What was this for?(pics)

[Jes]

Well, it's gonna take a skeleton key and some PB Blaster to get that door open.
I peeked in a crack with a light and it looks like a small concrete walled room in there.
Next time I see the building manager I'll see if she knows anything about the old equipment.

Jes

 

[Jes]

Well got the door open with the help of Dr. Sawzall and found an old stairwell that I assume provided access to the basement from the back of the property.

I took some pictures of the valves on the piping for the old equipment. This one is at the end of the big 8" pipe/tank, it has a sight tube(made of glass) with what appears to be oil in the bottom...

These were on the ceiling and there were several other banks of valves in the area...

The building manager was pretty clueless in what the bulding was used for in the past but did go on to say that alledgedly a lot of illegal gambling took place at the site during prohibition times. Wheather that's true or not I have no idea.
One thing for cirtain is that most private dwellings built in the late 1800s and early 1900s(here in S.F.) had brick foundations. This building has a very old(judging by the deterioration) concrete foundation which probably means it was a building that housed a comercial enterprise.

Jes

 

[5-90]

Bummer - here I was hoping to play "tunnel rat" for a while!

This just get more curious as you get into it. Anyone care to venture a guess as to how common it was to use a piston pump for fluid power, vice a vane pump? It seems to me that a piston pump in a fluid power application would be rather inefficient, as well as potentially destructive to the system...

5-90

 

[satan]

interesting note on the compressor -- the "Vulcan Iron Works" in San Francisco (as labeled in the photo) was financially troubled in 1871 -- the factory used to be at "First and Mellus", if that makes any sense - founded by a guy named "George Gordon" (sounds like my kinda guy -- got married to an alcoholic, "Elizabeth" who died from hepatitus

The factory was listed as "destroyed" in the 1906 fires, with a different address "Kearny and Francisco Street" (seems that I have data supporting a steam engine/pump from the bottom of Telegraph hill there... must'a reopend afterwards - then it all gets cloudy -- branches and all that...

Can't find specific reference to a "Number 44, Class H Comressor"

But I'm still guessing that it's an air compressor used to control stuff (like the steam-heat system's valves (maybe) in the newer pics....

 

[Jes]

Very interesting satan. Where did you find that info? I did a Google search briefly and didn't find a whole lot.

Jes

 

[satan]

<evil_echo> Bwhahaha -- satan knows all..! </evil_echo>

Theres a distant relative of the Vulcan Iron Works out here -- they were big into locomotives (and steam pumps) for the mining industry out here -- a little looking came up with that stuff -- Since the "GayBay" is well documented and very well represented on linke and in historical texts I figured that something'd come up --

If you wanna dig there's a few schools that specialize in that kinda stuff (Fort Lewis College here in CO has an extensive collection of old plant-equipment, and the mininging technology museum in Colorado Springs may be able to help as well.)

I'd wager that with a few names (my previous post) , your photos, and knowledge of your city you'd be better able to find more on that pump than I was...

.. I'm still imagining that the continuous service Westinghouse motor should have some sort of a "frame" designation on it - that'd help you pound-down a time frame.