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He set a boiler (which could have been anyone’s) in the basement and ran a steam supply line straight up to the radiators. There was no boiler header, and no Hartford Loop (that shows up 65 years later). There was just a simple steam pipe running straight up. The radiators branch off the supply, and the supply line then continues to a slightly higher level where it enters a metal chamber. This chamber is a bit wider than the supply riser and it contains a conical weight. The wide end of the cone sits on the top of steam supply pipe. The boiler has to build a certain amount of steam pressure to lift that weight, which is an early version of the relief valve. This is what’s going to make steam safe for house heating at a time in America when boilers were exploding every 36 hours. How heavy is the weight? It depends on the pressure needed to run the system, and the vertical space available for the return line.
 As the boiler fires and builds pressure, the waterline in the boiler is, of course, falling. In Mr. Gold’s system, he’s allowed for a vertical return line that’s equal in height to the weight inside the chamber. Steam, at a pressure sufficient to overcome system pressure drop, travels to the radiators, and any steam pressure in excess of what’s needed lifts the weight and bleeds off. And where it bleeds is delightful. It goes into a special mattress radiator that acts as a condenser. Mr. Gold tapped this special radiator on its top for the supply, and on its bottom for the return, and he submerged it in a rectangular cistern filled with well water. All the steam from the boiler that’s not entering the radiators in the rooms goes into the condensing radiator and instantly turns into condensate. That condensate then flows down the return line and back into the boiler. He doesn’t say if he uses the water in the cistern as domestic hot water, but doesn’t that just make your imagination soar? What we might have had here was the first indirect water heater.
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His patent shows that a part of the return line, positioned just above the height to which boiler water will rise as it backs up the return, is made of glass. This is so the homeowner can monitor the water level during operation. A half-century later, the makers of the famous Broomell steam system, the central heating system preferred by the very wealthy at the turn of the century, will mimic this technique by placing a gauge glass, calibrated to indicate ounces of static pressure, on their return-line receiver. In Broomell’s case, the water backing into the receiver will operate a float ball and chain, which, in turn, will control the dampers. Simply brilliant.| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
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