August 20: Themed Museum Tour: “Save the solid fuel”
5pm-6pm at the Ironworks Museum
Price: NOK 100
Welcome to a talk and guided tour on cast-iron stoves and heating technology from the 1850s to the 1940s.
Given today’s demands for clean-burning stoves, it is interesting to see how knowledge of heating technology and firing methods – both scientific and in the public perception – mutually influenced stove development from the mid-1800s. The development of these stoves was based on a need and demand for the cheapest and most efficient heat production.
The lecture examines how knowledge of and perceptions regarding the heating technology and combustion efficiency of cast-iron stoves were developed and disseminated from 1850 to 1940. The lecture highlights examples from contemporary scientific articles, reports, popular literature, newspaper articles, catalogues and patents. There was much trial and error, but also public education and textbooks on stove firing.
Hilde Woxen Stormark is a curator at the Vestfold Museums. For several years, she has worked on communicating and developing the history of the Eidsfoss Ironworks in Vestfold. The lecture is, among other things, the result of a preliminary study for a new main exhibition at the museum, which is due to open in a couple of years.