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r b llmfclhhl f fll tllc iri clmlll if f i ii m on in ik me ci niff t hygrade fuels umited what the founder of hygrade fuels ltd the iafe joseph w canning got into his own business the way many people do largely by chancein his case the chance camewhen a 192 harvest train on which he was a passenger stopped atjhe victoria park station mr canning was heading for the prairies on the annual harvest excursion but obviously his heart wasnt jn it he got off and the train went without him when he discovered s coal and ice businessfof sale in the area he used his train fare as a down payment to buyit still trains seemed to have aebntinuing in- fluence on mr canning when he wanted a name for his new company jhc turned to a railwaymans term for the long uphill haul from downtown to scarbor- ough junction hj grade with his intention of providing quality products and service the name hygrade seemed an apt choice and it still is so years later v yrtrr acr rrt home comfort siir 1 j t when ron cheron whos been with the companyat most 50 years set out 20s sometimes he didn v winters the snow was so i the customers homes even with horses so we had to unload ns near as possible and carry it from there lots of times the customer helped us with a toboggan he recalls furnaces in those days were mostly hot water or steam with big cast iron radiators located around the house an occasional heating system used gravity feed bywhlch hot airrose through ducts to grates in the floor many people reading this will recall the clanking noise of steam or hot water systems as the rads warmed up at night people banked their furnaces by piling coal on one side of the fire box so it would burn slowly but stay lighted through the night a big job and wha these be put out for covection the furnace and hauling ashes men tended to get a lot more exercise in those days than now but then the iron anical coal stokers were the latest thing in heating in the 30s and were still in use after the second war but following the war the increased development of efficient forced air oilfired furnaces began to spell the end for coal although hygrade didnt get out of the coal business until 1964wth thegreat housing expan- sion in toronto afirfewar the demand for home fuel oil began to rise at a dramatic rate because more and more new houses were being equipped with forced air- oil furriaceshygradc got into the home fuel oil delivery business in 1951at about the same time the company advantages over the old coal furnace it r much cleaner both in terms of fuel de- ipcratjon thcfurnaceitselfrequlred less 1 not need to be kept in a separate room in the basement because of itscleancompact appearance but perhaps ihemostimportant feahireofuils new i heating system was something we take for granted today- x thecenrral thermostat control that came with it and some attempt was made to introduce moisture into the heated air with a humidifier built into the main heat chamber maybe you still have one of those in your furnace youll be lucky if it wxirks very late sixties hygrade and other home comfort com panics began to utnk about environment in the home iv so central air conditioning units began to appear these tooil such conversions became an important source of business for hygrade the forced air oilfired furnace air cleaners for example so today there really is no place like home v- u supplement to the tribune thursday march 21 1974