Talk:Smudge pot

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The article totally ignored Smudge Pot's original use was to cover the smell of various places of human waste during hot summer months. In Medieval times, even through in the middle 20th century in rural areas, they would burn these pots when they cleaned out garterobes, outhouses and communial cesspits. The smoke cut down on the smell, also cut down on attracting flies and such insects.

Article is factually incorrect. Smudge pots are not intended to prevent frost on orchards by direct heating underneath each tree. Just think of the impracticality of having a huge oil stove burning under each fruit bearer in your commercial orchard! Instead, a few smudge pots act to generate a 'smoke screen' across an entire orchard, insulating the trees against loss of radiative heat.

[edit] Traffic Control

Smudge Pots were also used at road construction sites as a warning for motorists, much as traffic cones are used today. In the past, there was no such thing as a reflective device and the lit smudge pots were the warning lights for drivers. They used kerosene for fuel. A wick was used to bring the fuel up to the top of the smudge pot where it burned. The top of the smudge pot has a protective cover, open on the sides, to protect from burns.

[edit] Contradiction

The current article first says that smudge pots were introduced in 1913, and then, in the first sentence of the next paragraph, that they were widely used throughout the 1900s! At most one of these assertions can be correct, and whichever it turns out to be, it needs to cite a reputable secondary source. --Quuxplusone 03:32, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Simple - I tightened up the copy - end of apparent contradiction.

Mark Sublette 12:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)Mark SubletteMark Sublette 12:52, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] "Smudge stick" and "smudge pot" should be BFFs

Do you guys know about that other article? Is there some reason you don't join forces? I think it's confusing, otherwise, since I know of no real difference between the two, except w/r/t smudge "format (if you will)"... Sugarbat (talk) 20:47, 20 May 2008 (UTC)