A mystery masonry unit

[Kindlinmaker]

Circa 1993 I was on a whirlwind tour in Europe of printing and binding machine manufacturers; a regular event as part of my job responsibilities.  These trips were always an endurance contest sometimes hitting two or three different sites in as many different cities in a day.  A business dinner in Germany was held at a small inn and I have a distinct memory of a wood burning masonry heating unit in the middle of the dining room.  It captured my attention throughout the evening and was memorizing to watch as it gave off this ghostly image of the fire dancing inside.  

The unit was probably 2 1/2' - 3' square.  Was built atop a 2 1/2' high masonry pedestal of the same dimensions but made of block or stone.  The firebox was made of semi-transparent blocks maybe 3" square with a cast door on one side and capped with some type of flue arrangement.  The blocks were thick, colored and had a circular pattern in the "glass" similar to the "bullseye" pattern in some antique glass pains.  The blocks reminded me somewhat of opaque glass blocks only smaller.

I inquired about the unit but nobody seemed to know anything about it except that it was there as long as anyone could remember.  I was quickly distracted by business and didn't think about it any further until I was back home and even then I didn't seriously think about it until I retired.  I believe the inn was in Blaufelden but I am not sure.  I've done some internet searches for inns and hotels in the area but have not found any pictures.  I have a couple friends who are trying to identify family or friends in the area that might make some local inquiries but nothing yet.  I've asked a couple major woodstove dealers, who always go to the European shows,  if they have ever seen anything like this but no luck.  I'm not sure I'll ever be inquisitive enough to go over myself and spend time and money searching for something that may well be long since removed. 

Thinking through a build design, I cannot move beyond square one of how this was built.  It certainly predated fancy space age ceramics so what were the blocks made of to handle and transmit the heat.  How would you begin to deal with expansion and contraction unless the pieces interlocked like soapstone units.  Lots of questions and a rather lengthy (maybe boring) post but does anybody have any experience with anything like this?

[Old Greenhorn]

This is going to be an interesting thread. I don't know anything about the burners except that the construction is complex and expensive. None the less they are fascinating for the amount of heat they develop over a long period. I think @swampdonkey has one in his home. At any rate, I will be following here with interest. Thanks for starting this. Now I'll just sit back and learn.

[Southside]

Albie Barden of Madison, Maine builds such heaters.  Absolute craftsman.  He was at my place one time and we discussed having one built, sadly I could not afford to have him build one but he would be one to reach out to. 

[SwampDonkey]

Nope sorry, I only have a modern forced air furnace with a two stage burn and a side electric unit on it for backup when asleep or away. And I'm never that asleep and not often away. :D

[moodnacreek]

It sounds like the transparent blocks are the mystery part.  Could it be a version of the Russian stove? That is a known masonry stove made of brick.

[Don P]

I have no idea what the glass would be, a supplier of borosilicate glass might have some idea  ???

[aigheadish]

As much as I don't like to send them traffic I'd be willing to bet if you posted this same question on a few different reddit subs someone knows the exact place you are talking about... 

[moodnacreek]

Reddit subs? One thing is for sure, somebody knows all about it.

[aigheadish]

Yeah, there are likely sub-reddits about woodburning stoves or even the city you are talking about where someone would know.

[moodnacreek]

Yeah, there are likely sub-reddits about woodburning stoves or even the city you are talking about where someone would know.

Could you give me some idea what this means?

[Al_Smith]

There a local eatery ,Murphy's Irish Pub  that has something similar .It's about 4-5 feet square with a hood over the fire pit and it must have fire resistant glass sides like an oven would use .I think it's more for show and ambience but it does put off a lot of heat .Let me google it as they may have a picture

[Old Greenhorn]

I KNEW we had a thread on this previously and today I found it. Here check this out and see if t gives you some good leads, I think it should.
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=113957.msg1794304#msg1794304

[aigheadish]

reddit.com is a terrible place full of terrible human beings, but if you choose sub-reddits wisely it's a huge resource of great info. I'm being a bit harsh, saying it's a terrible place full of terrible people, but it's easy to follow sub-reddits that seem benign, until you find them poisoning your mind, like most social networks out there.

The sub-reddits are basically categories, within the reddit website, that focus on said categories. For example, there is a  r/woodworking sub-reddit and almost every city has an r/ (where the "r/" is the category within reddit, so there is an r/dayton for a Dayton sub-reddit, which focuses on Dayton stuff or woodworking in the r/woodworking). There very well may be a reddit.com/r/blaufelden that could help point the way, or a reddit.com/r/woodstoves (r/blaufelden doesn't exist but r/woodstoves does). 

Googling any of your info, with "reddit" in the search should work to show if there's anything like that, and you don't have to sign up to browse through stuff. 

[moodnacreek]

Aigheadish, thanks for explaining that for me. I live in the stone age mostly. Doug

[aigheadish]

The stone age is likely a better place than the one in which reddit is a thing. There is good info there and, as mentioned, if you can choose wisely what you pay attention to it's great but the wade through the filth is tough.