Report of the Committee on Steam Boilers. QJ 



contained in a large number of comparatively small compartments, 

 each of which is very strong, and the explosion of any one of which 

 is not likely to result in that widespread destruction of property, and 

 that great loss of life which so frequently follows the explosion of the 

 older and more common forms of steam boilers. 



Your Committee feel confident that the introduction of this class 

 •of steam boilers will do much toward the removal of the cause of 

 that universal feeling of distrust that renders the presence of a steam 

 boiler so objectionable in every locality. The difficulties in thoroughly 

 inspecting these boilers, in regulating their action, and other faults 

 of the class, are gradually being overcome, and the committee look 

 forward with confidence to the time when their use will become 

 general, to the exclusion of the older and more dangerous forms of 

 boilers. 



Tour Committee consider that the competing boilers should be 

 placed in the following order, as respects safety, and they accord 

 them marks on a scale of 10 ; ten representing a perfectly safe boiler, 

 and zero a worthless one : 



3d. 4th. 5th. 



Phleger. Blanchard. Lowe. 



7. 6. 5£. 



2d. Durability. — On this point, as well as the preceding, the Com- 

 mittee can state only their opinion. To make a perfectly reliable 

 determination by actual experiment and observation «is, of course, 

 beyond their power. In their judgment, however, these boilers would, 

 if thoroughly tested, be found to stand in the following order, and to 

 be deserving of the following marks for curability : 

 1st. 2d. 



Koot. Allen. 



9. 8i 



3d. Economy of fuel. 



4th. Capacity for making steam. 



On these two points your Committee felt it their duty to make a 

 careful report, based upon a thoughtfully devised and critically accu- 

 rate series of experiments. 



The usual test of the economy of a boiler and of its capacity for 

 making steam consists simply in determining the quantity of water 

 passing through it and the amount of fuel consumed in the same 

 time, taking the weight of water used per pound of coal as a measure 

 of the economy, and the total amount of water recorded in a given 

 time as a measure of the steaming capacity. 



