Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1866-03-06

|
servations to the New Orleans True
Delta upon the subject of steam boiler
explosions. He dissents from the
generally received opinion that tubu
lar boilers are necessarily more sub
ject to explosions than those with
hues.
"Give dog a bad name" is ar
axiom which might by a tranposi.
ton of terms be rendered with equal
force and significance in its special
application to acertain class of steam.
ers nowadays, thus Give steamer
tubular boilers and then Gt she
doesn't blow up, tie her up.
The panic is abroad and the days
of the tubular" are numbered, I'M
less Engineer" and his co-thinkers
can effect a reaction in the public
mind, which, we opine, it will be no
small matter to do.
Tubular boilers are under the ban,
and those boats which continue to
carry them, are doomed, if not to
explosions, to those repellent agen-
cies which must take from them their
patronage. Boats of this class are
already experiencing DETECTION in
their business which warns their
owners of the only alternative left
them-either to discard the use of
the dreaded tubular, or to quit run
ming their boats. Asa general thing,
the indications are, that the former
alternative is being adopted.
There is no doubt that much of
the hue and cry against tubular boil
ers is founded more upon the strange
and startling condolences of fatality
which have latterly transpired on
steamers using that class of boilers,
than upon scientific knowledge or
appreciation of the principles of cause
and effect as applicable in the pecu-
liar instances alluded to. It must
be admitted, that there was great
room, from the nature of the circum.
stances attending the late steamboat
explosions, for republication and ex-
element. This may have been seized
upon by certain parties interested in
running steamers carrying the old
fashioned fued boilers, as a fit op-
portunity for decrying the merits of
rival boats, and by this means secur-
ing monopoly of business for them
selves. All such interested pander-
ings to prejudice and excitement
should be weighed in their proper
scales and received with grains of
allowance.
The prime cause, we take it, of
the immense destruction to human
life and property by the late steam
boat explosions, lies in the worse
than criminal negligence, reckless
ness or incompetency Of the engi-
neers and commanders who were in
charge of those steamers, and the
ignorance Or needless
ness of owners in confding the man
agement of their steamers to such
men. Steamboat Inspectors also, are
not guiltless Of having in repeated
instances neglected their important
duties, from favoritism or some other
unworthy cause, by slurring over
their duties and giving certificates
of character" to boats not properly
entitled to them. Until some telling
example is made, by which all of
the classes above mentioned shall be |
made to know and understand that |
they are no longer to trife with hu-
man life as they have been doing, |
with IMMUNITY, and the seal of public
is intellectually fixed upon |
their glazing atrocities, we can look |
for nothing like permanent reform in
their course of conduct.
Engineer" the writer to whom
mo hove ,lln5oJ ooanoc to cpooL |