WATER FOR THE BOILER.
There is nothing that needs such constant watching and is likely to cause so much trouble if it is not cared for, as the supply of water. Hard well water will coat the inside of the boiler with lime and soon reduce its steaming power in a serious degree, to say nothing of stopping up pipes, cocks, etc. At the same time, rain water that is perfectly pure (theoretically) will be found to have a little acid or alkali in it that will eat through the iron or steel and do equal damage.
However, an engineer must use what water he can. He cannot have it made to order for him, but he must take it from well, from brook, or cistern, or roadside ditch, as circumstances may require. The problem for the engineer is not to get the best water, but to make the best use of whatever water he can get, always, of course, choosing the best and purest when there is such a thing as choosing.
In the first place, all supply pipes in water that is muddy or likely to have sticks, leaves, or the like in it, should be furnished with strainers. If sticks or leaves get into the valve, the expense in time and worry to get them out will be ten times the cost of a strainer.
If the water is rain water, and the boiler is a new one, it would be well to put in a little lime to give the iron a slight coating that will protect it from any acid or alkali corrosion.
If the water is hard, some compound or sal ammonia should be used. No specific directions can be given, since water is made hard by having different substances dissolved in it, and the right compound or chemical is that which is adapted to the particular substance you are to counteract. An old engineer says his advice is to use no compound at all, but to put a hatful of potatoes in the boiler every morning.
Occasionally using rain water for a day or two previous to cleaning is one of the best things in the world to remove and throw down all scale. It beats compounds at every point. It is nature’s remedy for the bad effects of hard water.
The important thing, however, is to clean the boiler thoroughly and often. In no case should the lime be allowed to bake on the iron. If it gets thick, the iron or steel is sure to burn, and the lime to bake so hard it will be almost impossible to get it off. But if the boiler is cleaned often, such a thing will not happen.
Mud or sediment can be blown off by opening the valve from the mud drum or the firebox at the bottom of the boiler when the pressure is not over 15 or 20 pounds; and at this pressure much of the lime distributed about the boiler may be blown off. But this is not enough. The inside of the boiler should be scraped and thoroughly washed out with a hose and force-pump just as often as the condition of the water requires it.
In cleaning the boiler, always be careful to scrape all the lime off the top of the fusible plug.