Unknown Steam Valve

Paul_4

I ran into this valve in the basement of a church in Boston. It is located between the steam header and the steam main in an old two pipe low pressure system. The casting on the body says "Ashcrost #1462." I've never seen one of these before. Does anyone know what it is?

Paul

eleft_4

OW!

Guy's that work on this stuff must be super human. My hat's off to ya'

al

Dana

steam valve

If oneside of the valve comes through the foundation, I think its an old steam pressure regulator from way back when Boston Edison used to sell the steam from their boilers to power the steam drivin power generators. They piped the steam throughout the city, after it left the turbines they sold it, and in some cases, i.e. churches, etc. they gave it away. Its been a while since I,ve seen one. I had a hell of a time once in a building right off the Boston Common trying to find out why they had no heat. Spent a dam hour looking for the boiler. There may also be another valve somewhere on the line that actually metered the ammount of condensate that left the building. That way they could determine how much steam to charge the customer for.

Unknown

could it be on

a vacuum system? A king valve on a vacuum system would go there, and meter steam into a vacuum, without bringing the distribution piping above zero PSI. Sort of a reset system for steam temperature. See if any of the other components from this link are in the building.

http://www.mepcollc.com/VV.htm#mepco2

Noel

Eric

WAG

It kind of looks like the pressure regulator on a pressure cooker. My guess its a gravity type of pressure regulator/relief.

Does the top lift off?

Eric

PSV lever operated

Is the lock on the lever handle?

If so its probably a level handle pressure safety valve, but maybe a deadweight type instead of spring type.

Steamhead

Or it could be

an old safety valve. Yes, we all know the safety valve is supposed to be installed on the boiler itself, but I've seen a few old ones installed on the header. With some old boilers such as the Smith-Mills and the Spencer #2 series, the header was part of the boiler rather than part of the piping so old-time inspectors may have considered it OK to put the safety valve there.

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