How many and how fearful have been the explosions by all-powerful steam since the period of its introduction. How many weeping widows, and how many fatherless children have had to mourn its effects! Yet what has human ingenuity done, what have the wonderful energies of the present race of scientific men accomplished to stay this annual slaughter? Comparatively little beyond discovery of mysterious causes where none exist. It reminds me of my first lesson in coursing--“If you want to find a hare, young man,” said the keeper, “look at your feet: you will not find her at a distance.” So it is with the state of knowledge on steam boiler explosions; if you want to find the cause, look “at your feet:” do not endeavour to envelope in mystery, what you may find in simple and natural causes.
I may here observe that I have been professionally engaged to inspect the effects, with a hope of finding the cause, of thirty-four cases of explosion, where the sacrifice of human life was above an average of two each, or nearly one hundred, and I never yet have found one single case which could not be clearly demonstrated to have been caused either solely by neglect of the superintendent, or from sheer ignorance on the part of the engineer constructing the arrangement of boilers. For every accident may _sweepingly be said_ to be occasioned by a want of space for the escape of the steam: a too small valve, in the first instance, and in the second, a villanous construction of what is called iron boiler plate--a concentration of the veriest rubbish, under the name of wrought iron, ever gathered together. For this reason, I have drawn the reader’s attention aside for a few moments.
The improvement of boiler-iron may detain us slightly, if by the delay any good can be accomplished. For an inconsiderable increase of outlay, a boiler might be rendered doubly safe to what it is at present, by simply using moderate caution in the selection of scrap iron, a perfect cleansing of that scrap, and by fusing the bloom on the bed of an air furnace. The great advantage would be that you would get a stronger, a much denser, and consequently a much better, metal: nor is this all the advantage; you might use a very much thinner plate, which would yet be equally strong; and science will tell you that steam would be more easily generated, as heat is more rapidly conducted.