80 BULLETIN" 141, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bricks, flat irons, water bottles, and the like were employed by our 

 ancestors during the rigorous winters. Some of these uses are seen 

 in what we consider modern inventions, as the irons in the tireless 

 cooker. 



The specimen shown in Plate 69flr, Figure 4, is of excellent cast 

 iron made in Germany. It is a table hand warmer and is charged 

 with a shoe-shape hot iron when in use. (Cat. No. 325301), from 

 Anton Heitmuller, 4.3 inches (11 cm.) high.) The second example 

 (pi. 69a, fig. 5) is a brass pail with bail, of Flemish origin. The 

 lid is a heavy plate of iron covered with sheet brass. The iron is 

 heated by a charcoal pan and the vessel served to warm the hands 

 or feet, and could also be used to dry-iron laces. (Cat. No. 169091, 

 from S. B. Dean, 9 inches (23 cm.) diameter, 5.5 inches (4 cm.) 

 high.) Heated irons were also used in the Colonial smoothing iron 

 (see pi. 93) and in the water heaters or biggins for the table (see 

 pi. 81). 



HOT-WATER APPLIANCES 



These occur in a number of forms, some extemporary and some 

 manufactured to fill a want. One of the latter is a bottle-shape 

 vessel of Binghampton pottery ware with flat bottom. One side 

 has two concave depressions for the feet. It holds a quart of hot 

 water. Similar vessels were made by English potters in Stafford- 

 shire. (PI. 695, fig. 1; Cat. No. 303672, from C. S. Smith; measure- 

 ments, 7.1 inches (18 cm.) wide and 9 inches (23 cm.) high.) For 

 special use in drying boots is a shoe-form hot-water bottle of gray 

 stoneware from Doulton and Watts, Lambeth, England (pi. 69&, fig. 

 2), and from the same ceramists a concavo-convex bottle for warm- 

 ing the abdomen (pi. 69&, fig. 3). A foot warmer, also English, is 

 shown in Plate 69&, Figure 4. It has a copper hot-water tank in- 

 closed in a padded hardwood foot stool. Dimensions, 13.8 inches 

 (35 cm.) by 11.8 inches (30 cm.) by 4.7 inches (12 cm.). 



SLOW-BUKNINO FUEL DEVICES 



The Japanese pocket stove brings forward an interesting inven- 

 tion which, however, has as yet proved of little economic importance. 

 This is of a fuel which, ignited, slowly consumes and gives out 

 heat in a closed receptacle such as the little curved pocket stove in 

 which is placed a cartridge of the fuel. (PI. 70a:, figs. 1, 2; Cat. 

 No. 128139, Tokio, Japanese Department of Education; 4.5 inches 

 (11.5 cm.) long, 2.75 inches (7 cm.) high.) Another example is a 

 tight stove of Japanese cast iron of excellent work decorated with 

 fans and mice. Two cast-iron open-work lifters serve to move the 

 stove about. It appears certain that the slow consuming fuel men- 

 tioned, made from powdered charcoal and seaweed, was burnt in 



