The Pioneers In Hot Water Heaters
The technological advances in heating water have really come into play just in the last two centuries. People have found various ways to get hot water to their homes, but some methods are still around in a slightly different form. The luxury of having heated water for bathing and washing dishes and other items was a strong catalyst for making improvements in water heating. Everyone loved to have hot water for baths, and those that could afford to pay for an apparatus that could produce that soothing temperature, were certainly apt to pay very well.
So of course, there was a demand and a market brought many people with many ideas in turn. Some were unreliable and didn’t work very well while some worked too well and were actually dangerous! There needed to be a happy medium. People put their ideas into actions and the wonderful types of hot water heaters that we know and enjoy today were fashioned. This process took many years, but where would we be if they hadn’t started back then? Let us take a look into some of the first trials and triumphs in water heating history.
How did it all start?
The method of heating water on a stove or fire of some sort and pouring it into the desired place was not a quick one. Often it could take hours to heat enough water for bathing. Time was precious then as it is now and people longed for a better way. One of those entrepreneurial souls was an Englishman Benjamin Maughan. Around 1868 he invented the Geyser. Known to work almost too well in getting the water very hot, extreme caution had to be taken. There had to be more advancement for water heating as the Geyser couldn’t be a stopping point. It was too great a risk for people in residential use.
Maughan’s work was not a total failure however, because most great inventions have had a start with the inspiration of a not so usable invention. A Norwegian immigrant to Pennsylvania named Edwin Ruud took off with the idea from Maughan’s invention. Of course the name Ruud is familiar as his ideas and inventions worked to enrich lives both poor and wealthy. He is a pioneer in America’s water heating technology and his goal is still alive today as the company he started. The Ruud Manufacturing Company is still going strong and advancing in water heating technology. His automatic storage electric water heater put him on the map and gave him a firm place etched in American plumbing all-stars. One of the most recognized and sought after names in water heaters today, when consumers and businesses alike look for quality and advancement, they look to a Ruud system.
When you think of solar powered water heaters, you might believe them to be a technology that has been only recently designed. Back in 1891, a man named Clarence Kemp from Maryland had the market on the sun powered technology that would change people’s lives and environment forever. In that year he patented the Climax. Sunlight, more readily available, and certainly cheaper, than oil or gas became popular for water heating especially in the western parts of the United States. There were many improvements that followed, but perhaps the most useful was in 1909 when William Baily started selling his Day and Night water heating system.
Baily’s system took Kemp’s idea to a new level in which an insulated storing tank style unit was added, producing the advent of hot water in the daytime or nighttime, hence the name. The technology that these two men gave their all to is still at work today and has given great comfort to many, especially in hard economic times when other natural resources were hard to come by for the poverty levels so widespread in many eras. Another great benefit, besides financial, to the work started by these men is on the quality of life for all living creatures and the Earth we all share. It is such a big benefit with such a small price to pay for the environment and the people who use the technology. You really can’t go wrong with an invention like that!
As you can see, some of the great starts began with not so great results. Those historic inventions have been an indelible stepping stone on technology for home comfort. Water heating hasn’t been the same since men like these have put their hearts and minds to a greater purpose than themselves. Each of them had their heart towards making a difference in the lives of people not only in their time, but for the future generations as well. The blessing of hot water to bathe in, wash with, and more would not have been possible without a kick-start from these first inventions.
