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.
