bulletin - The National Board of Boiler and Pressure Vessel Inspectors

THE WAY WE WERE
36
In the Midst
of Life . . .
NATIONAl BOARD BUllETIN/FAll 2006
I“In the midst of life we are in death.” So says the Book of Common Prayer. And so said a
newspaper reporter on viewing the aftermath of a boiler explosion on April 2, 1914, at the Drummond
Colliery in Westville, Nova Scotia.
On that snow-blanketed day, Number 5 Boiler — one of six boilers used at the colliery — exploded.
The boiler, a little more than 19 feet long and four feet wide, broke in half, nearly destroying the
boiler house, tumbling all the smokestacks, and overturning railway cars loaded with coal. In Westville,
windows rattled. One part of the boiler landed 70 feet from the boiler house; the other part
landed the same distance in the opposite direction.
Seven men, several of whom were eating lunch in the boiler house when the boiler blew up, were
killed and five men injured.
An inquest jury was sworn in to investigate the accident. The jury was told the maximum permissible
pressure on the boiler was 165 psi. The safety valve was set at 100 psi, and pressure was maintained
at 80 psi. Samuel Fisher, the company inspector, said he had inspected the boiler in January, giving
it a thorough hammer test and washing it out, and found nothing wrong. W. C. McDonald, who was
inspector for the Boiler Inspection Company of Canada and who had examined the boiler after the
explosion, was then called to testify. He said the boiler had ruptured on the longitudinal seam of the
first course along the rivets. He was not sure, however, what had caused the explosion, since there
was no sign of overpressure. He recommended a chemical analysis of the boiler plate.
The jury later ruled that it was “unable to determine the exact cause of the explosion but from the
evidence given would say that the boiler plate was not up to standard” and that “the company took
all necessary precautions.”
Have any information about this picture? We would like to know more!
Email getinfo@nationalboard.org.
Thanks to Karen MacLeod of the New Glasgow Library in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia,
for her contribution to this column. v