who have served their time and secured partially a locomotive engineer's experience through their years of service on the lefthand side of the locomotive.

Other inventors seemed to have in mind, as the main object for the use of a mechanical stoker on a locomotive, the preparation of the coal, and elaborate arrangements were made in the matter of crushing mechanism to handle lumps of coal twelve inches in diameter and over, so that the fireman would not be required to touch the coal in the coal-pit, and, having accomplished this, insufficient attention was given to the matter of putting the coal into the firebox and properly distributing it.

Several inventors brought out very elaborate devices for distributing the coal over the fire-bed, without making any arrangements whatever for the preparation of the coal or the conveying of the coal to the distributing mechanism.

Other inventors fully appreciated the arduous work of a locomotive fireman and the intense heat he is called upon to endure during the summer months under certain operating conditions, and were earnestly endeavoring to develop a locomotive stoker which would relieve the fireman from a large part of his physical labor and make it unnecessary for him to undergo the suffering due to the heat.

Some inventors confined their efforts exclusively to the proposition that the mechanical stoker would be a fuel-saving device. This was particularly true as to inventions in England and on the continent of Europe, where the cost of locomotive fuel is several times as much per ton as with us. Locomotives are being fired in Greece, for instance, with coal costing $12 per ton.

In the main, these experiments were along the conventional lines of hand-firing practice; that is to say, the delivery of the coal to the firebox in charges of fifteen to twenty pounds, as with a hand scoop, and the putting in of a "fire"; that is to say, a quantity sufficient for a period of more or less length, according to the way the locomotive was worked.

A few inventors, two in particular, whose inventions will be described later in this paper, were approaching the problem from an entirely different angle than the earlier history of the art disclosed, namely, to bring out machines which would assist the regular fireman in firing the locomotive in a better way and to a higher point of efficiency or to a greater horse-power output than was possible to do with hand firing, and at the same time do all

that other inventors had done, or even go further in the matter of relieving him from physical labor and discomfort, or exhaustion.

It is only within the past three or four years, particularly the last three years, that mechanical stokers for locomotives have been brought out which included all necessary features to successfully meet the present operating conditions on large locomotives and be worthy of application in a large way.

Considering the mechanical stokers which have been applied and are still in use on locomotives, we may properly divide them into two general classes, namely, those which feed the coal to the firebox up through the fire-bed, and are commonly referred to as underfeed stokers, and those which feed the coal to the firebox over the top of the fire-bed, and are usually referred to as overfeed, or scatter type of stoker.

The underfeed stokers are of two types: those which feed the coal through the fuel troughs underneath the fire-bed with plungers, and those which distribute the fuel in the troughs with helicoid screws.

The overfeed stokers are more miscellaneous in character: There are those which distribute the coal over the fire-bed with plungers or other mechanical means, with steam jets without other directing means, and with steam jets with stationary directing means, and also with steam jets supplemented by movable mechanical directing means; also with steam jets having constant blast and with steam jets having intermittent blast; and both the underfeed and overfeed stokers might again be subdivided into those which supply the fuel intermittently to the firebox, putting in what the firemen call a fire or "slug" and then waiting for its consumption before another operation takes place, and those stokers which supply coal to the fire constantly in proportion to the rate of combustion.

There are conveyors for both the under feed and overfeed stokers which have reciprocating action, supplying the fuel in separate charges to the stokers and those which carry the coal constantly to the stokers. Some of these conveyors are of the pusher type, which force the coal forward by pressure, and others carry the coal through its entire travel in a free and loose state. Where preparation of the coal is attempted, it is usually done through the means of some part of the conveying mechanism, although in the early development of the stokers separate crush

ing machines were supplied, which, in turn, delivered the crushed coal to the conveying mechanism.

Counting all kinds of stokers which were applied to locomotives up to the year 1912, probably more than twenty-five different designs of stokers, widely variant in character, were put into service, and, strange as it may seem, all of them fired the locomotives successfully, under certain conditions. This peculiarity of the proposition led up to there being much misinformation circulated about the mechanical stoker for locomotives.

