Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-09-23

that was needed, said the report,
was just and equitable law protecting
the rights ofall. The report was adopted.
Captain B. S. Osborn said that no class
Of people were so under the legislative
thumb as the steamboat men in case Of
accident. The steamboat proprietors
were at once condemned and arraigned,
but the presidents Of the railroads we're
never arrested on account Of collisions.
He said that In going up the Sound you
could count at any night fifty sailing
vessels without light, and yet in cases
Of collision there has never been a court
TO condemn the sailing vessel but on
the contrary the steamers always had TO
take the blame.
Referring TO the arrival Of the Carrie
A. Thorn at New Orleans, the Herald Of
that city says: "oi forty passengers
originally on board, three died, but their
decease was not owing to the malady
that has devastated our unfortunate sis
ter city, Shreveport. One Of the re-
naming passengers was stricken by
disease resembling our dengue, aud this
was the only evidence of sickness Dr.
White discovered on board"
Says the st. Louis Dispatch: Capt.
Joseph LaBarge, of the DeSmet, is lying
very i'll at his residence in this city, and
requires close attention. His son, Joe,
IT,, has charge Of the DeSmet. " The
same paper says: The Rob Roy is
gracefully quartered on the Louisiana
bar. She has been MASKING sand and
water with her wheels up there until
first-class nest has been constructed, in
which she will probably lay for short
season"
It is claimed by excellent authority
that with the completion of the st.
Philip canal below New Orleans ocean
going ships, during four months Of the
year, can proceed as tar north as Cairo.
The Laura L. Davis and barge at
last accounts were aground on Shawnee
town bar at the head Of the Robert Full
ton and the sunken coal barge, and the
Arlington aground on the bar below.
The new Alabama river boat, Mary, is
now ahoat and passed Evansville all o
K Saturday evening.
In 1929 the Mississippi river was so
low on the upper rapids that keel-boat,
drawing but sixteen inches OF water,
took six weeks to get over themi and
during the Black Hawk war the old set
tiers worked several days prying up and
carrying out rock to open channel and
get steamboat over the rapids, near
where Sears Mills now stand, on Rock
river, and failed.
The causes of explosions with steam
generators are numerous and diverse,
but may commonly be traced to care
lessness, either in construction or man
agement. Of the former, the most
glaring is that shown in boilers so made
that no provision exists for the uniform
expansion and contraction Of the parts
from changes in the temperature. This
causes slow weakening at one place or
another, which is sure to give way at
one time or another when the usual
steam pressure is exceeded. The con-
tinual boiling of water is likely to expel
all the air therefrom, in the event Of
which it is likely to remain quiescentu
to a temperature as high as two hundred
degrees Fahrenheit, when it suddenly
flashes into steam. Writers-Tyndall
among them-aver the possibility Of
disastrous explosions from this cause.
Experiments made on small scale with
special apparatus seem to show that
a film of oil on the interior of a
boiler may sometimes produce like re-
suit. On the other hand the grease used
in lubricating engine cylinders frequent
ly finds its way into the boilers, and few
or no authenticated cases Of mischief
from this source are on record. The
idea sometimes advanced that the grease
decomposed into explosive gases that
produce casualty is nonsense, because
the known volume of such gases, even if
produced, would be insufficient to pro-
duce such a result. Sometimes an acct
dent, slight itself, brings death and dis
aster long after, as was the case with
the boiler of the steamboat st, John,
seven or eight years ago, in which the
corner of the coal.chisel used in leveling
a plate, grooved the one below it, and led
to the parting of the iron as soon as a
high pressure, otherwise perfectly safe,
was reached