. The Locomotive. themselves go method used in placing the coal instorage affects its liability to spontaneouscombustion. This is largely the result ofthe separation or segregation of the differ-ent sized pieces which is greater whencoal is piled one load on top of the other until a high cone shapedpile is formed. With this method of piling the coal the lighter orsmaller sized pieces stay near the top while the larger pieces rolldown the side of the pile and accumulate at the bottom. The bottomis then more porous than the top, and air can penetrate into thecenter of the pile and prom
. The Locomotive. themselves go method used in placing the coal instorage affects its liability to spontaneouscombustion. This is largely the result ofthe separation or segregation of the differ-ent sized pieces which is greater whencoal is piled one load on top of the other until a high cone shapedpile is formed. With this method of piling the coal the lighter orsmaller sized pieces stay near the top while the larger pieces rolldown the side of the pile and accumulate at the bottom. The bottomis then more porous than the top, and air can penetrate into thecenter of the pile and promote oxidation, while the heated gases risehigher into the interior of the pile, from which they cannot final result is likely to be a raising of the temperature up to apoint where spontaneous combustion starts. For the same reason coalshould not be piled on a cinder or other porous bed. This separation of the different size pieces of coal is well illustrated ? sSTSEv Fig. 1. 1922.] THE LOCOMOTIVE. 69. Fig. 2. in Fig. i in which it will be noticed that the large lumps are mostlyat the bottom of the pile, resulting in a porous condition there, favor-able to spontaneous combustion. If coal is placed instorage in layers, thelumps separate fromthe fines to a much lessextent than when thecoal is piled as outlinedabove, and the mixtureof fines and lumpswill keep air from thecenter of the pile. Ifthe coal is all lump thenthere is usually ventila-tion enough throughthe pile to keep it cooland little likelihood ofspontaneous combustion unless the coal is of a type which slacks downin storage, in which case the conditions will be similar, after awhile,to- the pile mentioned above where the coarse coal was at the bottomand the fine coal on top. Piles of fine coal alone are less liable tospontaneous combustion, other conditions being equal, than a mixtureof coarse and fine. A coal known to beliable to spontaneouscombustion should bestored in as low pilesas practicable and ar-rang
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhartfordsteamboilerin, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860
