A Fan of History

Last year, I mentioned an old Emerson fan that has been in the family for many years.  More recently I posted a quick photo of it to Emerson’s Facebook page in response to a request for photos of vintage fans.  The other day, I received a request from Emerson for better photos as they would like to feature this fan on their web page at some point in the future.  Since this fan does indeed have a story, I decided I would share some of that here as well.

This is an Emerson type 12666 fan that was built right about 1913, give or take.  The ornate base has mounting holes and a hinge point so it could be attached to a wall if desired.  The motor is a split-phase type with starter switch and is of a unit bearing style of construction.  Most manufacturers had begun to abandon this design by about 1910, particularly for oscillating fans.  Emerson improved upon the unit bearing concept by allowing an extension of the rotor and spindle to enter the gear case that drove the oscillating mechanism.  (a 1904 patent) This required an adequate shaft seal.  In the case of this fan, it is made from a piece of leather.  Not unusual for the time period.  During this time, Emerson offered motors of this basic design in a variety of voltage and frequency combinations to suit the yet to be standardized local power sources.  This fan was intended for 104v at 60Hz.  Running on 110 to 115 is acceptable as well, especially given the short durations it sees these days.  The design is similar to the photo of the 133Hz version shown below but would require fewer poles in the stator.

This fan is fitted with a six blade Parker fan blade, with a September 12th of 1899 patent date.

The range of oscillation can be changed by moving the screwed down link to different holes in the rotating disc atop the gear case.  To stop oscillation altogether, you just remove the screw and disconnect the link entirely.

Like all fans of this era, it is heavy, beautiful, well built, and definitely not safe around kids or morons.  That guard offers little in terms of guarding.  And that blade would eat fingers!

Now the history.  Well…..some of it anyway.  This fan was owned by my great-grandmother in Crockett, TX.  It gets hot in Texas.  Which is why I moved to Alaska.  At some point during the mid to late 1970’s….I’ll just call it 1976 or 77, because that fits in line with a few other childhood memories, we visited “Ma” and while there we saw this fan.  It was in a sad state, grimy and dusty….and with a badly frayed cord that just begged to set fire to something.  And…  She was still using it!   Well…..it did not seem safe, so my mother sorted it out with her and we did some house work, gave her two new fans, and took the old one home before it set fire to her house.  Shortly after getting it home, my mother, father, and I worked on restoring it.  This primarily involved disassembly, cleaning, polishing brass parts, painting, and rewiring.  We found a tiny bit of the original cord in good enough shape and clean enough to identify….a cloth covered twisted pair of green and yellow with a red tracer on one lead.  Luckily our local hardware store had some “modern” wire with a cloth covering in that same pattern and so we were able to replace it with the correct type and style of cord.  In addition, that aforementioned shaft seal had deteriorated and so my father cut a new one from a piece of leather–likely from the shoe repair shop that was by the hardware store.  (it is a shameful thing that such places are no longer prevalent in our society)  So….the fan was all fixed up, and displayed in our home.  After my mother passed away I ended up with it, where it lived in my room when I was a teenager and later in my home in Alaska.

Neat enough history spanning about 40-ish years of it that I was involved in……..but what of the prior 60+  that it had been around before we rescued it?  Only recently did I learn some of this.  An uncle mentioned that he remembered sitting in front of this fan as a kid during the 40’s….it gets hot in Texas, remember?….every Texas kid remembers sitting in front of a fan.  Upon further discussions I learned that this fan (which the family had bought new prior to WWI) used to reside in the shop that my grandfather had, he did the brazed repair to one blade at some point….and before that, likely when still nearly new, it spent some time in the speakeasy (and, some say, maybe even brothel!) that my great-grandmother ran during prohibition!  I vaguely knew some of this part of family history, but getting recent confirmation of this and few other items and finding out I have an actual piece of this history is really very cool.  My great-grandmother was a badass.    While likely best I didn’t, I do kinda wish I’d known when I was in school, because nothing says playground-street-cred to an elementary school kid like a gangster great-grandma that Elliot Ness never caught.

And I too, am a fan of history.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJZDppv3FQQ