Mower County transcript., 1890-07-30

the Are be neavy. 100 much coal Is
almost as bad as mono at all. The ar-
Ing must be light and frequent to steam
quickly. A hoavy fire. would burn
slowly and tho steam would rise slowly,
and this would never do.
An ordinary fire. Is four or Ave
sooopsful we'll thrown and evenly dis
tributed, and little high at the ends
and sides
. The speed Of the engine depends upon
tho 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 or
the greater tho speed, the moro steam
and coal Is required.
But the .Hreman's hardest lot Is whom
his run Is heavy and his engine "gets to
leaking" Engines poorly 'packod'' or
loose in their joints will leak steam
with astonishing rapidity and it re-
quires q constant effort to keep them up
to the working notch. The working
notch or when she pops'' Is, on an av-
erage, about 1875 pounds Of steam. Some
engines arc set at lao pounds pressure
before the escape valve will raise and
the extra steam escape. On an engine
where the gauge reaches 1856 pounds
tho fireman aims to keep pressure OF
between l20 and 1875 pounds. Some
times, OF course, the steam will run
down to no 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 an 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 running record, and 1t
is dangerous custom which is liable at
any time to result in q disaster. Not
long ago the writer's attention was
called to an engine on Missouri road
which did not ''pop," or blow of steam
at ITO pounds. The engineer was proud
OF his reputation as ''runner," and was
foolishly risking his own life and the
lives intrusted to his care for the sake
of little notoriety. In such casos the
flreman's lot is a slavish one, and the
labor req uired 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 trifing 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.
+ squirements 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 per-
petual occupation.
Firemen, as a rule, are steady class
of men; they must be, as it is from
them that enginemen are made. The
f1remen 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 relia engineers -
Kansas CITY Star.