A decision on the furnace breath should be judged by what happens at the north furnace aisle in the communal ironworks. The docket is at step 5 of the current review. Its latest entry reads: A second set of hands has checked the count and recorded where the methods differ. A rule that looks complete in the chamber can still leave the people who use it carrying an unmeasured cost.
32 cooling pauses per completed charge were entered this cycle, compared with 29 in the prior file. That comparison matters because the public summary counts entries. The open question is whether the new fuel mix can cut smoke without requiring a longer hot shift.
The mill measures fuel by charge; the crew says time spent clearing a slow draft is missing from that total. The current record does not settle that disagreement. The objection deserves a direct answer, but it is not a reason to make the rule permanent before the affected residents can check the method.
Maela Dorn checked the furnace heat marks and the crew’s pause-and-return log against the field notes. The method is to follow the task through a complete shift, including the cleanup after the bell; it confirms the entries, but not every interpretation attached to them. The practical evidence is a soot line on the draft door that shifts when the intake starts to narrow; any new measure should record that condition beside the total.
The chamber should approve a limited trial with a published end date, a way to record exceptions and a named reviewer. The next trial will record both charge time and the minutes spent clearing the intake. That is the narrowest decision that can be defended from the evidence now available.
