Where does Franklin stove come from?
The Franklin stove comes from Philadelphia, where Benjamin Franklin designed an iron 'Pennsylvania fireplace' to heat a room better while burning less wood. Offered a patent, he chose to let anyone copy it instead.
A hot-air box behind the fire
Fuel was becoming expensive in the northern colonies, Franklin warned: some towns now fetched their wood from nearly 100 miles away, and as the country was cleared and settled it would grow scarcer and dearer. Open fireplaces sent much of their heat up the chimney. Franklin's answer was an iron box set into the hearth. Behind the fire stood a hollow air-box: fresh air came in from below, was warmed, and flowed into the room through openings near the top, while the smoke had to pass around it on its way to the chimney.
Cast at a Pennsylvania furnace
Franklin's autobiography dates the invention to 1742, but the editors of his papers think the winter of 1739–40 more likely, and a Philadelphia newspaper was already advertising the 'New Invented Fire-Places' in December 1741. His friend Robert Grace cast the iron plates at Warwick Furnace in Chester County. In 1744 Franklin printed a pamphlet explaining how they worked. He had taken the idea of warming air in ducts from the Frenchman Nicolas Gauger, as he pointed out himself.
A gift instead of a patent
Pennsylvania's governor, George Thomas, liked the design described in the pamphlet so much that he offered Franklin a patent for the sole sale of the fireplaces. Franklin declined: as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, he explained, 'we should be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously'. Other ironmongers soon made and sold his design. Franklin went on to design five heaters in all, the last ones burning coal.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org ↗ · founders.archives.gov ↗ · harvardmagazine.com ↗
.jpg/330px-Ridin'_Alone._(Unsplash).jpg)
.jpg/330px-Striped_skunk%2C_too_close_(21304640929).jpg)
