FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 47 



and other stations in the region, triangular burnt-clay fireplaces have 

 been unearthed, both in open-air villages and in cliff houses. They are 

 in one piece and consist of three bosses rising from a base. These 

 arc suggestive of a beginning stove (pi. 2). Sometimes even an 

 elaborate stove, as the example from the Philippines, presents the 

 primitive pot-rest installation (pi. 14). 



It is evident there are many lines leading to the comphcated stove 

 of modern times. The modern coal stove is a combination of a num- 

 ber of devices used independently at various stages of progress. The 

 grate is the ancient grid, the fire box is a closing in of the open brazier, 

 the air box and ash receiver are seen in simple stoves, the holes are 

 out of the primitive boss supports, and the top represents the baking 

 slabs. The oven has been added; the water heater has ancient pro- 

 totypes. The draught devices are improvements on the early rude 

 attempts to increase the heat, beginning with the fire fan. The stove, 

 which was first a fireplace with only a fire, received walls to confine 

 it, a lid over the top, a flue, and then is added a broiler. A baking 

 oven, which began in the field, is combined with the previous inven- 

 tions, a cliimney is added when the stove is taken into the house, 

 sundry doors, flues, dampers, grates, etc., attach themselves, and we 

 have that paragon of domestic utility, the range. 



Simple stoves without draught. — The simplest portable stoves are of 

 the brazier type, without any provision for draught and without 

 hearth (pi. 13, figs. 3, 4, 5). Simple modehng of the clay in forma- 

 tion of the utensil in order to provide supports for the cooking vessel 

 differentiates the stove from the brazier, the latter being a normal 

 bowl. An example is seen in a pottery stove from the PhiUppines, 

 which consists of a bowl with punched-in sides (fig. 2), and more 

 modified (fig. 1). The potter has produced by this simple means a 

 support for a pot. Another specimen from the Philippines is of 

 pottery and has three high supports formed on the sides of a bowl, 

 making an effective pot rest (fig. 6) . Bowl stoves from Occidental 

 Xegros, Philippines, are given tliree feet, like the Mexican tripod 

 wis. 



Simple stoves with hearth. — Most of the rudimentary stoves are 

 provided with a hearth (pi. 15, fig. 2). The hearth extends out 

 before an opening which will stand for a door, and thus there is a 

 suggestion of improvements leading to draught (pi. 15 fig. 3). A Sia- 

 mese potterj' stove with hearth has one formed boss at the back, and 

 the other supports are the points of the cut-out fire bowl. Another, 

 from Sumatra, is of pottery, triangular in shape with base. It has 

 three hook bosses or supports at the rear around the fire bowl. From 

 Occidental Negros, Philippines, comes a bowl stove mounted on a 

 base. It has a projecting hearth and has three bosses stuck on inside 



