Oh, dear, playing with stoves. Tsk, tsk. Nothing good will come of it. Just look at me.

The principal of the penny stove is fairly simple. You fill in the center hole with methyl (HEET) or ethyl (drinking) alcohol or a combination of the two ("denatured" alcohol). You put the penny on the fill hole so nothing comes out.

Then you "prime" the stove by putting it in a shallow "priming pan" (I use the lid from a tea tin), pouring a little alcohol into the priming pan, and igniting the priming alcohol.

Now, here's the science: The priming alcohol heats up the alcohol inside the stove. The hotter the internal alcohol, the more vapor it emits. That vapor needs somewhere to go, but there's a penny blocking the fill hole. The only way out is through the small jets around the rim of the penny stove. The vapor is the only thing that will burn. Liquid alcohol will not burn as is. As the vapor rushing out the jets burns, there's a thermal feedback loop that occurs: heat from the jets warms the stove which warms the alcohol which emits yet more vapor which rushes out the jets where it is burned heating the stove... and so on. It's pretty cool.

So, where are the flame shots?

HJ