Here are the heating patterns and wattages of these first generation units with the 3-heat switch.
Frgidaire 1940 Electric Range line-up
- Thread starter kenmore71
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By 1939 they introduced the 5-heat switch while using the same surface units.
Keeping Coal Fired Ranges/Boilers Going
Remember watching "1900 House" and the troubles the poor family (especially the mother) had keeping the range going much less getting it to heat water for the boiler.
Apparently no one bothered to teach the mother in depth how to start, bank and maintain a coal fired range. This was something Victorian/Edwardian girls would have learned quite early in life as part of helping with household chores. The woman did eventually learn but the huge amount of time it took out of her day (stoking, shaking down grates,etc...).
As for heating hot water, it turns out the contractors who installed the range out of modern safety concerns moved it very far from the heat exchanger, thus the thing wouldn't power the boiler properly. Once the thing was moved into the proper position things were fine.
Ok, hijack over...
Remember watching "1900 House" and the troubles the poor family (especially the mother) had keeping the range going much less getting it to heat water for the boiler.
Apparently no one bothered to teach the mother in depth how to start, bank and maintain a coal fired range. This was something Victorian/Edwardian girls would have learned quite early in life as part of helping with household chores. The woman did eventually learn but the huge amount of time it took out of her day (stoking, shaking down grates,etc...).
As for heating hot water, it turns out the contractors who installed the range out of modern safety concerns moved it very far from the heat exchanger, thus the thing wouldn't power the boiler properly. Once the thing was moved into the proper position things were fine.
Ok, hijack over...
HI everyone
The size of coal used in this cool looking heater would be lump coal; I used to get it at the coal yard. I just took a couple of old laundry tubs, put them in the trunk of the Town Car, shoveled in large lump coal, not pea coal that went into hoppers for stokers and even finer sized coal that was used for bin fed stokers.
Huge pieces of coal I did not put into the firebox. I broke them into pieces that would fit and shovel them in, about these size of the palm of your hand or so. I used crumpled newspapers first, then corncobs then sprinkled some coal on top of all of that. Open the dampers and light the newspaper. When the coal finally catches fire, more can be added. When the fire is burning brightly, close the dampers a bit and keep a watchful eye on things. I cooked many meals on my Copper Clad and kept the kitchen warm too. OVER FIRING IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! lol I hope this helped. Thanks, Gary
The size of coal used in this cool looking heater would be lump coal; I used to get it at the coal yard. I just took a couple of old laundry tubs, put them in the trunk of the Town Car, shoveled in large lump coal, not pea coal that went into hoppers for stokers and even finer sized coal that was used for bin fed stokers.
Huge pieces of coal I did not put into the firebox. I broke them into pieces that would fit and shovel them in, about these size of the palm of your hand or so. I used crumpled newspapers first, then corncobs then sprinkled some coal on top of all of that. Open the dampers and light the newspaper. When the coal finally catches fire, more can be added. When the fire is burning brightly, close the dampers a bit and keep a watchful eye on things. I cooked many meals on my Copper Clad and kept the kitchen warm too. OVER FIRING IS NOT A GOOD IDEA! lol I hope this helped. Thanks, Gary
The heating pattern with the new "5-heat" switch.
In 1941 Frigidaire introduced the first generation "radiantube".
Here are a few scans:
Here are a few scans:
"X-ray" view!
Wattages for these units:
The heat distribution of the Radiantube on the 5 heat settings:
You are both right Tomturbomatic and Laundress regarding coal burning. Coal is still available here, mostly in 50 lb. bags or by bulk but it is screened, washed and oil treated, so there is no black dust, and not that cheap. Anthricite is the preferred coal as Bituminous is stinky and smoky. I am guessing the smoke/gas is nowhere as warm as wood, thats why it will not go up the chimney unless its cold outside. My coal stove's smoke pipe was always cool to the touch, all the heat radiated from the bottom so there was no danger of a chimney fire. Most of the old gravity furnaces were either one big outlet or several smaller ducts coming from the top of huge thing that looked like a gigantic tin can going to all directions in the house, thus the octopus. Many people did replace the coal grates with an oil or gas burner, but it was terribly inefficient. The new thing around here is a pellet stove. There are several factories that take the wood waste from sawmills and compress them into small pellets, think rabbit food, only bigger. These stoves are direct vented thru a wall, produce a ton of heat, are very efficient and the pellets are cheap. But they require electricity, so no power, no heat. Before my grandfather retired from the railroad, he bought a couple of the caboose pot bellied coal stoves (I have one in storage) before they swapped to kerosene. So I always will have another option. The only electric with a side heater I ever remembered seeing was my aunts Magee. I never had a clue Frigidaire ever made them.
