A brasero (Spanish: "brazier") is a heater commonly used in Spain. [1] It is placed under a table covered with a cloth that extends to the floor to provide heat for people sitting at the table. This arrangement (which is called a mesa camilla) is similar to the Japanese kotatsu or Iranian korsi . Braseros were traditionally heated with small pieces of charcoal, called cisco or picón; nowadays they are usually electric. Modernly, certain deposits of burning embers, such as the upper compartment of solid fuel heating boilers, are called braseros. [2]
By extension, the term was used to define the place where certain criminals condemned to the stake were executed, [3] generally Jews or infidels victims of one of the most common methods with which the "secular arm" executed those condemned by the Inquisition . [4]
In several archaeological museums, braseros from Etruria and Rome are displayed. [5] Generally made of bronze, they have quadrangular, circular and oblong shapes; they rest on feet in the shape of wheels or animal claws, or on tripods, and some have rich ornaments in relief. Their use as peveters, in principle, was more religious than thermodomestic. This is also what the examples found in the Iberian Peninsula, of Iberian braseros of segle seem to indicate vii . [6]
Perhaps the oldest precedent of the brasero is an ancestor of the Iranian "korsi", used among other occasions on the occasion of the Persian festival of Yalda. In pre-Columbian America, there are numerous similar artifacts, from the Aztec "tlecaxitl" of religious uses, to the braseros-fireplaces studied by instructor Raúl Ybarra. [7] In Japan there is a similar device, the " kotatsu ". And in South America, especially in the Río de la Plata, a brasero model with barbecue functions is still preserved. [8]
In the Episcopal Museum of Vic there is a brasero dating back to the segle xiv which nevertheless corresponds to a typology of Romanesque roots or even earlier. [9]
The Barcelona History Museum preserves a pair of large braseros, key pieces of Catalan Baroque metalwork, which were made by the coppersmith Pere Cerdanya in 1675 and which were used to heat the Saló de Cent de la House of the City of Barcelona . [10]
In two of the most important paintings by the Catalan painter Marià Fortuny, . The stamp collector and La vicaria, highlights the prominence of single braseros.
Although the most widespread and traditional brasero was the metal brasero made of different alloys throughout history, [11] there were also several models of ceramic brasero (due to its condition as a pottery object with older precedents ). They used to be open containers, ovoid in shape and with multiple holes. It has often been confused with the portable stove, used to keep the pot of food warm, although this, and especially its embers, could be used as a brasero or to feed it. [12]
Another important chapter is occupied by braseros made of fine chopped stone, many of them in noble stones, common among the remains of the Arab civilization in al-Andalus . [13]
The domestic metal brasero is a concave container usually provided with a lid with cracks through which the heat escapes or, the more modest ones, with a metal wire to avoid burning. To avoid contact with the floor, expensive models included a foot or stand. The fuel par excellence was a type of very small and long-burning charcoal .
The brasero is placed in the center of the rooms or under special tables, called camillas, on a wooden platform perforated in the center to fit it, which also serves as a footrest. To revive the fire a metal instrument is used consisting of a handle and a round paddle, doubly perforated on the upper edge; when the combustion languishes and the heat goes down, it is stirred with the paddle very carefully. For people who spent a lot of time sitting on the camilla, some kind of very uncomfortable spots or blisters appeared on their legs. [15]
Considered a dangerous contraption inside the home due to the fact that it generates embers without being perfectly protected and produces CO, it was the cause of frequent fires, mainly when it came into contact with the skirts of the bunk table and various pieces of clothing of the people However, the most serious danger was the possibility of poisoning due to the emission of carbon monoxide, which occurred especially in poorly ventilated rooms, due to incomplete combustion due to lack of oxygen.
In the second half of the 20th century the traditional brasero fell into disuse. Using the traditional cisco/charcoal/pitch brasero required a place to store the coal, a place to dispose of the ashes, and was a very dirty task for a small city dwelling, and with economic development there were who preferred the use of the electric brasero for the convenience of having a plug and even a switch on the cable, which allowed for immediate heat and without coal embers that could generate a fire from a spark or CO poisoning produced by a bad combustion of these.
Currently, there are still people, especially very old people and in villages, who continue to use this type of braseros, and, unfortunately, every year there are many deaths, from fires or from inhaling CO due to poor combustion of the coal or the fire itself by a resistance that becomes red hot in the case of electric braseros and that burns when something comes into contact with it.
