Chapter 8
Section 8 of Cheating the Junk Pile, the Purchase and Maintenance of Household Equipments. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Cheating the Junk Pile by Ethel R. Pacer. Chapter 8. The Oil Range. What makes it possible to live in gasless, electricless, coalless, transportationless
places in gustatorial ease and digestive comfort. The oil range. Not the old-time messy oil stove, but the efficient, capacious oil range. In districts unopened to modern improvements, cooking is made a pleasure rather than a drudgery with this highly effective medium, so effective that nothing that can be done on any other type of stove need be omitted in the daily routine. It has the maximum comfort and the minimum cost and trouble. This range, too, need never be
lighted until wanted and can be put to bed immediately upon finishing the meal. So now, there need be no place where man cannot have his puddings, his breads, or his flapjacks with speed and finish. The two most important types of oil stoves with which it is worth your while to become acquainted are the wick and the wickless, kindler type. It is quite evident from their descriptive titles that the former employs a wick as a heat carrier to the vessel in which is the food,
and the wickless has the kindler by which the heat is carried to the food in a different way. The wick oil range is a development born directly of the lamp. It employs the round wick, and with it in its best form, a long chimney is used. This long draft chimney has proven in the case of the lamp to make for perfect combustion of the oil. Hence, after many years of trial and proof, the wick stove is developed to a delightful point of comfort and utility. Speed, lack of odor, and
perfect work, three necessities of any stove, are here exemplified to say nothing of longevity and ease of upkeep. You have probably used the heat from a lamp chimney to light a cigarette or a match or even to heat a curling iron. Well, this is really the principle of the wick stove. This heat has been harnessed and petted into cooking usefulness by expert heat and stove engineers. The parts of the wick stove with which you must be acquainted are few but important.
1. The burner. 2. The wick. 3. Flame spreader. 4. Brass wick tube. A fine feature in that it is of brass.
5. Clamp set screw. 6. Hand wheel to adjust screw. 7. Little mica door which opens in chimney instead of having to pull off the chimney as you do in lighting a lamp. All you have to do is apply the match and touch off the wick at several places.
Then, lower the wick until the flame is even. To extinguish the flame, turn the little wheel to the left. Never blow it out. This blowing out of the flame causes all sorts of irregularities and the real troubles. The oil range is supplied in the best types by gravity conduit.
That is to say that the oil flows from a reservoir into the burner, and as the oil is consumed, the fresh oil flows down and takes its place, so there can never be overflow to cause fires or odors. These reservoirs are of glass, and in one case, the manufacturer has a service of reservoirs, which supplies the consumer with a rack of three filled reservoirs, which in turn replaces the emptied one. This obviates entirely the need of the cook to pour oil in the reservoir, or in fact know she is using oil. Reservoirs, of course, are delivered and called for if you are in reach of a dealer. Where this service is impossible to be had, the pouring of the oil into the tank is simpler than simple.
It is no more difficult than pouring milk into a glass. In truth, the reservoir is mechanically adjusted and filled with oil, the human being but its guide and beneficiary. The heat wanted in the wick stove depends on your culinary need and consequently on how high or how low you turn the wick. Very often it means when the flame burns low when it should burn high that the wick needs a cleaning. Don't blame the mechanism.
It is difficult to say how often you need to buy a wick or how often it should be cleaned, as it depends very much on the quality of the oil that you have to use. Some kerosene is charry and some more free of impurities than other kinds of kerosene. Here are some points to observe if you want good results. 1. If there is a gap in the flame, the wick needs cleaning.
There should be a continuous round fence enclosing the burner around the flame spreader, or it may mean the wick is up against the flame spreader. 2. Be sure that the wick is not up against the flame spreader after lighting, because it will prevent the air from passing through the center of the brass wick tube and cause overheating of burner and a murky flame.
3. The flame when high should show white points above the blue body of the flame. These white points should be about 1 1⁄4 inch for perfect combustion. That means that there will be no odor and that you will get all the heat you need and no waste of fuel. 4. The flame has lost its usefulness when the line of demarcation between the white and the blue is gone. The flame will begin to smoke, the burner will be overheated, the cookery underheated, and odors and smudge will result.
