DIFFICULTIES OF PURIFYING WATER FOR LOCOMOTIVES.
The nostrums offered to railroad managers for purifying feed-water are legion, but it is doubtful if a single remedy has proved entirely successful. In most instances, the material or means used have been worthless or impracticable; but, in other cases, the appliances have not received justice from those attending their application. Most people underrate the magnitude of the task involved in undertaking to render the impurities of feed-water innocent in locomotive boilers. The case of a learned professor who undertook to doctor the feed-water for locomotives on a prominent road, where he made his arrangements for each engine using one thousand gallons of water a day, is representative. When provision has to be made for some engines using double that quantity each hour, the difficulty of the transaction becomes apparent. As has already been said, I believe that obtaining soft surface-water is the proper way to avoid trouble with locomotive boilers; but, where this is impracticable, considerable saving can be effected by “doctoring” the water if the operations are intelligently conducted.