Improvement in or connected with Cooking Pans.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 17th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 24th Dec., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in or connected with Cooking Pans.
I, JULIE BÖHMER Wife of Professor Dr. Böhmer, of 82 Gerichts Strasse,
Warburg in Westphalia in the German Empire do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to pans for cooking vegetables and other food substance
and consists in improvements therein having for its object to indicate when the
food boiled or steamed therein-such as potatoes, turnips, macaroni and the like-
has become tender or done. The improvement consists in the addition to the pan
of an apparatus which by means of a marker or pointer visible outside and
attached to a float, indicates this moment.
The improvement applied to a cooking pan is represented on the drawing
appended hereunto,
Fig. 1 showing a section through the same and
Fig. 2, a top view partly with the lid on and partly with the lid removed.
Into the pan a which may be of any ordinary form, a plate e provided with
feet band perforations of any shape, or equivalent wire sieve is placed. This
plate or its equivalent is fixed to a funnel d enlarged at the bottom end, in which a
float e is arranged supporting on a rod f a disc g serving as marker or indicator.
The disc g protrudes above the lid of the pan, so that it is visible from the
outside in the opening of the handle. The apparatus having been placed into the
pan, water is filled in to the level of the perforated plate or sieve and the potatoes
or other food put into the pan. By the water the float e is lifted and the indicator g
thus will be raised for a certain distance above the funnel, depending upon the
length of the rod f. In cooking the respective food-such as potatoes and the
like, the water will be gradually evaporated and the float and indicator descend,
the quantity evaporated and descent of the indicator corresponding to the length
of time the water has been boiling. It has been ascertained by the inventor
experimentally that for instance for cooking potatoes until done the water in the
pan must be reduced to about one fifth of its volume. By adjusting the indicator g
on the rod f, so that it sets itself upon the top of the funnel d when the water in
the pan has been reduced to one fifth of its original height, this position indicates
that the potatoes are sufficiently cooked. In the same manner the completion of
the cooking of other articles of food can be ascertained and the indicator g
adjusted on the rod f to the evaporation of water required or different floats and
rods used for different articles.
The cooking pan fitted with such apparatus possesses the great advantage that
it does not need to be repeatedly uncovered to ascertain whether the food is done
as in the case of ordinary pans. The sieve for supporting the food, especially in
the case of potatoes, is advantageous, as any impurities or injurious substances are
extracted from them and drop through the sieve into the bottom of the pan. The
improved pan further has the great advantage, that the food, especially potatoes,
can be properly cooked by any inexperienced person, and that by its use much
time is saved, as there is no need to look after the pan during the cooking, while
the food cooked therein will be generally found superior in taste to that cooked in
ordinary pans, as it will be neither cooked too little nor too much.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is.
1. The combination with a pan for cooking potatoes and other food substances
of an apparatus for indicating when the food is sufficiently cooked substantially as
hereinbefore described, and illustrated by the drawings.
2. The construction and use in combination with cooking pans of an apparatus
consisting of a funnel attached to a sieve or its equivalent and containing a float
with a visible marker substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated by
the drawings and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this teah dont
1004
R. J. URQUHART,
57, Barton Arcade, Manchester, and 6, Clayton Square, Liverpool,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent.