Iron Water Heater
Datecirca 1913
Credit LineGift of Mrs. Beatrice Lawson, London, Ontario, 1974
Object number1974.029.001
Label TextThis circa 1913 Ruud No. 25 water heater heated water automatically. It was a best seller of its time, featuring cutting edge design and innovations. It was a gas-heated, cast-iron appliance with a copper coil heat exchanger. When the bather opened the hot water spigot, it caused an actuator valve to turn on the central heater's burners. In 1897, Norwegian immigrant Edwin Rudd established a company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to manufacture residential, domestic, and commercial water heaters. He adapted British inventor, Benjamin Waddy Maughan's design for a gas geyser, inventing the successful "Thermal Valve Model" Type "F". Ruud patented his automatic storage water heater on September 6, 1898.
NameHeater, Water
McClary Manufacturing
