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Dead Men Tales: How to Embarrass a Beautiful Old Radiator

HeatingHelp
HeatingHelp Administrator Posts: 635
edited June 2021 in THE MAIN WALL



How to Embarrass a Beautiful Old Radiator

In this episode, Dan Holohan takes us to a seaside Victorian estate and meets a beautiful old radiator with tears in its eyes.

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Comments

  • cubbydog
    cubbydog Member Posts: 41
    My favorite part of the story when the lovely Marianne calls you ridiculous. A couple years back we did a tour of the Biltmore in South Carolina and I took the basement tour, my wife called me ridiculous! Of course it wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time she called me ridiculous.
    Ridiculous, crazy, one track mind, I’ve heard them all!!
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,366
    The guy who did that should be publicly flogged.
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
  • Ironman
    Ironman Member Posts: 7,366
    cubbydog said:
    My favorite part of the story when the lovely Marianne calls you ridiculous. A couple years back we did a tour of the Biltmore in South Carolina and I took the basement tour, my wife called me ridiculous! Of course it wasn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time she called me ridiculous. Ridiculous, crazy, one track mind, I’ve heard them all!!
    Cubby,
    The Biltmore’s in North Carolina. They’d be highly upset if you moved them to SC. 😉
    Bob Boan
    You can choose to do what you want, but you cannot choose the consequences.
    cubbydog
  • RickCiervo
    RickCiervo Member Posts: 3
    Wonderful. Thank you Mr. Holomun. When I feel like no one understands me, I come here, and all is right again with the world. I once had a torrid love affair with a one-pipe steam system, but, alas, I had to move on and leave it in the hands of philistines who surely do NOT love it the way I did (and still do). My current house has both a two-zone hot water system AND a scorched-air system that keep me busy, but not in love. Now I can only love vicariously through your stories. Keep them up. Wonderful.
  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,512
    Thanks, guys! 😂
    Retired and loving it.
  • EricForman
    EricForman Member Posts: 4
    Good to know I'm not the only one grieving such things and enduring the eye rolls of spouse and company. Alas, too few appreciate the beauty and functional elegance of all varieties of art (sometimes referred to as engineering.) Thanks for sharing this poignant tale...
  • Peter Rozano
    Peter Rozano Member Posts: 17
    Dan: Love your articles but you missed the boat on this one. You should have told the Physick doyenne that you have a substantial, rabid following and that looking into old basements heating systems is exactly what you and your nerd acolytes are all about. And if the basement contains ancient hidden treasures you would photo & write about it on your expansive blog, thus promoting her principal. And, for a nominal fee, you could educate the staff about their basement treasures so they could expand their tour intinerary to include exactly the kind of people who read this comment.

    I have been following you since the early 1990's. You are one of my unsung heroes
  • Gordo
    Gordo Member Posts: 856
    All Steamed Up, Inc.
    "Reducing our country's energy consumption, one system at a time"
    Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
    Oil & Gas Burner Service
    Baltimore, MD (USA) and consulting anywhere.
    https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/all-steamed-up-inc
  • Labenaqui
    Labenaqui Member Posts: 72
    By coincidence, I knew the merchant marine radioman who took the SOS from the Moro Castle, an ocean liner off Cape May, NJ in 1933. A catastrophic event of its time .....
  • DanHolohan
    DanHolohan Member, Moderator, Administrator Posts: 16,512
    Thanks, @PeterRozano. Maybe I’ll give it another try. Hope springs eternal. 
    Retired and loving it.
  • Vegas
    Vegas Member Posts: 8
    and the first thing that gets cut when the funds are thin,
    the in-basement "maintenance program!" (-:
  • Pumpguy
    Pumpguy Member Posts: 645
    Many years ago I was driving back from a service call at a power plant along the Wabash River in Indiana and passed through the town of Watseka Illiinois. Saw an interesting building / museum so with a few minutes to kill, I went in and wandered around. Saw the old china, wall paper, & furniture, and radiators. Hmmm..... radiators? I wonder....?

    The tour was self guided, and I noticed some stairs going down so I went. Found the boiler room but was disappointed to find something other than a 2 pipe vacuum return steam system I was hoping to see.

    But whatever it was, it was still in operation.

    We have a museum in a converted small hydro power plant just north of me in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. Lots of interesting historical artifacts. Could I see the old hydro generating equipment in the basement? NO!

    Why don't the people that run places like these understand that preserving and showing this historical technology is just as important as old farm tools, coffee grinders, and wood burning kitchen stoves?

    Dennis Pataki. Former Service Manager and Heating Pump Product Manager for Nash Engineering Company. Phone: 1-888 853 9963
    Website: www.nashjenningspumps.com

    The first step in solving any problem is TO IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM.
  • GGross
    GGross Member Posts: 1,022
    Pumpguy said:



    Why don't the people that run places like these understand that preserving and showing this historical technology is just as important as old farm tools, coffee grinders, and wood burning kitchen stoves?

    Most of us here are probably pretty weird even in our own circles in this regard. I can't set foot in any building without looking around for what is heating the place, and if it's a historic building? well try not to slip on the metaphorical drool. Sometimes when I am on big jobsites I wonder if the guys installing all this wonderful modern HVAC equipment have any idea that someone like me 100 years from now would do anything to ask them about the system they are installing.