Published on Monday, September 22, 2008
By Daily Bulletin Staff Writer
Here's an advertisement from a May 1996 Ontario newspaper:
"Hot water produced ... by our system of solar heating, a valuable invention especially adapted to this climate," read the ad from G.B. Southard of Ontario.
Ooops, I've made a mistake. That ad was actually from 1896.
Solar heating 112 years ago? How can that be?
Actually, solar water heating is hardly a newcomer to the Inland Empire. At one time there were not only many homes with solar water heating systems installed on roofs, but before World War II, there were at least two companies in Ontario making the systems.
A century ago, the housewife's only way to make hot water was to on a wood-burning stove. Only a few homes then were equipped with electricity and even fewer with gas, making washing dishes and or taking the Saturday evening bath a difficult undertaking.
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