Re: Fw: "Worlds Fastest Stove" Contest

["Kevin Chisholm" <kchishol@fox.nstn.ca>]

Dear Richard
----- Original Message -----
From: "richard stanley" <legacyfound@hotmail.com>
To: <stoves@crest.org>
Sent: Thursday, January 10, 2002 11:18 PM
Subject: Re: Fw: "Worlds Fastest Stove" Contest


> Dear stovers,
> Reading what Tom Reed and others have suggested about practical
application
> of the stove, may I suggest that we let the actual user be the judge of
the
> stove ?

It is very important to distinguish between a "contest of speed" and "an
evaluation of practicality.." What we ar proposing to undertake is a "speed
contest", with no concern for practicality initially. We are not at all
concerned with an "evaluation of practicality."

 Either we are testing technologies for technical preformance or we
> are testing for practicality. It is not that one cannot include the other,
Actually, we are testing for neither. We are testing for only raw speed. If
your litre boils faster than mine you win. Case closed.

> It is about the choice of the direction we want to go with our efforts.
>
We ultimately want to elevate the status of stove science. A necessary step
along the way is research. The "Fastest Stove Contest" will indeed
contribute to Stove Science. These contests(and a number of them can be
proposed) will stretch and expand the present limits of stove science. At
the present, all too many people think it is an art.

> We could for example select say five rural communities over latin america,
> africa and asia for their diversity in cooking applications, yet
similarity
> of need for improved cookstoves.
>
Thats not a contest, but rather "field trials" or a "market survey."

> Each stove would (perhaps on meeting basic technical criteria such as
> discussed already) then be replicated 5 times and sent to the 5 different
> communities under the direction of any one of the group who was  already
> proximate to /familiar with the community.

Who builds the first stove???? Who detrmines what the stove should be
designed to do? Why would such a stove be any better than presently
available stoves that were designed with our present stove designing
paradigm? I would suggest that if we run a stove contest, such as the
"Fastest Stove", there will be knowledge fallout that will lead to an
improved stove design paradigm. The time to stage a Community Test would be
after the "new generation" of stoves are available.

  I would suggest we do not try to
> tell the stove tester what to test for, or even what results we are
looking
> for, only that the testor use the stove and advise us in its usefulness
and
> how it might be improved as part of a joint effort.

Our Contest has nothing to do with usefullness and practicality now.
Beneficial fallout will come later.

 We cannot easily apply
> standarised pot sized or material types or barometric pressure but that is
> really for us to determine not necessarily the actual user's concern.
>
To get some semblance of comparability, we must agree on some general rules
for the contest.

> This approach may provide some very interesting information. It would at
> minimum provide fodder for a serious multivariate assessment, and whether
or
> not it led to a "winner or loser", it would begin to unlock the complexity
> of actual applications in the real 3rd world which so often defeats the
best
> of technology driven development efforts
>
> What do you all think ?

I think that your approach is very sound and practical for what you want to
accomplish, and that such an approach will ultimately be necessary when
various potential manufacturers seek to finalize their designs. This
contest, or variants of it, is the first step down the road of improving
stove science. The Stove World needs more "hard science" rather than more
"opinions" and "soft knowledge".There are among the diverse Stove List
members, at least  three nodes in the stove market channel: The Builders,
the Facilitators, and Users. The Contest will be of great value to the
Builders, and its benefits will eventually flow to the Facilitators and
finally, to the Users.

We are proposing a Contest, not "the be all and end all." The longest
journey begins with the first step.

Kindest regards,

Kevin Chisholm
>



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