CHAPTER VII. 

 COUNT RUMFORD'S COOKING-STOVES. 



IN the preceding chapter I described Count Rumford's 

 modification of the English open firegrate which eighty years 

 ago was offered to the British nation without any patent or 

 other restrictions. Its non-adoption I believe to be mainly due 

 to this it was nobody's monopoly, nobody's business to 

 advertise it, and, therefore, nobody took any fuither notice of 

 it,; especially as it cannot be made and sold as a separate port- 

 able article. 



An ironmonger or stove-maker who should go to the 

 expense of exhibiting Rumford's simple structure of tire-bricks 

 and a few bars described in the last chapter, would be super- 

 seding himself by teaching his customers how they may advan- 

 tageously do without him. 



The same remarks apply to his stoves for cooking purposes. 

 They are not iron boxes like our modern kitcheners, but are 

 brick structures, matters of masonry in all but certain adjuncts, 

 such as bars, fire-doors, covers, oven-boxes, etc., which are. 

 very simple and inexpensive. Even some of Rumford's kitchen 

 utensils, such as the steamers, were cheaply covered with 

 wood, because it is a bad conductor, and therefore wastes less 

 hoat than an iron saucepan lid. 



Rumford was no mere theorist, although he contributed 

 largely to pure science. His greatest scientific discoveries 

 were made in the course of his persevering efforts to solve 

 practical problems. I must not be tempted from my imme- 

 diate subject by citing any examples of these, but may tell a 

 fragment of the story of his work so far as it bears upon the 

 subject of cooking-ranges. 



He began life as a poor schoolmaster in New Hampshire, 

 when it was a British colony. He next became a soldier ; then 

 a diplomatist ; then in strange adventurous fashion he travelled 

 on the Continent of Europe, entered the Bavarian service, and 

 began his searching reform of the Bavarian army by improv- 

 ing the feeding and the clothing of the men. He became a 

 practical working cook, in order that they should be supplied 

 with good, nutritious, and cheap food. 



