DEAD PLATE.
This is a flat plate of iron immediately inside the furnace door and is used in many boilers in order to insure the more perfect combustion of the coal.
When the fresh fuel is laid on, it is placed on the dead plate instead of on the grate; in this position the coal is coked, the gases from the coal being ignited as they pass over the already intensely hot fuel in the furnace, the fuel from the dead plate is pushed forward to make place for another charge to be put on the dead plate. But more frequently, as elsewhere described, the fuel is thrown over and across the dead plate directly upon the hot fire.