EXPLOSION OF STEA3I BOILERS. 507 



prosecute him;" at the same time the facts in this case as related to the 

 writer by the previous attendant of the boiler, were such as to have con- 

 demned the proprietors to several years penal servitude, under the " boiler 

 law" of Prussia. 



Coupled with the lack of legal inspection, the general location of boilers 

 in many of our large manufacturing establishments is reprehensible in the 

 highest degree. In the city of Cincinnati there is a certain establishment 

 covering a superfice of 300x200 feet, and lifting skywards seven stories. 



Each of the floors except the basement, contains a small army of work- 

 men, and thousands of dollars worth of costly materials and manufactured 

 goods in various stages of completion. In the basement about as central as 

 posts and stone pillars would permit, is located the battery of boilers fur- 

 nishing the power to drive the machinery. Let us suppose an explosion in 

 this case, what would be the probable results ? Is it to be imagined that any 

 large portion of the several hundred workmen shut up in this miniature 

 Yesuvius would escape whole ? By no means. Let the slender threads now 

 linking safety to disaster loose their hold, and the pent up volcano would 

 burst forth pouring human lava through the vent. Such an occurrence 

 would fall upon the community like a mantle of darkness, and great would 

 be the desire to locate the blame soynewhere. The coroner would assume an 

 air of marvelous concern, and swear by the party that put him in office, 

 that the affair should be j^robcd to the quick, and the fault brought home to 

 its father, "though angels weep." To this end a jury would be struck, 

 composed. of distinguished citzens, with a plentiful lack of information ou 

 the questions to be brought before them, who after the usual delays would 

 "on with the quest." 



The picture may be highly colored, but the outlines are lifelike, as any 

 one may verify who will read the testimony and the verdicts of the inquests 

 following appalling accidents. 



The fall of the Dixon bridge, the breaking of the Mill river dam, the 

 Ashtabula horror, and the late total demolition of the Rockford courthouse, 

 furnish excellent magazines of information upon the customary "legal" pro- 

 ceedings following these wholesale murders. 



If we could have the inquest before the accident instead of after, how 

 much better would it be ; although this might seem "paradoxical," it is the 

 spirit of the French law regulating the use of steam boilers, and an explo- 

 sion in that country is a rare event. — Van Nostrand's Engineering Magazine. 



Eevolning Tail-Lights for Eailway Trains. — An old proposal has 

 been adopted on the Pennsylvania railroad for tail-lights. It is simply a 

 flashing light produced by a revolving lamp worked by gearing in connec- 

 tion with the axle. It will be understood that when the train is standing 

 still the light shines steadily in either red or white, but when the train is 

 in motion the light rapidly changes from red to white and from white 

 to red. 



