Below we explain the history of home heating, making of "boilers or furnaces", and some of the Utica manufacturing concerns. In doing so, naming of the Boilermakler Road Race can be understood, as well as recounting the Boiler Making firms who were located in Downtown Utica's CoLa Neighborhood.
Fires, Forges & Furnaces Create the Boilermaker 15K - Indoor heating dates back more than a million years. Campfires moved into caves and huts, then into homes as stones were fashioned into makeshift hearths. Around 2500 BC central fireplaces were developed in Greece. In 1300 BC, a Turkish King was likely the first person to effectively use under-floor heating in a castle.
Romans advanced by moving heating systems into the building’s walls. Chimneys appear after the 14th century. In the 1600s a French inventor created a circulating fireplace. The 1600s to 1700s brought many more fireplace improvements. In 1652 Dr. John Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony introduced heating with the invention of a cast iron box stove.
The Industrial Revolution provided more advanced warm-air systems. In England around 1805, a warm-air furnace of riveted, wrought iron, air chambers encased in brick was invented. Innovations continued, and in 1854 patent no. 11,411 was issued for the "Carton & Briggs Hot-Air Furnace", by Furnace & Boiler Inventors John Carton and Joseph Briggs of Utica.
During the 1900s many versions of cast iron furnaces and boilers were offered by Utica Manufacturers. The City of Utica had one large advantage over rivals, the recently completed Chenango Canal connected the coal fields of Pennsylvania to Utica and the booming Erie Canal. At the time Utica was home to factories small and large producing furnaces and boilers along the Erie Canal.
In 1898, The International Heater Company was formed from a merger of Russel Wheeler & Son, The Carton Furnace Co., J. F. Pease Furnace Co., Howard Furnace Co., and Kernan Furnace Co. Offices were on Genesee Street and a remodeled hotel at 418 Lafayette Street became a showroom- it still stands, behind this remains the original Carton Furnace Co. buildings bordering Carton Avenue, an original Erie Canal-era cobblestone street.
Eventually radiators appeared, and by the 1880s cast iron radiators filled homes and businesses with excellent heating. One radiator line was produced by the forerunner firm to “ERC”. By the 1920s most homes had automatic heating systems. Blower furnace were placed into use in 1930s.
Today one firm, ERC International still sells the “Utica Boiler” brand, and they also founded the Boilermaker 15K!
The Carton Furnace Company buildings are threatened by a downtown hospital, destructive urban renewal is planned for Downtown Utica, but it doesn't have to be this way.
Utica's history of boiler and furnace manufacturing offers a great opportunity for a Better Wynn Hospital Neighborhood.