IMPROVEMENTS IN KITCHEN RANGES, OVENS, AND STEAMERS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Ebenezer Stevens at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th August
1866.
I, EBENEZER STEVENS, of 154, Barnsbury Road, in the County of Middlesex,.
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
KITCHEN RANGES, OVENS, AND STEAMERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvement in kitchen ranges, ovens, and
steamers for cooking purposes. In constructing ranges according to my
Invention I employ two distinct fire-places in the front of the range, one
much larger than the other, and to each fire-place two half sliding doors in a
groove in front of the range in order that I may obtain the full width of the
fire-place while cooking or close each sliding door at pleasure partly or
wholly. At one end of the range I have a coal bunker with top flat, and
upon it I place a coal plate which has a self-acting bolt, and which can only
be opened when bolted from the inside of the coal bunker; this plate is fitted
into a cast-iron ring fastened by means of a horizontal bolt attached under the
plate, in which bolt is a slot, in which slot works a lever weighted at one end
with a ball, the object of this being to give action to the lever which throws
the bolt into the side of the ring which has an opening to receive the bolt ;
there is a small fixed bolt under the plate opposite the self-acting. bolt, and an

page_text: opening in the ring also to receive this fixed bolt, and thus locks the plate
securely in its position. At the bottom of the coal bunker I have a small
door made to hang on hinges and to lock. At the other end of my range I
have a boiler, or it may go round the back of the range as well, and when it
is not convenient to have the water laid on to feed the boiler with water I
employ a self-acting handle water pot or water can, the object being to save
the strain on the arm and wrist when filling the boiler. I construct this
water boiler feeder as follows:-The handle is hinged at the top of the pot
and carried over the bottom of the pot at the back with an intervening handle
between the two hinges, by which means a slight movement of the wrist
throws the pot forward and shoots the water from the spout. These ranges
may be made to set in any ordinary brick fire-place, or for the open air, or
made to run upon wheels if required. Upon the top of each fire-grate I
have moveable hot plates with or without round holes, with covers to the
plates, and these are made to fit into a groove upon the top of the fire-place
in the range; on these hot plates I cook by-boiling and steaming, and before
the range and not at the ends of the range I cook by baking and boiling. I
steam the fish and not boil it, and for this purpose I use a fish kettle for the
range which has an indented groove all round the vessel, about one-third up
from the bottom of the kettle, and upon this indented rim or groove inside
the kettle my perforated shelf rests just above the water so that the fish is
steamed, the advantage being that the fish does not loose any of its nutriment
in the kettle or break to pieces in the water. On the hot plates of the range
I also prefer to use a compound vessel consisting of an ordinary iron or tin
boiler, from which boiler projects a small short pipe or nozzle which has at the
top a cover which hangs upon an hinge, and which will cover the top of the
pipe or can be turned back as desired; for ordinary boiling the cover to the
pipe is closed. If thick substances such as stews, hashes, soups, &c., another
saucepan is made to fit inside this boiler similar, to a glue pot, but having a
stewpan handle, with a rim all round the stewpan to rest on the rim of the
outside boiler supporting the inner saucepan about two inches above the top of
the outer boiler and one lid or cover is made to fit both the boiler and stewpan.
When it is desired to steam potatoes or any other kind of food I place in the nozzle
of the boiler a tin vessel to act as a steamer, first throwing the cap or cover on
the boiler back or open. This steamer is made of tin and has two handles like
an ordinary steamer, but the bottom of the steamer has a socket fixed in it,
which fits into the mouth of the pipe attached to the outside boiler, so that the
steam passes from the boiler through the steamer and cooks the food placed
in it. To avoid condensed steam remaining in the steamer I invert the bottom

