Franklin stove

noun

1. a cast-iron stove having the general form of a fireplace with enclosed top, bottom, side, and back, the front being completely open or able to be closed by doors.
2. any of various fireplaces having a cast-iron top, back, and sides, with some provision for circulating air behind them in order to provide heat.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Franklin stove¹

1780–90, Americanism; named after Benjamin Franklin, who designed it

Example Sentences

Among his inventions, which he refused to patent, are the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove and even the eerie-sounding armonica – a musical instrument that used an array of glass bowls.

From Salon

But I was working on gaining back some of the weight I’d lost, and we’d bought us a tidy modest outfit with a barn and some pasturage and a kitchen without even a hand pump indoors, and an old-fashioned Franklin stove—not one of those modern self-cookers like Miss Lizzie is making a killing off building for the rich people’s houses.

From The Verge

The Franklin stove went over with a crash.

From Literature

Dickinson had a Franklin stove fitted to a bricked-up fireplace to keep her warm, which meant that she could write by candlelight, with the door closed, for as long as she wanted.

From The New Yorker

He’s living temporarily rent-free in an old cottage on a small rural property that relies on a Franklin stove for heat.

From Seattle Times

Related Words

• boiler
• heater
• heating system
• incinerator
• kiln
• stove