Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1894 — LIGHTNING COOKERY. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

LIGHTNING COOKERY.

HOW ELECTRICITY OPERATES IN THE KITCHEN. Cooking Utendli and Paraphernalia—Frytag, Bakins. Broiling and Heating by ■teftricity—Enormoo* Waete la tha Cm •f Old Style Fuel. No Dirt or Ashea. The application of electricity to affairs domestic is a subject that demands the attention of all mankind. For some time past electricity has

0. B. copper bottom: 8. 0. till cate cement; 8. W. specially drawn copper wires. BBCTION AND BOTTOM Of KBTTLB. been Used in a limited way by the demonstrators at various “food show” cooking schoola It required the World’s Fair to bring the subject before the public in all its prominence. What does electric cooking mean? It means the absence of the old-fash-ioned range and more—no coal! no smoke! no ashes! It means no building of kitchen fires on hot summer mornings; it means the emancipation of fire builders. The workings of the electric current are less understood by the gen-

eral public than any other subject connected with our mercantile and domestic life. The current may be likened to running water, and with this idea one has the best illustration. If water be run through a pipe two inches in diameter, into a smaller pipe, say one inch in diameter, the result attained is pressure in the smaller pipe. Run electricity through a wire one-quarter inch in diameter, and it gives no apparent result, but turn this same current into a smaller wire and the result is heat, as shown in the ordinary incandescent lamp. The small wire cannot handle the current fast enough; therefore it gets hot This is the fact that governs electric cooking. The reader may say, “This is plain so far, but the electric light globe has practically no heat about it.” The explanation is this: The wire In the electric light globe is in a vacuum and is on this account surrounded to a certain extent by a non-conductor, hence the heat radiation is very small. If it were possible to surround a red hot stove with a glass case and to pump all the air from the case, the heat would not be felt to any great degree.- Imagine au ordinary frying pan with a veil of fine wire beneath it, this wire surrounded with a packing which would retain and convey the heat, the wire and packing covered with a metal case as

shown by the dark ring on the bottom of the pan In the illustration. The pan with the electrical arrangement does not differ from the ordinary pan, except for the fact that It Is slightly heavier and has a wire attached. By connecting this wire with the socket board and turning a button, similar to that on the electric light, the pan is heated almost as quickly as the explanation is made. The broiler, oven, coffee pot, tea “kettle and hot water tank are all operated in the same manner. The advantages of using electricity are so great, and so numerous that it would be impossible to convey the . facts on paper. Suffice it to say that there is none of the disagreeable dust or heat, no smoke nor danger of fire. In the ordinary stove the heat generated is 100 per cent. . Of this heat 80 per cent goes up the chimney, 15 per refht warms the air In the room and incidentally the cook; the remaining 5 per cent is all that can be used for cooking. With the new appliances nearly all the heat is utilized in cooking, and the radiation is scarcely perceptible; hence the economy. For example, take the flat iron. Ironing day in summer it dreaded by all who have to do with it. By using the electric iron the work seems a pleasure compared with the old way. The-Iron is attached to the socket, and in oae minute it is hot, and Its heat is all oc the under side. It re-mains-at an even temperature all day, and one iron is all that Is required- The cost of running an iron is about two cents per hour. The electric iron may be attached to an ordinary incandescent lamp socket by

removing the globe and screwing the iron wire in place. The oven may be run for five cents an hour and the broiler for the samd figure. The oven heat may be graduated by means of a switch. Pans pots can be run at about the same cost The fact that the current is used only for the time of cooking makes the cost somewhat less than when coal is used. ' There are a number of kitchens in practical use in New York and Brooklyn, says a New York paper, and the most desirable results are obtained. An Electrical Kitchen. In the kitchens of these houses the coal stove has no place; and the gas-jet for lighting or heating is unknown. AH cooking and water-heat-ing is done by the electrical current, which the cook switches on from the wires In the kitchen wall as she requires it. Against the wall stands a table, or rather a small bureau, fitted with drawers and doors, and with a top of solid, blue slate. This is the stove, but it has no direct connection with the heating or cooking. It merely serves as a table on which to place the electrical cooking utensils, which are all thus highly insulated. To the left Stands the boiler, in which the water is kept at a gentle heat On the same side, on an Iron stand, Is the electric oven, divided into several compartments, the upper of which is the plate-warmer. Pipes are led from the boiler to the sink faucets on the other side of the bureau. Hung over a hook in the wall are a number of twisted cords, with a glass screw-plug at one end and a push-plug at the other. These cords are made of very fine copper threads twisted together and insulated by rubber and cotton. Each cord has two strands, each of which is a conductor, one for the negative and one for the positive. In early days these were distinguished by making

