Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 November 1891 — WOOD FOR LOCOMOTIVE FUEL. [ARTICLE]

WOOD FOR LOCOMOTIVE FUEL.

What Strikes the Traveler When HeBides Into Southern States. Throughout the border States of the South the fuel for domestic use, as well as for running machinery, is wood. On all the railroads wood isused exclusively for firing the engines. Each tender of the engine is stacked high with short lengths of wood ready for use, which have been gathered from the immense piles that are seen. - at regular intervals along the lines. Pine is plentiful in the coast States, and is the wood principally used. It. kindles easily, as everbody knows, and generates rapidly an intense heat, and still does not consume as quickly as at first appears. Passenger trains are frequently run from 117 to 129 mileswith one cord of this wood. The traveler on these roads is apt to find the thick, black smoke from the rich pine thrown off by the engine equally as annoying and disagreeable as the sulphur fumes from the bituminous coal in common’use on roadsthroughout the coal regions. Back from the smokestack is thrown a continual shower of sparks, making a pretty sight by night. These bits of fire, as a rule, die out quickly and do very little damage. But a spark may occasionally enter through an open door or window and burn its way into your clothing or the cushions of the seat. Another disagreeable feature attending travel on these roads is the dust you encounter at all seasons of the year. Close the windows and door of the coach as you will, the white sand dust will enter the crevices and cover you from head to foot. Before you reach your journey’s end. you will likely think you will either be suffocated with the tar smoke of the pine fuel or strangled with the dust. For this reason travelers once passing over Southern railroads see the necessity of providing themselves well with linen dusters or traveling cloaks as a double protection against sparks from locomotives and dust of the wayside.—Pittsburg Dispatch.