Arroll’s history of the cast iron radiator
The world’s first cast iron radiator development as we have come to know it today is largely accredited to two American’s, Joseph Nason and Robert Briggs in around 1863 in The United States of America. The first designs for steam cast iron radiators were patented around 181 years ago by some of the early pioneers of the cast iron radiator. One notable inventor of these pioneering times was a Russian businessman named Franz San Galli from St. Petersburg Russia who invented the heating radiator between 1855–1857.
The modern cast iron radiator that we know today, which is heated by hot water running throughout, was beginning to take shape around 1872 when Nelson H Bundy created the Bundy Loop which worked by forcing steam through the looped wrought iron tubes of the radiator to create heat. This design is of course still used in 21st century radiators however we have replaced the steam with hot water as it doesn’t create the high pressure in the system that was created by its steam predecessor.
The cast iron radiator was always a statement of wealth and class in Victorian homes which is why Britain didn’t have any widespread use of central heating by radiator until around the 1950’s, up until that point we had mostly heated our homes with open fires which brought with them their own health problems and dangerous fumes.
The cast iron radiator is a fascinating piece of history, with the design and development of pioneers like Jospeh Nason, Robert Briggs, Nelson H Bundy, and Franz San Galli we now have the finished article that we have all come to love and it is with this beautiful piece of history in mind that Arroll produces some of the most elegant, period style cast iron radiators that we know today.
Check out our range of Victorian style cast iron radiators here: https://www.arroll.co.uk/products/radiators/cast-iron
