History question

[jetsam]

Question about a wood heater that is definitely older than 1993.

Anyone know exactly how these things were used? It's an unvented heater in the Swedish royal palace, and most bedrooms have one.

I am guessing that maybe they were loaded with coals from the fireplaces or something? Still seems like a CO hazard.

There is no visible vent, either a pipe going out of the room, or a direct vent to the room itself (which I guess might have been an option in a drafty old castle).

 

[SpaceBus]

Maybe the vent is hidden? Those are nice pieces and I hope someone knows.

 

[begreen]

The vent is typically hidden out the back. This is pretty common, especially in well to do homes. In the famous Hofburg Palace in Vienna, all the stoves are like this. Some of them are monsters - 10-15 ft tall and exceptionally ornate. There are no openings on the room chamber side. Instead, they are fed and vented out behind the wall in an elaborate set of passageways by which servants could tend them. Each winter the palace stoves consumed a forest worth of wood.

 

[byQ]

 

[begreen]

This is a picture of an old stove I took in Bulgaria. It's a form of a masonry heater, somewhat like a vertical rocket stove in the main room. Cleanouts and chimney connection are on the back in the adjacent room.

 

[jetsam]

Here's some photos of the primary heaters in the palace.

They all seem to have a metal and/or masonry jacket that allows convection around the fire.





And the damper!

 

[jetsam]

From a different museum, a 1700s Swedish firestarter.

 

[SpaceBus]

Are you on vacation in sweeden?

 

[jetsam]

I went last month, found the photos on my phone yesterday.

 

[Ashful]

From a different museum, a 1700s Swedish firestarter.

View attachment 248207

View attachment 248209

Damn thing is so overly complicated, it looks British! A German would just use a match.

 

[begreen]

Here's some photos of the primary heaters in the palace.

They all seem to have a metal and/or masonry jacket that allows convection around the fire.

View attachment 248203
View attachment 248204
View attachment 248205

And the damper!

View attachment 248206

I'm not sure what those are from but they are not what I saw in the Hofburg Imperial Palace. They don't allow you to take pictures there but here are a couple of examples from online. There was nothing so simple or messy as a fireplace there.
"The fittings and furniture mostly date from the second half of the 19th century, but the majority of the ceramic stoves are part of the original 18th-century fittings. These stoves were fired by court stove-stokers from special parallel "heating" passages in order to avoid making the rooms dirty."

Imperial Apartments

The Hofburg was the residence of the Habsburgs for over 600 years and thus the centre of the Holy Roman Empire.

www.hofburg-wien.at

 

[jetsam]

Damn thing is so overly complicated, it looks British! A German would just use a match.

It predates matches, at least locally. It is probably from 1777-1800.