The Portable Engine, Its Construction and Management; A Practical Manual for Owners and Users of Steam Engines Generally (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 Excerpt: ...an external examination of the engine and boiler and also tried it under steam at 70 lbs. pressure at the time Messrs. Brown bought it. Mr. Thomson has also seen the doors off once since that time, when making repairs to the engine. The boiler was not insured. "The engine was stopped a few minutes before the explosion, when the steam pressure is stated to have been 40 lbs. The barrel of the boiler was rent from end to end at the bottom, and torn from the firebox casing; it is also torn circumferentially, immediately abaft the saddle plummer blocks of the engine and the wrought-iron bracket plate for attaching the front wheels. This portion of the boiler was separated into two main and several small pieces, some of which were blown through the roof of the shed into the adjoining field. The throat plate was torn in shreds from the firebox casing and stays. One longitudinal stay was broken. The front tube plate was torn from the angleiron ring at the bottom, and the bottom tube ends were started. The engine and carriage were broken in pieces, and the wooden shed was demolished. Fortunately, all the men were employed a little distance off at the time of the explosion, and so escaped injury. "This explosion was due to grooving and wasting at the edge of the inside lap of the bottom longitudinal joint, the plate being reduced in thickness throughout the whole length of the barrel from a maximum of-3-g-inch down to inch and under, until it was unequal to sustain the load due to the ordinary working pressure of 50 lbs. "The barrel was encased with sheet iron over wooden lagging, which was not removed to examine the shell externally when Messrs. Brown bought it. Neither were any of the tubes removed to examine the shell internally, both of which shoul...