Gas making retorts.
Typed caption on display board for this photo reads: “View of Retorts. Large vertical pipes carry the gas away from the cooking coal. 3 heavy cast iron lids with steel rings lifted by a trolley to open up the fires beneath the retorts – which were stoked with coke – heating the retorts to 1300 deg. Retorts are 10 ft. deep horizontal ovens. Steel plates in the floor covered an underground gallery – from where the fires had to be clinkered and the ashes shovelled up to floor level.”
Any use of this image must be accompanied by the credit “Horowhenua Historical Society Inc.”
