1930s agas - boilers

[rootyboots]

Originally Posted by Bluebird

Thanks Jean, I thought that must have been the case....so now I have to ask...what fuels Ascot boilers please?

This cottage is in a country village with only paraffin, coal and wood - no gas or electricity.

I may be able to help a bit here - In the normal sized world, I work for Calor Gas and I'm currently helping put together an archive of old stuff for the 75th anniversary, so I'm swamped with stuff like this! A lot of country homes used cylinder butane gas, when they were 'off mains'. These were used to run cookers, fridges, anything that natural gas could have run in town. I would assume an Ascot boiler could run off of a cylinder too. The company started in 1935 so you would be well 'within period'.

I'm doing a 1940s house and although my family live in London and actually probably would have had mains gas, I have decided I *have* to make them a little grey modelling clay Calor cylinder to put in the shed, or in their bomb shelter - just because! If you wanted to do something similar, I can probably get a photograph of a vintage cylinder (they were quite different looking back then, but I have a couple kicking around for the museum) and send it to you, for reference.

Good luck - I am always super-interested to see what other people are doing with 'wartime' dolls houses. If you don't already have it, Jane Harrop's book, "Thirties and Forties Miniatures in 1:12 Scale" is invaluable - there's lots of information in there, and her kits are great.

[Bluebird]

Wow! Thanks for that. I had found that they could be using a charcoal immersion heater and thought I'd go with that, but this will give me something else to think about.

I was also almost sold on the Rayburn idea too (my husbands family had a Rayburn in Australia in the 50s and 60s which supplied their hot water so that would be a sentimental reason for one) but then could I justify just having hot bath water but not sink and would she still need a copper and so on...

A photo would be really good. If you posted here or on your profile pages, I'm sure others doing that era houses would find it interesting too. Maybe the company could make miniatures for keyrings to celebrate such such an important milestone! (1:12 keyrings of course)

I do have Jean Harrops book - the first essential for a 30s 40s house!

[rootyboots]

Glad you have it - it's so good, and Jane herself is really lovely too!

No worries, I need to take some pictures for myself, anyway! I'm currently off sick so it won't be for the next few days, but I'll see what I can do for you as soon as I'm back!

The only thing I don't know is how (and where!) the cylinder would attach to the Ascot boiler... let me see if I can find out, I'm sure there must be something in the boxes and boxes of archive material.

Haha! You know, I had the same thought about trying to get them to make little cylinders as anniversary keepsakes... I don't think I'll convince them, though! :P

[Bluebird]

Poor thing. I hope you aren't suffering, but lazing about becoming well

There is no rush for me anyway- my house isn't even built yet!

[vivienne.a.baird]

Hi
Why pay money for book why not go to the libary and have a look under Scocial History and you might find a lot of information there that you are looking for then its just a case of photo copying the pages you want at 20p each or whatever they charge
As then that save you waiting on books

[vivienne.a.baird]

I know thatit is lifesizedboilers but it might give you more information
Domestic Hot Water Systems.
hop this helps

[Bluebird]

Originally Posted by vivienne.a.baird

Hi
Why pay money for book why not go to the libary and have a look under Scocial History and you might find a lot of information there that you are looking for then its just a case of photo copying the pages you want at 20p each or whatever they charge
As then that save you waiting on books

If you are doing a 30s/40s house, Jane Harrop's book is well worth investing in. I refer to it so often and it is a pleasure to look through even when I'm not working on something - by the time I photocopied what I want, it would be the whole book! We do have a good library for the area I am in (country Australia) and I usually have a few books out but there isn't very much about British history, especially of that era. Most of what I learn comes from novels, biographies, period TV ...and now here.