Some of this was also brought about by the promoters of the first stokers making unwarranted claims as to the machines being automatic, using this term even to the extent of certain companies being incorporated with the word "automatic" in their title.

This use of the word "automatic" brought immediate and very active opposition to the stoker on the part of the firemen, both individually and collectively, as they expected the "Iron Firemen " to supersede them, their wages to be reduced and their places taken by common laborers.

This fairly represents the locomotive stoker situation up to the end of the year 1911, as, notwithstanding the application of the many different kinds of stokers to locomotives in a comparatively short time, and the current reports that they were all wonderfully successful, no stokers of any consequence had been sold to the railroad companies in what could be considered a commercial way.

The American Railway Master Mechanics' Association had in the meantime appointed a Standing Committee on Mechanical Stokers for Locomotives, and several of the railroad companies also sent out committees to make investigations. The very intelligent and painstaking work of those committees contributed much to the development of stokers suitable to meet the conditions of operation obtaining on our larger locomotives of to-day, and the findings of the different stoker committees are of especial interest as an explanation of why large numbers of stokers were not applied prior to the middle of 1912, and also to forecast the characteristics of the present commercially successful locomotive stokers.

The summing up of the committees' reasons given for the non-application of stokers to locomotives in any great numbers is about as follows:

1. That most, if not all, of the locomotive stokers applied

up to the end of the year 1911 were not suited in one or more particulars to meet the variables in fuel, locomotives, and operating conditions, notwithstanding the fact that all the stokers applied up to that time actually had bona fide records of successful trips under certain conditions.

2. That practically all such stokers had been designed without due consideration having been given to the unusually severe requirements imposed upon strength of parts and correct mechanical design by the stress of operating conditions and the lower maintenance standards obtaining in railroad as compared with industrial service.

3. That the size of locomotives, particularly as to grate area and the tonnage hauled per train under the existing conditions of service up to the end of the year 1911, did not make mechanical stokers an absolute necessity.

4. That there was no evidence available to lead to the conclusion that a mechanical stoker would make it possible to fire a locomotive any more economically than with hand firing when the same amount of work was performed by the locomotive in each

case.

5. That no advantage was being taken, to any appreciable extent, of the fact that, with mechanical stokers, large locomotives might be operated nearer to their maximum rated capacity than when hand-fired.

6. That nothing had developed up to that time to indicate that any less expensive fuel could be used for firing locomotives with a mechanical stoker than with hand-firing.

7. That it would not be possible, as claimed by some of the stoker inventors and promoters, to do away with the regular locomotive fireman and have the work done by a helper.

8. That labor-saving devices are not usually applied to any great extent simply to reduce the grade of or character of the labor-nor are they put into general use solely for the purpose of uplifting the grade and character of employment.

9. That therefore the only consideration left as an argument for the general application of mechanical stokers to modern locomotives was the possible reduction in the amount of physical labor and suffering of the regular fireman sufficiently to enable him to do the work without other relief.

A review of the history of the exploitation and introduction. of a large number of labor-saving devices discloses the fact, re

grettable as it may seem to have to admit it from a humanitarian standpoint, that most labor-saving devices are not applied generally unless there is some remunerative return to the purchaser, outside and apart from the ethical considerations; that is to say, there must be some increase in efficiency, some conservation of energy, some contribution to the wealth of the individual or the community at large, or the device must fail.

It is my intention to try to make it very plain that while the application of mechanical stokers to our large freight and pas

Plan view of Barnum underfeed stoker.

senger locomotives will, in fact does, effect a very great relief to the firemen from the strenuous labor incident to shovelling coal at the rates required to fire locomotives, photographs of which will be shown upon the screen to-night, and that the firemen are almost entirely relieved from the suffering due to the heat effects of having the fire door open when hand firing, yet these benefits are only incidental to the main issues which contribute to the necessity for, or economy of, the application of stokers to locomotives.

Counting all stoking machines applied to locomotives up to April 1st of this year, there have been about 1200 put into service, of which about 1000 are now in use. This number is divided as follows:

I Gee stoker-overfeed type.

20 Standard stokers-overfeed type.

VOL. CLXXX, No. 1077-20