[Sca-cooks] OOP - Millard Fillmore

[Terry Decker]

I got interested in our "do nothing" president Millard Fillmore.  On his 
watch, we stayed out of war, opened trade with Japan, and bought a little 
stretch of land on the southern border called the Gadsen Purchase.  On the 
down side, he signed the Fugitive Slave Act.

Curiously, he contributed to the fine art of cooking by have stoves 
installed in the kitchens at the White House.  Prior to his term, cooking 
was done in the fireplaces.  Apparently the stoves were complex enough that 
the director of the patent office had to show the cooks how to use the heat 
dampers to avert a mutiny.  An interesting and possible apocryphal piece of 
history.

Bear