Hey! It worked!
Sorry for the delay, I left to go to dinner (but I turned the gas off first !).
I read through all the responses and the insistence that there must be some burner control led me to spend a few minutes running my hands all around i t to search for anything else. After not finding anything, I decided to exp eriment more with the one control I did find inside the panel.
The little valve in there -- when it is turned all the way pointing towards me does indeed turn the burner off, but at an intermediate angle I could h ear a hissing from inside the vent, so I stuck my lighter in there and it a ll lit up.
Thanks for all the words of caution though, I'll only run this while I'm aw ake and get my room nice and toasty before turning all the valves to off an d falling asleep.
For some of the other questions -- no make or model, this apt is quite old (early 19xx) and I'd imagine so is this space heater. Also, the thing is on e solid unit, nothing comes apart, only the one little door opens. Lastly, there is a large ceramic plate in the front of it that you can see through the front grill. And oh yeah, the ethernet cord, it wasn't routed through, but since I never anticipated using the thing I was not cautious about what cluttered up around it. It's all cleared now though.
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