ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE ENGINEERING 45 



grates, lie docs this quickly and shuts the door; for a 

 minute black smoke ut, but only for a min- 



ute. Why? Because he only threw in enough to rcplcn- 

 ;ic fire, and not to choke it in the least, and in a 

 minute the heat is great enough to consume all the smoke 



c it readies the stack, and as smoke is unconsumed 

 fuel, he gains that much if he can consume it. We \\ill 

 sec this engineer standing around for the next few min- 

 utes perfectly at ease. He is not in the least afraid of 

 i going down. At the end of three to five min- 



owing to the amount of work he is doing, you will 

 sec him pick up his little shovel and throw in a little 

 more coal ; he does exactly as he did before, and if we 



there for an hour we will not see him pick up a 

 poker. We will look in at his firebox, and we will see 

 \\hat i> called a "thin fire," but every part of the firebox 



:. We will sec but a small pile of ashes under the 

 engine and he is not working hard. 



vou happen to be thinking of buying an engine, you 

 will say that this last fellow "has a dandy engine," 

 the kind of an engine 1 when the facts 



in the case may be that the first man had the better en- 

 gine, but didn't know how to fire it. Now, don't you sec 



important it is that you know how to fire an engine? 

 I am aware that some big coal wasters will say. "It is 

 easy to talk about firing with a little hand shovel, but 



