New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-01
T1R PEOPLES COLUMN.

brief Communications Published
Ones Invariably Rsected-Ihe Editor not
e Responsible for the Sentiments Expressed
in the Communications.
Clean Steamboat Boilers and Averted
Explosions.
EDITOR REPUBLICAN:
An article recently appeared in your val
liable and interesting peoples column"
exhorting, as understood it, the steam
navigators Of our rivers to more yigilant
surveillance of the condition of their boilers,
and urging the Supervisory Board OF In
spectors to bestow upon the subject closer
scrutiny and more Jealous attention. The
views of Safety were, to say the least,
eminently suggestive. But what has most
directly superinduced my interests in the
matter is the official announcement, from
headquarters at Washington, that not only
certain steam gauges shall be adopted in all
cases, but they must receive the indorse-
ment or approval of the proper Cabinet
functionary prior to their application.
Now, am neither steamboatman nor a
scientific expert, but being in New York
Just at that fatal juncture when the West
field explosion precipitated over hundred
souls into eternity, and watching, with
some curiosity, if not solicitude, the subse-
quent examination OF witnesses, with the
view of ferreting out the actual and abso-
Lutte causes Of the disaster, could not but
sneer at the sophistical and fimsy reasons
assigned for the accident. All this thing
about hydraulic and hydrostatic pressure.
air escapes, cracks, patches and thin layers
of iron, iEcrustation, expansion and con-
traction sounded very erudite and read
very glibly in the development of oral tes-
timony, and it's transcription on the
records of the court But believed then,
as have since. that the misfortune sprung
mainly, as in multifarious cases, from utter
negligence and carelessness, especially in
the matter of keeping the boilers free from
those impurities and secretions, the natural
and infallible Sentimental deposit of the
water. If this, then, applies to the clear,
limpid waters of the North, how much
more significant and forcible is the applica-
ton of the doctrine to the turbid, muddy
streams of the South. With what eloquent
and unanswerable directness does it reach
our own Mississippi
Discussing the subject lately, learn that
there is an invention among us, known as
the Armstrong Vortex Skinner" that is
conceded to be available and practicable:
that it is used in a number of boilers, in
| mills, presses and fouudries, in our city,
and also on several of our steamboats,, and
that in each and every instance it has as
serted its claims to universal adoption by
it's efficacy and furtherance of the objects
for which it was designed. l am credibly
informed that after two years incessant
use of this .'vortex skinner" in boilers in
New Orleans, it was, on investigation, dis
covered that the iron had not been dam
aged, but on the contrary. cut like new
nail-rod.
l know but little of this or any other
skinner; less of boilers and machinery in
general. But insist that if there is in ex
istence means for the removal of impuri
ties in boilers, the fecund source, as your
contributor, Safety" remarked, of explo
sions or other incidental dangers, that the
law shall step in, where common sense
hesitates to tread and foist upon steam
boatmen the necessity of ''skimmers" OF
some other remedial or protective agency
Respectfully,
A SIMPLE LIFE PRESENTER.