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Look at this Burnham boiler

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John_102
John_102 Member Posts: 119
in THE MAIN WALL
Do a search on the Wall - this was a topic last year sometime.

That said, a friend of mine DID find some Krupp steel in a tower in New Jersey. I believe I've got the location right - he's in NJ, anyway & he found it on a job recently. Krupp was HUGE throughout the first half (& more) of the 20th century - everything from railroad wheels to artillery. The conglomerate managed to avoid dismemberment in the aftermath of WWII, despite plain involvement in slave labor, etc.

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  • jeff klaverweiden
    jeff klaverweiden Member Posts: 57
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    burnham photos

    I saw this on an estate here on Long Island.It was installed by Lord and Burnham a company that specialized in greenhouses and heating them. Later on they realized there was more money in boilers and gave up greenhouses

    Idle hands are the devils workshop

  • realolman
    realolman Member Posts: 513
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    A swaztika?
    What's with that?
  • Steamhead (in transit)
    Steamhead (in transit) Member Posts: 6,688
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    It was an old good-luck symbol

    before the Nazis stole it. Burnham had a line of boilers called the "Swasteeka", I'm sure that was one of them.

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    RomanGK_26986764589
  • Fred Campbell
    Fred Campbell Member Posts: 80
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    Symbolism

    Jeff, If it's the swastika you're talking about, the nazi's didn't invent the thing. I have no clue as to it's history or meaning but have seen it many times before in tilework and other decorative pieces pre-third reich. I'm sure some of our well schooled wallies know of it's origins and maybe why it was cast into a Burnham boiler before the rise of the nazi party.
  • johnnyge
    johnnyge Member Posts: 86
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    WOW that is crazy. Maybe do some reasearch on the manufacturer.Posible was build but nazis during War World II. Could be an interesting detective-histotian kind of subject.
    PS Tombig is righ the swastica is not original from the nazis. I belive is an Indu symbol, but it was make famous but the nazi party.
  • jeff klaverweiden
    jeff klaverweiden Member Posts: 57
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    The burnham rep said the same thing . It was popular in India many years before Hitler used it. You can see the corner of the pressure gauge. Might mak out Lord and Burnham. Google that name and get the history on premier greenhouse builders

    Idle hands are the devils workshop

  • Joe@buderus_2
    Joe@buderus_2 Member Posts: 302
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    Possible explaination

    Not sure if this rumor is true or not, but in the Buderus foundry in Lollar Germany, there is a museum of many old boilers Buderus has made. I saw a boiler there that has "Burnham" on it and the rumor I heard was at one time Buderus did cast some boilers for Burnham, many many years ago. Don't know how true it is.
  • Steamhead (in transit)
    Steamhead (in transit) Member Posts: 6,688
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    They were probably doing this

    for Burnham's German or international organization. Most big American boiler makers had subsidiaries in other countries back in the day.

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  • Tara
    Tara Member Posts: 21
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    Swastika

    Unfortunately the Nazis ruined this symbol which existed many years before in different cultures. Buddhists use this symbol to this day.

    Maybe this Lord was a British colonialist who spent time in India.

    From Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
  • Perry_2
    Perry_2 Member Posts: 381
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    It's not just the Nazi's...

    How many remember what "gay" used to mean...

    I am sure we could come up what a list of several dozen words that have completly changed in meanings.

    Perry
  • Supply House Rick
    Supply House Rick Member Posts: 1,404
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    Aird Don

    Made a boiler with these markings pre-war machine

    Rick
  • S Ebels
    S Ebels Member Posts: 2,322
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    I recall

    I read somewhere in my travels that the swastika is a very old symbol of good luck or vibes or karma or something like that. Hitler and his merry band of gentlemen re-appropriated it for their own use and contaminated its meaning for the next millineum.

    Reminds me of the country song.....all together now

    Back when a hoe was a hoe.....

