Then there are the old parabolic radiant heaters, which have a parabolawith a porcelan cone in the center, wrapped in nicrome coil.
Oh yeah... i _love_ those things! Still use one occasionally if I can make sure there are no combustibles in a 10-feet circle around. Last winter I came home t a pretty cold house since the gas central heating had been down to anti freeze for the weekend. Until the radiators got really warm I used the "heating sun" as they were called in old-fashioned German. Mine is 'only' 600 Watts, there were some up to 2000W I think. Still it heats up quite nicely!
