Unknown Objects

i think they are for makeing bread

Motts, did you notice if these had electrical cords coming out of them? The unit on the lower right has a grille on top, at the back. If they had some kind of low-wattage warmers, could they have been bird coups? Just a guess....

I don't think these are any kind of ovens. They're just too open. Until Lynne comes along, we'll just have to keep guessing.

maybe a food dehydrator???

My guess? Air_Exchange units.

Mattress sterilizers?

They look most like some kind of kitchen equipment, but I'm sure they're not bread baking ovens. SHEESH! It would be tremendously time consuming for the hospital to bake its own bread. Much cheaper and easier to contract with an institutional food service company.

They look like the pigeon coops that my uncle has in his yard.

I don't know about Norwich, but the CT prison in Enfield was doing all their own baking as recently as the70's. (No, I wasn't a "guest" there - just a visiting JayCee.)

They do resemble chicken coops, and if the hospital were to be raising it's own livestock for a means of food, well Roasted Chicken is a great meal.

Where's Lynne when ya need her?? Great shot Motts!

They look a lot like chicken nests. Not sure why they would have those though.

Sorry - off and about. Bill wins the prize - they look like the mattress sterilizers we used to use. Don't know if they use them anymore anywhere - we just chuck mattresses when they are the least bit nasty these days, now that the state actually purchases enough extras to sleep a thousand. :-)

They look like warmers for sheets and blackets.

they're used to hold birds/chickens...and feed them I believe..

Here's a more modern one:

http://www.pref.aichi....1list/016/no016.html

P.S. Many institutions still do their own cooking.

i still belive its a very large bread oven.or whats left of it.a place this big and old would make their own bread daily.

I don't think they are for baking bread as too much heat would escape from the opening (if im viewing this correctly)
I go with Lynne's thoughts here, but I do agree they look like incubators for chickens ... it would be interesting to know the history - if they did any sort of farming there.

Back in the old days (a few years ago) we didn't have ozone sterilizers or big budgets; we were stuck with chemical disinfectants and steam sterilizers to clean mattresses. When there was no money coming in on a regular basis and/or when you were at double the patient capacity for which you had equipment, rather than throwing everything away, as people do today, anything that could be was recycled. A mattress sterilizer was a dearly beloved commodity in hospitals, especially military hospitals, and they worked on the old-fashioned idea of using saturated steam heat to blast out the little nasty critters. Here is a reference for a saturated steam sterilizer that can be used for mattresses, clothes, etc.
http://www.prenex.com/en/autoclave.html

Thanks Lynne.....I always wondered how hospitals kept mattresses disinfected, and now I learned something about it!

being that this was not a real hospital but a mental inst, from the size of this thing its not built like any autoclave i ever used. even the big one they used at the tb bulding years ago that i saw. this can't be an autoclave.but it could just be a locker for kitchen equipment to keep them out of the pt's hands. if this was in the kitchen

Lynne, those newer sterilizers in your links look so space age compared to these dinosaurs. These must be REALLY old then. Wonder how old?

Well, I have to admit, I have been wondering more and more about these devices and I asked for information about them tonight from a fellow who has lived where I work since 1929 (hard to believe, isn't it?) and he wasn't familiar with them at all. He worked the farm and the kitchen, though - never the laundry. He said they are definitely not incubators and definitely not ovens, however. When I told him that someone suggested they put people in them for cremation, he was quite insulted and wondered "what's wrong with people to think something as awful as that?" 8`-)

The mattress steamers I have seen before look like these and they used the vents to blow scalding hot steam across the mattresses. However, I have to shamefacedly admit that the more I look at these the less they look like the ones I saw all those years back. I have one more place to go to check these out, and that is the laundry at work. Some of the folks who work there have been there 35+ years, and if anyone can give a positive ID on these, they can do it.

Sorry, Bill - I'll let you know what I can find out - it might still be right, but it might be wrong.

