Electric stove

An electric stove is a stove with electrical heating to cook and bake. The electric stove became popular as a replacement to the solid fuel (wood or coal) stove. Solid fuel stoves required more labor to maintain and operate.
Electric stove burners may be controlled by a rotary switch with a finite number of positions (six, for example). Some may have a thermostat.
The first technology used resistive heating coils. The coils heated iron hotplates. Pots were placed on top of them. 
In the 1970s, glass-ceramic stoves began appearing. Glass-ceramic has very low thermal conductivity. It's a coefficient thermal expansion of almost zero. It lets infrared radition pass very well. Electrical heating coils or infrared halogen lamps are used for heating elements.