Here again, the human equation comes in. Use your eyes effectively. 5. Cleaning wicks is done by removing the chimney, even as you do in cleaning a lamp wick. Nothing new in this. 6. Watch your reservoir. Never allow it to run dry or your range to burn dry. Form a habit of watching it daily and you will never regret it. 7. Under usual circumstances, one wick should last several months.
8. Clean wicks daily for best service. 9. Correct unevenness of the wick with a pair of scissors. 10. For rewicking, arresting any other troubles, consult the guidebook, which gives directions simply. 11. But remember, when you get any kind of range, you must set it up solidly and level before filling with oil or cooking upon it. Put it in a part of the kitchen away from drafts and where you would put any other stove.
12. Every range has special directions for inverting reservoir and refilling, but in the best types, it is always very easy and simple, needing no strength or skill. And so, in the best type of the wick range, we have the possibility of cooking everything that any family or its guests need. Wicks are easily bought all over the world.
The stoves heat rapidly. The oil reservoir is easy to fill. Your hands need never be oily unless through crass carelessness. There is a basin-shaped stove base to collect char and dirt, and the feedpipe is so placed as to make cleaning easy. All the parts should be easily removable for cleaning,
and all should be simple and visible in every part. This grown-up lamp should have all these modern twists. In the best of the wick type, you should have the best vitreous enamel where it is enameled, baked in at least three times, solid brass wick tubes, best grade of steel tubing, and heavily tinned plate pipes where necessary.
In the long chimney wick type, the flame never touches the vessel. In the short drum type, the flame does touch. One wick type manufacturer makes a perfect long chimney type, yet also makes a short drum type to give all consumers their heart's desire. Wickless Ranges
The wickless, as its name implies, has no wick, but carries the heat directly to the cooking vessel and therefore shortens the cooking time a little as the heat reaches the spot more quickly than it can in the long, non-flame-touching type of range. In this type of range, a kindler is employed. This kindler is a round asbestos ring, costs about 10 cents to replace,
which lies in the burner bowl and is slightly corrugated at the top and stiffened by a metal band. Its function is not that of a wick at all. It is rather the self-starter of the stove and its business is to light the oil and start the cooking. The stove is lighted by applying the match to the kindler which is saturated by oil from its very position. And this ignition of the kindler furnishes sufficient heat to the surface of the oil to turn it into a gas.
After the burner is started, the heat automatically keeps the gas forming, vaporizing, as long as there is oil in the burner. So you can see that all the kindler does is start the gas ball rolling. The Wickless type of range is equipped with a 12-inch seamless burner, which will last several years. The regulation of the heat is managed by lowering or elevating the oil in the burner bowl. The greater the area of oil exposed on which the heat from the kindler ring can act, the greater amount of gas formed and released, and inversely, the smaller the area of oil surface exposed, etc.
This range, in its best forms, employs a lever with a dial, which, when turned by the cook to the point in the dial she knows by experience she needs, automatically and mechanically adjusts the heat from simmering point to the most intense heat through a heat scale from no heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. With the dial, there is taken out of oil cookery the guesswork which resides in most cookers. Here is used the short chimney with very concentrated heat focused where it is most needed. In lighting, you turn the lever to the word light on the dial.
After the kindler is saturated, generally a few seconds after switching the lever, the chimney must be raised and the match applied in a few spots to the kindler. In a few moments, your blue flame is going full blast, or any blast you desire, depending on your lever setting. Gravity supplies the oil here, too, as in the wick type.
The reservoir, with its glass bullseye to detect oil quantity, holds a gallon of kerosene sufficient to last 16 to 18 hours for one burner, or at the rate of about one cent per hour. Refilling these reservoirs is very simple, and when you go to buy an oil range, this is one of the things you must insist upon.
Unscrew the cap in this case and pour in your oil. That is all. There are a feed pipe and release which gather any sediment that may be in the oil. Flame Regulation Experience is the best teacher in the way of knowing where you must set the lever to get the hottest flame.
Sometimes, dependent on varying conditions, the flame may be highest when the lever is over the twelfth division of the dial. Sometimes it may be at six or seven on your range. This sort of thing you learn by knowing your range. Some oil will, of course, be left in the burner after the light is turned off. Therefore, you must expect it to burn a little while after you have turned your lever to out.