I don't know if anyone here remembers a brand of frozen food by the name of Gino's, but it was owned by Gino Palucci. He grew up in Hibbing and went to school with my mom. They were very poor because his father died when the kids were young. I think he did not even get to graduate from high school because he had to drop out to work to support the family. He talked of picking up coal from the street and train tracks for their stove at home.
steved
Well-known member
picking up coal from the street
I remember my dad telling the story of how, during the depression, they threw rocks at the locomotives that passed their house in hopes that the engineer would retaliate and throw coal back at them. Then they gathered it to bring home for the stove.
I remember my dad telling the story of how, during the depression, they threw rocks at the locomotives that passed their house in hopes that the engineer would retaliate and throw coal back at them. Then they gathered it to bring home for the stove.
Some things I remember reading about coal
The price quoted per ton and per bag reminds me of the great inequality in coal pricing which meant that poor people paid far more for a ton of coal than the rich people because the poor had no place to put a ton of coal, nor did they have enough money up front to pay for a ton.
Before the stock market crash in '29, some fabulous homes built on Long Island had coal delivered to the homes by barge and at least ones of the estates had a small train that took the coal from the barge into the house. Probably some rail magnate.
The price quoted per ton and per bag reminds me of the great inequality in coal pricing which meant that poor people paid far more for a ton of coal than the rich people because the poor had no place to put a ton of coal, nor did they have enough money up front to pay for a ton.
Before the stock market crash in '29, some fabulous homes built on Long Island had coal delivered to the homes by barge and at least ones of the estates had a small train that took the coal from the barge into the house. Probably some rail magnate.
norgeway
Well-known member
Regulating a solid fuel range!
I dont know about coal, but my Grandmother could hold her Majestic's oven at 350 all day, how I will never understand! My Grand dads cousin had a Home Comfort, and even though she did have a Kenmore electric, she never baked a cake in it, she too could make that oven gauge stay just where she wanted it, and her pound cakes had a crust that can not be duplicated !, She would bake huge fruit cakes in an aluminum dish pan, WONDERFUL!
I dont know about coal, but my Grandmother could hold her Majestic's oven at 350 all day, how I will never understand! My Grand dads cousin had a Home Comfort, and even though she did have a Kenmore electric, she never baked a cake in it, she too could make that oven gauge stay just where she wanted it, and her pound cakes had a crust that can not be duplicated !, She would bake huge fruit cakes in an aluminum dish pan, WONDERFUL!
While not a pre-war range in terms of when it was produced, I did run across a 1946/1947 GM range years ago - based on the 1940/1941 range. This is the only time I recall seeing the early style GM burners. Unfortunately this range (and the rest of the appliances in the thread) was crushed back before the flood of '08.
Ben
www.automaticwasher.org
Ben
Another Dream Machine found! AMP style ~
Hey Gang, Things have sure been busy here in Iowa this summer! Cory and I have spent most of the summer throwing up lumber and pounding nails at the lodge. A few weekends ago, I took an afternoon off from construction to take a drive through a small town here in Eastern Iowa to look at a 1967...
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Ben, that is what I expected in terms of surface unit design. Most auto and appliance manufacturers resumed domestic production in late 1945 with basically the 1942 models. In my observations it wasn't until about the 1947-48 design year that radically "new" things were being produced. There simply wasn't the man-power or the capital to re-design and re-tool production immediately after the war. I'm guessing that the 3-wire wide/flat topped Radiantube made its debut in either 1949 or 1950.
gotanoldstove
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Thank you for posting the frigidaire stove pics
I am currently using an old Frigidaire stove with the deep well pot and radiantubes. Everything works great on the stove except I seriously need the pans that go under the burners and can't find them anywhere. Hubby modified some new drip pans to work but the base under that really needs replaced. I love this old stove and have refused to give it up despite continual pressure from friends and family who seem to think that I need a newer type stove. I totally disagree! Any ideas on where to find some parts???
