, heater, and lighting
fixtures, and to connect up the plumbing and heating arrangements, thus
making the house ready for occupancy.

As these iron molds are not ephemeral like the wooden framing now used
in cement construction, but of practically illimitable life, it is
obvious that they can be used a great number of times. A complete set
of molds will cost approximately $25,000, while the necessary plant
will cost about $15,000 more. It is proposed to work as a unit plant for
successful operation at least six sets of molds, to keep the men busy
and the machinery going. Any one, with a sheet of paper, can ascertain
the yearly interest on the investment as a fixed charge to be assessed
against each house, on the basis that one hundred and forty-four houses
can be built in a year with the battery of six sets of molds. Putting
the sum at $175,000, and the interest at 6 per cent. on the cost of the
molds and 4 per cent. for breakage, together with 6 per cent. interest
and 15 per cent. depreciation on machinery, the plant charge is
approximately $140 per house. It does not require a particularly acute
prophetic vision to see "Flower Towns" of "Poured Houses" going up in
whole suburbs outside all our chief centres of population.

Edison's conception of the workingman's ideal house has been a broad
one from the very start. He was not content merely to provide a roomy,
moderately priced house that should be fireproof, waterproof, and
vermin-proof, and practically indestructible, but has been solicitous
to get away from the idea of a plain "packing-box" type. He has also
provided for ornamentation of a high class in designing the details of
the structure. As he expressed it: "We will give the workingman and his
family ornamentation in their house. They deserve it, and besides, it
costs no more after the pattern is made to give decorative effects than
it would to make everything plain." The plans have provided for a type
of house that would cost not far from $30,000 if built of cut stone. He
gave to Messrs. Mann & McNaillie, architects, New York, his idea of
the type of house he wanted. On receiving these plans he changed them
considerably, and built a model. After making many more changes in this
while in the pattern shop, he produced a house satisfactory to himself.

This one-family house has a floor plan twenty-five by thirty feet, and
is three stories high. The first floor is divided off into two large
rooms--parlor and li