smoke stack / smokestack

The chimney through which the smoke escapes from the smoke-box. – Stephen Roper, Hand-book of the Locomotive (Philadelphia: E. Claxton and Co., 1881): 323.

On the Iowa Division of the Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad there were recently eight freight trains snowed in… The snow was packed so tight that the snow-plows had no effect upon it, and it would have to be shoveled out. All that could be seen of some of the trains was here and there the top of a brake just protruding above the snow, and nothing but she top of the smoke-stack of an engine marked the whereabouts of some. – Clay County (D.T.) Register, January 23, 1873.

     
The smokestack on a steam locomotive from the Little House era was the chimney that carried smoke and steam up, over, and away from the firebox of the engine. Smokestacks differed in design depending on the type of fuel that an engine consumed, but all were designed to carry smoke up and away from the locomotive and its crew even when the train wasn’t in motion.

Because of incomplete combustion of fuel used, both wood-burning and coal-burning steam engines emitted not only steam and smoke, but ash, sparks, live embers, and cinders. The large bell-shaped or “balloon chimney” top that you see in the image above was a spark-arrestor, designed to reduce the emission of sparks or embers that would fall to the ground and might set fire to whatever was growing alongside the railroad track. When passing through towns on a windy day, sparks might also set fire to awnings and roofs of buildings. With a spark-arrestor, such debris swirled around in the large bell (usually aides by an inverted cone with a series of baffles suspended over the chimney), then fell harmlessly into an ash pan below. These smokestacks had a cleanout hatch low on the side through which fallen cinders could be cleaned out at the end of the day. There might also be wire netting covering the bell opening in order to stop large cinders from being puffed out.

The image (with smokestack circled in red) is from a stereoview taken by Elmer & Tenney on March 22, 1881. It shows a work train trying to make its way through Kelly’s cut east of Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, during the Hard Winter.

     

smoke stack / smokestack (SSL 3; TLW 31; PG), see also locomotive