Maid-O'-Mist Humidifying Steam Vent

Bob W._3

pictures, gotta have pictures.

Long Beach Ed

Asbestos and Mung Water --- Ahhhhhh!

After a score of years, I finally got my hands on an oddity I sighted in a 1939 Guide -- the #95 Maid-O'-Mist "Automatic Humidifier".

It's a giant, beautifully made one pipe steam vent with louvers on top packed with asbestos. Chrome plated, of course.

Here's how it works. Inside is the usual float and Sylphon valve filled with alcohol. It rides on an adjustable stem with a knob protruding out the bottom of the valve. A pin on the top fits in a seat, just like a Hoffman vent. But instead of the seat venting to atmosphere, it vents to a copper bowl. Atop the copper bowl is that muffler stuffed with asbestos fabric.

What happens here is steam rushes into the valve. Depending on the knob setting, the pin permits some steam to travel into the top bowl where the heat evaporates any condensate and pushes it though the muffler.

The instructions say "a few drops" of Perfume can be added to the asbestos, probably to mask the odor of boiler mung.

And what about all that lost boiler water? The instructions cover that too. Just install "our low priced Automatic Feeder".

What do you guys think of this one? How healthy is boiler steam? What do you think of the asbestos filter? How much make up water can be added before the water line looks like Swiss cheeze? Hay, they even show you how to gang up half a dozen of these babies!

And, wow, it was even designed by William J. Woolley, known as "the Hoosier genius," one of the MCAA's founders.


Another mystery solved...

Long Beach Ed

Long Beach Ed

The Float

Ahhh -- upon further examination, the float may have nothing in it; may just be a float. Will try to get pictures.

Rodney Summers

Asbestos and Steam

I doubt breathing the boiler steam would be of any danger, and the asbestos filter probebly wouldn't do any harm, even with the steam coming through it into the air. Ir would probably be damp and that would keep the friable particles intact.

Long Beach Ed

Sucking Down Boiler Steam

Really now Asbestosman ... I doubt pressurized steam blowing through asbestos cloth is entirely healthy. That can easily be replaced with felt; it's just a muffler.

But what about breathing in the gack steam from the boiler, in the name of healthy himidified air? Anyone have any ideas about that?

Long Beach Ed