5.02-6B: Par 1949 Compressor

Description:

A FRACTIONAL HP, COMPRESSOR FOR SMALL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS, PAR, MODEL SM,CIRCA 1949 ‘ This compressor, similar in outwards appearance to the Par SL [see #3109], was also to be found on the company’s open market refrigeration condensing units, widely available through refrigeration wholesalers in the middle years of the 20th century. Unremarkable in many ways, it would find its way in a number of small ‘designer built’, trade, applications, including farm milk coolers

Group:

5.02 Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Compressors - Commercial

Make:

Par

Manufacturer:

Par Compressor Div. Lynch Corporation, Toledo, Ohio.

Model:

SM

Serial No.:

8396

Size:

8x 11x14’h

Weight:

42 lbs.

Circa:

1949

Rating:

Exhibit, education, and research quality, illustrating something of the proliferation of open system compressor configurations that emerged in the market place during the golden age of this equipment.

Patent Date/Number:

Provenance:

From York County (York Region) Ontario, once a rich agricultural hinterlands, attracting early settlement in the last years of the 18th century. Located on the north slopes of the Oak Ridges Moraine, within 20 miles of Toronto, the County would also attract early ex-urban development, to be come a wealthy market place for the emerging household and consumer technologies of the early and mid 20th century.

This artifact was discovered in the 1950’s in the used stock of T. H. Oliver, Refrigeration and Electric Sales and Service, Aurora, Ontario, an early worker in the field of agricultural, industrial and consumer technology.

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Industrial Significance:

The open market manufacturers of refrigeration machinery of the period [such as Tecumseh Par and Bruner] would be a critical component of the Canadian refrigeration industry. They would be the direct line of equipment supply to the network of small, independent refrigeration mechanics that emerged by mid century.

Their products, not tied to dealerships or franchises, would be found in a myriad of small applications such as farm milk cooling, in what was then a largely rural population of small, independent milk producers across Canada.

During this period Par equipment was marketed in Canada through R and E Thermal controls [Railway and Engineering], through their net work of operations across Canada

The Lynch Corporation, would go on to build a serviceable hermetic motor compressor, with much appeal to the trade, for its serviceability

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Donor:

G. Leslie Oliver, The T. H. Oliver HVACR Collection

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Bibliographic References:

Parmetic, The Great New Wholesaler Sealed Unit That Can Be serviced In The Field, sales brochure, 1949, The T.H. Oliver Collection.

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Related Reports: