Hand Fire This!

Duengeon master · Post by **Duengeon master** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 9:41 am

I received this link from Rockwood last spring. I like to shovel coal, but this is a little extreme.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://tit ... n%26sa%3DN

CapeCoaler · Post by **CapeCoaler** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 9:56 am

Makes one appreciate how well off we are now!

Poconoeagle · Post by **Poconoeagle** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 10:31 am

Great article.... I sure wish the spirit of pride they had then existed now....even 5% of it!!

people need to start working together again, reguardless of thier social status to regain the worlds respect back.....

rockwood · Post by **rockwood** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 7:56 pm

Hey Duengeon.
Yeah that is a good article, I stumbled across it when I was doing searches about Titanic.

009to090 · Post by **009to090** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 8:02 pm

THATS a LOT of Boilers!

Poconoeagle · Post by **Poconoeagle** » Sun. Oct. 11, 2009 8:08 pm

imagine shovling coal all freekin day????? in a cave that rocked?? then have ice cold sea water flood in in the wee hours

Post by **franco b** » Mon. Oct. 12, 2009 12:10 am

One thing that caught my attention was the method of lighting the boilers. The air inlets on the ash door were closed as well as the door itself and the loading door was opened wide. All air comes from the loading door. This makes sense as the wood starting fire will do well and smoke will be drawn to the back and up the flue by the air coming through the open door. Once the wood is burning well then the loading door is closed and air inlets on ash door are opened and coal loaded.

This is contrary to how I and most others start a coal fire. There might be advantages to that system such as the smoke not fouling the glass. It might be worth a try.

Richard

Freddy · Post by **Freddy** » Mon. Oct. 12, 2009 6:18 am

Nice read. Yup, that was just after the days of iron men & woodens ships....it was iron men & iron ships.

captcaper · Post by **captcaper** » Mon. Oct. 12, 2009 7:07 am

franco b wrote:One thing that caught my attention was the method of lighting the boilers. The air inlets on the ash door were closed as well as the door itself and the loading door was opened wide. All air comes from the loading door. This makes sense as the wood starting fire will do well and smoke will be drawn to the back and up the flue by the air coming through the open door. Once the wood is burning well then the loading door is closed and air inlets on ash door are opened and coal loaded.

This is contrary to how I and most others start a coal fire. There might be advantages to that system such as the smoke not fouling the glass. It might be worth a try.

Richard

I guess I'm not like most.

If my ash door and loading door on my Harman are open at the same time I'll get back drafting. Same with the Cubby I use to have. Too much air going in and not enough draft between a cold chimney,6in.pipe.

captcaper · Post by **captcaper** » Mon. Oct. 12, 2009 7:12 am

I bet cleaning those boiler tubes out was the worst job. I use to clean the ones out on the Steam Engines at the Cog Railway. I can't imagine doing the Titanic's..Most of these jobs were manned by young men.. Not guys in their 40's,50's,etc. If they did their time they were taught how to be a Fireman on the job. But they payed their dues first. Thats how we did it at the Railway.

rockwood · Post by **rockwood** » Mon. Feb. 07, 2011 10:04 pm

Found this old photo online...Boiler room on steamship Aquitania. Would have been a hard, hot job!
http://digitalgallery.nypl.org/nypldigital/dgkeys ... w#_seemore

oliver power · Post by **oliver power** » Mon. Feb. 14, 2011 1:49 am

franco b wrote:One thing that caught my attention was the method of lighting the boilers. The air inlets on the ash door were closed as well as the door itself and the loading door was opened wide. All air comes from the loading door. This makes sense as the wood starting fire will do well and smoke will be drawn to the back and up the flue by the air coming through the open door. Once the wood is burning well then the loading door is closed and air inlets on ash door are opened and coal loaded.

This is contrary to how I and most others start a coal fire. There might be advantages to that system such as the smoke not fouling the glass. It might be worth a try.

Richard

That is how I start the 30-95 in shop. And I do it for that exact reason......not to fowl the glass. After starting the wood fire, I leave the front door open about an inch. The air creates a barrior between the glass and wood smoke. Once the fire is going good and hot, I close the front door, and the bottom draft takes over. At that point, the fire goes crazy, like a blow torch. As the wood burns down, coal falls into the fire from both sides. That's all there is to it. The coal fire is going....

Chuck_Steak · Post by **Chuck_Steak** » Mon. Feb. 14, 2011 1:25 pm

captcaper wrote:I use to clean the ones out on the Steam Engines at the Cog Railway.

That's some beautiful country...
Been up top several times. Last time, it was so foggy (in the clouds actually)
I was standing about 40-50 feet from where the locomotive stops,
and I couldn't even see it!
Another time it was one of a handfull of days a year, where the hang gliders all showed
up.. they actually had a small network, when they knew the conditions
would be like that, they would drop whatever they were doing and head to the mountain.
What a sight to actually look DOWN at people hang gliding!

Some ridiculous weather up there...

Dan