Tweedledum and Tweedledee went to sea to make some tea. Being proper British types they would, of course, boil the water in a whistling Simplex tea kettle. But it wasn't as simple at that.
You do know that there are two basic types of Simplex tea kettles, don't you? One is made for electric stoves (never mind about it being highly unlikely that the Tweedles had an electric stove in that boat) and has a flat bottom, and the other is made for gas stoves and has a skirt around the bottom.
"It's marketing," snuffed Tweedledum, disdainfully, "there's nothing to it." "It gives them an excuse to charge more for the one with the skirt." "Balderdash!" replied Tweedledee, "if you trap the hot gas on the bottom of the kettle instead of letting it fly away up the sides, you'll concentrate the heat, and the water will come to a boil faster."
"Let's test it," said Tweedledum. "It's no more likely there's a difference, than the sun would shine in the middle of the night." So they shook hands, and tried an experiment. First they took the flat-bottomed kettle, and filled it with 1000ml of 16 deg (Centigrade) water. They put it on the stove and timed how long it took the water to boil. Seven minutes later the whistle began to cry. Next, they did the same with the specially-skirted gas model, and this time it only took 300 seconds — a full two minutes less!! "Doubt me, will you?" said Tweedledee. "Never again," said Tweedledum. And later, The sun was shining on the sea, Shining with all his might: He did his very best to make The billows smooth and bright-- And this was odd, because it was The middle of the night.
The very best price I've found on the gas version of the beautiful, functional, and fast boiling Simplex tea kettle is from Peets Coffee and Tea.
Also, because I couldn't help myself, I figured out that the flat bottomed kettle put about 2,800 BTU per hour into the water, and the gas model managed 4,000 BTU per hour. The claimed BTU consumption of the burner I was using is 7,300 so neither approach was very efficient. I suspect that using electricity is more efficient. Maybe something like this. Or, we could be even more logical about this and look to the Far East where -- despite the British connection with tea -- there is an even older tea culture, and more tea consumption. These days in Japan, the Electric Hot Water Dispenser is popular, and is probably the most efficient and useful way of providing hot water of all. But I like the look and heft of my Simplex tea kettle. This time aesthetics trumps ease of use.
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