Boiler Explosions. 153 



tions of the country. That some boilers will explode is perhaps 

 inevitable. The increase in the number of those accidents is, in 

 a measure, owing to the increase of the number of boilers in use, 

 and to the greater demand made of them in sustaining high pres- 

 sure. The inference is plain, that improvements in manufacture 

 have not kept pace with this demand. That all boiler explosions 

 are due directly to the inability of the vessel to retain the enor- 

 mous pressure generated just prior to the rupture, all will admit, 

 but indirectly there are many primary causes traceable. (3f the 

 vast number of boilers in use, but comparatively few explode ; for- 

 tunately they are the exceptions. Something certainly enters 

 into the conditions where explosions occur different from those in 

 which they do not. Boilers are in use under so many varying 

 circumstances, that two explosions are seldom traceable to exactly 

 the same causes. Instances are known where boilers have been 

 in constant use tor twenty years, and almost without repairs, 

 while others fail in as many weeks or months. This difference 

 must be due to material, workmanship, quality of water, and the 

 attention they receive. We know that certain causes produce 

 certain effects, and that neglect and carelessness have no business 

 in mechanical matters at all, much less should they be seen about 

 our steam generators. It is simply astounding to know the extent 

 to which ignorance and incapacity are placed in charge of these 

 agents of the public service, which, in the hands of incom- 

 petent men, are about as dangerous as a package of dynamite. 

 That all boiler explosions are due to carelessness and ignorance 

 we do not mean to assert, but that about nine-tenths of them are, 

 is beyond question. 



People are accustomed to think that any thing constructed of 

 iron should "endure forever," merely because made of iron. Well, 

 such an hypothesis may answer in some cases. Experience in the 

 past year alone, however, has taught us, that it is an exceeding 

 unsafe one in connection with steam boilers. That so many in- 

 competent men are found in charge of so many boilers and en- 

 gines, is principally owing to the fact that they are cheap. Cheap- 

 ness seems to be the only required qualification. The scale bal- 

 ances up and down like the beam of a steelyard, intelligence and 



