tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8896208996050611372024-03-04T21:02:27.559-08:00Back to the Green Old DaysIn this blog, I will explore those ideas, tools and methods of doing things that were invented and/or used in the past that had less environmental impact than current ways of doing things and which, therefore, may have some utility now or in the future.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17964818027328663066noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-889620899605061137.post-16269546399004564512012-03-05T13:18:00.000-08:002012-03-05T13:18:00.784-08:00Fireless CookersHay Boxes, or Fireless Cookers, were in wide use by the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (and probably much earlier), as a means for saving on fuel costs (whether wood, coal, or some form of gas). They are simple, low-energy slow cookers that, according to some accounts, date back to biblical times. Food would be heated up in a pot on a conventional stove for a few minutes and then put into an insulated box or compartment to cook for a few hours. The simplest ones were simply boxes full of hay, cloth or other insulating material and these were commonly home-made devices. However, many of the stoves built ca. 1900 had fireless cooking compartment built into them, and there were also a wide variety of them available for sale as separate units. There use was so common, in fact, that special cookbooks were written for this method of cooking, because cooking times had to be adjusted for them.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjMgFdLD8l8hnBUr2RpIBplHoy6wbszd75K2DdA5NPK185VCvQts-iYVMK21kX_sWZcdRyCH2YhXHC_GQnrecij0MIfZnxY92wjm484LrtfB42Zv2VFNVhZNkDLeLB8BR39aPEuCtX5U/s1600/fireless+cooker_Page_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRjMgFdLD8l8hnBUr2RpIBplHoy6wbszd75K2DdA5NPK185VCvQts-iYVMK21kX_sWZcdRyCH2YhXHC_GQnrecij0MIfZnxY92wjm484LrtfB42Zv2VFNVhZNkDLeLB8BR39aPEuCtX5U/s320/fireless+cooker_Page_1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is the diagram of a fireless cooker</div>
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that was submitted with a patent in 1911.</div>
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</div>Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17964818027328663066noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-889620899605061137.post-23150518157412562192012-02-25T08:39:00.000-08:002012-02-25T10:36:18.422-08:00Hot BedsIt being almost Spring, it is time to start planting--or at least think about plantting--the garden. In the days before electric germination mats, farmers used to get an early start on Spring plantting using hot beds. There were essentially cold frames that had a layer of fresh manure under them, and another layer of soil on top of that. The decomposition of the manure generated heat, warmed the soil, and thereby "forced" the seeds into early germination. In some locations, farmers did not need to cover the hot beds at all, and in other instances they put hoops over them and covered them with canvass at night and during storms.<br />
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George Fisher, writing in 1794, described the late-Winter preparations for planting like this:<br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><strong>"Throw up some new dung in a heap to heat, that it may
be ready to make hotbeds for early cucumbers and melons…Nurse the cauliflowers
kept under glass carefully; shut out the frost but in the middle of the milder
days let in a little air…Make a slight hotbed in the open ground for young
sallading, and place hoops over it that it may be covered in very hard weather."</strong> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">From: <em>The
American Young Man’s Best Companion</em></span><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> (Walpole, NH: 1794)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>p. 357.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_26qHpEPtxN7Uu9ABUOWYzZ5rnuymdp71afrQD7IvIABWrsohgKA7MhV5XHILiupigFp2o9ykSvTJvTlKCFDK24fI1_1VNCSOE33Tq0Qvl55mghypamXZink4w-IVG3eFJP61H6ofp4/s1600/hotbed012.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_26qHpEPtxN7Uu9ABUOWYzZ5rnuymdp71afrQD7IvIABWrsohgKA7MhV5XHILiupigFp2o9ykSvTJvTlKCFDK24fI1_1VNCSOE33Tq0Qvl55mghypamXZink4w-IVG3eFJP61H6ofp4/s320/hotbed012.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is a sketch of a 19th century hotbed, published in: <span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A. Watson, <i>The
American Home Garden (1</i>856).</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIF0Rh63j6pV5H-hZHpZgO40pla4NNbdIzazl5vtopU-hsRdUNHGrXzfg8A1nM5hDO8UUNax4rfsxcJLikwaJd-XvXdtJkNI3YcWpvv6c7mi6HRFkXD_-WyfRkkZ9xFby-augDibeDkw/s1600/hotbed008.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhIF0Rh63j6pV5H-hZHpZgO40pla4NNbdIzazl5vtopU-hsRdUNHGrXzfg8A1nM5hDO8UUNax4rfsxcJLikwaJd-XvXdtJkNI3YcWpvv6c7mi6HRFkXD_-WyfRkkZ9xFby-augDibeDkw/s320/hotbed008.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">A 19th century diagram for a hotbed, with the manure below ground-level.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXnNb9ZsP51_4V1-ggd6yJHstTTSW2acvs8xfmP4QtU1ahhqumulyWEjTKjlcyjKqkaPSacGO2Hl0-ou0SMxot62spHBAr8sY8SPN3tJNjeFQz23EHC0mpjjeMAnUk6emcpnDlk8Q67I/s1600/hotbed-flu010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="154" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFXnNb9ZsP51_4V1-ggd6yJHstTTSW2acvs8xfmP4QtU1ahhqumulyWEjTKjlcyjKqkaPSacGO2Hl0-ou0SMxot62spHBAr8sY8SPN3tJNjeFQz23EHC0mpjjeMAnUk6emcpnDlk8Q67I/s320/hotbed-flu010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Another 19th century innovation: heating the ground in the hotbed by running flus from a wood-burning stove under it.Richardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17964818027328663066noreply@blogger.com0Maine, USA45.253783 -69.445468942.3924595 -74.4991799 48.115106499999996 -64.391757899999988