Heating at The Henry Ford

KC_Jones · July 2019

Got back from vacation on Friday and one of the places we visited was the Henry Ford museum in Detroit. First what an incredible place, if you ever have the chance to go I highly recommend it. We spent 2 days there and I could have easily spent 2 more.

Now the reason for my post. They had some really awesome radiators there. some wall hung and some that wrapped around the vertical support columns in the building. It's a hot water system. Enjoy the pictures!

RayWohlfarth · July 2019

Wow that is really cool

Solid_Fuel_Man · July 2019

They look like regular T's, I assume gravity would have moved water through the radiator out of the horizontal pipe below it. Looks cool! You weren't lying when you said radiation wrapped around the columns....

KC_Jones · July 2019

Henry Ford didn't cheap out on anything. The building itself is absolutely incredible all by itself, the exhibits only add to it.

For any wood working fans, the entire floor is made up of ~1.4 million pieces of Teak, yes Teak wood. The tour guide said the floor is quite possibly the most valuable part of the building, I wouldn't argue that point much.

DanHolohan · July 2019

I nearly lost my mind on my first visit to that place.

KC_Jones · July 2019

> @DanHolohan said:
> I nearly lost my mind on my first visit to that place.

I told my wife we are going back, don’t know when, but it will be happening. She is in complete agreement with me, so that means we have to go.

hot_rod · July 2019

Amazing, added to my list of "must see"

DanHolohan · July 2019

One of my visits was on the day Rosa Parks died. I went to the famous bus and sat in her seat, up front. God bless that great lady.

Pumpguy · July 2019

I've visited The Henry Ford several times over the years.

Keep in mind that their exhibits change over time. If you've seen something there in the past and want to see it again, you may be disappointed.

On the other hand, the new exhibit may may be even more wonderful than the exhibit it replaced.

Always worth a visit if you're in the Detroit metro area and you have the time.

retiredguy · July 2019

I wonder if the lower tee is a Monoflo.--- I once was at a high school in Erie, Pa.and the steam header was 12" threaded pipe as were all fittings and valves. What a work of art!

Erin Holohan Haskell · July 2019

That's a great museum.

ethicalpaul · July 2019

KC_Jones said:
Henry Ford didn't cheap out on anything.

Well except for his employees' wages LOL

lager · July 2019

Have found 2 books on Henry Ford in antique malls, interesting reading,,,,,,,,,,has anyone heard about "Fordlandia"

if not I recommend a google search

DanHolohan · July 2019

I read a book about Fordlandia years ago.

lager · July 2019

I first read about Fordlandia in Bill Bryson's book "One Summer: America 1927" another great read!
and Dan, I am forever grateful, that you lead me to him,, with "A Walk in the Woods",,,,,,,,,when you used to post your reading list on the site,,,,,,,,,,so Thank you

DanHolohan · July 2019

My pleasure! Thanks.

heritageproperties · August 2019

Wasn't Henry Ford actually famous for paying his workers above market wages?

http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/Unemployment/Efficiency/Henry.html

John Ruhnke · August 2019

Awesome Great pics!

JakeCK · August 2019

> @heritageproperties said:
> Wasn't Henry Ford actually famous for paying his workers above market wages?
>
> http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/Unemployment/Efficiency/Henry.html

Yes, because he wanted his employees to buy his cars. It wasn't his wages that people criticized. It was how hard he worked them and the conditions.

ethicalpaul · August 2019

So the wages weren't high enough to compensate for the working conditions...they were too low

JakeCK · August 2019

No they weren't.

KC_Jones · August 2019

JakeCK said:
> @heritageproperties said:

> Wasn't Henry Ford actually famous for paying his workers above market wages?

>

> http://www.econport.org/content/handbook/Unemployment/Efficiency/Henry.html

Yes, because he wanted his employees to buy his cars. It wasn't his wages that people criticized. It was how hard he worked them and the conditions.

That's an oversimplification. It cost him money to pay his employees more. He wasn't even coming close to recouping those wages by selling his employees cars. Here are the numbers. He raised it from $2.34 to $5.00 per day. That is $691.00 per year wage increase. At that time a Model T cost $440.00 and eventually went as low as under 300, all the while he was increasing wages. He "lost" money no matter how you look at it. The reality was he wanted his employees to have a better quality of life overall, not just buy his cars. Don't forget when he increased wages he reduced work hours as well, from 9 to 8.

He did have some self serving motivation. Turnover. He had issues retaining employees because assembly line work is mind numbing and many couldn't handle it. He figured with higher wages he could get the best employees available and lower turnover rate, and it worked.

The work hour reduction was to allow more leisure time for the employees so they had time to enjoy the consumer goods he and other industrialists were producing. So the people get more time to themselves and the company sells more goods.

Henry Ford wasn't the best person by any stretch, but when looking back on what he did, there was a whole lot of good that he did for his employees given the climate at that time. I don't have an issue if people don't like him, but at least report the history accurately.

JakeCK · August 2019

KC you're exactly right on all accounts. I just didn't feel like going into detail. I have no qualms with the guy or family. And in fact there is currently 4 fords sitting in my driveway. Three of them black.

And to be clear I wasn't criticizing his methods either. Not only is assembly line work mind numbing it is also fast paced. My grandfather retired back in the 80's at the foundry and both my father and uncle worked there for a short time. Honesty I wish it was still the gravy train it used to be. I'd pack my s$&# up where I'm at now and walk out of there for a chance to make what they did back in the 60s through the 80's.

KC_Jones · August 2019

@JakeCK understood, the short answers presented like you had issues. Honestly he had some traits that were quite undesirable, including towards his own son at times.

ChrisJ · August 2019

KC_Jones said:
@JakeCK understood, the short answers presented like you had issues. Honestly he had some traits that were quite undesirable, including towards his own son at times.

I've heard he put Edsel in an early grave.

mattmia2 · August 2019

I remember going there as a kid and looking at the columns and realizing they were radiators. Does anyone know who made them? I'd imagine they were custom to curve like that.

mattmia2 · November 6

So I was curious enough about this to send a message asking what these radiators were. They sent me cut sheets, some of the drawings, and the various bid and RFI documents. They were made by a company called Shaw-Perkins in Pittsburgh. It was an archivist at the Benson Ford Research Center that found the documents for me. @Erin Holohan Haskell you might want to add these to the library.

1036_5_radiation.pdf

1036_5_radiator_shields.pdf

ei_156_3_heating-1.pdf

mattmia2 · November 6

So the answer is that it is forced hot water and the wall hung radiators are out of a catalog but the radiators around the columns are custom made with curved headers from the same manufacturer. There are specs for the boiler and the system in one of the documents too, it specifies some pumps and motors(but doesn't specify the pump manufacturer as far as I have read so far).

KC_Jones · November 6

That's awesome that they send you all that. The museum just got cooler.

offdutytech · November 6

Over 20 years ago when I was doing building automation I got to see behind the scenes there and was equally impressive. Was fortunate enough to get to work in some pretty historic buildings in Metro Detroit. Ford and GM spared no expenses in their buildings back in the day. The Detroit Institute of Arts was a really cool building still operating air handlers with DC drive motors and leather drive belts feeding copper ductwork in parts of the buildings until the early 2000s. There were several mechanical rooms downtown that had polished terrazzo floors, marble faced control panels for old DC motors and pneumatic equipment. With district steam plants everything was steam air handling coils, heat exchangers and steam absorber chillers. There has been a big push the past 20 years to get off of district steam. Several buildings have switched to hot water boilers or installed their own steam boilers. My dad used to drag me around as a kid on a few pneumatic service calls on the weekends and was lucky to see some of the old buildings.