American Charcoal Making (continued)

Charcoal pits varied greatly in size, depending for the most part on the dimensions of the hearth and the amount of wood to be coaled. The average hearth in the Hopewell vicinity, however, was from 30 to 40 feet in diameter and would hold 25 to 50 cords. Any kind of wood may be used to make charcoal so long as it is "solid," but it generally was held that "the harder the wood, the better the coal." It was the practice in the region to cut clean, using everything except the deadwood, and in 30 years' time the tract could be coaled again. No ironmaster ever conceded that he had enough coal land.

Jumping the pit.

If a charcoal pit was not watched and tended constantly, fire broke through the covering of leaves and dust and might destroy the entire pile. A burning flame was the dread of colliers, for coal could be made only by the charring action of a "dead fire." "Jumping the pit" was a dangerous job. The collier, holding his long-handled shovel in a horizontal position, mounted his crude ladder to the top of the pit and stepped gingerly around the head and bridgen to learn whether there were any soft spots or mulls. Finding these, he jumped up and down on the more substantial parts of the surface, working his way carefully toward the mulls. Air spaces in the pit caused by shrinkage of the charring wood thus were closed in part. Soft spots then were dressed by digging them out a little and placing new wood, leaves, and dust in the resulting cavities to preserve the original shape of the pit. The pit was tended in this manner every evening in order to prevent, if possible, its burning through during the night.

The phrase give 'er fire should be distinguished from firing the pit. The latter referred to the operation of lighting the original fire, the former to the task of providing draft vents to increase the fire within the pit. The burning was governed by means of holes made in the foot on the side where more heat was desired. In order to learn the location of the fire and to see whether it had reached the surface of the hearth the collier used the fagan as a poker, the bridgen first being removed carefully to prevent leaves or dust from falling into the chimney.

Since the pit was lighted from the top, the fire had to char downward. Ramming the fagan down through the loose coal at the head, the collier eventually struck a hard surface, either uncharred billets which the fire had not reached or the surface of the hearth. As it was a part of the collier's training to recognize the various surfaces struck by the fagan, he could calculate readily the direction in which the charring was proceeding and thereby provide the proper drafts or foot holes which were needed to effect uniform charring on all sides of the pit. When the surface of the hearth was not absolutely level the lower side always "came to foot" first. In the early stages of the burning, holes were placed about 2 feet up from the foot. Later, as the pit came nearer "to foot" the holes were made lower.

When the pit was burning evenly and well, a characteristic blue smoke puffed from the vents at lazy intervals, giving off a pitch tar odor which the colliers considered to be the cause for their tremendous appetites. White smoke was an indication of a poorly charring pit and usually resulted from rapid burning due to too much draft or to the use of old dry wood. Heavy winds caused the pit to burn unevenly, and rains often made it become too hot. When a pit crackled and sputtered it was a certain indication that dry chestnut wood was being employed.

The number of days required for a pit to "burn off" varied greatly with the size of the hearth and the kind of wood. For the average hearth, which held 30 cords or so of partly seasoned wood, it normally took from 10 days to 2 weeks for the pit to come to foot, that is, for all the billets to char. After it had come to foot and before any of the coal was removed, it was necessary to have the dust dry enough to run off the sides like sand. Accordingly, more foot holes were made so that the pit would heat up, char the leaves, and dry the dust.

Raking off the head.

Once the pit had charred down to the foot, it might be assumed that the fire was out and that the process of raking out the coal would be simple. Charcoal carries fire for a long time, however, and the raking was a tedious and painstaking task be cause only small amounts could be removed at a time. The collier chose a side of the pit where the dust was driest and with his shovel dug out a portion, starting at the foot. This opening acted as a draft hole and soon there were signs of fire. At that point he stopped his digging and threw back enough of the dry dust to reseal the pit and allow it to cool.

The long iron-toothed collier's rake then was used to draw back into the ring the pile of charcoal which had just been dug out. A few sparks often remained in the coal and the entire ring became ablaze. As the hearths were usually far from water, dry dust was the only means of extinguishing the fires. When the collier and his helper worked around the pit, digging out a little coal here and there, each portion was kept in a separate ring so that a single fire might not destroy the total. The collier always refused to ring out more coal on his hearth than would fill the charcoal wagon because of the extra attention required to at tend it. On the day when the wagon was to come for the first load the collier and his men were up and ready to start work at dawn. They spent several hours in ringing out the coal and the remainder of the morning in seeing to it that no fire remained in it.

Collier's rake and baskets.

The same collier's baskets which were used to carry leaves to the head of the pit were employed to fill the wagon with charcoal. The teamster carried the basket on his head after the collier had raked it full and helped him to swing it into position. Charcoal wagons varied in size but those generally in use at Hopewell held 100 to 300 bushels of coal. All were drawn by six-mule teams and equipped with high sideboards and a bottom that would pull out. When the teamster reached the charcoal house he unhooked his lead team from the "spreaders" and fastened their whiffletree to a coupling connected to the sliding floor of the wagon. In that way the load was dumped without effort to the teamster or damage to the brittle charcoal.

---

From the Colliers' Lexicon

Brands: Partly charred billets which remain after the pit has been coaled.

Butt: The final remains of a burned-off pit.

Coaling out: Act of digging and raking charcoal from the pit.

Foxing the brands: Recoaling the partly burned billets after the charcoal has been hauled away.

Dressing the pit: Refilling a mull, where the fire had burned through, with new wood, leaves, and dust so that the exterior of the pit was restored to its original shape.

Head: The uppermost layer of lap-wood forming the rounded top of the pit.

Head dust: Old charcoal dust placed on top of the pit to form a smudge blanket.

Lapping off: Placing lap-wood on the outer surface to make the pit as tight as possible.

Piece: The pit after some of the coal has been removed.

Pit will blow: Gases generated by the charring wood often cause the top of the pit to blow off.

Shoulder: That part of the pit where the second tier of billets meets the top layer of lap-wood.

Waist: The portion of the pit where the first tier of billets meets the second tier.

---

Last Modified: Sat, Oct 20 2001 10:00:00 am PDT popular/14/ps14-4.htm