ECONOMY IN FUEL. 



45 



who understands how a fire is controlled every day and 

 night by the clouds, the wind and the sun. If there is any 

 one man who should look after the fires in a green- 

 house it is the "boss," the owner, or man most directly 

 interested in .the coal bill. As he cannot do it, the best 

 plan is to train or find a first-class stoker and pay him 

 good wages. Any one can tell whether a stoker of a 

 greenhouse knows his business by looking at the paths 

 in the garden. They are often made of ashes, and if 

 bits of coal are to be seen among the ashes the stoker 

 is wasting at least fifty per cent, of the fuel and the 

 owner is paying double rates for coal. Except in con- 

 tinuously fired steam boilers where steam is used for 

 high powers, as on ships and in factories, all boilers 

 discharge more or less unburned coal mingled with the 

 ashes. It is a general and always wasteful practice in 

 our dwellings and in our plant houses to throw this coal 

 away. It is the disgrace of many of our village streets 

 that the sidewalks are paved with tons of good un- 

 burned coal. People complain of the expense of coal 

 in their ranges and furnaces and permit the cook and 

 the furnace-man to throw half of every ton into the ash 

 bin. In all our large cities hundreds of families 

 depend wholly on the city dust-heaps for their fuel. 



THE FIRST ESSENTIAL OF ECONOMY 



Of fuel (particularly anthracite) is that all the ashes be 

 regularly sifted and the small unburned coal returned 

 to the fire. The best way to do this is to have the 

 ashes sifted during the day and to put the unburned 

 coal on the fire late at night. Sifted coal makes a very 

 hot fire and when once well on fire and burning with a 

 yellow fiame will burn a long time, provided the draft is 

 slow. The writer has had many years experience in 

 firing both hot-air, steam and hot-water furnaces, both 

 in dwellings and in greenhouses, and in his experience 

 half the coal (anthracite) is thrown away if not sifted. 



The usual rate of furnace coal burned in a small 

 house with four registers is from six to eight tons. The 

 usual rate in ranges and cook stoves is from one to two 

 tons per month, according to the size of the family and 

 the character of the cook. In the writer's house (story- 

 and-a-half, 33x35 and on a very exposed hill-top) five 

 tons is sufficient for one season. This high economy is 

 largely the result of a complete sifting of all the ashes 

 every day. It is a gratifying circumstance in this con- 

 nection to notice that coal sifters are on the market 

 and are largely used. If they were always used there 

 would be less complaint of hard times in the domestic 

 expense account. 



COST OF FUEL. 



The next most important point is the size of the coal. 

 In the writer's experience two sizes of coal are best, 

 one of the usual " furnace " size and one of "nut" 

 size or "small stove" size. In starting the fire see that 

 the ash pit is clean. It never should be otherwise. 

 All ashes should be removed as fast as they gather. 

 Many a grate has been ruined by allowing ashes to bank 

 up under the bars. Start the wood fire with light kind- 



ling and when well started add hard wood, and on this, 

 when well started, place enough furnace coal to just 

 cover it Give it all the draft until the coal is about 

 half lighted. Then add a little more (say one good 

 shovelful). When this is burning briskly with blue 

 flames on top, add one shovelful of the fine coal. Keep 

 up the draft until this is beginning to burn and then add 

 more fine coal, enough to completely cover the fire. 

 Keep on the full draft till this coal is fully on fire with 

 yellow flames only. Now close the draft completely 

 and this mass of coal will burn steadily with a power- 

 ful heat for from four to ten hours without further at- 

 tention, according to the weather. 



Such a method of starting a furnace fire takes an hour 

 or more, but once done the fire keeps in good effective 

 condition for many hours. T'ne exact time depends 

 wholly on the state of the clouds and the force and di- 

 rection of the wind. With a clear sky and no wind it 

 will burn from eight to twenty-four hours without at- 

 tention and give a moderate amount of heat for the 

 whole time. With a high wind, particularly a north 

 wdnd, it will burn out in four hours or even less time. 

 The economic use of the coal in the furnace, therefore, 

 depends wholly on matters out of doors and quite be- 

 }'ond our control. The stoker's art consists in govern- 

 ing the draft according to the condition of the weather. 

 With a cloudy sky by day or night without wind the fire 

 requires more draft than with a clear sky without wind. 

 If on a cloud}' day the sky clears, the fire will at once 

 burn faster and to save coal the draft must be reduced. 

 A wind always quickens a fire and the higher the wind 

 the greater the care needed in reducing the draft. A 

 warm southerly wind does not urge the fire so much as 

 a dry northerly or westerly wind. Rain without wind 

 requires plenty of draft. Rain with high winds means 

 less draft but not so much as high winds without rain. 

 The point is just here : So many pounds of coal are in 

 the furnace ; it will burn fast or slow according to 

 these conditions of the weather. Economy in the con- 

 sumption of this coal is governed entirely by the amount 

 of air supplied for combustion. This means the proper 

 regulation of the ash pit door and the damper in the 

 smoke pipe. In the writer's experience it is far better 

 to control the fire by controlling the amount of air sup- 

 plied to the fire than to retard or reduce the volume of 

 the products of combustion in the chimney. Burning 

 is a chemical process depending on the supply of 

 ox) gen. Cut off the air (or oxygen) and the process is 

 slow and the fuel is burned with economy It is plain 

 that stoking is an art, and the true economy of fuel in 

 greenhouses is in the skill, good judgment and com- 

 mon sense of the stoker. 



After a fire has been started in the manner described 

 it will burn from four to eight hours without attention. 

 It will burn very much longer, but if the fire is started 

 in the morning it needs attention again in the evening 

 in order to keep up a good fire all night. The writer's 

 plan is to open the drafts about nine o'clock in the 

 evening and let the fire burn up brightly for from 15 



