River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1890-07-31
FEEDING A FIRE.
Some Idea of the Work of a Loco
motive Fireman.
Incessant Action and Intelligent Direction
Neeessary-Passenger Train Engines
the Hardest to "FIre"-Why the
Gauge should Have Attention.

Accomplishment Train Engines
the Hardest to "FIre'-Why the
Gauge should Have Attention.
Little has been written of the locomo-
tive fireman. Like the newspaper re-
porter, his identity is sunk in the great
ness of his machine and the prominence
of his superiors. He is seldom heard
from unless he neglects to jump at the
critical moment and his name appears
in the lists of the dead or wounded. A
passing notice is all he receives until he
serves the full period of the slavery of a
locomotive gangway and moves from the
fireman's box on the left of the cab TO
the engineman's box on the right, and
then he is fireman no longer.
Few of the travellers gliding across
the country in comfortable passenger
coaches give thought to the motive
power that enables them TO visit two or
three States in day. They can not
realize that there is any severe labor
attached TO the trip. They see the
neatly-uniformedc conductor who leisure
ly treads the aisles. the indolent brake
man lounging from one end of the train
to the other, and the white-jacketed
colored porter, evidently not suffering
from overwo-k. These visions do not
give the traveller any very vivid i'm
preston of hard work. But while they
are appearing and reappearing there is
one man who is earning his bread by
the sweat of his brow" and that is the
fireman. Dirty, begrimmed and greasy
from head TO foot, the fireman is per-
forming duties that no two of the pas
sengers in the train behind him would
care to undertake. were they capable of
so doing. There is very little poetry
and vast deal of reality in an engine
cab, especially the cab of a passenger
engine. The train is running at high
speed; the engine is the motive power;
steam is it's life. and it devolves upon
the fireman 20 supply the steam. Many
people would say: ''Why, that's easy
enough! All he does is to put in coal
'All he has to do is to put in coal!"
II would be great sport to see the au-
thors of such remarks put in the coal. "
would be interesting to watch them
clambering from the box to the gang
way. and the gangway to the box few
times while performing the double du-
ties of firing" and watching the track
ahead.
Putting in the coal is all right, but
when the coal is put in every two or
three minutes il soon becomes mOnotOn-
Gus and shortly fatiguing, especially on
a twelve or fifteen-hour trip. The prac-
tical fireman becomes used to his work,
however, and is able to keep up during
the trip. He not only puts in fire"
every two or three minutes, but he is
obliged to put it in rightly and scien-
tifically. 1t would be impossible for
reen fireman TO keep up the proper
mount of steam for a passenger engine
or to keep her hot" The fire-bOx of
a locomotive is a treacherOus thing to
one not understanding it The box is
from six to eight feet-in some
cases ten feet-in length. and
four or five feet in width. The bottom
is composed of two movable CRATES
which are so placed as to leave erevices |
t the ends and sides which are virtually /
conduits for the draught. At the front /
end of the firebox are the fiues. A fire. |
man who knows his business under
stands the construction of the box
thoroughly. He is careful not to fire
too much in front and thus shut up the
fues, and he feeds" TO the ends and
sides, thereby closing up the crevices
and shutting out the cold air which
would speedily cool the fues and de-
stroy their steaming power. Not so
much attention is paid 70 the center,
although the coal must be evenly dis
tributed and. in no case, allowed to
heap" which would result in big
cinders to clog the glates. Nor must
the fire be heavy. Too much coal is
almost as bad as none at all. The fir
ing INNS. DC light and frequent to steam
quickly. A heavy fire would burn |
slowly and the steam would rise slowly, 1
and this would never do.
An ordinary fire is four or Eve
scoopsful we'll thrown and evenly dis |
tributed. and little high at the ends
and sides.
The speed Of the engine depends upon
sne ability of the fireman to steam
her" and thus the fireman is the i'm
portant factor in running a 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- 1
nary switch engine viii burn about !
three tons of coal in twenty-four hours, I
while road engines viii burn from six to 4
fifteen tons The heavier the load or 4
the greater the speed, the more steam I
and coal is required
But the freman's hardest lot is when
his run is heavy and his engine gets TO 4
leaking" Engines poorly packed" or 4
loose in their joints will leak steam 4
with astonishing rapidity and it re- +
auires a constant effort TO keep them up
20 the working notch. The working I
3otch 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 40 and 135 pounds. Some I
times, of course, the steam will run I
down to ITO or 100, when the work is /
heavy. but good fireman will never let |
her down below that.
In some Eastern States the number 1
Of pounds of steam which an engine may 1
carry is regulated by law. but in the |
Western States little attention has been /
paid TO the matter. In consequence, 4
some engineers who are possessed OF .
more ambition than judgment viii rate
their engines as high as $50 pounds IN