AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 581 



immediate evaporation. As it is well known that deaerated water 

 would not boil, but when it reached a certain point would be 

 instantly converted into steam. This is one of the principal 

 causes of explosion. When the engine stops, the pump being 

 worked by it necessarily stops, the water boils on and the aij* 

 from the bubbles escapes, and becomes incorporated with the 

 steam, evaporation ceases except on the top, remote from the heat- 

 ing surface, and the water becomes much hotter than the steam 

 indicates. The engineer then puts the engine in motion and con- 

 sequently the pump, which forces water into this heated mass, 

 causing a tension of steam that nothing can withstand, and a 

 terrible explosion is the result. 



When the steamship Atlantic, belonging to the Collins line of 

 steamers, was lying at the Novelty Works completing her engines 

 I examined her' boilers very carefully, and found they were novel 

 in their form, being tubular in a vertical instead of horizontal 

 position. The tubes used are constructed of iron and appeared 

 to me to be about four feet long and three inches in diameter, 

 placed in two tiers, one above the other, over two rows of fire 

 places, which vastly increased the boiler surface. The current of 

 heated air in this case is, 1 think horizontal, at all events it 

 should be so. This plan of a boiler seems to me saves fuel, and 

 is not liable to explosion. I would recommend this arrangement 

 of tubes for locomotives as well as stationary and marine boilers. 

 Nearly all the boilers that I have examined were very deficient 

 in room for steam, which induces the water to accompany the 

 steam as it rises, causing of course waste of fuel and loss of 

 power. This is always the case in the boilers of locomotives, and 

 in fact in all cylindrical boilers arranged with horizontal flues. 



The Chairman took the floor and Mr. Pell the cliair. 



Mr. Haswell illustrated upon the black board as he spoke of the 

 operation of water heat and steam in boilers, their condition, &c. 



Dr. Smith remarked upon the importance of some of the papers 

 now before the Club, and their value to the public. They ought 

 to be published extensively. 



A member thought that such papers should be preserved in a 

 manuscript libraiy. 



President Pell took the floor and illustrated by drawings on 

 the black board the boilers of the new Collins steamer Adriatic, 

 with suitable remarks. 



A member complained of the limited number of members of 

 this Club, and the necessity of extensive notice being given. 



[Am. Inst.] 38 



