Cleaning the Grates

Playing a stream of water across #14's grates, the fireman washes away clinker and ash. The floor of a steam engine's firebox is not solid; instead, it's formed from a set of closely-spaced steel rods called grates. These rods allow air to pass up and through the fire from below, providing oxygen for combustion. As the coal burns, most of its mass is carried away as combustion gasses; left behind is a granular, glassy residue called clinker. Clinker can become thick enough to impede the flow of air and strangle combustion; to prevent this, the grates must be cleaned before or after each day's service. Using jets of steam, streams of water, and iron fire hooks, the fireman breaks up the clinker until it is small enough to tumble though the spaces between the grate rods and fall out of the firebox into the ash pit below the engine. With a properly-cleaned grate, a fireman can be assured of efficient combustion and an easy-steaming engine.

Note the fieldstone building behind the engine: originally a farmhouse, this 1860s-era structure antedates the EBT itself. When the EBT came to town, the railroad purchased the farm property to create the Rockhill Furnace yard, and converted the house itself into a solid and indeed rather grand yard office.