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Locomotive, The Bound Volume 1881 Magazine 12 issues Volume 2
Locomotive, The Magazine bound volume 12 issues 1881
Hard Cover
Pages 194
Copyright 1881
Inspectors reports, boiler explosions, strength of boiler flues, solar boilers, locomotive engineer, India-rubber gathering on the Amazon, Early steam engineering, Corrision of iron and steel, circulation of water ins team boilers, much more.
Jan.
A Midnight Explosion.
The explosion that furnishes the subject of the present sketches was that of a common vertical tubular boiler, used in a light manufacturing establishment in a neighboring city. It was comparatively new, having been used but fifteen months under the charge of licensed engineers, and was tested a few months before by the municipal inspectors at a hydrostatic pressure of 150 lbs., and duly certified as safe at a working pressure of 100 lbs.
Feb.
Explosion of an Iron Works Boiler.
J. M. ALLEN, ESQ., President:
No. 7 Boiler (Horizontal Tubular 5' X 15' at an extensive iron works in this State) exploded Dec. 20th, at about 9.30 A. M. Boiler had on about 60 to 65 lbs. steam. First sheet over fire gave out on side (right) about midway up on side, and started about center of sheet ripping across to girth and head-seams, and thence around those seams, to a corresponding point on opposite side. The torn sheet does not show an opening away from original position over a few inches, and boilers remained inside the setting on the ground, side walls and front and back plates being thrown over on floor of mill. The cause is very evident. They have at several times had low
water in boilers, and have also, contrary to our directions, blown off boilers while brickwork has been hot, thus crystalizing and hardening the iron. At the moment before the accident, they had shut down the engine preparatory to charging
the reheating furnaces.
March
Explosion of a Steam Dome.
On the afternoon of Sunday, January 16, 1881, the head of the dome on one of the steam boilers under the sidewalk at No.- West Eleventh street, New York city, blew out with sufficient force to tear up twenty or thirty feet of the heavy flag stones, iron girders. and gratings, composing the sidewalk and rear entrance-steps to the elegant dry-goods establishment of McCreery & Co., corner of Broadway and Eleventh street.
April
Explosion of two new Horizontal Tubular Boilers.
The accident which is the subject of this report is known as the Newburyport explosion. It occurred in that city (Mass.) on the 27th day of Dec., 1880, and has been freely commented on by a number of New England journals, and fully illustrated in the Boston Journal of Commerce. Figs. 3 and 6 are from that enterprising journal, loaned for this report.
May
Holding Power of Tubes in Steam Boilers.
In the valuable work on Steam Boilers, Their Construction and Management, by William H. Shock, Chief of the Bureau of Steam Engineering, U. S. Navy, is a long and interesting chapter on the holding power of steam-boiler tubes. Numerous experiments are described with tubes set in different ways, with illustrations that are valuable to study. It is not our purpose to enter into a full discussion of this subject, but simply to give the results of some experiments that have been made in our own work, and which may be of service to boiler-makers. Considerable discussion has arisen to the effectiveness of the Dudgeon tube-expander. It has been claimed that by simply rolling in the tubes with this apparatus little holding power was secured. This apparatus has become so generally used by boiler makers that it seemed important that some experiments should be made to ascertain just what the holding power of a tube would be, rolled in by this apparatus. Accordingly, we arranged with H. B. Beach & Son, boilermakers in this city, to prepare for us three (3) specimens composed of tubes three inches external diameter, rolled into i-inch plate in the ordinary way without any expanding other than that produced by the apparatus. The following figure shows the tube as it appeared in section, one-half the original size.
June
The Explosion of a Flue Boiler,
WITH A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE CAUSES ASSIGNED.
BY F. B. ALLEN, M.E.
During the month of December, 1877, an explosion occurred in the city of N. Y., that at the time attracted considerable local attention, from the fact perhaps that the boilers were in the same setting (Fig. 1) with an open steam-pipe connection between them, without valves or cocks by which that connection could be closed, and the pressure increased on one boiler beyond the limits of its strength.
July
The Gaffney & Co. Boiler Explosion.
BY F. B. ALLEN.
[This article was originally prepared for the American Machinist, and appeared in its columns July 23d. Some additions have since been made by the writer relative to the cast-iron head.]
