WATER TUBE BOILERS. 603 



11. _A FEW NOTES ON WATER TUBE BOILERS, WITH 

 RESULTS OF SOME TRIALS ON A NEW FORM 

 OF WATER TUBE BOILER. 



Bp J. T. NOBLE ANDERSON, C.E. 



Plate XVIII. 



The history of water tube boilers is much too long and of hardly 

 sufficient interest to justify more than a few passing remarks on 

 the present occasion. Almost simultaneously with the invention 

 of the boiler as separate from the steam engine we find inventors 

 advocating the use of water tube boilers. It is now more than 100 

 years since water tube boilers of the two standard types of to-day 

 were first patented, namely, (1) boilers in which water jackets 

 around or above the furnace were connected by water tubes 

 situated across the fire, and (2) boilers in which coiled water tubes 

 Avere situated in a firebox. Since that time the development of 

 water tube boilers seems to have been effected chiefly in America. 

 In Great Britain during the middle of the present century several 

 boilers of this type were used, such as Gurney's, Perkin's, and 

 Craddock's. Of these Perkin's boiler alone gained a permanent 

 foothold on the market, being considerably used in boilers for fire 

 engines on account of the rapidity with w'hich steam could be 

 raised in the water tubes. 



A great point in favor of these boilers which helped to win the 

 day in America was the immunity from serious accidents which is 

 obtained by its use. Considering the national character, one is 

 rather surpiised that this point should carry more weight in 

 America than in Phigland, and the natural inference is that boilers 

 of other types were constructed in a stronger and better fashion in 

 England than in America. 



The conservatism of the Briton is often compared unfavorably 

 with the inventive boldness of his American cousins or the 

 ingenuity of his continental neighbors. Much of the British 

 conservatism is no doubt due to the thorough and workmanlike 

 manner in Avhich so many of England's mechanical achievements 

 have been executed. The completeness and satisfactory results of 

 such achievements make them difficult to xaxy, and render the 

 manufacturer jealous of any alteration in his design. In America, 

 on the other hand, being a new country, people are accustomed to 

 many changes and too frequently adapt makeshifts. In consequence 

 the character of their work is different. An English workman 

 Avill make every link of his chain so strong that there can be no 

 danger from its breaking : an American would prefer to begin by 

 seeing his chain break, " just to know where it would go." 



'J he following report is characteristic of American methods (it 

 was made by a committee of the Franklin Institute on the Harrison 

 boiler, November 12th, 1866) : — "These boilers are of cast iron. 



