Record Book

2019, 6 x 6 x 1.25, 120 pps.
found integrator chart sheets bound with vinyl record covers; paired-station coptic; serial edition

In July, 1925, the New York Times reported “One of the most modern steam heating systems in the State is being constructed by the Rochester Gas and Electric Company and will be put in operation the latter part of October 1925. The cost will be $1,750,000. The same company is building a Koppers coke oven plant, to be completed next April, at a cost of $5,000,000.”  The company was serving 125 steam customers and started construction of a new plant on Lawn Street to serve the downtown business district.  The system grew by 1946 at which point the company overtook Indianapolis to become the fourth largest district heating system in the country, behind New York City, Detroit and Philadelphia.  Rochester held this spot until 1969, when Boston captured fourth place.

The implementation of urban renewal projects in the 1960s removed several steam customers and by 1980 RG&E lost half of its steam customers.  RG&E decided to abandon the steam system, but a group of customers formed the Rochester District Heating Cooperative in 1985 and operates a much smaller network in downtown Rochester from a refurbished Heating Plant on Lawn Street in the city. I found these mechanically drawn integrator charts in a recycle bin outside the heating plant on Lawn street. They map usage from the few municipal buildings left in the system by the 1980s. These artifacts have been folded into sections and hand bound in vinyl record covers.

Part of the “found and bound” series of books.

$375.00

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