The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1902-09-18
SOFT COAL AS FUEL.
Valuable And Timely Emergency Hints For
kousekeepers.

The furnaces and ranges designed
for anthracite will burn any grade of
brtumnous Goa, which reaches this
market, says the New York Times.
If intended for that fuel they would
have been made somewhat different
as to their draught openings, fire pot
Innings, and smoke exits, but the diff
ference is not so great that as an
emergency fuel for two or three months
or longer if necessary, the New York
householder cannot do very well with
soft coal as a domestic fuel IN both
cooking and heating. There are rea-
sons, perhaps, why the coal dealers
have not made this fact more generally
known; but fact it is, and the prudent
householder may find specific lnfor-
nation on this point useful.
Soft coal in range or cook stove
will meet all the requirements of do
mestic use If ordinary intelligence is
displayed in the management of the
fire. The same is true of hot air
furnaces. With the low-pressure
boilers used for steam heating some
what more trouble may be expected,
but this is largely question OF the
type. Even in such devices soft coal
can be burned without an amount of
inconvenience comparable to that OF
an uncomiorfably low house tempera-
ture. Probably the greatest difficult
ty will be that experienced in chang
ing the habits Of servants who have
never known any fuel except anthra
cite. Care must also be taken in
keeping oven temperature uniform
Soft coal gnites very quickly, dies
down with equal facility, and needs
constant watching and frequent re.
plenlshing to maintain even meas.
urably constant fire. In these re
spects it more resembles wood than
anthracite, but II burns very nearly as
well IN an anthracite range as in one
built for a market where only soft
coal is used for domestic fuel.
In an anthracite heating furnace
soft coal needs to be treated very
differently from anthracite, but the
difference consists in the management
of draughts and checks. In the feed
door of every furnace there is a slide
damper to admit air over the fire.
When anthracite is used this is opened
only if it is desired to deaden the fire
and lower the temperature of the
houre. With soft coal it must be left
open all the time. The great volume
of gases involved from it in the cook
ing process, which is the first stage OF
its combustion, calls for more air than
can be had through the body of the
fuel, and unless this IS supplied above
the fire the greatest value of the fuel
is lost up the chimney in uuconsumed
gases. Too much air for good com
bustion can be admitted over the fire,
but this is not likely to be the case If
the slide damper in the feed door of
a furnace built for anthracite is lett
wide open all the time. The draught
opening IN the ash pit door, on the
other hand, needs to be less widely
and continuously open than tor an
thracite. With the same amount of
bottom draught in the smoke pipe,
with which hard coal, soft coal would
simulate the combustion in blast
furnace and call for constant stoking.
The householder must also remem-
Der that the check draught in the
smoke pipe, which with anthracite is
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