Before Thermostats, How Did Families Keep the Fire Alive All Night?

Ninety-four percent of American homes had electric light in 1950. Almost half of them were still heating with coal or wood, by hand, and somebody had to get up before everyone else to keep the fire from dying. On June 29, 1946, a government photographer named Russell Lee photographed a coal miner, Geno Tarufelli, breaking up coal for his stove in Delcarbon, Huerfano County, Colorado. This is the story of one winter night and one winter morning in an American house, 1870 to 1970: banking the fire and watching for the blue flames to go out, as USDA Farmers' Bulletin 1194 (1921) describes it; the six-to-eight-inch charge of anthracite that bought six to eight hours of sleep; the morning routine of dampers, grate, ashes and the "small watering pot kept near the furnace"; the 1940 Census of Housing, with 42 percent of homes on central heating and 46.6 percent on a stove in the room; Ralston Hoopes's 1875 coal-chute patent and the iron door it left in the foundation; the anthracite strike of 1902, a "fuel famine" in the words of the President's commission; and Albert Butz's patent 341,092 of May 4, 1886, a damper-regulator and alarm he "generally locate[d] in a servants room." Then the numbers. Census heating-fuel series, 1940 to 1970: coal from 54.7 percent of homes to 2.9; wood from 22.8 to 1.3; electricity not even counted in 1940 and 1.8 percent in 1960. Bureau of Mines Minerals Yearbook 1941: 158,734 domestic stokers and 271,673 oil burners sold in one year. And the USDA guide "Your Farmhouse: Heating," whose 1949 edition teaches kindling, reviving and banking a fire, and whose 1962 revision no longer mentions the night at all. Every picture in this video is a record: a photograph, a patent drawing, a bulletin page, a census chart or a period advertisement, each with its archive and catalog number below. Nothing here was made by a model. One correction is already pinned in the comments. If you catch another error, tell me and I will pin that too. Subscribe for the rest of the house: this channel is working through the vanished chores of American life one room at a time. CHAPTERS 00:00 Delcarbon, Colorado, June 1946: Geno Tarufelli breaks coal for his stove 01:49 Farmers' Bulletin 1194, 1921: "usually the man of the house" 02:40 Census 1940: 42 percent central heating, 46.6 percent a stove in the room 03:51 Banking the fire: check damper, draft damper, and the blue flames 06:17 Before dawn: dampers, grate, "the first bright spot," and the watering pot 08:42 Where every picture in this video comes from, and the iron door in your foundation 09:43 Aunt Sammy, 1927: "break the ice in the tin wash basin" 12:09 Patent 170,856, 1875: the coal chute through the cellar window 13:56 Seven tons, "say, twelve tons," and coal at 52 pounds per cubic foot 16:32 The anthracite strike of 1902: 147,000 men and a "fuel famine" 17:20 Census 1950: 94 percent electric light, coal in 35 percent of homes 19:27 Patent 341,092, 1886: Albert Butz's damper-regulator and alarm 22:42 Magazine heaters, stokers and the Minerals Yearbook of 1941 25:46 Census 1940 to 1970: coal from 54.7 percent to 2.9 27:07 "Your Farmhouse: Heating," 1949 to 1962: the night that left the book 30:00 Who got up first SOURCES U.S. Census Bureau, Historical Census of Housing Tables: House Heating Fuel, 1940–2000 Sixteenth Census of the United States: 1940, Housing, Vol. II, Part 1, Tables 11a and 12, p. 42 1950 Census of Housing, Vol. I, Part 1, Chapter 1, Table Q and p. XXXIII–XXXIV A. M. Daniels, "Operating a Home Heating Plant," USDA Farmers' Bulletin 1194, March 1921, pp. 6–12 Arthur H. Senner, "Heating the Farm Home," USDA Farmers' Bulletin 1698, February 1933 USDA and Treasury Dept., Thrift Leaflet No. 12, "Saving Fuel in Heating," 1919 USDA Press Service, "Running the Heating Plant Economically," November 27, 1936 Harry L. Garver, "Your Farmhouse: Heating," USDA Misc. Publication 689, eds. of Dec. 1949, Oct. 1958 and Feb. 1962 USDA radio scripts: "Furnace Facts" (Dec. 13, 1927), "Care of the Furnace" (Nov. 22, 1928), "Heating with Wood" (Oct. 7, 1942), "Fuels for House-Heating" (1942) W. T. Reid, "Supplementing Anthracite with Other Fuels for Home Heating," Bureau of Mines Information Circular 7260, October 1943 Meeker and Wagner, "House Heating Fuel Tests," Iowa State College Eng. Exp. Station Bulletin 33, 1913 Bureau of Mines, Minerals Yearbook 1941, pp. 814 and 920 Albert M. Butz, U.S. Patents 341,092 (May 4, 1886) and 347,866 (August 24, 1886) Ralston R. Hoopes, U.S. Patent 170,856, "Improvement in Portable Coal-Chutes," December 7, 1875 Anthracite Coal Strike Commission, Report to the President, 1903, pp. 36–37 and 85–87 Greenwood, Seshadri and Yorukoglu, "Engines of Liberation," 2005 (the "seven tons" figure, via Lebergott) National Archives, RG 245, Photographs of the Medical Survey of the Bituminous Coal Industry, 1946–47 (Russell Lee), incl. 540395 and 541190 #history #americanhistory #vintage #coal #1900s