The making or production of steam requires the handling of the fuel,
more or less, until its destruction is complete, leaving nothing behind
in the boiler room, except ashes and clinkers. The principal tools used
by the attendant, to do the task most efficiently are: 1. The scoop
shovel. 2. The poker. 3. The slice bar. 4. The barrow.
[Illustration: Fig. 1.]
Fig. 1. represents the regular scoop shovel commonly called “a coal
shovel,” but among railroad men and others, known as a locomotive or
charging scoop. The cut also represents a regular shovel. Both these
are necessary for the ordinary business of the boiler room.
[Illustration: Fig. 2.]
In cut 2 are represented a furnace poker, A, and two forms of the slice
bar. They are all made by blacksmiths from round iron, some 7 or 8
feet long and only vary in the form of the end. The regular slice bar
is shown in C, Fig. 2; and “the dart” a special form used largely on
locomotives is shown in B.
The dexterous use of these important implements can merely be indicated
in print, as it is part of the trade which is imparted by oral
instruction. One “point” in making the slice bar may be mentioned to
advantage—the lower side should be perfectly flat _so that it may
slide_ on the surface of the grate bars as it is forced beneath the
fire—and the upper portion of the edge should be in the shape of a half
wedge, so as to crowd upwards the ashes and clinkers while the lower
portion slides along.
There is sometimes used in connection with these tools an appliance
called a LAZY BAR. This is very useful for the fireman when cleaning a
bituminous or other coal fire: it saves both time and fuel as well as
steam. It is a hook shaped iron, ingeniously attached above the furnace
door, so that it supports the principal part of the weight of the heavy
slice bar or poker when being used in cleaning out the fires.
[Illustration: Fig. 3.]
Equally necessary to the work of the boiler-room is the barrow shown in
cut. There are many styles of the vehicle denominated respectively—the
railroad barrow, the ore and stone barrow, the dirt barrow, etc.; but
the one represented in fig. 3 is the regular coal barrow.
In conveying coal to “batteries” of boilers, in gas houses and other
suitable situations the portable car and iron track are nearly always
used instead of the barrow. In feeding furnaces with saw dust and
shavings large iron screw conveyors are frequently employed, as well
as blowers—In the handling of the immense quantities of fuel required,
the real ingenuity of the engineer in charge has ample opportunity for
exercise.
There are also used in nearly all boiler rooms HOES made of heavy plate
iron, with handles similar to those shown in the cuts representing the
slice bar and poker. A set of two to four hoes of various sizes is a
very convenient addition to the list of fire tools; a light garden hoe
for handling ashes is not to be omitted as a labor saving tool.