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So when William the Conquerer showed up in 1066 he got the smogs under control for a few years? Sorry couldn't resist it.

I remember the smog being a regular occurrence in 1960s, one particular one, as i used to be quite afraid on my own. I worked on Alfred Street in the City and we had a particular dense smog that cam

All very well everyone going smokeless, but do miss that Autumn smell of leaves burning. When I do very occasionally get a whiff, immediately reminds me of those days with the evenings drawing in, hot

I think you're right that Clifton was the first smokeless zone; but I think you've got the other bit the wrong way round :) ....you could burn coal but not coke. We had a coal fire in the living room until around the mid-70s, so back in those days I was quite experienced in starting the fire, piling it up, and keeping it going.

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I'm confused, I always thought coke to be a smokeless fuel, there was a huge 'coking' plant near Chesterfield that made coke from coal, coal always being a smoke expelling fuel when burnt

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Both coke and anthracite (a type of coal) were "smokeless" but there was also several versions of the smokeless "brickettes" (the square things) that were made by processing bituminous coal. There was one such processing plant next to a coal mine I worked at - Snibstone in Coalville, Leicestershire. The mine site is now a museum!

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There were 3 coking plants that I used to visit in the 60's, Staveley, Clay Cross (Rexco) and Ollerton.

Coal was heated in ovens producing gas, bitumen and a host of other nasties. The gas was used in iron production.

We used to collect 15 tonnes at a time, fresh from ovens and it was common for the load to re-ignite mid-journey.

I think coke was graded into 'Diamonds', 'Pearls' etc, .

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There was a coking plant at Avenue near Chesterfield that produced a hard coke called Sunbrite, it was run by NCB coal poducts. Coalite had a plant at Bolsover which was a softer coke and then at Ollerton there was the Rexco plant which used a different process to turn lumps of coal smokeless. The plant at Snibston was also a Rexco plant. There were other NCB plants at Manvers in Yorkshire and in the North East and South Wales their coke was more for industrial use in foundries and blast furnaces. Iron & Steel works all had and still have coke ovens.

Other smokeless fuels were Homefire made at Coventry colliery and Phurnacite which was made in South Wales. Anthracite came from South Wales.

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Coke came from gas plants around the city for years, they used to sell it for next to nothing, they just didn't have the market for it before smokeless zones were made. I often saw kids with old prams full of coke on London Road coming from the gas plant near the bottom of the road.

As more and more were changed over to natural gas, those plants started closing and coke prices started rising.

You'll probably find all coke now comes from steel making plants that have their own coke ovens.

My Aunt moved to Clifton Estate in the mid 50's and could only burn Coke or smokeless fuels, I lived on the estate when the Meadows was being redeveloped and we used coke.

I'd imagine anthracite would be expensive as it has to be brought up from Wales, these days it's the highest priced coal and reached over $400 a ton earlier this year before dropping to just over $200 a ton a few months back.

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Rexco! That was the place!

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You would have a job burning coke from steelworks. Its very hard, it has to support the weight of the charge in the blast furnace. You would need a blow torch to light it!

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There used to be a gas lighter built into the fire grate, and some of the coke we had, we burnt about two quids worth of gas to get the fire burning...LOL Some coke was very difficult to get burning Brian.

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You would have a job burning coke from steelworks. Its very hard, it has to support the weight of the charge in the blast furnace. You would need a blow torch to light it!

The coke ovens I saw were not used for 'steelmaking', they were used to extract gas which was used to fire furnaces to produce pig iron. When the pig iron was poured (into the sows & pigs) the coke was released from the ovens. Though the coke was very hot, it had been doused in water.

I agree that coke was very difficult to set alight without kindling, and a sheet of newspaper to help the 'draw'.

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The coke is and was used in blast furnaces to smelt iron ore to produce iron. The charge into the blast furnace is a mixture of iron ore, coke and limestone. Air is forced through the charge to produce the blast, the heat comes from the burning coke and the limestone acts as a flux. The iron can then be turned into steel in ether a Bessemer converter, or an electric arc furnace.

I know of 4 types of coke, Gas coke made in a gas works where the gas is the main product and the coke a by product. Domestic coke like Sunbrite which was intended for household use. This coke was not as strong as the other two types and burnt more easily. Then there is Blast furnace coke as above - very hard and strong. Lastly foundry coke used in metal foundries. All these last three types were made in coke ovens the red hot coke being quenched with water after being pushed out of the oven. The coke oven gas is used to heat the coke ovens.

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  • 11 months later...

There were 3 coking plants that I used to visit in the 60's, Staveley, Clay Cross (Rexco) and Ollerton.

Coal was heated in ovens producing gas, bitumen and a host of other nasties. The gas was used in iron production.

We used to collect 15 tonnes at a time, fresh from ovens and it was common for the load to re-ignite mid-journey.

I think coke was graded into 'Diamonds', 'Pearls' etc, .

rexco was next to the washery at ollerton colliery , the other side of the rail tracks .as an apprentice electrician at ollerton in early 1980s ,i worked on the washery and if the wind was blowing the wrong way we got virtually gassed . got paid " fumes" money , think it was 50p a shift ! it was like pollution you only hear about in the 3rd world now ! glad when it shut!!!!!!!

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I was living in Bestwood Village when they went smokeless, got some free samples of smokeless stuff but didn't burn very well, we needed a new grate. The bloke next door drove an HGV & got me broken pallets for free to saw up for firewood, that kept me going till we left, bit naughty but never got found out. :) :)

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I wasn't aware gas was used in iron production??? I know coke was, been a long time since I had to study on iron and steel production at Tech during my first year with the NCB.

I did work for AI&S in Australia at one of their south coast NSW Collieries and we produced coal solely for coke production at the Port Kembla steelworks. Their coke ovens were huge and atomated producing many tons of coke used in smelting iron from the raw ore.

I recall some of the many gas works around Nottingham when I was a kid, most of the gas was supplied to homes for cooking and heating, called town gas or "coke gas" Byproducts of making the gas were coke, and distillates which were sent to refineries to make all sorts of things, petrol, diesel, tar for roads, chemical products from aspirin to explosives to fertilizers.

In the 50's they couldn't give coke away, I know I used to see kids with old prams on London Road with a load of free or cheap coke, no idea where or what they used it for, as someone said, it was a cow to get burning and burned too hot for regular coal grates in open fires.

Then smokeless zones were appearing, Clifton I think was Nottingham's first, that's when coke prices started to increase...I don't know where ours came from in the 70's, but it was twice the price of coal!!!!

By that time North Sea gas was on line, so I doubt any of the gas works were operating in the 70's.

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In between the use of coal to produce town gas and the change to north sea gas a number of gas works using oil were built, one was at Ambergate but it didn't last long because of north sea gas.

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I remember people getting cheap coke from the gasworks at Radford. But I also remember in the 50s getting sent home from school early during the Autumn because it was so foggy, you couldn't see your hand in front of you. It didn't bother us kids though. We loved getting out early. So much mischief for us lads to get up to in thick fog.

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