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Show ' BURNING CHARCOAL GREAT CARE IS NECESSARY TO FIRE A ."PIT" SUCCESSFULLY, Labor Is an Important Item In the Preparation Prep-aration of the Product for the Market. Manufactured Generally Sell Their Own Charcoal, "Do you keep charcoal?" asked a reporter re-porter of a large coal dealer in this city. "No, sir, we do not. I have sold lota of coal in my time, but ncvor n pound of charcoal. I don't even know how it is made." Leaving the wealthy coal merchant the reporter sought one of those nondescript nonde-script coal hawkers who make a livelihood liveli-hood by attending to the wants in the way of caloric of the very poor classes in the by streets and alleys. Having fonnd one of these coal holes the reporter approachefl the almost carbonized car-bonized specimen of humanity, who was for the time being resting" from his labors, and propounded the question. "What's the price of charcoal?" "Eight cents a peck," replied a gruff Toiee, and tho littlo old man straight- ened himself out with an effort as he . stopped filling the peck measure, which , he judged to be about the newspaper man's capacity, "We don't sell much charcoal," he continued, "only in small lo'.s. borne inanuf'actvirers buy their charcoal by the great quantity. It i used in large lota by (mrsons who rnnko ice chests and beer coolers, as it is a poor conductor of heat. ' There's a lining of charcoal three inches thick in all sides of a beer cooler. "Most country people bring th"ir own charcoal to the city in wagon loads, and it fur from fifteen cents to twenty cents a bushel. We retail it at about twenty cents to twrenty-five cents per bushel, and it is a dull sale at that," The rejwrter now left the charcoal mau, and approached an individual who had jtint disposed of a wagon load of the material. "Yes. 1 mnke rliiirco.il " h ronlind In answer to an inquiry. "In tho-wiiitor uml fipring is the time when charcoal U tuade to the best advantage. nUlLDINO THK PILE. t "1 am just clearing up a tract of woodland wood-land and am turning the refuse to account ac-count by manufacturing charcoal. BtxMih wood and hickory are the lest for that purpose. Oiik makes a very poor coal, and it is hardly worth burning. Generally Gener-ally the gtxxl wood is culled out, aud then a huge circular pile is made of the knote and refuse. This pile is often 100 feet in diameter and from ten to fifteen feet in height. The wood is piled with Kreat care in straight rows around a Kiuall opening, .about one foot in diameter, diam-eter, which is left as a sort of chimney for the fire to be started in. "As soon as the pile is completed it is covered all over with forest leaves or straw, and then the whole mass is covered cov-ered with dirt to the thickness of three or four inches. It now resemblos a , mnall volcano, especially when the fire is started and the smoke begins to issue from the small opening left in the top. The fire is started by dropping shavings into the chimney which was left in the center, and then lighting them by dropping drop-ping live coals into the cavity. A few holfts arn made near the bottom of ths rile of dirt in order to create a draft, (inn ns soon as tne nre Degina to smoge theso holes are again closed. "Now, if everything goes right, th tiro is allowed to smoulder away, with jnst air enough to support combustion. If a high wind should spring np, as it often d(s, every hole is closed tight to keep down the fire, and very often boards must be laid over tho whole pile to keep cut the wind. It takes from ten days to t wo weeks to burn a 'pit.' as it is called, and this timo is a period of great anxiety anxie-ty to the charcoal burner, fta the operation opera-tion must be watched night and day, and a littlo negligence may cause the loss of weeks of hard work. BURNING THE "Prr." "As the fire progresses part of the charcoal is consumed by combustion and the remainder shrinks to nearly one-half its original size. The shrinkage, of course, would cause the dirt to be left ftunding alone provided it would do so. In order to meet this difficulty the tender tend-er goes round and round, over and over the pile, packing tho dirt with a shovol. This continual packing must not be neglected, neg-lected, for if a cavity should occur and tho dirt cave in instantly, the wholepile .-r.T,l,t Vi,,ea nut into ftumA MpliloVi fiotli. ing could stop. "As tho burning progresses holes are punctured through the dirt in such places as the tender thinks the lire has uot yet boen. These holes create a draft and at onco bring the fire to that part of the pit, upon which the holes are again closed and the charring begins. As soon its tho tender thinks that the work is complete he shuts up the chimney and packs every hole. Ho then spends about two days in packing the dirt, and watches for crevices through which smoke issues aud closes them as soon as thoy are discovered. dis-covered. Barrels of water are now hauled to the pit, and workmen begin to open up a side and take out tho charcoal. If sparks of lire should be found they are at ouce dashed with water, and as the work progresses water is thrown into the pit, while the steam thus created penetrates to all parts of tho coal and lessens the danger of fire. As a rule all the coU is removed at once as a precautionary precau-tionary measure, and every man who has burned a pit is gvtd when he gets it off - his hands. From ?00 to 1,000 bushela nre made in a pit This is hauled away in wagon loads of 80 bushels to 100 bushels, and sold for about fifteen cents per bushcL Thus from $120 to $150 is sualized on each pit." According to chemists only 30 to 22 per cent, of the wood remains as charcoal, char-coal, the rest being driven off as gases. Charcoal is fio per cent carbon. Cincinnati Cincin-nati Times-Star. j |