Been trying to find a definitive answer but I'm not getting anything worthwhile. I see these pop up on social media occasionally from Japan and Korean owners. But what is this style of stove/heater called?
They are wick boiling stoves, made across the globe by different manufacturers. In the UK, the name Beatrice is the most common. They are often called sad iron heaters, but that is not what they were sold as, nor are they practical for that purpose.
@Branny75 The windows are mica, a silicate. There's more info on the Husqvarna Beatrice in the link in post two.
I believe in the US they were called sad iron heaters and were used for that purpose. The irons themselves are sometimes still found on ebay or in the antique stores. Usually you used a pair of irons, one fully heated to do the ironing while the other heated up on the burner to replace the one in use after it cooled down. Of course from there these stoves evolved a bit to do cooking and boiling.
If you've ever used sad irons/flat irons, you'll know how important cleanliness of the iron is to avoid marking whites The irons could not be placed dirctly on the flame of a paraffin stove, instead a sepearate cast iron housing could be purchased which sat atop the stove, into which the irons could be placed to heat up in a clean envirnment. Attachments for both the wick type stoves discussed here, and paraffin pressure stoves, were made and sold. In the UK at least, it was however never the intended purpose of either type of stove, they were never advertised or marketed as iron heaters, I don't think any evidence has been found that they were in the US either, it seems the term isn't a historical one but a more recent label? It would be interesting to be proved wrong.
All I know about these is what I've learned over the years from the Miles Stair website. I can't imagine ironing your good clothes with one of these kero heated irons. I don't think the Coleman white gas pressure irons performed any better. At least you could boil a kettle on the sad iron heater after you finished the ironing chores.
My grandmother use to do the ironing with heavy cast iron “sad irons” or “flat irons” that were heated on the wood-fired slow combustion stove in the kitchen of the cottage. Tony
Flat/sad irons work very effectively, as do the many and varied smaller types produced for tailoring purposes. When used on a paraffin wick stove, they do require to be kept in a housing or on a cast plate to keep them clean, or on the well documented iron stands in the case of pressure stoves. Plenty of detail in this thread, showing some of the castings used to heat irons effectively.
This also is my understanding. Iron goes on the hot plate like a pan. I don't think I've seen it in action but had it explained with the iron and stove both present.
