19 Feb
2001
19 Feb
'01
3:12 p.m.
Greetings,
The following is a little off-topic - but I know that some people here
collect large computer systems, so, I'm just wondering: does anyone
here, who has a fair amount of free-space, collect and preserve home
furnaces - or know of anyone who does? This thought occured to me
while looking for a replacement boiler gauge for my parents' old Ideal
No. 7 furnace from American Radiator Company - it's so much more
interesting to look at then the newer furnaces being installed in
houses, as are many older furnaces. It actually is a nice looking
furnace. It was originally a coal-fired unit, but the original coal
grates have been kept, as have the original oil-burner unit and
circulator pump and motor - even though newer ones are now in place.
While I realize that some older furnaces here and there are coated
with asbestos, many of them are not, and if someone doesn't preserve
them - and I fear that most of the more interesting ones, like those
with automatic coal feeders, may have already been scrapped, there
won't be many left to preserve. Years ago, I read an article in the
Old House Journal, about a warehouse in New York where old furnaces
were being stored, where one could go to find parts. Our of
curiosoty, does anyone know if this still exists, and has anyone on
this list visited there and taken a tour of the warehouse?
To make this a little more on-topic, has anyone used a classic
computer to interface with an older furnace's control circuitry? Does
anyone here happen to have a manual, or a copy of a manual, for any of
G.E.'s 1950-era home furnace "master control" systems which includes a
schematic diagram? My parents had this, but it somehow vanished over
the years.
--
Copyright (C) 2001 R. D. Davis The difference between humans & other animals:
All Rights Reserved an unnatural belief that we're above Nature &
rdd(a)perqlogic.com 410-744-4900 her other creatures, using dogma to justify such
http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd beliefs and to justify much human cruelty.