53 + 2 = 55... and Operating Expenses

Another week, another weigh-in. And a successful one at that. I weighed in at 139 this morning for a loss of 2 lbs. during the past week and a total loss of 55 lbs. since April 2009. It's time to set a new mini-goal! How 'bout this: by Saturday, February 20, I want to weigh in at 134. Now, on to the fun stuff:

Operating expenses - 10-15 per cent of income

Operating Expenses is a wide category. From electricity to toilet paper, it covers all of the basic utilities and supplies - with the exception of food - that it takes to keep a household running smoothly. I may have a tough time estimating how much I'm spending for some of the items listed under Operating Expenses, but I'm going to give it a whirl. I'll know more as the new year progresses and I'm tracking my actual expenditures every month.

Electricity
I logged on to my electric company website and can see that during that last 12 months I've spent $682.83 for electricity (Yikes!) or an average of $56.90 per month.

Gas
I suspect they're not referring to automobile gas here, but natural gas piped into a home. None used here.

Fuel
This category covers any alternative sources of energy. In the '40s, coal, wood, and kerosene might typically have shown up here.

Telephone
Here's another place where those online accounts come in very handy. During the last 12 months, I've spent $664.48 for telephone service (Double yikes! That's for just a single land line!!!) or an average of $55.37 per month.

Garbage Collection
My rent includes garbage collection, so nothing extra here.

Water
My rent also includes water, so nothing here.

Ice
This item made me giggle at first, but I suppose it was a very real expense for homeowners of the '40s who still owned an icebox.

Service and Repairs
I'm not sure what kind of subtle differences the authors of The Manual might have intended between "service" and "repairs." Any ideas? At any rate, most of my household repairs are taken care of by the landlord at no expense to me.

Furnishings
Can't wait to spend some cash on furnishings during 2010! My expenditures in this category have been few and far between, so it's hard to hazard even a guess here...

Household Supplies
I've saved my supermarket receipts for the past two weeks, so I've got a little something to go on. My purchases in 2010 that have fallen under this category include toilet paper, dishwasher detergent, a refill for my hand soap dispenser in the bathroom, garbage bags for the kitchen, a box of envelopes, and some of those one-time-only mini loaf pans I used to make up the rest of my holiday quick breads. I seem to be spending an average of $14.60 per week on household supplies - which works out to about $58.40 per month.

Laundry
I spend $4 per week (or $16 per month) to do my wash in the laundromat in my apartment complex. Haven't bought any new detergent yet this year, but that'll also fall under this category. As would any other items somebody might regularly use, like dryer sheets or spray starch. Do you send anything to the dry cleaners? Better include that expense here...

So my best guess is that I spend about $186.67 per month on Operating Expenses. That's 5% of my gross monthly income of $3666.67. I'm sure once I start indulging in some of the new furnishings I have in mind for 2010, I'll have no problem spending something more like the 10-15% figure recommended in the "pattern" household budget! They were planning for the expenses needed for the average family, though. One income split six ways - where I'm only splitting one income one way. The authors of The Manual also have some suggestions when it comes assessing your expenditures on Operating Expenses:

Are you amazed at the present cost of running your house? Which items seem too high? Can you cut them? Don't sacrifice good lighting, but don't keep lights on in empty rooms. Learn to operate your kitchen range and electrical appliances economically. Keep track of telephone calls so that you won't exceed the limit unless absolutely necessary. Operate your heating plant efficiently. Buy furnishings with an eye to wearing qualities and cleaning ability. Don't waste water by letting faucets drip. As you see, there are many ways to cut operating costs if you are determined to do so.

47 + 3 = 50

Phew! The scale is headed in the right direction again... I weighed in at 144 this morning which means I've officially lost 50 lbs. since adopting this vintage fitness and reducing plan last April.

50 lbs!!! I couldn't have imagined seven months ago actually being able to make that happen. I thought then I'd be thrilled - and content - just to trim off about 20 lbs. Just to make getting around a little bit easier, make the clothes fit a little bit more comfortably, make my face look a little less puffy. Well, "content" isn't good enough any more. I'm pleased as punch with the progress I've made (just this weekend, I realized my cheekbones are starting to be noticeable again!), but I've got a long road to go. 27 more lbs. to reach goal. I'd like to be comfortably in a size 8 --- right now I'm a snug 10. And I'd like to be off the blood pressure medication entirely --- I'm now taking just 1/4 of the dose I used to take. The holidays are bound to take a toll, but I'm determined to continue losing a little something over the next several weeks!

