Introduction

Coal Furnaces and Ovens

Steam Generators

Coal Furnaces and Ovens

In BC, we are blessed with a seemingly endless supply of wood. Early settlers had ready access to wood from trees cut on their acreages or other nearby stands. Among its many uses, people burned the wood to heat their homes and cook their meals. This fuel was not the most reliable, however. Wood would not burn evenly except under close supervision, and it often produced much smoke.

Coal offered advantages over wood as a fuel for heating. This black fuel burned much longer than wood at an even intensity,¹ and the right grades of domestic coal would produce hardly any smoke.² In and around coal mining communities, the black fuel was also inexpensive and readily available.

Special furnaces and ovens were built to handle the intense heat produced from coal. Special grates lining the fireboxes protected the surrounding metal from expanding and cracking.³ The McClary Manufacturing Company and the Arcadian Malleable Range Company produced some of the most commonly used models.

In larger buildings, and later, in more modern houses, special steam boilers or expansion tanks connected by pipes to radiators were installed. Coal or other fuel heated water in the tanks, causing the pressurized vapour or hot water to circulate through the pipes. Heat from the water escaped through the radiators, causing the vapour to condense. The difference in gravity or pressure then circulated the water back through the same pipes or via return tubes to the tanks.^4,5 Many older buildings still use this heating system, although natural gas heats the tanks instead of coal.

Coal mines throughout BC separated special grades of thermal coal for use in these heating systems. Screens at the ends of coal conveyors sorted coal into various sizes, including lump, nut, pea and slack.⁶ The larger pieces were used in steam locomotives and steamships. The pea-sized pieces were loaded into cars destined for domestic coal tipples or stockpiles. The slack – mostly coal dust not usable in boilers – could be burned to generate electricity.⁷

Each fall, coal from the reserves was loaded into wagons and delivered to local homes and businesses. Deliverymen emptied measured amounts of coal into chutes running from alleys to each building’s basement. In some cases, basements extended out from the buildings’ outer walls to allow coal to be loaded from above. About fifteen tons was enough to supply an average household for the winter. If a family ran out of coal, they could simply order more from the local delivery company.⁸

"Burt Bros. Wood and Coal Delivery Wagon, Victoria" BCARS G-00015

To save money, many families purchased coal directly from the mines for about half the cost of delivered coal.⁹ Some people even mined the coal themselves from nearby seams or abandoned shafts. This practice was especially common in early coal mining communities and those affected by the collapse of the coal industry after World War I.

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