298 



FAKMS AND LIVE-STOCK IN THE UNITED STATES. 



When the discharge-valve was opened at 235 pounds 

 pressure it caused an instantaneous explosion of the 

 boiler. An examination of what w r as found of the 

 wreck proved that the boiler let go at no particular 

 place first, but that it simply blew into fragments at 

 one and the same time. The iron which was found 

 was torn and twisted into every conceivable shape 

 strips varying in size from half an inch to one inch in 

 width, and from three inches to two feet in length, 

 were found in every direction. 



This boiler, according to the tensile strength of the 

 iron, would have carried a pressure of 430 pounds be- 

 fore it would have ruptured, and when it exploded, 

 although it had but 235 pounds pressure to the square 

 inch in it prior to the opening of the discharge-valve 

 at the moment of explosion, there must have been a 

 force at least equal to 430 pounds to the square inch 

 exerted. 



What seemed most singular about this explosion 

 was that the boiler did not tear at the seams, the 

 weakest parts, but the tearing was pretty much all 

 done at the solid parts of the iron, and in no particular 

 direction. 



In making the foregoing report, we have carefully 

 refrained from obtruding any theories of our own. 

 We have simply confined ourselves to the facts as 

 they occurred, preferring to leave the world to draw 

 its own conclusions. 



Kespectfully submitted : 



JOHN FEHKENBATCH, 

 U. S. Supervising Inspector of Steam-Vessels. 



GEOKGE H. ATKINSON, 

 U. S. Inspector of Boilers of Steam-Vessels. 

 ALONZO S. BATCHELOE, 

 U. S. Assistant Inspector of Boilers of Steam- 

 Vessels. 



Having been requested by the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to make a supplemental report, 

 giving their opinion of Mr. Lawson's theory of 

 boiler-explosion, the commissioners did so, 

 indorsing not only the theory in question, but 

 the mode of boiler- construction devised by Mr. 

 Lawson. In this report the commissioners 

 say: 



As to the merits of the claims made for Mr. Law- 

 son's theory of steam-boiler explosions, in our opin- 

 ion their validity was fully established. . . . We are 

 convinced that the attachment to a boiler of a dia- 

 phragm such as, or similar to, the one employed while 

 making the experiments, will, in a great measure, 

 remove the dangers which now surround the manage- 

 ment and use of steam-boilers. A boiler with such 

 an apparatus attached is safer, for the reason that no 

 concussions can take place in it. A.side from this it 

 strengthens the boiler, and in addition thereto it pro- 

 duces dry steam, a great desideratum in the running 

 of steam-engines. The experiments made have not 

 proved the theory, held by many, that low water is the 

 cause of boiler-explosions, to be correct. 



F 



FAEMS AND LIVE-STOCK IN THE 

 UNITED STATES. The statistics of the num- 

 ber of farms in the States and Territories of 



the United States, with the live-stock upon 

 them, are shown by the following returns of 

 the census of 1880 : 



FARMS. 



The great increase in the number of farms 

 from 1870 to 1880 in the Northern, Western, 

 and Pacific States, and the Territories, is ex- 



plained by the rapid settlement of those re- 

 gions during the past decade. The great in- 

 crease in the late slave States, especially in the 



