Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1908-02-05
a Load On The
Safetl Valve.

Safetu Valve. |
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From his dinner-pail bubbling In
side the fire-door, Ziba Weston, en-
gineer Of the feN.mill poured cup
OF Rio, black and steaming. He sip
ped 1t refiectiyely, rubbing his bald
forehead with a smutty forefinger, as
he gazed into the simmer over the
GOALS.
Not one man In hundred" said
he. knows the tremendous power
bottled up in an ordinary boiler. In
one way its more dangerous than
powder; Tor that needs something to
set II on. while steam stands always
ready to take advantage of any weak
ness.
I'm the early fall of 1883 was en-.
gineer at corn-cannery in small
central Maine town. My fireman was
Joe Soccabasin, half-Indian, who
had come to the place to pitch on the
local nine. and had been stranded
there when the team went to pieces.
Joe was green at firing, but strong
and quick; he soon learned to handle
a coal shovel as well as he did a
baseball bat,
The fire-room was in one end Of
the factory, and the boiler-shed ran
out behind it at right angles. The
s stairs to the second story were out
side. To reach tie top the workers
had to pass right over the fire-room.
can see those rusty boilers now,
two twenty-foot locomotive shells, old
nineteen hundreds with safety
valves topping the steam.domes Eigh-
teen years on, the railroad and Ave in
the factory had left them in pai
shape. ..lsi9 (,
The most popular man about the
shop was. a red faced -sealer weighing
over two hundred poindss Has name
was Duchesney, but everybody called
him Uncle Duke, I've never seen a
smarter man with soldering-iron;
and all the time he was working, his
tongue went as fast as his hands. 1t
was dull ten minutes that he didn't
raise a lr' 1t somebody else's ex-
pense: sncle Duke soon discovered
See-knewi more about in.shoots
an he did about boilers; also that
- had great dread of explosions.
Were was good chance for practi-
Wal joke. One morning he sealed up
an empty tin, and threw 1t into the
fire box when the Indian wasn't look.
ing. Soon the hot air in the can blew
out one end. Joe was badly frighten-
ed. He dropped his shovel and ran.
out, shouting: < :,
1.-THE boilers burst! The boilers
BURST
1t took me some time to get him
near the fire again. Uncle Duke did
not let him forget It, Now and then,
Is he passed the door, he'd stick his
head in and chuckle:
Boiler hasn't bust this morning,
has it?'
"Joe's black eyes would snap, but
he'd keep on shoyeling coal.
The second Monday in September
sprained my ankle. and had to turn
the plant over to my fireman for two
OF three days. l worried some as 1
lay in my clearinghouse, but mat
tiers seemed to go on all right.
Thursday morning my ankle was
better, 30 l hobbled down to the shop
to see how Joe was getting along.
Under the husking-sheds lively
crowd. men, women and children.
were stripping the big piles OF ears
stacked up by the farmers wagons. In.
side the building both floors were
running at full blast. It was the bust
est day Of the season; there were
I more than hundred people. about
the plant.
Joe was hustling back and forth
between the boilers and the engine,
As II he was running bases. peep
eds at the cages; the needles were
teetering between ninety and ninety
ave. The old boilers were pretty near
their limit, for had the safety-valves
set to blow OF at a hundred. We had
70 run well up to that to get power
I enough for the factory.
Il stepped into the enginesroom.
In the bend of the pipe from the
boiler was .bleeder' to carry of the
condensation. Out Of this wavered
the blue, dry steam. Kissing shrilly.
On passed into the factory, where
six big square steam cookers were
& sizzling. Every minute / expected to
hear the boiler blow of with roar;
for with that fire the pressure must
soon reach hundred. But listened
In vain. At last ! went up to the
second story, where fifteen or twenty
men and boys were soldering cans
Uncle Dukes bench was near win.
dow at the farther end.
The room was full OF fun. Uncle
Duke had appeared that morning in
. new pair Of trousers striped black
and white. Everybody was Joking
him, and he was giving back a little
better than he got
Il looked down from rear window
on the dat gravel roof of the boiler.
shed. In the middle wasSa sag more
than foot deep. A rafter had evil.
IDENTIFY given way. Suddenly felt
weak and shaky; that hollow must
be pretty nearly over the safety
valves! What if the roof was holding
them down so that the boilers could
now blow OF! 81 +,
1T wouldn't do to start panic
among the workers. My first duty
was to see that the steam didn't get
above hundred.
No man with SO bad sprain ever
made quicker time down flight OF
staisf. ] danced into the boiler-room;
the jgase-needles atoQ4 at one hun.
4Fsd and aYsI