purpose for which a wood or a coal range is used; they require much less
labor and litter, and can be instantly started into full force and as
quickly turned out when no longer required, while the fact that the heat
can be regulated with exactness, makes them superior for certain
processes of cooking to any other stove. But while these stoves are
convenient and economical, especially in small families, they should be
used with much care. Aside from the danger from explosion, which is by
no means inconsiderable in the use of gasoline and oil stoves, they are
not, unless well cared for altogether healthful. Unless the precaution
is taken to use them in well-ventilated rooms or to connect them with a
chimney, they vitiate the atmosphere to a considerable extent with the
products of combustion. Oil stoves, unless the wicks are kept well
trimmed, are apt to smoke, and this smoke is not only disagreeable, but
extremely irritating to the mucous membrane of the nose and throat. Oil
stoves are constructed on the same principle as ordinary oil lamps, and
require the same care and attention.

Quite recently there has been invented by Prof. Edward Atkinson a very
unique apparatus for cooking by means of the heat of an ordinary
kerosene lamp, called the "Aladdin Cooker." The food to be cooked is
placed in a chamber around which hot water, heated by the flame of the
lamp, circulates. The uniform heat thus obtained performs the process of
cooking, slowly, but most satisfactorily and economically, the result
being far superior to that obtained by the ordinary method of cooking by
quick heat. The cooker is only used for stewing and steaming; but Mr.
Atkinson has also invented an oven in which the heat is conveyed to the
place where it is needed by a column of hot air instead of hot water.
With this oven, which consists of an outer oven made of non-conducting
material, and an inner oven made of sheet iron, with an intervening
space between, through which the hot air circulates, no smoke or odor