Whats the Weirdest Thing You Ever Found in Your Coal ?

Durring the Civil War bombs were made that looked like a lump of coal and they were slipped into the coal supply of the "enemy's" river boats. At least one went to the bottom of the Mississippi as a result.

cokehead wrote:You know dried out rats should burn well. Heat is heat. I heard at on time they fueled rail road steam engines in Egypt with mummys. (Think about that New Hope Engineer) Dead rodents in "old basement coal" sounds common. I've seen it too.

For example, when Mark Twain visited Egypt in the late nineteenth century, he discovered a unique use of mummies. A railroad was being built to cross Egypt, and workers used mummies as fuel for the engine rather than coal. Since they were often coated or filled with bitumen or pitch (a coal-like substance), they probably burned quite well. Twain joked, though, that he heard an engineer curse the mummies of common people who "don't burn worth a cent! Pass out a King!" No one knows if one type burned better than others, however, and Twain's account of mummies used as fuel is the only one in existence. What's more, no one knows how many mummies were destroyed in this way.

From: http://www.mummytombs.com/dummy/grave.htm

See......I'm not totally full of it.

cokehead wrote:Durring the Civil War bombs were made that looked like a lump of coal and they were slipped into the coal supply of the "enemy's" river boats. At least one went to the bottom of the Mississippi as a result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coal_torpedo

Sneaky strategy!

I've found a 5 lb mud ball, a solid boulder the size of a grapefruit, 12 awg jacketed copper wire, & endless lengths of roots! That was all with one particular brand my very first season. As a rookie, I thought that bulge in the bag was the biggest piece of coal in history! I was disappointed when it crumbled to mud as soon as it touched my wet floor in the basement ... RIPOFF!

Oh, btw ..... I have first hand testing of rodents & their burning characteristics:

Better be careful burning bodies without a license for a crematory.

A good coal man is always watching the coal go into the truck and picking out crap. You'd probably expect I've seen a lot but not really. Mostly wood and plastic as they are both light enough to make it through .

Oddest thing I found was unexploded blasting cap.

cokehead wrote:

cokehead wrote:You know dried out rats should burn well. Heat is heat. I heard at on time they fueled rail road steam engines in Egypt with mummys. (Think about that New Hope Engineer) Dead rodents in "old basement coal" sounds common. I've seen it too.

For example, when Mark Twain visited Egypt in the late nineteenth century, he discovered a unique use of mummies. A railroad was being built to cross Egypt, and workers used mummies as fuel for the engine rather than coal. Since they were often coated or filled with bitumen or pitch (a coal-like substance), they probably burned quite well. Twain joked, though, that he heard an engineer curse the mummies of common people who "don't burn worth a cent! Pass out a King!" No one knows if one type burned better than others, however, and Twain's account of mummies used as fuel is the only one in existence. What's more, no one knows how many mummies were destroyed in this way.

From: http://www.mummytombs.com/dummy/grave.htm

See......I'm not totally full of it.

They also used the wrappings for paper and meat. There were also a large quantity of cat mummies. Victorian mentality was pretty weird in some ways.

A pair of vice grips and a 1" box open end wrench which I put in my toolbox after a little cleanup.

ry

Bean seed ...green bean seeds that is, and not just a few. They were in a load of free stoker coal mixed with lump coal that I got this summer. The little stoker coal emblem that I now use for my avatar was found in the coal as well.
The seeds looked perfectly normal so I planted some but they didn't come up. I know there's more in there so maybe I'll try to get some to grow again.

rockwood wrote:...green bean seeds ... maybe I'll try to get some to grow

Cool! We will get to see what bean plants looked like 350 million years ago!