It all balances out.

The folks over at The Octagon House had a post recently about an old scale they found in their attic, which very well could have belonged to the granddaddy of all the P. O.'s. Being the nosy creature that I am, I spent a couple hours sort of giving it (and the player piano) the go-over. It's sure a neat feeling, to have a tangible link to the past like that! I've always had a weakness for old mechanical odds and ends, and thought I'd take a moment to share this.

The proper term for such an animal is actually a balance, because it has no provision for directly measuring, without the use of a set of weights. I used to use it to weigh gold and diamonds and so forth when I had the shop, and hated to sell it off when I closed up shop, although a few people wanted it.

It was made by the William Ainsworth Company, who began making balance during the gold rush days and continued until well into the 20th century. William Ainsworth was a watchmaker, who was often called upon to repair the delicate assay balances of the day, and eventually began manufacturing his own. They were an interesting parallel to watches of that era, in that they were also mass-produced and yet still maintained a degree of quality unrivaled since then. The metal cabinet and and lack of fancy finishing technique is indicative of the period between the world wars. Nothing is added to the balance that does not serve a purpose, and the thing still looks elegant. There are a lot of "little touches" like the counter weights that hold the front door up, like an old double hung window; and the feet that all screw in and out to level the base.

Because it is mass produced and not in the wooden cabinet and so forth, it is nowhere near as valuable as some of the other balances on the market today, and also sold for less new. Still, at $186 in 1942, the thing would cost almost $2,500 to buy today!

The weights are all packed in their own little places in a hard case. There are two sets with this one-the old set and the newer. Both sets are gold plated brass whole weights, and inert metal fractional weights (the silver looking ones.) Both are quality sets, and are pretty accurate for most work.




The old set is metric, and still has the traceable certification yet. This meant that they had been compared with a known set of weights directly traceable to the the master standard, and the difference noted so that it could be taken into account when the weights were used. This set was initially the second to the top of the line set that Ainsworth sold.



The newer set has metric, but also has a pharmaceutical set, with grains, pennyweights, and scruples. Let it never be said I have no scruples! The little forceps are there because you aren't supposed to touch the weights with your bare hands because the oil from them will cause tarnish or corrosion, which alters the weight.

This balance is one of two I own, and sets on top of the safe at the boss' store. The other is the next model cheaper than this one, and stays at home.


Anyway, there's anther oddball item, which I seem to have no trouble coming up with (I wonder why?)

Cheers!

I'm ready for my close up.

Here are some pictures of the old Tappan cook stove that came with the house. If you want to learn about Tappan stoves, go and visit http://tappantalk.blogspot.com/ . The folks that run it also have http://stuccohouse.blogspot.com/ , which details the work done on a bungalow in the cities.

This is the manifold where the oven valve and pyrometer knob are located. Since it hasn't any standing pilot, it has to be lighted by hand each time the oven is used. You set the temperature, strike a match, and touch it to the touch hole in the front of the oven. Then you push the valve in a little and turn it as far counter clockwise as it'll go. In short order, it'll light, and sucks the fire right off the end of the match!
Once it reaches its temperature, it is very accurate, because it can't relight itself so it has to mantain constant temperature.

This is the top of the cook surface, with the work light and oven vent. The handle to the right on top of the backsplash turns on the light. I am not too sure that switch is original. Most of the wiring in this stove was replaced sometime in the fifties. The cord is the next thing to get it. This one has the "hood ornament" under the light.

Here is the close up of the model and serial numbers. Smarter people than I have sort of figured out that this stove was made in a cooperative venture with a company called Philgas, who made Skelgas appliances at one time.

There is also a Ruud water heater that has been down there since time began, that was a Skelgas deal before the PPO had it converted.

Here is the plate that shows the knob positions, along with the closeups of the (dirty) knobs.

Some Hillbilly's a'livin' in my DOGHOUSE!

Moved in the week of Thanksgiving!

There was a couple thousand dollars left over from Mammie's affairs, and my brothers and I divvied it up. With my share, I got a furnace from a place in Okoboji at a hell of a discount because some other body put a ding in the side, but since it has a new warranty and that it was a no-brainer. It is 95%, and all! Also, I got a new water heater, and replumbed all of the Natural gas lines inside. I had a tankless that I wanted to use, but it didn't have the special vent hardware with it and for what it cost to dink with I just call to the hardware store and he brought one down to me.

The night we did the hot water and plumbing I did the two-step Maytag bath in the clawfooted tubbie. Know what that is? You draw a nice hot bath, scrub and lay there till the water ain't warm, then you drain the tub and draw another hot one just to sit and stew in! Since I am a bachelor, I can do that. So I do.

There isn't any galvanized plumbing left in the place, and all the cast iron sewer stack is replaced with PVC because it was rotten. We rammed a rubber boot in the cast iron pipe going out, and put the PVC in that, and added a clean out while we were at it. Now if the line stops up we don't have to pull the terlet off to do something about it. Speaking of things terlet I got to get a new one, we broke the bowl. The hardware store has a "pot-in-a-box" kit pretty reasonable, that may be what I get.

