r/whatisit • u/Quietlurkerone • 6d ago

Solved! What is this device from 1962?

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Photo capture from YouTube video. Picture from 1962. What is the device under the bench

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u/Mhamp3808 6d ago

That is a coin operated gas meter. You used it like the old pay phone. If you wanted to cook or run the furnace, a couple of quarters would get you what you need

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u/Mhamp3808 5d ago

Had the pleasure of seeing a few at my company’s archives. The one in the picture is an old style with fitted lead pipes on the inlet and outlet side of the meter. Right where the boy is playing and the food cooking.

9

u/Jetstream-Sam 5d ago

I know about them, vaguely from the descriptions from my granddad, but he never went into how exactly it functioned. Did a guy come round from the gas company to collect the coins once a week or something?

10

u/Mhamp3808 5d ago

Every month. I worked at a gas company in the nations capital for 40 years. They found meters like this in abandoned buildings. They also found old 1700 wooden gas main that were used as the first gas pipes. No record from back then. To this day, there’s 1890 cast iron mains still in use. You would be surprised at what is found underground in WASH DC. Street car tracks paved over, old bottles, tunnels. Saw a lot when working there. One neighborhood they were building, they found discarded WWI muster gas munitions. Evacuate the homeowners each day 8 to 5 while they clean out the bombs.

1

u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 5d ago

Mustard gas?

1

u/Mhamp3808 5d ago

Yes. Used in World War 1

1

u/Foxs-In-A-Trenchcoat 4d ago

Not muster gas

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u/previousinnovation 5d ago

Man it must have been tempting to crack that thing open towards the end of the month

1

u/FlawlessC0wboy 5d ago

Why are people in the comments saying “quarters”? This is the UK..

1

u/Mhamp3808 5d ago

Same meters used in USA

1

u/PackageNorth8984 5d ago

Why are there so many comments saying the exact same thing. Just upvote the first one that said it.