The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1874-12-31
BLOWN UP.

" Az
Can't say, I'm sure, sir. Been used
to bilers all my life; but working ems
different to making 'em. There's some
thing wrong, as you say, or they
wouldn't always be a-bustin'. 'Tain't
once, nor twice, nor now and then, for
it's thing as is always a-happening
and though Use never had more than
scald or two myself, I've seen some
strange sights men all blown to pieces,
so that they were picked up afterwards
in baskets; men taken to the hospital
with their flesh hanging to them in rags,
and there they'd lie writhing and tear
ing at the wrapping in such agony, that
there, I amt above owning tive
! cried like child to see my poor mates
suffsrings. And there they'd be, day
after day, till a sort of calm came over
them, aud the pain went, when they'd
smile if you spoke to 'enl, they seemed
so easy ; and it would be because a
| gentle hand was laid upon 'em, and
| they were going into the long sleep.
Some gets better, but not when
they're scalded badly for its strange
stuff, is steam. Well, no Tn not
afraid, and never do feel afraid. What's
the good Ones got it to do, and
there's the mouths at home to feed, so
one can't afford it ; and then the odds
are precious long ones against il being
ones own Dustin. But now so many
more steam engines are coming into
use, day by day, it seems as if some
thing ought to be done in the way of
making bilers stronger. Oheapuess is
cheapness (; but then, things dear at
any price that makes such ruin as I've
seen sometimes; so why don't they try
some tougher metal than iron thou b,
certainly, steam's strong enough to tear
up any hing. But there seems to be
some fresh plan wanted for making
bilers. I didn't work there, but went
and had look d'reckly after that horri-
BILE accident at the Big Works last
autumn. Well, there was about an acre
of buildings-shed and setrer-sWept
away as if you'd battered 'em all down;
great fire. bricks, weighing a hundred
and a half, pitched here and there like
chafr; sheets of lead sent flying hun
dred yards; tall chimneys powdered
down and the big busted biler itself
jumped right out of its place while, as
TO the middle of it, that was torn off
and ciumpled up, and blown, like a
sheet of paper, to g distance. Plenty
of life lost there, and plenty of escapes;
but what took most notice Of was the
plates torn off the biler-torn of, as
said before, like so much paper while
these sheets, or plates, of iron had given
way at the rivets, and looked for all the
world like torn-of postage stamps-tOrn
of, course, along the perfOrating.
Now, then" / says to myself,
Sc that's thing as wants altering. You
perforate the edges Of your plates to ad-
nit rivets, and so takes half their
strength off-p'r'aps mere then you
put, p'r'aps, hot rivets in, and they,
p'r'aps, Orystalizes the iron-onlY,
p'r'aps, mind, I don't say so, only the
raw edges of the biler looked crystally
and brittle. Well, then, some day
comes a hextry pressure o steam, and
mp goes yeur biler-busted, and spread
ing ruin, and death and misery around.
"Then how are we to fasten our
biler plates" says you, g If We don't
rivet 'em ?" How should 1 know?
amt scientific man. I only stokes.
That's for you to find out. But you
amt a going to tell me, are you, that
you scientific men and bileT-makers
can't find no other way to make bilers
only by riveting them? Say you bends
the plates edges over, and hooks one
into the other, like tin sarspan makers
does their tin. They'd stand some
strain that way, and you wouldn't
weaken your plates. I amt a biler-
maker, or I should try that dodge,
think but there, that's only one way
out of the many as could be found by
experiment.
Seems to me, sir, rs if we English
| people hates anything new, and always
wants to keep 20 what cur fathers and
grandfathers had before us. They went
along and made their footmarks, ant
we go along after 'em, putting our foots
| in Just the same spots, thinking it must
/ be right, come what will of it
/ Had to do with engines many years.
| Stocked locomotives and stationaries,
/ agriculturals and manufactures, and
printing Offices, and been down in the
! epaine-rooms Of steamers and the lasts
about the hottest and worst of all.
! Killing work, you know, for anybody,
/ specially III a hot country, where
/ every breath of air that comes down to
1 YOU is already roasted, as 1t were, and
/ don't do you no good.
Bustins? Well, no, only one, and
4 that was quite enough for though It
didn't hurt my body, it did not hurt my
heart, and if you happen to be father
voull understand what mean.
IT was dinner time at our works.
/ great place, where the engine used to be
/ going to pump water night and day, so
4 that there were two of us; and one
week I'd be on daywOrk, next week on
night work, and 90 on. Now it so hap
pened that your water IN that part was
! terribly hard water that would cover
the inside Of a boiler with thick fur IN
no time. But whether it was that or
no cant say all know is that one
dinner time I went out into the yard to
wash my hands and have a cooler,
when I heard a strange, wild, rushing
noise, and felt something hit me on the
back of the head and then turning
round, I stood fixed 10 the spot, for the
air was black with tiles, and bricks,
lathcs. and rafters, while the whole
ulaee seemed to be crumbling mp
together, Just like as il yon'd built
ND tall card house, and then tapped
it 80 that it fell, one card on top of an
other, till there was little heap al
living close and snug SO that ont of a
tall building there was nothing left but
] ONE smoking ruins,