From a modern BK to a Franklin stove

[EatenByLimestone]

Excepting the obvious case of a cold pipe, or indoor temperatures not much warmer than outdoor, smoke roll-out is nearly always a function of fireplace (or stove door) opening size to flue cross-section. Simply put, it takes a bigger pipe to prevent smoke roll-out on a bigger opening. So, if that stove has double doors, you might do well to work as much as possible with just opening one of the two doors.

For an absurd case in point, look up the chimney of any cooking fireplace, such as the one shown in my avatar. With fireplace openings of 20 - 40 square feet, you'll see a flue large enough to understand the origins of any story of people or jolly fat elves entering a house thru the chimney. Santa didn't have to squeeze down to 6" diameter, in the 18th century.

But he still had to contend with the fire at the bottom!

 

[Ashful]

But he still had to contend with the fire at the bottom!

Not if it had been more than an hour or three from last load. BK did not make open cooking fireplaces. 😋

 

[coaly]

Excepting the obvious case of a cold pipe, or indoor temperatures not much warmer than outdoor, smoke roll-out is nearly always a function of fireplace (or stove door) opening size to flue cross-section. Simply put, it takes a bigger pipe to prevent smoke roll-out on a bigger opening. So, if that stove has double doors, you might do well to work as much as possible with just opening one of the two doors.

For an absurd case in point, look up the chimney of any cooking fireplace, such as the one shown in my avatar. With fireplace openings of 20 - 40 square feet, you'll see a flue large enough to understand the origins of any story of people or jolly fat elves entering a house thru the chimney. Santa didn't have to squeeze down to 6" diameter, in the 18th century.

These have bifold doors that don’t seal and entire open front when open. A slight step above an open fireplace. It is a freestanding cast iron fireplace. One of these; https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/atlanta-stove-works-model-28-parts.158464/

The original Franklin Pennsylvania Fireplace had a false back that exhaust goes down the back before getting out. Lamp black and soot was a commodity back then.

 

[Ashful]

Yep. In addition to two cooking stoves, there were at least three of those installed in my house in the late 18th century, if the number of wall thimbles are any indicator. I can’t imagine they bothered keeping them all going, on a regular basis. I think “comfort” is a very modern concept, not given much thought or merit by our recent ancestors.

 

[stoveliker]

^^That. Living versus comfort.

 

[coaly]

Yep. In addition to two cooking stoves, there were at least three of those installed in my house in the late 18th century, if the number of wall thimbles are any indicator. I can’t imagine they bothered keeping them all going, on a regular basis. I think “comfort” is a very modern concept, not given much thought or merit by our recent ancestors.

Or they were coal stoves. Most were. It was too much labor and space for wood for 3 stoves. The flue temp burning coal is about half of wood. So 2 connected to a single chimney with no liner was warm, not hot on the outside of brick. I sold a duplex in town that had a double chimney in kitchen for two cookstoves. There was a doorway between residences for the first one up to care for the others stove. Each side had a single unlined brick chimney with a parlor stove in front room, coal in dining room, and a third breech upstairs in the largest bedroom. There is one last coal burner on the street, and it stinks. Could not imagine the smell back then from an entire town.

I was little when coal was delivered to my grandparents in the same town and don’t remember any nasty smell in the early 1960’s. Most boilers had an oil gun mounted on the loading door by then. My grandparents were probably some of the last to convert. He was a fireman on the railroad and fired the boilers at a local college after “retirement”. Never drove a motor vehicle, and on his walk to work would stop to maintain a apartment building boiler for 4 tenants before anyone got up.

Wood burning was not big in this area of PA. Wood went to mills for lumber. Coal was brought down from Scranton area by train and dumped from a trestle above our local coal company bins. Before the depression years it was $3.50 a ton. I have old receipts before my time, company is still in business, and I have a shovel with 3 digit phone number stamped in it. The crank phone that called them is still in my kitchen.

My wife’s grandparents had a coal stove in their kitchen with an oil burner on the side. It heated the entire stove which was their only heat source and hot water. Never saw that done before. He worked for years at a local hardware store, so it could have been his homemade upgrade from wood or coal.

 

[Ashful]

Or they were coal stoves. Most were. It was too much labor and space for wood for 3 stoves.

I suspect things were pretty regional, back when transporting anything meant days on an ox cart. North and west of me, there's plenty of coal country. However, not as much in rural SE PA farming communities.

I know that the few old stoves remaining in this particular house when the prior owners bought and renovated, were all designed for and run on wood. Likewise, growing up my grandparent's generation still had several farms that had been continuously in the family since various dates (eg. 1692, 1740, 1820), and they were all heated on wood as far back as any stories I heard.

If you travel 50 miles west or north of here, you're definitely into the coal-burning regions. But I suspect that getting it from there to this land-locked region north of Philly in the mid- or late-1700's would have been a serious feat.

 

[bholler]

I suspect things were pretty regional, back when transporting anything meant days on an ox cart. North and west of me, there's plenty of coal country. However, not as much in rural SE PA farming communities.

I know that the few old stoves remaining in this particular house when the prior owners bought and renovated, were all designed for and run on wood. Likewise, growing up my grandparent's generation still had several farms that had been continuously in the family since various dates (eg. 1692, 1740, 1820), and they were all heated on wood as far back as any stories I heard.

If you travel 50 miles west or north of here, you're definitely into the coal-burning regions. But I suspect that getting it from there to this land-locked region north of Philly in the mid- or late-1700's would have been a serious feat.

Coal stoves weren't around in the 1700s but the mid 1800s to early 1900s all of the USA was coal country

 

[Ashful]

Coal stoves weren't around in the 1700s but the mid 1800s to early 1900s all of the USA was coal country

That makes sense. I suspect that before the canals, there was nearly zero coal transportation, more than a few miles from any mine and processor. And likewise, it was probably not until after the railroads proliferated that it really became a practical endeavor to transport it to most communities.

But in the UK, coal was definitely a "thing" in the 1700's. Lots of stories of coal mine workers from that time. They had fewer transport problems than the US, and a better system of canals, predating ours.

 

[bholler]

That makes sense. I suspect that before the canals, there was nearly zero coal transportation, more than a few miles from any mine and processor. And likewise, it was probably not until after the railroads proliferated that it really became a practical endeavor to transport it to most communities.

But in the UK, coal was definitely a "thing" in the 1700's. Lots of stories of coal mine workers from that time. They had fewer transport problems than the US, and a better system of canals, predating ours.

Yes in the UK. But they were burning in open fireplaces. That wasn't done here nearly as much. They also had runout of wood to burn