[Illustration: 1456 Horse-power Installation of Babcock & Wilcox Boilers at the Raritan Woolen Mills, Raritan, N. J. The First of These Boilers were Installed in 1878 and 1881 and are still Operated at 80 Pounds Pressure]
Durability--Babcock & Wilcox boilers are being operated in every-day service with entirely satisfactory results and under the same steam pressure as that for which they were originally sold that have been operated from thirty to thirty-five years. It is interesting to note in considering the life of a boiler that the length of life of a Babcock & Wilcox boiler must be taken as the criterion of what length of life is possible. This is due to the fact that there are Babcock & Wilcox boilers in operation to-day that have been in service from a time that antedates by a considerable margin that at which the manufacturer of any other water-tube boiler now on the market was started.
Probably the very best evidence of the value of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler as a steam generator and of the reliability of the apparatus, is seen in the sales of the company. Since the company was formed, there have been sold throughout the world over 9,900,000 horse power.
A feature that cannot be overlooked in the consideration of the advantages of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler is the fact that as a part of the organization back of the boiler, there is a body of engineers of recognized ability, ready at all times to assist its customers in every possible way.
[Illustration: 2400 Horse-power Installation of Babcock & Wilcox Boilers in the Union Station Power House of the Pennsylvania Railroad Co., Pittsburgh, Pa. This Company has a Total of 28,500 Horse Power of Babcock & Wilcox Boilers Installed]
The usual conception of heat is that it is a form of energy produced by the vibratory motion of the minute particles or molecules of a body. All bodies are assumed to be composed of these molecules, which are held together by mutual cohesion and yet are in a state of continual vibration. The hotter a body or the more heat added to it, the more vigorous will be the vibrations of the molecules.
As is well known, the effect of heat on a body may be to change its temperature, its volume, or its state, that is, from solid to liquid or from liquid to gaseous. Where water is melted from ice and evaporated into steam, the various changes are admirably described in the lecture by Mr. Babcock on "The Theory of Steam Making", given in the next chapter.