28 BULLETIN 139, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The hibachi proper is an indispensable belonging of the Japanese 

 household. Commonly it is an earthenware cylindrical vessel, set in 

 a deep wooden tray somewhat less in height than the vessel and pro- 

 vided with openings at the ends for lifting. A bed of fine ashes is 

 placed in the vessel, on which is located the charcoal fire. Accom- 

 panying the hibachi are an iron trivet, a small shovel, a spatulate 

 implement for smoothing the ashes, and a pair of slender pokers 

 used as tongs. 



In Japan there is in use a brazier called kotatsu, a pottery vessel set 

 in a square wood frame. It is placed in the center of a sleeping room 

 in very cold weather, and people sleep with feet against the kotatsu, 

 over which is spread a quilt. 



There have been in Mesopotamia cast-bronze braziers dating about 

 the twelfth century, hexagonal in shape, with ornamentally pierced 

 sides inclosing a bowl. The legs are formed by angle pieces riveted 

 to the side plates, and raise the vessel several inches from the floor. 

 •Crescent ornaments on the upper edges of the side plates appear to 

 represent the sacred horns, very ancient emblems of the powerful 

 bull gods. 



The Parsee brazier for the sacred fire is vase shape, of metal, and 

 with drop handles. The metal tray for the sacred wood kindled by 

 the heat of the fire in the brazier sets on top. As there are no pro- 

 visions for draught and the tray serves to smother the fire, it is difii- 

 cult to see how the sacred wood on the tray could ignite. ^^ 



Of the great antiquity of the brazier there can be little doubt, as 

 a research into the history of the device will show. The brazier 

 must, however, be placed developmentally in the period when rela- 

 tively considerable advance in the arts of life had taken place, pre- 

 sumably not before the use of pottery. 



Thg brazier is especially interesting in the history of the stove, of 

 which it was the antecedent and which is discussed in the following 

 section. 



FLUE STOVES 



The conduction of heat through flues for warming rooms by in- 

 direct heat radiation is an old device of uncertain origin, which is 

 characterized by primitiveness in the East and advanced invention 

 and art in the West. The Romans made extensive use of this prin- 

 ciple, and it is said by Seneca, who flourished about the middle of the 

 first century of the Christian era, that in his time a particular kind of 

 pipe was invented and affixed to the walls of buildings, through which 

 heat from a subterranean furnace was made to circulate.^^ The calida 

 or furnace stove was known to the Romans and Greeks.'" It is the 



M I. M. Casanowicz. Proe. U. S. Nat., Mus., vol. 61, 1922, art. 2, pi. 2. 

 *The Panorama of Professions and Trades, Philadelphia, 1946, p. 213. 

 "Smith's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, p. 233. 



