door; for a minute black smoke
is thrown out, but only for a minute. Why? Because he only threw in
enough to replenish the fire, and not to choke it in the least, and in a
minute the heat is great enough to consume all the smoke before it
reaches the stack, and as smoke is unconsumed fuel, he gains that much
if he can consume it. We will see this engineer standing around for the
next few minutes perfectly, at ease. He is not in the least afraid of
his steam going down. At the end of three to five minutes, owing to the
amount of work he is doing, you will see him pick up his little shovel
and throw in a little coal; he does exactly as he did before, and if we
stay there for an hour we will not see him pick up a poker. We will
look in at his firebox, and we will see what is called a "thin fire,"
but every part of the firebox is hot. We will see but a small pile of
ashes under the engine and he is not working hard.

If you happen to be thinking of buying an engine, you will say that this
last fellow "has a dandy engine." "That is the kind of an engine I
want," when the facts in the case may be that the first man may have a
better engine, but don't know how to fire it. Now, don't you see how
important it is that you know how to fire an engine? I am aware that
some big coal wasters will say, "It is easy to talk about firing with a
little hand shovel, but just get out in the field as we do and get some
of the kind of fuel we have to burn, and see how you get along." Well, I
am aware that you will have some bad coal. It is much better to handle
bad coal in a good way than to handle good coal in a bad way. Learn to
handle your fuel in the proper way and you will be a good fireman.
Don't get careless and then blame the coal for what is your own fault.
Be careful about this, you might give yourself away. I have seen
engineers make a big kick about the fuel and claim that it was no good,
when some other fellow would take hold of the engine and have no trouble
whatever. Now, this is what I call a clean give away on the kicker.

Don't allow any one to be a better fireman than yourself. You will see a
good fireman do exactly as I have stated. He fires often, always keeps
a level fire, never allows the coal to get up to the lower tubes, always
puts in coal before the steam begins to drop, keeps the fire door open
as little as possible, preventing any cold air from striking the tubes,
which will not only check the steam,