Cookin' With Coal

Sixkids wrote:We actually bought a Fairmount Royal 8-20. Probably the stove may still not big enough since I am known to make enough for a small army!! Two of my older married children live nearby and a lot of times are forced to accept food donations delivered at odd times of the day and night, such as homemade bread, rolls, pies, soup, pizza - heck you name it we have probbably dropped it off!!

Welcome to the forum and to our thread. It has already been mentioned that we really like photos here so if you need help with posting instructions, feel free to hit me up. That looks like a nice stove and I am sure you will like it very much. (sounds like your kids will like what is produced on it too). Paul (Sunny Boy) is our resident authority on cooking on these stoves as he and his fiance have had his stove for 9 years. I have cooked on stoves for years but just switched to coal a year ago and recently in the cook stove too. I went through a big learning curve this year so if I can save you from having to go through the same thing, feel free to ask questions.

Randy

Sunny Boy wrote:Randy,
Those are wonderful, and they'll make very interesting reading. Thank you for posting them.

Paul

I have not had time to read them all myself yet but thought I would share them.
Randy

The first instruction manual is typical of the era.
It has a complete dissertation on the nature of combustion and the science behind it. This is a book for the average person to read and understand.
It has been mentioned by some here that they just stumbled upon good designs and there wasn't much real science behind it.
Here as in many books like this from the Turn Of The Century you find evidence that they spent huge amounts of time researching this subject and how to effectively apply it.
They took efficiency and utility seriously.
These books are treasures. Thanks for sharing

I thought the modified stove lids, designed to introduce heated secondary air over the fire were really neat. I wouldn't have thought of that in a thousand years.

Crawford made a line of stoves with cabinet bases. Instead of the usual secondary air intake on the broiler door, they opted for a two piece lid that could be used to control the secondary air. It had six slots and they could be opened by turning the center section of the lid. Worked great.
By the way, the vast bulk of our business is wood/coal burning ranges. Lots of folks have discovered how well they work and are also worried about cooking and heating during a black out. I heated my home for several years with a coal range and it did just fine.

wsherrick wrote:The first instruction manual is typical of the era.
It has a complete dissertation on the nature of combustion and the science behind it. This is a book for the average person to read and understand.
It has been mentioned by some here that they just stumbled upon good designs and there wasn't much real science behind it.
Here as in many books like this from the Turn Of The Century you find evidence that they spent huge amounts of time researching this subject and how to effectively apply it.
They took efficiency and utility seriously.
These books are treasures. Thanks for sharing

Yes indeed ! That book that Randy posted is a treasure of info - not only on kitchen ranges, but burning coal in any stove. Thank you again Randy !!!!!


Paul

wsherrick wrote:I thought the modified stove lids, designed to introduce heated secondary air over the fire were really neat. I wouldn't have thought of that in a thousand years.

quote="wsherrick"]I thought the modified stove lids, designed to introduce heated secondary air over the fire were really neat. I wouldn't have thought of that in a thousand years.[/quote]

Whoever invented that "Wonder Disc" obviously didn't have a kitchen range with leaky top plates !

Very cleaver device though.

I get similar results by keeping the ring cover - the round cover that has two concentric inner removable covers - over the firebox. Because they don't seal completely, that ring cover allows very hot air to leak in over the firebox in much the same way as the "wonder disc" on page 87.

And, even without using the ring cover over the firebox, the six covers, plus the I's and T's that support them, don't seal 100%. That's why, in 8 years, with the secondary damper always closed, no mater how I load the coal, I've never had even the slightest puff back. Those round cover plates and support plates always allow secondary air bleeding in over the top of the firebox and the flue pathway over the top of the oven. Plus the broiler door to the side of the firebox allows some air leakage over the fire too. All those tiny air leaks in the top of a range add up to enough secondary air to keep the blue ladies dancing nicely !

It was also interesting to read the section "How much coal in twenty four hours" on page 75.

His target of 33 lbs in 24 hours is about the upper end of where my average daily use is (until outdoor temps dip below zero). Guess I've been doing things right with the dampers.

What's that old saying about blind squirrels finding nuts ?

Paul

I want to thank all of you for the World of information on this website! Our Fairmount (Royal) stove from stovehospital should be arriving Possibly today! Can't wait to attempt moving it into our home, getting it all set up, but especially learning to fire it up and to cook on it! Thank you all!

