Perspective - Dan H.

DanHolohan

I have a catalog from Sears. They were selling houses through the mail. They furnished all the wood, pre-cut, all the mechanical equipment, even the coal for the boiler (imagine that). They rented the tools.

These things come and go.

You know me, Duncan. Forever time-traveling, and always getting older. ;-)

DanHolohan

For those of you who are concerned

about Internet purveyors of radiant heating supplies and advice from afar, here's some historical food for thought for you.

These guys published this catalog in 1928. They sold it all.

See how easy it is to be a plumber or a fitter?

Where are they now?

George_10

Just curious Dan

Do you know what happen to them?

DanHolohan

Haven't

a clue. My guess would be that folks realized this stuff isn't as easy as it seems in a catalog. Time has a way of straightening things out.

Duncan_9

But Dan...

I can't wait untill everyone at Radiantec dies to make my living here and now.

Realistically, common sense says there will ALWAYS be do-it-yourselfers. That's a good thing, everyone needs a hobby. The good ones will do it themselves, do it well, and live happily ever after. The not-so-good ones will eventually call in the pros to straighten things out, will know themselves better, and will live happily ever after. It's not that big of a slice of the pie.

It WOULD be interesting to find out what happened to those guys, considering the Great Depression started in 1929, and consumers had bigger things to worry about, like food and clothing.

P.S. I appreciate their honesty when they said: "Remember, please, our business is to sell as much of our goods as we can, and please you in every transaction"

Duncan_9

;-)

And wiser.

Dave DeFord

I have one of those houses...

or so I'm told. It was built in 1921 and has oak floors, cherry cabinetry, walnut trim in some rooms and steam heat. However in the days when Sears was selling those houses it was not that uncommon for one to build their own house. Sears just made it easier to get your materials together.

Michael_11

that sounds like Home Depot's add!

DanHolohan

Here we go!

Sears. Oh, and they also did the load calculations.

Fear not, lads. This, too, shall pass!

DanHolohan

Ahh,

perspective!

John Barba1

A little more perspective...

My dear departed Dad told me about the first salesman to try selling him fin-tube baseboard heat--from the Webster Baseboard Heating company--around 1948. He threw the guy out of the house, saying that little chunk of tin would never work! When he finally did do a job, he made the sales guy draw the entire layout on the blueprints and take full responsibility if the job didn't work. Sorta like trying to sell radiant floor heating in 1988!

A friend of mine has an article written by his grandfather (or is it great grandfather?) in the early part of the last century saying that low-priced chucklehead plumbers will ruin everything for the rest of us. Hmmmmm.....

Same old challenges, just different clothes is all.

JMB

Toearly

> I have a catalog from Sears. They were selling

> houses through the mail. They furnished all the

> wood, pre-cut, all the mechanical equipment, even

> the coal for the boiler (imagine that). They

> rented the tools.

>

> These things come and

> go.

>

> You know me, Duncan. Forever

> time-traveling, and always getting older. ;-)