I used a variety of resources to prepare the design. I incorporated ideas gleaned from articles I read on clean-burning wood stove technology1 and papermaking ergonomics.2 I learned a lot from Simon Green during his consultancy in Manila in 1984, and I drew many lessons about ergonomics and safety from my experience as a papermaking apprentice in Imadate, Japan. At Iwano Heizaburo's papermill, my young Japanese mentor lamented about his long hours in the hot and unforgiving cooking area of the papermill and his nightly sufferings from backache. The idea of incorporating a screen basket and washing box for removing effluents safely and quickly came about from these conversations. The main components I designed for the new cooking equipment are the stove, cooking cauldron assembly, chain block assembly, and washing box. The original stove was an open-fire cooker. The new stove is constructed with reinforced concrete, steel bars, and sheet metal, with a covered chamber insulated with bricks, an elevated grate with an attached sheet-metal cover that provides space for efficient air flow under the wood, and an effective chimney. This design offers fuel efficiency, reduction of energy loss, and maintenance of high temperatures for efficient combustion with less smoke. The stove accepts alternative fuel sources such as coconut shells or other hard, combustible, discarded parts from natural materials. At the back of the cooking stove, we added a platform with an iron handrail to bring the worker to a comfortable height and with enough space to stir and monitor the cook. The cooking cauldron is built into the stove so that the largest possible surface area is directly exposed to the fire, reducing the time it takes to reach the boiling point. It is designed to be safe and easy to fill, empty, and transport the steamed or cooked fiber from the cooking cauldron to the washing box. The cooking cauldron assembly has the following components, all stainless-steel: a cooking vessel with a collar to fit snugly on the stove; an inner screen basket for moving steamed kozo bark or cooked fiber from the cooking cauldron to the washing box; and a weight to keep the fiber submerged during cooking. There are separate covers for cooking or steaming, and a flexible rubber hose for siphoning. The chain block assembly is composed of the hanging roller and manual chain hoist. It is used to lift the heavy screen basket loaded with either steamed kozo branches or cooked fiber. The washing box is constructed from sheet metal with an elevated stainless-steel screen at the bottom and a drain hose on the side. As with any design project, we have found after several uses of the equipment that there are features we would like to improve. For instance, the cooking cauldron should be wider in diameter and lower in height to provide greater ease when stirring. The cauldron should have a rounded, concave bottom to facilitate the removal of remaining effluents. A solar heater would be an excellent way to warm the water prior to cooking to reduce cooking time and fuel. The screen basket should be able to fit inside the washing box so we do not have to move the hot, cooked fiber into the box. A second basket would allow us to cook another batch while washing the first; and a second washing box would speed up the rinsing process if we could transfer the basket from one box to the other. Another aspect that we have not tackled yet is effluence treatment. Waste disposal is a perennial problem of small-scale production hand papermaking. In the end, appropriate tools and equipment are not here to replace us but lessen the load so we have more time and energy to create something extraordinary from this labor-intensive craft. No end in sight, more good things to come. Standing in front of the new cooking equipment, the year 2011. ___________ notes 1. Mei Magsino, "Veterinarian develops peso-saving stove," Philippine Daily Inquirer, January 5, 2003, p.B2; and Amanda Leigh Haag, "For the Developing World, a Stove That Reduces Indoor Air Pollution," The Manila Bulletin's New York Times Supplementary, 2008, 4. 2. Lynn Amlie, "Paper Ergonomics: Easing the Strain," Hand Papermaking vol. 1, no. 1 (Summer 2004): 39–44.