FIRE AS AN AGENT IN HUMAN CULTURE 51 



10 centimeters diameter and 17 centimeters high. Another specimen 

 from Swatow, Cliina, is of pewter in form of a bowl mounted on a 

 base, with lid. In the center of the bowl is a tubular fire box of brass, 

 with grate above the air chamber and door in the base. The hd has 

 a circular brass-bound orifice fitting tightly over the mouth of the 

 fire box. The lid and vessel have brass drop handles. Food is 

 cooked by being placed in the bowl around the fire box. The Korean 

 cooking stove, si/n syol lo, is like the Swatow specimen, but is skillfully 

 cut from soapstone. Of this type is a large pewter cooking stove of 

 drum shape from Amoy, China, indicating the fuel economy necessary 

 in that country. The draught door opens on a horizontal brass tube 

 joining the middle of the stove, a vertical tube having a grate at the 

 bottom. This tube is the chimnej^ venting through the top of the 

 stove. The top of the stove has fitted openings for two tubular ves- 

 sels with lugs and lids and one shaped vessel of larger size. The hol- 

 low part of the stove is filled with water, which is heated by the fire 

 in the tube, and the cooking vessels are immersed in the hot water. 

 There is no spigot, as the water is not intended to be drawn off. 

 For compactness, efficiency, and ingenuity tliis stove ranks very high . 

 It is 33 centimetere diameter and 29 centimeters high, and from the 

 Chinese Commission, Centennial Exliibition, Philadelphia, 1876. 



Fixed stoves. — This type indicates a considerable advance in the 

 history of the stove. A number of collateral advances are indicated, 

 as permanent housing, and even the division of the house for varied 

 uses and economics. It marks also a divergence from the camp fire 

 and the portable stoves serving as an early method of assigning fire 

 for special uses. The simpler fixed stoves, however, are on the same 

 plane of invention, having the most rudimentary provisions for 

 draught. The stove of Siam and Laos consists of a wooden frame 

 about 4 feet square and 6 inches high, filled with earth or sand. On 

 this are placed three stones as rests for the pots, and between them 

 the fire is kindled.^^ A Pliilippine kitchen range is a bench of bamboo 

 with clay seat. On the bench is a row of clay bosses for the installa- 

 tion of three pots (pi. 14). The Philippine earth stove of the Tagals 

 is a platform with door, and having openings in the top for resting 

 the pot (pi. 16, fig. 9). An earth stove from Jogo Kebu, Africa, has a 

 square platform with arched door cut out leading to the fire cham- 

 bers (pi. 16, fig. 8). There are two holes in the top of the platform of 

 this rude stove. A stove model from Tonalon, Mexico, is rectangu- 

 lar, the base open in front. The upper portion is a box with three 

 square holes on top and three holes in the side for stoking. There 

 is no draught except what may enter at the three doors, and out of 

 the holes when they are not covered with cooking vessels (pi. 22, fig. 

 1). Another model from Jalapa, Mexico, is a rectangular box with 



"Siam and Laos, Presbyterian Board, Philadelphia, 1884, pp. 175 and 484. 

 102837—26 5 



