Audubon County Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Audubon Co., Iowa) 1885-1894, 1891-04-30
WHO INVENTED STOVES!
THE ROMANS AND GREEKS HAD
A HAND IN 1T.
But Other Peoples Have Had to Hustle
Around I'm Lively Manner to
! Keep Out of Jack Frost's
! Chilling Clutches.

| Opment OF man from the savage up 10
the specimen of nineteenth century
elegance as well as any other one work
that has been done. II the stove men
of TIA country were to get together
some time and place on exhibition
specimens Of all the stoves that have
been in use in the families on the earth,
they would have a show beside which
the air ship would pale into insignifc-
ance.
In the first place there were no
stoves. Savages had a way of keeping
themselves warm by building fires in
the outer air and gathering as close to
it as they could without scorching the
leather of their leggins or the scarcely
more sensitive skin of the legs. One
of the stories Kit Carson used to tell,
and one he told so often that he must
have thought it possessed some merit,
was of an Indian who visited the camp
| OF white men, and ridiculed their idea
of keeping warm in the open air. The
untutOred son of nature claimed that
his white brother built fire so hot
that he could not get near it without
being burned, while the Indian built a
small fire crept close, and got all the
heat.
Of course. though, he did not get all
the heat. And the problem before the
mind of the man who started out in
the development of what is now the
parlor stove was to get all possible out
of the fuel without allowing any of the
heat generated to escape. Up to date
he has not quite succeeded in solving
the problem. Even in the best of
stoves fully rs per cent Of the heat es-
capes through the chimney, and it is
doubtful if the time will ever come
when any heating agent that creates
caloric through the medium of flame
or combustion will do for heating what
the Edison candle does for lighting.
The first step in the development of
the stove was an open hearth. In some
nations it has never advanced beyond
that stage.
( Warm as Greece and Rome and
Egypt are, stoves were made there in
/ the dim and misty vistas of the past.
1t was not just the pattern used at pres
ent, but was metal basin in which
charcoal was burned. 1t sat in the
middle of the room, and as the result
ing smoke was of thu slightest, no
opening in the roof or elsewhere wa
necessary. The same implement, still
called by its old Greek name of brazier.
is still employed in many portions of
continental Europe. whore it is utilized
for heating as well as cooking.
But the progressive Romans i'm
proved on that and made hypocaust
1t was the germ of the present furnace
1t was made under the house. in II lit
tie cellar prepared for it, and the heat
was conducted to the rooms and baths
through crevices left in the floor and
lower portions of the walls. Later
tues We're provided, conducting heat
TO any portion of the hou3e. In some
of the old Roman villas in England the
remains of these old-time furnaces are
still found.
The first chimney was built in 9
house in the fourteenth century. Il
was the fireplace of to-day with
scarcely a variation. In some case.
the halls and lodges of the great lord.
were provided with a banquetipe
room in which one whole end of Tux
apartment was taken up by the chin
ney. This was largely for the pur
pose of cooking, and whole OK wa:
, often roasted in sight of the table OF
, which it was later served. Distan
portions of the room We're cold. but
as the people were warriors anC
roughened in fiber by constant expos
ure, they We're supposed to get alon!
{ with an occasional turn in the warn
+ end of the room while the feast wa
preparing But if a pilgrim, palmer
: a man who had been to the Holy Lane
should come along. he was a revered
Z guest and was allowed to sit in tn,
place of honor at the side of the grea
fireplace and to regale himself on the
= choicest of the viands and the best o
: wine, repaying the host for the enter
= tainment later by singing or chantin!
an account Of his experiences in tn,
land of the Saracens.
The old Germans, themselves al
most as ancient as the Romans, made
the first metal stove. 1t was on tn,
outside of the house to be warmed
But, while that may seem like ;
curious place to put YOUR stove, YOU
smiles may vanish when you are in
formed that one end of the stove pro
jected into the room. The firing wa
done on the outside and it must hav,
been an unwelcOme thing indeed, thel
to get uD first in the morning ant
start fire in the stove. The ashe
were taken from the bed without bein.
scattered over the carpet, and tn,
business end of the continuance whicI
reached into the room did all the goo,
our present stoves can accomplish ex
cepting that they lost more heat thai
do these.
A little over century ago Mr.
Street of London took up the old Ro
u man idea of hypOcaust and made
Q furnace, which was warranted to warn
!. all parts of the house. to conserve tn
s heat and save the fuel aud to over
J, come all the objections against stove
v and braziers. He must have had
good time fulfilling his guarantees
for the best furnacemakers of this late
}, age cannot always accomplish all the
desire or all that Mr.. Street promised
> But in any one of dozen good fur
> naces the problem of heating is per
5 haps as well settled as it ever can b.
/ while we get our heat from burnin,
: fuel.
But the furnace has by no mean
y driven the older stove out of use. New
). er was the enterprise of stove maxim:
!, carried on to SO great an extent 81
9 now. Never were so many stoves mad
). and sold, never were such skill ant
!. art expended in their manufacture
n and never were they such things o
beauty as now. The modern parlo
heater is triumph no less in art thai
. in utility. To the very greatest posi-
BILE extent it controls the heat general
1 ed, reducing and almost suspendins
combustion, conveying the gases ava,
3 perfectly, and even aiding in the worI