P.S. Here is a reference about "mattress sterilizer buildings" from a 1918 article:
http://www.oldhickorychamber.org/oldhickory.htm

An autoclave type one WOULD need to be sealed. I was told that in the old days they just squirted them with steam and/or sprayed them with heavy amounts of disinfectant, then heated them to dry them out. They used to have to clean and re-use mattresses in hospitals before modern equipment came along, and the collection of buildings at this place runs the gamut in age. However, as I said, I am still not sure this was for mattress cleaning after all. Do you remember what the dimensions were?

**Quick Responses**
Pidgeon raising would have been a form of therapy if thats what was used....
Cremation ovens/crematoriums were and are usually kept in basements for sanitary and aesthetic reasons
and I am betting it was a form of Bird cage/chicken coop. *shrug*

they look too small to put a mattress in to.they would clean the matterss in the laundery..and with no pipes or heating eliments,any that we can see in the photo.no dials or controls,they are open to the air so what ever was inside was not afected by being in the open air.they wouldn't keep animals in the kitchen area,chickens would be in a outside coop. eggs and such would more likely come from local farmers in the early years.i don,t think the head cook would let them have dead bodies to be in his kitchen lol..this just might be for dishes.

a thought..many large "hospitals" had an on site farm..can,t see from the crud on the floor but they may have wheels food could be placed in them and sent out to the serving areas.after all this is a big place and with 3 meals a day you would need something large to move food and or trays drinking cups silverware to differnt places ...what the hell is this thing anyways!!!!!!

OK, I called a staff person I used to work with where I saw devices like this, and she said that back 20 to 30 years ago, the place we worked at (another state than where I am now) didn't have a real mattress sterilizer, so they used to scrub any mattresses that had to be re-used with heavy duty disinfectant and then they had to dry out, so they used a device like this to do it. It was just some metal shelving they used after they rinsed down the mattresses, cleaned them with bleach plus something else that was quite harsh to the skin, rinsed them with water to get rid of whatever it was, and then put them in a thing like this to let them air dry.

=8-o

The stuff you find out 20 years later. I am still laughing. 8`-)

I did ask the older gentleman at work who has lived there for many years about this being something for birds and he said it definitely wasn't. And to repeat what he said, he was appalled that anyone would think they cremated people in these. Guess people who live in institutions have a slightly more civilized idea about how things are handled than much of the public does. ;-)

I forgot to mention that when these buildings get real old the ceilings disintegrate and "rain down junk" all over the place. Motts, correct me if I am wrong, but I believe what you are seeing on the floor is the ceiling. :-)

Looking at the construction of these units, i feel you can rule out any type of oven or cremation device, as they appear to be constructed of galvanized sheet metal. There appears to be some ductwork above the lower right unit.
looking closely at there construction i would say they are part of the buildings fresh air circulation system. The material on the floor is from the building deteriorating, ( as seen in other photos of this building ) and the size and shape would make them impractical for raising livestock.

Lynne, you must have posted that while i was typing my comment.

Ok, since i am going by what they look like, and Lynne is going on what her co-workers say, i would have to go with Lynne on them being matress dryers.

Well, that's not what they were MADE for, I think, it's just that these or something like them were used in that one place for mattress drying because they were "handy-dandy." I was planning on running down to our laundry today to see if any of those folks who've been here for a while might know what they were, but I ended up having to do some other things, so mebbe tomorrow. :-)

Hey! Good idea, psychadellic one! I'll run it by our HVAC guys tomorrow as well!

ok ...no place is going to clean mattresses in the kitchen if this is part of the kitchen..i played with the photo in paintshop and its on the inside of an outside brick wall next to a set of windows. it maybe vented to the outside and thats why it is on that wall.

It's also looking shorter and shorter each time I look at it, like you couldn't fit anything that size in there. I am more and more convinced that we must have been using whatever it was we used as the mattress drying "device" for a totally different purpose than it was ever intended. Sort of like finding an unused emesis basin and using it for storing jewelry because you don't have anything else to put your jewelry in, and then 20 years later someone like me says that an emesis basin is a jewelry storage device because they've seen it used that way before. 8`-)

I'm sticking to air-exchange units.
(Not like that you sickos!)
; )

**bows toward Lynne*** Great analogy, Lynne....SO glad you said "unused"...LOL I think Bill can keep his prize, don't you? What was it, anyway?

