248 ; Report of the Select Committee 
[Mr. George Dodd was again called in and examined.]} 
For what purpose do you attend ?—To produce a new safety- 
valve. 
What are the advantages attendant on the safety-valve which 
you have to offer to the Committee ?—I propose to the Com- 
mittee the valve I now offer as a second valve, as it admits of 
being locked up so as to be inaccessible to the engine-worker ; 
it prevents the possibility of his obstructing its action, either by 
going into the boiler when the boiler is cool, or under any cir- 
cumstances whatever.— [The witness produced it. | 
Is there any provision against the valve adhering in any part, 
so as to prevent its operation ?—There is; the safety-valve has 
not a conical bottom as is usual in most safety-valves, but has a 
flat bottom resting upon a flat circular ring; the steam escapes 
from the sides of the box through apertures so conataines as 
that nothing can be introduced to impede its action. 
Mr. Ricuarp Wricut’s Evidence. 
Where do you live ?—At No. 62, Blackfriars Road. 
You are an engineer ?—Yes. 
Do you know the cause of the explosion of the Norwich steam- 
boat >—1 do not know it beyond this; that I know that the 
pressure must have been more than seventy-five pounds, having 
seen it worked at that pressure. My supposition is, that the 
man must have had it a vast deal beyond that, for there was no 
appearance of the boiler giving way at that time, and it was only 
a short time previous to the explosion itself. 
Has anybody informed you, that to their knowledge the safety- 
valve of the eugine was on that day, er on any other day, im- 
properly loaded ?—No; but they were frequently in the habit 
of putting an additional weight on the valve ; this man in parti- 
cular, in both the boats which he had occasionally worked. 
Do you know any thing respecting the construction of the 
boiler ?—The boiler was eight feet long ; a cylindrical boiler four 
feet two inches diameter; it was first made with an internal an- 
gle iron at one end, and an external angle iron at the other end. 
In consequence of ‘the internal angle iron having given way, a 
cast-iron end was substituted, which certainly was not done in a 
manner which I should have recommended ; it might have been 
made safe certainly ; any boiler might be made safe. 
Do vou attribute, in any manner, the explosion of that boiler 
to that particular alteration ?—Not at all ; the end, as altered, 
appears to me to have stood more than the end previous to the 
alteration. 
What pressure was the boiler originally calculated to sustain ?. 
—Forty pounds to the inch. 
Which 
