BOILER SAFETY STRESSED –

Centuria, Wisconsin

In reading the Mar-April issue of the ALBUM, I read the very
interesting article on Boiler Safety, written by O. H. Neiman of
the Neiman Machine Works, Freeport, Illinois. I would like to hear
more about this thing of Boiler Safety. We all know pretty well
what would happen to our reunions after a fatal boiler mishap. I
don’t think we can over-emphasize the importance of being
careful with ‘our boilers.

I had the experience of taking out the hand holes of a boiler
just a short time after it had passed a State Inspection Test. Prom
the amount of scales in the bottom, I know this boiler had not been
opened up and cleaned for at least two years. This boiler was in a
public building. Let’s open up those boilers at least once a
year and clean them out. Of course, a lot depends on how much they
are used and the kind of water. But, at least once a year,
Fellows!

I went and looked at an engine last year, and one look was
enough. The engine itself didn’t look too bad, but that boiler
was a mess. Those hand holes hadn’t been out for at least 10
years. Maybe a lot of readers will say all that cleaning isn’t
necessary. But I think it’s the least we can do for the safety
of the crowds that patronize our reunions.

I have a set of encyclopedias that were written in the year 1875
and I would like to quote some of its writing on steam boiler
explosions ‘Steam boiler explosions occur as a consequence of
ignorance or carelessness in design, in construction or in
management. Experimental explosions have shown that even low
pressures are sufficient to produce very violent explosions.

‘The Explosion Experiments of Francis B. Stevens in 1871
were considered to indicate: 1. That a most violent explosion may
occur in a boiler well supplied with water. 2. That what is
generally considered a moderate steam pressure may produce a very
violent explosion of a weak boiler containing a large body of
water, and having all its flues well covered. It was reported that
one of the boilers exploded by Mr. Stevens contained 40,000 lbs. of
water; and that when the steam pressure was, as at the time of
explosion, 53 lbs. to the square inch, the heat stored in the
boiler amounted to 2,674,080 British Thermal Units, equivalent in
mechanical energy to about 2,064,389,760 foot pounds, or, if wholly
so expended, sufficient to raise the whole boiler, weighing 70,000
lbs. to a height of 24,491 ft. or more than five miles. , The
conclusion reached was: ‘That it is very certain that the
energy of this explosion and all of its tremendous effects were
principally suddenly liberated at a moderate pressure by the
general disrupture of a steam boiler of very uniform but feeble
strength.’