Ask Lemmy

Yes. Am Welsh. Coal fires are still pretty common in the South Wales valleys. My Grandfather still gets free coal deliveries every other month due to his time working in the pits.

I've done some blacksmithing as a hobby. The two most common ways of heating the metal are a gas or a coal forge. The coal forge normally has some sort of forced air coming from the bottom to feed the fire. The coal starts burning real smoky like, but then turns to coke and burns hotter the more air you force through it. Typically you pile some coal around the sides of the fire so it converts to coke then you scoop it into the fire as needed. Also it produces a waste product called clinker that builds up at the bottom of the fire at the tuyere (the nozzle or grate the air is forced through). It's kind of like stone or metal and it needs to be cleaned out to keep the fire going.

Well yeah. It was how we heated our home when I was a kid growing up in England.

Yep, I dabble in blacksmithing.

You get it going -smokey as shit at first-and it melts together into a lighter, more solid piece that burns hotter and cleaner. That's called coke.

Then you toss your irons in

Yep. Grew up in a house with a wood stove as the only source of heat, and my parents would occasionally use some coal in it. Dad also had a coal forge for hobby blacksmithing.

In a steam locomotive, but a scale model one that was ridden on instead of in. It was actually pretty cool; they still hand-stoked the firebox and everything, just... really small.

Where the fires were was around the North and North East of Scotland. Coal man used to come round in a truck, filthy black from the coal, load up the bunkers. I remember it being very messy, sooty, but it was less smokey than the peat fires, though coal didn't smell as nice. There is something really nice about a real fire, though they're not clean. I doubt many of any of those houses have now, gas came along and there was a lot of change.

I'd never really considered that people might not have seen coal burn.

In Ireland both coal and turf are still fairly common as the primary method of heating. That said they are "trying" to phase it out.

Coal stoves are still sometimes the principal source of heat for rural houses in Eastern Europe. They are slowly being phased out though.

Yes. In a fire. Why?

We used to have a coal fire when I was growing up, so routinely in the winters.

Yeah, I grew up in a poor area in rural Ohio and we heated primary with coal until 2021.

No, but this topic sent me down a rabbit hole briefly.

You may have heard of the Marshall Fire in Boulder, Colorado that burned 1000 homes and killed two people within the city in 2021.

In the area of the point of ignition of this wildfire, an underground coal fire has been known to be burning for the past 150 years. As far as I know they still haven't ruled it out as a possible cause.

Yes, in 1989.

East Perth to Midland train yards on the footplate of the Flying Scotsman.

The fireman was shovelling coal into the firebox, and it was one of the most concentrated sources of heat I have seen in my life.

Used to have a coal fire when I was growing up in the 90s, rural Wales, was able to heat our water too.

Nothing beats a baked potato cooked under a coal fire.

Rode in an old steam train that has a boiler fueled by coal. Got to see the furnace* that heated the boiler have some fresh coal shoveled in before we went for a short ride.

*I don't remember if it is called a furnace on a train, it was a few decades ago and I'm too lazy to look it up.

A lot of homes where I grew up still had coal fires, so yes, a lot, but its been a long while since I have seen a coal fire. Charcoal as the other commenter said i still see regularly on bbq's .

Yes. In the Aga at home and the coal fire in the living room. Also in the grate at a friend's house.

Why? Aga for cooking and hot water, coal stove for heat, likewise coal in a grate.

ETA: coal as in Anthracite, Stove Esse, Stove Nuts. Not charcoal or coke. The latter two I have cooked on and forged metal with respectively.

Yes. Steam train

Don’t go to a lot of BBQs, I take it?

Because I have eyes?

Here in New Zealand you can buy it at the Hardware store in 20KG bags. Older houses have pot belly "stoves" for heat, which are smaller then log burners usually, and coal is the best fuel for them.

I have open fires in my house, it was built in the 1840s so yes.

This is very common in the uk, though in many places smokeless replacements for coal are legally required.

Yes. On a camping trip. At one end of the lake is the remains of an old WWII POW camp. There were at the time some small piles of coal. We took a couple of pieces and burned it in a camp fire. Only because I had never seen coal burn before.

https://www.perplexity.ai/search/White-otter-Lake-lnJZ4ycdSKOAmJ2U4rZSIw?s=m

I don’t think I’ve ever seen coal burn, but you can find pieces of it along the abandoned railways and beaches in my area. We have a coal dock that’s been abandoned for 50 years and the ground is still black with coal dust

Edit: actually a scenic railroad in my area still has a coal fired steam locomotive so yes, I can say I’ve seen coal burn!

As a child, Easter holiday in a cottage in Cornwall. It had a coal fireplace.

A friend of mine bought a literal ton of coal for $75 to heat his pole barn in a wood burner that could also be used to burn coal. His chimney wasn't tall enough and wind would drag the smoke down to ground level as it passed over the gambrel roof. It was nasty. I believe later on I learned that coal from my region is of poor quality and gets sent overseas

I did an hour of a metalworking class at scout camp in the 80s.

Yes, my grandparents had a potbelly stove that they used for heat. A coal tripple was about a quarter of a mile from our house and we could walk down the railroad tracks and collect a bucket full.

Yes. I picked a bunch of coal pieces up at Stockton beach once as a kid and took them home because coal was interesting - I tested burning at least one of those pieces in the wood fire that winter.

Yes, I have seen and lit it several times.

I was often in charge of lighting the grill when I lived at home with my parents, we used a hot air gun to light the grill, and it worked really well, we never used lighter fluid, just hot air, and during the process you easily see flames comming up from the burning coal.

Failing that, I used to be an active member of a herritage railroad with steam trains, looking into the firebox of a steam enging you clearly see the coals burning.

Why would you not do that?

Yes, growing up. Even saw it get made, though I don't remember much. Perks of being part of the peasantry I suppose...

We had to make it ourselves because it was too expensive to buy. Used a little bit for everything, cooking, heating, making booze.
Then things changed, laws passed, gas became cheaper and coal-making was forgotten because it was too much work for too little gain.

Yes. I got to look around a steam train when they were doing trips for Father's Day. I even got to keep a piece as a momento.

I lived in wv, you find chunks of it out in the ground sometimes. I was a curious kid and tried to get some to light. It was real low quality though so it burnt like shit