The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog

190 THE LOCOMOTIVE. [December,
Such is the narrative in the Morning Post, and we have not seen the process;
but the likenesses which have been produced by the former system are so absolutely
fearful, that we have but little hope of ever seeing anything tolerable from any
machine. It must want color, it must want living expression, it must want the
play of features, which the pencil has the singular power of seizing and fixing;,
and its best likeness can be only that of a rigid bust, or a corpse. All expression,
except that of fright, is impeded by the jjowerful glare to which the face must
be exposed; for the eyes must be kept all but shut, and the features rigid and wrinkled
to keep them so. We altogether doubt that any contrivance of the kind will
produce a portrait half so good, natural, or expressive, as a decent artist might produce
with a burnt stick. Still it is worth trying for a while, improving it, if it can
be improved, and if not, worth throwing away or turning to button making. —
BlachwoocVs Edinburgh Review for April, 1842, under topic, "Things of the Day."
Red-Hot Crown-Sheets.
In the April issue of The Locomotive we gave a translation of Alfredo Gilardi's-
paper on "Leideufrost's Phenomenon,'' in the course of which (on p. 56) there
occurs the following passage: " This same conclusion was reached by the engineers of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, who tried to bring about an experimental explosion by
injecting cold water into the boiler of a locomotive whose crown-sheet was dry, and
red-hot. The cold water had hardly been introduced when the pressure fell, and natu-
rally the explosion did not take place, though the furnace had been so highly heated
that it was afterwards useless."
A correspondent having asked us for the details of these experiments, we commu-
nicated with Mr. J. M. Cains, superintendent of motive power of the Pennsylvania Rail-
road, and received from him the following courteous reply
" To the Editor of The Locomotive,
"Dear Sir:
Hartford, Conn.
" I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of November 25th, inquir-
ing about certain ex^^erimeuts made by the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, concerning
the effect of spraying feed water on red-hot crown-sheets of locomotive boilers; and in
reply I would say that I cannot refer you to any book or journal in which there is an
account of these experiments, nor am I aware that any account of them has been published.
"The tests you refer to were made in Aj^ril, 1868, at Kittauniug Point, the object
being to blow up a boiler by introducing cold water on a red-hot crown-sheet, the maximum
steam pressure being on the boiler at the time. The experiments were conducted
in this way: The boilers were fired up until 125 pounds of steam were obtained and the
water was low, and then through 1,000 feet of hose cold water was forced into the
boiler by means of a steam fire-engine ; and every attempt at exjjloding the boiler in
that manner failed. Two boilers were experimented on, the first one becoming leaky
after several trials, and being of no further use in that way. The second boiler was-
tried a few tiiaes, and finally blew up when least expected, seemingly from excessive
pressure and weakened fire-box. The crown-sheet blew down and the boiler turned a
complete somersault, and then rebounded and fell down the side of a hill, the spectator*
scattering very fast and seeking shelter behind convenient trees. Nobody was hurt.
"We have not been able to find any data on these experiments from our records^
and what information is contained herein, is from memory.
Yours truly, J. M. Cains, Supt. Motive Power, P. R. R."
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