Antique DL BATES & BRO Water Powered Motor Fan Brass Blades, Not Electric, 1904 For Sale

Antique water-powered fan with \"D.L. Bates & Bro. Dayton, O.\" cast into the front and back of the motor housing. It stands 15\" tall, not including the fan or pipe fittings. Fan blades are 16\" in diameter.The inlet on the side and the outlet to the rear are standard garden hose fittings, though it could be converted to pipe fittings. The base and motor housing are heavy cast iron. Fan blades are brass. There are four threaded pedestals on the front of the motor housing where the missing cage once mounted.As you can tell from my photos, there\'s quite a bit of oxidation to the blades and cast iron, but some of the old black paint remains.I see no chips or cracks.I hooked a hose up to the fan when I first got it a couple months ago. With some help it would try to run but wouldn\'t quite go on it\'s own. Knowing there are probably old leathers or rubber seals that might soften up with some treatment, I didn\'t try the hose for very long or put much pressure to it. There\'s a small brass cap on the blade stem that can be removed for lubrication. There\'s a red rubber seal where the stem meets the housing that is deteriorating but did not leak when I tried the fan. Selling this As Is- it needs some work.I haven\'t found much information on the fan, only that it was made around 1904, was wall bracket mounted, and has an adjustable ball and socket so it can be turned to direct airflow. I haven\'t tried loosening the set screw to see if it does pivot on the base. There is no water circulation designed into the fan- running water comes in, drives the blades, exits the fan, and is lost.The screw that holds the blades loosened easily and I plan to soak it a bit and remove the blades for packaging. This is heavy (18 lbs before packaging) so shipping is not cheap. Please enlarge my photos for a close look, ask any questions before offerding. I have no idea of it\'s value, so I will not be ending this listing early.

On Dec-23-14 at 13:21:05 PST, seller added the following information:

I was able to easily loosen the set screw on the base and remove the upper part of the fan. I found out this IS NOT A BALL & SOCKET MODEL BATES. The base is hollow in the center and the top part has a neck that fits down into the base. My apologies for the information given above and I\'ll understand if you\'d like to remove your offer. As I said, I found very little information about this fan on the internet and I assumed Bates only made one model water powered fan.I can send photos of what this part looks like inside upon request. Please ask quickly as I will be gone over the holiday.I didn\'t see any sort of seal between the two parts, only a thick layer of old grease that amazingly isn\'t completely dried out yet. I would say the fan was designed to loosen and rotate on the base, but it does not have a swivel socket. I also found that the two screws that hold this neck piece to the motor part above also loosened easily. I\'m not going to press my luck and take it apart any further, but so far it seems that the new owner probably won\'t have much trouble taking this apart to get it going.