Vigo County Historical Society

Stone have sole warmth

Think "Victorian" and conjure up images of ornate, frilly, often whimsical households, rich with velvet, lace and hand-carved wood.

This week’s historical treasure, however, a soapstone foot warmer, is plain and simple, its beauty lying only in the practical comfort it brought to its user.

"Soapstone" is actually talc, the softest of all minerals. It is so soft it is capable of being scratched by all other minerals and can easily be scratched with a fingernail. It probably received its common name from its soft, waxy feel, not unlike common bar soap.

Talc has proven useful to man in a variety of ways: as talcum powder, in cosmetics, as a lubricant and as an insulation in electrical equipment. In England, it was used as an ingredient in early Worcester porcelain.

Another very valuable property of soapstone, and the one most relevant to this week’s treasure, is the mineral’s excellent heat retention. The use of hot stones as bed warmers is an old practice. In ancient Rome, servants brushed heated bricks over bedsheets to warm them. In colonial America, heated stones were placed in long handled, brass bed-warming pans.

Soapstone’s ability to hold warmth longer than steel or cast iron has made it a good material for construction of wood and coal stoves, as well as for other warming needs.

The soapstone foot warmer in the museum is about 8 inches by 11 inches by 1 inch and weighs 10 pounds. A metal handle is affixed to one end. The foot warmer was heated on a stove or before a blazing fireplace. It could then be transported to the cooler corners of a room (and huge Victorian rooms with high ceilings offered much in the way of cool corners) so that its owner could place his feet atop the stone and sit in comfort.

Soapstone also can be used as food warmers and baking stones. Specialty stores still sell them for culinary uses, extolling soapstone’s virtues as excellent heat conductors capable of even heating.

The footwarmer is on display before the hearth in the Victorian Parlor.