A smudge pot is a small heater.
It burns oil to make heat. Farmers use it to help fruit trees. It keeps the trees warm in the cold. It is a handy tool. Do you like warm fruit?
A smudge pot is a heater.
It burns oil to make heat. Farmers put them in orchards. They help fruit trees stay warm. This stops the cold from hurting the fruit.
One man named W.C. Scheu made them. He wanted a better way to heat trees. People used them in many places. They were used in many fruit groves.
In Australia, people call them choofers. They make a loud noise when they burn. They make a "choofa choofa" sound. This is a fun name.
They can also make lots of smoke. Some people used smoke to hide things. They used it in wars. It helped hide targets from view.
These heaters were used for a long time. They helped workers stay warm too. They were very useful tools.
A smudge pot is a tool that burns oil.
Farmers put them in orchards to warm fruit trees. This helps during cold snaps. The burning oil makes heat, smoke, and water vapor.
A man named W.C. Scheu made a better heater in 1907. His design worked well for fruit trees. People used them a lot in California. In 1932, one area used 462,000 heaters. They needed millions of gallons of oil to fill them.
In Australia, people call them choofers. They make a loud "choofa choofa" sound. These pots can make thick, black smoke. In wars, people used this smoke to hide targets. In Vietnam, the smoke helped hide targets from laser bombs. The smoke breaks the laser beam.
Smudge pots were used in many ways. They helped workers stay warm in buildings. They even helped pilots see runways at night. Today, they are used as prizes in high school football games. One game is even called the Smudge Bowl.
A smudge pot is a helpful tool used to protect fruit trees.
Farmers place these devices between trees in an orchard. They burn oil to create warmth during cold snaps. This heat keeps the trees from getting too cold. The burning oil also makes smoke and water vapor.
These pots can also be used to warm large buildings. Some people even used them as small bonfires to light runways for planes at night.
There are a few different ways these heaters work. Most have a large round base with a chimney in the middle. Some styles have a special neck to help the fire burn better. A piece of oil-soaked wood is often used to help start the fire.
When the air gets cold, the farmer opens holes on a control cap. This lets in more air to help the heater work harder. If the temperature drops below 25 degrees, the heating effect cannot be increased any further.
A man named W.C. Scheu helped make these heaters famous. He was an inventor living in Colorado in 1907. He created an oil-burning heater that worked better than open fires.
In 1911, he started a company in California to make them. Smudge pots became very popular after a big freeze in 1913. That freeze destroyed many crops in Southern California. People realized they needed a way to keep their fruit trees safe.
These heaters were used in huge numbers in the past. In the winter of 1932 to 1933, one area had 462,000 heaters.
To fill them all just once, it took 3,693,000 gallons of oil. That is about 330 tank-car loads of fuel. To fill every pot in Southern California once, it required 2,000 carloads. Use of the pots fell as oil prices went up and people worried about the environment.
Smudge pots have been used in many surprising ways. In Australia, people call them "choofers" because of their loud noise.
During wars, smoke from these pots was used to hide targets. In the Vietnam War, smoke helped hide things from laser-guided bombs. The smoke would break the laser beam's connection to its target. Today, smudge pots are even used as prizes in high school football games. One famous game between two schools in California is called the Smudge Bowl.
A smudge pot is an oil-burning device used to protect fruit trees from frost.
These heaters are placed between trees in an orchard during cold snaps. The burning oil generates heat, smoke, carbon dioxide, and water vapor. This process helps prevent the orchard from cooling too much. While primarily used in agriculture, they have served many other purposes. They have warmed large buildings, lit remote airfields, and even protected military targets.
The basic mechanism involves a large round base with a chimney in the center. To start the device, a piece of oil-soaked wood called a down-draft tube and wick is secured inside the neck. When the air temperature drops, a farmer uses a draft regulator to control the burn. This regulator is a filler cap with a three- or four-hole flue control. As the temperature decreases, the farmer opens more holes to increase the heating effect. However, once the temperature falls below 25 degrees, no further heating enhancement is possible.
There are two major styles of these orchard heaters. The first style consists of a single louvered stack sitting above a base filled with fuel oil. The second, more advanced version is a taller model featuring a cambered, louvered neck. This version includes a galvanized re-breather feed pipe on the side of the chimney. This pipe siphons stack gas back into the burn chamber. This process results in more complete combustion. This specific return-stack heater was developed by the University of California and became available around 1940.
In Australia, these devices are known as "choofers" because of the noise they make when lit. The name comes from the "choofa choofa choofa" sound they produce. Lighting a choofer is a delicate process because they produce thick, oily black smoke when cold. A person must light them outside by holding a burning rag near the open damper. The breeze creates a draught that pulls air through the chimney and into the fuel tank. Once the fuel surface ignites, the heater becomes steady. If the damper is not closed, the pot may choke on its own smoke and cause noisy explosions of unburnt gases.
The history of the smudge pot is tied to the inventor Willis Frederick Charles "W.C." Scheu. In 1907, while living in Grand Junction, Colorado, Scheu developed an oil-burning stack heater. He found it was more effective than using open fires to heat vineyards and orchards. In 1911, he opened the Scheu Manufacturing Company in Upland, California. His company, Scheu Steel, remains in business as of 2021. The use of these pots became widespread following a disastrous freeze in Southern California from January 4 to 8, 1913. This freeze wiped out entire crops and proved the value of the device.
The scale of smudge pot use in the early 20th century was massive. In the Redlands district, there were 462,000 orchard heaters for the winter of 1932–33. To refill these heaters just once required 3,693,000 gallons of oil. This amount of fuel is equal to about 330 tank-car loads. To fill every smudge pot in Southern California a single time required 2,000 carloads of oil. Use of the pots eventually declined in the 1970s. This was due to rising oil prices and increasing environmental concerns.
Smudge pots have also played roles in military history and unexpected social traditions. During World War II, the German, Japanese, and United States Navies used them. In the Vietnam War, North Vietnamese forces used them to protect valuable targets. The thick smoke from the pots could diffuse laser beams. This broke the connection between a laser-guided bomb and its intended target. Today, the smudge pot is even a symbolic prize in California high school football. Two rivalries involve playing for a silver-plated or a blue-and-red smudge pot. One famous game is even called the "Smudge Bowl."
Where will your curiosity go next?
🖼️ Images & Media (2)
More to explore
✨ What else?
Related topics you might enjoy
🪜 Step back
Simpler topics to build understanding
What is Nepedia?
A free, ad-free encyclopedia for children. Every article is written at five reading levels, so the same page works for a five-year-old and a fifteen-year-old — use the level switcher above to see this one change. No account needed to read.