[AT] Shop heating

[charlie hill]

A slight twist on this subject is the tobacco curing burners Al mentioned. 
They were the demise of  many old tractors as tobacco barns burn easily and 
often had a tractor parked under the shelter.

In the late 50's the burners got a lot safer but some of the early ones were 
down right dangerous.  One such brand was called a Buck Eye burner.  (I 
don't think that is a reference to the buckeye state and I certainly don't 
mean this as in insult.)  They were kerosene pot burners.  A typical tobacco 
barn had 4 of these equally spaced in the square barn.  Tobacco in it's 
final stage of curing is at about 160 to 180 degrees and near zero humidity. 
The burners were only enclosed by a thin sheet metal cover that was maybe 3 
to 4 feet in dia. and about 4 heet high and they were located directly under 
the drying tobacco with only about 2 to 4 feet of clearance.

We lost one barn when I was about 6 or 7.  One burner went out during final 
curing.  Daddy's hired man decided the kerosene line going to the burner was 
clogged.  He went to daddy's service station, got a portable air tank and 
proceeded to blow out the line while the barn was at about 155 degrees or 
so.   Only problem was that he removed the wrong kerosene line and proceeded 
to blow 100 psi air into the line of a burning burner.  I guess you can 
imagine how fast the barn burned to the ground.  Didn't matter. There was no 
fire department to call anyway and nothing but a hand pump for water.

When daddy rebuilt the barn we switched all the barns over to Gas-To-Bac 
burners.  These were gas burners like the round ones you see under outdoor 
cookers (fish stew, turkey friers, etc).  There were 16 of these to a barn 
(4 rows of 4) and they were fed by  3/4 inch pipe.  They had a simple cover 
over them that consisted of 4 stamped metal legs supporting a more or less 
flat to about 2 feet in diameter.  Under that a sheet metal "pipe" about 
10" diameter and 8" long hung by small chains so that it surrounded the 
burner. We had a 1000 gal gas tank for 2 barns that were side by side.  I 
can't remember how much gas it  took per barn but the tank had to be filled 
several times during the 6 week or so curing season.

I never thought to put any of those burners up.  There should be a whole 
barn full of them still at the  farm but I haven't looked in a few years and 
I suspect they have been stolen by now.  I have some of the actual cast iron 
burners put up but never, until this moment, thought of saving any of the 
covers.  I guess I need to venture into the old barn or what's left of it.

Charlie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Al Jones" <aljones at ncfreedom.net>
To: "'Antique tractor email discussion group'" 
<at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 5:30 PM
Subject: RE: Re[2]: [AT] Shop heating


> Charlie,
>
> That's sort of the plan...no demand for them for home use, so we'll
> probably put it up for when we build a shop!
>
> As I recall the one it replaced was called a "Dual-Therm?"  This one is
> a Tharrington, I think the same company was/is in the tobacco curing
> business. It was the early '90s when they got it, and I was surprised
> they were still made.
> Al
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
> [mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of charlie hill
> Sent: Friday, November 12, 2004 7:57 AM
> To: Antique tractor email discussion group
> Subject: Re: Re[2]: [AT] Shop heating
>
>
> Al,
>
> If the one in your grand
> folks house is still in working shape you might have a nice shop heater!
>
>
>
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