Are you this old?

[CADplans]

Here's an oldie: have you ever seen a hypocaust? That was a basement furnace with a big octopus of 8" ducts that went to every room in the house and circulated air by convection -

The house I grew up in had one, it was taken out in 1950, the year I was born.
Mom told me about living there in the 1930's,, money was nonexistent,,
Coal, at $2 a ton was too expensive,,

Somewhere, my dad would get old telephone poles.
Mom and dad would cut the poles with a two person crosscut saw.

They would toss the pieces in the stove to keep the house warm.

Mom said the house smoked like a steam engine!! LOL!!
EVERYONE wondered why the house gave off so much smoke,, I guess creosote smoked when you tried to burn it.

The old furnace was replaced with a natural gas forced air furnace.
They installed a gas range and gas refrigerator, all three at the same time.

We had a neighbor that simply had a gas burner installed in the hypocaust furnace, no other changes.

 

[3Ts]

Ah, you were south burbs, and I was nw burbs. Now I'm far nw burbs, Barrington area.

Interesting! Is that the Barrington just down the road from Fox River Grove? I lived in FRG for a short time. The Bettendorf castle was not far from where I lived and is quite interesting.

 

[Oaktree]

I wonder if our coal furnace was originally of the hypocaust type. We'd lived with Grandpa until moving to Flint for Dad to open the TV station. Visiting years later the huge 'pot' and ducts were still there but Grandpa had a gas conversion upfitted with blower and eventually AC. The several 12" or so ducts reduced headroom in ~1/4 of the basement. There never were any cold air returns, but the house heated evenly anyway.

My parents had one of those when I was growing up. Don't know what it was designed to burn, but it had been converted to oil when they bought the house. About the only room that ever got very warm was the dining room (which was directly above it) and the cellar even though there were ducts to a couple other rooms too. Cold air return was also in that room.
It got replaced with FHW when I was a senior in high school. Seemed weird to have heat in every room, and to not need 6 layers of blankets on the bed in the winter. Only thing we missed about the old furnace was that the heat grate was a great place to dry mittens, gloves, hats, etc.

 

[lman]

Here's an oldie: have you ever seen a hypocaust? That was a basement furnace with a big octopus of 8" ducts that went to every room in the house and circulated air by convection - no furnace fan. It was deluxe in the days before electricity. It would burn about anything; wood, coal, my dad had a cousin with one. He had converted it to a sawdust burner because sawdust was free.

We had one of those in the basement when I was a kid. I remember when we took it out, it was so heavy that we broke some of it up(cast iron) with a sledgehammer.

 

[3Ts]

hypocaust - yep, I lived with my Aunt while I was in college and she had one of these in her basement that had been converted to either gas or oil, I don't remember which. The coal bin had been converted to a pantry and the access for the coal chute was still visible. The house was on a cobblestone road but is gone now due to putting in a 4 lane road thru the neighborhood.

 

[JasperFrank]

I remember that we had an account with the gas station next door. They would run up a monthly list of charges, gas, us kids getting stuff, we would pay once a month and settle up. This was a different world.

 

[jyoutz]

Some have mentioned but you would need to put a coin on the needle arm so the needle wouldn't jump and skip.

Thanks. I remember using record players, but never learned that trick.

 

[forestcreature1]

View attachment 726702

Only those shorter pole lines are power lines. The others are communication lines [telegraph].

 

[npalen]

Here's an oldie: have you ever seen a hypocaust? That was a basement furnace with a big octopus of 8" ducts that went to every room in the house and circulated air by convection - no furnace fan. It was deluxe in the days before electricity. It would burn about anything; wood, coal, my dad had a cousin with one. He had converted it to a sawdust burner because sawdust was free.

We had that type of heating system in the house on the farm where I grew up but this is the first time for me to hear it called a hypocaust. It was a huge four story house and the pipes were probably a foot in diameter and wrapped with sheet asbestos for insulation. I recall burning coal, wood and then later on it was converted to LP gas. There was a huge return air pipe that was probably 30" to 36" in diameter that fed air in under the furnace.

