Cooking and heating in Colonial America

[firecracker_77]

Hi Firecracker,
yes it would look great in the right house wouldnt it, knew I had seen one on the Stovax site, didnt know if you still had them in production in the US, so thought I would attach the link.

Bet they get through a fair bit of wood though !.

I'm sure it would use quite a bit. I probably wouldn't burn that everyday. More to create an ambiance on a Saturday night or something like that. I'd never give up a woodstove as they don't send heat up the chimney from the other parts of the home. I really want to try the hearth cooking this year.

 

[BrowningBAR]

That's pretty much what I replaced with my Fireview.

View attachment 72649

I looked at a few of those when I was searching for my first stove. Gotta say, I'm glad I didn't get one.

 

[firecracker_77]

I looked at a few of those when I was searching for my first stove. Gotta say, I'm glad I didn't get one.

I still like it from the standpoint of an open hearth fire though. Woodstoves are great heaters, but an open flame fireplace is good too.

 

[firecracker_77]

There is the option of burning a stove with the door open I guess. I have done that.

 

[BrowningBAR]

I still like it from the standpoint of an open hearth fire though. Woodstoves are great heaters, but an open flame fireplace is good too.

I was looking at it only from an efficiency stand point. The old Vigilant ate enough wood as it is. That style stove would have chewed through even more wood on me.

 

[firecracker_77]

I was looking at it only from an efficiency stand point. The old Vigilant ate enough wood as it is. That style stove would have chewed through even more wood on me.

I agree 100%. I would want one of these as an occasional fire sort of thing. A couple fires a week perhaps. For day in and day out heating, a stove is most efficient. Wood is expensive and hauling it, cutting it, splitting it.... Not efficient with a fireplace

 

[Redbarn]

Still, the stand-alone Franklin principle stove has endured from 1741 to the present. A 271 year product cycle.

 

[firecracker_77]

Still, the stand-alone Franklin principle stove has endured from 1741 to the present. A 271 year product cycle.

That thing is beautiful...especially with the arm for a pot / grill attachment. I am already planning how I'm going to cook inside my stove this year. That thing there takes all the dirty work out of it.

 

[begreen]

Still, the stand-alone Franklin principle stove has endured from 1741 to the present. A 271 year product cycle.

How did this more modern unit get called a Franklin stove? Functionally and physically, there is very little resemblance of this product to the original. It would appear that this became a common term applied to any fireplace sitting stove, similar to the way different brand facial tissues got know as Kleenex or all clear adhesive tapes are called Scotch tape.

"By the late 1780’s, David R. Rittenhouse.had redesigned the stove by adding an L-shaped chimney. Quite reasonably, he called it a Rittenhouse stove. But legend has its prerogatives; the device is known to this day as the Franklin stove. By 1790, the improved Franklin stove was in wide use and became an integral piece of Americana."

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/frankstove.htm

 

[firecracker_77]

How did this more modern unit get called a Franklin stove? Functionally and physically, there is very little resemblance of this product to the original. It would appear that this became a common term applied to any fireplace sitting stove, similar to the way different brand facial tissues got know as Kleenex or all clear adhesive tapes are called Scotch tape.

"By the late 1780’s, David R. Rittenhouse.had redesigned the stove by adding an L-shaped chimney. Quite reasonably, he called it a Rittenhouse stove. But legend has its prerogatives; the device is known to this day as the Franklin stove. By 1790, the improved Franklin stove was in wide use and became an integral piece of Americana."

http://www.ideafinder.com/history/inventions/frankstove.htm

Agree with the analogy to Kleenex or Band-Aids as the generic name for bandages

 

[Redbarn]

Another old idea:

"In the mid-eighteenth century Cronstedt, working together with Fabian Wrede, increased the efficiency of the wood-burning stove roughly eightfold with a new technology and invention. Their 1767 redesign of the traditional wood-burning stove directed the smoke and heated gases through long flues that wound up and down inside the stove. The stove and its flues were built of special masonry bricks that captured, and then radiated, more heat from the burning process. The new technology changed the pattern designs of large interior building space for residences and other public buildings. It allowed more rooms to be heated with the same amount of firewood. It had significant social and economical consequences throughout Sweden and later throughout Europe and America up into the twentieth century.
Cronstedt showed how in a ceramic designed wood burning stove that much more additional heat could be captured in a heavily tiled system of five long internal flues. The innovation of his masonry stove system captured the heat from only periodic burning of wood. It would then spread out that heat over a longer period for a fairly constant temperature. Because of this it only needed to be lit in the mornings and in the evenings. This type of residential (or interior space) heating system is sometimes referred to as a kakelugn in a Swedish stove. In England and America it is called a "tile stove" or masonry stove."

