The Hardwood Distillation Industry m New York 43 



Cooling Ovens. 



In every oven retort plant the charcoal is gradually cooled 

 by being run into cooling ovens located immediately in front 

 of the retort house in the, open air. The first cooling oven is 

 about 8 to 10 feet from the charring oven and the second 

 cooling oven about an equal distance beyond the first cooling 

 oven. The accompanying photographs show the arrangement 

 of the cooling ovens in relation to the retort house. The cool- 

 ing ovens appear to be the same in size, shape and construc- 

 tion as are the ovens themselves. However, the sides are only 

 of three-sixteenths inch steel and usually there are doors at 

 both ends. There are no bottoms to these cooling ovens as 

 they rest directly on the ground. Dirt is piled around the 

 base to prevent the admission of air. 



The cars with the heated charcoal, after the distilling 

 process, are rolled directly into the first cooling oven. As 

 soon as the air is admitted on the opening of the doors, the 

 charcoal bursts in flame and as soon as possible after the cars 

 are rolled into the cooling oven the doors are hermetically 

 sealed, so that the charcoal will cool slowly. The charcoal 

 is left for 24 hours in the first cooling oven, 24 hours in the 

 second cooling oven, then is left at least 48 hours in an open 

 shed or in the open air and after being loaded on the freight 

 cars it is left standing for at least 12 hours before shipping. 

 This means a total of 108 hours from the time of heating to 

 the time of leaving the yard. A government reg-ulation pre- 

 scribes this procedure because '' punky " knots hold fire for a 

 long time in the charcoal and it is necessary that these 

 extreme precautions be taken to prevent burning of the 

 cars. 



In some of the plants, an outlet pipe is used near the top 

 of the cooling oven to permit the escape of the acid fumes. 

 It is claimed by some that this saves the eating of the iron 

 by these fumes. 