Motts---You said "these kind of resemble ovens but I don't remember what the rest of it looked like. " The rest of it......You might have to come back, and take a second look, and a panoramic of it....Maybe if we can see the rest of it....HMMmmmm...

Thanks, Twug....I might as well be living on another bloody planet I know so little about comp jargon....

The reason I think these are restraint beds is because I remember seeing something of the sort in WIlliamsburg's Old Public Hospital.

Wabisabi,

Perhaps you are thinking of the Utica crib, utilized in the 1800s. They have not been used, to the best of my knowledge, since that time, and they were never made of metal. Here is a pic of a Utica crib:

http://www.uihealthcar...iagnostik/utica.html http://www.indiana.edu/%7Emedhist/dwyer.htm

Also, check out the interesting comment about the Utica crib here: http://www.omh.state.n...hq/q0900/archive.htm

Again, this was developed WAY back when the only other (legal) alternatives were beatings, chaining someone to the wall, spinning chairs, locking people in rooms (usually attics or cellars), putting people in cages outdoors, and/or true ice cold water "therapy", and given the culture at the time, it was STILL initially believed that any or all of these techniques might be therapeutic, given what was believed about people with mental illness then. Again, many of these devices were developed because people back then didn't have any other ideas as to what to do, and as time went by, they WERE used for "staff convenience," since nothing else was offered in the way of alternatives.

I can fairly well guarantee that a bed such as this was never legally or therapeutically utilized for restraint in the last 100 years. As to what some people will develop and/or use when left to their own devices, either because they had no other resources or because they were sick individuals, I can't comment.

Spinning chairs? Do tell!!

Thanks Lynne! OMG!!! Please tell me they had "Nemesis Basins" on hand for this one!! Doesn't seam too theraputic to me!!

Chicks were used for testing varius drugs antibiotics etc...sure look like they would be used for something of that nature...the very kind of metal..that galvanized and regular steel look more agricultural. Stainless steal would have been used at the very least a porcelin coated steal for anything that was to be steralized. An HVAC application seems unlikely because of the structures size any filtration units would be much larger

Pillow Sterilization maybe since they don't seem long enough for mattresses?

These were used to hold the laying hens
that offered up breakfast. Note the ventilation and how one could access
the eggs without the birds getting loose.
They also warmed the birds in the winter.
Trust me on this.

Sorry Hooter, I don't believe it. There is
plenty of room for the "birds" to get out.
Besides, there were hundreds of
patients and residents at this place.
And I know this place well. I was a
resident in the "Kettle Building" back in
the early seventies. Kettle was one of the
last, if not THE last building built on the
grounds...400 and some odd acres. At
that time, most of the older building were
already abandoned. I was in the
adolesent ward, when it was coed, then
again a year later when they seperated
the boys and girls. We would get passes
to walk around. Some of the things we
found!!! The place is also riddled with
undergound tunnels.

Anyway, the objects are indeed used to
dry mattress' that had been sprayed with an industrial disinfectant.

some of the links that Lynna provided were creepy.....the spinning chairs really freaked me out.

sorry lynne...typo!!

I LOVE this site. I think it is great how everyone is trying to figure out what this "thing" is. I admit I have NO idea what it is but I have sure enjoyed reading about the chickens, the dead bodies, the crud on the floor, the bread baking, etc. Too bad there are no sites dedicated to trying to figure out what certain objects are. This is kind of fun!

Pizza Oven

There is a very good chance that this is some kind of bakery piece, because they did bake their own bread at the hospital (which from what I hear was better than any other bakery in town) and they did have a farm, up until the 1950s.

This Utica crib... BINGO! It's still used by people who "horde" children today. These are used by the people we read about that chain children to beds or place them in cages so they won't wander away. People foster or adopt kids or are given special needs children by people who have adopted them and find they can not care for them. We've read of plenty of cases like this recently.

