[Date Prev][Date Next] [Chronological] [Thread] [Top]

Re: (erielack) Notes on the Types and sizes of Anthracite

I lived and grew up in Cambridge MA from 1930 - 1952.  We had an
anthracite fired steam boiler.  I think that most homes in the northeast
built before 1920 had coal fired steam or hot air heat.

I think steam heat was designed round the constant heat of the coal
fire and not for the on-off heat of an oil or gas fire.

My father would not buy Blue Coal s it was more expensive.  Once during
WW2 we had to get a load of blue Coal as it was the only coal available.

I don't remember our using or seeing other colored coal.

i remember ber ads in Popular Science throughout the 1950s for the Automatic
Fireman " stoker.

bob gillis



Hot water or hot air will work with a steady col fired heat source.
Jim Guthrie wrote:
>> Pellets are just as easy as coal. These days, they are stoker-fired
>>  and automated.
> 
> Today's emphasis is on fuels that reduce greenhouse gases.
> 
> It should be noted that a hundred years ago, the environmentalists 
> (i.e. the anthracite railroads <g>) lobbied strongly agains the kinds
>  of emmissions one could plainly see -- i.e. that of bituminous (and
>  wood, for that matter).
> 
> The growth of the trolley suburbs, and suburbs along electrified rail
>  lines such as the NY Central, the New Haven, the NYW&B and the LIRR
>  in New York or the Main Line in Philadelphia greatly increased the 
> market for anthracite starting in the late 1890s and accelerating 
> into the 1920s.
> 
> This created a huge market for anthracite in the areas where it was 
> sold had not existed previously. People wanted clean-burning 
> anthracite rather than sooty bituminous in their new "country homes"
>  on those nice 75x100 lots.
> 
> I'd be interested to learn whether the early development at Shaker 
> Heights required anthracite heating -- and if the Vans helped the 
> Erie with this market.
> 
> Anyone know?
> 
> Cheers, Jim Guthrie ELHS #1296
> 
> 
> The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List http://EL-List.railfan.net/ To 
> Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html
> 

	The Erie Lackawanna Mailing List
	http://EL-List.railfan.net/
	To Unsubscribe: http://Lists.Railfan.net/erielackunsub.html

------------------------------