443 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[November, 



that may be caused by a good-natured effort at being amusing; they 

 not unfrequently commit solecisms — but these, perliaps, are produced 

 by sympathy with university prrjudicis ; they cite decrees, and coun- 

 cils, and rubrics, in preference to Scripture — but this m.iy be because 

 the devil has taken to quoting the latter. But for using architecture 

 as the insidious vehicle of tenets altogether incongruous there can be 

 no excuse. They who wilfully conceal new doctrines in old garments 

 are guilty of cowardice and dishonesty — cowardice in not avowing 

 their sentiments, and dishonesty in disguising them. 



EXPLOSION ON BOARD THE " GIPSY QUEEN." 

 It is cur painful fluty to record a frightful and fatal accident which oc- 

 curred on Tuesday, Nov. 12, involving the death of Mr. Jacob Samuila (well 

 known on account of bis connection ttith the Atmospheric Railway), and 

 nine other persons ( n board iho steam-boat the Giiisij Queen, lying at the 

 mooring buoy, olV Brunswick M'barf, Blackball ; in consequence of one of the 

 ioinis of the steam-pipe leading from the boilers to the cylinders giving way 



as explained in the evidence 

 liereafter given. The Gipsy 

 Queen is a new iron boat of 

 about 500 tons buithen, re- 

 cently built by Messrs. Jacob 

 and Joseph Samuda, wih a 

 pair of engines of the collec- 

 tive power of ISO-horses (no- 

 minally) on the bell-crank 

 principle as patented by Mr. 

 Jacob Samuda, and reported 

 in our Journal for January 

 last, p. 37. For the sake of 

 reference we again give the 

 engraving. 

 It appears from the evidence that the explosion, J/?~\\ \ 

 was in no way connected with the construction of ' 

 cither the engines or the boilers, but simply in the 

 method of making the joints, or rather in the fixing, 

 of the steam-pipe leading from the boilers to the 

 cylinders. On the day of the accident the vessel 

 ran down the river to try the engines, which it is 

 stated worked admirably and perfectly satisfactory 

 to all parties present, that during the trip the steam 

 was not mote than 10 lb. pressure, although the 

 safety valves were represented to have been loaded 

 with 251b. on the square inch ; after the vessel had 

 made the trial trip, she was moored off Blackwall, 

 when Mr. Jacob Samuda felt desirous to try what 

 effect high steam »t 25 lb. pressure would have upon 

 the boiler; it was during this experiment that the 

 fatal accident occurred. In order to render the evi- 

 dence intelligible, we have borrowed of our contem- 

 porary, the Mechanics' Magazine, the four annexcJ 

 engravings, showing the pipe and the joint. 



Fig. 1 is a plan, or top view, of tlie pipe. Fig. 2 

 a side view. Fig. 3 a perspective of the bent pipe 

 at the angle. A is the vertical pipe leading to the 

 cylinder ; B the steam-pipe from the boilers : C the 

 intermediate steam-pipe ; b b joints of the flange 

 description; c and d socket or spigot and faucet 

 joints. Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of the socket or 

 spigot and faucet joint, d, being the one which is 



Fig. 4. represented as having given way first; the 



part indicated in black is the place occu- 

 pied by the ring or bead which was ori;^i- 

 nally on ihe end of the pipe, and in the evi- 

 dence stated to have been chipped niu]Jiled 

 away ; the joint was packed with hempand 

 tallow, and surrounded with a gland to pre- 

 vent the packiny being forced out by the 

 steam. It is very evident from this de- 

 scription, that we have a packing very si- 

 milar to that round a pistiin rod, and in 

 consequence of llie bead being cut away, a 

 very low pressure of sleam would lift the 

 elbow piiie out of its place; if the pipe be 

 10 inches diameter the area is equal to 78J 

 inches, anil with a (pressure of steam at 

 10 llj. I here' would be an upward pressure of 



:t 



A' I 



7851b., consequently, if the pipe was not strapped down, it is very evident 

 that the elbow pipe would be lifted out of its socket in the manner the acci- 

 dent is represented to have occuired. There appears to be some astonishment 

 exhibited by all paities at the inquest at the bead being cut away and filed, 

 but not a word was said about the gland, if the latter was in one piece it is 

 evident that ihe bead was cut away to get the gland on the pipe, but if the 

 gland had been made with two hemicircles and a ring under, also in two 

 pieces, and placed so as to break joint, it might then have been put on 

 without the bead being cut away ; if the annexed drawing be a correct 

 view, of which we have no doubt, it is very evident that the gland 

 was in one piece, and consequently it accounts for the chipping away of the 

 bead on the end of the pipe. It is also stated in tlie evidence that the 

 spigot and faucet joint is necessary to allow for expansion of the metal ; for 

 this purpose i to | of an inch in a pipe 30 feet long, would be ample play, and 

 in a vertical pipe 10 feet long .} of an inch; but the principal necessity of 

 such joints is to avoid derangement when the \ease\ taltes ground; in such 

 case iron cement joints, as recommended by one of the witnesses, would give 

 way and be perfectly useless. We, therefore, under all the circumstances, 

 cannot see any objection to the socket or spigot and faucet joint, provided it 

 be made with a bead on the end of the pipe, and a proper gland. To the de- 

 fect of the latter do we attribute the awfid accident ; having offered these 

 observations, we shall now proceed to quote the evidence given before the 

 coroner, Mr. Baker, at the inquest held upon the bodies of the sufferers. 



THE INQUEST. 



Mr. G. Low, an engineer on board of the vessel at the time of the accident, 

 stated that she had two engines worked with two cranks, without an inter- 

 mediate shaft. They are difi'erent from ordinary engines. Are both direct 

 acting engines, and beam-engines. The common beam-engine has cylinders 

 standing athwart the ship, and are parallel with the shafts, but the engines 

 in the Gipsi/ Queen stand fore and aft the boat, with the shafts at right 

 angles, and not parallel at all. Thought that they were not more dangerous 



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IP 3 



PiffZ. 



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Fii/3. 



than the ordinary steam-engine. The beam of the common sleam-engine 

 oscillated in its centre, while the beam in Messrs. Samuda's engine had a 

 motion af the end. In fact, there were two separate beams. He believed that 

 Messrs. Samuda were, in making these engines, under contract to use all the 

 serviceable parts of the engine of an old sleainer which the new one was to 

 replace. But whether portions of the old engine were used did not know. 

 Could not say what they were called, as they were not worked up to the 

 power they were intended to be worked at. They were condensing engines. 

 The engines were never working higher than 10 lb. to Ihe inch all the while 

 he looked at the gauge, till Ihey stopped at the F.ast India Docks. The 

 number of strokes she gave was from 20 to 24 per minute. The safety valve 

 would not rise at a pressure of 10 lb. to the inch. The maximum pressure 

 calculated to go before any mischief might be apprehended was stated by Mr. 

 Samuila at 40 lb. to the inch. He (witness) supposed she was working on 

 Tuesday at nearly 200- horse power. The diameter of Ihe cylinder was 45 

 inches, and Ihe struke was (as the reporter understood) 41 feet. The engines 

 wer« tti«d on Ihe Friday previous. She was tried at lier moorings. Could 