One of the radio programs I've been feasting on these days - in lieu of leftovers! - is The Goldbergs. Known as The Rise of the Goldbergs when it premiered in 1929, this popular daytime serial could be heard every weekday on NBC for some 20 years before it moved to television in 1949. The program follows the ever-dramatic lives of Molly and Jake Goldberg, a Jewish couple living in the Bronx, who move to a farm in Connecticut with their children, Sammy and Rosalie, in an effort to improve the family fortune. The Goldbergs was written by Gertrude Berg, who also starred as the Goldberg matriarch.

I adore this show! Can't get enough of it. Many episodes have disappeared - such was the fate with most soap operas - but there are a few long runs of surviving episodes that allow you to follow along with a handful of storylines. I've been listening these days to a storyline from the early spring of 1941. Sammy Goldberg has fallen in love with a girl named Sylvia Allison and, despite his mother's suspicions and doubt about the girl, has gone to Sylvia's home in the South where Mr. Allison has agreed to employ Sammy while the couple plan a wedding. Molly, Jake, and Rosalie have driven South to attend the wedding only to learn that Sammy has discovered Sylvia's shocking deceptions. Alas, she was apparently entangled with her sister's husband at one point! Will Molly be able to save Sammy from marrying Sylvia out of guilt? Is Sylvia emotionally unbalanced and likely to hurt herself or Sammy if she fears losing him? Can Molly heal the Allison family, too? Stay tuned for tomorrow's visit "with that lovable family," the Goldbergs...

One of the most enchanting things about The Goldbergs is the ads. Oxydol was sponsoring the program at this time and their promotional spots give you such insight into some of the trials and tribulations of washday I'd never really considered before. Laundry was a very public exercise in these days before automatic dryers. In 2009, we can do our laundry at any time of day and on any day of the week and nobody's the wiser. We can wear our robes (if that's all we've got left) while we do our laundry and can cheaply replace most anything that doesn't get clean enough. For most 1940s housewives, there was no such thing as privacy when it came to laundry. A women had to literally "air her dirty laundry" on Mondays by hanging her clean wash on clotheslines that were in view of all her neighbors and passersby. When it came to laundry, there were two measures of success that must have preyed on many a housewife's mind:

1. How early are you able to get that wash on the line?
You may never have been the first woman to get it out there, but it'd be awful to be the last! It must have been a special point of pride for a housewife who was able to hang her wash up to dry early - maybe before it was even time to begin preparing lunch for herself and any children at home. The Oxydol ads point up the idea that with this revolutionary new soap you won't need to boil your laundry or use one of those old fashioned scrub boards. Just a gentle wash in Oxydol, with a little extra attention to stains, and Mondays need no longer be your least favorite day of the week. With the wash dispatched by the time The Goldbergs came on the air at noon, you'd have time to "rest" --- "more time to enjoy yourself."

2. Is your laundry white enough?
Again, you'd probably never have the whitest wash in the neighborhood, but wouldn't your family be humiliated if there were greasy, yellow linens on your clothesline? Oxydol ads promised listeners "the kind of washes women turn to admire, even envy." Whoever the marketing folks behind these ads might have been, they'd clearly found a way to use feminine competitiveness to their advantage. There's nothing new under the sun when it comes to that. Women still pick each other apart more harshly then men do --- and I think we're always much more concerned with how other women will judge us on whatever accomplishments society currently deems "feminine" than we are about how men will judge us on those same accomplishments. That's still something the advertising business uses to drive profits.

A white wash was truly a challenge during the winter when women living in northern climates weren't able to hang the wash outdoors and take advantage of the bleaching effects of sunlight. Not to fear! Housewives who had to dry their laundry in basements or attics wouldn't have to worry about a "dingy and gray" wash if they'd only pick up a box of Oxydol on their next trip to the grocer's.

