Records of Steam Boiler Explosions

by Edward Bindon Marten

Fig. 20.

Fig. 21.

Fig. 22.

Notwithstanding the dependence of these boilers upon stays for their strength, many have been made as large as 12 and 15 feet diameter without stays; and explosion sooner or later has been the consequence. Such was an explosion that took place at Smethwick in 1862, which is shown in [Fig. 19]. As the force of the explosion was only slight, the effect of the bottom giving way, and the consequent rolling over caused by the reaction of the issuing steam and water, is clearly seen. Another example that occurred at Wednesbury in 1862 is shown in [Fig. 20], where the explosion was rather more violent, the bottom of the boiler being torn off all round and left upon the firegrate, and rent nearly into two pieces; while the top and sides were thrown some height in one mass, and were only put out of shape by the fall. The weakness of this boiler had been further increased by making the bottom angle of angle iron, as shown enlarged in [Fig. 21], with a ring of flat plate A interposed between the angle-iron ring and the concave bottom of the boiler; so that all the effect of the springing of the bottom, as shown by the dotted lines, was thrown upon the angle iron, which was accordingly found cut off all round. Had the concave bottom been made to rise direct from the angle iron, as in [Fig. 22], the springing could not have been so great, and the angle iron would only have had to stand the shearing strain of retaining in its place the rigid bottom; but as about one foot all round the bottom was flat, and the concavity was only in the central part, the angle-iron ring had to bear an up and down strain, as shown by the dotted lines in [Fig. 21], and the bending action was more severe than it would have been if the bottom had even been made quite flat all over.

Fig. 23.

A further form of the Balloon boiler is shown in [Fig. 23], where the heating surface of the bottom is increased by an internal central dome-shaped fireplace, with an arched and curved flue conducting the flame through one revolution within the boiler before passing again round the outside. This construction however must necessarily have diminished the strength of the boiler greatly. In the drawing the top of the boiler, as indicated by the dotted lines, is removed to show the interior.