| Dictionary: Franklin stove |
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| Franklin stove |
Burning wood above a cold air duct heats air which then passes through baffles and is released through vents on each side of the stove. (Precision Graphics) |
[After Benjamin FRANKLIN.]
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| Architecture: Franklin stove |
A freestanding, enclosed, cast-iron stove, set on short legs with provision for air circulation around, over, and under its exterior surfaces; serves the function of a fireplace incorporating a grate; usually attributed to Benjamin Franklin. It is fuel efficient and superior to a fireplace as a means of heating a house because it is more fuel efficient and the source of heat is brought out into the room itself. The amount of heat the stove radiates can be controlled by regulating the draft through the stove by means of an adjustable opening in its front door.
| US History Encyclopedia: Franklin Stove |
Franklin Stove, invented in 1742 by Benjamin Franklin, was a device for giving greater warmth, more comfort, and cleaner heating at a lower fuel cost. Franklin's idea, drafted in cooperation with his friend Robert Grace, consisted of a low stove equipped with loosely fitting iron plates through which air might circulate and be warmed before passing into the room. This "New Pennsylvania Fireplace" avoided drafts, gave more even temperatures throughout the room, and checked loss of heat through the chimney. Designed to be used in an already existing hearth, it did not resemble what are now called Franklin stoves. The plan was probably a development of an earlier ten-plate stove and was, in turn, supplanted by the newer cannon-stove invented at Lancaster a decade later.
Bibliography
Brewer, Priscilla J. From Fireplace to Cookstove: Technology and the Domestic Ideal in America. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 2000.
—Harry Emerson Wildes/A. R.
| Wikipedia: Franklin stove |
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This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007) |
A Franklin stove,was named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin, is a metal-lined fireplace. It was made in 1742 & has baffles in the rear to improve the airflow, providing more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. It is also known as a circulating stove. Although in current usage the term "stove" implies a closed firebox, the front of a Franklin stove is open to the room.
While Benjamin Franklin is often credited with its invention, some historians believe the circulating stove was actually invented 70 years prior to Franklin's experimentation with stoves.[citation needed] The metallurgy at the time, however, required that it be made of cast iron, which cracked when fired. This caused smoke to pass through the cracks and into the room: as a result, the original inventors did not patent or sell their device. Franklin designed a similar stove with more advanced metallurgy and was successful in making it work—at some point in 1742, according to his own account.
In Franklin's original design the opening to the flue (behind the baffles) was in the floor of the stove, requiring the hot exhaust gases to flow downward before going up the chimney. However, others soon improved the design and Franklin himself made a much improved version with better fume extraction and a provision for the use of coal, sometime in the 1770s.
Franklin placed the design in the public domain, as he did with all of his other inventions, and refused offers by others to obtain patents for him. He clearly indicated in his Autobiography his preference in such matters: "As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours; and this we should do freely and generously."[1]
Tales of the origins of the stove mention Franklin's desire to attain a greater degree of domestic comfort, fireplaces having then too many inconveniences. At the time, Philadelphia, where Franklin lived, was the biggest city in British North America and wood was becoming scarce and costly, given the ever rising demand and the high cost of transporting it. His stove was described by his contemporaries as giving off twice the amount of heat as a normal fireplace for a third of the wood consumed.
The stove became very popular and gradually replaced open fireplaces. To this day, most American fireplaces are box-shaped, similar to the Franklin stove. The exception is the Rumford fireplace, developed by Benjamin Thompson.
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Architecture. McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| US History Encyclopedia. © 2006 through a partnership of Answers Corporation. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Franklin stove". Read more |
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