Four Months in a Sneak-Box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of MexicoBishop, Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes)
General
Four Months in a Sneak-Box: A Boat Voyage of 2600 Miles Down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and Along the Gulf of Mexico
Bishop, Nathaniel H. (Nathaniel Holmes)
Boats and boating; Mississippi River -- Description and travel; Ohio River -- Description and travel
During this part of my journey particularly, the need of a small coal-
oil stove was felt, as the usual custom of making a camp-fire could
not be followed for many days on the upper Ohio River. The rains had
wet the fire-wood, which in a settled and cultivated country is found
only in small quantities on the banks of the stream. The driftwood
thrown up by the river was almost saturated with water, and the damp,
wild trees of the swamp afforded only green wood.
In a less settled country, or where there is an old forest growth, as
along the lower Ohio and upon the banks of the Mississippi, fallen
trees, with resinous, dry hearts, can be found; and even during a
heavy fall of rain a skilful use of the axe will bring out these
ancient interiors to cheer the voyager's heart by affording him
excellent fuel for his camp-fire.
The recently perfected coal-oil stove does not give out disagreeable
odors when the petroleum used is refined, like that known in the
market as Pratt's Astral Oil. This brand of oil does not contain
naphtha, the existence of which in the partially refined oils is the
cause of so many dangerous explosions of kerosene lamps.
Recent experiences with coal-oil burners lead me to adopt, for camp
use, the No.0 single-wick stove of the "Florence Machine Co.," whose
excellent wares attracted so much attention at the Centennial
Exhibition in Philadelphia. The No. 0 Florence stove will sustain the
weight of one hundred and fifty pounds, and is one of the few
absolutely safe oil stoves, with perfect combustion, and no unpleasant
odor or gas. This statement presupposes that the wicks are wiped along
the burnt edges after being used, and that a certain degree of
cleanliness is observed in the care of the oil cistern. I do not stand
alone in my appreciation of this faithful little stove, for the
company sold forty thousand of them in one year. In Johnson's
Universal Cyclopdia, Dr. L. P. Brockett, of Brooklyn, N.Y., expresses
himself in the most enthusiastic terms in regard to this stove. He
says: "For summer use it will be a great boon to the thousands of
women whose lives have been made bitter and wretched by confinement in
close and intensely heated kitchens; in many cases it will give health
for disease, strength for weakness, cheerfulness for depression, and
profound thankfulness in place of gloom and despair."
Boatmen and canoeists should never travel without one of these
indispensable comforts. Alcohol stoves are small, and the fuel used
too expensive, as well as difficult to obtain, while good coal-oil can
now be had even on the borders of the remote wilderness. The economy
of its use is wonderful. A heat sufficient to boil a gallon of water
in thirty minutes can be sustained for ten hours at the cost of three
cents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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