I took some pics of old stoves while on vacation in MI. We were in the Mackinaw City area and toured a couple of forts up there and an old smelting town down by Gladstone, MI.
I saw this coal burner a few weeks ago. It has some beautiful castings. I believe it was for a bedroom.
Many of the old cast iron stoves are works of art. I always marvel at the creativity of the mold makers. There so many small foundries back in the day that a wide variety of ideas were turned out. The ability to make wood and coal stoves in America got us away from imports and helped a lot in achieving independence for heating by not having to import from Europe and more affordability for most Americans.
The effects of insulation in a house had a lot to do with stove manufacturing as well. In the house we are moving into, the old chimney had a thimble in the basement, in the kitchen, in the living room (parlor) and then on the second floor. It was a 1000 square foot home! With no insulation to keep the heat in though, the silly house needed (4) stoves. All required different design considerations. The kitchen for heat and cooking. The basement was big just to drive off the cold from the fieldstone foundation. The bedrooms small so they would not stifle the occupants. And the parlor stove had to be a show piece of the home.
Here is a crappy pic of a cool old cool stove. It’s in the house that the woman lived in that wrote Ann of green gables. They said there were plates that you could put in the top chamber to make it a smoker or oven.
