52 BULLETIN 139^ UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



a square and round hole on top over the fire box, in which is a grate. 

 The air chamber has a semilunar opening below and two square open- 

 ings above, suggesting the ancient sweat-house front. Simple stoves 

 like these, built of stones and mud, are common in Mexico in 

 places where more primitive devices are not used. They also were 

 found in Spain and southern medieval Europe generally (pi. 22, 

 •fig. 2). 



The Mongolian fixed stove is a wedge-shaped construction of earth. 

 The door opening is on one side under the grate. The fire box is a 

 round cavity, from which leads a flue to a fireplace in the wider part 

 of the wedge. The latter is for cooking by parching, roasting, etc., 

 and the former is for placing the vessel for boiUng tea. This rude 

 structure shows important features of the developed modern stove 

 (pi. 16, fig. 7). Mr. Rockhill says: 



" In the center of the tent of the Tibetans is a long, narrow stove 

 made of mud and stones, with a fireplace at one end and a flue pass- 

 ing along its whole length, so that several pots may be kept boiling at 

 the same time. These stoves, in which only manure is burnt, have 

 sufiicient draught to render the use of bellows needless, and are 

 altogether a most ingenious contrivance."^^ 



The Japanese kitchen stove is built in three sections, side by side, 

 having each a base, air chamber, and fire box. There are no pro- 

 visions for draught. The iron kettle has a flaring fin around the 

 middle, so as to give a tight joint when placed over the hole. Heavy 

 wooden Uds are used on the kettles (pi. 23). Two similar kettles of 

 soapstone from Korea are evidently for placing on a stove hole (pi. 

 22, figs. 3, 5). 



Ancient kitchen stoves were of the simple character of those de- 

 scribed previously. In Florence, Italy, is an ancient stove from 

 Sovana, rectangular in form and with two pot holes, being invention- 

 ally merely a box with two holes put over the fire and an improve- 

 ment on the trivet (pi. 19). 



There is an interesting series of developments in the old wide north- 

 ern fireplace which bear on the lineage of the stove and had a major 

 part in bringing the modern range to its present efficiency. These 

 additions are an oven, a water heater, and an extra small fire in box. 

 The fireplace was thus gradually closed in as cast iron became easily 

 obtainable, and the founder stirred himself to foster and supply de- 

 mands. The period of the closing in of the fireplace corresponds with 

 the beginnings of great industries, which submerged the house and 

 local industries. 



The period of the great house fire and of some of its adaptations 

 mentioned was that in which wood was used as fuel. With the use 

 of coal began a great development, including in its rapid progress in 



M W. W. Rockhill. The Land of the Lamas, New York, 1891, p. 77. 



