Mom and I spent some time perusing some of my books while she was here over Thanksgiving, including a one appropriately titled Mother’s Guide and Daughter’s Friend, which was written by “an old practitioner” in 1890. This bit about building a tub was one that mom insists you read. She is a mother, after all. She knows best.
1890: A Bath-Room
Not an essential room, as a bath may be taken anywhere, but a convenient one. It need not be larger than six by eight feet square. Any one can make a bath-tub. Make a strong box of one and a half inch plank, about four feet long, two feet wide and two feet deep, and get a tinsmith to line it with zinc or galvanized iron. Make a hole at one end and put in a spout to extend outside of the house, to carry away the waste water. The bath-room may be warmed by having the pipe from the kitchen stove or a stove in some adjoining room pass through a drum in the bathroom A small sheet iron stove which will get hot quickly will perhaps be more satisfactory.
Source: “An Old Practitioner.” The Mother’s Guide and Daughter’s Friend. Indianapolis, Ind.: Normal Publishing House, 1890.
~ pp. 460-61 ~