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Western Maryland RR Plum Orchard Saint Marys Index

Plum Orchard

Air Conditioning -- 19th Century

Sea Island Cotton

Update December 19th 2007

1st Tour Since Renovation

Plum Orchard Short History

Nearing the End Oct. 25, 2007

Update September 28th 2007

Update August 14th 2007

Update August 7th 2007

August Update

Overview of Plum Orchard

Plum Orchard Page 1

1st Story Floor West Side

1st Story Floor East Side

2nd Story Floor West Side

2nd Story Floor East Side

Attic

The Kohler Connection

Elevator

A/C -- 19th Century

Electrical Work

Outbuildings

Ventilation Work

Mike Roseberry (Project Supervisor for Enola Contracting Services, Inc.) took me on a tour of the basement and mechanical section of the house. He pointed out that a big wooden container in the basement was a chiller. They would bring ice down from the North and put it in the container. Pipes ran through the container and when they exited it, they were heavily insulated. These pipe then ran through a system of drum-like containers where they would chill the air which was then moved through vent (like today’s a/c vents) up into the house for a very early form of air conditioning. They also had a system of moving hot air through the system.

First stop for cold water were these drum-like structures. Notice the black pipe in the foreground -- you can see how thick the insulation was on this pipe in this photo.		With Jack Bryant walking in front of the drums, you can get an idea of their size. Both of these photos are on the East end of the house in the basement.

Here we have a coal-fired boiler (the coal bin in behind it in this photo). The pipe going out of the photo on the right goes to the radiator-like structure in the photos just to your right.	The reason there are two photos is because of the rather large, brick support column that is directly in front of the radiators. Here you can see the pipe from the boiler coming into the radiator.	In this photo, you can see the a/c ductwork leaving the radiator. All this is on the West end of the basement -- some 200+ feet from the cold water section.

	If you follow the left pipe from photo A-C-52 it will come into this air exchanger (wooden box). Note the duct work coming into the top of the box and more leaving from the middle of the box. I could not get a look inside.

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