Gas Stoves

The gas stove is the simplest stove made. It consists of a burner or burners of different shapes mounted on a suitable frame. The best example of a gas burner is a pipe with holes punched in it, where the gas flows out and is set on fire. This pipe may be coiled into a circle and make a round burner, or the holes may all come at the end, which is arranged to spread the gas into a disc shape.

9. Burners. Stoves are usually made with different sizes of burners. One manufacturer states that the gas stoves made by his firm consume per top burner per hour fourteen to eighteen feet of gas, and the oven burners consume eighteen to twenty feet when the gas is turned on full. Simmerers consume much less than this.

10. Simmerers. Every gas range should have a simmerer on it. This is a small burner, usually about an inch in diameter. After a large kettle full of food has been heated to boiling, this burner may keep it simmering for hours, using very little gas. This burner will keep small kettles of food boiling.

11. Air Mixer. Gas escaping from any pipe will burn, but it will burn with a yellow flame. To make gas burn with a blue flame—that is, to secure complete combustion—air must be mixed with it. This is done in the air mixer (Fig. 4). The blue flame is desirable for cooking because it is hotter than the yellow flame and does not blacken the cooking utensils.

Gas passes thru the air mixer before entering the burner. Sometimes the air inlet is only a hole put in the under side of the pipe. The opening for entrance of air is shielded so that the gas will not escape from the mixer, but will go on into the burner. A gas pipe looks about half an inch in diameter, but the stream of gas which is allowed to flow into the burner is very small, in some cases being about the diameter of a darning needle. The opening for air is so large, that a person's finger may be put into it.

Too much air interferes with the burning of the gas; in fact, there can be so much air mixed with gas that it will not burn. The air mixer regulates the amount of air which flows into the pipe. Once this is adjusted for the kind of gas to be used, it seldom needs to be changed. The air shutter has to be changed, however, if the gas pressure varies markedly from time to time. Readjustment may be required if the stove is moved and connected with a different supply of gas. When adjusting the mixer for high pressure, artificial or natural gas, close the shutter until the flame will not blow away from the cone, but will burn with a blue, almost colorless, flame.

12. Regulating the Gas. The amount of gas which passes into the stove is also regulated, first, by adjustment of the size of the small opening thru which the gas must flow. Once this is adjusted, it does not need to be changed so long as the gas comes from the same source. Second, the flow of gas is regulated by the lever valve. As the valve is turned, the flow of gas is restricted so that it flows less swiftly. The size of the stream of gas going into the stove always looks the same regardless of its speed. When the rate is not so fast, the fire burns lower because less gas comes to it during every unit of time.

13. Lighting the Stove. Light the top burners by first striking a match, and then turning on the burner so that there will be an unrestricted flow of gas. Count three before applying the match. This gives time for the burner to fill with gas. If the match goes out, shut off the gas and try again. If it burns back into the air hole, also turn off the gas and begin again. Probably the match was applied too soon. Gas stoves get out of order because of carelessness in lighting them. The force of the explosions caused in burning back loosens connections and may disturb the adjustment of the mixer and valve.

14. Cleaning the Stove. Housekeepers should keep their gas stoves clean. Dirt interferes with the passage of the gas thru the burners. Gas stoves should be cleaned thoroly once a month. Scrub the burners with a stiff brush (Fig. 5), and wash all greasy parts with soap and water. If the holes should be clogged, remove the stoppage with a wire hair-pin (Fig. 6). Clean the drip sheet every day, or as often as it becomes soiled. (Fig. 4.)

15.Accidents with Gas Stove. Accidents with gas stoves are the result of mismanagement. The odor of gas in a room indicates a leak in the gas fixtures, such as stoves or pipes. When such an odor is noticed, open windows and extinguish all fires in the room or building. Next search for the leak. It may be due to an open valve. See that these are all shut tight. If no valves are open, send for a plumber who looks after gas fixtures. Leave the windows open and do not carry lighted matches or lamps into the room until the leak has been stopped.

