THE ART OF COOKING. i 7 



introduced for such purpose. Moreover, I was under the old su- 

 perstition that it was necessary to have a heat at or above the boil- 

 ing-point in order to cook at all. Even Count Rumford found 

 out by accident that meats could be cooked at a lower degree ; 

 and it was not until I happened to read Dr. Mattieu Williams's 

 " Chemistry of Cookery " that I was led to develop the Norwegian 

 cooking-box into the cooker with the heating attachment. 



Perhaps I unwisely gave way this idea or conception which I 

 might have patented : I had the impression that it would be adopted 

 more rapidly ; but the public have become so accustomed to the 

 patent system in this country as to make it almost impossible to 

 give away even an idea. I doubt if this is altogether a whole- 

 some condition, when manufacturers wait so long for the protec- 

 tion of a patent before undertaking to make a good thing on a 

 commercial scale. Nevertheless, one must accept the fact, and the 

 cooker has not been taken up by any manufacturer. Warned by 

 this lesson, I applied for a patent on my first " Aladdin Ovens," 

 which were made wholly of metal, the outer oven being packed 

 with non-heat-conducting material ; but on this application I 

 failed ; this identical apparatus had been invented fifty years ago, 

 the heat being derived from a pan of charcoal, and the patent had 

 expired ; of course, the charcoal did not meet the necessary condi- 

 tions. I found, however, that the oven made wholly of metal packed 

 with carbonate of magnesia or fossil meal would be very expensive ; 

 moreover, the outer metal skin wastes a great deal of heat. I then 

 experimented with various compounds, and finally adopted the 

 material of which these ovens are made, known as " indurated 

 fiber," or paper pulp, prepared in a certain way under a patent 

 and baked at a high heat. I applied for a patent on an oven 

 made in this way, but the mere substitution of the pulp for the 

 metal did not suffice to give me the patent asked for. There is 

 therefore no patent on the construction of either of these devices. 

 The names " Aladdin Cooker " and " Aladdin Oven " are my 

 trade-marks, on which I may hope to hold a certain control, so that 

 the ovens shall be made of safe material, incombustible at any de- 

 gree of heat required for the work, and from which control I may 

 possibly recover the money which I have spent on my experi- 

 ments ; if I do not, it will be my contribution to the public service ; 

 and if by this contribution I can do away with even a small part 

 of the waste of good food material and with a small part of the 

 indigestion caused by bad cooking, I shall consider myself fully 

 compensated. 



Under such conditions I may perhaps venture upon the ordi- 

 nary method of citing the testimony of some of the few persons 

 who have bought these ovens and who have made use of them. 

 I will first give a copy of a letter from an elderly lady who visited 



VOL. XXXVI. 2 