Here's something this liquid detergent user never thought about in relation to laundry soap. One of the points Oxydol uses to sell its product is the idea that you won't spend Mondays sneezing from the clouds of dust that your laundry soap raises every time you pour some out. For housewives who wanted to get to know this detergent a little better before investing in a box, Oxydol partnered with Apex, a washing machine manufacturer, to make a special offer during the spring of 1941. For a limited time, if you stopped by the showroom of your local Apex dealer, he would personally demonstrate the merits of Oxydol in one of those new "time-control" Apex washers.

All this talk of a laundry has got me all excited for tomorrow's wash. Almost makes me wish there were neighbors around to chat in awed whispers if I had the whitest wash on the street. You know I like a challenge!

Symphony

One of the blessings of having turned off my television is getting to listen to something a little different - the sounds of home. Surely, I must've heard these sounds before, but I guess I never really listened to them...

Like the snap of a clean towel when you're folding laundry. I love to give my towels and washcloths a sharp, precise shake before folding them, just to shake any last wrinkles out before they're folded and tucked away in the linen closet.

And the cheery sound of voices when I turn on my radio in the morning. I usually turn it on as I'm heading into the kitchen to get breakfast started. And whether the news is good or bad, the voices are welcome companionship after a long, quiet night with nothing but the air conditioner to interrupt the calm.

Like the tap-tap-tapping of an egg in a covered pan as it bubbles away for my breakfast. And the ticking of my Toastmaster, growing ever faster as the toast gets closer to the finish. Happy sounds indeed after a long snack-less night!

I love the sound of hissing steam as my iron heats up on Tuesday nights... It's a promising sound - one that betokens a closet soon replenished with smooth, neatly pressed garments.

On Thursday evenings, it's a "Whap! Whap! Whap!" outdoors on the landing when - after airing my bed covers and pillows for an hour - I give the pillows a good shake and smack them against each other a few times. Just to get the dust out. (Though it's handy, too, in working out any workaday frustrations.)

I'd forgotten what a satisfying task snapping string beans can be. And it makes another fantastic sound!

Mashed Potato Cakes
String Beans
Salad of Cottage Cheese Stuffed Prunes
Apple Brown Betty

It was all about comfort food for my vintage dinner last Sunday. Mashed Potato Cakes are a clever way to serve up leftovers. Add salt, pepper, and egg yolk to a dish of cold mashed potatoes. Form into patties, place a dab of margarine on top of each, and bake in a greased pan. Just long enough to brown the bottoms of the patties. The Cottage Cheese Stuffed Prunes made for a very rich salad - which would have been even richer if I'd laced it with French Dressing (as instructed by the recipe)! I've never eaten Apple Brown Betty before, so thought it might turn out something like an apple crisp. Not quite. Kind of like a soft apple crisp - without the crunch. Ruth Berolzheimer, the author of The American Woman's Cook Book (1945), must've been nuts about bread crumbs. They show up practically every week! I'm beginning to get suspicious now every time I see them. Hmmm... what kind of missing ingredient is she trying to cover up with bread crumbs this time?

Week Eleven: The Mission

I'm venturing into the hardest part of housekeeping for me: cleaning. Straightening up is one thing, laundry - you can't get away without doing that --- but cleaning is a whole new ballgame. It's always been something I do sporadically. When I get a burst of energy, when I've got guests coming over, when I just can't stand it any longer. This week's mission - and the missions for the next several weeks - are going to be super challenging.

Now, the authors of the manual suggest that the '40s housewife give each room in the house a daily cleaning shortly after breakfast. Once a week, she should return to each room and clean it more thoroughly. (The day of the week doesn't matter very much, but they do recommend once in passing that bedrooms and bathrooms be cleaned on Thursdays.) Since I work outside the home full time, I'm not going to be able to clean every room on a daily basis. My plan is to hit each room once a week and fold the daily and weekly chores into one.

This week - the bedroom. (There's only one in my place.) On Thursday evenings. The manual walks its readers, step by step, through daily and weekly cleaning routines for every room. I've blended the bedroom routines together and typed 'em up below. There are also several steps marked "if necessary" and "when necessary." What I've decided just for now is to skip those extra items while I work to make cleaning a habit. This is going to be a battle supreme with my inner slob, and I don't want to make things any harder on myself than necessary! So here it is - a barebones once-a-week housekeeping routine for the bedroom:

1. Remove all bed covers; stretch over end of bed, or over chairs, off the floor. Remove soiled bed linen; place near door to be taken out. Place mattress pad over chair near window to air.

