22 APPENDIX. 



violently through the apertures into the engine-room, when the water is below the mouth of 

 the pipe, will not only arouse the attention of those below, but will alarm the people who 

 are at all times on watch on deck : there could then be no false account of the neglect, 

 which would thus be publicly made known. Time will thus be afforded either to shut the 

 valves or cocks, or to haul out the fires, when the boilers will be safe. 



Instances have often occurred of cocks being re-opened by the engineer instead of shut : 

 now in vessels, as fitted by some engineers, cocks may be shut when turned half round, and 

 by others, with the common two-way cocks, which are shut only when turned one quarter of a 

 circle ; thus, by force of habit, a person may inadvertently, in a strange vessel, re-open 

 instead of shut a cock, and think all secure ; it is the work of a moment, and this I 

 have seen take place. 



Mr. Kingston, by a very simple contrivance, applicable to any of the ordinary blow-off 

 cocks, entirely prevents this occurrence. A fork, or two horns, are fitted to the bottom of the 

 common socket-spanner, which project so as to meet the pipe or shell of the cock, when it must 

 be either open or shut, an opening of the figure of the socket and its horns being made in a plate 

 which covers the cock, for that purpose. When the cock is open, the horns are beneath the 

 plate, and of course the spanner cannot be withdrawn ; so that a general order being given by the 

 chief engineer to every person connected with the engine-room, that the spanner is on no account 

 to be left in its place, it is clear that any one removing it must leave the boilers safe ; and its 

 situation being generally in the middle of the stoke-hole, if an engineer's attention by day or 

 night should happen to be called off, a fireman will, on observing it, be aware that all is not 

 right, and will act accordingly. By adopting these precautions, which should be general in 

 sea-going vessels, and are attainable at little cost, accidents which they are immediately 

 intended to ward off will rarely be heard of; they scarcely could occur without the grossest 

 neglect under such arrangements. 



Glass water-gauges are useful, to show by inspection the height of the water in the boilers ; 

 but unless treated with great care, they will get out of order, and cease to be of service. 

 Copper floats are much to be recommended, with an index to each appearing in the front of 

 the boilers, the oscillation of which can be well observed night and day by every one below, 

 and generally from the deck as well : floats seldom get out of order if properly made and 

 attended to. Many boilers have owed their safety to the timely warning of the floats when 

 feeding-pumps have ceased to act, and I am not acquainted with any real practical objection 

 to their general use. I have known the feed to be regulated for days together, at sea, by 

 floats, with great nicety; but this office I should not recommend, the levers requiring to be 

 adjusted according to the varying state of the weather and speed of the engines. These 

 ostensible indicators of the quantity of water in the boilers should be fitted to every vessel 

 without exception ; their just performance depends entirely on the care of the engineers. 



Reverse valves, for the admission of air into the boilers when the vapour has less force than 

 the atmospheric pressure, should never be less than four inches in diameter, and should be 

 carefully cleaned and set in order prior to each voyage ; as (for they are rarely tight) the dirt 

 and salt congeal around the spindles and gear to such an extent as to soon render them useless 

 in case of need : I have never seen them act spontaneously, even when the steam-gauge has 

 been an inch below zero ; and recent injury, to a great extent, by the collapsing of a boiler 



