THE EOYAL AETILLEEY INSTITUTION. 
263 
must have been the result of glaring neglect, as there is no boiler safer 
to use when well made and properly cared for. The simple precaution 
of strengthening, or giving internal support to the sides of the furnace- 
tube of these boilers, the importance of which was demonstrated many 
years ago by Sir W. Fairbairn, appears to be still greatly neglected, 
the result being the frequent collapse of the tube through weakness. 
This illustration will suffice to indicate the nature of the “ defects of 
construction ” which are fruitful of the so-called accidents with boilers. 
An examination of the details given in Mr. Fletcher's reports as to the 
cause of explosions reveals a really appalling state of things under the 
head of “ defective condition ” of the boilers. In one case the plates 
are described as having been reduced by corrosion in places to the 
thickness of paper; in another, they were “ in some places not more 
than from one-thirty-second to one-sixtieth of an inch thick;” in 
another, they were reduced at the primary rent “ to the thickness of a 
knife-edge;” in another, the plates were in some places “ eaten into 
holes, which were roughly patched by means of bolted cement patches,” 
while many of the rivet-heads were eaten off. These are merely 
examples of many similar descriptions. Very few explosions in 1873 
appear to have been due to the neglect of the attendants, but by far 
the greater number to that of the boiler owners or the makers. The 
ignorance or criminal neglect, or worse, which appears occasionally to 
be displayed in the sale, purchase, and use of second-hand boilers is 
illustrated by the following two examples:—A boiler which burst in 
December, 1873, on a rag-puller and waste dealer's premises, scalding 
three persons to death and injuring five others, was found to have 
given way on its first trial by its then owners, simply from old age and 
decay. At the earliest period at which its history could be traced it 
was purchased second-hand, and worked for five years; it was then 
left exposed to the weather for five years and afterwards sold to a 
broker for £5, who re-sold it as old iron for £8. It was then sold for 
£18 to an engineer, who sold it to its last owners with the assurance 
that it was safe at a pressure of 60 or 701b. to the square inch. The 
jury at the coroner's inquest returned a verdict of “accidental death,” 
but “ desired to express their disapprobation of the conduct of the 
engineer who sold the boiler as in good working order when the flue- 
tubes were in some places less than one-sixteenth of an inch thick.” 
The other illustration is that of a large boiler which is graphically des¬ 
cribed in a professional journal of high standing’ as having’ been worked 
to within an inch of its life, being only removed from its seat because 
it would hardly hold water. On this boiler there was a patch, more 
than 2 ft. long, covering a crack of the same length ; the patch had 
only six bolts—three on each side—and was made tight with a piece of 
old carpet smeared with white lead. Had this boiler burst, the verdict 
would in all probability have been, as in the other case, “ accidental 
death,” though it was worked almost to the last to 35 lb. pressure. 
The explosion early in January last of a boiler at North Shields, and 
of one at Sheffield, affords further illustration, if it were needed, of the 
fearful danger continually incurred, even by those well acquainted with 
the properties of iron and steel and the limits of their powers of 
