_To the Editor of the Scientific American_:
As long as I have been a reader of the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN I have been
pleased with the manner in which you investigate and explain the cause
of any boiler explosion which comes to your knowledge; and I have
rejoiced when you heaped merited censure upon the fraudulent
boilermaker. In your paper in December last you copied a short article
on "Conscience in Boilermaking," in which the writer, after speaking
of the tricks of the boilermaker in using thinner iron for the center
sheets than for the others, and in "upsetting" the edges of the plates
to make them appear thicker, goes on to say: "We call attention to this,
because the discovery of such practice has made serious trouble between
the boilermaker and the steam user. We would not believe that there were
men so blind to the duties and obligations which rest upon them as
to resort to such practice, but the careful inspector finds all such
defects, and in time we come to know whose work is carefully and
honestly done, and whose is open to suspicion. In States and cities
where inspection laws are in force that give the methods and rules by
which the safe working pressure of a boiler is calculated, there is no
alternative except to follow the rules; and if certain requirements
regarding construction are a part of the law, there is no authority or
right to depart from it, and yet there are boilermakers who try to force
their boilers into such localities when their work is not up to the
requirements of the law."
Now, if some boilermakers are so dishonest as to try and impose upon the
locomotive engineer, who they know will carefully examine every part of
his boiler, and who is able to detect any flaw, it is not to be expected
that the farmer will escape. Nor does he. The great number of explosions
of boilers used in thrashing and in other farm work proves that there
are boilermakers who "force their boilers into such localities
when their work is not up to the requirements of the law." And the
boilermaker, if he be dishonest, is doubly tempted if the broad width of
a continent intervenes between him and the farmer for whom his work is
intended, and if in the place where the boiler is to be used there are
no inspection laws in force. The farmer who lives many miles from a
city, and who has no means of testing any boiler he may purchase,
is wholly at the mercy of the boilermaker, and must run it until it
explodes or time proves it to have been honestly made. Then, again,
there are boilermakers who, although making boilers of good iron and of
the proper thickness, finish them off so badly that the farmer is put to
great inconvenience and expense to put them in working order. Two years
ago I purchased a straw-burning engine and boiler made by an Eastern
firm. Before it had run ten days the boiler began to leak at the
saddle-bolt holes. The engineer tightened the nuts as far as possible,
but could not stop the leaks, which at last became so bad that we had to
stop work and take the engine to the shop. Upon taking off the saddle
and taking out the bolts it was discovered that they were too small for
the holes in the boiler, and that they had been wrapped with candle wick
and white lead to make them fill the holes, and that a light washer had
been put on each bolt between the head and the inside of the boiler.
This washer kept the lead in its place, and prevented the boiler from
showing a leak when first fired up. The water pipes in the fire-box soon
gave out and became utterly useless. Upon inquiring of the patentee of
this straw-burning device, who was supposed to have put it in my boiler,
he stated that he had had nothing to do with it, but that it was put in
by the firm selling these engines, and "as cheaply as possible." Before
I got this boiler and engine in fair running order I had spent hundreds
of dollars and had to do entirely away with the water grates.
Last summer, needing another tharshing engine, I was induced to buy
one of the same make as my old one, but with a different straw-burning
device. The firm who sold it to me agreed that it should have none of
the faults of the old one. Well, I got it, and, upon hauling it out to
my ranch, and getting up steam, I found it to be much worse than the
first one I had bought. The boiler leaked at nearly every hole where
a tap had been screwed into it. It took an engineer, a boilermaker, a
blacksmith, and a fireman several days to get it in shape so that we
could use it at all; and after we did start up, the boilermaker had
to be sent for several times to stop new leaks that were continually
showing themselves.
I send you by this mail for your inspection one of the saddle bolts and
one of the bolts taken out of the piston, and also the certificates of
the engineer, boilermaker, and machinist who repaired the boiler. In
justice to my fellow-farmers I ought to publish these certificates and
the names of these boilermakers to the world, but, for the present at
least, I refrain from so doing. These boilermakers will see this article
and they will know, if the public does not, for whom it is intended. If
it has the effect of making them exercise more care in the construction
and fitting up of their engines and boilers, I have not written in vain.