HEATING AND LIGHTING UTENSILS IN NATIONAL MUSEUM 91 



the insurrection. It is probably of Spanish origin. The designer 

 deserves great credit. (PI. 79, fig. 13; Cat. No. 216668, Philippine 

 Commission; 11.4 inches (29 cm.) high.) 



The knowledge that alcohol was a good fuel has probably been 

 known since the beginning of distillation. Alcohol has always 

 borne the name of fire water in Arabic. Its use as fuel for minor 

 purposes, hoAvever, does not date very far back. The earlier alcohol 

 burners were lamplike vessels with wick tube and cotton wick. 

 Later improvements to get a larger area of flame were asbestos 

 pads covered with a mesh wire grating. One of these is called 

 " pocket " cook stove, Houchin's Patent. (PI. 78c, fig. 1, Wash- 

 ington, D. C; Cat. No. 329466, Walter Hough; 3.12 inches (8 cm.) 

 diameter.) Another form regulated the flame and was called 

 " silver " spirit stove. It consisted of a brass cup, in the bottom 

 of which were set seven brass open tubes, the cup mounted in a 

 three-leg stand with three vertical spurs or rests. A plate used as 

 a cover has three graded openings to regulate draft. (PI. 78g, fig. 5 ; 

 Washington, D. C; Cat. No. 216256, Walter Hough; 4.4 inches 

 (11 cm.) diameter, 1.6 inches (4 cm.) high.) A more recent and 

 quite effective alcohol stove was used in 1915 at the San Francisco 

 Exposition. It is called Universal No. alcohol stove, patented by 

 Frary & Clark, New Britain, Conn., 1908. The burner is primed 

 with alcohol from a pump and when ignited the heat forces the 

 alcohol from the reservoir through pinholes at the base of the burner. 

 The flame is regulated by a sleeve moved by a ratchet. (PI. 78(7, 

 fig. 6; Cat. No. 325607, Connecticut; Panama Pacific Exp., 1915; 

 6.3 inches (16 cm.) diameter, 5.5 inches (14 cm.) high.) 



The means of using artificial gas for heat must be credited to 

 Bunsen, who invented the burner bearing his name about the 

 middle of the eighteenth century. For illumination effects gas 

 does not require any mixture of air, but for heating by means of 

 the blue flame it is necessary to introduce a sufficient quantity of air 

 as an oxidizing agent. All gas stoves therefore have a device for 

 mixing air and gas, consisting of a chamber on the line in which 

 the mixture takes place just before delivery to the burner. A cast- 

 iron gas stove of about 40-50 years ago shows the gas mixer, lacking 

 the movable pierced ring by which the flow of air was regulated. 

 (PL 78c, fig. 4; Cat. No. 325608; Smithsonian Laboratories; 4.7 

 inches (12 cm.) diameter, 3.6 inches (9 cm.) high.) 



From time to time and in total a considerable number of devices 

 for utilizing the heat of lamps for warming, cooking, and other 

 purposes have been invented. Such devices are evanescent and rarely 

 survive as examples of wasted inventive talent. One of these is a 

 brass cylinder devised to insure proper ventilation and intended to 



