Priscilla J. Brewer examines the development and history of the first American appliance—the cast iron stove—that created a quiet, but culturally contested transformation of domestic life and sparked many important debates about the role of women, industrialization, the definition of social class, and the development of a consumer economy. Brewer explores the shift from fireplaces to stoves for cooking and heating in American homes, and sheds new light on the supposedly "separate spheres" of home and world of nineteenth- century America. She also considers the changing responses to technological development, the emergence of a consumption ethic, and the attempt to define and preserve distinct Anglo-American middle class culture. There are few works that treat this significant subject, and Brewer covers impressive new ground. Extensively documented—based on letters, diaries, probate inventories, census records, sales figures, advertisements, fiction, and advice literature-this book will be valuable to scholars of American history and women's studies.

Tips on acquiring, setting up, operating, and maintaining a wood-burning stove are followed by recipes for breakfast foods, soups, stews, breads, main dishes, desserts, and other items

How would you go about rebuilding a technological society from scratch? If our technological society collapsed tomorrow what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible? Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, or even how to produce food for yourself? Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world.

Created during the Great Depression by the U.S. Forest Service, this guide providedenvironmental safety and maintenance advice for visitors to national forests and parks.It contains finely crafted drawings and plans for outdoor stoves and fireplaces that offera window into a bygone era of handyman activity and a wealth of still-useful informationfor building barbecue pits, chimneys, warming units, and more. Do-it-yourselfers interestedin older construction techniques will find many ideas in this volume.Reprint of the U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 1937 edition.

Filled with classic recipes and inspirational stories, this stunningly illustrated book celebrates the power of food throughout American history and in women's lives.

This publication is intended to help plan a successful installation of a wood-burning heating system and to use the system in the most safe and effective way. Topics covered include: low-emission wood burning technology; wood heating options, including space heaters, wood stoves, conventional and high-efficiency fireplaces, pellet stoves, high thermal mass masonry heaters, and central heating; planning a space heater installation; installation safety; installation of wood stoves and flue pipes; chimneys; avoiding wood smoke spillage; efficient wood combustion; purchasing and preparing the wood supply; calculating costs of heating; and heating system maintenance.