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Fuel blocks like this were made from coal dust, crushed small coal and tar pitch. They were formed into blocks and sent all around the world.

Marian Milewski worked at one of the factories that made the fuel blocks: "One of my jobs in the docks was in the fuel works. I stayed nine years, stacking them at the beginning and at the end I was shift foreman. We'd take the small coal, crush it, boil and mix it with tar pitch and then make it into briquettes, 12 inches by six. They were sent all over the world. You always had pitch on your skin and when you went into the sun it would burn your skin. They gave you cream, it helped, but not completely."