I always thought the old-timers were exaggerating about the heat in a 1920s boiler firebox

I found a 1938 safety manual in my grandpa's toolbox that said temps could hit 1800 degrees Fahrenheit, which is way hotter than the 1500 I've ever personally recorded on a modern unit.

2 comments

2 Comments

colesanchez1mo ago

Well, there's my weekend plans to prove Grandpa wrong up in smoke. Guess I owe him an apology and maybe a cold beer. My own "modern unit" experience was trying to bake a pizza in a cheap oven that couldn't even melt cheese right. Makes you respect the sheer, raw heat those guys were shoveling coal into. Turns out they weren't just tough, they were basically working next to a volcano.

-1

miles8251mo ago

Honestly @colesanchez, a pizza oven and a coal furnace seem pretty different to me.