them of different colors, but this practice ha?/been abandoned since it was discovered that it did not matter which course the current took. Upon other hooks, or shelves, are the cooking utensils—teapots, coffee-pots, saucepans, frying-pans, water-kettles, stew-pans, etc. An entire outfit is there, and each Utensil is within easy reach of the cook. There is also ranged on thestudves a series of flat-

irons Above the table, or bureau, are a number of receptacles to receive the screw-plugs, which are attached to the ends of the cords, and above each is a small switch, of which all that can be seen is a small projecting key similar to that used in the gas-cocks of chandeliers. The mode of operation is extremely simple, and the densest greenhorn could familiarize herself with it in less than five minutes. If an order comes to the kitchen for some coffee, Mary takes down the coffee-pot, charges it with the fragrant berry and the due amount of water, and stands it upon the slate bureau top. She then unhooks one of the cords and screws the glass plug into its receptacle on the wall; the other end of the cord has two small plugs. These she pushes into receptacles in the base of the pot, and turns the switch. In a few minutes the water is boiling, and in a few more the stimulating liquid ascends to the epicures Upstairs. The process is just as simple for all the other utensils. All are operated in the same way. Nothing could be simpler and nothing in the cooking way cleaner. The process of stewing, however, requires different conditions. Here it is necessary to regulate the amount of heat so that the stew may be kept at the right temperature. The regulation is effected by wiring the circuits in a special manner, so that the various necessary temperatures can be obtained. Perfection In the system was not obtained without much thought and considerable experiment. Resistance wires—that is, wires which are not

good conductors, “and ‘which offer resistance to themassage of the electrical heated in the ' wrapped in asbestos. This* was too crude, and the wires weye then imbedded in enamel. Here th|fun,began, , Enamel after enamel jfca£ tried; b|it almost as soon as the current was f urned onto the wires, crack would go the enamel, and the task had to be renewed.

Finally an enamel of silicate, or, rather, a cement, was discovered, and electric-cooking became a fact. Its application to the utensil may be seen from the illustration. Etectrio Oveaa and Utemtl*. Electric ovens are usually provided with several circuits, placed at the top or sides. It is divided into several compartments, each of which can be supplied with heat at adifferenttemperature, so that meat may be cooking in the lower and the plates kept mildly warm in the upper. The oven is air-jacketed and has bright interior surfaces, so that all the heat is retained. A small Incandescent lamp suspended in the interior permits of the cook watching the cooking process through a small window of thick, transparent mica; These ovens, when heated for a quarter of an hour, carry on most

cooking operations without further heating. They act like bakers’ ovens, where the fire is applied fora certain time and then raked out, after which the oven has to carry on the baking for the rest of the day with the heat contained in itself. These ovens will, probably, be brought into more common use by the companies supplying current, which will push their use as the gas companies are pushing the gas stoves. The electric griddle is just an Iron plate, upon the bottom of which are set the wires in a bed of enamel; and during the World’s Fair a skillful colored cook was kept pretty busy during the day turning out buckwheat and griddle cakes to an admiring throng, composed mostly of women. The gridiron is perhaps the only kitchen utensil which cannot be directly heated. But an electric fire to grill things over is obtained by running the bare wires closely together in and out over a small asbestos mat As soon as the current is switched on the wires become incandescent, and a strong heat is thrown upward toward the meat or fish set over it on the gridiron. The fumes are carried off up a special chimney. The rapid adaptation of electricity to the heatingof flatirons and thegeneral work of a laundry is proved by a case in England, where a large building, formerly a flourmill, was turned into a steam laundry. The old mill waterwheel was turned to account in driving an eighty-light dynamo, and not only is the whole building lighted by electricity, but all the linen is smoothed and glossed by the electrically heated irons. The outlay was small; the satisfaction complete. Electricity is an excellent servant, and it is slowly being trained to new duties. Its uses are manifold, and its benefits innumerable. The only obstacle to its general use for household purpose is the high price of both utensils and current The utensils are undergoing a process of cheapening, and we may shortly see electrical cooking and heating a matter of as everyday occurrence as the gas stove.

A MODEL ELECTRICAL KITCHEN.

ELECTRICAL STEWPAN.

ELECTRICAL FLAT IRON.

ELECTRI KETTLE.

COOKING UTENSILS.