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The one image of The Salvation Army that immediately comes to mind is that of a bell-ringing volunteer tending a Christmas kettle on a city street corner or in front of a suburban grocery store.

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Salvation Army Captain Joseph McFee introduced the kettles in San Francisco in December 1891. Wanting to provide a free Christmas dinner to the poor, but lacking money to pay for it, McFee remembered a custom from his sailor days in Liverpool, England. Charitable donations were thrown into a large pot, "Simpson's Pot," by passers-by to help those less fortunate.

McFee secured permission from authorities to place a similar pot at the Oakland ferry landing. His idea proved successful and spurred other local corps to follow suit. By 1895, 30 Salvation Army corps on the West Coast used kettles.

Two years later, Officer William A. McIntyre carried the idea to Boston, but his fellow officers refused to cooperate for fear of "making spectacles of themselves." Nevertheless, McIntyre, his wife, and his sister set up three kettles in the heart of the city. That year the kettle effort in Boston and other locations nationwide provided 150,000 Christmas dinners for the needy.

The look of the kettles has changed since those first San Francisco days. Fancy ones have a self-ringing bell or a booth complete with a public-address system to broadcast Christmas carols. Salvation Army officers and soldiers still tend the pots, but so do community volunteers and paid employees.

But the purpose of the kettles remains the same. When the donations are tallied, the money covers a third of the aid for more than 4.5 million people every Christmas.

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