The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-02-13

stopped over the dome into the dry pipe
and leaked down into the cylinders Then
at the critical moment the cylinder
heads had blown off. Undoubtedly that
engineer saved not only his engine. but
also the lives of the convicts, for they all
would have gone into the Hudson river to-
gether.
Locomotives foam not exactly at
the mouth. but inside. 1t is caused by
oil being dropped into the boiler by acoi-
dent. Boiling water and oil Is soon con-
verted into suds which interferes with
the working of the engine. l once knew
a repaIrer who dropped his lamp into a
locomotive boiler while'it was being over
hauled. He recovered his lamp, but
meanwhile all of the oil had run out. The
way that engine foamed was remarkable
1t had 10 be completely renovated. Foam
ing is very dangerous. for It deceives the
engineer into thinking there Is more water
in his boiler than there really Is and an
explosion is apt to result.
Very curious objects sometimes work
their way into locomotives. l saw a chisel
which lay In a locomuve for months be-
fore IL was discovered. 1t had been drop
ped into the steam chest by careless
workman, and the corroding action OF the
steam and its constant movement back
ward and forward with the throbbing Of
the engine finally reduced it in size and
Sn1DG utltl 1t lOOhGu IKE All OiQ oyster
knife Why 1t did not happen to jam in
between the parts of the engine is hard
to explain. The men become very prac-
ticed in these sounds, which one not in
the business would never notice Strange
sounds are known as pounds The
humping noises may be anywhere on the
machine and are often hard to locate.
"A locomotive naturally becomes heated
with It's work and its fire. The heat OK
pands the metal but as the engine rushes
forward the wind created by its motion
cools off the front end of the machine and
contracts II. Thus the front of the loco
motive remains normal while the rear end
in always expanded. After years of this
the expanded metal refuses to contract
when allowed to cool. 1t has become as
we say, fatigued.
This is, In measure, a change due to
the influence of the climate or state of the
atmosphere in which the engine is travel
ing. But there are some climates which
make railroading a very queer business
indeed While working in Manitoba l re-
member we were not allowed TO blow the
whistle when near signal light. IL we
did every light in the neighborhood would
go out promptly. The mercury there drops
many degrees below zero, and some prop
erty of the very dry air causes this strange
freak
ION the other hand, l have worked in
South America where the air is so warm
that / believe the engines would work
without any jacket TO prevent radiation Of
heat. In Peru II was feared that It would
be impossible to make steam on the noun
tains because of the rarefied air. 1t Is
difficult 10 boil water in an open kettle, be-
cause of the air. The kettle must be
tightly covered. But there was little diff
Guilty experienced and the engines go over
the mountains very easily.
Perhaps, however, the most curious
thing of all Is the manner in which loco
motive and their drivers are treated 10
newspapers. You often read of an engin-
eer-in a collision or where O locomotive
plunges into river-dying at his post
Now, in such cases, the engineer, who can
otherwise escape and does not do IL Is
simply fool. The men who have stuck
to their posts have, In most cases, been
men who could not get away. Inasmuch
as no engineer can help his passengers
/ such cases, he had better jump if he
could do so at ALL You read of engineers
who in newspaper English instantly re-
versed their levers.
mo sane engineer would do such thing.
He would first shut off steam by closing
the throttle; next apply the nirA brake:
thirdly, open his sand box, and finally
he would reverse his lever so as to run
in the opposite direction OF course he
would do il all very quickly. But TO
reverse his lever instantly as the news
paper man makes him do It, would blow
out his cylinder heads and render him
powerless to do anything at ALL"