Why change?

I have had a couple questions as to why I changed my burner position. I have wanted to try this diagonal position for a long time but haven't gotten around to it. I have also thought it would be cool to have 4 burners firing in from each corner. It seems the diagaonal placement is big in the UK on salt and soda kilns. I am thinking this comes from Peter Starkey who wrote a very good book on salt glazing back in the 70's. I had checked it out for a while from the ASU library. Starkey's kiln design had this diagonal placement. (I think). Boy, I'm not doing very well with my facts. Who cares...okay, to continue...more recent books like Phil Roger's Salt Glazing and Rosemary Cochrane's Salt Glaze Ceramics show lots of UK kilns with this arrangement. My kiln with the burners in the back, firing towards the front, has always been cooler in the back. Also lots of the salt/soda gets blasted up towards the front and so those pots get hammered. (I cut back on my gas pressure when I salt but this doesn't seem to help a lot). So my thinking is that the diagonal placement would help with evening up the heat, and also distrubuting the sodium better. Or at least in a different way. I haven't seen this arrangement in the US , except at Clary Illian's and in the four burner case at Blair Meerfeld's pottery in Colorado. Gail Nichol's in her new book on soda glazing favors the four burner set up. Ruthanne Tudball, the Queen (in my opinion) of Soda, has the diagonal set up. So anyhow that's my reasons for wanting to try the diagonal setup.

However it seems I will not be doing so on this firing. Yesterday upon further inspection, and after moving the burner back to the back, I found the problem to be with the burner orifice, not necessarily the positioning. The flame was burning out around the mixer which must have became loose or wasn't properly seated. I fixed this easily and now it is burning properly. I have disconnected my line up to the front of the kiln and do not feel like going to all the trouble to reconnect it. (I just want to get this firing over with). So for now I'll be back to my old setup.

What a long, not very concise answer.
I'll fire tomorrow, (keep your fingers crossed) and will post results soon.
Best, Ron