Thursday, September 17, 2009

Efficient cook stoves

When you're camping, or in the alternative, in a refugee camp, it is nice to have a cook stove that you can use to cook food using the minimum fuel necessary.

Instapundit links to Popular Mechanics who posts a video talking about an efficient cook stove that was invented to help the Darfur refugees cook their food using a minimum amount of fuel. That's all well and good, but they're touting it as something new and revolutionary.

Simply, that's bullshit.

The Boy Scouts have been using such stoves for years, either home-made or bought commercially. The Volcano II is one such stove that's been available commercially for awhile.

I myself remember some stoves that looked surprisingly like the one they're touting. When I was the Scoutmaster of Troop 60 in Natchitoches, LA, the kids had some small stoves they'd use to cook on.

Matter of fact, here's one that Junior made for 2 cents. We call this a Hobo stove. I've been cooking on stuff like this all my life.

I bet the folks in Darfur are laughing at the scientists who spent all that time and effort making that stove. It's nice, but it's not new technology.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

One other little thing. If someone really wanted to help the refugees in Darfur, the best way would be to provide 'em with AK 47's, SKS's, ammunition and training so they could defend themselves from Islamist terror organizations.

Gerry N.

mostly cajun said...

Look, Paw Paw....

Any time one of those hippies discovers you can light a fire and cook stuff on it, it's a revelation to him and he figures if it's news to him, as ignorant as he is, then it'll be a discovery to the rest of the world whom he assumes is at least as ignorant because, after all, they don't have a degree in Medieval Lit from Harvard.

Anonymous said...

Check out www.stovetec.net for high efficient and clean burning cook stoves. Designed with cooks to help the 3 billion people in need. Also for sale in the US!

Mattexian said...

{shakes head} Hey, Nony, coffee can from trash pile- free, couple pieces of steel (also from trash pile, could be another can(s) smashed flat and bent)to put across top for a grill- also free! Your stuff- $$$ that folks don't have, plus it costs other resources; Paw Paw's plan saves resources by doing that oh-so-tree-hugging-popular "reduce, reuse, recycle" that real country folks been doing forever!

Mattexian said...

BTW that was aimed at Nony #2, not you Gerry. Your idea is pretty good too, a better use of resources than making fancy coffee-can stoves for the poor-and-starving, when warlords will just take whatever the refugees get from the aid agencies, since the refugees can't defend themselves, and the UN is worthless at protecting them.