I am going to tell you my own personal story about wood burning stoves and why I am writing about them.
I grew up in sunny and warm Barcelona, off the Mediterranean coast, where we rarely heard about temperatures below zero , not even in the thick of winter. I only saw snow twice in my first 10 years of life. Perhaps this is the reason why I always had this fascination for snow and colder climates.
I remember –as a very young child- avidly reading stories about forests, log cabins and people who lived in them. I loved the tales about Indians, bears, wolves, etc. My favorite book was “The story of a wolf-dog” by James Oliver Curwood. In some of the pictures of my story books appeared a black wood stove with four legs which had a little front door with a golden knob, and a black chimney (or flue) going up thru the ceiling. The whole family was gathered around the stove telling stories, laughing, reading books, etc.
Later in life, my passion for the animals took me to work in a Zoo for many years, and yes, I did purchase a wood stove for my country house in the Pyrenees Mountains. Although we did not use the stove for cooking, other than maybe heating the kettle, the stove was used to heat up water which would travel thru pipes inside the walls and nicely warm up the house in the areas the hot air did not reach. It was only used for recreational purposes, as we did not live there in the winter, but I remember it gave a very homey and cozy ambiance and our children loved it. We also had a fireplace that substituted TV during those nice family holidays in the Pyrenees.
Life took an amazing detour, our marriage broke and I became a Christian missionary, who for the last 35 years has been travelling the world and volunteering in many projects. I later married a Canadian missionary and we now live in Taiwan with some of our older children. But the golden age is coming fast and the thoughts of going “home” and living in a small cozy house –with our own garden and a few chickens– often cross my mind. And of course, the old wood burning stove would come in very handy up in Canada, this is why I am doing a thorough research on this amazing device that has kept millions of people warm thru generation after generation all over the world.
Brief History of the Wood Burning Stove
Although nowadays it has become quite trendy amongst the greens, environmentalists and romantics, it seems like it is not really a modern invention, as wood burning has been the basic way for humans to cook and heat their dwellings since time immemorial.
Thru the ages much progress has been done from open fires to fireplaces in the homes, tee pees and black houses, to wood burning stoves. They found wood burning stoves in China from 200 before AD! The Romans were known for using wood burning stoves to heat up their baths. They even had mason build stoves with conducts under the tiles that would heat up the floor, like our modern radiant floor heating does.
Around the 1500’s –coinciding with that famous small ice age that fell upon Europe for almost 3 centuries–and the desperate need for people to heat their homes, made cast iron stoves proliferate.
The oldest ones must have been earthen ware stoves enclosed in iron castings, beautifully decorated with arabesque designs. Some are still found with inscriptions in different languages, including Latin. One of the typical stoves of the era was the 5 plated wall jambs, which was fueled from another adjoining room.
Some early settlers from Europe brought with them to the New World the ideas and molds for casting their iron stoves.
Benjamin Franklin is credited as having been the first one to invent the wood burning stove in America, the way we know it today. Stand alone and with a chimney or flue. Nevertheless it was not until 1796 that Count Rumford constructed the famous Rumford fireplace, improving on Franklins design.
In the early 20th century, metal draws and ovens were added to the wood burning stoves so that they could be used for cooking as well. Different models emerged, pot bellied and cylinder variations affected appearance and function but not efficiency.The oil crisis of the 1970’s increased the sales of wood burning stoves and people became aware of some of their inadequacies. They realized that –as the main source of heating for the home—it demanded big quantities of Wood.
They were also hazardous and some homes caught on fire due to residual creosote building up inside the stove pipes and eventually igniting.
Modern wood burning stoves are now constructed out of steel and aluminum and are airtight. They retain more heat because they have firebrick linings, and they give off fewer gases, being more environmental friendly. There are high requirements as per the smoke emissions allowed in populated areas, and the wood burning stoves have to comply with the local regulations.
Many are making a comeback to the wood burning stoves, both for the increasing price of heating fuels and the concern about the environment, plus the cozy feeling that sitting in front of a burning fire brings to your family.
