Franklin Wood Stoves

The history books date the Franklin wood stoves to the year 1742 when it was invented by famous Benjamin Franklin, who actually called it the "Pennsylvania Fireplace" himself. The stove he designed nevertheless took his last name, thus the Franklin wood stoves were born. Fireplaces and wood stoves before this had several problems, namely there were considered dangerous and used too much wood to produce an adequate heat. The efficiency was low and most of the heat went out of the chimney with the smoke, thus undermining the use of the stove in general.

The new Franklin wood stove was free standing, with a hooded enclosure to it, and a more sophisticated system of flues for heating efficiency. It helped to circulate the warm air around the room so that less wood was required. The cast iron was used so that when the fire was lit it wouldn't crack; an important improvement in the history of stove. At first the opening let the smoke drift out a hole towards the ground before rising out, but this proved to be a problem and inventors quickly fixed it, including modifications by Franklin himself around the 1770's. He even made adjustments for the use of coal.

A good tradition of Franklin wood stoves was continued by the Vogelzang Company, which is producing them now. The stove was modified, it has more new accessories, and come as a Franklin Fireplace but still represents and reminds the same stove that Americans used for over 200 years to heat their houses during long winter nights. The new stove can operate as either an open-hearth fireplace or a cast iron woodstove and producing a lot of heat with BTU of 69,000.

With the price of fuel and gas growing and no sign of any change in a near feature, more and more people are looking back to wood burning stoves. They may not be as easy to maintain and operate as gas or electric stoves, but they definitely one of the cost effective. After 200 years of use, Franklin wood stoves may be changed, but still feature the same colonial design as at the time of Benjamin Franklin, and they certainly can add something more than just a warmth to your house, and that's an old tradition and style.You can have a look on current listings of the Franklin wood stoves below.