26 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



copper in the shape of a gourd with curved neck. At the end of the 

 neck is a small orifice. The pot is heated, expelHng the air within, 

 plunged in water, and the vacuum created draws water within the 

 vessel. On reheating, the steam issues violently from the spout and 

 is directed on the charcoal fire in which is set the crucible, producing 

 a heat sufficient to melt gold. This principle has been utilized in 

 modern mechanics and is known as the steam-jet blast. 



BRAZIERS 



Braziers are basin-shaped portable vessels, generally of metal, in 

 which charcoal is burnt without draught to produce a small amount 

 of heat for warming the extremities. They are extensively distrib- 

 uted, but are used mostly in countries of the southern temperate and 

 tropical zone. They represent the installation of fire in a portable 

 vessel and may, on account of the primitive aspect of the device, 

 stand for the first taking of fire from its original base level on the 

 hearth. The brazier, foculus, was used in Pompeian baths and was a 

 box with four feet. ^^ 



The brazier or brazierlike appliances also had uses for cooking, and 

 will be discussed under stoves. For these uses the fuel is not required 

 to be charcoal. 



Walpole's description of the Chilean brazier will apply to this de- 

 vice in almost any part of its range: 



" The hrasero is a circular pan of brass or silver which fits into a 

 broad wooden frame (pi. 8, fig. 2). Over the hrasero is sometimes 

 placed a large basket, so that on entering a room notliing is seen of 

 it till the lady draws back from what she and her gown had com- 

 pletely enveloped. " "^ 



Another writer says of the Spanish brazier: "But I found at 

 Burgos the snow a foot deep in the streets, and a total absence of 

 fireplaces. The Spanish brazier — a big brass warming pan wanting 

 a handle but set in a wooden stool a foot from the floor — a fine thing 

 for a chilly evening at Cadiz, with the windows open; but at Burgos 

 in a snowstorm — ugh! — it is an invention of the evil one, a ver}' relic 

 of the Inquisition. I shiver still at the name of it." *** 



Incidentally the use of the brazier in Spain, France, and Italy is 

 attended with many fatalities caused by the carbon dioxide gas de- 

 veloped by the burning of charcoal in confined rooms. 



A brazier of bronze having a foot, basin, and three spike rests pro- 

 jecting diagonally upward from the rim w^as found in a grave at In- 

 dian Hill, Ipswich, Massachusetts, by Charles C. Willoughby, director 

 of Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The specimen is 



"Harper's Dictionary of Classical Literature and Antiquities, New York, 1897, p. 19. 



«« Walpole. Four Years in the Pacific, London, 1849, vol. 1, p. 285. 



"Spanish Facts and English Fancies, Lond. Illus. News, November, 1886, p. 79. 



