When I was a lad, my folks had a Stoker-matic. The hopper held 4 x 5gallon buckets of stoker coal. It didn't matter how late I got home, I had to fetch those 4 buckets. 40-50 yards to. . . The coal shed wasn't lit. It was as dark as the inside of a cow.
Then, in the morning, I hauled out the clinkers. Threw them on the lane.
I always loved the smell. That's what an old locomotive smelled like.

One of our homes in Africa had a fireplace which we burned coal in as there was no central heat. Learned quickly that coal was a good burner, but as you say, the fine ash it produced while burning would and could get all over the place. Wood a better alternative and finally went to propane burning space heaters.

Bobby

We had a coal-burning furnace when I was a kid,, big coal bin in the basement. I remember the coal delivery truck , but can’t remember how he got the coal from the truck to the basement window,,, must’ve been by wheelbarrow

While I'm at it...


Breakfast...
Wood stove toasted English muffins..
With butter n black berry hot pepper jam...

Mild hot peppers tho...

Oops...

Never guess how I did the dishes ... ;0)

Never got used to peppers & blackberry jam ,, ugh. Sotrry…

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Never guess how I did the dishes ... ;0)

---

.... in a pan/sink of water???   [Mind you that's just a wild guess..... and I do have some other possibilities (?) in mind  ]

Edit: My first summer job as a student was at a remote camp in northern MB.  Part of the camp lore (?) was that in the recent past one of the students had gotten the idea to wash his clothes by putting them in a gunny sack and suspending it in some relatively quiet rapids in a creek.   Apparently when he went back to get them, all that was left was the rope and the top fringe of the sack.   Oooops!!

Edit #2: In a [free] regional paper that we get every month or two, a guy runs an ad each fall that he delivers stoker coal in SE SK and SW MB... so I guess there's enough around there that makes it worth his time.  I suspect the coal is produced in SE SK, but have never looked into it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

While I'm at it...


Breakfast...
Wood stove toasted English muffins..
With butter n black berry hot pepper jam...

Mild hot peppers tho...

---

Muffins al, they're just called muffins 

RE the coal… would that be actual coal or ‘dragon eggs’ (briquettes)? The pollution laws in the U.K. make it more difficult to burn regular coal with the reconstituted briquettes being the most popular, and more efficient, option. My log burner is running every night Nov - March, we have radiators central heati,g, but the fire is a nice thing and we burn logs as they burn nicely and quickly - perfect for the atmospheric side of having a fire.

Funnily enough, the gas valve in my central heating propane furnace packed in yesterday….that’s the entire heating and hot water gone for the house. I know it’s a quick fix and the gas engineeer is coming on Friday. But, although we have a good log pile, I went out today and bought approx 100 pounds of coal briquettes. They burn hotter and longer and will keep a fire going overnight. In my opinion, for keeping a house warm from a stove, they are the best option.

There's a difference between charcoal and coal. Anthracite or Lignite coal, comes out of the ground. Charcoal is previously ignited burnable media, yet still possess energy to be burnt further. I can't speak of the cleanliness of either substance.

I've made a few methane digesters in my day. Even ran a moped with methane I decanted myself. I must say methane is the much, much cleaner to burn.

Anthracite here...
I only got 2 bags of pea coal to try..
Too small for this stove need nut..
But the local guy only had pea size..as there has been a huge rush on his stock piles..

A few towns over that guy might have nut coal..
Cost is on par with oil..
N wood ain't free eitha..
Oh we might get the wood free.. but there are costs to the possessing of it..

As to muffins..over here..English dose apply...
Differtt strokes fer differnt folks..

N don't get me goin on ..Builders Tea.... ;0)

quote:

---

Originally posted by Wet Spaniel

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

While I'm at it...


Breakfast...
Wood stove toasted English muffins..
With butter n black berry hot pepper jam...

Mild hot peppers tho...

---

Muffins al, they're just called muffins 

---

Next he'll be telling us Polish Sausage is just Sausage !!!   French fries are just Fries!!!   American cheese is just cheese .

Slammer!!!

