My grandfather had a big coal furnace/boiler in the basement to heat the building and next to it stood a much smaller coal fired stove for hot water and for many years we only had hot water on Saturdays. I was too young to remember but I was told that prior to that my grandmother had to heat water for laundry on a rather primitive gas fired stove consisting of two gas burners mounted on cast iron legs. Hope this helps, and by the way, my mother-in-law always said that the only good thing about the "good old days" was that they were gone! Sue