Is this just a One-Pipe steam system?

lukewatts

Trying to identify what is going on here?

It looks like a one-pipe steam set up to me, but I've never seen a pipe coming down from an air vent before.
I can only assume that it might be some sort of overflow to allow condensate pooling in the vent to run away, however, I could be nowhere near?

Any help would be appreciated

ChrisJ

Looks like a Paul system to me.

lukewatts

Cheers @ChrisJ Appreciate it!

Just had this helpful excerpt by Dan Holohan sent to me from @New England SteamWorks too

Vacuum As Your Friend: Two-Pipe Vacuum Systems

Nowadays, there are a couple places I can think of where vacuum in a steam system is your
friend. One is when you produce it with a pump within a system designed to run
on vacuum. Mechanically-induced
vacuum systems have been around for a long time. Back in the days when big
buildings made their own electricity with steam engines and turbines, the
question of what to do with the waste steam came up. Engineers decided to use
it to produce vacuum in the return side of the heating system. These early
systems, the “Paul” and the “Eddy” systems, looked a lot like the one-pipe
steam systems of today. There was a big difference, however. Instead of a vent,
each radiator had, in its place, a small steel or copper line that led back to
a steam-driven, venturi-type ejector in the basement. The
old-timers let the waste steam flow through the venturi at very high velocity.
As the steam jumped the gap, it pulled system air with it. The air flowed very
quickly through the small steel tubes from the radiators to the ejector. As air
left the return lines, a vacuum formed in the steam system. Steam chased the
vacuum from the boiler up into the radiators and quickly heated the building. When
the steam hit the radiators, it closed these tiny thermostatic trap-like
devices on the radiators. These devices, called “Paul-line vents,” piped into
the same place you’d put a one-pipe steam air vent. They kept the steam and the
condensate out of the air-vent lines. Condensate returned through the supply
line as it does in a one-pipe system. Only air moved through the vacuum lines
(as long as the Paul-line vents worked, that is).

Holohan, Dan. The Lost Art of Steam Heating Revisited (p. 314). Kindle Edition.

Pumpguy

Yep, its a one pipe Paul air line system. The attached file shows the basic layout and theory of operation.

What are you using for a vacuum pump?

A few years back I had a contractor call me in to see a job in a Milwaukee suburb where another contractor had installed a new boiler package and ripped out the old vacuum pump and then couldn't figure out why the system wouldn't heat.

Fortunately the new contractor recognized the system was a Paul type and needed a vacuum pump. I fixed them with a vacuum pump and now all is well.

Feel free to contact me if you think I might be helpful.

reggi

@mattmia2 ... Look at those baseboards! The old American Radiator Company radiators , Detroit lubricator valves , Paul System 
And that coloring on the radiators isn't familiar... Almost looks like a stain more than paint... wonder if that was a Deadman secret ? 

ChrisJ

reggi said:

@mattmia2 ... Look at those baseboards! The old American Radiator Company radiators , Detroit lubricator valves , Paul System 
And that coloring on the radiators isn't familiar... Almost looks like a stain more than paint... wonder if that was a Deadman secret ? 

No,
That's paint.

mattmia2

Looks like they might just be unpainted cast iron.

ChrisJ

mattmia2 said:

Looks like they might just be unpainted cast iron.

Oooo.
Uncensored radiators!