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Post by mach12 on Apr 1, 2019 13:36:57 GMT -5
I've found an assortment of items in stoves when I disassembled them and I thought I had posted about the birthday card that fell out of the BZ that was to become Pepper when I removed the front panel. I searched for a post and no luck but sometimes it's a matter of the search term and darned if I can think of other terms I might have used so am doing this new post.
The card was stuck in the right front below the service cabinet door. It's postmarked 1957 from Ontario California. I can see a bit of pencil where the address should be but no luck reading the delivery or return addresses. The guy I got the stove from got it in an estate sale and it had been sitting under a carport for a long time. He had no history on the stove before that so I searched property records of where it was and found the owners name at the time of the estate sale and was able to find the daughters name through filings of the will and property transfer documents. I called her and she said her Dad had bought the stove intending to put it in their kitchen for his wife but she passed away before he got to it and he just left it out under the carport. She said he got it from a scrap yard but there are no records of when or where.
It looks like I'm at a dead end unless I can some how extract the addresses from the envelope and I'm still working on that. I thought it would be great to get the card to whoever it was sent to, including the dime that's still taped to the inside of the card. I've been sent down a couple of false paths but hopefully will get there.
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Post by pooka on Apr 2, 2019 12:20:13 GMT -5
You may find this article illuminating. It involves using different wavelength of light to make hidden text to be revealed on old documents. In some cases, parchment was washed, scrubbed or scraped to be reused. In other cases, the ink deteriorated to the point it was no longer visible. A quote from the article says,
“One way to think of it is like the black light you see on crime shows,” says Kevin Sacca, a senior undergraduate student who works with Easton analyzing images at RIT. “The pigment has different spectral properties that can absorb, reflect, or transmit light depending on the wavelength.” Hitting the right combination of light and pigment is like having the tumbler in a lock click into place: It can make invisible text glow with new legibility. When Ancient Texts Vanish, Scientists Can Make Them ReappearI don't know how easy this would be to accomplish for a layman, or what special kind of equipment it would require.
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Post by nana on Apr 2, 2019 18:19:36 GMT -5
I remember that picture, you did post about this! Without an address you do seem to be kind of stuck. Was the envelope opened? I wonder why the fine little boy whose card this was didn't take his dime and buy a righteous bag of penny candy or something. It's mysteries like this that make random, mundane vintage items so poignant.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 2, 2019 23:47:24 GMT -5
You may find this article illuminating. Fascinating article! If I can get hooked up with the right people I'll bet this is a relatively easy task. The State crime lab thought trying to recover the writing would be good training and said they'd contact me when they had one but I haven't heard anything. I'll have to check with them again and see whether it's still going to happen. I'll keep digging until I exhaust all the possibilities.
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Post by vaporvac on Apr 3, 2019 13:05:51 GMT -5
I remember this card. Nana,that is so true that there's a certain poignancy about, besides which the card itself is so freaking cute.
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Post by mach12 on Apr 4, 2019 23:16:49 GMT -5
I guess one of the really cool things I found out about Pepper in this whole ordeal is just how close she came to being crushed for scrap. Heck, if I hadn't bought her that still could have been her fate. She's safe for awhile now though.
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Post by pooka on Apr 5, 2019 1:58:26 GMT -5
It just goes to show you, everything we know is one decision or event away from oblivion, especially if it's already old.
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Post by ronruble on Apr 20, 2019 19:54:34 GMT -5
OK – This would be real strange and weird if the address is 1453 Risener St, Indianapolis.
My aunt and uncle in Ontario California would send me a birthday card in early October, most of the time Cowboy related and there would be 10 cents inside the card. My parents had a Chambers Stove.
It would be one chance in a million that you got my parents Chambers Stove...
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Post by mach12 on Apr 21, 2019 21:39:24 GMT -5
OK – This would be real strange and weird if the address is 1453 Risener St, Indianapolis. My aunt and uncle in Ontario California would send me a birthday card in early October, most of the time Cowboy related and there would be 10 cents inside the card. My parents had a Chambers Stove. It would be one chance in a million that you got my parents Chambers Stove... That would be the coolest thing ever!
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Post by nana on Apr 24, 2019 7:37:24 GMT -5
That would be! Now you will have to move Heaven and Earth to find out that address!!
