Old time steam heat control

showcrop · Jul 22, 2018

I have been taking up flooring as part of the process for putting down a new floor. There were two half inch holes in the old wide pine floor boards an inch from a wall. Then in the basement I found next to one hole, a small pulley with a one inch wheel that aligned with one of the holes. This pulley also aligned with where a coal fired boiler would have been. This told me that there was a control of some sort mounted on the wall above the holes. A quick search showed me a diagram of a thermostatic control for the draft of a boiler which connects to the boiler by a pair of cables running through pulleys. The house where I grew up which was built in 1949 had hydronic heat via an oil burner and cast iron radiators. I know that there were however still plenty of coal fired boilers well into the sixties. Does anyone remember a thermostat that controlled the boiler by this type of system?

johnlobb · Jul 22, 2018

If you're interested in this type of thing, go to heatinghelp.com. Plus, the websites designer has written a book called "The lost art of steam heating" by Dan Holohan. An interesting read for anyone with a lot of history. Dan has a way of making a kinda dry subject very fascinating.

ohiojim · Jul 22, 2018

we had a coal furnace that provided hot air in a house I lived in the 50s, it had that kind of thermostat..you always had to crank it up to open the draft before feeding it so you didn't smoke up the house.....

Charlie M · Jul 22, 2018

We had a similar deal in the old farm house I grew up in. You could give the furnace more air and thus get more heat without going to to the basement.

sammydwm · Jul 22, 2018

We had something like that for the draft on our old Lennox wood eater when I was a kid.

Hanky · Jul 22, 2018

Had one in a house I grew up in, watch the movie ?A Christmas story?, you will see what it was like, ours had two sets of controls, I think draft
and stoker control, ours came up into the dining room above where the old furnace was, two holes in the floor, think they left that on the wall
after the oil burner went in.

Bob · Jul 22, 2018

Yep, neighbors still used one in the 60's when I was a kid!

gmccool · Jul 22, 2018

We had one of those in the house that I grew up in. It controlled the damper which intern controlled the heat.

gene bender · Jul 22, 2018

no thermostat just controlled the damper on the stove

Old time steam heat control

showcrop

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johnlobb

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ohiojim

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Charlie M

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sammydwm

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Hanky

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Bob

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gmccool

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gene bender

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