Hoosier Dusty Files - October 12, 1912 - Stove Manufacturer Chambers Manufacturing Company Incorporated
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| A Year of Indiana History - 2016 |
John E. Chambers invented a revolutionary way to cook food in 1910, a device he called a fireless cooker. He opened the Chambers Manufacturing Company to manufacture the new concept in Shelbyville, Indiana.
John E. Chambers
Native to Iowa, Chambers attended Denison University in Granville, Ohio. He moved to Shelbyville, Indiana in 1904. His interest in two devices sparked his stove, the incubator used to hatch eggs and a "fireless cooker" devised by a man named Edward Atkinson forty years before. Both devices had the ability to use heat efficiently and to hold that heat for long periods.
The "Fireless Cooker"
By 1910, he had invented the device he called the "thermodome." He used rock wool to insulate both the oven and the range to hold the heat where it was needed. The ovens had the ability to build up heat fast and retain it. Cooks could turn the oven on, build up heat and then turn the oven off. The oven continued to cook the food on retained heat, saving fuel and reducing shrinkage in the cooked food. The ranges became popular all over the United States. The company even produced a cookbook with maintenance instructions for the stove, charts showing how long to heat the ovens before turning off and recipes for use in the oven. The company produced stoves until the 1990's. A dedicated band of followers still searches out these stoves for use.
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