ACCIDENTS PREVENTED BY ATTENDING TO THE NOTE OF WARNING FROM THE EXHAUST.
The habit of closely watching the exhaust is likely to prove serviceable in more ways than in keeping the engineer posted on the condition of the steam-distribution gear. Its sound often acts as a danger alarm, which should never go unheeded. Many an engine has gone home on one side, and not a few have been towed in cold, through accidents to the valve-gear, which could have been prevented had the engineer attended to the warning voice of a false exhaust. The nuts work off an eccentric-strap bolt; and it drops out, letting the strap open far enough to cause an uneven valve-travel. If the engineer hears this, and stops immediately to examine the machinery, he is likely to detect the defect before the strap breaks. Again, one side of a valve yoke may have snapped, leaving the other side to bear the load; or bolts belonging to different parts of the links or eccentric-straps may be working out,—so that the uniformity of the valve-travel is affected; and the same result may be produced by the eccentrics getting loose. Young engineers, to whom these pages are addressed, should make up their minds that an engine never exhausts an irregular note without something being the matter which does not admit of running to a station before being examined. It may only be an eccentric slipped a little way, a mishap that is not calculated to result disastrously; but, on the other hand, it is probably something of a more dangerous character.