epackage
Bronze Member
If the admins don't consider a water cooler as part of the bottle family please feel free to delete my post...
I have had this copper water cooler for many years thanks to my father rescuing it from the basement of a local structure that was being emptied of it's contents so it could be turned into a finished space, because it was copper he thought it would make a great planter. When he got it home and cleaned it up he noticed the brass name plate for the Quinn Bros. of Paterson N.J., so he called me over to check it out. Needless to say I was very happy to see it given our families ties to the plumbing and steamfitting business going back to the 1800's.
John & Robert Quinn were brothers who started in business in 1892 in Paterson on Van Houten St., besides plumbing they also sold mill supplies, stoves, heaters, tin roofing, valves and all kinds of other general hardware store items at the time, which included producing their own hand made copper water coolers. In 1904 they moved to their new location at 9 Fair St. after their building on Van Houten St. was burned to the ground by the Great Fire of 1902 that destroyed 85% of Paterson's business district. A number of months ago I was contacted by a man on a Facebook bottle group I admin about a Quinn Bros. brass sign that was mounted to their new location at 9 Fair St. It's about 2 feet across and a foot high, and it has the Quinn Bros. name highlighted with tinned solder. To add the icing to the cake he also had two lead "pigs" as we call them in the plumbing business that he sent, these were used to be melted down and poured into cast iron sewer pipe joints while molten to seal them. The joints were first packed with oakum, a tarred rope fiber, that was in place to help seal the joint and keep the lead in place as it was poured into the gap of the pipe joint. After the lead hardened you would drive it down into place with a hammer and packing tools in the shapes of different style chisels depending on the size of the pipe.
So now I need to get some polish and shine up the water cooler and find the right spot to display everything together, the man who contacted me about these items didn't charge me, he just asked that I find him a cool bottle for his collection someday, which I look forward to doing. The two ads pictured are from 1904 & 09 city directories from Paterson, and the photo is the Quinn Bros. business as it looked in 1935 after they expanded it to 7-11 Fair St. I have little to no doubt my great grandfather and grandfather both would have bought supplies for their businesses there, so all these things have a great personal connection to me.
I have had this copper water cooler for many years thanks to my father rescuing it from the basement of a local structure that was being emptied of it's contents so it could be turned into a finished space, because it was copper he thought it would make a great planter. When he got it home and cleaned it up he noticed the brass name plate for the Quinn Bros. of Paterson N.J., so he called me over to check it out. Needless to say I was very happy to see it given our families ties to the plumbing and steamfitting business going back to the 1800's.
John & Robert Quinn were brothers who started in business in 1892 in Paterson on Van Houten St., besides plumbing they also sold mill supplies, stoves, heaters, tin roofing, valves and all kinds of other general hardware store items at the time, which included producing their own hand made copper water coolers. In 1904 they moved to their new location at 9 Fair St. after their building on Van Houten St. was burned to the ground by the Great Fire of 1902 that destroyed 85% of Paterson's business district. A number of months ago I was contacted by a man on a Facebook bottle group I admin about a Quinn Bros. brass sign that was mounted to their new location at 9 Fair St. It's about 2 feet across and a foot high, and it has the Quinn Bros. name highlighted with tinned solder. To add the icing to the cake he also had two lead "pigs" as we call them in the plumbing business that he sent, these were used to be melted down and poured into cast iron sewer pipe joints while molten to seal them. The joints were first packed with oakum, a tarred rope fiber, that was in place to help seal the joint and keep the lead in place as it was poured into the gap of the pipe joint. After the lead hardened you would drive it down into place with a hammer and packing tools in the shapes of different style chisels depending on the size of the pipe.
So now I need to get some polish and shine up the water cooler and find the right spot to display everything together, the man who contacted me about these items didn't charge me, he just asked that I find him a cool bottle for his collection someday, which I look forward to doing. The two ads pictured are from 1904 & 09 city directories from Paterson, and the photo is the Quinn Bros. business as it looked in 1935 after they expanded it to 7-11 Fair St. I have little to no doubt my great grandfather and grandfather both would have bought supplies for their businesses there, so all these things have a great personal connection to me.
