The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-01-25
WHEN 1T WAS REALLY COLD.
Ink Froze TO Pens and Boys to Wet
Lapstones in Good Old Days.
oBoston Globe1

The ancient art of keeping warm in
clustering winter weather WAS crude as
pTacticed by the forefathers. or Judge
Scweh would not have complained that
ne was slow in recording events in his
diary because his ink .froZe upon his pen
Nor would the colonial shoemakers have
many times decided that il was too cold
II make shoes. but just right to go hunt
ing. The test of temperature was made
by allowing on apprentice TO sit on wet
lapStonc. IL he was frozen to IL, the
weather was considered too cold TO work.
Indeed, just how the people Of the cold
parts of this country got any comfort dur
ing the severe winter days is not apparent
10 the eyes OF today that have looked
upon the simple and curious heat produc-
ers of early times n rare collection of
these ancient fireplaces andirOns stoves
and other promoters of nercurial rises is
preserved today in the Essex institute. in
Salem. Mass, together with much inter
esting Information thereon.
One OF these curioS is a fireback from
the ancestral home of Colonel Timothy
Pickering. Washington'S friend and sec
rotary of war. IL is eff slate and looks
Pickering family crest. 1t was placed in
the back of the fireplace, so that the
burning logs would not set fire to the
house.
These oid-fashioIled firepIaces were
huge affairs. Children could sit in their
corners and watch the sparks chase each
other toward the stars. The fireplaces and
chimneyS were INST lined within mud. SO
that they would not burn. but later they
/ were made of brick. 1t is a common re-
mark that in frying to get warm at such
the faces of people were roasted from the
heat while their backs froze in the dra fits
frcrn he cracks in the windows and doors.
But the early forefathers were hardy
race and endured the cold wonderfully.
The PuTitans of Salem refused 20 heat
ti;eir meeting houses. declaring that
warmth therein was snake of We willy
sires and their sons kicked their heels to-
aether when the cold stopped the circula-
ton of their blood. and the preachers
often patiently paused in their two hours
discourses to wait for everybody TO be-
come warm and stop kicking.
Women carried Httic foot stoves "a
church These were perforated tin boxes
about a foot square into which hot en-
bers from the family hearth were placed.
/ and the not stove was then taken to
meeting along with the Bible.
Coal was known as early at 1857 in this
country, and il was called Iron stone. .
| But wood was far cheaper and more con-
Ivenient and was most used. Peat was
| also utilized as il could be obtained from
many boys.
stoves were introduced as early as 1852
| and in that year the general court of
| Massachusetts granted to John Clark II
! shillings for every family using his valu-
| able invention. stove. for "A period OF
| three years. and this grant was subse-
| quently extended for a period of Clark +
grateful for the comfort derived from his
/ Invention
| me tlfSt open 'front.' coal Stoves were de-
| signed by Benjamin Franklin, and were
| cast By james Byrnes & Co.. in Spring
/ field Mass. in 1871. Franklin proba bls
got his idea from the German stoves usec
! in Pennsylvania. These had a hot-ail
drum. which extended to the second stofy
and warmed that part of the house but
the doors of many OF them were outside
| the house. so that il was necessary to ge
outdoors TO feed them with fuel Frank
| Inns invention marked the beginning Of
stoves for burning coal and wood, which
| are in general use today.
| These early stoves were as great bless
ings to the forefathers as are steam heat
ers today. Even the poets sung of thei
virtues. referring TO them as stove,
| which autumn of winter could make
But today the practical man want,
summer of winter made. and the variou
sslmple devices of the forefatners the fire
backs apdirons, open firepaces an,
Lcipde stoves have been thrown into tn
fjtf1k X hcaf,er into thonHpafSnti1El to max,
thCaterF.