Coal heating

[dehusman]

The public school I went to in Queens New York back in the early 1960’s used coal for heat. i don’t remember seeing the coal as much as seeing the bins of ashes.

[doctorwayne]

I was visiting friends in southwestern Pennsylvania late last autumn, and on my way home decided to follow some secondary roads north. It was a bright but brisk day, and as I came over a small hill and into an equally small town, many of the homes showed a whiff of smoke at their chimney. The smell of burning coal was unmistakable, and took me back to memories of my early childhood. I’m sure, though, that anyone looking out their window wondered about the crazy Canuknucklehead driving through town with his windows down. [(-D]

Wayne

[BRAKIE]

Two of the Toledo, OH coal companies that were served by the Toledo Terminal RR are still in business today. Of course, they no longer deal in coal though. One, Black Diamond, is now a nursery/garden center/lawn care business, but they are still in the same location as when they were a coal dealer. The other company, Blue Flame, is now an appliance parts/repair business. There were litteraly dozens of coal dealers in Toledo in the late '30s and '40s. Practically every railroad that ran into Toledo served coal dealers. In other news, the TTRR trackage was removed from the area where these two businesses are this last summer. I remember the short, little single axle dump trucks that delivered coal to my parents house in Lima, OH in the late '40s. I also remember the horse drawn milk wagons that delivered milk to our door three times a week in Lima. Good lord, am I that old?!

Jim,I believe we are because I can remember the milk man,the Omar man and the smell of coal smoke,Coke Cola for five cents,nickel candy bars etc…

[orsonroy]

I was visiting friends in southwestern Pennsylvania late last autumn, and on my way home decided to follow some secondary roads north. It was a bright but brisk day, and as I came over a small hill and into an equally small town, many of the homes showed a whiff of smoke at their chimney. The smell of burning coal was unmistakable, and took me back to memories of my early childhood. I’m sure, though, that anyone looking out their window wondered about the crazy Canuknucklehead driving through town with his windows down.

Wayne

I was a bit hesitant to chime in on this discussion until you mentioned it Wayne, but yeah; there are STILL places out there that use coal for home heating. I remember a few houses around base in SE Germany in the 1980s that smelled suspiciously like coal smoke in winter, and in the 1990s when I went to college in Williamsport, PA, I was amazed at how much coal smoke there was in the neighborhoods in the dead of winter. It was like travelling back in time!

[Rusty_Nail]

How I remember breaking the large lumps of coal to fit the furnace, and the broken light bulbs. [}:)]

If my memory servesj right, coal fired furnaces for the home about that time were gone as was the coal dealers.

[Rusty_Nail]

To clearify my reply. Grew up in suburban Pittsburgh. It was either in the late "40’s or 50’s that we converted to gas including the school. I graduated from high school in 1956 and the only coal fired furnaces had long been converted to gas fired. They were very wasteful of energy and the lost of heat was very high.

[ATLANTIC_CENTRAL]

Still available, still in use:

http://www.blaschakcoal.com/html/home.htm

http://www.leisurelinestoves.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/business/27coal.html?_r=1

But what do I know?

Sheldon