"Townsend's Horizontal Pipes," 1847

Sparks and embers were a constant hazard from wood-burning locomotives. Passengers complained about singed clothing, shippers about damaged goods, and trackside property owners about scorched buildings. Spark arrestors, fitted to locomotive smokestacks, helped control the problem. But not until coal -- which produced fewer sparks -- became the dominant locomotive fuel after the Civil War was the issue effectively solved.