"Clot" wrote in message
...
Arfa Daily wrote:
"The Natural Philosopher" wrote in message
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wrote:
On 28 Oct, The Natural Philosopher wrote:


Coal doesn't need a forced draught.

I've come across coal that needed forced draught, and even then
hardly worked.

anthracitye is teh only pone. and to an exteng dry steam coal. Thse
have low hydrocarbon content compare with lignite of normal
bituminous.

Coke does.

How did the braziers used by nigh****chmen in the 50s work? They
were coke in
a can with holes in and natural draught. Coal would have been
stolen.

If coke was so easy to use, coke would have been stolen too..

I THOUGHT they were coal actually. I guess coke must just about burn
without forced draught, but is hard work. WE used to buy anthracite,
coke and steam coal for a closed stove/fire. All were a devil to
light compared with normal bituminous coal. Coal is a cinch in an
open fire. W used to use some steam coal or coke in the open fire, but
it
wasn't self sustaining - always needed ordinary coal.


There was a small gasworks near where I live. The site is still
there, and the old coking furnace and chimney are still in place, and
form a 'feature' of the use that the building is now put to. The coke
that was produced from the gas making process, went to a car engine
casting plant nearby, and was also bagged and sold to the general
public, so there must have been a demand for it for 'household' use.
I seem to remember my parents buying both coal and coke, and I have a
dim recollection of a fire being 'made' with coal, and then banked
with coke, which burnt much more slowly, and gave off a more steady
heat than a roaring fire up the chimmally ... I also seem to recall
the fire being 'calmed' at night by banking it up with powdered and
chipped coal that my old dad used to refer to as "nutty slack" I
think it was ??

Indeed. But you are surely teasing us with your alleged ignorance? When I
were a nipper, t'was me duty to maintain the central heater boiler which
thrived on coke. To get it started, I'd use them wooden boxes which were
used to import items. I had to use the axe and ensure that the sticks were
of the right dimensions to fit int' 'ole and elp combustion. Then some
suitable quantity of appropriately sized coal to git the bsggsr goin'.

Eh up, I forgot the paper that were stuck on the nail ont' door of the
small room that I put in the boiler before the wooden sticks.

Then, the main fuel, coke.

Now, if you wished to avoid excessive work, you learnt when and how to
riddle the grate to ensure that all the clinker went through. If you
failed to keep it goin', mum was not best pleased, especially on a
Monday!.

To keep the backboiler going in the fire in the dining room, what helped
the boiler to heat the water, you needed to make sure that Dad got a
roaring fire going before he went to bed then closed down the admission of
air and placed on the slack or nutty slack. Where we lived was windy and
slack was advisable being smaller in dimension and ensured the fire
survived the night.

We did have fire guards!

Would this be allowed by the blxxdy Elfin Safety these days?

The flat bed coal wagons on the streets with loose sacks on the back. The
poor buggers carrying 1 cwt of coal.

Them were the days?


Them woz !! I was a little bit young to be tending the fire on my own, but
I did used to help. You're right about the wood to get it going. We had a
big market square near where my dad worked, and the fruit and veg stalls
used to leave the orange crates piled up at the edge for people to take to
use as kindling. I have clear memories of meeting him off the bus, and
helping to carry these orange boxes the rest of the way home.

Arfa