The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

46 THE LOCOMOTIVE. [March,
from the middle of the bridge-wall to the buck head, there was a heavy coating of oil
both on the sheets and on the tubes.
"It was easy to see the cause of all the trouble. The building was new, and was
heated from top to bottom by exhaust steam from the engines and pumps. They had
flooded the engines and pumps with oil, and this oil had been carried all through the
building by the exhaust steam, and had been emptied into the boilers together with
the sand and other foreign materials contained in the radiators and pipes. (Of course
there is always more or less oil and other matter in new work of this kind.) Their
mistake was. in not passing all the returns into the sewer for about four weeks, and
in being too lavish with oil in the engines and pumps. If they had opened the boilers
a couple of weeks sooner, or if they had had their boilers properly inspected, their
attention would have been called to the trouble before it was too late. An inspection
would have been of especial value to them, as there are many things that may give
trouble in starting a new plant. These people had all the best modern appliances,
including water-filters and an oil separator; but these were not sufficient to prevent the
accident I have described.
"Another thing which I frequently notice in making calls in the way of external
inspections, is the neglect of the water connections between the gauge-glass and the
boiler. Every engineer is supposed to give his closest attention and care to these con-
nections, but I find that they are sadly neglected by some of the oldest and most experienced
engineers. I called at a plant a short time ago, where the engineer had had
some years of experience. He had been in this plant for a year. I asked him to blow
out the water glass ; and after waiting some time for the water to return, I had concluded
that it was not going to. Presently, however, it came in sight, and after a considerable
time it came up to the proper height in the glass. I asked him to blow it out again,
thoroughly ; and with my watch in hand I timed its return. It took over five minutes
for the water to come in sight. The connection between the boiler and the glass was of
one-inch piping. I asked the engineer how large he thought the opening through this
pipe was. He said he had not thought about that. It was plain that this trouble had
beeu going on for weeks, and yet he had not discovered how long it took the water to
get back into the glass, nor had he given the matter any thought or consideration. If
the water only got back, that was sufficient. I told him the opening could not be much
larger than a knitting needle, and then he began to get his thoughts together. They
had an extra boiler, and the one thing on this engineer's mind, for a little while, was to
get around fast enough, till he could get this extra boiler ready and shut the other one
off and clean out the pipe connections to the water glass. Another case, very similar to
this, came under my notice recently, except that it was worse. There were six boilers in
this battery, and four of the six were in a condition fully as bad as that I have just described
; yet the engineer in charge had been in this plant for years, and considered him-
self well up in engineering.
''Another point I want to speak of, is the importance of having the piping free,
between the steam gauge and the boiler. Such pipes are often long and small, and with
a number of elbows in them. I am frequently called upon to test steam gauges which
are all right when the pipes are cleaned out."
Steam boiler and engine statistics gathered in the German Empire show that, at the
beginning of 1893, there were in operation in that country 81,000 stationary boilers and
78,936 stationary engines.— Power.