On June 1st, 1881, one of three steam boilers upon premises of Messrs. Gaffney & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., exploded, killing three persons and injuring a number of others. The front boiler head was shattered into four pieces, the line of fracture passing through the man-hole opening radially, and circumferentially through that part of the head adjacent to where the metal had beer reinforced by the thickening up of the flange near its rim. The flange and head seam remained intact (see Figs. 1 and 4). The force of the explosion destroyed the setting and projected the boiler it almost a direct line, and demolislied the building it which it was placed, carrying away all obstacles in it: path. It landed some 500 feet distant from its starting point.
Aug.
Flanging Boiler Heads.
The study of the causes and nature of the defect known as grooving, as well as the character 'and appearance of the fractures which frequently occur in the flanges of heads or tube sheets, and other parts of boilers where flanging is done, leads to the conclusion I that flanges, as ordinarily turned, are very much too sharp, or turned to too short a radius.
Sep.
Lap-Riveted Joints for Steam Boilers.
The subject of riveting boiler plates, although theoretically one of comparative simplicity, would seem, judging from the very great diversity of opinion and practice which prevails among engineers and boiler-makers regarding it, to be one of the most difficult with which the iron worker, and more especially the manufacturer of steam boilers, has to contend.
Oct.
The Explosion of a Badly Corroded Flue Boiler.
Che accompanying cut represents the appearance of a boiler which exploded at the Pendleton Fire Brick `Yorks, at Rochester, Pa., on the 28th day of August last.* The immediate cause of the explosion was the badly corroded condition of the sheets on top of the shell. The initial rupture occurred at the point marked A, Fig. 1, and extended circumferentially entirely around the shell, the portion blown out having the appearance shown at Fig. 2.
Fortunately no one was injured, but the occurrence is a good illustration of the dangers which arise from neglecting the general condition of boilers, and allowing corrosion to go on unchecked until the strength of the shell is destroyed.
The primary causes of corrosion are various. It may attack the exterior surface of boilers and eventually destroy them if it is not arrested. It may arise from contact with lime, contained in the setting, or from dampness, especially when the shell is supported directly on a brick wall which is liable to be wet from any cause whatever. This is particularly apt to be the case when boilers are supported on a "mid-feather" as it is called, which is a wall extending nearly the whole length of the shell underneath, and on which the boiler rests.
Nov.
The Jersey City Explosion.
F. B. ALLEN.
The boiler that exploded was but little over three years old. The iron used in its construction was of good quality, if the mill stamp could be relied upon, and there appeared no reason to doubt it. It was stamped in a number of places, "Best Flange," and C. H. No. 1 shell, 50,000 lbs., Glasgow Iron Works, Pa.
Its principal dimensions were as follows: Length, 16 ft. 4 in. ; diameter, 40 in. ; fire box part, 54 in. long, 60 in. high. The shell was made up of three courses of i-inch iron plates, single riveted, i-inch rivets, heads 174, in. Crown sheet and side sheets of fire-box in one piece, as commonly used in the smaller sizes of this class of boilers. It was 18 in. thick, braced to the wagon-top on areas of thirty-nine square inches, side sheets stayed to the shell by screw stay-bolts fin. diameter, pitched 59x6inches between centers, screwed into both sheets and headed up.
Dec.
Machine Riveting.
There has been no little discussion among engineers as to the relative merits of hand and machine riveting. Those belonging to the old school class of engineers have been slow to recognize any advantage in riveting by machinery, and in many boiler shops band riveting is the practice to-day. Sir William Fairbairn advocated machine riveting more than twenty years ago. He says, "In hand riveting it will be observed, that the tightness of the joint and the soundness of the work depend upon the skill and also upon the will of the workmen or those who undertake to form the joint and close the rivets. In the machine riveting neither the will nor the hand of man has anything to do with it; the machine closes the joint and forms the rivet with an unerring precision, and in no instance can imperfect work be accomplished so long as the rivets are heated to the extent compressible by the machine. This property of unvarying soundness in the work constitutes the superiority of the machine over hand riveting." Sir William says much more, and while in the main his statements are correct there are certain important qualifications which will appear farther on. The machine which he used and which is illustrated in one of the vols. of Useful Information far Engineers, was driven by a belt and far inferior to the steam and hydraulic riveting machines of to-day. Still with this machine he accomplished some good work as is shown by the experiments on the strength of joints riveted up with it. The steam and hydraulic machines as first constructed were too light to accomplish the best results; there was more or less vibration . and consequent imperfection in the joint. This difficulty has been mainly overcome by the additional strength and weight which has been given to the machines.
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