The Union daily times. [volume] (Union, S.C.) 1918-current, 1922-02-23
Advice to Operators of
House Heating Furnaces

Washington, Feb. 23.-Advice to
operators of housc-heating furnaces,
who under the keen urge of chill
blasts Of winter have applied to the
Bureau of Mines for solution of diff
ticulties experienced in caring for
their fires over night, is given in a
statement made today by o. P. Hood,
chief mechanical engineer of the bu-
reau.
There are several ways of manag-
ing a furnace, as there are several
ways of driving a horse, says Mr..
Hood The general principle is quite
obvious, but that principle can be ap-
piled in different ways. In the pro-
cess of combustion two quantities
must be supplied-coal and air. The
coal one pays for, the air one gets
for nothing, but the quantity of air
II .uired in weight is from twelve to
twenty mites as much as the guam
tity of coal required. If one had to
pay for air he would pay great
deal more attention to the supply of
this necessary material, Mr.. Hood
says.
Given a bed OF Goals that are red
hot, the fire will burn just in pro-
portion as air is fed through the fuel
| bed. The question of keeping fire over
| night Engineer Hood asserts, is one
| of having bed of fuel large enough
| so that at least the center of it can
keep red hot without being chilled
| by the cold sides of the furnace or
| the ash pit below. If absolutely no
air was fed through the fuel bed, in
| time the fire would 60 out because
| of loss of heat. The problem, then,
is to feed just air enough through
the fuel bed to maintain tempera-
| ture.
The ash pit of most furnaces leaks
enough air so that if there was a con-
siderable draft or suction above the
fuel bed produced by the chimney,
more air would leak into the ash pit
and up through the fuel bed than
| enough to simply maintain the tenn
perature, Mr.. Hood explains. Too
| much air fed through the fire would
burn up the coal and the fire would
not keep. The problem, then, is to
cut down the flow of air through the
| fuel bed. This can be done in nu-
! mcrous ways; one can put on a large
| amount Of coal and cover the top
| with very fine coal, or even ashes.
This increases the resistance through
| the fuel bed, so that only a small
| amount of air flows. Another way,
| and a good way too, according to
| Mr. Hood, is to allow ashes to accu-
| mulate on the CRATE to add to the
resistance of the flow of air. While
this is good way in mild weather
| it is not SO good in severe weather,
because one cannot get as much coal
| into the fire box, and it is usually
best to. keep the fire box completely
filled with fuel Even when the re-
sstance through the fuel bed is in
creased, if the draft is maintained
there is apt to be too much leakage
| through the ash pit and too vigorous
afirc. BY opening the check draft so
that air can flow up the chimney
without flowing through the fuel bed,
the air passing through the fuel bed
is greatly reduced. 1t makes little
difference whether this is done by
opening the check draft in the Chin
ney, or done by opening the damper
in the door, allowing the air to flow
above the fuel bed. In the latter,
case, however, the air is drawn
through the boiler and helps to cool
off the boiler in addition to checking
the flow of air through the fuel bed.