CARE OF INJECTORS.
When an engineer finds that an injector refuses to work, his first resort should be the strainer. That gets choked with cinders or other impurities so frequently, that no time should be lost in examining it. One day, when I was running a round-house, an engineer came in breathless, with the information that his engine was blocked in the yard, and he must dump his fire, as he could not get his injector to work. The thermometer stood at twenty degrees below zero, and an Iowa blizzard was blowing; so the prospect of a dead engine in the yard meant some distressingly cold labor. I asked, the first thing, if he had tried the strainer; and his answer was, that the strainer was all right, for the injector primed satisfactorily, but broke every time he put on a head of steam. I went out to the engine, and had the engineer try to work the injector. By watching the overflow stream, I easily perceived that the injector was not getting enough water, although it primed. An examination showed that the strainer was full of cinders, and the injector went to work all right when the obstruction to the water was removed.