American Radiator & Standard Sanitary Corp.

I discovered this original cast iron boiler in the basement of an historic Detroit home.  Curious about how it operated, I did a little research.

Boiler systems operate simply:

1. A fuel like natural gas or oil is mixed with air and ignited inside the boiler.  (This boiler probably was fueled by coal and later converted to natural gas).

2. The water circulating through the boiler's heat exchanger is heated by the flame and combustion gases.

3. The heated water is circulated to radiators which heat the house.

Photo Credit



In order to maximize efficiency, the correct air and fuel mixture must be found.  In other words, finding the correct ratio between the amount of air and fuel added to the boiler will maximize the amount of heat transferred to the water. Three gases are generated during combustion: Carbon Dioxide (CO2), Carbon Monoxide (CO) and Oxygen (O2). Too much air generates unburned oxygen, which will carry heat up the chimney. Too little air means incomplete combustion which generates poisonous CO gas and soot (which will clog the heat exchanger). The correct ratio will transfer all the combustion heat to the water and generate only CO2.

Modern boilers are rated by their annual fuel utilization efficiency (AFUE).  In Michigan, code requires all boilers to have a minimum AFUE of 90%.  The above boiler's efficiency was probably between 56% and 70%.

Imprinted on the door of the boiler are the words "American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Company ".  Per the brief history recounted below, this dates the boiler to at least 1967 when the company renamed itself "American Standard", but my guess is that it is probably much older.

 Planning your home for health and comfort with American Standard heating equipment and plumbing fixtures. (1950)
Source

Brief History of American Radiator and Standard Sanitary (ARSS)

The history of ARSS begins in 1886 when Clarence Mott Woolley and his partner formed the Michigan Radiator & Iron Company of Detroit.  They would become makers of cast iron (rather than the more expensive steel) radiators.  The business immediately took off, introducing the world to radiant heat.  In 1891 the company merged with two other leading manufacturers of cast iron radiators, the Detroit Radiator Company and the Pierce Steam Heating Company of Buffalo, New York.  Woolley was only 28.

/

The Ideal fitter : American Radiators & Ideal boilers (1910)
Source

The company would weather the economic depression of the 1890s by expanding into European markets.  By the 1920s, 40% of its revenue was generated overseas.  After World War I, Woolley hired architects John Howells and Raymond Hood to design and oversee the construction of his new world headquarters which still towers over Manhattan.

American Radiator Building - NYC 2012
Jean-Christophe Benoist

By 1929, Woolley planned a merger of the four largest building products corporation in the US: --H.W. Johns-Manville, Otis Elevator, Standard Sanitary, and American Radiator.  He was only able to complete a merger with Standard Sanitary, the nation's leading supplier of plumbing products.  Hence the name American Radiator and Standard Sanitary was born.

During the Great Depression, the company's sales were challenged by new forced-air heating technology.  The company met additional challenges as World War II cut into its European profits and new "direct-to-you" stores sold products directly to the consumer.  But the storms were weathered aided by a building boom that began after World War II.

Planning your home for health and comfort with
American-Standard heating equipment and plumbing fixtures. (1950) (pgs. 26-27)
Source

But the company's survival also meant diversification into new markets such as industrial controls, plastics, heat-transfer equipment, and nuclear reactor construction.   To reflect this, the company changed its name in 1967 to "American Standard".

By the 1970s, the company was now moving away from its original heating business concentrating more on its railroad, truck brake, and mining equipment operations.

 First step to better plumbing and heating for your home. (1947)
Source

Finally during the 1980s, the company returned to its plumbing and air conditioning roots by selling off most of its unrelated businesses.  In 1983, it completed a merger with the Trane Company the largest commercial air conditioning products company in the United States.

In 2007, American Standard announced plans to break up its three divisions – plumbing, air conditioning and automotive products – keeping only The Trane Company. American Standard’s plumbing products – and its name – were sold to Bain Capital Partners, LLC, and the original American Standard changed its name to Trane. Later that year, Ingersoll-Rand Company Limited acquired Trane for $10.1 billion.

Quite amazing roots for a small Detroit radiator company that began in 1880s.

 

---------------------------------------------------------

Source: History of American Standard at Funding Universe

 

 

The Nation's First Hospital

I've spent the last week in the City of Philadelphia visiting the nation's first hospital, Pennsylvania Hospital.  Founded by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Bond in 1751, most of the original building remains intact and has been incorporated into a new hospital campus that is part of the University of Pennsylvania health system.

