author
J. Durno
Known today for a single surviving 1753 pamphlet, this little-known inventor wrote with practical confidence about making rooms warmer, cleaner, and cheaper to heat. The work offers a small but vivid glimpse of everyday technology in 18th-century London.
1 Audiobook
A Description of a New-Invented Stove-Grate
by J. Durno
About the author
Very little biographical information about this author could be confirmed. J. Durno is identified in surviving editions as the writer of A Description of a New-Invented Stove-Grate, a short work published in London in 1753.
The pamphlet presents Durno as the inventor of the stove-grate he describes and promotes. Its title page says it was printed by J. Towers and "published by the inventor," with copies sold from Durno's house in Jermyn Street, suggesting a hands-on inventor directly marketing his own design.
Because reliable records about Durno's life are scarce, the book remains the clearest window into the author: practical, persuasive, and focused on comfort, fuel economy, and smoke-free heating. For modern listeners, that makes J. Durno an intriguing example of the many early technical writers whose work survived even when their personal story did not.