Rare are the homes we see these old relics in. When I was doing energy audits in the late 90′s for the EnerGuide for Houses program (no rebates!) I would come across these cast iron devises screwed to baseboards on the main floor – about where you’d place a thermostat. I always asked home owners if they knew what it was for, sadly, no one knew, until I came across an octogenarian who was born in the house!
She said there were a pair of cables attached to the main floor wall that passed through the slots in the plate and went to the furnace. The cables controlled the dampers for the burn rate on the furnace apparently.
This ornate cast iron plate was screwed the the main floor baseboards of a1910 double brick home in Toronto. The plate reads “THE GURNEY FOUNDRY CO. TORONTO” Those were the days when we actually made things!
I was able to find an old stove catalog from the Stove Book, but wasn’t able to find the plate above. Times have changed in these old double brick houses! I shudder to see an old gravity furnace (no fan circulating the air through ducts) with a coal chute chugging away.