Posted 9 years ago
JoyceZ
(1 item)
We acquired this stove with the home we bought..... it is a wonderful heater and have yet to cook on it but want to learn and try.... anyone know what vintage this is and any other info available?
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Interesting. James Graham started the Wedgewood Range company in Newark California. Look him up. This MAY be the kitchen heater? It has a flat, closed top.
"In connection with the gas range is a kitchen heater, which has a large and heavy duplex firebox and a drop feed door for use in burning wood. It has a closed top, which gives more cooking space and saves the waste of heat, while the double top makes it absolutely fumeless. It is made with a rust proof gun metal finish, which never changes, and thus, with all these advantages, the Graham company offers America's finest gas range at no greater cost than is charged for inferior ones."
http://www.onlinebiographies.info/ca/alam/jgm.htm
Weird - there is no reference I can find for that model 126C. It sure is a minimalist stove!
This stove does not have any gas connections and is large.... 30in high x 29 or so deep x 56ish length. The firebox is relatively small, and has ash clean out under... the oven is very large and missing a shelf as there are brackets on both sides to support on. The top is solid except for lift out at far right. There is a grease tray which pulls out length of range top. The oven heats via airflow under range top then around side of oven, under oven, around other side and then up the chimney .... The room it is in will get close to 90 degrees if you keep a fire stoked all the time. Need to figure how to regulate top and oven temps for cooking. There is stove pipe damper and another airflow damper on the firebox itself. Any who... I had found the article on Graham but cannot seem to find any photo of a stove like this one... The model is I believe a 126C as it is on the firebox door. The ash door states J Graham ... manufactured in San Francisco CA Would like any other comments as to date of manufacture and whether it is for commercial use such as hotel or lodge etc....It certainly is a stand alone appliance and strictly wood burning... there seems to be the ability to connect heat pipes for the purpose of heating auxiliary water container but uncertain as to that
Newark is across the bay from SF. That is where he manufactured them. He had a showroom in San Francisco, and would put SF on the stoves because no one knew Newark CA!
His cast iron stoves apparently didn't last long with the advent of Gas. Yours is really rare. Yours has the single piece cooking surface of pots & pans instead of individual burners.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~npmelton/sfbgrah.htm
I don't know - there is NO information on the cast iron stoves (which is what I assume yours is...) Maybe you have a prototype? This says the first stoves were black and white!
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_3055535
"As railroad companies gave way to industrial businesses, James Graham's foundry — which once was involved with castings and moldings for railroad companies — reinvented itself as the manufacturer of an efficient, wood-burning, cast-metal stove about 1910. Graham named the stove "Wedgewood" after one of his hired men, whose name, Keilholtz, meant wedgewood in German.
"I remember my mother saying how horrible the working conditions were. There was no ventilation in the shop. The workers didn't live very long," said former Newark resident Betty Sheedy, whose father, brother and two uncles worked in the foundry.
"My mom used to talk about how the workers changed clothes in the shop before coming home because they were so black and dirty," she said.
Working conditions aside, Wedgewood stoves quickly became a household name. Some 75,000 stoves were produced each year by 1940, making Graham's foundry the largest stove plant on the West Coast.
The first stoves were black and white, but later ones came in cream and light green, Sheedy said."
You didn't say where the stove is located. This guy has more detailed information. You may want to contact him direct. This was writen in 2013:
"James Graham came from Canada to the United States and eventually became an employee of the Tay Foundry at Alvarado. He also worked making stove parts for the South Pacific Coast Railroad Company established in Newark. With some encouragement from the railroad managers, he started the James Graham Manufacturing Company at Newark in 1882. At first he had only two employees and faced large competitors such as the Tay Foundry. His company depended on the casting business of the local railroads at first, but he was very innovative and developed new products. Recalling his experience casting stove parts, Graham began making wood-burning stoves; many were used to heat cars of the local railroads.
The business grew and by 1904, the company employed 87 men turning out 45 stoves a day. James Graham died in 1898 and his eldest son, Georg, took over management of the James Graham Manufacturing Company. For a while, the company made fittings, couplings and manhole covers.
After the 1906 earthquake, the company was swamped with orders for wood-burning stoves burned-out families needed to cook their meals and heat their rebuilt houses. Company engineers produced a stove that was more efficient than those made previously. It delivered more heat per armful of firewood...
...By 1920, some 400 Wedgewood stoves were manufactured every working day. By 1925, over 100 men and women were employed on the assembly line. By 1940, over 40,000 ranges were produced per year. Many of the stoves were sent out of the country. It was noted in 1898 that local foundries were making a stove particularly adapted to the needs of the Klondike Country.
Completion of natural gas lines from the oilfields to the Bay Area and marketing pressures resulted in a boom in the gas cooking business. Sixty-seven percent of the stove business done by the James Graham Company in 1927 was in sales of gas-fueled ranges. Introduction of bottled and butane gas practically ended the manufacture of wood and coal stoves at the Graham plant. The need for heaters and wood-burning stove by the Civilian Conservation Corp in Depression days revived the business for awhile.
http://www.tricityvoice.com/articlefiledisplay.php?issue=2013-10-29&file=Stoves+-+History+858TSP+++TCV.txt
Here's some resources.
Post requests for the Wedgewood stove catalog on online antique stove site forums such as the "Discussion Forum" at http://www.myantiquestove.com.
Take a photograph of your stove and email it to an expert at an online antique stove restoration company who handles antique Wedgewood stoves. These dealers are very familiar with restoring Wedgewood stoves and should be able to identify yours fairly easily. Two online stove restoration companies that may be able to help you are the Antiques Gas Stove Company at http://www.antiquegasstoves.com or a firm named Antique Stoves at http://www.antiquestoves.com.
Refer to one of the antique stove identification and price guide books available at bookstores or your local library such as "Authentic Victorian Stoves, Heaters, Ranges," edited by Puzant Kevork Thomajan,1988. These books, written by specialists, contain unique information about this category of antiques and should supply you with information, photos and sources about an antique Wedgewood stove.
http://www.amddd.com/how-to-identify-an-antique-wedgewood-stove/