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Re: Vintage technologies



The peach stove brings to mind the question of how often corporate archives
field requests for information  on antique technology that came from their
company.   For a long time I meant to contact the Coleman Lantern folks to
ask if they had lighting instructions for our home's ca. 1947 gas floor
furnace or Westinghouse to find out just where the safety valve was on our
ca. 1947 under the counter water heater.

The consequence of techno-ignorance came close to terminating my career in
graduate school when I lived in a 1920's apartment building with original
gas stoves.  Some new students across the hall knocked on the door (with a
strong smell of gas accompanying them) to ask for help with their stoves.
They had been turning on the gas and waiting patiently until they could no
longer stand the smell of the gas, but the pilot lights would never kick in.
Having been trained in ur-technology by watching Laurel & Hardy films, I
knew enough to tell them about stoves without pilot lights and make them a
present of a box of matches (after airing out the building).

Steven

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