DeSoto times. (Hernando, Miss.) 1879-1898, 1890-08-14

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end Of the firebox are the flues. A fire
man who knows his business under
stands the construction of the bo,
thoroughly. He is careful not to fire
too much in front and thus shut up the
hues, and he feeds" to the ends and
sides, thereby closing up the crevice.
and shutting out the cold air which
would speedily cool the fues and de-
stroy their steaming power. Not SC
much attention is paid to the center
although the coal must be evenly dis
tributed and, in no case, allowed tc
"heap' which would result in biz
cinders to clog the glates. Nor mus
the fire be heavy. Too much coal i!
almost as bad as none at all. The fir
ing must be light and frequent to steam
quickly. A heavy fire would burr
slowly and the steam would rise slowly
and this would never do.
An ordinary "fre'' is four or five
scoopsful we'll thrown and evenly dis.
tributed, and little high at the ends
and sides.
The speed of the engine depends upon
the ability of the fireman to ''steam
her." and thus the fireman is the i'm.
portant factor in running train Some
engines steam" more readily than 9th,
ers, but all of them require skill in fir.
ing and great deal of work. An ordi.
nary switch engine will burn about
three tons of coal in twenty-four hours,
while road engines will burn from six to
fifteen tons. The heavier the load OF
the greater the speed, the moro steam
and coal is required.
But the freman's hardest lot is when
his run is heavy and his engine ''gets to
leaking Engines poorly packed" or
loose in their joints will leak steam
with astonishing rapidity and it re-
quires constant effort to keep them up
to the working notch. The working
notch or "when she pops' is, on an av-
erage, about 135 pounds Of steam. Some
engines are set at 40 pounds pressure
before the escape valve will raise and
the extra steam escape. On an engine
where the gauge reaches 135 pounds
the fireman aims to keep pressure of
between 12O and 1856 pounds. Some
times, of course, the steam will run
down to 10 or 100, when the work is
heavy, but good fireman will never let
her down below that.
In some Eastern States the number
OF pounds of steam which all engine may
carry is regulated by law, but in the
Western States little attention has been
paid to the matter. In consequence,
some engineers who are possessed OF
more ambition than Judgment will rate
their engines as high as $50 pounds in
order to make a running record, and 1t
Is dangerous custom which is liable at
any time to result in disaster Not
long ago the writer's attention was
called to an engine on Missouri road
which did not pop" or blow off steam
at ITO pounds. The engineer was proud
Of his reputatio as runner" and was
foolishly risking his own life and the
lives intrusted to his care for the sake
Of little notoriety. In such cases the
freman's lot is slavish one, and the
labor required to keep up his engine is
simply tremendous
In addition to firing, the fireman is
required to keep his machine, inside the
cab, clean, and bright works" must be
kept spotless. Such trifling duties as
ringing the bell, keeping sharp look
out ahead, and watching for signals are
thrown in just to keep him in practice
during the few minutes he may chance
to spend on his seat box.
After he has served in this capacity
from three to seven years, and he is
successful in passing the examination
in which reading and writing are the
easiest branches-the fireman is placed
on the extra list, and after six months
trial he becomes an engineer Often,
however, the fireman lacks certain re-
quirements or has bad luck at the start,
and has an accident or smashup, and he
is condemned to another long term of
shoveling coal which may be made a per.
petual occupation.
Firemen, as rule, are steady class
of men; they must be, as it is from
them that enginemen are made. The
fremen have a brotherhood which is
second only to the engineers in i'm
portance, and the order is doing deal
of good in preparing It's members to be-
come capable and reliable engineers. =
Kansas City Star.