[TheForge] Re: coal stoves

[Mike Spencer]

> I've never seen a fossil coal stove intended for cooking, but I don't
> know they didn't exist.

I didn't know was *that* old.  Hey, we're talking *stoves* here, not
barbecue grills. The fire is in an iron box.  

Whenever you see an old kitchen range, look at the floor of the
firebox. Wood ranges had flat grates -- flat plate with slots.  Coal
ranges had two (possibly 3) counter-rotating iron shafts, geared
together, to support the fire.  Wood has fine ash but coal has
clinkers and rocky cinders; the rotating bits were both grate and
clinker breaker.  You stuck a hand crank into a hole on the front of
the stove and cranked the shaft before adding more coal.

I have to say that heating and cooking with anthracite in a kitchen
range is very nice. Hot fire, holds overnight without tending.


- Mike

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^