Stoker

(mechanical engineering) A mechanical means, as used in a furnace, for feeding coal, removing refuse, controlling air supply, and mixing with combustibles for efficient burning.

A mechanical means for feeding coal into, and for burning coal in, a furnace. There are three basic types of stokers. Chain or traveling-grate stokers have a moving grate on which the coal burns; they carry the coal from a hopper into the furnace and move the ash out (see illustration). Spreader stokers mechanically or pneumatically distribute the coal from a hopper at the furnace front wall and move it onto the grate which usually moves continuously to dispose of the ash after the coal is burned. Underfeed stokers are arranged to force fresh coal from the hopper to the bottom of the burning coal bed, usually by means of a screw conveyor. The ash is forced off the edges of the retort peripherally to the ashpit or is removed by hand.

Chain grate stoker.

n. a person who tends the furnace on a steamship or steam locomotive.

See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.

Look up stoker in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

A stoker is "one who stokes".

Stoker may also refer to:

• Mechanical stoker - a coal-feeding device on a steam locomotive
• Stoker (cone cleaning implement) - an Australian colloquial term for any slender cylindrical instrument used to clear debris from a cone.
• Stoker (occupation) - a job on a coal-powered steam ship to stoke the boilers.
• Stoker works - a facility where mechanical stokers were manufactured.

People

• Austin Stoker (born 1943), West-Indian born, African-American actor
• Abraham "Bram" Stoker (1847–1912), Irish writer
• Frank Owen Stoker (1867-1939), Irish male tennis player
• James Stoker, American mathematician
• Mary Stoker Smith, general assignment reporter and a weekend evening anchor for KYW-TV in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
• Michael Stoker, Director of Imperial Cancer Research Fund Laboratories from 1968-79
• Mike Stoker, American actor
• Richard Stoker (born 1938), British composer and writer

Other

• Bram Stoker Award, recognition presented by the Horror Writers Association
• Stoker the Broker, title of a comic strip created by Henry Boltinoff
• "The Stoker", short story by Franz Kafka.

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