Page:The Locomotive (IA locomotive22hart).pdf/7

The Locomotion

PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD STEAM BOILER INSPECTION AND INSURANCE COMPANY.

Vol. XXII. HARTFORD, CONN., JANUARY, 1901 No.1. A Boiler Explosion from Low Water.

Whenever a boiler explodes the general public concludes, without further evidence, that the cause of the explosion was low water. Usually the fireman is blamed for it, especially if the poor fellow was unfortunate enough to be killed, so that he cannot testify on his own behalf; but this particular corollary of the theory is not essential. The one thing that everybody is certain of is that the water was low and the plates red- hot, and that somebody then proceeded to pump in some cold feed water. The first gush of feed water that struck the hot plate is supposed to have instantly passed into steam, causing an enormous increase in pressure, and bursting the boiler.

Fig.1.Showing the Exploded Boiler.

This theory is simple enough to satisfy any one, and it can be understood by anybody, no matter how unmechanical he may be. For these reasons, we suppose,it has fastened itself on the public so securely that they will have nothing else, and any attempt to explain the explosion in any other way is regarded with disfavor. It may be that there is evidence that plenty of water was present, and that the line of fracture passed through a serious and obvious defect in the material, or through an area where the plate was dangerously thinned by corrosion; and yet it is hard to make the average