{"id":2015,"date":"2020-07-08T10:00:54","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T10:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/illinoisnewspaperproject\/?p=2015"},"modified":"2020-07-07T01:47:41","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T01:47:41","slug":"hay-stove-part-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/illinoisnewspaperproject\/hay-stove-part-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Hay Stove: Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

by<\/em> Kimberly Lerch\u00a0 |\u00a0 Published: July 8, 2020<\/p>\n

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Are you an overworked farm wife?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Short on time but long of mouths to feed? Between weeding the garden, scrubbing and hanging out the wash to dry, visiting your sick neighbors, baking goods for the church social, repairing worn clothing, taking care of the chickens, churning butter and selling it to the local store, and seeing to the comfort of the extra farm hands during harvest season, a busy farm wife such as yourself just doesn\u2019t have the time to slave over a hot stove for hours a day! And in the summer, no one wants a stove heating up the kitchen for hours on end!<\/p>\n

\"sketch\"sketchWhat would you say if I could offer you a kitchen appliance that uses no electricity or fuel but cooks vegetables through and through, simmers meat so that it practically melts in your mouth, and all of this in a delicious broth or gravy? Have I got a deal for you! Write me for your FREE catalogue of our line of fireless stoves, well-constructed and ready-to-use the second it\u2019s delivered, or for just $1.25, I\u2019ll send you an illustrated pamphlet describing how to build one yourself that will cook your food using NO fuel, will NOT heat up your kitchen, is HANDS-OFF until ready to eat, and your meal (breakfast, dinner, or supper) is ready in a FLASH!<\/p>\n

Save your FUEL!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Save your TIME!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Save your SANITY!<\/strong><\/p>\n

YOU NEED<\/u> A Hay Stove!<\/h2>\n

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Contact Mr. Frank Strawman & Sons, R. 1, Champaign, Ill.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cWe Hay-rantee \u2018em!\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Telephone: BR549<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n

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While correcting text in the Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections<\/a> (IDNC) a couple of months ago, I came across a term I\u2019d never heard before: hay stove<\/em><\/strong>. I figured it was like a wood stove but used hay instead of wood. I was wrong. I discovered this was a stove without external heat applied to it; it was a stove that had an item in it that was already hot, and its job was to keep it hot through efficient insulation. A \u2018slow cooker\u2019 or \u2018crock pot\u2019 but without additional heat being applied to the food like our modern-day electric namesakes.<\/p>\n

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The History of the Hay Stove<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Hay stoves, also known as fireless cookers, have been around since the early 1800s in Scandinavia.[1]<\/a> The hay stove was first seen in Europe at the Paris exhibition in 1867 when the \u201cNorwegian automatic cooker,\u201d a wooden box (lined with wool and felt) was shown.[2]<\/a> Germans ran with the concept, using hay rather than wool or felt for the insulation. 1905, the United States War Department investigated into the hay stove as a method of providing hot food for the soldiers on the front line. \u00a0In 1905, the United States War Department looked into the hay stove as a method of providing hot food for the soldiers on the front line.[3]<\/a> According to an article in the Ohio Farmer<\/em>, experiments were performed at Port Riley, Kansas and the results recorded in a University of Wisconsin bulletin entitled Fireless Cooker<\/em><\/a>.[4]<\/a> In the Illustrated Lecture on the Home-made Fireless Cooker<\/em><\/a> (1914) \u00a0the authors state that the fireless cooker \u201chas recently come in to prominence,\u201d[5]<\/a> so Americans became aware of the hay stove in the early 1900s.<\/p>\n

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The Design<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\"sketch<\/p>\n

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Simply put, the design is that of a sealable box, lined with an insulating material that would hold a preheated food container maintaining the temperature of the food, allowing the food to continue cooking while it remains in the box. Sometimes hot bricks or iron plates were also placed in the hay stove to add to and help maintain the temperature.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

For an in-depth introduction to the science behind the design of the hay stoves (particularly the efficacy of the various materials used for insulation, with experimental data presented in tables and graphs), see Huntington\u2019s Fireless Cooker<\/em><\/a>.[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

\"sketchIn 1906, \u201cIn the Dairy,\u201d a column in the Farmer\u2019s Wife<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> provided no-nonsense, step-by-step instructions:<\/p>\n