Poker, anyone?

[precaud]

One of the unexpected joys of owning an older house is when you discover things that have been left behind in obscure places by the previous owner. While installing a liner in one side of the basement central brick chimney stack, I came across these two tools tucked into the corner; a 44 inch fire poker and a 42 inch tapered steel brush. At some point there was a quite a wood-fired boiler vented into that same chimney. The family who built this house (in 1930) owned the local lumber company, so fuel was not a problem... When at some point they switched to natural gas, they replaced it with a 185k btu steam boiler and radiators in every room, a system which now only comes on when the house temps go below 62. It musta been some big wood boiler!

Shown for comparison is the diminutive 24-inch rake I use to tend the Quad...

 

[BrotherBart]

Bet they had no eyelashes left after the first time they opened that boiler door to stoke it!

 

[precaud]

Yeah, what a blast it must have been! What do you think the brush was for?

 

[BrotherBart]

Heat exchanger tubes?

 

[precaud]

Did they have those pre-WWII ?

BB, I must say, I'm disappointed you've gone to the dark side... who woulda thunk it?

 

[BrotherBart]

Did they have those pre-WWII ?

BB, I must say, I'm disappointed you've gone to the dark side... who woulda think it?

The three wood stoves are heating the house and the warehouse. The pellet puppy is awaiting disection for training purposes. Can't see heating the joint with it.

 

[precaud]

Oh, ok... carry on...