Welcome! Here are the website rules, as well as some tips for using this forum.
Need to contact us? Visit https://heatinghelp.com/contact-us/.
Click here to Find a Contractor in your area.
Dead Men Tales: The Game-Changing Arrival of the Oil Burner
HeatingHelp
Administrator Posts: 679
The Game-Changing Arrival of the Oil Burner
William Newton Best developed the earliest oil burner just as the world entered the 20th Century. Coal was king, but he didn’t let that stand in his way. In this episode, Dan Holohan shares how oil burners disrupted the coal industry.
Thank you to our sponsor SupplyHouse.com.0
Comments
-
-
The oil company I started with in 73 had sold "Petro" burners which had been around since the early 20s and before. By the time I got their "Petro" was no more and we sold Iron Fireman another old brand. They had both been folded into a company called "Space Conditioning" out of Harrisonburg, VA They also owned Dunham Bush and other companies which made steam traps, pumps and other things.
All gone now
I spent a few days at the factory in Harrisonburg just after I started.
Our office was like a scene from the 1920s. They never threw anything away. There were books and brochures from those old days all over the place and I read through a lot of them before they eventually got tossed.
In those days we hated natural gas......that was our mortal enemy LOL.
If I recall correctly Mr Best had something to do with Petro. I will have to look that up...forgot
0 -
-
-
-
The closing statement of this story fits what I learned he least ten years of my consulting business.
There are two types of engineers:
1. The shop engineer.
2. The field engineer.
The shop engineer never reads a maintenance manual, installation instructions or goes out into the field. He/she knows everything about the specs and blue prints.
Te field engineer goes out to the job looks at the problem goes into the assembly instructions, measurements trouble shooting guides if available and finds a solution, some a very costly one.
How do you recognize a field engineer, he/she don't come on the job in suit, he/she comes to work with some small basic tools like a rule, a level, an ohm meter, amp probe, pencil paper, and the manual for the equipment.
That's for mechanical equipment, piping, wiring, steel work, and other items will require blue prints and many other items that needed to design a project.
I met them both in my consulting work and I found the field engineer for the most part started life with tools in their hands.
Jake
Steam: The Perfect Fluid for Heating and Some of the Problems
by Jacob (Jake) Myron0 -
Dan, I ALWAYS enjoy your stories. Automatic heat was a revolutionary thing. Then Tinken came along and not only was it automatic, it was Silent Automatic.Dave in Quad Cities, America
Weil-McLain 680 with Riello 2-stage burner, December 2012. Firing rate=375MBH Low, 690MBH Hi.
System = Early Dunham 2-pipe Vacuo-Vapor (inlet and outlet both at bottom of radiators) Traps are Dunham #2 rebuilt w. Barnes-Jones Cage Units, Dunham-Bush 1E, Mepco 1E, and Armstrong TS-2. All valves haveTunstall orifices sized at 8 oz.
Current connected load EDR= 1,259 sq ft, Original system EDR = 2,100 sq ft Vaporstat, 13 oz cutout, 4 oz cutin - Temp. control Tekmar 279.
http://grandviewdavenport.com0 -
Thanks to all for your comments. I appreciate you so much.Retired and loving it.0
-
"sell the benefits of the product, rather than its features", words that tickled my ears. thank you0
-
Interesting story in "Appointment in Samarra". Coal strike in Pennsylvania in 20s provided opportunity for oil heat. Coal cannot get those customers back. Not even in Pennsylvania.0
-
Recalling the plethora of oil burners and conversions we encountered in the 1950's in rural New England. The Quiet Automatic, Timken & TorridHeat Rotaries, Petro's, Williamson's, Up-firing Waltham's, Down-firing GE's, etc. Loved the U.S. Carlin "Shell-Head" and ran one in my home until 1995. Still have some NEFI School Documentation around. We have come a long way since with burners, but kinda miss the seemingly daily challenges of old.0
Categories
- All Categories
- 86.3K THE MAIN WALL
- 3.1K A-C, Heat Pumps & Refrigeration
- 53 Biomass
- 422 Carbon Monoxide Awareness
- 90 Chimneys & Flues
- 2K Domestic Hot Water
- 5.4K Gas Heating
- 100 Geothermal
- 156 Indoor-Air Quality
- 3.4K Oil Heating
- 63 Pipe Deterioration
- 916 Plumbing
- 6K Radiant Heating
- 381 Solar
- 14.9K Strictly Steam
- 3.3K Thermostats and Controls
- 54 Water Quality
- 41 Industry Classes
- 47 Job Opportunities
- 17 Recall Announcements