Thiese were most certainly NOT used in the poultry industry.

they appear to be ovens for the dead people who wanted to be cremated

Ok, that's it... I've got $50 in my hand, for the first person who will bring in photographic PROOF of what the hell this is. Meaning, get off your ass, go out there, take more pictures of it, including any manufacturing marks, clues, etc. It has to be proven without doubt what it is, I'll send you a $50 bill. Any takers?

It's great all these people trying to figure out what these things are. I still say they were used to dry mattress and pillows that had been sprayed down with disinfectant. You have to remember the mattress' and pillows were cloth, and stained with every bodily fluid known to mankind. The house keeping department would take them when a patient was discharged, or relocated, and literally soak them with disinfectant and then dry them in these heaters. When a new patient was admitted a bed
was set up for them. Besides, If you look carefully, you can see the sharp edges of the metal screens...ruling out that they were used to house anything living. And they can be ruled out for food preperation to to the fact that they have open grills. Has anyone ever seen an over that well vented?

I agree with QuickSilverRider. They do seem as if they're large enough to hold mattress'.

Nobody has even offered to take me up on my challenge! I am completely serious, and (if requested) will give the money to Motts to hold in escrow until proof comes in. Anybody up to it?

Wish I knew what the hell it was. I could use the fifty bucks.

Are you kidding? I have had everyone on campus trying to figure out what this is, and the folks who are here have worked in institutional settings for 30 to 40 years. Mebbe this is some sort of weird Yankee device. ;-)

These are proofer for raising yeast products like bread

I love yoose guys!!!

QuickSR and I agree. Perhaps "sterilize" was too strong a word. Disinfect and exterminate (bugs, not patients) is what I meant. Can I have my prize back now?

Poor Bill! 8`-)

I've read through the post and have not seen where these units were located in the facility.
They do appear to be fixed in place so a indication of thier location would help to narrow down thier use.

My guess is some sort of drying unit due to the ventilation gridding and how they use cross ventilation.

what building was this found in ??

http://www.cslib.org/a...ichstatehospital.htm

http://www.abandonedas....com/nshhistory.html

These may help with some questions one might have. I also have written down some storys from the staff, nurses and patience of the Hospital , i will have to dig them up. I used to work with them in Norwich, serving them lunch.

I say, there chicken coops, and they had used the chickens for testing there inapropreate (sp?) usage of drugs (medication), and for future plans on there patients...sorry i lived about 20 minutes away...and trust me the place was not shut down to due overpopulation.

As a matter of fact, cremation requires about 2500 degrees to produce the desired effect of turning a body, bones and all, into ash. 2500 degrees of heat woul completely melt those tin units.
Nor are they bread makers, as this is not the kitchen unit.
The Criminally Insane, who were housed in this building, woulde not have been allowed acces to birds, even astensibly for the purpose of "therapy."

These would have been used to steralyze mattresses, sheets, towels, etc.

So let's give Bill his prize back!

well at first i thought they might be some sort of bunks the realized they were way to small then maybe a solitary confinement type of situation. then i came to the conclusion they were some sort of mattress storage device. hay maybe i'm right.

my first impression when i saw this photo was a bed also. A very creeping feeling i got and 3 words as soon as picture loaded were oh my god .... not sure but i just got the creeps

To Brun The Body's Of The Dead

My father worked in the Kettle building for 15-20yrs before they closed the hospital down. This shot, as was explained to me by a co-worker, is a chick incubator. As everyone who is familiar with NSH, it is a huge campus, and was pretty much self-sustaining. Appearently they had their own dairy farm, powerhouse, laundry facilities, and also had employee efficiancy apt.'s as my dad stayed in one during my parents divorce. I can remember the huge gardens as my dad would take me to pick up his paycheck.

I love this sight it creeps me out a little knowing what kind of people lived there. My hubby was a security guard and he worked there guarding the grounds he say's that there are ghots there and if you go down into the catacombs ypu might see shadows of something but there is no one there! I wish some one would get permishion to make a good harror movie there it's perficet.

