Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Etna: A vessel used for heating water in the sick-room or at table, consisting of a cup or vase for the water, with a fixed saucer surrounding it in which alcohol is burned.
Etna: A vessel used for heating water in the sick-room or at table, consisting of a cup or vase for the water, with a fixed saucer surrounding it in which alcohol is burned.
[the Etna is also mentioned in an earlier edition, in 1815!]
An 'Etna' was far from being a high-tech item, and may well have existed in some form for centuries, or even from early in mankind's history, but it was certainly in use in Jamaica in the 19th century. It appears as an item in advertisements in the Gleaner from the 1860s into the 1880s.
January 19, 1887
109 Harbour Street, ALEXANDER BERRY A SON. THE following forms part of Goods received ex Deak. Maroon, and Orinoco. Cheap Dinner Services of various patterns and qualities Earthenware Etnas with Candlestick attached Table and Hanging Lamps Duplex and other Burners Feather Dusters Feather Pillows Table Ornaments in large varieties |
I have seen very few references to the use of the Etna, but the earliest I have so far found seems to indicate that it was an accepted part of every day life -
Daily Gleaner, August 16, 1866
[in a case about stolen rum, one of the witnesses said]
'. . . she never sold Hackett any rum, but a person for whom she had done some work had sent her one or two quarts, and when Hackett was sick she sent him a little to burn in the etna.'
I also remember reading long ago a newspaper account of an accident in which two girls were injured in a fire started by an Etna in the kitchen in their house. I think that was in the 1880s, but unfortunately I can no longer find the reference. Surprisingly though, I have an account of a sad accident much later, in the 1930s -
Daily Gleaner, February 3, 1931
FATALITIES ENQUIRED INTO AT ANNOTTO BAY
DIED FROM SCALDS
The last enquiry was into the death of Beryl Buchanan.
Rosetta Henry the first witness called, said she was the mother of the child and lived at Annotto Bay. The child was one year and 9 months old. On the 27th of November, she remember lighting an etna and put on some water. She then sat in a chair and started to comb her hair. The child who was at the door with Mr. Dick subsequently left and went to a table and in stretching to reach a book, she fell down; her feet bouncing the etna and the pan with boiling water went over the left portion of her body.
After hearing Richard Giscomb and Dr. Joslen the Jurors gave their verdict as follows: "That Beryl Buchanan a child 18 months old, late of Annotto Bay died on the 7th of December at the Annotto Bay hospital from scalds from boiling water, causing Telemus and that no one is criminally responsible."
Daily Gleaner, August 16, 1866
[in a case about stolen rum, one of the witnesses said]
'. . . she never sold Hackett any rum, but a person for whom she had done some work had sent her one or two quarts, and when Hackett was sick she sent him a little to burn in the etna.'
I also remember reading long ago a newspaper account of an accident in which two girls were injured in a fire started by an Etna in the kitchen in their house. I think that was in the 1880s, but unfortunately I can no longer find the reference. Surprisingly though, I have an account of a sad accident much later, in the 1930s -
Daily Gleaner, February 3, 1931
FATALITIES ENQUIRED INTO AT ANNOTTO BAY
DIED FROM SCALDS
The last enquiry was into the death of Beryl Buchanan.
Rosetta Henry the first witness called, said she was the mother of the child and lived at Annotto Bay. The child was one year and 9 months old. On the 27th of November, she remember lighting an etna and put on some water. She then sat in a chair and started to comb her hair. The child who was at the door with Mr. Dick subsequently left and went to a table and in stretching to reach a book, she fell down; her feet bouncing the etna and the pan with boiling water went over the left portion of her body.
After hearing Richard Giscomb and Dr. Joslen the Jurors gave their verdict as follows: "That Beryl Buchanan a child 18 months old, late of Annotto Bay died on the 7th of December at the Annotto Bay hospital from scalds from boiling water, causing Telemus and that no one is criminally responsible."
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. . . . and more about the 'Etna' elsewhere -
From numerous British and American accounts it is clear that the Etna was a commonplace piece of equipment for explorers, travellers, and every day folk in the 19th century, and later, as it was also in Jamaica, and in other parts of the Caribbean.
Guide to the West Indies, Madeira, Mexico, New Orleans, northern South-America, &c., &c: compiled from documents specially furnished by the agents of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company, the Board of Trade, and other authentic sources John Osborne, (of the Royal Mail Steam Packet Company.) 1847 'Buy at any tinman's shop a small machine usually called an "Etna:" provide yourself also with a couple of soda water, or other strong bottles, full of spirits of wine, a small quantity of which, set alight in your "Etna," will boil water enough to make you two cups of tea, the most refreshing thing possible, after along and fatiguing day's journey; your "Etna," too, will serve to boil eggs in.' |
. . . and more on how the Etna worked -
. . . and problems for the unhandy -
A CRUISE UPON WHEELS: THE CHRONICLE OF SOME AUTUMN WANDERINGS AMONG THE DESERTED POST-ROADS OF FRANCE
BY CHARLES ALLSTON COLLINS LEIPZIG BERNHARD TAUCHNITZ 1874 CHAPTER XII The Mountains; the great Rampart of the Swiss Country; the Barrier between our Travellers and their Journey's End; the Jura Chain - how shall it be crossed? p 232 . . . . while Mr Pinchbold is engaged in an attempt to boil water in the Etna, which might have more chance of success if he did not, in the intensity of his abjectness, pour the water into the saucer intended for the spirits of wine, distilling that last named subtle essence into the interior of the vessel intended for the reception of the water. . . . . while Mr Pinchbold having wasted the requisite amount of spirits of wine, contrives at last to get the Etna into working order. p234 Perhaps one of the most difficult achievements of modern times is to make tea out of an Etna. The moment of projection - or of boiling - is of so short a duration, and if you miss it, and the spirit-flame has expired, you are lost. To blow this flame out alone is no small difficulty. It eludes your breath in an extraordinary manner, and dodges you round and round the tin vessel whose sides it is heating. So that when you blow it out on one side of the Etna, it keeps in on the other, while even if you attempt a kind of sweeping curve with your whistle there is still a little blue flicker which manages to escape you, and by which the fire is presently rekindled. To blow out, then, the spirit-flame to take the lid off the Etna, and to pour the boiling water into the tea pot, all in one and the same instant, is a performance requiring no small amount of dexterity and presence of mind. Mr Pinchbold manages, however, to effect his purpose at the expense of no greater disaster than a slight scald, which causes him to dance round the apartment and yell with torture; and soon the tea is made and swallowed, and the tea things are replaced in the basket. p 240 Ever since Mr Pinchbold had been suffering in lis health, it had been the business of his friend to secure for him before all things that one luxury which he could at this time alone appreciate - a cup of tea. The great obstacle in the way of furnishing this wonderful beverage to his sick friend lay in the difficulty of getting milk. All the rest was, with the aid of the Etna and the travelling teapot, easily accomplished, but the milk was hard to come at. . . . . and someone else who had problems with the Etna -A Lady's Experiences in the Wild West in 1883
Lady Mary Rose Gregge-Hopwood Pender - 1888 I here made the first trial of my Etna for making tea, and I am bound to say a more annoying machine was never invented. The amount of spirit it took to boil the water, the way in which the light went out at a moment's notice, and, above all, the time it took to heat the water was always a joke against me whenever we halted for a meal; but I would not be defeated, and found at last that the only good plan was to dig a hole in the sand, and place the Etna in it. |
. . . and other such devices
- but Fish's Patent Lamp Heating and Cooking Apparatus did not catch on - just another example of 19th century experimentation with developing new technology, in this case, as in many others, dependent on 'petroleum'.