I rewired a light from my great-grandmother's house, and hung it in the back bedroom. It's a brass pan light, hangs on two chains and has two sockets. The wiring was truly scary. It was all half-assed, so it got redone. The shades are frosted, and have lilacs painted on them. One has a corner that was broke, dinged up, and glued back together, but it doesn't show so much, and even if it did what the hell, my great-grandmother won't ever buy any more lights. Besides, it ain't the Gotrocks' mansion, and in the end the only one that has to be happy about it is the one I look at in the mirror.

I also put a nice Porcelier fixture in the bathroom. I got it from Shirley Pico in Emmetsburg, when she had the antique store. She was a good friend of my Grandma's, and she made me a real deal on it, because she knew I liked them. It is supposed to be a ceiling fixture, but it looks all right on the wall. It's real art-deco-looking, and has matching colours to the rest of the room. The wiring was pretty nice yet. Those bulbs looked like hell, but they've been in the old light for who knows hows how long.


The porch of doom is no more-it started making ominous noises, so an executive decision to perform the removal. Saving all the wood I could, it took an hour to pull it off. I burnt the rotten wood up in the dark of the night, and stacked what was worth bothering with. Mammie's front storm door and the one from Teri's house are up and working.

A whale of a storm is commencing, and pictures are to follow.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Slow goes it!

Well, the kitchen porch is getting torn apart for demolition. It has a nearly flat tar paper roof, a bad case of the rot, and smells like an army boot. It really isn't worth saving. There may be a few good pieces of lumber in it, but that's it. The city gave me permission to tear it off and put on a new one, and it is going to have the basement entry at ground level.

The old porch was sort of a temporary deal eighty years ago, so I don't feel too bad about the whole thing.

Also, Mammie's landlord gave me the old wood storm door from her house, so I put it on my dining room door. It has the glass insert too, and is in pretty good shape, since she had a porch on the front of her house.

My uncle Greg and aunt Bri gave me a china hutch that was my great-grandparents', and it came from the farm in Pomeroy. It is in the dining room, and will go on the north wall once I get my smaller sideboard in and Earl's old one out.
Just to see what it would turn up like, I cleaned up the hallway door. The wood looks pretty nice. I replaced all of the doorknobs with porcelain, because the metal ones were oval and the dog could open them with his mouth.

The worst is over.

I haven't posted lately, because there hasn't been much progress. I have been at my mother's a lot lately, because she has been coping with cancer. She was diagnosed last summer, and wasn't given much time, but we were blessed to have her with us through the winter, and even into this summer. She took a sudden turn towards the worst on July eighth, and my aunts and brothers came up, and hospice came and set up so she could stay at home, where she died on the 17th. It's sad for my brothers and I, yet I am glad she was only bedridden for the last twelve days of her life. I'm glad she didn't linger in pain, and the journey was easy-she worked hard all her life, raised four of us almost alone, and deserved better than she got.

Ma, we'll miss you!

Clocks and Desks and Cats in hats!

Long time no post! Lots of things are going on, but most of it has been pretty boring. The north half of the roof is scheduled to be installed. The junk outside has been cleaned up, and a few other little things. There may be a decrease in the mouse population-Kent & Tina's Mama cat hatched a litter of five babbies. This picture is when they were about ten hours old. If they don't find another home for it, I told them I'd take the Bengal striped one or the white one. I figure I can spend a few bucks getting it fixed and licensed, and it'll keep the mouse and rabbit numbers down a little around this place.

My Grannie moved to an assisted living, and it was time to clean up the house. My dad and I went down to help, and I got a few little things to remember the place by. I really didn't want much, and I got everything I wanted. The big thing I wanted was an old drop-front desk that was in the garage since I was a kid. It was my great-grandmother's, and it came from the old farm. It is sort of rough, but nothing that can't be fixed. My dad and I dropped it off at a place in Spencer that has done work for me in the past, and he can fix the big issues for a very reasonable rate. I need a couple of knobs, and some trim pieces and veneer work on the top. Most of the finish is not too far gone-a little Kotton Klenser and some wax and it'll look like a million. I also got a set of kitchen cupboard doors that match mine, a bunch of washers and screws, a pretty nice metal mailbox (which I happen to need) and the old sign with our name that came off the front porch.

A year ago, a clockmaker friend of mine left me an old master clock that came from the old High School in Estherville. It was missing a lot of parts (sort of a life-long project) but had good bones and a hell of a nice oak case. When I mentioned it to a friend in Emmetsburg (whom I was visiting on account of his 101st birthday he got really interested. He told me to hold on and got his car out, and we went to his "other house" where he keeps all of his goodies. He had a piece of slate with almost all of the missing program mechanism. It still needs wired and a pile of contacts, but the hard work is done. It's going in the dining room, so it can correct the clocks in the other rooms and ring bells in the bedrooms and the back yard.