High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Franklin stove is a metal-lined fireplace named after its inventor, Benjamin Franklin. It was invented in 1741. It had a hollow baffle near the rear (to transfer more heat from the fire to a room`s air) and relied on an "inverted siphon" to draw the fire`s hot fumes around the baffle. It was intended to produce more heat and less smoke than an ordinary open fireplace. It is also known as a "circulating stove" or the "Pennsylvania fireplace".