The Holbrook news., 1911-12-01

served the men work the regulating taps. the pumps are driven with more force to try and accelerate the pace. and all the time the fire is devouring tons of coal, and still the water gets steadily lower. Sometimes the cause of the mischief is a leakage-a pipe is broken in some innermost. recess by the vibrations or a joint is strained bit by bit, and the water leaks out. After some minutes the water. the faithful ally against fire. only appears in the level when the ship rolls. Every one watches 1t furtively. This is the mo- ment when a panic must be averted. for that always means a savage rush for the foot of the ladder. fierce fight ing to try and mount it. and when the trap is open inevitably the fire rushes out and burns everything.
 Goodness In Face of Danger.
 The chief knows what he is sup posed to do in such cases; he never goes into the stokehold without re- beating to himself his lesson; almost without any effort of will his brain responds to the emergency and tells him what he must accomplish. At the pace at which the vessel Is going about seven liter of water leave the boiler in vapor form every second. About two minutes would elapse be- fore the reserves of vapor and the top of the pipes would be empty. After this there would be also another cou- pie of minutes before the pipes would commence to get red hot, then one of nd ho lot If cfo 1t would produce would drive the flames everywhere. The pipes would burst at the precise moment when the door of the furnace was opened. be- cause the fresh air of the ventilator would pass by and strike 1t.
 The chief immediately orders the men to cease replenishing the fur naces; he then waits for one of the two precious minutes. and if no change takes place he orders the fire to be raked out. In front of the wide open furnace. literally advancing to death if pipe should crack. stoker must loosen the hook. rake out some of the glowing coal, strive to reach the bars of the grate. force out some of them and then by means of the space
 
 mass of cinders into the water. If he has not the time and the explosion takes place the chief throws the ven tilator wide open at the risk of mak- ing the splinters fly in order to drive back the fire and steam. Then if there is still time he throws himself flat on his stomach like the others. his head under a sack, a handkerchief between his teeth because of the steam that burns the lungs, and then he waits. The danger that they await is of kind that rarely comes to the lives of most people. Unhappily too often. the end is tragic.
 Various experiments with oil as fuel have been tried in the navies of the world. with excellent results. and there seems more than probability that oil will take the place of coal in the war vessels of the not very distant future. Owners of merchantmen have been somewhat chary of making a change hitherto, arguing that with vessels 1 trading in all the known waters 1t might be exceedingly difficult at times to replenish the oil tanks. whereas coal can be obtained with comparative | ease. Now there has been built a cargo-steamer capable of burning | either oil or coal The stokehold of | this ship as it is when liquid fuel is in | use is above illustrated. The oil is forced into the furnace in the shape of a conical spray. through a pipe. and | bursts into flame about six inches from the nozzle. One or two hands are all that are necessary to regulate the flow of oil to the furnaces