Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 88.djvu/282

 Saving Men from Scalding Steam in Steamship Engine Rooms

��THE engine and boiler room forces of a steamship need no longer die like rats in a trap when a steam pipe explodes and fills the compartment with scalding vapor, if the invention of Mr. Ernest H. Peabody and Walter B. Tardy, of New York, is adopted by any of the steamship companies.

At present the life of coal-passers and engineers is one of extreme hazard, for in modern steamships the engines are driven by forced feed. This means that the boiler rooms are filled with air at a high pressure, driven into the compart- ments by means of a blower, and pass- ing into the fire boxes to give the flames greater heat. To»keep the compartments under this pressure it is necessary for the men to enter or leave by means of air locks, where one door has to be shut before another is opened. This method of entrance and exit is, therefore, very slow, and should the compartment be- come suddenly filled w^ith steam or nox- ious gases, all the men at work could not gain the outer air in time to save their lives.

In order to obviate this difficulty, the inventors provide a tank extending from the engine or boiler room under the bulk- head to the adjacent compartment. In case of accident the men jump into the tank, and the force of their jump carries them under the bulkhead, which extends several inches under the surface of the water, thus shutting off the gas or steam from the adjacent compartment. When the men rise to the surface, they appear in the safe compartment on the other side, which compartment is fitted with an exit leading to the deck.

The tank, which is constantly filled with water, is about eight feet deep, thus allowing those escaping to become completely submerged and to pass safely under the bulkhead. The water acts as an effective barrier to the escape of the steam or gases into the adjacent com- partment, and at the same time oflfers a ready means of hasty escape for men

��who may be caught in the room when an accident occurs.

A modification of the invention is shown in Fig. 2 of the illustration. In- stead of having the tank filled with water, a series of valves are arranged to blow a draught of air from the bottom of the empty tank. This blast will be forced upwards in that side of the tank located in the gas-filled compartment, and will blow back the steam or noxious gases, so that they can not pass under the bulkhead separating the two com- partments. A trap is set in the floor a few inches from the tank, so that the first man to reach the tank will step on the trap and open the air valves.

Another modification specified by the inventors is the use of a large room be- tween the two compartments, which is operated in the manner of an ordinary air lock, but is so arranged that when the door is opened, a great quantity of water shall be sprayed from sprinklers in the ceiling, as shown in Fig. 3. This water will drive out or condense the steam or gases so that the men may pass through the room in safety.

Testing Shrapnel Shells in Electric Ovens

AN electric oven for testing shrapnel shells has been introduced by a Chicago firm. This oven is for use in one of the government arsenals for the purpose of ascertaining the amount of heat which the shells can withstand. For twenty-four hours, each shrapnel shell must be exposed to a temperature of one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit ; and by the use of an auto- matic thermostat the temperature is maintained at this point for the desired length of time. A pilot lamp outside the oven indicates whether the current is on or off. On a continuous test of more than twenty-four hours, the temperature in the oven did not vary more than one degree.

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