Oven

it looks like it could get up and walk around by itself

Creepy! It has an autoclave look to it.

This is a convection steamer and an old one at that. At the bottom, there is a tank filled with water that is heated past it's boiling point, and thus steam is produced. The steam is them directed into the chambers above,where those big doors, when closed, using those big wheels, create an airtight seal (like a hatch on a submarine). After all the air is replaced with the hot steam, the pressure starts to build inside the chamber. After the steam chamber has the correct pressure, the temperature starts to increase. And, when the temperature increases the food inside starts to cook.

Convection steamers are used to cook pretty much everything from lobsters to potatoes. The design has changed over the years but the basic principal has remained to same.

Thank goodness it's for food, and not something else

Hey Matt, thanks for the very detailed explanation of a rather strange cooking device. I have never seen one of these and appreciate your remarks. It seems like its sort of an early or commercial-type pressure cooker, right? I wonder if the three different levels resulted in three different cooking times or temperatures. There must have been plenty of internal pressure to require such heavy hinges and latch wheels. Again, thanks.

Hey gdammann-

Thanks for you kind words, I was a chef in my former life. This steamer is defiantly a heavy-duty commercial model. In answer to your question; All of the cooking chambers can cook pretty much the same. Usually, kitchen staffers will use the different chambers for preparing different types of food. For example, steaming potatoes for mashed potatoes take considerably longer than steaming green beans.

And yes, there is a fair amount of pressure. The doors actually have a kind of countersink mechanism that helps release some of the pressure that builds up. So when you open the door, you don't get knocked on your ass by the force of the steam. The real danger is the dreaded STEAM BURN that hurts a hell of a lot more than a burn from fire or metal. Unlike a traditional burn that will only affect the area that your have the bad luck to run into, steam is a gas and it goes EVERYWHERE. Like in between your fingers and under your fingernails (gross but true!).

autoclaving anyone?????

it looks like some kind of steralizer

GET IN MA' BELLY!!!

Robbie the Robot =)

This is an old steamer for cooking food. It looks like one that was made by Market Forge Ind in Everett Massachusetts

Yikes!!! At first I thought these were some more morgue drawers.