264 
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF 
resisting strain or pressure, in tlie employment of boilers long after 
they had ceased to be trustworthy. At Shields, at a large manufactory 
of chain cables and anchors, the boiler which exploded had been 
worked beyond a pressure of 351b., while it was unsound, over- 
patched, and quite unsafe at that pressure. Seven people were killed 
and about twenty others injured, and a vast amount of property was 
destroyed, the buildings within 500 yds. appearing as though they had 
been bombarded. At Sheffield, where the explosion of a boiler not 
many days afterwards killed two persons, injuring several others, a 
leakage had been observed in the boiler some time before the explosion, 
but had not been repaired, and a plate fractured by the explosion had 
been greatly reduced in thickness by corrosion. This boiler appears to 
have been worked up to the day of the explosion at a pressure of from 
40 to, 501b., and the workmen employed are stated to have expressed 
fear at working in its vicinity. 
The foregoing and other very numerous illustrations of the appalling 
display of ignorance, neglect, or recklessness in dealing with the 
application of steam power, point strongly to the importance of legisla¬ 
tion connected with this subject. A Parliamentary Committee of 
Enquiry reported in July, 1870, that the introduction of compulsory 
independent inspection of boilers would interfere with the responsibility 
of the boiler owner; but it is somewhat difficult to realise where the 
responsibility lies, in the present condition of things. That a system 
of inspection may be made to work well has been demonstrated by the 
beneficial results of the now very widely applied labours of the Steam 
TJsers^ Association ; and that Government realises these benefits is 
demonstrated by the fact that the boilers at the manufacturing estab¬ 
lishments of the War Department are subject to the inspection of the 
Association. There can be no reason why the responsibility of the 
proper condition of boilers, and steam apparatus generally, should not 
be thrown upon inspectors, just as the proper fencing of machinery in 
factories, and the proper condition of steam-boilers in a passenger 
steam-ship, are secured by a system of responsible official inspection. 
The explosions which are often recorded as occurring in kitchen 
ranges and in boilers used in connection with the heating of buildings 
are not unfrequently attended by fatal results. Much of what has been 
said with regard to boiler explosions generally, applies to accidents of 
this class. Explosions in such boilers have repeatedly arisen from 
corrosion of the metal, and consequent great reduction of its thickness 
in places, due to the accumulation of hard incrustations or furs which 
in time exclude the water from contact with the metal, causing the 
latter to scale from overheating. The incrustations will crack or split 
from time to time, in consequence of inequality of expansion or con¬ 
traction between them and the metal, and if the latter be heated at the 
time, pressure of steam may be suddenly generated which the worn 
boiler will not withstand unless provided with an efficient safety-valve. 
As the water in kitchen boilers is often used for culinary and 
drinking purposes, the means employed in boilers used for steam 
purposes only to prevent the formation of hard deposits cannot be 
resorted to; therefore the only means of guarding against accidents to 
