40 College of Forestry 



through in one continuous direction to the first cooling oven 

 and then to the second and on out to the charcoal sheds where 

 the charcoal is shipped. The return tracks take the empty 

 cars back to the storage yards where they are reloaded and 

 the same procesis followed out. 



The cars are all of steel construction and hold from 2 to 

 21^ cords of 50-inch wood. A 50 to 54-foot oven will hold 

 4 of these cars in one charge. A 25-foot oven will hold 2 

 of them. They are built in different sizes but the usual style 

 of car is 52 inches wide, 6 feet 6 inches high and 12 feet 6 

 inches long with 4 small wheels. They first came into use 

 in the middle nineties and have proven to be a great success. 



The cars cost from $80 to $140 apiece, f. o. b. at Warren, 

 Pa. They last indefinitely according to most of the operators, 

 so that there is very little depreciation charge on them. Both 

 sides of the car are detachable to facilitate the loading and 

 emptying of the cars. 



Retorts. 



The old iron retort was a cylindrical vessel holding about 

 five-eighths of a cord. The standard size was 50 inches in 

 diameter by 9 feet in length. Cordwood 48 inches in length 

 was used instead of the 50-inch length commonly used in the 

 oven retorts. The retorts are set in brick work in pairs, each 

 pair forming a battery and heated directly from beneath. 

 They are charged and discharged from a single door in front 

 which can be hermetically sealed. Considerable labor is 

 involved in the charging and discharging of these retorts and 

 the ovens with the cars running directly into them on tracks 

 are a great improvement. With the invention of the ovens 

 in the early nineties very few of the old round retorts were 

 installed. In fact, all of the new plants being developed in 

 New York State have the long oven retorts. At the present 

 time there are 352 retorts distributed over 15 plants in 

 different parts of the State. 



