PREVENTION OF BOILER EXPLOSIONS.
This vexed problem has occupied the minds of engineers and inventors since the introduction of steam as a motive power, and there are several theories of boiler explosions, each having its adherents. Of course there are conditions under which a boiler explosion is involved in no mystery; as, for example, when the water is dangerously low, when the safety valve is of insufficient capacity, or when it is unduly loaded; but there are other cases where an explosion cannot be rationally explained in the light of the well known theories.
Mr. Daniel T. Lawson, of Wellsville, Ohio, has recently patented, in this and several other countries, a device for preventing boiler explosions, which appears practical, and according to the testimony of scientific men the claims of the inventor are well founded.
The inventor, in explaining his invention, says that when water is superheated it becomes as explosive as gunpowder, exploding by bursting into steam from a reduction of pressure. When the engineer opens the throttle valve the cylinder is instantly filled with steam, creating a vacuum to that extent in the boiler. The superheated water then immediately rises to fill the vacuum, and is met by the valve, instantly cutting off the escape into the cylinder; this causes a concussion on every square inch in the boiler much greater than the regular pressure of the steam. There is abundant reason to believe that it is this concussive action which causes the numerous and mysterious boiler explosions, and which cause is wholly independent of the amount of water in the boiler; in fact, the greater the amount of water in the boiler the more terrific the explosion.
This invention, which is based upon this theory, consists in reducing the concussive strain produced by the impulsive and intermittent escape of steam to the cylinders to an approximately uniform pressure, by rendering the evolution or passage of steam from the water to the steam space approximately constant and independent of the intermittent discharges from the steam space to the cylinder. The means for accomplishing this consist in a boiler constructed with a partition, A, intervening between the water space and the space from which the steam is taken to supply the cylinder, and feeding the steam as it is generated through valves or orifices, B, in the partition, of a smaller size than the port or opening through which the steam passes into the cylinder. By this means the normal steam pressure or steam supply, when thus intermittently or alternately reduced, is restored gradually by reducing the flow from the water space to the steam space, so that the transformation of water into steam is made approximately uniform in spite of the intermittent escape of steam through the cylinders, and the boiler is thus relieved of the constant wear and strain of the concussion.
