This article describes the American Stove Company & the Lorain Oven Heat Regulator.

American Stove Company & the Lorain Oven Heat Regulator

We noticed these remains of an American Stove Company gas oven in a Fishkill, New York florist shop in 2023, and took special note of the Lorain oven heat regulator control on the oven's right side.

The beige and green colors of this antique stove echo the company's early advertisements shown at page top and later below in more detail.

Parts were missing, including the oven's legs, back, and other controls and parts (photo below).

Above, at Flowers by Reni, 1004 Main St, #17, Fishkill, NY 12524 USA Tel: (845) 896-6268 t,his antique gas oven has a new career carrying flower pots instead of pots and pans.

Below we peek at the remains of the gas burners inside this American Stove Company oven/range.

Let's take a closer look at the famous Lorain oven heat regulator, invented by Benjamin E. Meacham in 1913.

Meacham, superintendent of the American Stove Company factory, observed that complaints about inconsistent performance of gas stoves and ovens seemed to him to be mostly the fault of users who themselves caused variations in the oven temperature by their own actions, such as opening the oven door during baking to take a a peek, or changing gas controls during a baking cycle.

Photo below: a closer look at the Lorain oven heat regulator, minus a part or two, on this now antique gas oven.

Meacham, from Lorain, Ohio, designed a control that would "notice" when the oven temperature suddenly changed and would automatically adjust the gas flame intensity in response.

This could keep the desired oven cooking temperature much more even during a baking or roasting cycle. Below is a lower air inlet burner control on the same stove.

Trying out his invention on his own home oven and range for about a year and a half gave such good results that he and Mrs. Meacham agreed that the control should go into production.

By 1914 the first Lorain oven heat control was shipped on a gas range/oven from American Stove Co.

The features and advantages of the Lorain oven heat control were the subject of countless advertisements like this one from 1925:

[Click to enlarge any image]

The Lorain Oven Heat Regulator control was so successful that it appeared on other brands where it became a signature fixture on Magic Chef ovens and ranges and where it remained in production into the 1950s, as we illustrate here.

Magic Chef's Lorain oven heat controller sported a red dial or "wheel" used to set the temperature. The red wheel itself became a trademark.

• Meacham, Benjamin Edward. THERMOSTATIC FUEL-REGULATING DEVICE for GAS OVENS [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,236,335, issued August 7, 1917. (Illustrated below)
  
  Excerpt: My invention relates to improvements in thermostatic fuel regulating devices for gas ovens.
  
  The object of my invention is to provide a fuel regulating device of this character in which the oven can be kept at a predetermined temperature and whereby a more accurate baking of the articles in the oven is obtained.
  
  Another object of my invention is to provide a simple, cheap and effective temperature regulating device of this character which can be readily applied to the ordinary oven now in use without any material change in the oven.

Below, the data tag on this Lorain oven heat regulator shows a number of Lorain patents by Meacham and others. Meacham's stream of patents began in 1917. Other inventors like Frederic Nicolaus added important safety improvements to gas ovens where the Lorain regulator was in use (1922).

Below: a 1920s Saturday Evening Post magazine advertisement for the Lorain oven heat regulator whose name by then was perhaps better recognized by consumers than the manufacturer: the American Stove Company in St. Louis Missouri.

Arthur Stockstrom offered other improvements to the Lorain oven temperature regulating device in 1924.

• Meacham, Benjamin E.THERMOSTATIC FUEL-REGULATING DEVICE FOR GAS-OVENS [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,285,300, issued November 19, 1918.
• Meacham, Benjamin E. HEAT AND DAMPER REGULATOR FOR GAS-OVENS [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,300,990, issued April 15, 1919.
• Meacham, Benjamin E. THERMOSTATIC TUBE AND CONNECTION THEREFOR [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,330,600, issued February 10, 1920.
• Meacham, Benjamin E., and Munzner Charles. THERMOSTAT FUEL-REGULATING DEVICE FOR GAS-STOVES [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,396,706, issued November 8, 1921.
  
