[Steam-engine] Safety valves...now firing

[CopperheadMarine at aol.com]

Dianne
 
  You said it, "Baby Russell" The fire mass is just not sufficient to  really 
melt down a set of grates. But I do assure you that if someone wants to  
experiment on this I would be happy to travel to their engine and document the  
death of a set of grates after I get done getting a good combusting coal bed of  
a few hours of actual work like pulling a baker fan. And then cut off the  
air.
 I have seen many a warped up and even ruined grate from coal. 
  I have also in fact looked at a pile of ruined grates at a venire  mill 
here in town. They were melted down with a wood fire that burned 24 hours a  day 
6 days a week. 
 
  I think a lot has to do with the size of the fire mass and the rate  of 
draft {work load }.
 
 Coal is hot, real hot. The coal fired water tube boiler over at the  DuPont 
plant in Florence burns crushed or pulverized coal. You cannot look at  the 
fire without a welding hood. It WILL blind you.
 
  Personally I like wood, I burn it here and it is less messy and is  easier 
to control. By using draft of course. Some people don't like it because  it 
takes a little more skill to keep a good fire mass. But it does just fine for  
most of the things that us hobby steamers do. Even the half scale crowd can use 
 wood successfully.
 
  I teach at our steam school, I am on the steam school board and I  operate 
the steam shovel and sometimes the steam crane. Our show lasts a week in  July 
and it is a great time. I steam up here at the house a couple of time every  
month but I still look foreword to the show because of the broad range of 
steam  and the friends I get to see.
   We use a combination of coal and wood so you can get exposed  to each. 
Coal is used in the locomotive, steam shovel, steam crane and one or  two 
traction engines or rollers. The wood is used in the rest of the traction  engines, 
portables and in the 95 HP Erie City boiler at the stationary engine  house. 
One of the engines down there is a 300 HP Corlis and it can really eat  some 
steam. Takes a bunch of pine slabs to keep her going all week!
 
Chas F
 
Titusville 7 HP vertical boiler
2 Gabriel 75 HP return flue fire box boilers
J. F. Byers 4 1/2 X 6 3/4 vertical with stephinson reversing gear
J. F. Byers 5 3/4 X 7 1/2 vertical
75 HP 11 X 13 Skinner with variable cut off governor
Turners saw mill
6X9 Erie City horizontal
6X7 Troy verticle
5X7 speed e twin Soule'
12 X 18 side crank
14 X 20 side crank
steam over hydraulic wood splitter