Java Edition:Lit Furnace (Item)
A smelting furnace and regular furnace used to use two different block IDs. They look exactly like a normal furnace in item form but when placed will create a lit furnace that won't go out unless updated. There were various versions that allowed the lit furnace to be obtained in item form. It was deleted entirely in 15w49a,[1] and Mojang have no plans to convert these items into anything valid in future versions.[2]
Obtaining
Mining
From Indev 20100219 to Alpha v1.0.0 the lit furnace could be obtained by mining the block, and did not require any silk touch. The contents inside the lit furnace would not drop, there for being deleted.
Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 Debug Chests
In Beta 1.6 Test Build 3 new worlds would generate with 11 debug chests. Within the debug chests were a wide variety of items most of which were available in there full stacks some were not. Lit furnaces were one of the such items that generated inside the debug chests, lit furnaces generated in the 3rd and 6th chests from the left in the 4th and 15th slots respectively, in stacks of 64.
Enderman
Between the versions Beta 1.8 Pre-release and Beta 1.8 Pre-release 2 ;) enderman could pick up nearly any block at the time, this included lit furnaces. To fully obtain the item the enderman must be updated to a version between 13w16a (1.6 Snapshot) and 15w32c (1.9 Snapshot) to set the endermans HealF
tag. The enderman then needs to be updated to a version between 15w31a (1.9 Snapshot) and 22w45a (1.19.3 Snapshot) where the enderman can then be killed, dropping the item.
Silk Touch
With the introduction of Silk Touch in Beta 1.9 Prerelease 4, when mining a lit furnace with a Silk Touch tool the block would drop itself instead of a furnace.
Texture Changes
Indev 20100219 - Beta 1.1_02 (test Infdev 20100227-1 to Infdev 20100227-2)[test]