What are these copper pots again?

Multi piece top

 

I seem to remember one like this on the AB a year or so ago

 

Sterno?
Looks like yours might be missing the wood handle.

 

The stems are hollow. They look like a pour spout or hose attachment.

 

Then I'm sorry, I don't know.

Measurements might help someone else.

 

They are six inch diameter and 2-1/2 inches deep.

 

Wild-eyed guess but . . .

Some sort of (foreign?) smudge pot or fumigator or the (foreign and/or old) equivalent of a "vaporizer" for medicinal purposes?

 

I wonder why the separate rings on the top?

It makes me think perhaps it's designed to work like a double boiler, with fewer or more rings used depending upon the size of the upper pot? And then, maybe, the tube extension was to let out steam?

Totally a wild guess on my part, though.

 

Obviously too big for sterno.
Pictures by themselves can be deceiving.

 

After looking some more I did find a maker's mark - just a B in a circle

They all seem to have a little different chemical residue and smell

 

Perhaps lab equipment, Florence flask steam heater. Put water in the pan, then pick which disc you need for the particular size of Florence flask you want to heat. Use any heat source under the pan, maybe elec. hotplate. Maybe for heating liquids where you only want heat under 212 deg. F.., and can't use a Bunsen burner since it is far too high a temp.

Hey while I'm here, is the Ebay A.B. still trollified? Haven't been there in quite a spell.

 

Oh, DSS is in hog heaven all over the place now.
You should check out the Military Group. The manure is knee deep there.

 

I've found a couple other people online saying it was the way to heat your flammable lab experiment without open flame before electric hotplates came into the lab. The 'spout' was for introducing steam.

 

Hmm... interesting that the spout was to let steam in rather than to let it out.

Were you able to get a rough idea of age?

 

They are rough and have age

I would assume that since labs always get the latest technology before we do they had switched before you had an electric waffle iron