The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-06
sPIRxT or TEE PRESS.
Editorial Opinions Of the Leading Journals
upon Current Topics Compiled Every
OaY for the Evening Telegraph.
BOILER EXPLOSIONS.


From the NJ y. Times.
The explosion of a steam-boiler is prjil0
fdcJe evidence of carelessness in its construc-
ton, or in its maintenance, or in its use. 1t
is so regarded by the engineers, and ought 80
to be regarded by the law. 1t will be easy to
convince any one who will examine the
records of boiler explosions and inquire into
the means of preventing them, that no injus-
tice would be done to the owners of boilers by
indicting them for criminal carelessness in all
cases of explosion.
The history of boiler explosions is anthem
tic and definite. The boiler has usually been
erected under the full light of modern
science All the attending circumstan Jes of
the explosion have been Immediately commu-
ncated to the public; curiosity has aided
science in making every man an Investigator
of these circumstances and a searcher after
causes; public and private commissions have
been appointed to examine the subject gen.
orally; numerous legal tribunals have gone
TO the bottom of special cases, and innumer-
able private professional observers have wit
messed results, searched records, weighed
evidence, and arrived at general conclusions
All the plausible theories of explosions have
been not only looked into, but worked out, in
many cases experimentally or theoretically, to
their ultimate limits.
Now the remarkable and unprecedented
A66ulb VI al lLllS III 10 lOS I1O uANl-
sion of any large body of experts into
schools-not the building up of rival theo-
ries-but the universal conviction of all con-
cerned that boiler explosions are certainly
in most, and probably in all, cases the results
of malconstruction or maltreatment, and of
nothing else, and that the usual immediate
cause is the unchecked deterioration of the
boiler in service. In the great majority of
cases the evidences of carelessness are
,loip ha of tbo
face of clock-a sheet furrowed
nearly through; a stay-bolt rusted off;
crown-sheet insufnciently supported; eX-
pansion and contraction unprovided for;
water connections stopped up; bad material
some one of the many obvious and certain
conditions of rupture. In q few cases the
immediate causes are not apparent, and then
the electricity theorists and the gas people
and the mystery men fight over the remains
in the newspapers; and the only reason why
simple neglect is not discovered to be the
cause, is that the parts of the boiler which
would otherwise reveal it are blown away,
or are too much mutilated or obstructed
to be legible. Simple bad treatment
by the maker or user will account
for the original rupture which ends in
any explosion, however terrific may be its
effects. There is force enough restrained
within every steam-boiler running to-day to
DbIlOIIh bI0 llOSI l6IIiDlo NOIh VI rum Jldl
any similar boiler ever performed in explod-
ing. When this force is once released, the
amount of destruction depends on the point
of rupture, the resistance, the surroundings,
and on an infinite number of circumstances
mostly outside of our control. The only
thing we can do, and it is enough, is to keep
the resistance superior to the normal pres
sure.
Now that the causes of boiler explosions
are so well understood as to be matter of
commercial calculation-where companies
make money by insuring such boilers as are
constructed and maintained according to esta-
blished professional rules-it is to be re-
gretted that the Government should stand
helplessly by, and see scores of people
scalded to death every few weeks, for the
want of an adequate law and system of in
spection. Boiler insurance and inspection
companies-and they are no new or expert
mental thing-simply prove that boilers con-
saructed and maintained according to certain
well-known rules are practically safe-that
the chances of explosion, even with ordinary
understanding, are very remote, and they
stake their money on this knowledge; and YET
the United States Government has been un.
able to even check the increase of these dis.
asters. If Congress cannot at once provide
for the security Of the public against boiler
explosions, it had better let out the Job oi
protecting its citizens to some insurance com
pany, and then it will be done on scientific
principles, and by competent men.