page_text: towards the socket of the steamer, and to prevent the food placed in the
steamer from covering the hole and stopping the steam from the boiler I place
over the hole inside the steamer a dome with holes all round the lower rim, so!
that when required this boiler or compound vessel can be made to cook three
distinct kinds of food at one time; before the range fires I construct ovens
which have no feet or legs; and I supply this requirement for the larger ovens
with an adjusting revolving stand similar in principle to a music stool. The
stand has a bottom which is hollow with a hollow pipe or tube up the centre,
into the top of which there is a worm thread to fit the screw that is riveted
upon the top of the stand that supports the oven or other utensil. The stand:
may be made any shape, plain or otherwise, and can be made higher or lower
to suit the fire by twisting the top of the stand one way or the other. I have
two slots or openings in the bottom of the stand to fit over the fender. For
the small ovens to bake before the small fire in the range I use a small hanger:
to support the oven, which hooks in or fits upon the bars of the range similar
to a common hanger, but I place an iron wire across the sides and centre of the
hanger slightly bridged, and in the centre of this iron wire I make a hole into:
which I rivet loose, so as to revolve, a round plate, and the rouud plate on the:
banger is made to revolve when touched. The plate or top of the hanger
may have notches cut in the edges, so that by touching them with a fork or
steel the plate of the hanger will turn round. The large ovens are made of
tin with an open front, except a flange turned up about two inches from the
bottom fixed shelf or partition, and about two inches turned down at the top:
of the oven. The oven which faces the fire has the door behind the full size.
of the oven and is hung upon hinges about two or more inches from the bottom:
of the oven. There is a fixed partition or shelf which admits of the heat:
penetrating under the bottom of the oven, and also causing the reflected heat:
to be thrown up from the space below this shelf or partition in the oven..
When it is required to bake meat, pudding, or potatoes in this oven I place on
the bottom of this fixed shelf a tin dish with a parting in the centre, and on.
the centre of which I place a fixed spindle or peg, and upon this spindle or
peg I place a round gridiron meat stand with a hollow tube in the middle, so
that the meat stand will turn round in the dish while in the oven. At each
end of the oven there is an indented groove or rim of tin to support a
moveable iron shelf, which has a flange turned down about two inches ;- the
object of these flanges being turned up from the bottom fixed shelf and down
from the top of the oven, and also turned down in the moveable centre shelf
is, that when tins filled with dough and baking bread are in the oven these
flauges should roject over the tins containing dough or bread aud keep the

page_text: direct rays of heat from burning or scorching the dough or bread before it is
properly baked. The flange on the moveable shelf serves a double object, it
has to be turned downwards for baking bread, but upwards when the oven is
required to bake pastry and small articles of food: The small ovens to use
before the smaller fire I construct of about a half, circle or more with flat
bottoms to stand upon the hangers already described. I make no door to this
oven; I have the top a little raised, and from the front in the centre at the
top I cut a slit or opening to the centre. I construct for this small oven a
wire arch which goes all round the oven to about half an inch of the sides and
top, and about an inch from the bottom. I have a fixed plate attached to this
inside wire frame; the frame stands upon four short feet, and the top of the
frame is made to come through the top of the oven about two inches in the
shape of a thumbscrew, so that the framework in the oven can be turned by
the hand as occasion, may require without removing the oven from the hanger:
I have a small moveable baking dish in this frame, which rests upon the
bottom fixed plate attached to the inside frame about half way up; I have two
supports or catches to hold the dish when the oven is required to bake little
articles of food likely to catch or burn at the top; I also have a hook to hang
from the centre of the top of the frame, which hook is made to remove and
hang in its place a wire toaster, or a sort of sprat gridiron, wherein to place
chops, steaks, cutlets, bacon, or other food; also, upon my small revolving
hanger already described, when it is not necessary to use the small oven for
merely cooking a chop or other small portion of food, I employ a small narrow
dish, or it may be a round tin vessel or dish to stand upon the hanger, fastened
to the dish or unattached, and over which I simply place a small wire or iron
rack, similar to a toast rack, twisted to stand upon the hanger so as to admit
a chop between the same, or a little arch of wire or otherwise to hang by a
hook a chop, &c. At the back of the oven I construct a space to hold a
cooking and carving fork and steel combined.