Page:Report from the Select Committee on Steam Carriages.pdf/75



Mr. Walter Henrick. 5 August, 1831. Supposing that you were going at full work, and that you had occasion to stop for a passenger, you would be obliged to let off steam?—Yes; but knowing from experience how to obviate a disadvantage of this kind, which of course practice alone has brought to bear, it is probable that a stranger would hardly know it, it is so quiet.

In what part would it be thrown off?—It is divided and thrown off from the fire in every direction, and it is instantly consumed; the force is spent.

Is not that rather a dangerous experiment, to throw a great body of steam upon a confined fire?—No, we have never found any disadvantage from it.

In no circumstances in which the Engine may be at work, have you to let off steam in a way to create a noise?—No; the boiler will not hold any quantity of steam; we let off steam from the safety-valve as fast as we make it; there is no capacity for accumulation; the fault of many of the boilers is, that if any accident happens there is a complete explosion.

Then, of course, the danger is lessened?—Yes, to construct a boiler of that kind has been my object so that the steam may be let off.

Suppose if one of your boilers were to burst, what would happen?—I will give the Committee an instance. I was travelling about nine miles an hour at the time the boiler was the twenty-fourth part of an inch thick. I was working then at 100 lbs. on the square inch with 13 persons on the present vehicle that I have now in use, and all of a sudden the Carriage stopped, and for what reason I was at a loss to know; I got from my stage seat and went to the Engineer to ask him what was the reason he had stopped the steam; he told me he had not stopped the Carriage, and he immediately applied his hand to the gauge cocks; I found there was neither steam nor water in the boiler. I immediately knew that the boiler was burst; they said they did not knwknow [sic] it, as they heard no noise, and I told them that I did not mean they should know it. I said I would show them that it was so, and I took the boiler from the carriage and unscrewed it, and there were four large holes that