The next National Geographic issue in my collection is February, 1928, Volume LIII, Number 2. This copy is well worn with the entire cover missing. The first page is an advertisement for Bryant Gas Heating, promising "A single match is your winter's "kindling" with Bryant Gas Heating. No fuel deliveries, fuel shovelling, ashes nor dirt; no fuel storage; no noise of roaring oil flames, or odors."
I'll admit to taking my gas furnace for granted. Do you? When my family moved back to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1951, the old house still had a big old coal furnace. It had fat 'arms' (ducts) reaching up to the ceiling. My brother, Bob, and I skated around and around the furnace which was in the center of the large basement. Ah, the wonder of youth! We had to duck and never bumped our heads on the ducts. We could get up quite a speed with the metal wheels of our skates on the concrete floor. It was quite noisy when a couple of our friends joined us.
My mother had to shovel the heavy black lumps of coal into it (at the time, Dad was serving in the Army at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.). Coal was delivered by a dump truck into the coal room in the basement through an iron door leading to a short chute. Coal heat was dirty. No wonder we all helped clean every nook and cranny of the house twice a year.
In the front yard of my grandparents' house in Louisville's Germantown were white-painted sidewalks, front and side porches, and steps. Every day, weather permitting, the sidewalks were hosed off due to a fine black coating of coat dust. Apparently, the nearby textile factory and neighborhood used mostly coal heat at that time. Imagine the condition of our lungs!
Hope you didn't mind the small digression! As two of my granddaughters have told me, "Grandma, you're full of stories!"
Here's a surprise from another ad: Columbia University "Offers courses for Home Study." I thought correspondence courses was a recent practice. I enjoy the ads as much as the articles in these old magazines!
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