1 30 Mr. J. Taylor on the Accidents 



place are so rapidly encrusted with clinker, and the door so 

 frequently kept open to cleanse them, that much of the effect 

 of the fire is destroyed. 



The third class of boilers which have been used in the mines 

 is that which includes Mr. Woolf 's invention of a series of 

 tubes filled witli water and exposed to the fire. These boilers 

 were the subject of one of his patents, and various descriptions 

 of them are to be found in works which treat on these sub- 

 jects. If one objection to them could be surmounted, they 

 would probabl}' be the best description of boilers we know oti 

 but this has caused the use of them to be discontinued ; — the 

 tubes by expanding and contracting not only injure the joints, 

 which must necessarily be numerous, but by sudden influences 

 of the fire the water is displaced in some of them, and the 

 tubes are injured and burst. No other inconvenience has 

 occurred from this than what is occasioned by the frequent re- 

 pairs thus called for; but it amounts of itself to a serious evil. 



Of four accidents by the bursting of steam boilers which have 

 come more under my notice as having occurred in mines where 

 I am interested, and in the last two or three years, I would 

 remark that the boilers were all of the first description. In 

 other respects the circumstances differed very much. They were 

 erected under the superintendence of different engineers, — 

 were made by different manufacturers in parts of the country 

 distant from each other, of materials from various sources ; they 

 were mostly nearly new or not apparently the worse for wear, 

 and were each furnished with a safety-valve and gauge cocks ; 

 though I admit that there is not so much attention to the care 

 of these matters in the boiler-houses of mines as could be 

 wished. 



The first accident was at Wheal Fortune, to one of six boilers 

 which are employed to work the large engine there of 90~inch 

 cylinder. I do not recollect that any thing remarkable oc- 

 curred to observe upon with regard to this ; the injury was li- 

 mited to the boiler itself, and it occasioned no particular dis- 

 cussion. The engineer was Mr. Woolf 



The next was extraordinary from the circumstance of two 

 boilers blowing up at the same moment or nearly so. This hap- 

 pened at Polgooth Tin Mine, where three were employed in 

 the same house to work the engine (80-inch cylinder). The 

 engine had been stopped a short time for some repairs to the 

 pump-work in the shaft; but it seemed clear after the accident, 

 by the most accurate investigation that could be made, that 

 the steam had not acquired any formidable degree of pressure, 

 nor was the water so low as to endanger the tube being im- 

 properly heated. The engineer was Mr. Sims, and the boilers 



