Maxims and Instructions for the Boiler Room / Useful to Engineers, Firemen & Mechanics; Relating to Steam Generators, Pumps, Appliances, Steam Heating, Practical Plumbing, etc.

by N. Hawkins

GUSSET STAYS.

The flat ends of cylindrical boilers are, especially in marine boilers, stayed to the round portions of triangular plates of iron called gusset stays. These are simply pieces of plate iron secured to the boiler front or back, near the top or bottom, by means of two pieces of angle iron, then carried to the shell plating, and again secured by other pieces of angle bar. This arrangement is shown in [Fig. 47].

Fig. 47.

Palm Stays.—These are shown in [Fig. 48], and are often used in the same position as a gusset stay; that is, from the back or front end of the boiler to the shell plates; they are sometimes used to stay the curved tops of combustion chambers.

Fig. 48.

The two opposite ends are also stayed together by long bar stays, running the whole length of the boiler, it is dangerous, however, to trust too much to the latter class of stays; for, in consequence of the alternate expansion and contraction which takes place every time the boiler is heated and cooled, they have a tendency to work loose at the joints; and if the portion of the boiler in which they are situated should happen to be hotter than the outside shell, they have a tendency to droop and are then perfectly useless.