BANQUET. 337 



cide that something was wrong with the salinometers, so I took them off the boilers, put 

 them in the storeroom, and reported to the Navy Department what I had done. They did 

 not even answer my letter. 



We went to sea, and the first day out the water got up to 700 grains of sah per gallon. 

 I was frightened. I was afraid the salt would chew off the connections inside. But I had 

 a nine-day run,, and did not have sense enough to tell the skipper to turn back. I stuck to my 

 chemicals, and I put alkaline substances into the water, to keep it alkali — I put enough in 

 to be sure that I had alkaline water all the time, and took the tests about once an hour. 

 We ran for nine days, and we ended up with 1,700 grains per gallon in the water in the 

 Babcock and Wilcox boilers, but when I opened them up they were as clean as a whistle. 

 There was no sign of corrosion; they were perfectly clean, beautiful boilers. 



We made the return trip under the same conditions and with the same experience. 

 When we got back the boilers were as clean as if no salt had gone into them, and as if 

 they had not been full of sea water, not all the time, but a great deal of the time. 



I was interested to know what could be done in case condensers were not tight, so I 

 took one boiler and ran a test as follows: I lighted fires in it and ran sufficient salt water 

 in it to make a solution which had 400 grains of salt per gallon. I gradually brought the 

 salinity up to 800 grains per gallon and kept the steam on the boiler for four months with 

 the water in that condition. At the end of that time we let fires die out and opened up the 

 boiler. The upper part of the boiler showed no signs of having had salt in the water, the 

 steam drum and the upper tube being clean and in fine condition. It was not until we got 

 down to the three lower rows of tubes that we found any deposit, and this deposit was not 

 hard scale but was a light, fluffy deposit which crumbled when touched and was very eas- 

 ily washed out. 



I do not imply that salt water is a good thing to have in a boiler, but with the present 

 development of the condenser, sooner or later engineers will have to run for short inter- 

 vals with salty water, and when they do they should know what to do to prevent harm to 

 the boilers. I had discovered this because I went at the problem with no preconceived no- 

 tions to prevent me getting to the bottom of the problem. After that test was over I knew 

 I could take care of my boilers no matter what happened, and I made the statement in a 

 letter to the Bureau of Steam Engineering that salt water would not hurt a boiler if proper 

 precautions were taken. Any engineer who knows how to chemically test water and care- 

 fully maintains a slightly alkaline condition in his boilers need have no fear of salt hurtino- 

 his boilers on any run he may have to make. It is of course better to have no salt in the 

 water, but, as I have just said, salt will get in sometimes and the ostrich method of paying 

 no attention to it and trusting to luck will not work. 



I lost one tube, and that tube was lost within a month of the time when it was put into 

 the ship, because the tube was defective from the start, but in three years there was no other 

 tube which showed, by micrometer, that it had lost any material, and the chief engineer said 

 the tubes were as good as when they went into commission. Similar vessels all around 



