The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-06-27
-@-~-s-
HOW CHARCOAL Is MADE.
Gas and OiI Have Displaced Coal In
NFanytUses.
From the Chicago Tribune.

From the Chicago Tribune.
Charcoal burning in the United States
so far as the product concerns the cities,
gives promise of becoming a lost art. Gas
and gasoline have almost displaced it as
heat-producing substance. With the
thinning of the forest, too. the source Of
supply is cut. Chicago cooks long ago
abandoned the charcoal stove. The bra
zier, the tinsmith and the plumber gave
up the use OF the chacoal heater years
ago. AS lining for reifrigerators 1t has
been declared to be redundant, for the
reason that an air space Is better. 1t
has been displaced in filters. 1t is no
longer used in the making of gunpowder
Yet in the woods of Michigan. especially
in the vicinity of Travers City, the char
coal burner is figure in population estt-
mates. In Wisconsin, in Ohio and in
Pennsylvania comparatively few of
them still follow the lonely life that
is theirs because of circumstances. They
are gypsies with a purpose.
Charcoal in its perfect state is a baked,
not a burnt. wood Here is the distinc-
Fior that keeps the charcoal burtner
awake sometimes from sorty- eight to
sixty hours at stretch, especially II he
be alone
For the baking of charcoal the wood
is piled in a circle about a central pit
leaving interstices through which the
heat from the fire burning in the center
may circulate to the outer edge of the
pile. Turf Is piled over all until the
pile resembles a volcano. 1t is the OBJ
iect to keep this wood covered until II
cannot break into a blaze. High winds
are troublesome. The sign of trouble In
a kiln is thin, blue smoke that points
to Gre in the WOOD. This fire is put 81.
by snothering from the outside.
Only experience teaches when the
charcoal is sufficiently baked. When that
period is reached it has lost about three
fourths of its weight. An old observa-
ton is to the effect that ten horses
the charcoal away" The slower the wood
has baked the more substance and weight
there will be in the Goals.
When the pyre has burned sufficiently,
the fire is put out by drenching the
heap with water Even after hundreds
of gallons have been pured through the
heap, II may take three days for II to
cool sufficiently for the charcoal to be
removed, A good-sized kiln will produce
200 or $50 bushels of the Goals.
The charcoal burner leads a gypsy life.
His cabin is near by the kilns and in 1t
is the picturesque disorder that is natural
to man in the woods. His kitchen uten-
sis are most in evidence. His bed is
wholly secondary. He eats to live and
lives to work, with only an occasional
spree" IN some nearby town. In the
woods sobriety rs everything to his craft.
He is a wonder to the visitor, as he
plunges into thick smoke and heat and
works in the choking fumes with the
fortitude of a salamander. When the
kiln is working best the smoke and fumes
are worst. and to keep the kiln so neces-
States the consetant attention OF the
burner These fumes are considered de-
trimentaa to health under ordinary cir
cumstance but the compensating life
in the woods seems 20 make the charcoal
burner hardy specimen of his race