58 ROUGH-AND-TUMBLE ENtil 



CLEAN FLUES. 



We have been urging you to keep your boiler clean. 

 Now, to get the best results from your fuel, it will also 

 be necessary to keep your flues clean. As soot and ashes 

 are non-conductors of heat, you will find it very difficult 

 to get up steam with a coating of soot in your tubes. 

 Most factories furnish with each engine a flue cleaner 

 and rod. This cleaner should be made to fit the tubes 

 snug, and should be forced through each separate tube 

 every morning before building a fire. Some engineers 

 never touch their flues with a cleaner, but choke the ex- 

 haust sufficiently to create sufficient draught as to clean 

 the flues. This works the engine at a great disadvantage, 

 besides being much more liable to pull the fire out at 

 the top of the smokestack. If it -were not necessary to 

 create draught by reducing your exhaust nozzle, your 

 engine would run much nicer and be much more pow- 

 erful. However, you must reduce it sufficiently to give 

 draught, but don't impair the power by trying to make 

 the engine clean its own flues. As a matter of fact tubes 

 can not be cleaned perfectly in this way. They must 

 be scraped clean. I think ninety per cent of the fires 

 started by traction engines can be traced to the engineer 

 having his engine choked at the exhaust nozzle. This is 

 dangerous for the reason that the excessive draught cre- 

 ated throws fire out at the stack. It cuts the power of 



