20. _Cooking with Incandescent Lamps._--This piece of apparatus was devised by the boys and used in my laboratory. A sheet iron basin _a_, was inverted over four 16-candle-power incandescent lamps, shown in elevation by Fig. 89, and shown in plan by Fig. 90. The sides of the basin were cut so as to admit the glass globes of the lamps, but the sockets and keys were outside, so that it was convenient to turn on and off the lamps separately, thus using one half to two amperes of current, as desired. This rested upon another basin, _b_. Basin _b_ was covered with asbestos for the lamps to lie on and the whole was attached to a board base, _c_. A flexible cord and plug allowed us to attach this to the chandelier. A pint of water was boiled upon this stove in fifteen minutes, and refreshments have been served hot from it repeatedly. [Illustration: Fig. 90] 21. _Electric Fireless Cooker._--There are five indictments against ordinary cooking processes. 1. They heat the house in summer. 2. They convert what would be pleasant flavours in the food into noxious odours about the house. 3. They cannot be controlled with regard to time and temperature as scientific experiments should be. 4. They confine the cook too closely and are not sufficiently automatic. 5. They are wasteful of fuel. It would seem that electricity might enable us to cure most of these evils. To be sure the production of heat by electricity is wasteful of fuel, and it seems doubtful how the account will balance regarding the fifth item. But the remaining four items furnish a very hopeful field for research. I use the last word advisedly, and think it is just as applicable to high school boys as to university students. After experimenting awhile the boys and I concluded to give a dinner party in the laboratory and invite a few friends to test the results of our cooking. We procured a cylinder of magnesia such as is used for covering large steam-pipes. This was inverted over our electric stove which was illustrated in Fig. 89. The magnesia was cut at the bottom, so as to give access to the key sockets of the lamps, (Fig. 91). First upon the electric stove was placed a covered dish containing a roast of lamb. Above this was another dish containing a vegetable, and upon the top of that was a pudding. A flat piece of magnesia was used as a cover to the whole. Through a hole in this was suspended a thermometer. [Illustration: Fig. 91] This "fireless cooker" was sitting in the centre of the dinner table when the guests gathered around it. We had these problems for investigation: 1. Will this cooker heat the house in summer? All testified that they did not know that there was any heat about it until they laid their hands upon it, and then they found it only very slightly warm. 2. Is there any smell of cooking here? The process has been carried on from start to finish right on this table. All agreed that no smell could be detected.