Iron stove

“ The good points of the stove are that it can be made by anybody in a half day's time; it does not smoke the camp, does not black the cooking utensils, gives the maximum amount of heat from the minimum quantity of fuel, and will not give out or go bad unexpectedly in the middle of the winter. If you leave it to me our camp will be equipped with a sheet iron stove. While the stove itself is not now to be considered, we must know before we commence to build what form of heating and cooking apparatus will be installed. ”

“ It is free from impurities which invite corrosion and rust and has proved a valuable material out of which to make a good stove body. On some stoves the tops are made of gray iron castings which, with the black body and its polished iron trimmings, make a very stately and harmonious article without sacrificing anything of practical utility.
The top of any stove is the place upon which are placed the utensils for frying, boiling, etc. This is true whether the fuel be coal, gas, electricity or what-not. ”

“ Construction of a Good Stove.—Both cooking-ranges and cooking-stoves are constructed of steel, malleable iron, wrought-iron and cast-iron. Of these, the cast-iron stoves are the least expensive; but they cannot be recommended, because they are liable to crack; they usually waste fuel, owing to imperfect construction, frequently smoke, and are frequently out of order. ”

“ Facing the fire-place is a large cast iron stove, heated with coals, twelve feet five inches long, and two feet ten inches wide, divided into five parts, two of them are used for broiling steaks, cotelettes, &c., and the others to boil and fry fish. On a compass brass rod, and moveable, is fixed a fire-screen obliquely at the end, to prevent the heat injuring the eyes, and at the same time acting as a reflector in the interior of saucepans on the stove if required. ”

“ Then again, if you employ electricity, whether it is more costly or not, you do not have to put in so strenuous a flue system when building a house, but just a hood over the stove as a vent to carry off cooking odors and a special wiring system. You do away, too, with the draughts necessary for coal or wood types and all the contingent engineering niceties, which harass and wear you if they are not perfection.
The body of the stove should be built of non-rusting iron. Armco rust-resisting iron is often used in the best grades of stoves. ”

“ Briefly described, each stove consists of an outer shell of steel plates lined with fire-brick to form a vertical cylinder with a dome-shaped top. A circular flue extends from the bottom to the top of the stove, and the remainder of the space is filled with special-shaped fire-bricks which form a honeycombed or cellular filling. Hot gases from the furnace are discharged into the bottom of the vertical flue, where they meet the air-inlet and combination takes place. The burning gases pass up the flue and thence down through the cellular filling to an outlet leading into the chimney. ”

“ In the ingle-nook of mine house open fireplaces are, in two rooms, replaced by American stoves. One of them stands about two and a half feet high and cost only 15s. It juts well out in the study—close to the writing-table—and keeps my toes and fingers warm and comfortable at a minimum cost of fuel. An iron arm elbows its way up the closed chimney, and a sheet of zinc nailed over the ordinary grate gives a good draught. The fire-space in this stove is very tiny—a handful of shavings and a spoonful of coal makes it light up cheerfully, and a little damp slack keeps it at furnace heat for hours. ”

“ The hot air stove should be well lined with refractory clay, in order to prevent the iron from getting red hot, and the grate should be of relatively wide surface. All the pipes should be of cast iron, and all the joints be well turned. Every neglect to see to such matters, with a view to saving money, will surely lead in the long run to bad results. ”

“ A cheap form of “German stove” is often made in this country, and used in workshops and small manufactories, where the body of the stove is an upright cylinder, of which the lower part is the ash-pit, closed or opened by a hinged-door, the middle part the fire-place, where the fuel rests on bars, and the upper part a vacant space, which becomes filled with flame, smoke, and heated air, so as to impart great heat to a flat iron plate at the top. There is a door at which the fuel is introduced, and a small flue or funnel of iron pipe, which conveys the smoke into a chimney or into the open air. ”

“ Russia is the only sheet iron, that, in a stove, will last through. An excellent substitute for a stove when no baking is to be done, is a sheet of iron like a stove top, to be put over a fire hole in the ground, a common means of cooking, and one which the traveler soon learns to make and use. It is just as good as a stove for every purpose but baking. Every one needs flannel under clothing here. In regard to supplies of clothing for the future, every one is convinced that anything not needed for the road, costs a great deal more than it comes to. ”

“ It will take fire if you bring it near a flame, just as alcohol will, but it can't explode. There might be a little danger of its taking fire if you filled it when burning, but nobody would be foolish enough to do that. I meant to tell you that this little stove is another proof to me that our Father pities us in our little troubles, and helps us. I used to have an iron cook-stove, and even with my little work it would heat up everything so. Just as I got all tuckered out with it, I heard of the gasoline stove, but I couldn't afford to get one, for work was rather scarce just then. ”

“ Cooking by gas is less heating, and consequently less tiring to the person employed, than cooking by a coal-range. Construction of Gas Stoves.—The oven of a well-constructed gas stove is made either entirely of cellular cast iron and jacketed all over with slag wool, or it is made with a double casing with an intermediate hot-air jacket. This is necessary to prevent heat being conducted from the oven to the surrounding air. The gas-burners are not always inside the oven ”

“ When brick ovens are employed they must be lined with sheet-iron, and in these very rare circumstances where gas is not available, the stove can be heated with coal or wood, which will, of course, involve a total alteration in the structural arrangements. ”

“ Many still prefer the charcoal fire. To such a stove a pipe should be fixed to conduct the fumes away into the open air or up a chimney. To make such a stove any old tin may be utilized. Make a number of large holes through the sides; fill it with some live charcoal, and place a perforated tin plate on the top. It will keep alight for hours, and impart quite enough heat for any purpose required. This primitive stove, however, must be placed on a stand or on a piece of thick iron, lest it become dangerous. ”

