Hans, the Maytag control knob was marked "High," "Simmer" and "LO" so that took some of the guesswork out of using it.
On a service call in Silver Spring in the 1980s, John and I saw a 1920s Chambers gas range. It had the 4 burner cooktop next to the raised oven like stoves of that time. There was an insulated drum that was suspended by mechanical linkage over the left rear burner and there was a big metal handle like on old paper cutters, but bigger, that raised and lowered the insulated drum over the 6 qt pan that sat on the burner. When the handle was lowered to bring the insulated drum down, it turned off the gas to the burner. The inspiration for this type of cooker was something known in the 1920s as the "fireless cooker" which relied on a heavily insulated box into which a hot kettle was placed and the retained heat continued the cooking like the Dutch Oven in fireplace walls in colonial times.
On a service call in Silver Spring in the 1980s, John and I saw a 1920s Chambers gas range. It had the 4 burner cooktop next to the raised oven like stoves of that time. There was an insulated drum that was suspended by mechanical linkage over the left rear burner and there was a big metal handle like on old paper cutters, but bigger, that raised and lowered the insulated drum over the 6 qt pan that sat on the burner. When the handle was lowered to bring the insulated drum down, it turned off the gas to the burner. The inspiration for this type of cooker was something known in the 1920s as the "fireless cooker" which relied on a heavily insulated box into which a hot kettle was placed and the retained heat continued the cooking like the Dutch Oven in fireplace walls in colonial times.