2. Collect lamp bases, bric-a-brac and dressing table fittings that need polishing or washing, and dresser scarves to be laundered.

3. Bring in cleaning equipment: vacuum cleaner and attachments, dust mop, cleaning basket, dust cloth, damp cloth. Bring in fresh bed linens.

4. Turn mattress end for end. Make bed.

5. Brush draperies (or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner). Dust mirrors, pictures, lighting fixtures, lamps, woodwork.

6. Dust radiators (covers and coils) or registers. Brush baseboard or use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner.

7. Remove cushions from upholstered furniture. Use brush attachment of vacuum cleaner on furniture (getting into all crevices) and cushions. Replace cushions. Straighten covers. Plump up pillows.

8. Dust furniture. Rub wood surfaces of furniture to polish. Wash glass table tops.

9. Use vacuum cleaner for cleaning of rugs and carpets.

10. Polish or wash accessories and return to place with other objects removed during cleaning.

11. Final touches: Straighten draperies, shades, curtains, etc. Take out cleaning equipment and waste basket. Bring back clean ash trays, accessories, flowers and waste basket. Close windows if desired.

Week's End

The deeper I dig into this way of life, the more often it occurs to me how dangerous it was to be a housewife during the '40s. Between hot oil in the frying pan, a searingly hot iron, and chemicals you have to be super careful using about the house and garden - it was a fearsome job. It still is! Not only can you damage property or waste food if you make a mistake, but you could end up with burnt arms or worse... I think many of us look on homemaking as a very simple, gentle, quiet job, but the housewife is actually working with some very dangerous substances and tools. Even in 2009. I'm a pretty clumsy person and tend to rush into things like new recipes, but clumsiness and haste aren't going to do me any favors on this job.

Since adding Wash Day and Ironing Day to my housekeeping routine, I've been spending a lot more time with my clothes than ever before - and am realizing just how intimately a woman in the 1940s knew her wardrobe. And not just where she bought it and how much she paid for it. My '40s counterpart would've known fabrics inside and out - known what temperature water to wash each fabric in, how exactly it should be dried, whether it should be ironed on the right side or the wrong side. If a garment was made from a blend of fibers, it had another protocol entirely. Add buttons and zippers and decorative trim to the mix, and laundry became an intricate balance of needs. And I'm not even counting the time a woman spent on the articles she made herself! There's a whole different relationship to fabrics that this kind of time and attentiveness brought about - particularly to clothing. You'd be so much more likely to guard against damaging your garments, to work earnestly at removing stains before they set. This is foreign territory for me still.

I find myself truly appreciative these days of the encyclopedia's worth of knowlege a '40s housewife carried about in her head. Rules for everything from which batters needed more stirring than others to which laundry required a cool wash. Everything I'm resorting to the manual to find out. Now, she'd probably been absorbing this stuff since she was a little girl, so it'd have come quite naturally. Maybe I'll start to pick up some of this knowledge, too --- at least some of the more general rules. 'Til then, thank goodness for America's Housekeeping Book!

Woman's Dilemma

LIFE magazine teamed up with Bloomingdale's in June 1947 to arrange for a couple of photographs to illustrate a piece called "Woman's Dilemma." I haven't seen the article itself, but it must have had something to do with the question of working inside the home vs. outside. Anyway, the photographs are pretty impressive. Here's the caption:

Housewife Marjorie McWeeney ironing amidst symbolic display of her week's housework at Bloomingdale's store incl. 35 beds to be made, 750 items of glass & china, 400 pieces of silverware to wash, 174 lbs. of food to prepare, some of 250 pieces of laundry on a line, & a ringer washing machine.

Hanging the Clothes out to Dry

After running her laundry through the wringer, Mrs. Ferguson hauls it upstairs and out to the backyard, where she hangs it to dry in the sun. The long clothesline is fitted into a notch on a wooden prop so that the wet, heavy clothing won't cause it to sag. Mustn' have those clean towels dragging about in the dirt!

Dry clothes must be brought indoors and folded before starting dinner. Bob will be home any moment...

Mrs. Fergusen's Laundry

The Library of Congress holds an incredible collection of images taken by Farm Security Administration and Office of War Administration photographers during the 1930s and '40s. Here's a fun little series featuring a West Virginian housewife and her laundry. I'll split them up over a few posts during the next day or two. Enjoy!

