dating old roccoco radiators

paveslave53

Does anyone know how to figure out the date of manufacture for a couple of four column roccoco radiators maid by american radiator company. Both of these have two sets of 1/8" plugs for installing the bleeder valve at the top or at the middle. Almost all of the rest of the cast iron stuff I have restored for the house has all had the date cast into it somewhere. I figure these darn things have got to be pretty old because I cant even find a picture of one on the net. Any help/ideas would be greatly appreicated. Rich

Steamhead

I think they stopped making Rococos

by 1920 or so. The latest American Radiator catalog I have that shows them is dated 1916.



The older version of the Rococo had threaded rods holding it together. The later version, made sometime after 1900, used right-and-left-hand threaded nipples to hold it together.



Here's a link to the 1897 catalog showing the earlier Rococos, from the Library section of this site. It pays to wander off the Wall.



http://www.heatinghelp.com/article/158/Radiators/1256/1897-American-Radiator-Company-catalog

paveslave53

dating old roccoco radiators

That sounds about right, Steamhead. Both of these are held together with the internal nipples. The guy I got these from said that they came out of the grand ball room of the buck hill inn in PA, and I think that place was built in the 20's.

Steamhead

The oldest part

dates to 1901. Rococos were definitely in style then. Were yours set up for steam or hot-water? 

paveslave53

dating old roccoco radiators

I'm pretty sure they were set up for hot water because the only area's inside the radiators with a moderate amount of scale/rust build up was towards the bottom. Maybe they were drained at some point and just sat for a long time. I filled both rads with about 8 gal of phosphoric acid and drained them out 4 days later. Gone was all the rust and scale, heck they looked like I had them hot tanked. The upper portions I soaked down with a modified garden pump sprayer with about 4ft of extensions. They sure new how to build them back then, both were presure checked at 65 psi for a half hour each and didnt leak a drop.

Charlie from wmass

I have a Walworth catalog from 1902

They were a supplier in Boston, New York, Paris, and London of Rococo radiators. I love looking through the old catalogs. I am also glad to have modern tools for repairing the systems that were ordered through these catalogs. Glad for Ridgid wrenchs, and threaders instead of Armstrongs and Stillsons.