The blue flame, to be just right, must touch the vessel with its uttermost tip. On some of the most modern type of this is a match scraper plate, which makes it easy to light the match without using your shoe, a good white wall, or the seat of your pants. Every stove in this class is made of the finest pressed steel,
and where the enamel is used, it is a vitreous variety with three bakings. There is an all-white stove, too, to fit in with the bridal effect of the newer kitchens. The good points of the wickless stove are many. 1. No wicks to clean. 2. Unleakable.
3. More powerful burner than anywhere else, being 12 inches. 4. Burner 100% odorless 5. Delivers heat where it does the most good 6. Acts a little quicker than any other types 7. More economical in upkeep
Either one of the stoves herein outlined is the best on the market as to type and manufacture. If you have to buy a stove, try and get the most for your expenditure by a collection of the best traits in the stove. No mechanical device is perfect without perfect handling. If you do not put in the wick correctly, or if you do not light your kindler sufficiently, you will have trouble. If you put a tire on your car the wrong way, you would not blame the car.
yet the tendency is always to blame the oil range and immediately call up your dealer and say that your stove is smelly or that the wick won't burn or that the kindler won't start, etc. The best firms give every consumer a little textbook to consult when in difficulty. These stoves, even in electric and gas regions, are used in summer because they are cool cookers. The advantage over coal is evident, as there is no fire to clean out, no kindling wood necessary, no ashes to carry, and no coal to lug about, to say nothing about wondering about dampers, flus, and the like. In all ranges burning oil of the best makes, you can have all the heat you want and as little as you want as well.
On all well-proportioned ranges, you can put some of the excellently constructed ovens. The ranges come from one burner to five burners. Some are built in cabinet style, with shelves, etc., some just plain style. As yet, none of the cooking surfaces is quite high enough. A few inches added to their stature would make cookery easier on the human back.
The cabinet size usually stands about 54 1⁄2 inches high, 64 inches wide. The spaces between the burners is ample for comfortable placing of utensils. Watch this when purchasing a stove, for you can be very uncomfortable with a jammed surface. It is pretty much a matter of what you can get in the way of either of these two specific stoves. They are both so good.
The wick type is convenient because the wick is sold all over the world. The wickless is convenient because it is easy to clean and is a bit more rapid in heating. The kindler is only 10 cents and can be had at all dealers, and when you buy the stove, you can get a supply. You must demand no odor whatever, speedy cooking, steady flame,
Cleanliness and easy to clean Easily replaceable parts No smut and dirt Easy flame control Oil visible in reservoir
Best materials on the market Perfect combustion making for the minimum amount of residue carbon With the oil range as well as with the gas, electric and coal range, there can be bought water heating boilers, ovens, etc. and with one stove, special broilers and toasters.
There are two very good ovens on the market to be used with these stoves and with other kinds as well, each one with its special selling points. Each is large enough in some size for a 12-pound turkey, each small enough for the smallest uses. Sizes range from 21.5 inches by 18.5 inches by 13 inches to 13 inches by 18.5 inches by 13 inches. They weigh from about 12 to 18 pounds.
You place the oven over the surface burner. One oven maker claims asbestos lining for insulation. Shelves set for five different altitudes. Curved top to oven like baker's oven to pass off gas and prevent air pockets. Shelf support growing out of lining.
Strap hinges. One motion to handle to open oven door. Door closes only if it locks. Special asbestos lining porcelain enameled heat spreader, triangular in shape to deflect heat and prevent burning. Another says of itself, special heat-resistant lining,
mica windows below to watch flame, unbreakable glass and unstreamable, three-point locking device on door, all-glass door. The oil range is not cheap, yet it is a godsend at certain times. We are not advocating it for general use where pipes and wires and coal are at our convenient disposal, but we do recommend it forcibly and sincerely where you want a simple, efficient cooking medium
beyond the reach of the popular sources of heat. Unless you buy the very best, not merely the best, oil cooker, you will be saddened, and with the best, you will sign yourself Pollyanna without reservations. Just about now, a new oil range is being advertised. It is a cross between the wick and the wickless.
because it uses an asbestos and brass thread wick, which is almost immortal, for it can be reversed when charred, and when both sides are charred, it is burnt off in the stove and ready to begin its double life again. Like the wickless stove, the flame touches the vessel with the short drum construction, and like the wick, it uses a wick even though quite different.
The stove is of Japan tin and is made in cabinet type and in the ordinary style. It is also in the best class. End of Section 8
