On Mon, Sep 01, 2003 at 05:55:20PM +1200, cr wrote: > On Monday 01 September 2003 13:11, Pigeon wrote: > > > As far as the visible particulate emissions from a steamer are > > concerned, they are universally built to a design which received > > government approval as able to consume its own smoke, dating from the > > very beginnings of steam locomotive traction. How well this is > > actually achieved depends a lot on the skill of the fireman. (And > > maintenance levels, but this applies to diesels too of course.) > > The early locos used to burn coke, for this reason. Then (I think it was > with the introduction of the brick arch in the firebox, which causes the > gases emitted by coal to be fully consumed rather than coalescing into smoke > particles), it was found possible to use coal, which of course gave far more > heat per cubic foot and was far cheaper.
It was indeed the brick arch. > And it does depend very much on the grade of coal, the design of the grate > and gas passages, *and* the skill of the fireman. Good point. Yes, due to changes in the economics of coal supply, a lot of them ended up burning grades of coal for which their fireboxes were not designed, which doesn't help. -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F
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