16 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



connected with the art of cooking, to show you how " far afield " 

 the figures of food niay follow one who tries to find out their full 

 meaning. I will now present to you the diagrams and description 

 of the cooker and of the oven, and will presently invite you to 

 test the quality of the food which has been prepared while I have 

 been speaking. These two diagrams were first prepared in a rough 

 way for a newspaj^er ; the form of the heater to the Aladdin 

 cooker has been changed, and some cross-sections have been in- 

 troduced in order to increase the heating surface. The Aladdin 

 oven is made at the present time of a different shape and in a dif- 

 ferent way ; but the two diagrams will show to you the two con- 

 ceptions on which the whole matter is based. 



I have a strong suspicion, or I may even say a growing confi- 

 dence, that I have really accomplished what Count Rumford un- 

 dertook to do, but which he failed to establish permanently for 

 want of a fuel like kerosene-oil or gas, which can be controlled, 

 regulated, and thoroughly consumed. 



I may have spent a thousand dollars more or less in develop- 

 ing this subject. The present very simple forms of apparatus 

 have been adopted after considerable money had been wasted 

 in more complex methods of reaching the same results. I believe 

 this is the course in almost all inventions. I do not intend to be- 

 come a manufacturer of ovens. I have made an arrangement with 

 Messrs. Kenrick Brothers, of Brookline, who now make them on 

 orders by hand- work, crediting me with a moderate commission 

 from which I may ultimately recover what I have spent, although 

 I have no great expectation of doing so. The ovens cost too much 

 while they are made by hand ; it is my hope that some regular 

 stove-manufacturer may take up the subject at the point to which 

 I have brought it, and make a business of introducing my appa- 

 ratus on strictly commercial methods. 



The price of the standard Aladdin oven like these which are 

 before you, at the present time, is twenty-five dollars without the 

 lamp, boxed and ready for delivery to express or railway. I hope 

 they may ultimately be furnished, when made in a large way, for 

 a considerably lower price ; but even at the present price they will 

 pay for themselves in economy of fuel, in economy of food, and 

 in the comfort of those who do the work, in a very short term of 

 weeks rather than of months. 



I began the study of cooking apparatus many years ago, when 

 endeavoring to aid factory operatives, during the period of very 

 high-priced cotton, in supporting themselves on the wages which 

 they could earn while the mills were running short time ; and I 

 had substantially conceived the " Aladdin Cooker," but I did not 

 then follow up the subject so as to enable me to boil water in this 

 apparatus by means of a lamp, kerosene-oil not then having been 



