[jambutty]

Not being an ex-stoker I don’t know. Fuel oil is about as close as you can get to the stuff that comes out of the ground. Sort of one up from tar.

Maybe the heating of your fuel oil wasn’t so much to pump it, although like all oils they become more fluid with temperature increase so it would be easier to pump, as to heat it so that it fired easier.

All I know is that it is filthy stuff that stinks awful and if you swallowed any it would rot your guts and if you got any in your lungs your days were virtually numbered as many a shipwrecked sailor found out during the war. It didn’t do a lot for your skin either. But on the positive side it made a first rate smoke screen.

Better than coal though but very difficult to keep on the shovel whilst stoking the boilers.