Meet the Fergusens. Ann, Nancy, Mother - a.k.a. Mamie, Dad - a.k.a. Bob, and Jimmie. The Fergusens live in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Bob Fergusen is principal at the local junior high school.

This is the Fergusen house:


Mrs. Fergusen must have a lot of laundry with a family of five... Here she is in her basement operating the wringer so the wet clothes will be a little less wet. She may own a Thor washing machine, but check out all those washtubs. It looks like Mrs. Fergusen rinses her clothes by hand. And dries the family dainties indoors. No need to dry everything outside when the neighbors live so close by!

Sorting and Subdividing

The 1940s housewife had lots to do before she even set to work with her washing machine, so I sat down this evening to sort my dirty laundry. Here are the steps my manual recommends for sorting:

1. Separate clothes into piles according to type and color:
Table linen - white and colored
Bed linen and towels - white and colored
White and colorfast cotton and linen garments
Colored cotton and linen garments, not colorfast
White silks and rayons
Colored silks and rayons
White woolens
Colored woolens

2. Subdivide these piles, if necessary, into lightly soiled and heavily soiled pieces.

3. As you sort the clothes, watch for spots and stains that have escaped notice, and remove them before the articles are washed.

4. Mend rips and tears before washing (except in undergarments and stockings) to save time and stitches later on.

5. Remove pins and clips.

6. Empty pockets.

7. If you are not absolutely sure that any new article is colorfast to washing, put it aside and wash it separately the first time.

8. Handkerchiefs that have been used by persons suffering from colds or sinusitis should never be put in the hamper, and should be laundered separately. (The use of soft paper tissues by these sufferers is to be highly recommended, as they may be disposed of quickly after use, lessening danger of infection.)

So my bedroom floor is now covered in piles of clothes:

Table linen - colored
Bed linen and towels - white and colored
White and colorfast cotton and linen garments
Colored cotton and linen garments, not colorfast

The sixth pile is a heap of garments made from substances not yet invented at the time the manual was written. All but two of them are a blend of cotton and spandex - which I've just learned was invented in 1959. Two items are made from blends of Modal with cotton or spandex. Apparently, this is a variety of rayon made from the cellulose of beech trees. It's been around since 1965, but is only now becoming a popular clothing textile. My manual doesn't give me any guidance about what to do with items made from a blend of fibers, so I'm going to sort them with the fiber that makes up the majority of the garment... Okay, my sixth pile now contains only one piece:

Colored silks and rayons

I'm reading a little farther on in the manual and it turns out that the only special washing directions apply to non-colorfast cotton and linen, silks and rayons, and woolens. Would the authors frown on me for combining the rest of my items - sorting only for color? That brings me down to just four piles, one of which contains only a single "rayon" item and that can probably be washed by hand. Two of the three remaining piles are big enough for the washer. I'd like to use a bleach with the whites, so I think I'll save that pile for next Monday.

Thank goodness my breakfast this morning gave me fuel for all this decision making!

Orange Juice
Buckwheat Griddlecakes
Sirup

If you've never had Buckwheat Griddlecakes before - like me! - you'll probably be pleasantly surprised. They tasted just like your basic Griddlecake, but they were as dark as gingerbread - and much, much moister and lighter than the Griddlecakes I've been able to make using the recipe in my 1945 cookbook. Must be the molasses. I made enough for leftovers, so that should make tomorrow's breakfast a little easier on the washerwoman. Off to soak some stains!

Mrs. Amberg

Today was kind of a maintenance day. I did my early morning chores in the bedroom and sat down to some microwaved leftover pancakes for breakfast. There are plenty left for breakfast tomorrow morning, so it'll be another day or so before I have any new tales from the kitchen.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday was that the Griddlecakes recipe calls for "melted shortening." Vegetable oil must have been just coming onto the market in 1945 and not yet widely available. It certainly saves some time - not having to melt a tablespoon of shortening on the stovetop - but maybe vegetable oil's one of the reasons my pancakes weren't very good.

LIFE magazine has just made its photographic archives available online and there's a sweet little series of pictures called "Occupation: Housewife" that were taken in a Kankakee, Illinois home in September 1941. Since I don't have much news to report from the home front today, I'll post a few of these photos and add a few more as soon as I have a chance. Here's a real '40s housewife hard at work... Enjoy!