It is easy to fall asleep in the heat of the brasero and that the footwear, or some garment, or the so-called "bunkcloth" (there are different names for this, usually thick, coat cloth, with which the bedside table where the braseros are placed), end up unknowingly coming into contact with the brasero, even committing the imprudence of leaving it on (or by forgetting) while falling asleep or out of house, and that the high energy consumption of the brasero generates overheating in the cables, the plug or the table and this "clothing" with which the bunk table is covered to prevent the heat (hot air) from escaping under the table
In some houses, to avoid possible contact with the feet, they put a protection, like a cage, on the brasero, although this did not prevent sparks or poor combustion.
Then another device emerged, which, like electric braseros, has a resistance that heats up with the passage of the electric current, and which is usually known as a "lloret" since they have the shape of a small cage, and are hung under of the top of the bunk table (with average consumption of 450 W). [16]
And finally, to avoid all the risks of the electric brasero (which in cases of forgetting to turn it off end up being a source of fire), and to reduce the energy costs of the electric brasero, which is very high, every day more and more people who choose ecological heaters with very low consumption, which, without losing heat quality, consume less than 100 w. This avoids circulation problems in the legs, fires, high consumption and other damages caused by braseros and which have already been resolved.
Two painters, the Catalan Fortuny in the segle 19th, and Julio Romero de Torres in the first third of the segle xx, they painted beautiful examples of braseros and supports, the fruit of the imagination of boilermakers.
There are some risks attached to the traditional, charcoal-heated brasero. The embers can burn the fabric or the clothes of the users, causing a fire. Given that braseros are covered, combustion can occur with small quantities of oxygen, and instead of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide can be generated. Carbon monoxide poisoning can kill victims in their sleep, especially in poorly ventilated rooms.
Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion does not always result in fire, because a flame is only visible when substances undergoing combustion vaporize, but when it does, a flame is a characteristic indicator of the reaction. While activation energy must be supplied to initiate combustion, the heat from a flame may provide enough energy to make the reaction self-sustaining. The study of combustion is known as combustion science.
A brazier is a container used to burn charcoal or other solid fuel for cooking, heating or cultural rituals. It often takes the form of a metal box or bowl with feet. Its elevation helps circulate air, feeding oxygen to the fire. Braziers have been used since ancient times; the Nimrud brazier dates to at least 824 BC.
Asado is the technique and the social event of having or attending a barbecue in various South American countries: especially Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay where it is also a traditional event. An asado usually consists of beef, pork, chicken, chorizo, and morcilla; all of which are cooked using an open fire or a grill, called a parrilla. Usually, red wine and side dishes such as salads accompany the main meats, which are prepared by a designated cook called the asador or parrillero.
A fireplace or hearth is a structure made of brick, stone or metal designed to contain a fire. Fireplaces are used for the relaxing ambiance they create and for heating a room. Modern fireplaces vary in heat efficiency, depending on the design.
A kotatsu is a low, wooden table frame covered by a futon, or heavy blanket, upon which a table top sits. Underneath is a heat source, formerly a charcoal brazier but now electric, often built into the table itself. Kotatsu are used almost exclusively in Japan, although similar devices for the same purpose of heating are used elsewhere, e.g. the Spanish brasero or Iranian korsi.
The hibachi is a traditional Japanese heating device. It is a brazier which is a round, cylindrical, or box-shaped, open-topped container, made from or lined with a heatproof material and designed to hold burning charcoal. It is believed hibachi date back to the Heian period. It is filled with incombustible ash, and charcoal sits in the center of the ash. To handle the charcoal, a pair of metal chopsticks called hibashi is used, in a way similar to Western fire irons or tongs. Hibachi were used for heating, not for cooking. It heats by radiation, and is too weak to warm a whole room. Sometimes, people placed a tetsubin over the hibachi to boil water for tea. Later, by the 1900s, some cooking was also done over the hibachi.
Charring is a chemical process of incomplete combustion of certain solids when subjected to high heat. Heat distillation removes water vapour and volatile organic compounds (syngas) from the matrix. The residual black carbon material is char, as distinguished from the lighter colored ash. By the action of heat, charring removes hydrogen and oxygen from the solid, so that the remaining char is composed primarily of carbon. Polymers like thermoset, or most solid organic compounds like wood or biological tissue, exhibit charring behaviour.
Mariano Fortuny y Marsal, known more simply as Mariano Fortuny, was the leading Spanish painter of his day, with an international reputation. His brief career encompassed works on a variety of subjects common in the art of the period, including the Romantic fascination with Orientalist themes, historicist genre painting, military painting of Spanish imperial expansion, as well as a prescient loosening of brush-stroke and color.
