The Staffordshire and Potteries Examiner. — 1880-08-14 (Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England)

NOVEL AND IMPORTANT EXPERIMENT.  An experiment of interest and importance has taken place at the Birchills Hall Ironworks, Walsall. It will be remembered that, in May last, a terrible boiler explosion occurred at those works, resulting In the death of the furnace manager and a number of the workpeople. The boiler which exploded was four-furnace vertical Rastrick boiler, of which ' there were at that time three in use on the works. The very full and careful reports presented at the inquiry by gentlemen representing the Board of Trade were such, that the directors of the company determined to discontinue the use of the remaining two Itaskick boilers, and accordingly one was cut up Into plates, and the other was handed over to the Board of Trade officials for the purposes of the experiment which has just taken place. As the latter toiler is a counterpart of the one that eaploded in May, it was resolved to burst it, with a view cd ascertaining its weakest part, and of throwing, if possible, some kind of light on the ex• plosion of the other, and on the maximum strength of that kind of boiler generally. The boiler, prior to being burst, woe removed from its old position--a short di•tenoe from the spot oc• copied by the one that exploded--and was placed in it vertical position on an open space immediately autside the works. The boiler, which was made in IRO, is 30ft. in length, and 10ft. I iin. in diameter; the internal due tft., and the four furnace necks 211. in diameter. The pressure employed for the burst. cog was, of course, not steam, but hydraulic, and coniequently there was little or no risk attending the experiment. One of Tangye's steam engines and a powerful ram-pump were brought into requisition, and 1,0 a boiler was filled with water. later on • little leakage woo observed, and the pressure was teinjorarily withdrawn to enable the leakage to be atte vied to. On the pressure being again applied and considerably increased the boiler failed put order the man-hole, a fracture being made in • thin plate, around which there was no strengthening ring. It was thought that, qo far, the experiment was instill, the weak part of the boiler having been discovered. Some doubt, however, appeared to ma as to the precise pressure at which the failure took place. It WWI generally agreed to be about 901 b. to the square inch, or three times the ordinary "inking pressure. It is intended, however, to repair the fracture, and to continua the experiment still telly date. • -la,.  The Greek Minister of the Navy has recalled the tailors lately dismissal at the expiration of their time of reeio,.  It is said that the principle of selection br corns rifs examination will shortly be extended to the in Othee. Beechen has declared to Aboddin Pasch*, the Ituueter for Foreign Affairs, that the I'ewers will notrnassot to change the TurkosUreek frontier line dectded upon at the-Berlin Conference. lndisn Cs-Tomtits% am &me Reorganisation itO report, and their rasimmendations are "dcr consideration at the War and India  been received at Pod, County g Rare Wr id, who wan Pentenc ea to death tho risizefilart w't•ok for to murder of her child at StaltX