Coal Dust and Slack

New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 775, 28 May 1954, Page 23

Coal Dust and Slack

Dear Aunt Daisy, I have a coal-bin which is rapidly getting filled with slack coal and coal dust. I believe there is some way in which you make brickettes from this by mixing sawdust, I think. I have asked many friends, and looked in books, but cannot | find anything about it. Perhaps some of your Daisy Chain may know the answer.

F.E.

W.

Thames.

It is rather:a thankless job to try to make brickettes, and an easier way to use slack coal is to fill a shovel, or dustpan, with coal dust, and sprinkle it well all over with a little finely-crushed washing soda; then gently empty this over the fire. This gives out a bright fire, 1 am told. However, here is also a method of making brickettes: To each dustpan full of coal dust use 1 teacup of kerosene, 44 dustpan of sawdust, 5 oz. flour, Y pint cold water, and 1 pint boiling water. Make a smooth paste of flour and cold water, stir in the. pint of boiling water, and boil till thick. Put paste in a pail with kerosene and mix together, then stir in the sawdust and enough coal dust to make a stiff mixture. Form into balls. Place on paper-covered tray to dry. Anothet listener says that she dissolves a handful of washing sdda-in 2 quarts of water, and pours this over a sackful of coal dust or slack. Then she gets the children to make little paper parcels of this, or fill paper bags, atid usés them to bank up the fire. Clean and easy to pick up, too.