Help Identifying What Coal I Have

lobsterman · Post by **lobsterman** » Fri. Jan. 07, 2011 7:38 am

I got from the basement of an old house in Boston, a mix of coal briquets and stove/egg-size anthracite. The briquets look exactly like wood charcoal except they are bigger, maybe twice the size. They burn well in the mix and make a lot of dirty smelly smoke out the chimney. What is this stuff, is it coke? I have never seen coal processed into briquets before. Thanks in advance for your help.

lobsterman · Post by **lobsterman** » Fri. Jan. 07, 2011 8:04 am

I found this neat article from 1903 showing coal briquettes were in use in New England at that time. They are made from hard and soft coal dust with a binder. This must be what I have.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res ... 5B838CF1D3

titleist1 · Post by **titleist1** » Fri. Jan. 07, 2011 8:42 am

A few years back I came across something similar, it appeared to be coal dust formed into cylinders and wrapped in cellophane. The cylinders were about the size of two large soup cans laid end to end. They smelled a little like kerosene, but not too strong. We ended up with about 3/4 of a pallet of them. I would throw a few in with the wood or coal that I was burning at the time. They burned more like wood with a yellowish flame for a while but seemed to have a longer burn time. I haven't seen anything like them since.

wsherrick · Post by **wsherrick** » Fri. Jan. 07, 2011 1:09 pm

lobsterman wrote:I found this neat article from 1903 showing coal briquettes were in use in New England at that time. They are made from hard and soft coal dust with a binder. This must be what I have.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res ... 5B838CF1D3

It seems like our Ancestors were even thinking about and experimenting with recycling and even making wood pellets. That's just one more thing we can give them credit for.