708 Transactions of the American Institute. 



adequate cause for the most violent explosions. I hold that the great 

 Creator has given man means to control the elements, and that we may 

 bring steam under absolute control. Mr. C. Wye Williams has illus- 

 trated the behavior of water in a boiler, and shown that when sepa- 

 rate channels are not afforded for the ascending and descending cur- 

 rents, there is violent intermittent action. Steam does not conduct 

 heat; and there is a film of steam formed between the iron and the 

 water, first exceedingly thin, but which may become two inches thick. 

 When this is broken through by the intermittent action, there is a 

 tremendous force. Water, though fluid, is adequate, when thrown 

 in bulk, to break any piece of iron that can be constructed. I have 

 known one boiler out of fourteen to explode at a pressure of forty- 

 five pounds. The boiler had borne seventy pounds for a year, but 

 had a defective sheet, and the differential expansion had weakened it 

 until it gave way. It is remarkable, if electricity is the cause of 

 explosions, that it should always find the weakest boilers, and the 

 weakest places in the boilers. 



Mr. Wiard — It is utterly impossible that there should be a film of 

 steam formed between the water and the iron. You can make a 

 plate of iron so hot that when you throw water upon it there will be 

 no contact, the water taking the spheroidal condition ; but you can- 

 not heat the iron while water is in contact with it, so as to drive the 

 water away. 



Mr. Woodson cited instances where he believed such a film had 

 been formed. 



The President — The writer of this paper says he does not believe 

 that water will flash into steam. It is an established fact that if the 

 pressure is high enough to prevent steam from forming, when the 

 temperature is above 212 degrees, on removing the pressure, steam is 

 instantly formed, sufficient to take up all the surplus of heat. 



Mr. W. E. Partridge — It may be interesting to state the figures. 

 If we reduce the pressure instantaneously in a boiler from twenty-five 

 pounds to the square inch to fifteen pounds, twenty-one per cent of 

 the water in the boiler will be changed into steam at the reduced 

 pressure ; and this will increase the bulk of the whole of the water 

 sixteen times. 



Mr. Wiard — And no matter whether it is done suddenly or slowly. 



The President — One point of this paper is that electricity fills the 

 celestial spaces instead of ether. Electricity is not a fluid. It is a 

 force, manifested both through the ether and through solid, pondera- 

 ble matter. It is difficult for dynamic electricity to leap through ether. 



