Je viens de l'apprendre.
Explication en dessous de la vidéo.
Etonnant! I still have to think about a bit - how that mechanical thing really worked. Merci beaucoup pour votre recherche! It's a fascinating matter!
By the way, it just caught my eye... the men, who put the coals into the "oven" (I don't know the word: German "Heizer", French: chauffeur de chaudière?), they seemed to be alltogether chain-smoker - they are smoking cigarettes constantly. :-)
"un chauffeur" sur un long parcours (par exemple Paris Cherbourg) pouvait pelleté jusqu'à 7 tonnes de charbon pour nourrir la bête !
Dur travail !
A l'époque la rectitude politique n'éxistait pas...on fumait...comme un pompier ou une locomotive !
A noter que le "chauffeur" quémande une cigarette au conducteur ...hiérarchie !?
Yes, besides the "steam locomotiv" romantic nowadays: at THAT time it was really hard work: dirt, wind, heat, noice and tons of coal!
There really seem to be a hierarchie. The "conducteur" is on command: he whistles at the other one and tell him what to do.