lax though i've been to frequent the forum of similarly stricken lever machine junkies, i knew where to come with a Vital Lever Question:
be there, anywhere, a lever machine that does not depend on direct electricity?
my mother lives in the remote bush of africa; she cannot plug things in. she adores her espresso, and has long wanted nothing more than a lever machine. alas, the daily ration of car battery juice is not enough to permit using some on the 'spro (clearly, she is not as devoted as i would wish). she currently uses la pavoni's stovetop pot, which of course singes her beverages beyond what is optimal. she wondered aloud to me if perhaps there were a lever machine that, instead of using a heating element beneath the boiler, instead operated on a stovetop.
she has a gas stove, and this idea seems almost absurdly simple. why not rig some sort of machine that uses a stove burner for its heat instead of a dedicated element? the rest of the machine, roughly speaking, would need little modification.
but does such a thing exist?
