The Hay Box: The Energy Saaing Cooker, Frank Bambrick & Brian Hurley,20 pp., 1977, $1.00 postpaid from, Low Energy Systems 3 Larkfield Gardens Dublin 6, Ireland Here's a really neat and delightfully easy way to conserve gas or electricity at your stove: bring the food to a boil and pop the pot in this insulated box faced with aluminum foil on the inside. It'll just keep on cooking with no additional heat! Low Energy Systems is at work on other a.t. ideas ask for their publication list. And hello Irish! -LJ Early Winters Ltd. 1977 Catalog, $l from, Early Winters 110 Prefontaine Place South Seattle, WA 98104 Do you remember the still-suits worn on Frank Herbert's "Dune "? Well, the latest technological fashion in camping/ rain gear approaches still-suits. Yes, Gore-Tex. Now you can wear'feflon with nine billion holes in every square inch, which prevents water from passing through but lets wate r vapor out. l'm still a bit leery of such technology, re, membering always being cold in l\,tinnesota winters in my Fiberfill parka until I went to add some extra lining and found all the fiberfill had disintegrared and all I was wearing at 30'F was a glorified wind breaker! How docs GoreTex hold up? What does it do to you? A bit too sophisticated? If you try it, let us know. Early Winters sells the fabric as well as rain gear, tents and sleeping bags made of it. TB DON'T BURN YOURSELF! As Heatber McGregor of High Country News wrote in a recent Rainbook reztiew, we "neper hesitate to hand out praise." In fact, we agonized oaerlNood Heatfor tbree months! It would baae been easy, too easy perbaps, to simply ignore it or to "damn it with faint praise." But wben contributing editor Bill Day, wbo urote our "Wood Stoue Consumer's Guide," kept on caring enougb to @rite to Rodale and to ask our local fire department wood beating expert what be tbougbt of tbe book, we decided to print it. -LJ Wood Heat, John Vivian, 1976, $4.95 fromt Rodale Press 33 E. Minor Emmaus, PA 18049 A great deal of interesting wood burning lore is contained throughout this entire book. Some really handy advice is offered on such subjects as the repair of faulty chimney flues. In some chipters, though, I'm concerned with the amount of misinformation concerning chimneys and stove installations. Danl gerous expediencies which could result in loss of life, limb or properry should not be recommended. A business person distributing these same recommendations could easily spend a grear deal of his or her life in a defensive position in our nation's courtrooms. A sure method of incinerating your home would be to follow information on these pages in Wood Heat: it is reasonable to expect the single wall pipe to disintegrate (especially if 1 and p, 57; 'The ludicrous illustration indicating a merhod of by-passing the house eaves with an exterior chimney is dangerous because 1) even galvanized pipe deteriorates rapidly and needs freguent replacement when exposed to the elements, 2) the single wall smoke pipe (due to its rapid cooling effect) will /v likely load up with creosore in a short time, and 3) in case of a chimney fire, August/September 1977 RAIN p p. 58, Flues for temporary or inrermittent use. To my knowledge there is nev)er an excuse for using makeshift chimncys of single wall stovcpipc or "cattied" mud and stichs. Prefabricated, insulated chimneys are readily available, and their cost is low. Primitive homes or cabins often havc little or no available fire protection, which increases the danger of this expediency. In convcrsation with Matt Greenslade of the Portland Fire Bureau (Oregon), he indicated that the "lining of the [chimney] flue with stovepipl" (pp. 46-50) is especially dangerous when efficiency-oriented wood stoves are used. The expected accumulation of creosote contains formic acid, ',vhich rapidly corrodes rhe srovepipe. This book should be avoided by the wood-burning neophyte . -Bill Day Undergr o un d Design s, Malcolm Wells, I977, $6 from, Malcolm Wells Box 183 Cherry Hill, NJ 08002 Malcolm has been mumbling about the benefits of building underground for almost 15 years and he's done it more than probably any other architect since Ajanta. This book of his designs, thoughts and consrruction de tails shows how to-get sunlight into all rhe rooms, deal with codes, watcrproofing and insulation, structure and comfort. Along wirh Tbe IJse of Eartls-Coaered Buildings, this should give a pracrical srarr to people wanting to explore rhe energetic, ecological and spiritual advantages of warm, cozy living. TB 2 have occurred) lj7 w::w4 ll'r '' Aa, ,",ffi -*:," \ \ Wft
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