Has anyone seen the Emergency Essentials catalog, where in their ad for Alladin lamps, they show one with a tomato cage over it (upside down, with the legs splayed out) AND A FRYING PAN ON IT!

Has *anyone* ever actually tried this? Admitted, they DO put out a ton of heat from the chimney, but wouldn't it be *rather tippy* affair?

Anyway, please let me know if you have any experience with this setup.

Hugh

-- Hugh (hewiggins@mindspring.com), November 13, 1999

Answers

haven't tried it, but bet it would work. As soon as I saw your question, that picture in the catalog sprung to mind. would think you'd want to truncate the legs of the tomato cage some- the shorter, the lower the center of gravity, the more the stability. but- thought it was a nifty idea when I saw it. those babies do put out heat!!

-- farmer (hillsidefarm@drbs.com), November 13, 1999.

It actually does work - you need to keep a small saucepan about 2-3 inches above the glass, so measure your cage accordingly. A cup of hot chocolate will take 10 minutes to heat - good to slosh it around a bit so it doesn't scorch the milk.

-- Laurane (familyties@rttinc.com), November 13, 1999.

What works great are those old wrought iron plant stands. The pot sit on it and then you can adjust the heighth of the lamp using a brick. Don't even have to bend over to cook!! Never cooked a meal on one but great for heating up something like soup, especially if the lamp is already in use for light.

Taz

-- Taz (Taz@aol.com), November 13, 1999.

An old Mother Earth News issue has an article describing an 'oven' made which is heated by a kersone lamp. Basicly a half barrel suspended bottom up. Chimney of lamp poking up through a platform upon which the wrapped foods where placed. They say that George Washington Carver worked on this type of cooking arangement to save his college from wasting alot of money on heating their ovens. The cooking is slow, but good. Everything tender and juicy. I'll look up the issue if there's any interest.

-- ..- (dit@dot.dash), November 13, 1999.

There's a gal -- donaa -- down in Texas, who's selling parts for the Petromax lanterns, including pump adapters to enable you to pressurize your Petromax using a bicycle pump. She also markets a "stove top" for Petromax. Certainly something similar could be rigged up for an Aladdin ..... but overal -- since presumabley you will be interested in fuel-efficiency -- it would be a better idea to by a butane cooker or kerosene stove rather than jerry-rig something using your Aladdin as a heat-source. My opinion anyway.

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), November 13, 1999.

Aladdin lamps are RADIOACTIVE.

The mantles contain thorium, a decay product of uranium. Thorium also has radium and radon gas (further down the decay chain of uranium).

If we're going to be in the dark, let's not be glowing in the dark.

If you have a geiger counter, test a NEW mantle (coleman lanterns, too)

Used mantles don't have much radioactivity in them, because the flame burns away the particles and they float into the air where you breathe them in and they irradiate your lung tissue forever.

No thanks.

A better lantern that can be a small (very small) heater of food is the triple candle lantern, available at finer camping stores everywhere or at www.campmor.com

-- glowing in the dark (dont.eat@nuclear.food), November 13, 1999.

Hey, glowing:

I recently purchased a new Alladin Watchman lamp and touched the mantle. The intructions stated DO NOT TOUCH THE MANTLE!

So I did, being the doofus I am. After I burned off the protective coating, I saw my fingerprints in black profile. Very ugly.

Good thing I bought extras. Now I'm gonna seat and light a new mantle. This time: NO FINGER PRINTS!

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), November 13, 1999.