Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1903-02-21
Working Inside Red-Hot Boiler.

Working Inside hed-hot boller.
A certain steamship in the Pacific trade
had been sent out from her home port with
the majority of her boilers out of commits
sion. In midocean one of the few boilers
capable of being fired got leaky tubes. and
1t became necessary, in order to keep the
ship under any sort Of Roadway in a hurri-
cane-swept sea, to repair the boiler imme-
diately The fire was pulled out from I'M
der 1t. the manhole lid was unscrewed and
removed, and the first engineer, wrapped
from head to foot in thick coating of as
bestos. crawled into the red-hot boiler and
with chisel and hammer began tearing out
the defective tubes. For two minutes he
worked. and as he worked, held his breath,
for single gasp of the fiery air in his lungs
would have killed him. Then he crawled
to the manhole and was pulled out by stok-
ers.
Five minutes later he again went into the
boiler. This time, after nearly two min
utes' work, he succeeded in cutting away
two tubes On the third entry he removed
three, and after that he spent another I'VE
minutes resting.
Then came the task of roaming In new
tubes, and to do this he was compelled TO
enter the boiler five times. In each case
he stayed inside nearly two minutes, and
he crawled out the last time he barely had
breath and strength enough left to say to
his chief before he tainted dead away:
It's done. sir"
AS result of his experience in that hell
Of heat the man was laid up in the ships
hospital for over a week. And to this day
his sleep is constantly disturbed by dreams
in which he is roasted in red-hot furnaces.
Standing on Red-Hot Pipes.
This same engineer was in the boiler
room one day when suddenly a valve In
among a great coil OF pipes above the boil
ers, began leaking badly and filing the
room with scalding steam. Instantly, and
regardless of his own safety, he scrambled
upon the pipes and breathlessly began
making repairs. He had almost finished
when, as Unexpectedly as the valve had
got out OF order, pipe joint, below the one
on which he was standing. broke, and a
stream OF Kissing steam enveloped his foot.
When he endeavored to pull IL away he
found 1t to be tightly wedged in the joint
He had on low Shoes and before his cries
brought aid his shoe and sock were burned
OFF and his foot and lower leg parbo lei.
He was unable to resume work for three
months, and today he walks with per-
ceptible limp. Yet he looked upon 1t all as
part of the days work, and uttered no
complaint.
Risking Life Under Broken Shaft.
1t was in December Of 1892 just around
Christmas time, that the Umbria broke her
thrust shaft and floundered helplessly In
mld-ocean. The part that broke was
twenty-six feet long and weighed tons.
Under the direction of Chief Engineer
IOAiiAAHSoi, the pieces were Sc
cured and suspended by chains from the
top OF the shaft tunnel, and then, although
the shaft threatened to fall on him at any
moment, he crawled into the tunnel, found
that the shaft was broken off square, so
that 1t could not be riveted together, and
spent hours In taking measurements for
collar to be welded over the break He
spent other hours iRmaking and putting on
the collar, all the dme either lying on the
nat or his back or working in squatting
position. so small was the space. All told
ne labored INCREASINGLY for two full DAYS
After that he slept for two hours, and the
twenty-five hours following he worked
without pause until at last he had not only
welded, but bolted, the jacket in place
The Job was finished late Monday night
and the ship was got under way Early
Tuesday morning the head of a bolt broke
on, the jacket slipped and once more Tom
hnson had TO crawl into the tunnel and
make repairs
Again the ship got under way and again.
al!er an hour or running. snap! went two
bolts. And once more Tomlinson risked life
and limb in the shaft tunnel
To make a long story short, Tomlfnson
was crawling into the tunnel continually
until the voyage ended but while the mas
sengers did not know of his heroism until
they landed and read of it in the newspa-
Pers, Tomlipson had the satisfaction at
least. OF knowing that his work had pre-
vented the shaft from knocking a hole into
the ships side and from leaving the vessel
helpless and In peril in a stormy sea until
. tow should chance along.
Frying Open Safety Valves.
IT was one Of Engineer Tomlinson's fellow