Stove

A stove is an enclosed space in which fuel is burned to provide heating.

Types of stove include the kitchen stove which is an appliance designed for cooking food and the wood-burning stove or a coal stove which is typically used for heating a dwelling.

Daruma stove, a traditional Japanese wood-burning stove

Early clay closed stoves used for cooking were known from the Chinese Qin Dynasty (221 BC–206/207 BC), and a similar design known as kamado appeared in the Kofun period (3rd–6th century) in Japan. These stoves were fired by wood or charcoal through a hole in the front. Such Far Eastern closed stoves did not spread to European countries until the end of the Middle Ages.

One of the first European closed stoves was built in Alsace, France in the late 15th century. It was made entirely of brick with porcelain tiles on the outside. They contained a small firebox at the bottom where wood was burned and a series of winding flue passages through which the smoke moved to the chimney.

The first rudimentary cast-iron stove, which further improved heat transfer from the fuel, was produced at Lynn, Massachusetts in 1642. This stove had no grates and was little more than a cast-iron box.

By the 1720s, such cast iron stoves were beginning to be made in quantity in North America and Europe. They were called Five-plate stoves and were fed by wood, charcoal, or coal. Used both for heating and cooking, they had an oven below and pot holes on top. However, because they gave off a large amount of heat, they made the kitchen an uncomfortable place in the summer.

A later cast iron wood stove in Massachusetts. By Victorgrigas 

On June 11, 1742 Benjamin Franklin, laid the foundations of modern stove design with his 'Pennsylvania Fireplace', which stood in the fireplace. It incorporated a grate and sliding doors that controlled the flow of air through the stove.

The grate of Franklin's stove extended out into the room, where it cast warmth in all directions, providing considerably more heat than the drafty open fireplace. It also enabled people to use less wood.

However Franklin's 'Pennsylvania Fireplace' was finicky and achieved few sales until it was improved by David Rittenhouse. Despite never catching on, many stoves continue to be referred to as "Franklin" stoves.

A Franklin stove

Jordan Mott invented the first practical coal stove in 1833. Mott's stove, which was called the baseburner, had ventilation to burn the coal efficiently.

In the USA by the 1850s, coal-burning stoves were replacing fireplaces.

The first gas stoves were developed as early as the 1820s, but it was only in the 1880s that the technology started becoming a commercial success in the Western World.

Early gas stoves produced by Windsor in 1851. From Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management,.

The Michigan Stove Company made the World's Largest Stove  a 15-ton replica their popular kitchen cooking stove. The stove was made for the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, after which it was displayed for advertising for decades. The large replica was 25 ft (7.6 m) high, 20 ft (6.1 m) wide, 30 ft (9.1 m) long,

In America William Hadaway was issued the first patent for an electric stove in 1897. He was granted US patent # 574537 for an "Automatically Controlled Electric Oven".

In the 1920s gas stoves were found in most Western European and American households with top burners and interior ovens. However, by the end of the decade, electric stoves were beginning to compete with gas stoves.

A high-end gas stove called the AGA cooker was invented in 1922 by Swedish Nobel prize winner Gustaf Dalén. It was the first energy efficient stove that requires no adjustment during cooking and has an oven that is constantly hot.

During the energy crisis of the early 1970s, wood stoves regained their popularity in some United States homes, especially in the North, where firewood was cheap. However, the dangers of fire, carbon monoxide poisoning from poorly working stoves or leaking flue pipes, air pollution, and the increasing cost of wood have since limited their use.