Powering a 230v air compressor

Here around the lake where I live, we see stuff like that all the time. Back in the 50's and 60's a lot of the houses were small fishing "camps" that had very little electric in them. Now someone buys a place that's been added on several times, they have to upgrade the service to power modern appliances and the HVAC equipment they want us to sell them. It can get very expensive. I've seen whole houses running on 40A screw in fuses with #8 cloth covered wire as the main feed.