Many accidents happen at the time the oven is being lighted. Sometimes gas escapes into a closed oven, so that its odor is not noticed in the kitchen. This gas catches fire or explodes when the oven burner is lighted, blowing the oven door open or off the hinges, flashing out of the oven, and burning any person near the stove. To avoid such accidents, always open the oven and broiler doors a few minutes before lighting the oven. Fig. 7 shows construction of gas-stove oven. If any odor of gas is noticed on opening the doors, fan this out. Leave the oven and broiler doors open a while after extinguishing the fire and removing the cooked food. Gas may get into the oven at the time the flame is extinguished.

16. Pilot Light. Most stoves are constructed so that there is a pilot light for the oven. Always use it when lighting the oven. It is put there for the safety of those using the stove. There is no need for alarm when a pilot burns back, no matter how much noise it makes, since so little gas flows thru the opening. One of the functions of a pilot light is to prevent people from being burnt in case of an explosion in the oven. For this reason, they should be at the side of the stove.

If the pilot burns back, close it; wait a minute, and then try lighting it again. The regular burners of the stove should not burn back if properly lighted by the pilot. Be careful to see that every part of the oven burner becomes lighted. Turn the burners on full while lighting them. After they are once lighted, turn them as low as desired.

17. Pilot for Top Burners. A pilot made for top burners (Fig. 8) burns continuously with a very tiny flame. Its purpose is to save gas, patience, dirt and matches. The saving comes because the housekeeper can so easily re-light the burners that she will turn them out whenever she is not needing the fire. Sometimes when the gas pressure is low, the pilot light will go out. It can be re-lighted by pressing the valve as for lighting the burners and touching a match to it. If the pilot goes out, the odor of gas will be noticed in the kitchen until it is re-lighted.

18. Gas-Stove Lighter. There are two kinds of gas-stove lighters. These differ from the pilot in that they do not burn constantly. One of these is so constructed that it is first necessary to apply a match to any one of the top burners. The other burners can then be lighted by opening the valve in the regular manner and pressing down on the lighter knob. As soon as pressure on the lighter knob is removed, the gas supply to the lighter is automatically cut off (Fig. 9). The other lighter is made of metal which gives sparks easily when subjected to friction. The lighter is held over the stove, the gas turned on and the friction produced by rubbing one part of the lighter across the other, making a spark which ignites the gas.

19. Amount of Gas Used. It is claimed that 1,000 feet of illuminating gas produce as much heat as 50 or 60 pounds of anthracite coal or 4-1/2 gallons of kerosene oil. (See table on page 219.)

The difference in gas bills, due to management of gas stoves, is considerable. It is very easy for one woman to use three times as much gas as another in doing the same amount of work. Some women do not realize when they are wasting gas.

Water boils in an uncovered vessel at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, and no amount of heat applied to it will make it any hotter. When a pot of food has reached the boiling point, a smaller flame will keep it boiling. Turn the gas as low as it may be safely turned and still keep the pot boiling, and the food will cook as rapidly as when the gas is turned on full.

Gas is a safe fuel in most hands; it saves the housekeeper much labor because it makes so little dirt. When properly managed, it is the cheapest fuel to be had at the present time.

20. Cold-Process Gasoline Gas Stoves. Cold-process gasoline stoves require a burner fitted with valves in which the gas orifice can be enlarged or diminished. The best of these for using cold-process gasoline gas can be adjusted by a turn of the finger.

The adjustment of the valve is to compensate for the neglect upon the part of users of these plants. Very frequently they will allow the supply of gasoline in the carburetor to run nearly out before they replenish it, in which case the gas comes to the burners in a thinner quality, and in order to provide the same volume of heat, it is necessary to adjust the burner valves and throw a larger stream of gas into the burner. They are sometimes fitted with burners having side-sawed caps (Figs. 10 and 10-a). These seem to expose the burning gas to the air in a way to make it burn better than in other burners built for gas forced into them by greater pressure than is this gas. The opening for air must be adjusted from time to time so as to keep the proportion of gas and air such that it will produce a blue flame.

21. Acetylene Stoves. Stoves for the burning of acetylene are similar in construction to gas stoves. The acetylene furnishes a satisfactory and economical light, it is not an economical fuel when compared with kerosene, gas, wood or coal. For this reason, it is not much used. It requires two and three-tenths units of acetylene gas to equal one unit of natural gas for heating.