Last week, we talked about the inventiveness of the people who lived in Troy during the city's first 34 years (1816 to 1850). During this time Troy grew in size from a mere few thousand ( c. 4000) to almost 30,000 people (28, 785 in 1850).

Over 400 patents were issued to Capital District inventors. Albany, Troy's chief rival led the pack with 157 patents with Troy close by at 132. However, between 1809 and 1850, 123 out of 479 patents issued in the Capital District had to do with cast iron stoves or furnaces. Thirty one patents out of 132 in Troy were issued to 23 different Trojans for inventions relating to this industry. In Albany, 53 stove related patents were issued to 33 Albanians. Keeping people warm was certainly on the minds of many of our inventors.

In 1815, William T. James of Lansingburgh patented the first cookstove called the "Baltimore Cookstove." It was made and sold in Troy. Most stoves up to that time were imported as plates from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and assembled and sold here as finished product.

That all changed with the establishment of the Troy Air Furnace in 1818, on the southeast corner of 5th and Grand Division Streets, and the Eagle Furnace in 1823, at 42 Firth Avenue, as well as other iron foundries which processed their own iron (either from scratch or from imported pig iron). The Starbuck brothers (Charles and Nathaniel) began casting stoves in Troy as early as 1821 with partner Ephraim Gurley.

Troy would soon become a leader in cast iron stove productions. In 1829, two foundries produced $120,000 worth of stoves. By 1855, there were seven foundries with 670 men and produced 75,000 stoves. By 1875, 23 stove companies were producing more than 4 million dollars worth of stoves employing more than 2000 men. By 1888, only five were left but were producing $2 million dollars worth of stoves.

Troy stoves can still be found (and being used) around the world with associated names such as Fuller & Warren; Bussey & McLeod; Burdett, Smith, & Co.; George W. Swett; Quimby & Perry; Geer; Cox; Eddy; Ingals; Torrance; Burtis, and many more. One historian wrote that Llamas carried Troy stoves across the "Andes to the western coast of South America," and even camels carried them to "the shores of the Black Sea in Asia, and ships to Ireland and North Europe, Turkey, China, Japan, Australia, and in fact, to nearly all parts of the civilized world."

One of the more famous stove makers was Fuller & Warren from South Troy. This stove maker, known as the Clinton Stove Works, comprised six acres of land on the Hudson below River Street between Madison and Monroe. The main building was standing until it was knocked down two years ago (for no apparent reason). Several of the foundry buildings still exist as the only physical testament that this world supplier of stoves ever existed in Troy. In the 1876 World Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia, one of their stoves won a special award for beauty.

It was at Fuller & Warren that Philo Penfield Stewart, inventor of the ultimate cooking stove would gain his fame. In fact, Fuller & Warren stoves, no matter what they looked like were known as "Stewart" stoves. Fuller & Warren bought the Stewart patents in 1859.

The second largest stove maker in Troy was the Empire Stove Works erected in 1846 and located on Second and Ida Streets along the Poestenkill. Empire was started by Anson Atwood in 1841. Anson was an early stove inventor with four patents from 1838-45 that included a summer cooking stove (1838), a railway cooking stove (1839), a new designed cooking stove (1842), and an air tight stove (1845). George W. Swett took over this works and by 1886 were producing stoves with a world reputation for quality. I've been told this foundry has been purchased recently and will be made into a restaurant. I hope they don't destroy the interior in doing so.

Many of the stoves were replaced by furnaces in the later half of the19th and early 20th centuries. However, millions of people around the world were warmed by Troy stoves for nearly a century that had been invented or improved by the following Trojans: Anson Atwood; C. H. Rogers and S. H. Hancox ; Caleb Slade; Daniel Williams; D. B. Cox; Eben Eaton; Eli C. Robinson; Elias Johnson; Elihu Smith ; Ezra Ripley; J. B. Challar; E. Jones; James Wager; John Morrison; John T. Davey ; Peter Low; Rensselaer D. Granger; Samuel Hanley; Samuel Pierce; and Sylvester Parker.

We have a warm spot for all of them.