Pennsylvania Hospital, 1811
William Strickland

 In 1800, the accomplished American painter Benjamin West, now living in Britain, was requested to create a painting honoring the new hospital.  He agreed and entitled his painting "Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple"  It was completed in 1811, but because of its popularity, West was forced to sell his painting to Britain's National Gallery for the largest some ever paid for a modern painting.

Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, 1811 (Version 1)
Source 

Still wanting to forfill his original commitment to Pennsylvania Hospital, West recreated the painting with improvements.  The most prominent change is the addition of a "demoniac" in honor of the new hospital's treatment of the mentally ill.  The new painting was delivered to the hospital in 1817 and is currently prominently displayed in a modern wing connecting the original and new hospital buildings.

Christ Healing the Sick in the Temple, 1817 (Version 2)
Source

 

See if you can find the differences between the two paintings.

 

Timken Silent Automatic

Surveying the dark basement of a Boston-Edison historic home, I stumbled across a rusting indoor oil storage tank.  Stamped boldly on its front are the words "Silent Automatic Detroit".

With some research, I discovered that this was probably an old storage tank that accompanied a Timken Silent Automatic Oil Boiler system.  Equipped with the famous Wall-Flame Oil Burner, the oil fueled system was designed to out perform its hard-coal fired rivals. 

Timken 1946 Mailer (page 1)

A Schenectady Gazette advertisement from March 10, 1931 proclaims eight buying points:

1. A Product of a Great Engineering Organization 

2. Low Purchase Price 

3. Cheaper Grade of Oil (use #1 or #2 oil) 

4. Fuel Economy 

5. Save Cost of a Gas Pilot (with the slight up charge for an electric ignition) 

6. Hot Water Supply (system can supply both heat and domestic hot water) 

7. One Model for any Site Home (models for "modest homes" are the same as those installed in "more wealthy neighbors") 

8. Installation By Only Factory Trained Men 

Complete installation is listed at a depression era $335 (oil storage tank extra).

March 10, 1931 Schenectady Gazette Timken Advertisement

The boiler's only moving part was the Mono-Roto.  It "whirls tiny droplets of oil outward against the chromium-steel flame rim... In a few seconds after the burner starts, the flame rim becomes glowing hot ...[as] a blue-hot flame...  blankets the fire box walls for the quick transfer of heat."

Timken 1946 Mailer (page 2)

A division of the Timken-Detroit Axle Company, the 32 acre main manufacturing plant was located at 100 Clark Street in Detroit, Michigan.  Other plants were located in Jackson, MI, Oshkosh WI, Utica, NY, New Castle, PA,  Ashtabula, OH and Kenton, OH.

Abandoned Poetry

It can be strange sometimes stepping into empty homes that seem to be frozen at the time they were abandon.  I've come across furniture, photographs, record collections and even breakfast left on the range.  But one of the most interesting surprises are the notes and drawings that are scribbled on walls.

Last Thursday, I ran across this poem written on the bedroom wall of an abandon Detroit home...

-11-8-10 -

you can try to hide

the pain from your

friends and to make

others believed you

moved on.  But you

can never deny the

truth to the person

who has hurted

you the most is

still the person

you will always

choose to love

Robert + Cedies

4 eva till the world blows

Reviving Detroit's "Potato Patch Plan"



A seated Hazen Pingree 

overlooks Grand Circus Park

Detroit is in the midst of the worst depression in its history.  Its city treasury is almost empty.  Some 25,000 Detroit men are unemployed.  Huge swaths of land sit vacant after a predicted real estate boom instead becomes a bust.


The people elect a Republican mayor who promises to reform City government.  He promises to end corruption in city paving and sewer contracts.  He promises to reform a corrupt school board.  He dedicates himself to fighting privately owned utility monopolies by creating the municipally-owned Public Lighting Department.  He fights to reduce streetcar fares by threatening to also create a municipally owned streetcar system.  But chief among all of the new Mayor's accomplishments is a welfare program known as the "Potato Patch Plan" that launches him into national prominence.

Michigan's 24th Governor
Hazen Pingree in 1885
photo credit

Now at this point, you might be confused about exact what period in Detroit history I'm describing.  It's the year 1894 and Mayor Hazen Pingree continues his first term, serving a City deep within the grip of the Panic of 1893.  During this second summer of the panic, Mayor Pingree executes a plan which will systematically use vacant city land for gardens which will produce food for the city's poor.  He auctions his $1,300 prized horse for $387 to raise funds for the securing of 430 acres of vacant land.