Well...
Canadian bacon ain't ...real bacon.... ;0)

For your kids, grow "coal flowers". We used to do it as kids when we could pilfer some hard coal. When we bought our 1912 home back in 1977 its original gravity heat system was coal fired. there was a bin of fairly hard coal in the shed. I had my kids help make the coal flowers to watch them grow and learn a bit science. brad

sciencing.com/grow-flowers-coal-4926807/

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Anthracite here...
I only got 2 bags of pea coal to try..
Too small for this stove need nut..
But the local guy only had pea size..as there has been a huge rush on his stock piles..

A few towns over that guy might have nut coal..
Cost is on par with oil..
N wood ain't free eitha..
Oh we might get the wood free.. but there are costs to the possessing of it..

---

Even nut coal might get too hot. Careful you don't warp your grates. If you put a slotted plate over the steel bar grates, to hold the stuff, I'd go up to 1/2" plate. 

I wonder what would happen if you put some old tractor chains in the firebox? Just pile them up, to make a fine grate. Tractor tire chains are super hard. You could steel them from a neighbor, maybe.

Parents had a Vermont Castings coal burning stove which looked great and threw off good heat, but the fine dust was a problem. My father, a heavy smoker when young, developed emphysema and a younger sister battled with scleroderma which attacked her lungs requiring a transplant. They both died before their time. The coal dust might not have been the main cause of their maladies, but it did not help.
I would use a pellet stove as a backup heating system over coal. Not cheap though.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nopix

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Anthracite here...
I only got 2 bags of pea coal to try..
Too small for this stove need nut..
But the local guy only had pea size..as there has been a huge rush on his stock piles..

A few towns over that guy might have nut coal..
Cost is on par with oil..
N wood ain't free eitha..
Oh we might get the wood free.. but there are costs to the possessing of it..

---

Even nut coal might get too hot. Careful you don't warp your grates. If you put a slotted plate over the steel bar grates, to hold the stuff, I'd go up to 1/2" plate. 

I wonder what would happen if you put some old tractor chains in the firebox? Just pile them up, to make a fine grate. Tractor tire chains are super hard. You could steel them from a neighbor, maybe.

---

Actually..

I used an old circular saw blade with the diamond punched out..

Fits perfect..n works pretty ok..

Not bad sujestions you have but I suspect..chains might jam up the Shaker action on this model..

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mark D

Parents had a Vermont Castings coal burning stove which looked great and threw off good heat, but the fine dust was a problem. My father, a heavy smoker when young, developed emphysema and a younger sister battled with scleroderma which attacked her lungs requiring a transplant. They both died before their time. The coal dust might not have been the main cause of their maladies, but it did not help.
I would use a pellet stove as a backup heating system over coal. Not cheap though.

---

The dust is a pian...

But I am able to deal with it..

quote:

---

Originally posted by Nopix

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Anthracite here...
I only got 2 bags of pea coal to try..
Too small for this stove need nut..
But the local guy only had pea size..as there has been a huge rush on his stock piles..

A few towns over that guy might have nut coal..
Cost is on par with oil..
N wood ain't free eitha..
Oh we might get the wood free.. but there are costs to the possessing of it..

---

Even nut coal might get too hot. Careful you don't warp your grates. If you put a slotted plate over the steel bar grates, to hold the stuff, I'd go up to 1/2" plate. 

I wonder what would happen if you put some old tractor chains in the firebox? Just pile them up, to make a fine grate. Tractor tire chains are super hard. You could steel them from a neighbor, maybe.

---

Good ol' rusty Chains sound like a good idea for flame spreading and radiant heat generation?  As long as their is no chrome on them.  Brad

We buy bacon infrequently .... probably because most of the "real" bacon we see is similar to this [although this pic might just be showing some extra lean meat]. 

.

quote:

---

Originally posted by slammer

---

Next he'll be telling us Polish Sausage is just Sausage !!!   French fries are just Fries!!!   American cheese is just cheese .

Slammer!!!

---

Well, french fries are actually crappy chips, and American cheese,, just ain't cheese 

quote:

---

Originally posted by STUD figmo Al

Well...
Canadian bacon ain't ...real bacon.... ;0)

---

Don't get me started on American bacon......

Anybody every rigged up a waste oil dripper in their wood stove.