The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog
The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog
The Locomotive - Lighthouse Survival Blog
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PUBLISHED BY THE HARTFORD STEAM BOILER INSPECTION AND INSURANCE COMPANY.<br />
New Seuu:s— Vol. XIV. HAKTFORD. CONN., APRIL, 1893. No. 4.<br />
An Accident Due to Bad Workmanship.<br />
Readers of <strong>The</strong> <strong>Locomotive</strong> may l)e interested in an accident that came to our<br />
attention a short time ago, and which is fortunately no longer a common one. <strong>The</strong><br />
circumstances of the accident were as follows : — <strong>The</strong> boiler in question was 60 inches<br />
in diameter, and live years old, and had seven tubes in the lowest row. Of these seven<br />
tubes all but the right-hand one had developed leaks just inside the front head, and<br />
had been thirabled. It had been recommended that the six leaky tubes be removed<br />
and replaced by new ones; but before this was done the seventh tube (that is, the right<br />
hand one in the lowest row) suddenlj' failed when tlie boiler was running under fifteen<br />
pounds of steam, the ordinary running pressure being from 75 to 80 pounds. <strong>The</strong> end of<br />
Fig. 1.— A Fragment of the Tube-End.<br />
the tube pulled off, and the tube was drawn back through the head, and deflected towards<br />
the right, so that two-thirds of the diameter of the tube-hole was uncovered. <strong>The</strong> con-<br />
tents of the boiler blew out through this opening, filling the boiler-room with steam<br />
and scalding water, and making it impossible to approach the boiler to haul the fire;<br />
the result being that it was badly burned.<br />
Part of the detached tube-end is shown in Fig. 1, and an examination of the frac-<br />
tured area of it showed that for a considerable time the tube had been held together<br />
only by the merest skin of metal along the inner surface; so that although it had been<br />
on the point of giving out for a long time, it had every appearance of being sound<br />
and good. When the thimbled tubes were removed, they were found to be in a similar<br />
condition, the leaks that had developed in them being caused by pin-holes that had<br />
corroded through from the groove that encircled them just along the inner surface of<br />
the boiler head.<br />
<strong>The</strong> head of the boiler was calipered and found to be a trifle less than -^\ of an inch