With the winter season, I've been thinking about the huge old furnace Grappa Eddie Smitmajer had in his basement. When I was a kid this furnace seemed GI-NORMOUS. And all those ducts coming out the top made me think it was a metal octopus. You never knew when one of those metal arms might reach down and grab a kid when she wasn't looking.
This furnace was huge and inefficient. Still, Grappa managed to get the temperature in the house up to 80 or 90 degrees on a regular basis in winter. He liked it toasty and warm!
Here he is at the kitchen table. His birthday would have been Feb 2.
3 comments:
I'm looking for one of those octopus furnaces. I had one in my families garage growing up. wicklundwf@yahoo.com
My Mom's house still has one of those furnaces in it...converted from coal to oil before they bought it in the 60's. The thing is a huge orange beast....still running. (The sheet metal that houses the furnace is bright orange.) It's asbestos wrapped tentacles sprawl throughout the cellar, still bearing the 1940-50's?? labels on them indicating which room they feed heat to. A small motor attached to a large belt/pulley on top turn an internal fan that powers the hot air up the ducts intermittently. She could really use a new furnace, but probably won't get one. And I have suddenly become very sentimental over this old beast (nicknamed Tabonga by our old burner guy. The 1960's B movie character reference is stenciled on the front in black. My Dad's friends all had a good sense of humor.) Once I googled Tabonga
, everything made sense!
Hello that is a great picture of a Holland A model furnace. I own Holland Furnace in Akron Ohio. I sell parts for these great furnaces.
Post a Comment