Bed warmer
Household item
A bed warmer or warming pan was a common household item in countries with cold winters, especially in Europe. It consisted of a metal container, usually fitted with a handle and shaped somewhat like a modern frying pan, with a solid or finely perforated lid. The pan would be filled with embers and placed under the covers of a bed, to warm it up or dry it out before use.
Bed warmers were commonly used from the mid-17th to early-20th century. They fell out of fashion with the rise of other methods of warming homes and beds.
01Risks and alternatives
Besides the risk of fire, it was recognized that the fumes from the embers were noxious. A doctor advised his readers in a publication of about 1790 to avoid bed warmers, or, if needed, replace the embers with hot sand.
An alternative to the bed warmer was the "bed wagon" (French: moine, Italian: monaco, both meaning "monk"). It consisted of a large wooden frame enclosing a bucket of embers, possibly with an iron tray and an iron roof-plate to protect the bed covers from direct heat.
Pottery filled with hot water also was used. With the advent of rubber, the hot water bottle became dominant. In the early 20th century, electric blankets began to replace the bed warmer.
An alternative kind of bedwarmer in the mid-20th century in the UK was a 36 cm (14 in) pressed steel "flying saucer" or lozenge-shaped device made by Belling (established 1912), powered using an internal 40 W incandescent light bulb as a heat source.
Sources and credits
This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Bed warmer”, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.
Images, from Wikimedia Commons:
- Beddenpan-bovenzijde.jpg by Algont at Dutch Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
- Bed warmer (AM 16513-2).jpg by Timaru Potteries, CC BY 4.0
- Electrical Bed Heater, Dharamkot.jpg by John Hill, CC BY-SA 4.0
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