Blast from the past

[jlanesey]

Found this hanging in a basement today, burner was long gone. Couldn't find much information besides a patent filed in 1922 on these burners with this image

[jlanesey]

Wow no interest this forum is getting stale!

[gravity]

LOL....I really cant make out the first picture. is it a oil boiler?

[jlanesey]

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1447384.pdf

That is the patent, also a better diagram.

I think it's pretty cool. Up here in ct we are still pretty oil based so its nice to see the roots.

[bustedknuckles]

I used to to see quite a few of tool packs near oil furnaces where I started residential in the mountains of western P.A. . Contained nozzle wrench, screwdriver, electrode gap gauges, etc. Early central heating owners frequently were very good at taking care of their equipment. Only at catostrophic failures were the pros called in. Children of the Depression,tight with a buck. My father maintained a furnace the size of a Volkswagen untill he got tired of the gas bills. Granpap taught me the proper way to beat the snot out out of a coal furnace with the coal shovel to get the ashes and clinkers out when the grate linkage is broken. If the HO will let you take them, save things like that-history. Oh, by the way, ever look up and see a red pint or quart bottle above the furnace? Sodium bicarbonate and water,pints were supposed to shriek, quarts were supposed to shriek and spit on the burning oil burner, antique, and worthless in their time, but they made Mom feel better with a furnace under her feet.

[jlanesey]

I still see the "fire bulbs" your talking about they are pretty neat. Your story reminds me of the Christmas story movie where the father is down in the basement fighting the furnace.

I find a lot of old farmers wives calling for service for the first time on a 50 year old furnace or boiler because there husbands kept them running all those years.

Amazing what they could keep running with minimal expertise. Makes me glad in the ages of safety and electronics we are a valuable service to the typical homeowner.

[bustedknuckles]

Furnaces of the past were the age of simplicity, furnaces of now are the age of complicity. In the past as long as it held the fire in it was good, nobody cared about the smokepipe unless it stank and your eyes were burning. Dad replaced the old 160k bus with a Trane 100k-walked into the basement after install and said"What the hell is it?".

[Joehvac25]

I find a lot of old farmers wives calling for service for the first time on a 50 year old furnace or boiler because there husbands kept them running all those years..

I seem to get lots of that too, a week ago me and an old lady sat in some chairs next to her boiler and had a Q and A session.

[jlanesey]

I've worked on a few wood/oil/coal boilers at farmhouses and besides changing nozzle filter and strainer I won't touch there settings when it comes to draft and air, these guys had years and years to dial in these units.

On the other hand it is funny when you walk into some of these farmhouses that have had changeouts and the old farmers are perplexed why it won't run. Had one today, electrodes must have been 2 inches past the nozzle on a beckett afg chassis. He had to slide the z plate all the way rear just to get the gun back in. When I showed him the proper electrode setting he was speachless.

[bustedknuckles]

You have gained a repeat customer, you won't see him very often, but he will repeat and tell his friends, Good show!

[combustioneer]

similar to a timken? rotary-style burner?

[jlanesey]

The burner was long gone but judging by the prints, yes.