I am currently using an old Frigidaire stove with the deep well pot and radiantubes. Everything works great on the stove except I seriously need the pans that go under the burners and can't find them anywhere. Hubby modified some new drip pans to work but the base under that really needs replaced. I love this old stove and have refused to give it up despite continual pressure from friends and family who seem to think that I need a newer type stove. I totally disagree! Any ideas on where to find some parts???
Posting here is a very good first step.
Anyone out there who might have one of these ranges or some parts lying around might well be interested in helping out out.
That is definitely a 1940s model. I'm not at home right now so I can't look up the actual model number and year. That original style "radiantube" surface element was introduced in 1941 and phased out for the wide, flat 3-wire radiantube in 1949.
Hopefully I'll remember to look it up later this weekend.
Does the "well" (known as the "Thermizer") have the "Thrifto-matic" switch where the "High" heat setting is available only on a spring-wound timer portion of the control dial? I think this feature is so cool.
For those of you out there who want to know what this did:
The Deep-well cooker was in some ways the precurser of the "Crock pot" and allowed you to cook partial or whole meals at low temperatures in a semi-insulated aluminum pot.
The heat control had 4 (the early had only 3) heat settings and they were arranged in this order on the dial: OFF, MED HIGH, MED LOW, SIMMER, & HIGH.
HIGH, however, was not a notched stop but instead a 30-minute spring-wound timer. You would set the timer for how long you wanted the "Thermizer" to heat on HIGH and then it would automatically go to SIMMER.
Considering that these were low wattage elements to begin with (600 watts originaly, later increased to 635, and still later to around 1000 watts in the 50s) the SIMMER setting was around 125-150 watts which is about the same as LOW on a crock pot!
Anyone out there who might have one of these ranges or some parts lying around might well be interested in helping out out.
That is definitely a 1940s model. I'm not at home right now so I can't look up the actual model number and year. That original style "radiantube" surface element was introduced in 1941 and phased out for the wide, flat 3-wire radiantube in 1949.
Hopefully I'll remember to look it up later this weekend.
Does the "well" (known as the "Thermizer") have the "Thrifto-matic" switch where the "High" heat setting is available only on a spring-wound timer portion of the control dial? I think this feature is so cool.
For those of you out there who want to know what this did:
The Deep-well cooker was in some ways the precurser of the "Crock pot" and allowed you to cook partial or whole meals at low temperatures in a semi-insulated aluminum pot.
The heat control had 4 (the early had only 3) heat settings and they were arranged in this order on the dial: OFF, MED HIGH, MED LOW, SIMMER, & HIGH.
HIGH, however, was not a notched stop but instead a 30-minute spring-wound timer. You would set the timer for how long you wanted the "Thermizer" to heat on HIGH and then it would automatically go to SIMMER.
Considering that these were low wattage elements to begin with (600 watts originaly, later increased to 635, and still later to around 1000 watts in the 50s) the SIMMER setting was around 125-150 watts which is about the same as LOW on a crock pot!
Do you by any chance happen to have the exact model number of that range?
The last 2 numbers of the model would indicate the year of production.
I don't have specific info on the 1946-1950 ranges in my possession, but if I had to guess, I would say that your is a 1947 or 1948 model. I have detailed information on the 1942 models and when production resumed in late 1945, they basically produced one (or maybe two) of the 1942 models until they came out with the whole new line of "1947" models.
The last 2 numbers of the model would indicate the year of production.
I don't have specific info on the 1946-1950 ranges in my possession, but if I had to guess, I would say that your is a 1947 or 1948 model. I have detailed information on the 1942 models and when production resumed in late 1945, they basically produced one (or maybe two) of the 1942 models until they came out with the whole new line of "1947" models.