  Excerpt: This invention relates to improvements in thermostat fuel regulating devices for gas ovens, and pertains to a construction adapted to keep a baking oven at a predetermined regulated temperature, according to the heat requirements of the different articles being baked, such, for instance, as exemplified in the patent to B. E. Meacham, No. 1236,335, dated August 7th, 1917.
• Nicolaus, Frederic G. OVEN BURNER [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,416,500, issued May 16, 1922.
  
  Excerpt:
  
  The flow of gas to a burner used with an oven heat regulator, of the type shown in the Meacham patent, is controlled by a thermostatic valve and at times the flow or head of gas is very low and therefore causing a slow leakage of gas through the ports or jets.
  
  When the gas flow or pressure is low, I have found that in gas burners of the type heretofore used, that some of the jets do not light but discharge unconsumed gas into the oven.
  
  To overcome the disadvantages of the old type of burner which operates as above described, I have arranged the jets or ports in my burner in a channel which conducts the gas issuing from an unlighted jet, to one which is lighted and thereby causes the gas to flash back to the unlighted jet and cause it to burn at its port.
  
  The object of my invention is to provide a gas burner in which all the jets will be lighted from a pilot no matter how low the gas pressure may be, due to the action of the thermostatically controlled gas valve.
• Edwin, Meacham Benjamin. THERMOSTATIC HEAT REGULATOR FOR OVENS [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,465,086, issued August 14, 1923. - mis-listed by USPTO should be Meacham, Benjamin Edwin - Ed.

• Meacham, Benjamin E. ADJUSTABLE OVEN [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,495,862, issued May 27, 1924. (Illustrated above)
  
  Excerpt:
  
  This invention relates to improvements in adjustable ovens, and it has relation to a range having a broiling oven and a baking oven, one located above the other, and the present improvement pertains to means whereby either the broiling oven or the baking oven may be enlarged vertically to meet the requirements of either oven without changing the horizontal size of the oven construction.
  
  By means of my invention the user may enlarge either oven vertically beyond its normal size, for accommodating, for instance, in a broiling oven a fowl or large fish, and when the broiling oven is not being used the baking oven may be enlarged vertically where whole meals are cooked in the oven with thermostatic control.
• Edwin, Meacham Benjamin. AUTOMATIC FUEL CONTROLLER FOR BURNERS [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,504,068, issued August 5, 1924. - mis-listed by USPTO should be Meacham, Benjamin Edwin - Ed.
  
  Excerpt:
  
  One object of my invention is to provide means for automatically either turning on or cutting off the flow of gas to the oven burner at a predetermined time, whereby the burner may be either automatically started or extinguished at a predetermined time, according to the desire and convenience of the user.
• Arthur, Stockstrom. OVEN HEAT REGULATOR [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,617,871, issued February 15, 1927. - also assigned to the American Stove Company.
  
  Excerpt:
  
  It is the primary object of my present invention to construct the parts so that the thermostatic controlling means controls the Supply of fuel for the thermostatically controlled valve, instead of having a separately operated fuel valve as shown in the Meacham patent.

The last patent listed on the Lorain Oven Heat Regulator control patent label shown above was filed by Benjamin E. Meacham, of Lorain, Ohio, and assigned to the American Stove Company of St. Louis in 1928.

• Meacham, Benjamin E. OVEN HEAT REGULATOR [PDF] U.S. Patent 1,656,010, issued January 10, 1928.
  Excerpt:
  
  This invention relates to improvements in Fig. 6 is a view looking at the inner side oven heat regulators, and is particularly intended for use with that type of heat regulator illustrated in my Patent No. 1,236,335, dated August 7th, 1917, though it may be used with other types of heat regulators.

Extra thank you to blogger Dan Brady (Stove Works) for his helpful posts about Magic Chef and about the Lorain oven heat regulator (April 7, 2016) that we found while preparing this article - accessed 2023/09/27, original source: danielebrady.blogspot.com/2016/04/the-lorain-oven-heat-regulator.html

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