr Paterfamilias Made Home Happy  [3/9]

Anon

Genre:

Serial, Drama, Drollery

Subjects:

Health, Domestic Economy, Light, Gender, Pollution, Technology, Invention, Accidents


    Opens with a dispute between Mr Paterfamilias and his wife over the need for coal in the house. Mr Paterfamilias prefers gas illumination to the 'unscientific' practice of coal-illumination, but Mrs Paterfamilias cites Henry Letheby's evidence revealing the problems associated with gas lighting. (22) Later, Mrs Paterfamilias objects to the high cost of installing Mr Paterfamilias's purified illuminating gas apparatus and her husband tries to defend the economy and cleanliness of gas illumination. Finally, Mr Paterfamilias has to deal with his cook's resistance to the idea of installing 'patent gas-cooking apparatuses' in the house. (23)



© Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical Project, Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, 2005 - 2020

Printed from Science in the Nineteenth-Century Periodical: An Electronic Index, v. 4.0, The Digital Humanities Institute <http://www.sciper.org> [accessed ]