User:Dgjesquire/Earth Stove

Earth Stove

'The Earth Stove' is the brand name, and company name of a Pacific northwest manufacturer of wood-burning stove as residential room-heating appliances, generally wood-fueled and energy efficient fireplace inserts sold throughout the US and Canada. Started in 1976, the Earth Stove brand merged into (LHP) a business unit of Lennox International (LII), in 1999.

History

Global commerce jolted by the 1973 energy crisis experienced gasoline shortages, price fixing, surging renewable energy awareness, and price inflation broadly in goods and services.

Two brothers, long-time Willamette Valley, Oregon residents, Kendrick and John McIntire began the business in response to the demise of a commercial fire-door company they began in the mid-1970's. Having families to feed, and investing life savings, the partners lack of commercial penetration into that market prompted the need for an alternate product line. They hit upon the wood stove idea by chance, utilizing their facility, known suppliers, tools and staff.

Consumers sought alternatives to escalating home heating costs; in one form or another, people had done so for hundreds of years. The Franklin Stove, also known as the circulating stove, was a metal-lined fireplace with baffles in the rear to improving airflow, providing more heat with less smoke than ordinary open fireplaces. It became popular throughout the early colonial territory and gradually supplemented the open fireplace. The Franklin stove was invented (but not patented) by Benjamin Franklin in 1741.

Ken's residence used a vintage-style Franklin replica; he felt he could improve upon it with time, and modest effort. His prototype overcame the inadequacies of the Franklin, enabling savings in his monthly 'baseboard heat' bills at the time. John, meanwhile, heated his above ground swim pool using an early prototype.



Initial designs were side-loaded; but, when asked to design a front-loading door so that the fire would be visible, they re-designed to that retail concept. "We were getting so many calls from people wanting to sell our stoves, we couldn't handle them all. Whenever we sold a stove, we could count on three more sales from that person's friends and neighbors. We didn't advertise because we had no real need to. Word-of-mouth was enough.", said John.

Relying on steel like Franklin, The Earth Stove company marketed welded-steel free-standing stoves, brick-lined for longevity, incorporating a bi-metallic spring acting as a thermostat controlling air-draft inlet flow.

Conditions of the time conspired to encourage a positive reception of the brothers' stove design. American culture celebrated a new-found back-to-nature enthusiasm ; books were widely read and studied regarding the environment, its' protection recognized as a personal responsibility, indeed environmentalism became a matter of political consensus; and, alternative lifestyle anti-establishment concepts birthed in the hippie subculture and anti-war movement of the 1960's blossomed. As a powerful Middle East oil cartel responded to recent Middle East events resulting in the first oil shock, the wood-fueled stove industry was poised capitalizing on a perfect storm of events.

In a study for the U.S. Department of Energy, the consulting firm Booz, Allen & Hamilton found that more than one million wood-fueled stoves were sold in 1979-the sequel of the earlier oil price spiral-along with another million fireplace installed as new residential construction. Inflation was rampant at this time.

Recognized by many as product of its' times, benefiting from 'generic name' association for the industry generally, an investor persuaded them to sell him manufacturing and distribution license rights to five states. The brothers realized such a licensing scheme would enhance brand penetration all through North America, while the founders' collected royalties on every stove purchased. This is generally the McDonald's fast-food restaurant model.

Soon, eight manufacturing licensees were operational. Product line expanded to 14 variations, plus two fireplace insert models. In Montana, the distributor earned the "Man of the Year " award by the Montana Chamber of Commerce, conferred by the SBA.

Meanwhile, environmental quality was a growing national debate including renewable energy, prompting various pieces of controlling legislation. This inspired wood-fired appliance industry leaders to adopt innovation of catalytic combustor stoves (parallel with the automobile industry use of catalytic converters), while other models engineered super-heated gas in a secondary, upper combustion chamber to burn with virtually smokeless efficiency.

All the company's products were tested by the rating-testing agency I.C.B.O. (International Conference of Building Officials).

A sign of the times, the theme "Energy Turns the World" was chosen by the 1982 World's Fair at Knoxville, Tennessee to provide an international focal point for solutions to the world's energy crisis. The company was the only radiant wood-stove maker chosen to be displayed in the 'Energy Saving House'.

While founders patented their products, maintained corporate offices and component manufacturing at Tualatin, Oregon, they licensed assembly and regional manufacturing: (1) Earth Stove Northwest, Bend OR (2) Earth Stove Mid-America, Cambridge, OH (3) General Energy, Andrews, IN (4) Earth Stove Texas, Burnet, TX (5) Earth Stove East, Atlanta, GA (6) Polson Stove Shop, Polson, MT (7) Earth Stove Even Temp, Waco, NE (8) National Stove Works, Cobleskill, NY.

Consumer brand-awareness was maintained by campaign advertising targeting 30 national and regional publications, including Better Homes and Gardens, Popular Science, U.S. News and World Report, Home Energy Digest, Consumer Life, Saturday Review, Money Magazine, Field and Stream, Mother Earth News and Popular Mechanics.

Being perfected as a confluence of technology-applied-to-old-school-wood stoves, the 1990's ushered in the pellet stove fuel era. Modern stoves have evolved into 21st-century pellet stove appliances capable of controlled burn heat of 40 hours on a single load of renewable energy fuel.