Chapter V. The Kitchen Stove

The kitchen stove deserves at least a chapter to itself, for even a volume could hardly contain a description of the trials which housekeepers suffer in connection with it, and all the ingenious devices which have been invented to mitigate their troubles. It is, of course, in America that these devices are principally to be found, for the rest of the world is far behind our own country in the details of domestic convenience. Even now, many a lordly family in the most aristocratic part of London devours, as best it can, its victuals roasted in front of an open fire. and bathes itself in water warmed for the purpose over a gas flame; and the rest of the world is even behind England in the comforts to which the most modest American family is accustomed.

The kitchen stove, like other stoves. consists essentially of a fire-box, with a grate underneath it, and an outlet to the chimney ; but, as it comprises also at least one oven, which must be heated, the smoke and hot gases from the fire-box, before they can escape into the chimney, are made, on occasion, to pass around the oven. Where there are two ovens, two smoke-pipes are provided, each of which draws a portion of the hot gases around the oven to which it belongs; and the smoke-pipes finally unite, just before entering the chimney. In addition to heating the ovens, the smoke and gases in an American stove are obliged, before they can escape from their labors into the chimney, to supply hot water for the baths, sinks, and wash-trays; to maintain the hot-closets and plate-warmers at a suitable temperature; to dry the dish-towels; to broil, stew, fry, boil, and simmer all the family aliments requiring such treatment, and often, besides this, to boil the family wash and cremate the family garbage. To do all these things with one small fire requires that the heat should be well utilized, and the fire easily controlled; and a good American kitchen stove is a marvel of ingenuity. In fact, the ingenuity displayed in it is often rather beyond the comprehension of those who use it; and few stoves are so managed as to get from them the best results of which they are capable. The fire-box proper of the ordinary American kitchen stove is made oblong, and rather deep, so as to hold a good body of coal; and the back, which is exposed to the force of the flame passing over the ovens, is protected by a fire-brick lining. The sides and front are protected in the same way, unless the stove is required to heat water for the baths and plumbing. In this case the front firebrick, and often the side linings also, are replaced by a flattened box of cast iron, known as the water-front, in which all the water for the house is heated. Where the water-front is used, holes are provided in the side of the stove, through which pass the pipes connecting the water-front with the copper "bath-boiler," or, more strictly, reservoir, in which the water heated in the stove is stored for use. In most cases the water-front is a simple iron box, corrugated a little on the side next the fire, to strengthen it, and increase the heating surface ; but the water-fronts of some stoves have an interior longitudinal diaphragm, which keeps the inflowing stream of cold water from mixing with the outflowing current of hot water, and materially improves the capacity of the stove for heating water; and, occasionally, a water-front is made of brass, at great expense, under the erroneous idea that water can be heated more rapidly in it than in one of iron. Very frequently, in modern stoves, the waterfront does not reach the top of the fire-box, but leaves a space, two inches high or less, above it, through which, by means of a sliding door in the front of the stove, a broiler or toaster can be inserted above the fire without removing the stove covers, and a piece of meat thus broiled without allowing the smoke to escape into the room; and, occasionally, in large stoves, the water-front is put at the back of the fire-box, leaving the front of the fire, protected only by a grate, exposed, so that, by opening doors in the front of the stove, a chicken or duck, secured in a " Dutch oven " of Water-front.

Under the fire-box is always a grate of some sort, and in this feature is displayed a varied ingenuity which is frequently rather wasted. The best grates, for anthracite coal, are, perhaps, those of the type known as the Smythe, or "triangular-bar" grate, which is composed of revolving bars, set with flanges of a form nearly triangular, which interlock. The bars are furnished at the end with cog-wheels, gearing into each other, so that, when one is turned, the others turn with it, but in opposite directions; and, by means of a handle, fitting over the end of one of the bars, which projects for the purpose through the side of the stove, the different sections of the grate can be gently rocked, to shake out fine ashes, or turned entirely over; the triangular flanges, in this case, clutching the clinkers and cinders above them, and depositing them in the ash-pan below, before they resume their normal position. Although this operation is not an extremely complicated one, it is too much for the intelligence of the average Biddy, who can generally be seen, in the early Grates morning, digging out with a poker from the firebox, with immense labor, and distracting noise, the cinders which, by a single turn of the grate-handle, might be transferred safely to the ash-pan. With this form of grate the use of the poker at least does no harm, unless, as sometimes happens, it gets caught between the bars, and injudicious attempts are made to get it out again; but the same can hardly be said of another excellent form of grate, in which the turning of the shaking-handle moves up and down, in alternation, groups of small, detached grate-bars. When used intelligently, this is a very satisfactory grate, particularly with small or soft coal; but the process of digging out with a poker a fire-box furnished with it has the inconvenience that the poker not unfrequently brings up portions of the grate, mingled with the cinders, and repairs then become necessary.