    Cracks what you were doin', when you were tellin jokes.....
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Joe

    There is no truth to that rumer at all. All of our castings have been made in the U.S.. Prior to our Zanesville, Ohio foundry we were casting boilers in Lancaster. prior to that we were doing it all in Irvington, NY. That facility dated back to the daays when Abe Lincoln wasn't president yet. There are several brands out there that have used the Swastika symbol. These wre all prior to Adolf Hitler changing the symbolism it represented of good luck and prosperity. Oddly enough you will also see this symbol in just about every one of the old federal style US Post Offices that were built during the early 1900's. If you look closely at the moldings, floor tiles and columns. you will see the Swastika in the molded patterns in these buildings. They are not as obvious because they are interconnecting in chain pattern, but they are there! Here is a picture of a another brand of boiler that used the Swastika symbol as well. I found this one behind a barn in Schenectady, NY.
    If you look real close you can almost make out the name. I think it is Aird-Don Company.



    Glenn Stanton

    Manager of Training

    Burnham Hydronics

    U.S. Boiler Co., Inc.
  • Steamhead (in transit)
    Steamhead (in transit) Member Posts: 6,688
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    Glenn, did Burnham have

    a European subsidiary at that time, as other companies did? I've never seen any confirmation on it but that might mean we just haven't located the right Dead Men's Book......

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  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    Frank



    Not that I am aware of. Our boiler casting business began with the merger of two family owned businesses that got together in Irvington, NY back in the mid 1800's. That merged company started in the business of manufacturing greenhouses and providing cast iron boilers to heat those greenhouses. Lord and Burnham greenhouses became renowned for their quality and are still around today as are some of the old boilers that were used to heat them. Burnham Boilers became an independant family owned business shortly after that and has grown to become known as "America's Boiler Company".

    Glenn Stanton

    Manager of Training

    Burnham Hydronics

    U.S. Boiler Co., Inc.
  • Steamhead (in transit)
    Steamhead (in transit) Member Posts: 6,688
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    OK

    if I find any Dead Men's Books with anything further I'll let you know.

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  • Dean_7
    Dean_7 Member Posts: 192
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    history

    Go here http://history1900s.about.com/cs/swastika/a/swastikahistory.htm
  • Unknown
    Unknown
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    rememebr reading

    Remebers rrading about the smybol was designed into indians blankets way back in the Pebulo tribes.. Many were destryed during the rising of nazi fear....
  • amhwrite
    amhwrite Member Posts: 6
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    Next time you get an oxygen or nitrogen cylinder refill look around the valve where the dates are stamped when the 10-year electrostatic test of the cylinder was stamped. If you see a square with four smaller squares inside of it, there is a good chance that the cylinder was made in Germany or had been there at some point. I am told that they once either had the patent or the market cornered on those cylinders. The four square box is a swastika stamped over. Some of these cylinders were made by Nazi Germany prior to WW-II. It is hard to believe that the swastika was originally a good luck symbol. Somewhere I have a book that I bought while traveling in Lancaster, PA, Pennsylvania Dutch Country, Amish and very old time Germans, way before Hitler. The book was about their symbols. They were very superstitious and had many different luck symbols that they put on their barns. Some looked evil, but after I read about them, I think the meanings changed or were related to something bad that happened. However, all the research and explanations in the world of its old meaning, the latest meaning swastika will be its forever. A symbol definitely not needed today.
  • realolman
    realolman Member Posts: 513
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    Very interesting

    I have an old Burnham coal boiler in my basement. I'll never look at it the same way again, after this education.

    I also have about a 12 yr old Burnham oil boiler. I see they've abandoned this particular good luck symbol since becoming "America's boiler"
  • Steamhead (in transit)
    Steamhead (in transit) Member Posts: 6,688
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    Good book on this company

    "The Arms of Krupp". I forget who wrote it, but the story is fascinating.

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  • newby
    newby Member Posts: 3
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    swastika

    I saw it on Crane steam stop valves in a power plant museum at Boeing field in Seattle, built about 1900. The steam plant ran vertical shaft turbines to generate power for a trolley line from Tacoma to Seattle. Could it be a "quality" symbol? I read the history webpage on the swastika...seems there are many meanings...
  • midway_2
    midway_2 Member Posts: 42
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    can't remember full story

    If I remember correctly the officials of Nantasket (Hull) Ma. tore up the floor in one of their buildings to get rid of the swatzica which was placed there many years before as a good luck sign for the indian tribe.
  • John_102
    John_102 Member Posts: 119
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    Arms of Krupp author

    You made me go down & dig through the bookcases - William Manchester - good call.
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