Housewife & mother, Jane Amberg, 32, posing w. her husband of eleven yrs., Gilbert & their three kids Pamela, 4, Tony, 5, and Peter, 7, in front of large two-storey house they lease.


Jane Amberg, shushing her husband Gilbert, as they sit having quiet 6:30 a.m. breakfast before their three kids wake up, in kitchen at home.

Jane Amberg making one of the four beds she does daily after doing breakfast dishes and getting the kids to school, at home.

Jane Amberg loading the automatic washing machine w. several days dirty clothes in basement at home.

Week's End

Week One is nearing an end and I've successfully completed my mission every morning to date. I'm not suprised at anything here... These tasks only take a few minutes out of my day. But the experiment will get harder. Every week. I'm going to spend the first few weeks building a morning routine, then begin adding chores to my evenings. I threw in the towel last spring right around the time I got to the heavy duty cleaning, so tough times are in store! In the meantime, I'll savor these sweet, simple tasks for the time being and try to build up the endurance I'll need when the going gets tough.

I should mention - by way of explanation - what I'm doing to keep the rest of the house running while beginning this experiment. My modus operandi is to do everything else just as I'd normally do it. The laundry gets done when I've run out of underwear. The dishwasher gets emptied as I need the clean dishes - one meal at a time. It's complete and utter chaos out there! But my bad habits aren't going to change overnight. One step at a time...

The rooms where we sleep should be kept immaculately clean, sweet and fresh at all times.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one carries soiled clothing to the hamper or clothes-chute, hangs up other clothing... before breakfast, the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

What kinds of clothing do you suppose a '40s housewife was hanging up before leaving her bedroom in the morning? I guess they must have been the clothes she or her husband took off before going to bed last night. Suit jackets or cardigans, perhaps, the kinds of items that didn't require washing every time they were worn. If she changed into a housedress before fixing breakfast, she might have had a robe to hang up.

Maybe she's had a terrible time choosing an outfit to wear today and half her wardrobe is draped over one chair or another!

I've had a morning like that myself every once in awhile.

Chutes and Ladders

Monday morning, Tuesday morning... I've continued ticking off the steps of my new routine before I leave the house each morning. Both days put together didn't take me as long as the chores took me on Day One. Though that shouldn't be a surprise. I cleared away quite a bit of clean laundry and odds and ends that didn't belong in my bedroom that first morning. My bedroom's a comfy place for reading, talking on the phone, watching TV, and surfing the net, so it's easy for this room to become cluttered up quickly.

Here again, a well-trained family can help with the care. If each one carries soiled clothing to the hamper or clothes-chute... the sum total of saved time really amounts to something for the homemaker or servant.

Oh, if only I had a clothes-chute - and a servant at the other end of it! Wouldn't it be marvelous just to slide those dirty clothes right out of view and not even see them again until they were folded up all neatly in a fresh, clean stack... I don't even own a hamper, just two plastic laundry baskets. I keep them stacked up at the back of my closet and store my dirty clothes there until my next trip to the laundry room. Unless I'm being a clothes hog, they do a pretty good job of containing a week's worth of laundry. It'd be nice to own a hamper again and keep the dirty clothes a little more out of sight. From time to time, I've seen a hamper in vintage advertisements. They generally seem smaller than the new ones out there on the market today.

A clothes-chute reminds me of all the other "chutes" into and out of the early 20th-century home. The coal man shoveled coal right into your cellar through a chute. The milk man left his daily delivery in the milk chute built near the back door... Isn't it fitting that the same homes featured a chute leading straight from bathroom to laundry room? The people of that era really had a thing for the idea that you should be able to slide all life's necessities from one location to the next. Like the home was a miniature factory and its chutes, the assembly line.

Here's a description of the kind of clothes-chute you would probably have found in a '40s home:

"In many residences a clothes-chute is provided, which runs from some place in the second story, from the bathroom when practicable, to the laundry. The chute is merely a vertical shaft or well about 16 inches by 2 feet inside, lined with matching ceiling and provided with doors in each story." Frank Eugene Kidder and Thomas Kidder, Building Construction and Superintendence (W. T. Comstock, 1915)