THE COAL EXPERIMENT jan 2006
Back in the Fall,myself and 3 other members of the crew were out in the far reaches of the Maine widerness
on a backpacking adventure. After a long day's journey in a non-stop deluge of rain, we arrived at our leen-to for the night.
It was wet and cold and soon the conversation turned to stories of past Island trips and their huge warming bonfires. Our
bonfires were always borderline out of control,but yet a constant source of extreme energy. "Everything burns on the Island
..at the right temperture." It was apon this observation that I approached the subject of COAL. Our fires were so hot, I'll
bet we could even burn coal. Imagine,,burning rocks. That's gotta be pretty damn hot. It does'nt sound right,but the Earth's
core is molten lava rock, and our parents and grandparents grew up with coal burning furnances. I proposed that our next Winter
trip we should conduct a Coal Experiment.
Mr Heacock added that he thought he knew someone back home that still had some coal in their house." Do
you think its still good after sitting in their basement for so long?"
Mr Heacock replied: "Well let's see, It came from under the ground and took millions of years to form, so
I guess a few more years in someone's basement would'nt matter much."
"How would we light it?" That would be part of the experiment. Just how does someone, or as in our
case,how do a group of middle-aged men who still act like teenage pranksters, burn coal and capture its heat energy in an
outdoor enviroment. Since we all grew up in the era of Natural gas and Heating oil furnaces, we would have to question our
elders.
After some research we found out that Kerosene,coal oil, was a big ingredient in coal furnaces. Captn.
Mitchell decided that he would provide the kerosene. He had before brought out the last remaining gallon that he had
stowed in his own basement and thrown it upon the fire on a rainy trip. H ewould make it his quest to find more kero.
In early Jan. the 3 of us met and went to an old womans house in town to get some coal from her basement.
"You boys take all you want,,I'd like to get rid of all of it.." She called us boys and we had to laugh
since there was'nt one of us under 46years old.We had come with 5 trash cans to fill up with coal. Captn. Mitch started shoveling
coal into a can. Mr Heacock and myself could'nt control our laughter as we listened to the sound of the coal being shoveled
in the cans.Of course Mitch being Mitch, filled the can to the top. Then we had to carry it up and out of the basement and
into the pick up truck. "Maybe we should'nt put as much in the next can.." this is really f---ing heavy, ya idiot.." We thanked
the woman, (Mrs. L.) and told her we may be back later to take the rest of her coal. (she must still have about 3 tons in
her basement) We had at least a quarter ton of coal for our " experiment"
Jan 28 we assembled and met on the beach across from the Island. The locals we out there striper fishing
and they looked over at our collection of gear. One guy looked into our trash cans and then just looked up at us and said:
"coal?"
"Yep, Coal, bout a quarter ton."I replied and just smiled. He returned the smile and walked off probably
wondering what the hell we were doing now. In the past the locals had seen us show up with assorted furniture, tv's,
extension cords, Barco loungers, and even blind folded victims awaiting insane batchelor parties.
We loaded up the gear and proceeded to make the numerous trips with our fuel source. It took about 10 trips,
a logistic task.
Also with our gear was a brand new trash can with holes pre-drilled into it. It was designed for burning
trash, or in our case,a coal furnace.Me and Mr Heacock had our theory about using the can for a furnace, Captn. Mitchell
thought a more conventional method of piling up the coal in a truck tire rim, giving it a kero bath and building a fire onto
it. Our furnance method consisted of the can, a tire rim and a round bbq rack. Mr Heacock updated the design by using
some old steel rods to hold up the rack and eliminate the rim, as to give the coal more air space. Air proved to be the
key ingredient in the burning of coal. Once out there and set up we started our efforts on the coal. Mitch had the fire going
but the coal wouldnt light up.No air. The can furnance was slow to start, but after some tweeking with kero and driftwood,
we got the coal to start burning white on it's edges and finally turn a bright cherry red.The can radiated a steady stream
of heat. We had loaded up about 14 inches of coal into the can and it lasted at least 7 hours. Later that night during the
radio broadcast of Stars End, Mr Heacock, got out his infamous Indian blanket and laid down in the dirt next to the can
furnace. He fell asleep let a content cat next to a heat vent.Meanwhile back at Captn Mitch's fire attempt, he modified and
used a fireplace woodgrate that I had trashed picked and shoveled coal into that on top of the bonfire. After a few hours
the bonfire was it's usual roaring self and Mitch began stoke-ing the fire like a frantic boilerman on the sinking Titanic,
shoveling in lbs of coal and even tossing a tire onto the mess.He was clearly out of control, but it would be of no use telling
him that, just let him enjoy the moment, afterall this was his coal experiment too.
We ended up burning the entire quarter ton of coal and the next day there was just a steaming pile of gray ash
and some leftover rocks. The smell of campfire and sulphur from the coal wafted in the air. It started to rain. Another
sucess story for the books.
