Old water system
Hi, I found this in an old apartment basement. Any idea what it was? I assume it's some kind of pressure system for potable water.
Comments
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I'll try to get better pictures. I wasn't in the mood with all the spiders at the time.
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It may be a vertical hydropneumatic tank Teh contraption at the boom in the middle picture may be a single pisting, double acting water pump. The other motorized widget may be an air compressor. Any controls or wiring survive?
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
A pic of the label on the green part.
Looks like maybe an old Fairbanks Morse or Deming piston or plunger well pump?
Bob "hot rod" Rohr
trainer for Caleffi NA
Living the hydronic dream0 -
looks like a compression style well tank. those controls look like old weight and bellows style pressure controls.
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How tall is the apartment building? I suspect and air compression tank to boost the city water pressure.
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Where is this building located?
Baltimore, MD, USA
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Consulting0 -
Heavens. There were enough typos in my post up there… I guess people figured out what I meant, though. Dang autocorrect.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
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Here is more pics. Plus the old boiler
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i assume that arco had an oil or gas burner on it through the ash pit?
looks like a shallow well pump:
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Not a jet pump. Double acting piston pump. Nice big flywheel on there to even it out, and the small pulse absorbing chamber (which wasn't supposed to waterlog and usually did).
They worked just fine. The one like it we had at Cedric's home worked well from about 1915, when it was installed, to 1960, when a well was drilled and a deep well submersible installed. At first it was gasoline powered (one lung, make and break engine) and later, in the '30s, electrified and made automatic!
They don't give all that much flow, but they can handle quite high pressures if need be. Often uSed with overhead tank storage (ours was) or BIG hydropneumatic tanks. (ours, installed in the '40s, was 2,000 gallons0.
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
did i say it was a jet pump? or did the video? i didn't really listen to the audio. it was meant for a well where atmospheric pressure could lift the water.
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that pressure control is a lot like this control:
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Yeah, that boiler was set up for gas at some point. But it looks like they left the old mechanical diaphragm control on it. Did that control a damper when it was a Coal Fired boiler?
I'll have to get pictures of another boiler at a different address that is also defunct. But it is a coal burner and it has a big mechanical auger system that's still full of coal
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@mattmia2 So that means there used to be a well under the building? This is in the center of the basement.
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that bellows device kind of looks like an early relief valve because I can't really see where an arm and weight to operate the dampers would connect to it.
the well may have been below the basement floor, I have seen a lot of well heads in basement floors with some sort of a wood cover over them. sometimes it is just a hollow and wooden sounding spot in the floor. It also may have been outside and came in through the basement wall. Where does the pipe in to the pump look like it came from? The basement floor likely was originally dirt and probably got covered with concrete sometime around the 50's
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Either under the building or off to the side.
What heats the building now?
Baltimore, MD, USA
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Consulting0 -
Or it could have been tapping a spring — that's what ours did. They are capable of about 25 feet of lift once they're primed. Those probably used leather seals, so as long as you used them moderately regularly they'd stay primed. Most of the time…
Br. Jamie, osb
Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England0 -
@Steamhead unfortunately all electric. 🥲
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As long as I'm here, there's an old three-story building that appears to have the original Kewanee boiler. And it used to be run as a steam boiler because all the radiators have traps but they converted it to water at some point. Would that be for some efficiency? Was there any other reason that you would do that besides a failed boiler?
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Because someone doesn't understand steam and was good at taking people's money.
Baltimore, MD, USA
Steam, Vapor & Hot-Water Heating Specialists
Oil & Gas Burner Service
Consulting
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