My father is a vending repair man, I spent time hanging around his office with coolers and soda vending machines. Now from what I grew up acquiring knowlege of these things, and yes he has his HVAC licence, there would definately have a large unit on the top. But as you see the inside of one of the comartments there is no jets, coils or vents of any kind beit on the top or side of the compartment, but the bottom has a grated opening to the lower compartment. And there would definatly be a sealed door on the front if there would be any circulating air flow on the inside. To me personally, it is some kind of storage unit.

I'm *very* glad these are something far more benign than what I was envisioning: those horrible horizontal cages that lunatics were locked into back in the 1800s. Something like that can be seen in the film "Bram Stoker's Dracula", and others in the film "Amadeus".

I think these might be creamatories for the bodys but I cant be positive of that. Just a suggestion

Not "crematories" - positive.

I think that they are crematories because patients did die there

Wow. Ok so, its been over a year and people still question, even when the matter has been pretty much resolved? haha. NOT for cremation. PROBABLY not for chickens. Only because of the building its located in.
Remember that it was a hospital, not a prison, or a hugely dark place. Tthere were other things that went on (such as the cleaning). Not everything is about death (although yes, I know it all leads to it). I'm surprised no one mentioned the baseball field and how this could have been storage for bats, balls, gloves, and uniforms. (just KIDDING. I'm mocking others, not being serious)

But really, this was an interesting conversation to read. And it but a smile on my face while trying to find info on a paper thats necessary to complete to finish the International Baccalaureate Program. (wish me luck)

Yes i said "hugely". Not great for someone who's hoping for a free ride to college. Lets try "overwhelmingly". and it "put*** a smile on my face" not "but".
I hate trying to sound educated then screwing up, but hey, I'm still a teen, what do you expect?

It is a variation of the Utica Crib which is an adult-size restraining bed. This wooden crib was equipped with a lid and was capable of being locked. It was designed in 1845 by Dr. Anabanel of France. In 1846, Dr. Amariah Brigham, the first superintendent of the "New York State Lunatic Asylum" brought the crib to the asylum in Utica, New York. Several modifications were made on the original design and thus the "Utica Crib" was born. The crib was designed in such a way that air could flow freely between the top and sides. The bottom was cushioned with layers of straw. The crib was used in case of "exhaustion" when the physical health of the patient demanded that (s)he be kept in bed. Additionally, the crib could be suspended on chains and rocked to calm the patients. The last remaining Utica Crib was removed from use on January 18, 1887. http://www.mantenostat...tal.com/museum2.html

I don't know on that one. it looks like it's made of steel or something and lookt at the building, it looks like an outbuilding, and the dirt (?) floor? and lack of spacing? do you really think they'd stack live humans up in 'locked cribs' like this Charlie? It does look like some kind of livestock keeper to me. Just my two cents.

Charlie, you are very wrong... but good guess. As you stated the Utica Crib was put out of use in 1887. This hospital was opened in 1904. Also... these don't even look like any form of the Utica Crib ever to be used.

those are bed sanitizers

Hmmm. Food-tray carts, perhaps? Just a guess. Nah. Probably not, but then again...

I thought rabbit or small rodent cages when i first saw them. not only do they make great pets, but are great test subjects.

They look like chicken cages I've seen on farms. They could be used for other small animals also.

My Anti mary worked there. She passed in Jan 09. After a fall . She was 85 Yrs old and sharp till that fall.I wanted to aske her so many things about this site, kids get your answers from loved ones b/4 they are gone.
She was nice and treated the people there like "people".

This unit are for taking care of a matress as Lynne stated. I can see why you would think chickens and such but it isn't the case. The only way to gid rid of bed bugs is with extreme heat. A matress is put into the unit and the heat is turned up to kill the bed bugs in all stages of life. 120-125F) and 20-30% relative humidity for 20-30 minutes. The heat treatment provided no residual effect, so the matress was safe to sleep on without worry of chemicals.

The wire mesh at the top of the doors was to provide proper airflow for humidty and temp. control.

Hope that settles things.

These look to be about five bricks in height and maybe five bricks deep. Not near large enough to fit a flat mattress but I suppose you could roll a mattress up and it would fit. That would not induce much drying but it would save space.