A flue is a duct, pipe, or opening in a chimney for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, furnace, water heater, boiler, or generator to the outdoors. Historically the term flue meant the chimney itself. In the United States, they are also known as vents for boilers and as breeching for water heaters and modern furnaces. They usually operate by buoyancy, also known as the stack effect, or the combustion products may be "induced" via a blower. As combustion products contain carbon monoxide and other dangerous compounds, proper "draft", and admission of replacement air is imperative. Building codes, and other standards, regulate their materials, design, and installation.
The Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, abbreviated as MNAC, is a museum of Catalan visual art located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. Situated on Montjuïc hill at the end of Avinguda de la Reina Maria Cristina, near Pl Espanya, the museum is especially notable for its outstanding collection of romanesque church paintings, and for Catalan art and design from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including modernisme and noucentisme. The museum is housed in the Palau Nacional, a huge, Italian-style building dating to 1929. The Palau Nacional, which has housed the Museu d'Art de Catalunya since 1934, was declared a national museum in 1990 under the Museums Law passed by the Catalan Government. That same year, a thorough renovation process was launched to refurbish the site, based on plans drawn up by the architects Gae Aulenti and Enric Steegmann, who were later joined in the undertaking by Josep Benedito. The Oval Hall was reopened for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games, and the various collections were installed and opened over the period from 1995 to 2004. The museum was officially inaugurated on 16 December 2004. It is one of the largest museums in Spain.
A chimney starter or charcoal chimney is a device for igniting charcoal lumps or briquettes. It consists of a metal tube with a grate to hold charcoal. A lighting cone is a similar, conical, device placed over an existing grate. The tube is typically cylindrical, but may also have other cross-sections. The tube may also be made of combustible material designed to resist burning long enough for the coals to ignite.
A fan heater, also called a blow heater, is a heater that works by using a fan to pass air over a heat source. This heats up the air, which then leaves the heater, warming up the surrounding room. They can heat an enclosed space such as a room faster than a heater without a fan, but like any fan, create a degree of noise.
A kerosene heater, also known as a paraffin heater, is typically a portable, unvented, kerosene-fueled, space heating device. In Japan and other countries, they are a primary source of home heat. In the United States and Australia, they are a supplemental heat or a source of emergency heat during a power outage. Most kerosene heaters produce between 3.3 and 6.8 kilowatts.
A steam generator is a type of boiler used to produce steam for climate control and potable water heating in railroad passenger cars. The output of a railroad steam generator is low pressure, saturated steam that is passed through a system of pipes and conduits throughout the length of the train.
An ember, also called a hot coal, is a hot lump of smouldering solid fuel, typically glowing, composed of greatly heated wood, coal, or other carbon-based material. Embers can exist within, remain after, or sometimes precede, a fire. Embers are, in some cases, as hot as the fire which created them. They radiate a substantial amount of heat long after the fire has been extinguished, and if not taken care of properly can rekindle a fire that is thought to be completely extinguished and can pose a fire hazard. In order to avoid the danger of accidentally spreading a fire, many campers pour water on the embers or cover them in dirt. Alternatively, embers can be used to relight a fire after it has gone out without the need to rebuild the fire – in a conventional fireplace, a fire can easily be relit up to 12 hours after it goes out, provided that there is enough space for air to circulate between the embers and the introduced fuel.
A gasoline heater is a small gasoline-fueled space-heater. Fixed versions were originally used mainly for supplemental heat for passenger compartments of automobiles and aircraft, with the latter still in production. Portable versions were also made.
Barcelona Metrópolis is a magazine of urban information and thought dedicated to monitoring the evolution of the city of Barcelona.
The Spanish Wedding or La Vicaría (1868–1870) is a masterwork by Marià Fortuny i Marsal, also known as Marià Fortuny or Mariano Fortuny. La Vicaría exemplifies genre painting of the 19th century. The use of jewel tones, contrasts between light and dark, and the virtuosity of the work attest to Fortuny's talent. It resides at Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.
Over My Dead Body, 1893, is a painting by Ramon Casas, in the National Art Museum of Catalonia in Barcelona.
A storage water heater, or a hot water system (HWS), is a domestic water heating appliance that uses a hot water storage tank to maximize water heating capacity and provide instantaneous delivery of hot water. Conventional storage water heaters use a variety of fuels, including natural gas, propane, fuel oil, and electricity. Less conventional water heating technologies, such as heat pump water heaters and solar water heaters, can also be categorized as storage water heaters.