The Holbrook news., 1911-12-01

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 the stokers. The stoker is a
 soldier who fights every day:
 be has to be ceaselessly watch ing and on the alert; he Is the only witness of his obstinate heroism-
 The hardest time for furnace gang is during a torpedo destroyer trial a Poutrance. Before a vessel is admit ted for service 1t is forced to submit to a series of engagements that are called trials and that are particularly laborious. In these trials of full force" or ito the death" the boilers and engines have a more merciless time than they would undergo in nor nal service.
 It is a spectacle well worth the trou- ble to watch a furnace gang during one of these trials. One must descend backward by the narrow trap which opens on the bridge and go down the quarter deck ladder which penetrates swiftly below. Then one Is in the stokehold.
 Besides the chief of the gang there are eight men. When every one is be- low 1t seems at first that there is no room to move, so narrow is the space; before and behind the two furnaces limit 1t; between them are two pumps, the quarter deck ladder, the ventila- tor and all the apparatus of pipes. le- vers, chains and implements. But 1t Is nevertheless true that these men supply a great need All the appar ently incongruous apparatus which surrounds them forms a whole so har- monious that no one part can be out of order without upsetting the rest The pumps force cold water back into the boilers; this circulates in a cIus- ter of innumerable pipes-thousands encircle the boiler-licked all over by the>fiames. All these pipes open into a great cylindrical reservoir, the chest or storehouse for steam. From the reservoir comes the system of pipes which conduct the steam beyond the boiler to the engines; in the engines the steam parts with its energy and is transformed anew into water In the condenser so that the pumps can take 1t again, and then again commences without cessation the same cycle. Some cylinders containing several tons of water constitute a reserve which is only used to repair the wastage.
 imprisoned by Sheet Iron.
 At the command of the chief the sheetiron door is closed and the stoke hold is henceforth isolated; 1t is a prison completely shut in by sheet iron. The ventilator drives in large waves of air which it sucks in from without, air which cannot escape until 1t has passed the grating where the coal is burning.
 The flames from the furnaces unex- pectedly throw out burning splinters, the boilers rumble and vibrate as if possessed with desire to revolt. Be- hind their black and closed fronts. at the edges of the doors, at almost i'm sperceptible chinks, the fire shows it. self in lines of lightning or in lumi- nous spots; the water and the cinders below resemble a stream of lava varie- gated by gold.
 If the pumps drive back the water regularly, if the fresh water replaces exactly and without cessation the wastage in steam. no part of the sheet iron or the mass of tubes can get red hot. and every one feels secure. But it is necessary that nothing gets out of gear in all this complex assembling of boilers. pipes. engines. condensers and pumps. Unfortunately. water is capricious. Sometimes, without ap- parent cause. when everything seems in order. 1t slowly lowers below the watar level Immediately this is ob-