Illustrated broadside, 11" x 7.5". One word inscribed on verso. CONDITION: Good, staining, chipping at margins, partial separation at middle old folds, one puncture at middle. A broadside issued during the Pennsylvania oil rush by a Rouseville, Pennsylvania inventor advertising a flue scraper and wiper designed to address an inefficiency in boiler used in the oil fields. This broadside relates that $10,000 was lost by the owners of steam boilers and engines in the oil regions during 1870 by burning fuel to make steam in boilers, the flues of which were seldom if ever cleaned. While this may seem a large estimate, it is noted that if any one experiments upon it a little, they will soon be convinced that is a fact. The broadside goes on to note that, with all the soot and scale removed from its glues, a boiler will make the same amount of steam, with between 10 to 20 per cent less fuel than when not properly cleaned. Thus all users of boilers should get a glue cleaner that won't only scrape off the scale but also wipe out all the soot and loose particles the scrapers leaves. Dann's Flue Scraper and Wiper, for which Dann had secured a patent, is represented in a wood cut. The machine is described in detail and was for sale for $3 at all hardware stores. The Pennsylvania oil rush began in Titusville, PA in the Oil Creek Valley after rock oil was struck there in 1859. Titusville and other towns near Oil Creek Valley grew quickly as oil wells and refineries were established in the area. By the mid-1870s, the rush was over and oil industry had become well established. Pennsylvania's oil production peaked around 1890 and was later surpassed by states such as Texas and California. REFERENCES: Development of the Pennsylvania Oil Industry at American Chemical Society online. Seller Inventory # 7017

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Bibliographic Details

Title: Lost!! By the Owners of Steam Boilers and ...

Publisher: Rouseville, Venango County, PA, [1870]

Store Description

James Arsenault & Company was established in 1988. Our stock includes fine and rare books in a variety of fields, including Americana & Early American Imprints, Trade Catalogs, Book Arts & Printing History, Early Photography, Plate Books, Literary First Editions, and Signed & Inscribed Books, as well as Autographs & Manuscripts, Maps, Prints, Photographs and Ephemera. We are members in good standing of the ABAA and have exhibited for many years at numerous antiquarian book fairs in the northeast and in California.

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James Arsenault & Company, ABAA
ME, U.S.A.

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