For some reason the hole seemed bigger last night. It was a half or
5/8" hole. :)And Ed, my mother was no athlete and 55 years old, but she had no trouble using the broiler tray that was 8 inches above the floor. (After she was age 55, I don't remember what kind of broiler she had.)
They had pilot lights for top burners much earlier or maybe just in many more stoves. I guess because people use the oven or broiler usually only once a day, and the top burners are used for everything. Making coffee. There were no electric coffee makers. Cooking breakfast, lunch, some or all of dinner, soup, vegetables, potatoes, custard.....loads of things.
Our stoves had two burners on each side, with a pilot light in between each pair. Some stoves had 4 burners close together, with one pilot light for all four. Saved 50% of the pilot light gas. But the cost of the gas was very low, I think. My mother worried about leaving lights on but the pilot light didn't bother her. Although that mght have been because she had no way to turn it off.