 

[npalen]

The house I grew up in had one, it was taken out in 1950, the year I was born.
Mom told me about living there in the 1930's,, money was nonexistent,,
Coal, at $2 a ton was too expensive,,

Somewhere, my dad would get old telephone poles.
Mom and dad would cut the poles with a two person crosscut saw.

They would toss the pieces in the stove to keep the house warm.

Mom said the house smoked like a steam engine!! LOL!!
EVERYONE wondered why the house gave off so much smoke,, I guess creosote smoked when you tried to burn it.

The old furnace was replaced with a natural gas forced air furnace.
They installed a gas range and gas refrigerator, all three at the same time.

We had a neighbor that simply had a gas burner installed in the hypocaust furnace, no other changes.

Ours was also retrofitted with a gas burner and then about 80% of the flue was blocked off to prevent losing excessive heat up the chimney.

 

[npalen]

Only those shorter pole lines are power lines. The others are communication lines [telegraph].

Then someone said, "Hey, why can't we put all those lines inside a single cable?"

 

[Bird]

I’m younger than most on this thread, but my earliest gas station memories are of my dad pulling in to the local service station and telling one of the owner’s sons to give him $3 worth of gas. That was the usual amount he’d buy. They pumped the gas, checked the oil and tires, and washed the windshield for that $3. It was a big deal for me to be the one to say “$3 please”.

I did all those same things when I was 16 to 19 years old in my Dad's service station, and it was quite common to havce people come in for a dollars worth of gas.

 

[GeneV]

Interesting! Is that the Barrington just down the road from Fox River Grove? I lived in FRG for a short time. The Bettendorf castle was not far from where I lived and is quite interesting.

Yup, that's me! I'm 3 minutes away from there, down Rte 14.

 

[GeneV]

You guys must be REALLY old, coz when I google hypocaust, alls I see is heating systems from the Roman times.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I did all those same things when I was 16 to 19 years old in my Dad's service station, and it was quite common to havce people come in for a dollars worth of gas.

When I was in high school, regular gasoline was 25cents per gallon. I could buy a dollar's worth of gas, pick up my date, drive to Enid, go to the drive in (50 cents each; popcorn 15 cents each), have a hamburger and a Coke afterwards (35 cents and 15 cents) and have change left over from a '$5.00 bill.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

I’m old too, still got a working turntable.

 

[2LaneCruzer]

I've got a closet full of LP's (that I bought myself) from the 50's and 60's. When the Hi-Fi's came out; I bought one! First record I bought? "Poor Little Fool".

 

[ponytug]

You guys must be REALLY old, coz when I google hypocaust, alls I see is heating systems from the Roman times.

Try googling an octopus furnace, which is the more common version.

True hypocausts went out of fashion with the Romans and the abandonment of child (slave) labor to sweep between the support pillars. A version of it was used in traditional Korean homes until fairly recently. Like hydroponic in floor heat, it is very efficient.

All the best,

Peter

 

[k0ua]

Thanks. I remember using record players, but never learned that trick.

It wasn't a good idea then, nor is it now. The reason for taping the penny on the tone arm was because your needle was worn out and would not track deep enough in the groove. You should have replaced the needle, but instead you taped a penny (or nickel) on the tone arm to try to force it to track. Of course it just wore the "heck" out of the record with the extra weight on the arm. Wouldn't you think if the tone arm needed extra weight to work correctly that the manufacture would have made the tone arm heavier to begin with?

it is just one of the dumb things that people do as a work around to a problem they either don't understand or don't have the money to cope with.

 

[GeneV]

I remember the coin trick, but not coz I'm old. I'm from the soviet union, record players were the only option there going into the 80's, when my family emigrated. Meanwhile, repair parts such as record player needles were in short supply. So...the kopek on the needle arm trick. Da!