Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1881-06-16
COOKING BY STEAM.
Triumphant Success at the TRIAL OF the
Holly Steam Heating Apparatus.
LCincinnati Gazette. June 3D.

Cincinnati Gazette, June ed.
Yesterday at one o'clock Messrs. Caldwell
and Boyce, of the Board of Public Works,
together with number of business men and
members of the press, assembled at the es-
tablishment of Messrs. VIM. Kirkup & Sons,
cornes of Pearl and Ludlow, to witness test
experiments made with his steam cooking
apparatus by DR.. Silsbee, which is designed
to be used in connection with the Holly
steam heating system. 1t is safe to say that
there were none present, even those who had
been, as their grey hairs testified, longest un-
der the regime of madame, the domestic
economist, who were not astOnished by the
results By means Of superheated steam, a
twelve pound roast was thoroughly cooked
in two hours and ten minutes, beefsteak was
cooked in five minutes, biscuit were baked
in twenty minutes and potatoes in twenty
eight, and onions were boiled in their own
Juices, in an incredibly short time. The
steam for this purpose was raised to 42O de-
grees, which was found upon experiment to
be the best. One of the finest features OF
this apparatus consists in the utter inability
of the most bungling cook to burn things.
A heat regulator is attached, which being set
for certain degree, the cook has no control
of the matter. Moreover, superheated steam
is so thoroughly diffused that there can no
such thing result as biscuit or pie burning
on top and raw in under. They are bound
to be uniformly Drowned all over, while there
is no smoke or burning Of fingers, no boiling
over of fat into the fire, no fuel, no flame,
facts from which it is to be inferred that 1t
will prove powerful conservator OF sweet
temper among women, and by removing the
chief source of domestic unhappinesss, con-
vert houses into paradises, or at least intro
duce the millennium
No danger is to be apprehended from the
superheating of steam for cooking purposes,
as was evinced by the fact that at 42O de-
grees of heat the index showed only five
pounds of pressure to the square inch.
ranges, which are in the near future to bring
about these desirable results, large enough
to do the cooking for forty persons, can be
manufactured and sold for $75. Another
simple contrivance, by which q small cham
ber is filled with steam, heats Instantly, by
it's passage through it, water directly from
the main, and gives, if need De, a continuous
stream, heated to any tempesrture desired,
up to the boiling point. The company sat
dawn to finely and expeditiously cooked
dinner, and unanimously voting 1t success
on both moral and economic grounds, ex-
pressed their desire for the speedy introduce
tion Of the Holly system.
Origin, Manufacture and Uses of Brass.
Brass, though very ancient, is not an origi-
nal metal. 1t is an alloy two parts copper
and one part zinc. BY changing these pro-
portions, or by adding lead, tin, or antimony,
the color and qualities are changed to suit
different tastes or to make the shade more
harmonious with its various surroundings
Brass was common in Egypt long anterior to
the exodus of Israel: for, during the nations
Journey to canaan, the Israelitlsh women
contributed their brass mirrors which they
brought with them out of Egypt, when brass
was needed to make the Brazen Laver. The
fact that the Egyptians were able to burnish
brass so highly as to give perfect reflection
to the human face divine" would indicate
not only great skill but a large experience
in its manufacture and use Five hundred
years after this period, Hiram, Oh Tyre, cast
two pillars of brass-Jachim and Boaz-tOr
for the portico of Solomon's temple. These
were thirty-ive feet high, and some five or
six feet in diameter. So valuable was the
brass of which these pillars were composed,
considered, even by the Babylonians, when
the pillars were nearly 500 years DID, that,
after the destruction Of the temple of Ne
buchadnezzar, his soldiers broke them up
and carried the material to Babylon to in
crease the riches of that city. Among both
the ancients and moderns brass has always
ranked high among the useful and Ornamen-
tai metals. AS early as 1850, mills and ma
chinery for rolling and Sitting iron were in
operation in the United States. The first of
which we have any record were put up in
Middleboro, Hanover and Milton, Mass But
not until 1902 was such machinery called in
to requisition to roll brass and more readily
make it useful. At that time Abel Porter
& Co., started brass button mandatory in
Waterbury, Connecticut. This firm had their
brass ingots partially rolled in an iron rolling,
and then completed the process by means Of
small rolls, driven by horse power in their
own mill.