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 The dry returns travel downhill from the radiators to the boiler room. When they get near the boiler they dump their condensate load into an ornate receiver that Broomell also made. It’s a cast-iron cylinder, open at the top, and measuring about four-feet high and a foot wide. It has a gauge glass on the side, marked in ounces of pressure. Inside the receiver there’s a bowling ball-sized copper float that connects to a chain. The chain goes through a series of pulleys that are mounted on the ceiling and connects to the draft regulator. As pressure builds inside the boiler, the water backs into the Broomell receiver, raising its water level. The copper float goes up, and the chain closes the damper, limiting the air supply to the coal fire. This, of course, lowers the steam pressure. The water then moves back into the boiler, which, in turn, lowers the water level inside the Broomell receiver. The copper float goes down; the chain opens the damper, and the steam pressure goes up again.Pretty simple, isn’t it? The only moving parts are the supply valves and that copper float. This is how you make something that will last 100 years and more. Keep it simple. After dropping the condensate into the receiver, the dry returns continue on and joining together before entering a ceiling-mounted radiator. You can use anyone’s radiator; it’s just there to act as a condenser. This radiator’s job is to kill whatever steam vapor makes it to this point before the dry return enters the chimney. That’s right. The chimney. Broomell used the draft up the chimney to induce vacuum on the return lines of the steam system. This made the steam travel very quickly to all the radiators in the building with a maximum pressure of six ounces at the boiler.
To modernize a Broomell system, you install an automatic burner and cut the copper float’s chain. Leave everything else alone. That’s it. How many of your systems will still be around when you are on the other side of the grass a hundred years from now? There was once a time when the Dead Men built things as good as they could, and if you find any of these old systems intimidating, well, that’s the way it should be.
Respectfully,
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If the pressure went above six ounces, a relief valve popped. The relief valve was an integral part of the Broomell receiver. It was there to ensure that no water would ever back out of the boiler and spill from the receiver. So simple, so beautifully simple.
| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
| The views expressed in this article are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management or staff of MasterPlumbers.com |
