is that a chain draped across it? the really cool ones had a system of pulleys, long chain and a lever system in the kitchen that would connect to the air shutter.. in the coal days you could control the draft/fire/temperature all from the comfort of the kitchen!
in any old house, keep an eye out for little pulleys on the joists. cool stuff
and yes, comfortable. " we dont need no stinking 35 deg td efficiency" try 130 deg temp rise! as 200 deg was the usual limit setting
my boss thinks its possible to repeal the laws of physics
Most 1920's bungalows in town here (working class homes) have coal chutes on the side of the house and likely had one of these. I think most got replaced nd upgraded in the 1970's or 80's. Only the upscale homes at the time tended to have hot water or steam heat. Prior to 1880, most homes were still heated with wood or coal fireplaces or stoves I believe. Low pressure coal gas showed up after that. First for lighting but I think later for heating. Oil also wasn;t uncommon.
In my house I have the old original low pressure gas lines (probably for domestic water heating only... I should take a photo of the old valve I recently removed, still in great shape), an buried outdoor oil tank (that I choose to believe was removed (I'm not going digging) and hopefully was fileld with sand, and then the modern gas lines. The oil was a nice set-up since the tank was buried and the oil could be filled from a pipe that went 80' out to the curb. The firepalce also has little swivel trap doors for ash, with cleanout doors in the basment.
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Originally Posted by artdavila
