Minneapolis-Honeywell TM850 Chronotherm Thermostat
date: label: date made
content: ca 1950
name: label: maker
content: Honeywell Inc.
notes: label: Description
content: The Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota manufactured this Honeywell Comfort TM850 Chronotherm thermostat during the 1950s. The Honeywell Chronotherm brand has been manufactured in different models since 1935. While conventional thermostats allowed for different settings during the day and night, most had to be manually changed by hand. The Chronotherm automatically changed those settings so that the temperature could be lowered at night and then turned up each morning. The TM850 Chronotherm featured a Telechron clock and sold for $34.90 in 1950.
label: Description
content: The ubiquity of thermostats in 21st century homes shrouds the decades of innovation, industrial design, and engineering that went into making them an everyday object in almost every home. In the early 20th century, a majority of American households still heated their homes with manually operated furnaces that required a trip down to the basement and stoking the coal fired furnace. Albert Butz’s “damper-flapper” system was patented in 1886 and allowed home owner to set the thermostat to a certain temperature which would open a damper to the furnace, increasing the fire and heating the house. Progressive innovations allowed for the thermostats to use gas lines, incorporate electricity, turn on at a set time, include heating and cooling in one mechanism, and even connect to the internet.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Thermostats
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content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 2008.0011.08
label: accession number
content: 2008.0011
label: catalog number
content: 2008.0011.08
objectType: label: Object Name
content: thermostat
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 4 3/4 in x 2 5/8 in x 2 7/8 in; 12.065 cm x 6.6675 cm x 7.3025 cm