“ An electric iron is a great convenience but not a necessity. A one burner gas stove or a small oil stove and an ordinary flat iron make a practical substitute.
Do not try to get along without an iron and ironing board. ”

“ The stove for laundry use may be either gas, oil, or coal, the latter being considered the most economical of fuel, while it often comes in very handy in the preparation of foods which require long stewing or simmering. The wringer should be of medium size, either wooden or iron-framed, the former having the advantage of lightness, the latter of strength. The screws must be loosened after each washing and thoroughly dried. Any particles of rust can be removed with kerosene. ”

“ Waxing roller
of mangle.
178. Flat, or Sadirons. Irons are of two kinds—those which must be heated on a stove, and the self-heating ones. The weight of the iron governs the amount of heat it will absorb, and this is the amount that it will give up in ironing. Heat is needed to dry clothes, and as the cloth can be smoothed best when damp, but will wrinkle again unless dried while smooth, heat is essential to the ironing process.
The weight of the iron helps in the smoothing process. The heavy irons do the best grade of work, but are harder to manipulate. ”

“ It will be seen, when we say that the entire cooking for a small family having late dinners, bread baked, and much water heated, is done for something under £2 a quarter, that gas as a fuel is not so great an extravagance after all. The stove used has the oven lined with a non-conducting substance, which has the advantage of keeping the heat within instead of sending it into the kitchen, as stoves made only of iron plates are apt to do. ”

“ To his already extensive list of gas cooking apparatus, Mr Fletcher, Warrington, has just added what he calls his ‘Large Cottage Cooker,’ which is simply a Gas cooking-stove in the cheapest and simplest form to be effective. For two pounds may be had a good roasting, and a fairly good pastry and bread oven, with a reversible boiler and grillers on the top. The body of the stove is made of galvanised iron, and the shelves are wrought iron. ”

“ A stove has just been invented which, it may be hoped, will put a different complexion on the subject. At the back of the grate is a receptacle for the coals, which, by the action of a loose vertical iron plate, are forced forward to be consumed, so that the fuel is partly coked before it reaches the front of the fire. By an ingenious arrangement, the products of combustion are not carried direct to the chimney, but are delivered beneath the grate. ”

“ The change in manipulation which is suggested to replace that usually followed, requires either a gas stove or a blue-flame coal-oil stove, and one of the small tin or sheet-iron ovens which are so largely used with these stoves. The stove itself will be found in almost every drug store ”

“ No more gas is used than when a single vessel is allotted to each burner. It is possible to buy a sheet of iron, an eighth or a quarter of an inch thick, made expressly for this purpose, the edges being turned down to raise it about half an inch from the surface of the stove. ”

“ The fuel is thrown in from the top, and the supply must be kept uniform. From 4 to 6 of these furnaces are connected with the same chimney; but before passing to the chimney the hot gases are in some cases used for heating purposes in connection with the drying stove. The plug used may be either a permanent iron one coated with a very hard enamel or made from a composition of quartz powder and water. An uncovered iron plug would be unsuitable owing to the action of the iron on the ingredients of the mixing. ”

“ Let us suppose that instead of the highly heated interior of the earth, we consider the simple case of a hot stove, the doors or other openings into which are closed so that it is impossible to see the red hot coals inside. Now, suppose holes were bored in the sides of this stove not deep enough to reach the red hot mass within, and that tightly fitting rods or plugs all of the same length and thickness, but of different kinds of materials such as wood, earthenware, glass, iron, copper, silver, and gold, etc., were so placed in the holes as to tightly fit them. ”

“ Unless this can be closed with ease, and is closed according to instructions, part of the object of this type of furnace is defeated; fuel consumption is rapid, and the temperature is too high. In the original form “pot-furnaces” have been found to be effective on many estates, and are still employed with satisfaction.
[189] Iron Stoves.—Working on exactly the same principle, on some estates one finds small iron stoves in use. Sometimes broad pipes are attached for the better distribution of the smoke ”

“ And even when the stove is constructed of pantiles or pottery-ware, if any part of it in contact with the air of the room is suffered to become very hot, which seldom fails to be the case in German stoves constructed on the common principles, nearly the same effects will be found to be produced on the air as when the stove is made of iron, as I have very frequently had occasion to observe. ”

“ If one uses a gas stove, a single burner can be made to do several times its ordinary work by means of a thin sheet of iron, about a foot square, placed directly over it. The flame spreads out against this sheet and renders its whole area available for cooking, so that two, three or even four small vessels can get from this one burner enough heat to boil water, or at least to keep the contents warm against the time for serving. ”

“ The accompanying cut represents the No. 126 step stove, with oven complete. Furnished with iron oven unless otherwise ordered. This stove is constructed on the same general principle as the larger sizes. Diameter of wick in step burner, 41⁄2 inches; in top burners, 31⁄2 inches. All the burners can be used at the same time. The stove is mounted on casters and is provided with ornamental high shelf. Never allow reservoir to become empty. Always keep chimney raised when stove is not in use.
56
No. ”

“ The thickness of these plates is increased progressively as they come nearer to the fireplace or furnace. There are dampers which regulate the draught, and of course the heat of the stove. h h are the air-passages or vent-holes, left in the side walls, and which by means of a long iron rod, mounted with iron plates, may be opened or closed together to any degree. k k are the cast-iron supports of the tinned brass rollers which guide the goods along, and which are fixed to the cross pieces represented by r r, fig. ”