Just a thought, Ronruble, was there ever a time you said, Hey, where's my card from aunt and uncle so-and-so?
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Post by ronruble on Apr 25, 2019 17:14:06 GMT -5
At that age my attention level was very short – probably never asked
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Post by chipperhiker on May 16, 2019 18:53:48 GMT -5
Well, now I'm all interested mach12! I hope you have some luck with the addresses.
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Post by ronruble on May 17, 2019 16:13:58 GMT -5
My parents had a Chambers B series stove; I do not know if it was a B or a BZ but if I remember correctly it had a wagon-wheel shaped pilot light cover in the middle. Oct 1957 would have been my 9th birthday. Here is something to think about. If the writing was done in pencil, it would show up if lightly x-rayed because of the carbon lead in the pencil. If you have a dentist friend that would shoot an x-ray for free, maybe something would show up. If it was blue ink from that time period – nothing in x-ray. Also placing it under black light could show something if it is ink (or pencil?). When my mother got rid of the stove, she had a man remove it as “junk”; did not sell it. That was in the early or mid 1960's ( ) in Indianapolis.
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Post by mach12 on May 17, 2019 21:56:20 GMT -5
My neighbor recently retired from the Sheriff's department and hooked me up with the State crime lab but before I could get it done the governor signed a law that the massive backlog of unprocessed rape kits throughout the state had to be processed no later than December so, while they're willing, it's down the list of priorities. I would certainly agree with that. The people at the crime lab said they're required by law to do a certain amount of proficiency training and she thought this would be a perfect training opportunity so that's what she's hoping to do. Their last training was on a new procedure that the State had just bought equipment for so she's hoping to do it when they have their next training, though that's not until October. She said the University of Washington may be able to help too and gave me a name and number so I'll try them.
I tried the black light but it didn't show anything. It's a really good quality light that's part of my dye penetrant kit for looking for cracks in metal so should have shown it but no luck. I really, really, really, really hate driving in Seattle but if UW turns out to be the only option I'll make the trip. Won't like it, but I'll do it. And probably whine for a month about it.
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Post by ronruble on May 18, 2019 10:56:22 GMT -5
If you are on the west coast and my parents stove was in Indiana, it is very unlikely that it could be their old Chambers stove. The only way would be if someone in Indiana had it and moved to the west coast... As they say in Vegas, it would be an extreme long shot – almost impossible.
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Post by mach12 on May 18, 2019 18:27:59 GMT -5
Probably not likely but still possible. The Chambers stoves around here all seem to be brought from somewhere else. I have a blue 90C that the people I bought it from shipped from New York City and a B series that was shipped from Maine. We didn't have natural gas here until the mid 1950's so the only gas available was manufactured gas and that was mainly done in the industrial areas like Seattle, Tacoma, and Portland, so gas cooking and heating was somewhat limited. I've only ever found a couple of vintage ads for gas stove dealers around here. In the mid-1950's they brought the gas line to Salem, Oregon and tied it in to the gas network that was used for manufactured gas (main industrial use there was lumber kilns) and then North. The demand for gas stoves increased at that point and they started coming in from all over. It was a pretty big deal. I remember ads for housing developments where they included a new gas stove with the home to get the advantage over the other builders - and a better price, I'm sure. Vintage stoves just aren't very plentiful around here so people that want a Chambers generally have to get one and bring it here, so a Chambers here could be from almost anywhere. Hopefully we'll be able to get more info soon.
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Post by nana on May 19, 2019 7:13:57 GMT -5
Now here's the real question--if it is Ronruble's parent's stove, will he finally get his card? And if your local newspaper has a spot for feel good stories, you MUST make sure to alert them!
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Post by ronruble on May 21, 2019 17:36:33 GMT -5
1. - The card must stay with the stove; it is part of the stoves history now. 2. Yes, newspaper stories are a must. 3. - What about making a YouTube video about the stove, restoration, history and "the birthday card"?
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Post by mach12 on May 21, 2019 22:52:16 GMT -5
I'd really love handing the card to who it was meant for. Having copies and so on might be enough to stay with the paperwork, especially if it included a news article. I sure hope we can get to that point. The next two weeks are crazy busy so I doubt I'll do anything before that but maybe I can make some progress after that.
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