Posted 1 year ago
hotairfan
(385 items)
One of the vendors at this years Cabin Fever Expo had this for sale for $20.00. I looked it over carefully and found that it has no broken parts, no cracks anywhere, burner intact, and had all the original hardware, down to the 10-24 square nuts on the name tag.
It was just filthy and looking for a good cleaning, s-o-o-o I bought it.
After a lot of wire brushing, wire wheel polishing, and a lot of elbow grease, It turned out to be like new, as it was in Jan. 1890.
A unique feature that it has is the way you light the pilot. The Propane Gas (they probably used natural gas) enters in the tapered fitting pictured in photo #3.
You turn the little gas knob on top of the valve, this lets the propane gas through the brass round elbow (which has a wee hole in the end).
This shoots the gas into the round opening, directed at the star shaped burner. Igniting the end of this wee hole sends a small flame into the opening towards the burner. You then open the bottom 90-degree valve to allow gas flow to the burner. The burner picks up on the pilot flame and the burner is lit and can be adjusted to whatever length of flame that you want. You then close the upper valve (to the pilot).
This way, you never get a big poof when the burner is lit.
I think that this action is remarkable for 1890. They should work this way today.
Beautiful parlor stove!! What a bargain at $20!! I've seen some parlor stoves, such as this one, that were a true work of art.
Great buy. Very interesting mechanism, thanks foe explaining it. Just looking at it, I had questions. I've told this you before..I would've loved to see the before pictures. I like the raw, in the wild just found it look. Came out fantastic though.
What a beautiful piece. You found a great bargain. It's so cool you took time to clean it up and restore it back to it's original glory. So sad things are no longer produced with such ingenious and crafted fashion. Thanks for posting, I just love these old and useful things from the 19th century.
Thank you for your comments. I can see, Blueyecon, by your posting of the early postage scale, that you appreciate what went into the manufactured products of our 1900's.
One can see by the way things are made today, with all the plastics and no sense of, or care for, the quality and beauty of the products that we sell.
Formost and all.......BUY AMERICAN
@ hotairfan, 100% agree, buy American, and buy used, vintage, antique etc. They are still useful and far out-perform products 'made in c h i n a' or 'from i k e a' , and buy from small business, yard sales, flea marts or save from landfills. I pick up things from the curb and find them useful and beautiful. I got one scale from the curb, all rusted and falling apart. My husband took a lot of time and grinded off all the rust, cleaned it up and breathed new life into it. I'll post it in show in tell in a little while. It turned out beautiful.
Thank you for the comment Bluecon.
we must get more people to value our American goods. Cheaper is definitely not the best....