"Just In Case…" Y2K Survival Tips
Y2K—boy, have we heard a lot about the year 2000! I’m starting to think that topic is starting to get old, yet I think about it fairly often. You might find yourself also thinking about it now and then and, like myself, buying a few extra items at the grocery store to store away--"just in case." Well, here is an article I found that might be of interest to you. (It probably is on the extreme side!) I was thumbing through a book the other day, called Appropriate Technology Sourcebook, and found this interesting chapter on wood, sawdust and rice hull stoves. This is what it said concerning a certain rice hull stove used in Bali and the diagrams it presented:
"This is a stove found in parts of Bali that uses rice hulls as the fuel. Sawdust could also be used. The burning stick should be slowly pushed into the opening, as the end of it burns up. It is important that this stick is no more than ½ the diameter of the thick sticks used to form the air openings; otherwise it will block the essential flow of air through the system. A one-meter length of wood 2cm in diameter and a full chamber of rice hulls is said to provide a usable cooking flame for 2 hours. Such units could be of different sizes—the exact dimensions are not important."
You probably will not find yourself in such poor conditions that you would have to make a stove like this, but then on the other hand, where or not it’s needed, it could be kind of fun.
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Darrow, Ken, and Rick Pam. (1977). Appropriate Technology Sourcebook. Stanford, CA: Volunteers in Asia; pp. 176-177.
Fred J. Becker, Architect's E-mail
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