Coal

I used to think that a cup of coffee was a cup of coffee and then the likes of Starbucks introduced choice and made ordering coffee a complex business.  I’m beginning to think the same about coal. I used to think a bag of coal was a bag of coal and then I found there were choices.  At the beginning of winter I ordered lots of bags of coal and burnt it without taking much notice about what sort of coal it was.  Then it ran out and I had to buy some more.  The coal merchant had choices between Supertherm and Taybrite and Staybrite.  Should I just go for the cheapest? I know from bitter experience that you get what you pay for.  My last two purchases prove that.  The vacuum cleaner that I bought from the back of the market in Birmingham for only £17 has less suction than a baby pulling on a dummy.  The radio that was the cheapest Curry’s had to offer manages to tune into two stations at the same time.  I can listen to the news on Radio4 with the background accompaniment of the soprano on Radio 3. When I get fed-up of listening to two things at once (I’ve got two ears so it really shouldn’t be too difficult but it is) I have to switch either to local radio or Radio5 because those are the only ones with a clear signal. But there is a limit to the amount of time I can listen to Angela of Northampton complaining about the state of the roads or Ian from Grimsby moaning about referees so I switch it off and listen to the ducks on the river. So when it came to choosing coal I decided to splash out and spend an extra pound for the 25kg bag on the assumption that it would be better.  Then I couldn’t get it to light so spent more than the price of the coal on firelighters and kindling.  Once alight it did seem to burn hotter and last longer but I haven’t done a scientific study on it.
 
In the March issue Waterways World have done a scientific study, well sort of. I think they had a bag of coal one stove and two thermometers but they’ve managed to fill a lot of pages.  I was killing time, waiting for a train, at the Smiths on Kings Cross Station when I picked up Waterways World and saw that they had an article on heating a boat with a solid fuel stove.  I did wonder why they ran an article on heating when Spring is about to arrive (hopefully) and we can scrape the coal dust from under the fingernails and stop scavenging for wood and forget about all types of coal for another six months.  Surely they should run an article on fuel for stoves in October. Glancing through the magazine, while keeping one eye on the destination board to see if Kings Cross had decided from which platform my train was leaving, it seemed they were testing a few burning options not various brands of coal.  I spent most the time puzzling why the graphs sometimes showed the heat of stove as a blue line and the heat of the boat was red and sometimes the colour scheme was reversed. I don’t like inconsistency. Then the train was announced. I suppose I could have bought the magazine and read it properly but I'd already spent too much money on firelighters to be able to squander money on magazines as well. Anyway by the time next winter arrives (aahh I don’t even want to think about that) when I need to purchase more fuel I will have forgotten all their good advice.