4 REPORT 1870. 



stances would be powerless; while, even apart from undue influence, and 

 simply from the want of due experience in so important a matter as the 

 construction of steam-boilers, the decisions of local authorities would be 

 frequently contradictory. Such a system would reintroduce the evils we are 

 trying to eradicate from our courts of law, viz. that a verdict given in one 

 couit* is frequently contradicted in another. Though the plan of intrusting 

 the inspection of all the boilers in the kingdom to local authorities might 

 answer in the neighbourhood of some of the large manufacti;riug centres, it 

 would not do so throughout the entire country. 



Plan "No. 3. — Another proposition is, to hand over the duty of inspecting 

 and certifying all the boilers in the kingdom to divers authorized parties, 

 such as accredited boiler-makers, private-inspection associations, insurance 

 companies, &c. This plan would, like the one just referred to, be liable 

 to produce contradictory verdicts, while it has the additional objection that 

 it fails to secure the responsibility of the inspections. To allow certificates 

 to be granted by boiler-makers would be a most invidious course. It could 

 not be a wholesome practice, especially under the influence of keen com- 

 petition, for one maker to be called in to approve or condemn a boiler made 

 by another ; while the fact that 40 per cent, of the explosions that happen 

 are due to malconstruction, shows that boiler-makers are not, after all, good 

 judges in this matter, — a view which is corroborated by the unsatisfactory and 

 contradictory evidence frequently given bj- them at coroners' inquests conse- 

 quent on boiler explosions. Further, it is presumed that every boiler-owner 

 would have to pay for his own certiflcate ; so that on this system the most in- 

 dulgent offices would clearly get the greatest amount of custom, and those which 

 only granted faithful certificates would be driven out of the market by the 

 less scrupulous. Under these circi;mstances it is feared that the sale of 

 certificates would soon degenerate into a sale of indulgences. Besides this, 

 how is this system to be practically worked ? Who is to see that the steam- 

 user has the certificates on his boilers regularly renewed as they fall out ? 

 These certificates would extend for a year only from each " entire " examina- 

 tion, and would lapse at different parts of the year. A steam-user with 

 twelve boilers would want twelve certificates every year ; and one of these 

 might faU out each month. Is the Government to undertake the responsi- 

 bility of seeing that these certificates are regularly renewed ? Is it to inspect 

 the inspectors? Such a plan, it is thought, would be impracticable, while it 

 would be after all but another form of Governmental inspection, and one of a 

 very complicated description. 



Plan No. 4.- — The fourth plan starts on the same basis as the preceding 

 ones, viz. that of rendering inspection compulsory, and recommends that 

 Parliament should enact that no boiler should be worked unless periodically 

 inspected and certified, at least once a year, as safe and trustworthy. Instead, 

 however, of intrusting the duty of carrying out these inspections and 

 granting the certificates to the Board of Trade, or to the town councils, or 

 other local authorities, or to certified boiler-makers, private-inspection asso- 

 ciations, or insurance companies, it proposes that there should be formed a 

 National Steam-Users' Board, and that this Board should be empowered to 

 carry out the system of inspection required, including the granting of certi- 

 ficates, fixing the rate of charge for each boiler, &c. This Board to be an 

 honorary and representative body, about one-half of its members being men 

 of commerce (that is to say, mill-owners or others using boilers for mercantile i 

 purposes), and the remainder to be men of science (that is to say, engineers 1 

 and others competent to advise on matters relating to the inspection of I 