I know that this is waaaayyyyy after the fact but, these are in fact air exchange units. No, I cannot provide pics of one due to the fact that many industrial air exchange units are one-off machines but, I can tell you how this type works.
If you look at the doors, there are 2 sets of hinges on each of the 4 doors. The top set of hinges hold the "control doors" that are used to regulate air flow speed and direction (many of the older units didn't have multi-speed fans). The reason you cannot see belts, pulleys or fans is because they are contained in the section connectiong the upper section to the lower (the connection way can be seen in the photo).
The larger set of door (ie. the one that open) is referred to as the maintenance door. These doors are to provide access to the internals for cleaning and air filters. Many times, filter elements are placed in side the wire mesh to filter the air as it passes out of the machine. These units are also multi-directional units, meaning the air can flow from either top to bottom or bottom to top. This feature was used in different seasons for better heating/cooling efficiency. Usually, they would run upflow in the summer and downflow in the winter.
Hope this helps Motts, even though it came about 2 yrs. too late.

i know many people that work here. i could ask them what it is. my great grandmother just passed away andshe worked there. i have pictures and it is veeery interesting.


I want to go inside. can someone tell me how to and not get caught?

Felshy, good luck with that. The security is ... well, a bit over the top. I think that they fear law suits from injury if someone goes in. Kids were arrested about a year ago for going in and grabbing some dishes.

Many members of my family were employed there. The hospital in it's "hey day" had a full working farm and dairy and bakery. Extra goods were sold to the public. The grounds also included their own power plant. Why the state was close a self supporting institution is beyond comprehension.

I don't think its for bread...more like bodies.

I did not see this specifically mentioned in-depth, only a few guesses, so I thought I'd bring it up again. There was testing done at this sight. These look like bulk holders for rabbits...then my thoughts immediately went to rats. The only difference I can see is that these same type holders are used, usually are same length but have partitions inside as well.

I know back in the old days they used to put mental patients in boxes or cages as a form of treatment, hope t god that is not what this is.

I am new to this site and i am having a hard time closing my browser..all the awesome pictures and comments this is soooo cool I want to add from reading allthe comments and looking at the included links I think the best one is posted by S10Calade about the air exchanger....

Look like the coops for chicks I saw at a local farm store when I was a child.

After 4-1/2 years, we have had guesses for bread ovens, pizza ovens, food-service carts, egg incubators, chicken coops, rodent cages, mattress sterilizers, air exchange units, storage bins, patient restraint cages, modified Utica cribs, and an overwhelming number of incredibly silly assumptions that they were used to cremate patients.

Honestly, if Lynne could never find anyone who knew, and even readers who worked there or knew someone who worked there couldn't solve the mystery, my guess is that we'll never know for sure. In actuality, the answer is likely very benign and boring.

They were probably some sort of device that started as something else entirely and were modified for a specific use by a person who worked there or lived there (many psych patients are absolutely genius in other areas - the autistic are the perfect example of this). These machines may exist in only one spot (here) for only one thing (we don't know, but I'm positive it doesn't involve burning human bodies or restraining unruly patients) and therefore, the answer to the puzzle is as lost in time as the hospital itself.

Those are chicken brooders. After eggs are hatched the chicks are put in the warm brooders to grow until they are stable enough and large enough to live without the heat source.

I worked at Norwich State Hosp x 22 yrs prior to its close in 1996. These are chicken cages that were stored in that room. They were originally used in Ribacoff Bldg where the animal lab was.

My immediate thought was laying coops, industrial coops - poultry aids ; . ]

When FIRST saw the picture, and before read ANY comments, thought ah:
"Very Clever Food-drier, indeed."
Here in Sweden we dry a lot of food. Well ventilated, small heat, and time does it. Put food on tray, close mesh, and leave it. Very good for a large amount of apples, mushrooms, berries of all kinds. Even meat. Is this a in the kitchen? Would they really have wanted animals in a kitchen? hmmm
THEN read all comments. Have no idea about food procedure in USA at the time.
Awesome thread - so much pondering. May you all be well is my wish, you lovely guys! Regards to Mr. M. too.