Stoves and Ovens: Gas and Electric

For almost three centuries, most Americans cooked before an open fireplace or hearth. In the nineteenth century, Americans shifted to wood- or coal-burning ovens, ranges, and stoves. An oven was simply a metal box used for baking, whereas a range was a flat surface with two or more holes into which pots could be fitted and used for boiling or frying. The word “stove” frequently meant a combination of oven and range.

Coal- and wood-burning stoves had definite advantages over an open fireplace, but they also had disadvantages. Wood did not furnish sustained heat, which made baking difficult. Coal filled the kitchen with dust and ashes. Both coal and wood stoves generated considerable external heat, which was desirable during the winter, but in hot weather the extreme heat made the kitchen almost unbearable. For these reasons alternative fuels, such as gas and electricity, were explored as possible substitutes for coal and wood.