Thanks David I will read them with interest, just a warning I usually start instructions from the back page    

Geez David I am a mere female dont confuse me with science  

So far what I have cooked has been fine - no burnt bottoms.

Its taken me till now to realise the round vent fits in the middle    

Carolyn™ wrote on Mar 9^th, 2010, 8:39pm:

A Cobb and a Volcano have different applications for different requirements.
A Cobb will take up to 9 Heat Beads and is good for cooking a small chicken or roast to about 1kg on the Cobb Roasting Rack. A 10" camp oven can be sat in the fire basket with the fire directly under the centre of the pot.

A Volcano Cook Stove will take up to 30 Heat Beads and up to a 12" camp oven. The ashed up Heat Beads are pushed to the side of the fire chamber so the fire is not directly under the pot.

"The heat generated by the coals is a combination of the vent setting in the bottom of the stove and the ability of that incoming air to escape out the top through the slotted grill when in place. Look at it where the bottom vents are a fine adjustment and any restriction on top of the slotted grill is a coarse adjustment. It is really up to you as to how much air you want to block. Placing a restrictor plate similar to the size of that which I have in the book guarantees that the bottom of a Dutch oven receives minimum heat. Lots of heat directly on the bottom of a Dutch oven will cause food to burn.  I hope that answers your question David.
When the radiant heat from the charcoal is reflected back into the stove, with the centre grill in place, the fire generates more superheated air without requiring more energy from the coals.  The available superheated air is allowed to get hotter than it would be if it were allowed to escape with no restriction. This stove was not designed to use the radiant heat from the coals, but instead use the controllable super heated airflow generated by controlling combustion in the fire chamber. FOR PEOPLE THAT USE THE STOVE ONLY FOR GRILLING A HAMBURGER NOW AND THEN, THE STOVE IS PROBABLY CONFUSING.
Richard Boetcker." (Volcano Cook Stove inventor)

KD

so we  can asume you are happy
with volcano  

Daryl