CARE OF LOCOMOTIVE BOILERS.
The present tendency of steam engineering, in the effort to increase the work performed in return for every pound of fuel consumed, is to employ steam of very high pressure. The greater the initial pressure of the steam, the greater are the advantages to be derived from its expansive principle. To resist successfully the enormous aggregate of pressure to which locomotive boilers are subjected, a well-constructed strong boiler is absolutely necessary; and the various railroad companies throughout the country meet the required conditions in an admirable manner, as is evidenced by the remarkable exemption of such boilers from serious accidents. Although the locomotive is the most intensely pressed boiler in common use, that supreme disaster, an explosion, is of rare occurrence, considering the vast number of boilers doing service all over the States. This result is due to constant care in the construction, in the maintenance, and in the management, of the locomotive boiler. Like the conservation of liberty, eternal vigilance is the price of safety.