Dec 3 2007
The Statue of Liberty in New York City's harbor entrance is a much loved and visited tourist site. However winter temperatures usually meant that tourists would endure freezing temperatures as they climbed the stairs to the top of the famous statue. Thanks to Bell & Gossett pumps and systems, the grand statue is now keeping everyone warm.
"Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free."
When poet Emma Lazarus wrote those words more than 100 years ago, she was referring to the boat loads of immigrants who steamed past the awe inspiring Statue of Liberty on their way into New York harbor. Today, however, with most immigration into New York coming through Kennedy airport, those poetic words would recently have been referring to the tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty in the cold winter months, freezing as they climbed the statue's 335 steps to the top. Designed by sculptor, Auguste Bartholdi and structural engineer, Gustave Eiffel, the 111-foot (heel to top of head) statue, which was completed in 1884, was never designed to be heated.
However, this cold icon of liberty is now warming up with help from an expert Fluid Handling Representative Association (FHRA) Member. The surface of the statue is composed on hammered copper sheets riveted to an iron framework. The statue rests upon a granite star-shaped pedestal, housing the museum, gift shop, information center, security area, fire system and the hydraulic elevator, which carries visitors to the top of the pedestal. Inadequately heating this space was an antiquated, 50-year old, oil-fired boiler. This has now being replaced by a state of the art system of eight hydronic boilers, each with a 2" Bell & Gossett circulator pump and a 2" Bell & Gossett EAS Enhanced Air Separator. According to Mario Fazzari of Wallace-Eannace, the FHRA member company in New York City, "The people at the Statue of Liberty like the new heating system because it's quiet and they have heat in parts of the Statue and buildings that was never heated before."
For top sales, service, maintenance and parts in stock for ITT Bell and Gossett Heat Exchange Systems this winter, consult our online directory of Local FHRA Members at http://www.fluidhandlingreps.com/fhra_members.