Carole,
Got my fingers crossed. Pix as soon as you can - PLEASE !

Word of caution. The toughest part is carefully setting the stove body onto the base.

Be careful to not drop, or slide the stove body into alignment on the base, or too much weight could go on just a small area of the base's top edge and risk cracking it.

Depending on how many bodies you have to help move and re-assemble, . . because I was working by myself, I put boards across the top of the base first. Then I set the stove body on those. Once the body was aligned properly - directly over the base - I could then lift one end of the stove body and take out a board and set that end down onto the base. Then I did the same with the other end. That way, the stove body didn't come down on just a corner of the base.

And, try to make sure that where you want the stove is where you assemble it. Don't try to slide/move the stove once it's on it's base. That can be tough on the legs. If you have to move it, lift each corner at the base, together, so it doesn't stress the base, or the legs when it goes back down.

I'm sure that with Brandon's instructions, the rest will be easy.

Paul

Thanks Paul! The only thing I am REALLY concerned with at the moment is the carrier R&L transporting the stove. Hopefully all the nightmare reviews that I've read after the stove was shipped, are not reflective of the majority of their customers. I like their price, but I would feel a lot better if I heard of people happy with their deliveries. I am just so afraid that the reviews are true and I will go down my driveway and to see my wonderful new stove in smashed pieces laying in the middle of the road at the end of my driveway. What would I do then? I'll breathe a lot easier after the stove arrives (fingers crossed)

Fingers crossed, . . and a stove prayer thrown in too !

Paul

Sunny Boy wrote:

wsherrick wrote:The first instruction manual is typical of the era.
It has a complete dissertation on the nature of combustion and the science behind it. This is a book for the average person to read and understand.
It has been mentioned by some here that they just stumbled upon good designs and there wasn't much real science behind it.
Here as in many books like this from the Turn Of The Century you find evidence that they spent huge amounts of time researching this subject and how to effectively apply it.
They took efficiency and utility seriously.
These books are treasures. Thanks for sharing

Yes indeed ! That book that Randy posted is a treasure of info - not only on kitchen ranges, but burning coal in any stove. Thank you again Randy !!!!!


Paul

I thought someone else might enjoy that book and I am glad that you did! I found it at the Library of Congress...who says our government doesn't do anything good.

Randy

Thanks Paul! Prayers are always good! I just got a call that they won't be delivering it until tomorrow sometime between noon and 4.

Thought some might like this poem that my son, Justin, found in an old poetry book written by Edgar Albert Guest.

When Father Shook The Stove

'Twas not so many years ago,
Say, twenty-two or three,
When zero weather or below
Held many a thrill for me.
Then in my icy room I slept
A youngster's sweet repose,
And always on my form I kept
My flannel underclothes.
Then I was roused by sudden shock
Though still to sleep I strove,
I knew that it was seven o'clock
When father shook the stove.

I never heard him quit his bed
Or his alarm clock ring;
I never heard his gentle tread,
Or his attempts to sing;
The sun that found my window pane
On me was wholly lost,
Though many a sunbeam tried in vain
To penetrate the frost.
To human voice I never stirred,
But deeper down I dove
Beneath the covers, when I heard
My father shake the stove.

To-day it all comes back to me
And I can hear it still;
He seemed to take a special glee
In shaking with a will.
He flung the noisy dampers back,
Then rattled steel on steel,
Until the force of his attack
The building seemed to feel.
Though I'd a youngster's heavy eyes
All sleep from them he drove;
It seemed to me the dead must rise
When father shook the stove.

Now radiators thump and pound
And every room is warm,
And modern men new ways have found
To shield us from the storm.
The window panes are seldom glossed
The way they used to be;
The pictures left by old Jack Frost
Our children never see.
And now that he has gone to rest
In God's great slumber grove,
I often think those days were best
When father shook the stove.

Fantastic Carole - thank you for posting that.

Brings back memories of hearing my father's stories about what life was like growing up with and then owning houses with coal fired cook, parlor, furnace, and hot water stoves.

That shaking the stove in the morning also reminded me of, . . . one of the things he saved from his last coal furnace was a brass "stove clock". It looked like a windup brass alarm clock, except it had a hook on top to be hung above the furnace. Every night, after he loaded and banked the furnace, he'd wind it up, set it, and instead of chiming, this one would pull on a chain to open the furnace damper and start heating the house in the morning.

I should ask my brother if he still has Dad's old furnace clock.

Paul