AGA cooker
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The AGA cooker is a stored-heat oven invented in 1922 by the Nobel Prize-winning Swedish physicist Dr. Gustaf Dalén (1869 - 1937), who also founded the AGA company. In 1912, Dr. Dalen lost his sight following an explosion during an experiment with pressurized liquids and gases.
Forced to stay at home, Dr. Dalen discovered that his wife was exhausted by cooking. Although unable to see, he was determined to develop a new cook stove that was both capable of every culinary technique and easy to use.
Adopting the time-honored principle of heat storage, he combined a small and efficient heat source, two large hotplates and two generous ovens into one robust and compact unit -- the AGA Cooker. The cooker was introduced to England in 1929, and its popularity in certain parts of English society (owners of medium to large country houses) led to the term "AGA Saga" being used to refer to a genre of fiction set amongst stereotypical AGA owners.
AGA is an abbreviation of the company name, Aktiebolaget Gas Accumulator.
The heavy iron castings inside the cooker are made at Coalbrookdale in Shropshire, on the site of Abraham Darby's original iron works where the modern method of iron smelting was invented.