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Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Pressure and Temperature Controls – Commercial

An early, crude, mechanically refrigerated cabinet temperature control, engineered with large “pan-cake” style hydraulic power element with large, built-in, thermal sensing bulb; open, single pole heavy copper switch contacts, mounted on steel plate base with press formed sheet steel cover, handsomely decorated in gold and black, Frigidaire, circa 1926.

Features:
Cover decorated in black with gold lettering, detailing monthly oiling instructions for condensing unit; Visual pleasing, unusual, oval, pressed steel cover with twin knurled brass hold-down nuts; Unusually rugged mechanical switch construction, with larger copper contact surfaces, a construction style which would soon disappear with the advent of increasingly smaller more finely engineered control technology, see for example ID # 165, code 7.02-10

Technical Significance:
An unusually crude, weighty and rugged, automated, mechanical switching device in iron plate and steel bolted construction, a quintessential product of Canada’s early period of industrialization. In its design and execution it appears, in many ways, much more like the product of a local blacksmith or iron monger than that of an industrial manufacturing process.

It stands as a classic marker and supreme accomplishments of its industrial times. Its significance is as an embryonic product of engineering and manufacturing know-how in the field of automated, electrical switching devices. It represented a know-how that would shortly be seen as the end of a genre. The genre would give way to a new generation of much more sophisticated engineering design concepts, made possible by a new generation of engineering theory building and practice, materials and manufacturing methods. See for example ID # 161 to 164.

Of special interest, in benchmarking and appreciating the technology represented here, is in contrasting it with micro-switch technology in common use in automated controllers in Canada by the 1950’s. The contrast in precision engineering, manufacture and performance represents a vast step ahead. See for example ID # 165, code 7.02-10

Industrial Significance:
See above

Accession # HHCC.2006.035

An early, crude, mechanically refrigerated cabinet temperature control, engineered with large “pan-cake” style hydraulic power element with large, built-in, thermal sensing bulb; open, single pole heavy copper switch contacts, mounted on steel plate base with press formed sheet steel cover, handsomely decorated in gold and black, Frigidaire, circa 1926.

ItemRefrigeration ‘pancake’ thermostatManufacturerFrigidaire Corporation, Dayton OhioMakeFrigidaireModelUn-markedShare
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Started as a private initiative by a group of enthusiastic volunteers, the HVACR Heritage Centre Canada is a national charitable organization dedicated to preserving and studying the history and evolution of the heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration technologies. We carry-out mandate by collecting artefacts and archival material and creating exhibits, publications, and other educational programs for the benefit of all Canadians.

 

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