My father worked with my grandfather for a local commercial laundry service. They used steam power for everything. The steam was produced by burning sawdust from local mills.
One of the first jobs my father did when he started was unblocking a damper in the breeching of one of the dutch ovens for one of the boilers.
The sawdust feed had been shut off but they did not have time to wait for the unit to cool down. So, into the vent my father went wearing a baseball cap with a celluloid bill. Wonder what celluloid is? It was an earlier form of clear plexiglas type material. Once he got in there, the temperature was much higher than he thought it would be. So he figured he had better get this job done as fast as he could and get out of there. He began knocking the creosote off of the shaft. He could not breathe. As he was working and holding his breath, the bill of that cap melted and sagged down over his face. Now he could not see either. He had trouble getting the cap off. So here he was, holding his breath, knocking off creosote off with a hammer and chisel, trying to see thru the melting cap. The job got done and he got out because he did not want to go into there again!
GFM
One of the first jobs my father did when he started was unblocking a damper in the breeching of one of the dutch ovens for one of the boilers.
The sawdust feed had been shut off but they did not have time to wait for the unit to cool down. So, into the vent my father went wearing a baseball cap with a celluloid bill. Wonder what celluloid is? It was an earlier form of clear plexiglas type material. Once he got in there, the temperature was much higher than he thought it would be. So he figured he had better get this job done as fast as he could and get out of there. He began knocking the creosote off of the shaft. He could not breathe. As he was working and holding his breath, the bill of that cap melted and sagged down over his face. Now he could not see either. He had trouble getting the cap off. So here he was, holding his breath, knocking off creosote off with a hammer and chisel, trying to see thru the melting cap. The job got done and he got out because he did not want to go into there again!
GFM