(broken link removed to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Johan_Cronstedt)

 

[firecracker_77]

Another old idea:

"In the mid-eighteenth century Cronstedt, working together with Fabian Wrede, increased the efficiency of the wood-burning stove roughly eightfold with a new technology and invention. Their 1767 redesign of the traditional wood-burning stove directed the smoke and heated gases through long flues that wound up and down inside the stove. The stove and its flues were built of special masonry bricks that captured, and then radiated, more heat from the burning process. The new technology changed the pattern designs of large interior building space for residences and other public buildings. It allowed more rooms to be heated with the same amount of firewood. It had significant social and economical consequences throughout Sweden and later throughout Europe and America up into the twentieth century.
Cronstedt showed how in a ceramic designed wood burning stove that much more additional heat could be captured in a heavily tiled system of five long internal flues. The innovation of his masonry stove system captured the heat from only periodic burning of wood. It would then spread out that heat over a longer period for a fairly constant temperature. Because of this it only needed to be lit in the mornings and in the evenings. This type of residential (or interior space) heating system is sometimes referred to as a kakelugn in a Swedish stove. In England and America it is called a "tile stove" or masonry stove."

(broken link removed to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Johan_Cronstedt)

Masonry stoves are the best...expensive to build

 

[ScotO]

my one buddy tried to heat his house one winter with a Franklin stove.......he wasted more wood than you could even imagine in that old thing. Benjamin Franklin's idea was revolutionary, and he had many patents if I am not mistaken (related to woodstoves). It amazes me how every year, the technology (albeit simple most of the time) makes modern woodstoves better and better. How much better can they get?

 

[begreen]

I'll like them better when they load themselves!

 

[ScotO]

I'll like them better when they load themselves!

And maybe they'll be even better still when they CUT AND SPLIT THEIR OWN WOOD!

 

[firecracker_77]

And maybe they'll be even better still when they CUT AND SPLIT THEIR OWN WOOD!

invent an advanced firewood processor with kiln drying that also load the stove. done!

 

[Redbarn]

I'll like them better when they load themselves!

The early families had this very facility. Called Servants

 

[firecracker_77]

The early families had this very facility. Called Servants

I have a 1 year old servant in the making. Except, I'm her servant...so this isn't exactly working out so well.

 

[jharkin]

I've seen real original frankin fireplaces in museum houses... never lit though. The other trick they used to do was put the stove dead center in the middle of the room and then have a verey long horizontal run to the chimney at an outside wall. If you ever go to Sturbridge look at the general store and the bank. Central placement probably heated the room a bit more even but the creosote buildup must have been a nightmare.

We know lots of these houses burned down..........

 

[DianeB]

(broken link removed to http://www.historic-deerfield.org/open-hearth-cooking-program)

Open hearth cooking classes for those interested.

Historic Deerfield a nice place to visit, especially in the fall.

 

[fishingpol]

I've seen real original frankin fireplaces in museum houses... never lit though. The other trick they used to do was put the stove dead center in the middle of the room and then have a verey long horizontal run to the chimney at an outside wall. If you ever go to Sturbridge look at the general store and the bank. Central placement probably heated the room a bit more even but the creosote buildup must have been a nightmare.

We know lots of these houses burned down..........

The Shakers were known to do that too.

 

[Flatbedford]

my one buddy tried to heat his house one winter with a Franklin stove.......he wasted more wood than you could even imagine in that old thing.

We burned our Franklin style stove for the first 5 winters we lived in the house. It burned an enormous amount of wood. It was not unusual for me to reload it every 2 hours or so. If reloaded that often it made some serious heat, but couldn't do it long enough to keep the house warm. With the stove doors open, I could easily get the living room up around 90, even in single digit outside temps. I miss the massive fast heat it made, but don't miss burning a wheelbarrow full of wood in one night.
It is our outside fireplace now.

 

[DianeB]

We burned our Franklin style stove for the first 5 winters we lived in the house. It burned an enormous amount of wood. It was not unusual for me to reload it every 2 hours or so. If reloaded that often it made some serious heat, but couldn't do it long enough to keep the house warm. With the stove doors open, I could easily get the living room up around 90, even in single digit outside temps. I miss the massive fast heat it made, but don't miss burning a wheelbarrow full of wood in one night.
It is our outside fireplace now.

How do you keep it from rusting?

 

[Flatbedford]

I wire wheel and paint it occasionally. If it rusts too much, I'll scrap it and find another. Stoves like this are often on Craig's List for cheap.

 

[tickbitty]

When we first moved here my wife was some kind of tour guide for Williamsburg. Everybody we knew, and some we didn't, came flying in and she drove them down for the tour. Me, I just used to go to a bar next to William and Mary when I was stationed at Ft. Eustis because they didn't ask for ID. History buff that I am.

Haha Bart I just ran into this because I referred someone on a neighborhood board here in Williamsburg to Hearth and wanted to see if they had been here yet. Anyway - I bet that bar near W&M was the Green Leafe, wasn't it?