A Catechism of the Steam Engine

by C. E. John Bourne

A.--In the setting of marine boilers care must be taken that no copper bolts or nails project above the wooden platform upon which they rest, and also that no projecting copper bolts in the sides of the ship touch the boiler, as the galvanic action in such a case would probably soon wear the points of contact into holes. The platform may consist of three inch planking laid across the keelsons nailed with iron, nails, the heads of which are well punched down, and caulked and puttied like a deck. The surface may then be painted over with thin putty, and fore and aft boards of half the thickness may then be laid down and nailed securely with iron nails, having the heads well punched down. This platform must then be covered thinly and evenly with mastic cement and the boiler be set down upon it, and the cement must be caulked beneath the boiler by means of wooden caulking tools, so as completely to fill every vacuity. Coomings of wood sloped on the top must next be set round the boiler, and the space between the coomings and the boiler must be caulked full of cement, and be smoothed off on the top to the slope of the coomings, so as to throw off any water that might be disposed to enter between the coomings and the boiler.

377. Q.--How is the cement used for setting marine boilers compounded?

A.--Mastic cement proper for the setting of boilers is sold in many places ready made. Hamelin's mastic is compounded as follows:--to any given weight of sand or pulverized earthenware add two thirds such given weight of powdered Bath, Portland, or other similar stone, and to every 560 lbs. weight of the mixture add 40 lbs. weight of litharge, 2 lbs. of powdered glass or flint, 1 lb. of minium, and 2 lbs. of gray oxide of lead; pass the mixture through a sieve, and keep it in a powder for use. When wanted for use, a sufficient quantity of the powder is mixed with some vegetable oil upon a board or in a trough in the manner of mortar, in the proportion of 605 lbs. of the powder to 5 gallons of linseed, walnut, or pink oil, and the mixture is stirred and trodden upon until it assumes the appearance of moistened sand, when it is ready for use. The cement should be used on the same day as the oil is added, else it will be set into a solid mass.

378. Q.--What is the best length of the furnaces of marine boilers?

A.--It has already been stated that furnace bars should not much exceed six feet in length, as it is difficult to manage long furnaces; but it is a frequent practice to make the furnaces long and narrow, the consequence of which is, that it is impossible to fire them effectually at the after end, especially upon long voyages and in stormy weather, and air escapes into the flues at the after end of the bars, whereby the efficacy of the boiler is diminished. Where the bars are very long it will generally be found that an increased supply of steam and a diminished consumption of coal will be the consequence of shortening them, and the bars should always lie with a considerable inclination to facilitate the distribution of the fuel over the after part of the furnace. When there are two lengths of bars in the furnace, it is expedient to make the central cross bar for bearing up the ends double, and to leave a space between the ends of the bars so that the ashes may fall through between them. The space thus left enables the bars to expand without injury on the application of heat, whereas without some such provision the bars are very liable to get burned out by bending up in the centre, or at the ends, as they must do if the elongation of the bars on the application of heat be prevented; and this must be the effect of permitting the spaces at the ends of the bars to be filled up with ashes. At each end of each bed of bars it is expedient to leave a space which the ashes cannot fill up so as to cause the bars to jam; and care must be taken that the heels of the bars do not come against any of the furnace bearers, whereby the room left at the end of the bars to permit the expansion would be rendered of no avail.

379. Q.--Have you any remarks to offer respecting the construction and arrangement of the furnace bridges and dampers of marine boilers?

A.--The furnace bridges of marine boilers are walls or partitions built up at the ends of the furnaces to narrow the opening for the escape of heat into the flues. They are either made of fire brick or of plate iron containing water: in the case of water bridges, the top part of the bridge should be made with a large amount of slant so as to enable the steam to escape freely, but notwithstanding this precaution the plates of water bridges are apt to crack at the bend, so that fire brick bridges appear on the whole to be preferable. In shallow furnaces the bridges often come too near the furnace top to enable a man to pass over them; and it will save expense if in such bridges the upper portion is constructed of two or three fire blocks, which may be lifted off where a person requires to enter the flues to sweep or repair them, whereby the perpetual demolition and reconstruction of the upper part of the bridge will be prevented.

380. Q.--What is the benefit of bridges?

A.--Bridges are found in practice to have a very sensible operation in increasing the production of steam, and in some boilers in which the brick bridges have been accidentally knocked down by the firemen, a very considerable diminution in the supply of steam has been experienced. Their chief operation seems to lie in concentrating the heat within the furnace to a higher temperature, whereby the heat is more rapidly transmitted from the furnace to the water, and less heat has consequently to be absorbed by the flues. In this way the bridges render the heating surface of a boiler more effective, or enable a smaller amount of heating surface to suffice.

381. Q.--Are the bridges behind the furnaces the only bridges used in steam boilers?