History of secondary burn stoves

[Ash]

So I was loading my stoves last night and was watching with amazement at how good and efficient secondary burn tubes are and got to wondering who was the first manufacturer to use them. Anybody know the history of their development?

 

[Fsappo]

without googling...I think the Kent Tile Fire was the first "reburn" stove with secondary's at the top that I recall. I loved that stove.

 

[begreen]

There was earlier basic introduction of secondary burning in older stoves. You will see upper, secondary air ports on the doors of some old stoves. Lange comes to mind here. But even the basic Jotul F602 from WWII had a basic secondary burn. It's baffle + double ported, spin wheel draft control introduced air at the bottom of the fire and at the top of the baffle where the fire was making its turn so that secondary combustion would occur in front of and over the baffle. Cawley-LeMay, Upland and others copied this design. IIRC even some old parlor stoves had a basic top air port to promote some secondary burning.

 

[Fsappo]

I guess I ASSumed the style that the EPA stoves were modeled after, baffle at the top with rows of holes where you can see the reburn happening. Did the Tile Fire even have those or were my late teen years clouded by "something"?

 

[begreen]

Lots of stoves did not use tubes to introduce secondary air for burning. Not sure who was the first with the tubes. The Avalon and Hearthstone H1 both had an air tube IIRC. But VC had downdraft secondary combustion before that in the mid 1970s.

 

[David.Ervin]

I think many of the vermont castings stoves use a setup where the flue gasses exit through the back rear of the combustion chamber, with the idea that pulling them down through a hot coal bed would cause a second burn and clean 'em up.

 

[Ash]

Thanks for the info guys. I guess I was referring to modern stoves with secondary tubes. With most EPA stoves using them if the first person who developed them would've patented them I wonder what all the other manufacturers would be using now.

 

[begreen]

I "think" the first was Travis' early Avalon stove. Craig would know for sure.