Saving Men from Scalding Steam 

 in Steamship Engine Rooms 



THE engine and boiler room forces 

 of a steamship need no longer die 

 like rats in a trap when a steam 

 pipe explodes and fills the compartment 

 with scalding vapor, if the invention of 

 Mr. Ernest H. Peabody and Walter B. 

 Tardy, of New York, is adopted by any 

 of the steamship companies. 



At present the life of coal-passers and 

 engineers is one of extreme hazard, for 

 in modern steamships the engines are 

 driven by forced feed. This means that 

 the boiler rooms are filled with air at 

 a high pressure, driven into the compart- 

 ments by means of a blower, and pass- 

 ing into the fire boxes to give the flames 

 greater heat. To»keep the compartments 

 under this pressure it is necessary for 

 the men to enter or leave by means of 

 air locks, where one door has to be shut 

 before another is opened. This method 

 of entrance and exit is, therefore, very 

 slow, and should the compartment be- 

 come suddenly filled w^ith steam or nox- 

 ious gases, all the men at work could not 

 gain the outer air in time to save their 

 lives. 



In order to obviate this difficulty, the 

 inventors provide a tank extending from 

 the engine or boiler room under the bulk- 

 head to the adjacent compartment. In 

 case of accident the men jump into the 

 tank, and the force of their jump carries 

 them under the bulkhead, which extends 

 several inches under the surface of the 

 water, thus shutting off the gas or steam 

 from the adjacent compartment. When 

 the men rise to the surface, they appear 

 in the safe compartment on the other 

 side, which compartment is fitted with an 

 exit leading to the deck. 



The tank, which is constantly filled 

 with water, is about eight feet deep, 

 thus allowing those escaping to become 

 completely submerged and to pass safely 

 under the bulkhead. The water acts as 

 an effective barrier to the escape of the 

 steam or gases into the adjacent com- 

 partment, and at the same time oflfers 

 a ready means of hasty escape for men 



who may be caught in the room when 

 an accident occurs. 



A modification of the invention is 

 shown in Fig. 2 of the illustration. In- 

 stead of having the tank filled with 

 water, a series of valves are arranged to 

 blow a draught of air from the bottom 

 of the empty tank. This blast will be 

 forced upwards in that side of the tank 

 located in the gas-filled compartment, 

 and will blow back the steam or noxious 

 gases, so that they can not pass under 

 the bulkhead separating the two com- 

 partments. A trap is set in the floor a 

 few inches from the tank, so that the 

 first man to reach the tank will step on 

 the trap and open the air valves. 



Another modification specified by the 

 inventors is the use of a large room be- 

 tween the two compartments, which is 

 operated in the manner of an ordinary 

 air lock, but is so arranged that when 

 the door is opened, a great quantity of 

 water shall be sprayed from sprinklers 

 in the ceiling, as shown in Fig. 3. This 

 water will drive out or condense the 

 steam or gases so that the men may pass 

 through the room in safety. 



Testing Shrapnel Shells in 

 Electric Ovens 



AN electric oven for testing shrapnel 

 shells has been introduced by a 

 Chicago firm. This oven is for use in 

 one of the government arsenals for the 

 purpose of ascertaining the amount of 

 heat which the shells can withstand. 

 For twenty-four hours, each shrapnel 

 shell must be exposed to a temperature 

 of one hundred and twenty degrees 

 Fahrenheit ; and by the use of an auto- 

 matic thermostat the temperature is 

 maintained at this point for the desired 

 length of time. A pilot lamp outside the 

 oven indicates whether the current is on 

 or off. On a continuous test of more 

 than twenty-four hours, the temperature 

 in the oven did not vary more than one 

 degree. 



254 



