Robert Pawlak, town of Portland Museum curator, said the heaters were commonly used in carriages and in churches.

Pawlak said that embers or coals would be placed inside the heater to distribute heat, and people would cover their feet with maybe a fur blanket, and then place their feet near the heater. He also said that the heaters also could double as bed warmers. As a bed warmer, the heater would be placed underneath a bed, making sure there was enough space between the bed and the blankets, so there would not be a fire hazzard. The coals would be replaced when they did not radiate heat anymore.

Similarly, he said, there were other bed warmers. These resembled frying pans. With them, people would place them between sheets or blankets and warm up layers.

Photo by Michael Zabrodsky Foot warmers were commonly used in horse-drawn carriages and in churches.

Pawlak said the heaters placed under beds were not placed between sheets or blankets.

“Putting these between sheets or blankets might have been a bit risky, as they were a possible fire hazard,” Pawlak said.

According to colonialsense.com, portable heaters have been used since ancient times to heat our extremities, either with charcoal or oil. Others used heated bricks, stones, boiling water, or lumps of iron placed in appropriate containers. China used pottery filled with hot coals. Japan used a slow burning charcoal composition placed on a belly pocket stove with a perforated sliding lid curved to fit the person. Late in the 1600s spherical balls of metal with screw caps were filled with hot water to warm the hands.

Foot warmers were also used in unheated carriages or sleighs in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. As American people soon discovered the ease of rail travel, the foot warmers found their home on trains. Sometimes foot warmers were provided with first class rail service. The portable foot warmer was a precursor to the later design of the train which had built in foot warmers, the website noted.

Town Of Portland Museum Curator Rob Pawlak