The Sun.
London, England, 1862-05-05 00:00:00

A STAUNCH LIB2RAL.

When our friend paid his second visit to Sir
John Ringwood, he was introduced to his kinsman's
library; a great family tree hung over the mantel-
piece, surrounded by a whole gallery of defunct
Ringwoods, of whom the baronet was now the re-
presentative. He quoted to Philip the hackneyed
old Horatian lines (some score of years ago a great
deal of that old coin was current in conversation).
As for family, he said, and ancestors, and what we
have not done ourselves, these things we can hardly
call ours. Sir John gave Philip to understand that
he was a staunch Liberal. Sir John was for going
with the age. Sir John had fired a shot from the
Paris barricades. Sir John was for the rights of
.man everywhere all over the world. He had
pictures of Franklin, Lafayette, Washington, and
the First Consul Buonaparte, on his walls along with
his ancestors. He had lithograph copies of Magna
Charts, the Declaration of American Independence,
and the Signatures to the Death of Charles I. He
did not scruple to own his preference for Republi-
can institutions. He wished to know what right
had any man—the late Lord Ringwood, for example
—to sit in a hereditary House of Peers and legis-
late
over him ? That lord had had a son, Cinqbars,
who died many years before, a victim of his own
follies and debaucheries. Had Lord Cinqbars sur-
vived he would now be sitting an earl in the House
of Peers—the most ignorant young man, the most
unprincipled young man, reckless, dissolute, of the
feeblest intellect, and the worst life. Well, had
he lived and inherited the Ringwood
property,
that creature would have been an earl ; whereas he,
Sir John, his superior in morals, in character, in in-
tellect, his equal in birth (for had they not both a
common ancestor ?) was Sir John still. The ine-
qualities in men's chance in life were monstrous and
ridiculous. He was determined, henceforth, to look
at a man for himself alone, and not esteem him for
any of the absurd caprices of fortune. As the re-
publican was talking to his relative, a servant came
into the room and whispered to his master that the
plumber had come with his bill as by appointment;
upon which Sir John rose up in a fury, asked the ser-
vant how he dared to disturb him, and bade him tell
the plumber to go to the lowest depths of Tartarus.
Nothing could equal the insolence and rapacity of
tradesmen, he said, except the insolence and idle-
ness of servants ; and he called this one back, and
asked him how he dared to leave the fire in that
state ?—stormed and raged at bim with a volubility
which astonished his new acquaintance ; and, the
man being gone, resumed his previous subject of
conversation, viz., natural equality and the out-
rageous injustice of the present social system.—
Cornhil‘ playaginc fox May.

THE ASSOCIATION FOR THE PREVEN.
TION OF STEAM BOILER EXPLOSIONS.
At the last monthly meeting of the executive committee
of this association, held on Tuesday, Mr. Hugh Mason, of
Ashton-under-Lyne, vice-president, in the chair, Mr. L. E.
Fletcher, chief engineer, presented his monthly report, of
which the following is an abstract;--" During the last
month there have been examined 363 engines and 563
boilers. Of the latter 10 have been examined specially, 8
internally, 87 thoroughly, and 458 externally ; in which the
following defects have been found :—Fracture, 14 (3 dan-
gerous) ; corrosion 47 (5 dangerous) ; safety valves out of
order, 18 (1 dangerous) ; water gauges ditto, 8 ; pressure
gauges ditto, 8 ; blow-off cooks ditto, 33; fusible plugs
ditto, 4 ; furnaces out of shape, 6 (3 dangerous); total,
138 (12 dangerous). Boilers without glass water gauges,
5 ; without pressure gauges, 22 ; without blow-off cocks,
15 ; without back pressure valves, 42. No explosion has
occurred during the last month to any boiler under the
inspection of this association. Four explosions, however,
which have happened in other quarters have come to my
knowledge, from three of which loss of life has resulted ;
one being on the most disastrously fatal character, no less
than 27 persons being killed. The latter of these explo-
sions occurred at an iron works to a vertical boiler, heated
by the flames from four iron furnaces. 1 hese flames first
played upon the lower part of the outside of the boiler, and
then passed through four openings in the side into an in-
ternal descending flue in the centre, and thence to the
chimney. The boiler was cylindrical and egg-ended, and
precisely similar in general arrangements to that first de-
scribed in last month's report, being technically termed an
upright furnace boiler. Its height had been about 27 feet
and its diameter 10 feet, while the thickness of the plates
had varied in the original construction Horn five sixteenths
to seven sixteenths. Its age was about nine years ; and its
working pressure, although stated by the engine attendant
to have been 351 b, was concluded, from an examination of
the safety valves, &c. on an official inquiry at the instance
of the Coroner, to have been not less than 501 b. There
are grave objections to the construction of this boiler, as
well as to the mode in which it was set. The intense flames
from the furnaces by which it was heated impinged most
severely upon the lower par of the external shell ; the
diamater of which, being nc, less than ten feet, was
of unusual size, while, in addition, the water was sedimen-
tary. The combination of a high tensile strain upon the
plate, which a larger diameter—such as that in the present
instance—involves, with an intense flame locally applied,
added to an accumulation of deposit, is always dangerous,
on account of liability to injury from overhes.ting of the
plates, and more especially of the seams of rivets. Added to
this, from the fact of the flame operating upon the bottom
of a water space, the circulation of the water was necessarily
incomplete ; and thus the risk increased of the rapid gene-
ration of the steam driving the water away from the plates.
Many instances have ,occurred of plates being seriously
over-heated from this cause, even when the boiler contained
a plentiful supply of water. It may be added that the boiler
had been found so leaky a few weeks before the explosion,
that a dose of bran had been resorted to, in order to stop
it. Bran, while it stops the leaks, thickens the water, and
prevents the globules of steam escaping freely, and thus
would be most dangerous in a boiler already predisposed,
as this one was by its construction and local impinge-
ment of the flame, to have the water driven,away from
the plates. I consider the dangerous construction and set-
ting of the boiler quite sufficient to account for the explo-
sion. After the two most serious explosions that have
lately occurred, within a few weeks of one another, in the
iron districts, to boilers of this description, and each at-
tended with such fatal consequences, it will certainly be
most reprehensible if another day is allowed to pass without
having all similar boilers carefully examined, and their
safety ascertained. Another life has been lost during the
past month through the rupture of a Cornish boiler, which
did not, however, result in explosion. The flat end plate
had been allowed to groove at the furnace crown without
repair, until it at last penetrated the entire thickness of the
plate, when a rupture occurred, from which scalding, ter-
minating fatally, ensued. The boiler, however, is reported
not to have moved from its seat, which I have found to be
the case under similar circumstances. The great difference
between the result of a rent in a flat plate as above, and
when occurring in a cylindrical shell, as in the previous in-
stance, will be at once seen. I have always found that
those explosions, which have resulted in the most serious
consequences, have been caused by rupture of the cylindri-
cal portion of the shell, and hence its condition is a matter
of the greatest importance; and, it appears to me, therefore,
desirable that it should be exempted from the injurious
action of the fire to which boilers externally are exposed."

COUNTRY MARKETS.

.-

LEICESTER—MAY 3.
An average supply of wheat to-day at market, and is
decline in price. White, 62s to 66s ; red, 60s to 63s ;
old red, 52s to 57s per 36 stone. Barley was in short sup-
ply—grinding, 30s to 325; malting, 34s to 38s per qr.;
oats, 24s to 28s per 24 stone. Beans were a ready sale—.
new, 36s to 38s • old, 42s to 45s per 38 stone.
Fine flour, 46s I Seconds, 43s I Thirds, 41s per sack.