The location of the Detroit's "Potato Patches"
from an 1894 government report
Image credit

The City's clergy and aristocracy vehemently opposed the program claiming that "unemployed men were too lazy to work", "they would steal one another's crops" and "potato bugs would invade the city".

A group of women heading out to a potato patch circa 1890
Photo credit

In the first year, 3,000 families applied to participate, but only 945 were accepted.  Each of these first lucky families was given a one-half acre plot.  By the end of the first year, roughly $14,000 worth of food was harvested.  In 1895 and 1896, 1,546 and 1,701 families were respectively accepted into the program.  In 1896, the value of food grown by participating families was estimated at $30,998, significantly more than the amount paid out by the City's poor commission.  The program was an unprecedented success and immediately silenced its critics.  That same year, Mayor Pingree cashed in on his political successes and won a campaign to became Michigan's 24th governor.

It seems clear that as urban agriculture grows in popularity as a way to re-activate Detroit's 4,484 acres of publicly owned vacant land, that Detroit's history can act as a guide.  Mayor Hazen Pingree has proven success.  Mayor Frank Murphy, whose 1931 Thrift Gardens program (modeled after Mayor Pingree's) has proven success.  In 2010, researchers at Michigan State University concluded that modern urban farming efforts "could supply local residents with more than 75 percent of their vegetables and more than 40 percent of their fruits—a boon for a city where many residents live in food deserts."

The difference between today's efforts and those of the past lies in their permanency.  Where in the past agriculture efforts subsided after economic conditions improved, today's urban farms may prove to be fixed in Detroit's landscape as economic conditions and population loses are unlikely to change.  But no matter what role urban farming plays in Detroit's future, Detroit's past contains stories of success that can be effectively used to silence today's critics and skeptics.

------------------------------------------------
1. Follow this link for more details on Mayor Hazen Pingree's "Potato Patch Plan."
2. Follow this link to Michigan State University's 2010 study Growing Food in the City: The Production Potential of Detroit’s Vacant Land (PDF)
3. Follow this link to more more information on Mayor Frank Murphy's "Thrift Gardens."

Sub-Station Revival

Detroit's Public Lighting Department was created through the vision of Mayor Hazen Pingree (1889-1897).  Setting its own prices for electricity, it was designed to keep the prices of privately owned power competitors honest.  Today, PLD owns over 30 substations scattered throughout the city. Intertwined within each neighborhood, these buildings are monuments to a once great City's need for power and each pays respect to classic institutional architecture. As you drive through the city, see if you can spot these hidden gems.

2731 Joy Road

6610 Raymond

13811 Joseph Campau

9945 Conner

 

75 E. Canfield



2934 Park (DTE Substation)

Highland Park Reservoir

The Highland Park Water Treatment Plant

A small, beautifully detailed brick building sits at the farthest most corner of Highland Park's southwest border.  As one exits the Davidson going west and rise to merge onto I-75, a quick glance to the right reveals an out of place elderly building with a hat of clay tile and trimmed by gutters coated with the light green patina of age. Large reservoirs of water collect behind. Like strands of gray hair, streaks of rust coat the white barbwire topped reservoir walls which at ground level resemble those found at a prison courtyard.  But these walls hold pools of water  pumped from an underground water system that begins at Lake St. Clair, runs across Grosse Point Farms, regains momentum at a small pumping station at Houston and Filbert Streets, and finally exits at the Highland Park Water Treatment Plant found at 13512 Dequindre Street.

Envisioned by Henry Ford as servicing 60,000 people and two mighty auto manufacturers, it today services a population of just under 17,000 and neither auto manufacturer.  The over grown shrubs, rusting fencing and motionless vehicles that sit within the complex reflect the decay of just another Highland Park institution. A reminder of a city that grew as fast as it currently declines.  If goes without saying that its future remains uncertain.

[UPDATE: It was announced on 12/4/12 that the plant has shut down indefinitely for repairs.  The City of Detroit is now supplying Highland Park's water.]


A 30" pipeline runs from a pumping station in
Grosse Pointe Farms to the Reservoir in Highland Park


Links to more information on the Highland Park Water Department:
1. Six Mile/Dequindre Housing Project at Discuss Detroit
2. A Visit to the Highland Park Water Treatment Plant at Highland Park Michigan Block Clubs