History of the evaporator

[Brian]

Correct I have both of The books that Hale has out.

[Bucket Head]

Brian- It's a shame the historical society wouldn't take the arch front. But I'm glad you got it back and are displaying it! I enjoy showing folks the antique equipment. I have about thirty old wooden and tin sap pails, over twenty old syrup tins and bottles and a wooden gathering tank on a horse drawn sled on display in the sugarhouse. I also have incorporated a bucket, some of the duplicate tins and some spiles into my retail show display. They often are a great conversation starter and it eventually leads to a sale!

And both of Hale's book are great. I've learned a lot about some of the artifacts I have through those books.

Steve

[maple flats]

The antique pan I have is a 3x5 english tin pan, I looks like it was made for maybe 1.5-2" deep, the overall depth is only about 6". I got it when I bought a whole batch of old equipment from a producer who had quit making syrup after just 1 season. He would only sell it as a whole lot. I got a few SS pans, a bunch of metal taps, some new tubing in 5/16" and a bunch of new jugs. Also 2 hydrometers for syrup and one for sap, I still use the sap one and both syrup hydrometers, at least I did until I got a Murphy Cup and SL's top of the line hydrometer (it has a red line in the glass tube which is to remain lined up with a red line on the insert paper scale to verify the paper has not moved. On the whole lot, I paid $200 and in 2006 I felt it was a good deal. That evaporator pan has only been a display piece, but it sure draws lots of attention. The V groove flues are maybe 2" deep, it's a drop flue pan.

[Andy VT]

Slightly ancillary question just out of curiosity... is anything known about how gradient/ continuous flow boiling came to be and when?
We take it for granted now but it does still kind of explode my brain if I try to think about how and why it works, and even more so that someone long ago figured it out.

[sugar matt]

In answer to the question when the first continuous flow pans were introduced, I would say the earliest we have evidence for is the late 1850s with the introduction of Cooks Patent Evaporator.

Heree are links to a couple of articles I have written about the history of the Cooks patent evaporator -

https://maplesyruphistory.com/2019/0...nt-evaporator/
https://maplesyruphistory.com/wp-con...o-1-p27-31.pdf

Matt Thomas
www.maplesyruphistory.com

[maple flats]

Someplace in the above maple time line there should be a note. Sometime around the founding of the United States it was promoted and somehow partially financed as farmers were paid to plant maples along the side of the roads, I think that's why in many places along country roads you see very mature sugar maples spaced about 20-25' apart. I have no idea how much they were paid, but the plan added a lot of maple trees where they were easy to get to , tap and collect the sap from. I suspect where you now see rows of very large maples roadside is from back then.
Along the road where I had a lease for several years there were 4 or 5 of those maples still standing back in 2008-2012, they have now been removed because they were in very poor condition and I suspect the county thought they would fall across the road at some point. They were about 4-5' or more in diameter.