STEAM COAL.

Otago Witness, Issue 2803, 4 December 1907, Page 87

STEAM COAL.

HOW A STEAMER'S FIRES ARE FED. By Will Lawsos. The worst coal in the world to fire a steamer with is Assam coal. Assam coal is nothing but dust, and to light a fire of this coal, old cargo mats are laid across the fire-bars to hold it together until it has ignited, and burned itself into a homogeneous mass. Next to Welsh, the best steam coal is Westport, this coal being slirrhtly better than the best Newcastle in the matter of ash and evaporative power. The intercolonial steamers plying in New Zealand waters burn Newcastle coal ; the 6teamer6 on our coasts use principally New Zealand coal won from mines extending from Kawakawa to Southland. A strike in Newcastle, therefore, though affecting the ocean steamers, would not interfere with our coastal trade so far as fhe supply of coal is concerned. In the matter of price, there will possibly be some difference, since so much household and locomotive coal is imported from New South Wales, and the stoppage of this supply would harden the prices ruling for New Zealand coals. Steamer coal is usually stored at the various ports in hulks, which are brought alongside the vessel requiring her bunkers replenished, and the coal is carried en "board in baskets and shot through manholes in the decks down into the dark bunkers. It is the ohief engineer's duty to see that a sufficient supply of coal is carried. On the coast a steamer usually carries about a week's supply, often more. This does not apply to the "mosquito fleet," which works under rather different conditions from those governing the regular passenger vessels of greater tonnage. Whsn the hulks are discharging the engineers must see that it ie properly stowed and also note the quantity of dust and slack that is The came of the mine whence- the coal has come is supplied to the chief engineer, who is thus able to judge what its steaming power is likely to be. This is important as regards the time which the supply will last. A steamer burning Westport coa. may be able to dispense with the services of a couple of boilers. The same vessel burning a poor ooal will require all her boilers, and will, of course, burn more coal in consequence. She will also need more fuel in her fires to compensate for the loss of heat per pound of coal which the use of bad coal entails. As much as 25 per cent, more coal will sometimes be required under such circumstances. These are matters requiring careful calculation, for, needless to say, there is no redress for the ' engineer whose coal gives out before he reaches port. The writer once asked an engineer what he would do if he found himself iwo days fron port with one day's supply of coal on board. The engineer replied tnat he would gather his belongings together and try to leave the job as clean aa possible for his successor. In the event of such a contingency occurring through stress of weather or other 3elay, the coarse followed would be to maintain steam at the most economioal pressure — that is, neither too high nor too low, and to see that no fireman, when he stirred his fire, allowed | "green" or unburnt coal to fall with the [ clinkers into the ash-pits — in short, to get 1 all the heat possible from the coal. The coal is supplied to the stokers by the trimmers, who work principally inside thn | bunkers, though when the bunkers are ' situated some dbtanoe away, as some t-iay be on large vessels, the trimmers must ! convey the coal to the stokehold in baskets or in barrows. The practical eye of the i engineer surveying the emptying bunkers can measure to a ton how much coal has been used, and if the amount is more than it should be, he will instruct the stokers to fire better — to co feed the furnaces that no imperfeot combustion occurs. Bad coal is hated by every man who ' handles it. To the trimmer it means more dust to contend with and a quicker supply 'o the insatiable stoker 3. To the stoker it spells bad combustion and greater strain to obtain good steaming. And there is more ash to be hoisted up and dumped overboard. In addition to which, the boiler fluee foul more quickly, necessitating more frequent cleaning, an as this cleaning is done by men who crawl into the furnaces, the boilo* must be cooled down before the cleaning can be dene. This entails loss of time and power. The 6toker is usually accounted one of the most improvident and careless, not to say profligate, of men. In this he resembles artists in higher walks of life. For the stoker is an artist in the matter of feeding a fire. Let us suppose a novice at work on a heap of coal and a furnace. Doubtless he will vigorously shovel coal right to the back of the fire. This will cause heavy smoke, which is just unconsumed carbon and constitutes waste. Having filled his fire nicely with " green " coal, he -will shut the fire-door and mop his brow. Presently a message comes from the bridge inquiring if the chief engineer is aware that some adjectival fireman is burning the whistle off the funnel, as long flames are licking up into space. The opening of the fire-door will promptly cure this, the trouble being a shortage of air in the furnace and too heavy a fixe. The artistic stoker, among other things, drops his coal at the front of the fire and keeps the door open until tha fuel is well ignited. Generally speaking-, no matter what kind of coal is being burned, given an experienced staff of stokers, good steaming can always be made ; yet occasions will sometimes arise, when in spite of all the skill ditplayed by

stokers and engineers, a good head of steam cannot be maintained, and they trouble almost always lies with tha coal and its vagaries. An engineer needs almost to be an analytical chemist to know just how to treat the refractory stuff. There are men who have been all the world over in the stokeholds of steamers, and these are the men an engineer appreciates. For they know coal. They know it by its look and by the feel of it, and treat it exac^y the way it should be treated in order to get the best value- in heat from it To these men, as to engineers, coal is spelt with a capital G. Their lives are encompassed by coal. To them, though they may hate it, coal is life. And to the commercial world coal without doubt is life. Without it of what avail are the mighty engines, the delicate valves, the great white throws? In the days ol the white-winged clippers men might laugK at a 6trike of the coal miners — the grimy, bent-shouldered hewer, the pioneer an* outpost in the war of man against the coaj king, who hews in semi-darkness and lonely ness his three tons of coal each day. Bui now a coal strike spells disaster to manj thousands of workers beyond the circle oi actual toilers at the mines. The ships must be idle that would otherwise spread their sails and go v " With coal to Callao," the steamers lie inert or struggle out to sea burning* the sweepings of the coal-bins* trying to keep a good pressure of steam under adverse circumstances. And there is this to be said of marine engineers and many firemen: Give them fuel of some sort — any old kind of coal — and they will get along somehow. There are inventive and adaptive. There is a yarn that Kipling or someone told of a marine engineer who by misadventure reached the gate o£ Blades, and when Mephistopheles had ascertained the nature of his previous calling he gently bade the engineer retrace his steps because "he'd had half-a-dozen marine engineers some time before and they'd demoralised his clients by bnildingi a freezer on the premises." From this it will be seen that the only thing which will stop an engineer in the performance of his duty is absolute lack of coal — emptj] bunkers.