Pub. 8 2018 Issue 3

17 MINING FOCUS the gas oven began to be increasingly competitive during the 1920s and 1930s. After the end of World War II, there was a housing and manufacturing boom and increased interest in modernizing kitchens. Social changes in the 1960s and 1970s encouraged an interest in making the kitchen more attractive and functional as people began improving their cooking skills and hosting dinner parties that were centered in the kitchen. Open kitchens, filled with attractive-looking appliances, became popular in the 1980s. Kitchens currently tend to be sleek, energy efficient, and attractive. Most appliances are built using metal; without it, our beautiful modern kitchens would be much less useful and far less attractive. For example, flat-top stoves and convection ovens are two of the innovations that have added to the beauty and the utility of the modern kitchen. Both are a result of the combined efforts of miners and engineers to make ovens and stoves look cleaner and sleeker while doing a better job of cooking food. Kitchen Sinks Many kitchen sinks today are made of metal, which is obviously a mined material. If they aren’t made of metal, sinks often involve the use of other mined materials. How kitchen sinks have evolved over time, however, is another story that involves the mining industry at many different points along the way. The simplest method for washing dishes and cooking utensils involves nothing more than water in a lake or stream. The first improvement was making and filling a dishpan that could hold water and soap. Dishpans were made of several possible materials such as earthenware, tin, and wood. Earthenware and tin, of course, are both mining products. Dishpans were used for many different purposes besides holding water. For example, they could also be used for laundry, bathing, packing, and cooking. Hauling water was a difficult chore that usually had to be done several times a day. Water was heated over a fire on the hearth, and people used a rag, sand, ashes, and lye soap to clean dirty dishes in a basin (often a mining product) that had been placed on a table or bench. When the water was dirty, it could be thrown out the door, fed to the pigs, or used to water plants. The first improvement was making something called a dry sink. A dry sink is a piece of furniture with a wood or stone trough. Some had legs, like a table; some were built into windows or cabinets. The dishpan went into the trough. In the middle of the 19th century, people who had the money could upgrade their kitchens by putting in a wet sink. This was done by attaching a wood pump or an iron pump to the trough so that nobody had to carry water anymore. However, people still had to lift the water to wherever it was to be heated, and they also had to empty the dirty water by hand when they were done with it. By Kitchens currently tend to be sleek, energy efficient, and attractive. Most appliances are built using metal; without it, our beautiful modern kitchens would be much less useful and far less attractive. METAL IN THE KITCHEN continued on page 18