Working Set Kettles
Project Details
In 2005 we were charged with replicating the Jefferd’s Tavern fireplace and brick bake oven in the Old York Historical Society’s new building, the Virginia Weare Parsons Center in York, Maine. A major part of the new plan was a working pair of set kettles. As it turned out the major challenge was making them functional. After unsuccessfully trying to discover how these were built by looking at several sets in Old New England historical homes (all were sealed shut), I contacted someone working at Jefferson’s Monticello estate restoring the original kitchen there, but they were not being built to actually be used, and so that was no help. I finally bought a volume of Count Rumford’s books and was able to discern the inner workings, scaled them to this project and- they work! Quite well, actually, as a few gallons of water can be boiled with very little wood.
