Control for cooking apparatus

Claim 1

CONTROL APPARATUS FOR A SURFACE HEATER ADAPTED TO SUPPORT A VESSEL AND COMPRISING: CIRCUITRY FOR CONNECTING THE SURFACE HEATER TO A SOURCE OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY, A VARIABLE WATTAGE SWITCH IN SAID CIRCUITRY HAVING A PLURALITY OF RANGES OF WATTAGE INPUT WITH EACH RANGE CONTAINING A PLURALITY OF SWITCH POSITIONS PROVIDING PROGRESSIVELY HIGHER WATTAGE INPUTS, A TEMPERATURE LIMITER ASSOCIATED WITH THE HEATER AND PROVIDING A SINGLE DIFFERENT PREDETERMINED TEMPERATURE LIMIT FOR EACH RANGE OF WATTAGE INPUT OF SAID VARIABLE WATTAGE SWITCH, SAID TEMPERATURE LIMITER COMPRISING A PLURALITY OF SWITCHES, ONE FOR EACH TEMPERATURE LIMIT, TOGETHER WITH A SINGLE TEMPERATURE-RESPONSIVE MEMBER FOR CONTROLLING SAID PLURALITY OF SWITCHES, AND MANUALLY OPERABLE SELECTOR MECHANISM FOR ADJUSTING THE VARIABLE WATTAGE SWITCH TO THE DESIRED WATTAGE INPUT POSITION FOR THE RANGE BEING UTILIZED AND FOR SIMULTANEOUSLY CONTROLLING THE TEMPERATURE LIMITER TO RENDER EFFECTIVE THE PREDETERMINED TEMPERATURE LIMIT FOR THAT RANGE.