[f. STOKE v.2 + -ING2.] The action of the verb; the operation of tending a furnace and feeding it with fuel.
1854. J. Scoffern, in Orr’s Circ. Sci., Chem., 193. Inequality of stoking, and inequality of water-supply are amongst the causes.
1884. L’pool Mercury, 18 Feb., 5/4. The pumping of water in and for the prison is valued at £301 … and stoking at £166.
b. transf. and fig.
1892. Fabian News, April, 5/1. There is always a great waste of energy in canvassing, ‘stoking up,’ etc., by which no one is made any better or wiser.
1892. ‘Ouida,’ in Fortn. Rev., LII. 782. ‘Stoking’ … is the one joy which never palls on the human machine, until he pays for it with dyspepsia and gout.
c. attrib., as stoking-hole, -iron, -place, -rod.
1683. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., Printing, xi. ¶ 23. The *Stoking-hole lying far under the Caldron.
1794. Trans. Soc. Arts, XII. 262. The stoking-hole of the furnace.
1876. E. M. Shaw, Fire Protection, 159. *Stoking irons are composed of the following articles, namely:—1 shovel, 1 pricker, 1 rake.
1741. Sympson, Hypocaust, in Phil. Trans., XLI. 856. The Præfurnium, (*Stoking-place).
1901. Daily News, 5 Jan., 3/1. The caretaker brought a long *stoking rod.
