A gift from the Dead Men

Bryan_5

This isnt heating related but I know some of you guys will get a kick out of this. I live in an old farm house built around 1910. Yesterday I was cutting in a outlet in my kitchen. When I cut the hole in the wall I shined my flashlight inside the hole and found and old magazine just sitting inside. It was called Electricity On The Farm. It was dated March 1936. They must have stuck it in when they put the outlet in the adjoining room. Its a great piece of history, to me it is also a good reminder to me that they are watching what I do to that house.
Bryan

Mad Dog

Very cool Bryan

I always leave time capsules inside walls cuz I love to find them. Mad Dog

Bryan_5

What do you put in your time capsules Mad Dog? We have found a few little odds and ends but this was the best. One of the rooms we gutted I just wrote our names and the date and put a newspaper inside. The funny thing with this was I would have never found it except when I was putting the box in I had to be farther down the wall then I would have liked because of the sliding pocket doors.
Bryan

kevin_5

My time capsule

When I tore the siding off of my 100 year old house, I found a beautiful autograph about 3 by 12 inches or so written in that excellent script you don't see anymore. The odd thing was it is not a common name in Nebraska. (or anywhere else that I know of.)
It said, "Flavius Josephus" some of you will recognize that name. He was a Jewish historian living at the time of Christ. He wrote about the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome and all that stuff. Why did someone write his name on my house? Or did Nebraska have a very ethnic carpenter working here? I also found a Keen Kutter wood chisel embedded tip down in the plaster on the floor between two wall studs. I broke it out and the edge looked like you just sharpened it. No sign or rust or even tarnishing. I guess the plaster dried out and kept the tip dry. I also found two large old crock bowls in a dead space in a corner where the counter cabinets met each other. Maybe ol' Josephus ate his corn flakes out of those! Kevin

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mark.heath@mhudson.net

gift from a live one

I can't top that, but I found a nice pair of Craftsman dikes embedded in the concrete hearth in front of the fireplace I'm remodeling. They were sharper than the ones in my toolbox, so they found a new home with me. Glad the jackhammer happened to break the concrete up so as to reveal them.

Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

To find anything old

that hasn't been seen in years is exciting.

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Alan(CaliforniaRadiant)Forbes

Speaking of old

I just came across this picture of a transition to a lead closet bend.

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J.C.A._3

My best find....

To date , was chasing a chimney in an old Marblehead house. The flue deeked a bit to the right of straight,so we decided to find what it went into. The contractor on the job was re-doing the kitchen anyway, so down came the walls.The flue that the oil burner was attached to was in the old "cooking fireplace", and the rest of the cooking appliances were still in it .Spit, chains , wood grates and there was a cool "beehive" right next to it. The whole kitchen wall turned out to be 2 large fireplaces. 1 for cooking, and the other for heating. The dead men left the cooking apparatus for a good laugh, when SOMEONE found it.

By the way, All the brick was saved, and it is Now (still) the new kitchen/dining room inside wall. A tribute to our forefathers. Chris

Bruce_6

you

want old pictures of that stuff, just ask, I have, and can get tons of pics of the old lead fittings, lead drum traps, lead joints and ferrals, leaded closet flanges, you name it, it is here!

I stopped taking pictures, cause I see it every day!

usually it just gets cut out, and replaced.

Grumpy

Alan, you are making me feel like an antique when you say that those are "old" I still have three or four of them in shop stock. We used them in this part of the country up until the early 80's when PVC destroyed the majority of craftsmanship in the trade. I spent many a winter afternoon tinning ferrules and wiping the lead joints for future jobs. Sure was some art to it, I wonder how many "lead wipers" are still around? Wiping lead was part of the requirement for obtaining a Master's license here until 1990, had to wipe a 4" closet stub, and an 1 1/2" wye branch fitting. We still have many old lead water services in this area too, I get a couple of calls a year from the younger guys asking for a bit of help wiping an old lead line to a new brass nipple.

tombig

Old Things in Walls (not THE WALL)

let' see...

1890's newspaper in flat roof attic... could read it but not touch it...too brittle

1893 Columbian Exposition (Chicago) event schedule on embossed paper and in great shape in an attic enclave


1943 Sunday paper (complete w/color inserts) wrapped as filler around 4" horiz. waste line before insulation in perfect shape

$600 behind a light switch cover in a six flat...it must have been the deceased owner's stash

"Lil' Black Sambo" brand packing crate lumber with color embossed logo used as furring holding roof insulation... How unpolitically correct in today's society!!

Various coins to 1880's

A condom floating by when I post holed for a sign support to close to a drain tile back in the steel erecting days (couldn't skip that one..it was at a no-tell motel and I was an impressional young-un)

And many more I'm forgetting.

I've always been jealous of you East Coasters on this site becouse you get to work in REALLY old places. I've been a big fan of the Dead Men since way before I discovered this site and Master Dan's wisdom. I've left a few time capsules here and there...usually a scrawled name and date.

The current project yielded some old coins for the GC's crew, but but I'm glad I got there AFTER demolition.

Thanks for letting me share....TG

Mark J Strawcutter

too bad

they couldn't leave the fireplaces intact and make them part of the kitchen decor.

Mark

Homeowner

I was remodelling a kitchen in a 1902 two story house. I had to move two water pipes from the corner of the room and put them in the wall. When I cut away part of the wall I also found a Keen Kutter chisel. It was like brand new. I kept thinking how mad the guy was when he accidentally dropped his chisel into a finished wall with no possibility of retrieving it. I thank him every time I use it.

Boiler Guy

I know

where ther is a brand new $40 step bit at the bottom of a partition wall ........ Bummer!!!

tombig

I Dropped

a brand new 1" cold chisel down a pipe chase in a high rise. Sounded like it fell about threefloors and stopped. I went down and with the plasterers approval busted a hole in the new bath wall (wire lathe and plaster) and retrieved my new tool.

J.C.A._3

Mark...

No, they couldn't, but it makes for a great coversation piece to their inlaws and guests.(I made sure they knew that, and the person who covered it made the damper "inopperable" so it wouln't be used again. )

The deadmen were far smarter than we thought! Like Dan' poster, "they may not know our names, but they will marvel at our work". I was impressed by what this man did, but also a little miffed that they would deprive the new homeowner of using the "newfound" fireplace. (They understood!) Chris