What is this artifact?

This artifact is a large home heater surrounded with ceramic tile, that has existed for at least five centuries. This type of residential heating system is sometimes referred to as a "kakelugn" in Swedish (in English, a cockle stove). They were made of brick, soapstone, tile, stone, stucco, or a combination of materials, rather than steel or cast iron. It is freestanding and usually requires special support to bear its weight. It consists of a firebox and heat-exchange channels or partitions that provide additional surface area. These absorb heat from the hot exhaust gases before they exit into the chimney. The fire in a masonry heater burns much hotter than in a metal stove. The ceramic tile surrounding the cockle stove also acts as insulation to retain heat.

In 1767, Carl Johan Cronstedt and Fabian Wrede increased the efficiency of the wood-burning stove roughly eightfold by redesigning it and directing the smoke and heated gases through long flues that wound up and down inside the stove. The stove and its flues were built of special masonry bricks that captured and then radiated, more heat from the burning process. This new technology allowed more rooms to be heated with the same amount of firewood.

The innovation of his masonry stove system captured the heat from only periodic burning of wood, usually in the mornings and nights. Cronstedt's invention had significant environmental significance as well because it saved forests from excess usage.