(1) A gasifier.
Gasification is a process that converts wood into gases and then burns them at very high temperatures.
The process combusts the wood smoke to a point in a way such that the outputs are only heat and ash.
The process is extremely efficient and gets the most energy out of wood while creating no smoke.
Wood gasification turns wood into carbon monoxide and hydrogen by reacting it at high temperatures with a minimal amount of oxygen.
Without oxygen, the wood doesn't burn but transforms into gas, which then burns.
(2) A simple but clever type of wood-burning stove in which the fuel burns from the top down, so that the heat of the flame generates smoke, which then rises into the flame and is cleanly consumed.
Such a stove can be made simply enough to serve as a lightweight and nearly foolproof backpacking stove.
(3) A stove that burns fumes from wood that's been eating the wrong stuff.
(4) A mythical device created to burn naturally-occurring but elusive gas emanating from forests.
That was based on the "swamp gas stove", which burns naturally-occurring gas emanating from swamps. (Also mythical.)
This in turn was derived from the "spirit burner" a device used by third degree initiates into the secret society of transcendental esoteric ectoplasmic spiritualist chemists, who worked exclusively in the dark, behind heavy, locked, oaken doors draped with thick, sound-deadening curtains. (Also mythical, and so on.)
Refs:
Gasification
Wood gas
Wood gas generator
Batch-Loaded, Inverted Down-Draft Gassifier (wood gas stove)
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