The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-08-18
From Ae National Gazette.
STEAMERS.

EUROPEAN NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. PRAyTIcEs-No 8
We are aware that foreigners will tell us thai
American steamers will never be made safe The
inference Is, that we mus, use European ones They
have, al different times, told us some other ibngs
oil which we will recspilulate few -
l. The learned DR.. Lardner Is said to have dr..
monarated, and TO the satisfaction, we suppose Of
the British Association, that the Navigation OF he
Atlantic BY steam was impossible. How is the de-
monstraiion borne out by fact 7 The Great IVES
tern arrived with large stock Of unex pended fel
= One OF the persons examined before the House
ofCommons In 1917, testified that "a boiler NAV
last Twelve months, provided It's bottom be made Of
charcoal iron beat, not rolled because there is
great deal OF difference in the grain"@ Rolled iron
boilers nevertheless often work very well for or
twelve years in the United States.
g. Many Of the persons examined on the same oc
casion condemned the use of cast iron altogether as
material for steam boilers. A head OF this mate
rial for wrought iron cylindrical boiler defective
in all respects, had been blown out al Norwich in
England, and afforded the immediate occasion for
raising the Parliamentary committee. Their report
recommended the rejection Of cast iron from all bo-
lrrs used in steamboats, II has been unconditional
ly forbidden 10 use II for similar purposes in France
Weneed hardly mention that IN the United States
cast iron heads for cylindrical boilers have been
used from the time Of Oliver Evans to the present
day, on board and on shore and with no greater
care than knowledge Of any material ought TO i'm
ply in its use, have been found perfectly secure from
the danger Of bursting
A. The formula for calculating the thickness OF
wrought iron boilers of assigned diameters and with
given pressures, employed In France Is such that
Ii boiler were required 10 be thirty inches in di.
ameter, and to bear a pressure Of one hundred and
hfty lbs per square inch the safety valve IL must
by the laws OF that country be tco-irds of an inch
thick There are probably within half a dozen miles
of the place where these lines are written from ty
to one hundred engines, having boilers Of at least
that diameter wrought iron Sides one quarter of an
inch thick, with cast iron heads and using the pres
sure Of steam just mentioned and here they have
hpp yuit n cdr
worthy Of record, But ignorance and rashness do
not preside over their operation.
5. The papers Of this city contained some few
weeks since the refutation Of assertions in British
ing such feats of ocomotion as were exhibited
severel times lastyear by Mr. Norris the inclined
plane at the Schuylkiil. The writer was an eye
witness 10 some Of those performances, and can
with hundreds of others, attest the correctness of the
statement put forth BY Mr. Norris But as il is be-
lieyed 10 be principle in the English patent laws
that rhat Is not knorn in England is not knorn at
ALL SO the deeds done near the Schuylill must doubt
less all 60 for Munchausenism on the Thames
American locomotives ascend grades of three hun
dred ami fifty feet to the mile, with trains of loaded
cars. English engineerstell nsnothing of the kind
has been or can be done in England What is the
inference Are the laws of gravity friction, adhe-
sion and OF the elasticity of steam different in the two
countries 7 There is only other little crcum-
STAGE at which we venture humby to hint and that
is difference in the structure, workmanship and
management of the locomotive engines Just what
| exists in the case of steamboats,.
6. We remember to have met last winter in New
York with distinguished and estimabe scientific
gentleman just returned from Europe, who gave us
| some account of the contemptuous manner in which
the British Association had received a statement Of
| the speed of American boats which statement fixed
the maximum at about fifteen miles per hour; he
added, that sum of money had been appropriated
by that body to ascertain facts about American steam
navigation. We hadth happiness few days afler
10 encounter learned professor Of one OF the great
English Universities, then travelling in this country
! who had just arrivcd by steamboat and who on stat
ing the distance and time be had been IN the trim
and dividing the former by the latter proved that The
rate per hour was somewhere between l6 and II
miles. This was an Engshman's experience "a
faef which We trust the mechanical section Of the
Association will receive, at least with cipilifv
]. Finally we have not forgotten that when an
eminent English engineer few years since pub
shed work on rail roads. he treated as chimerica
and absurd the supposition that speed Of fifteen or
eighteen miles an hour would ever be attained by The
locomotive engine The second edition OF this work
fortunately, did not appear till after the famous prize
trial on The Liverpool and Manchester Railway
during which the author alluded TO, was, himself
we believe, conveyed in of the trains at a speed
Of thirty miles per hour. In that edition. therefore
the absnrdity Of expecting to attain speed of egh-
teen miles an hour is, prudeny not spoken or An
English prophecy did not in this case wait for re-
futation from the United States
So much for the predictions of our brethren on
the other side of the water" The explosion of Anne
rican steamboat boilers may be found 10 depend en-
tirely on ether causes than the principles Of their
construction The papers of the day show that il
yet possible 10 explode the boilers even OF British
steamboat.