Records of Steam Boiler Explosions

by Edward Bindon Marten

TABLE I.

Summary of Records of Steam Boiler Explosions
up to 30th June, 1870, showing Description of Exploded Boilers.

Description of Boiler.	Explosions up to June 1866.			Explosions in the 4 years from June 1866 to up to June, 1870.			Total Explosions
	English.	Foreign.	Total.	English.	Foreign.	Total.	English.	Foreign.	Total.
Marine	57	203	320	12	64	76	69	327	396
Cornish, Lancashire, or others with internal flues	140	1	141	84	3	87	224	4	228
Locomotive	91	29	120	10	68	78	101	97	198
Plain Cylindrical externally fired	114	2	116	54	3	57	168	5	173
Balloon, Haystack, Wagon, Butterley, British-Tube Elephant, or Trevithick	62	2	64	5	2	7	67	4	71
Portable, Agricultural, Upright, Crane, or very small	28	1	29	17	17	34	45	18	63
Heating, Kitchen, Domestic, Rag Steamers, &c.	14	..	14	22	14	36	36	14	50
Furnace-upright	10	..	10	8	..	8	18	..	18
Not sufficiently described to be classified	203	29	232	7	175	182	210	204	414
Totals	719	327	1046	219	346	565	938	673	1611

TABLE II.

Summary of Records of Steam Boiler Explosions
up to 30th June, 1870, showing Causes of Explosions.

Cause of explosion.	Explosions up to June 1866.			Explosions in the 4 years from June 1866 to June 1870.			Total Explosions up to June 1870.
	English.	Foreign.	Total.	English.	Foreign.	Total.	English.	Foreign.	Total.
Worn out, corroded, or burnt plates	92	53	145	89	5	94	181	58	239
Undue pressure, overloaded valves, intentional or from carelessness	132	5	137	25	6	31	157	11	168
Bad construction, weak tubes, defective fittings or stays, or want of repair	136	108	244	69	8	77	205	116	321
Shortness of water, formation of scale or mud, or external flues set too high	106	8	114	28	2	30	134	10	144
Extraneous causes, lightning, fire, gas, &c.	6	3	9	2	..	2	8	3	11
Too uncertain to be classified	247	150	397	6	325	331	253	475	728
Totals	719	327	1046	219	346	565	938	673	1611

TABLE III.

Analysis of Steam Boiler Explosions in the United Kingdom during the Four years ending 30th June, 1870, showing the Causes of Explosion of Boilers of different descriptions.

A	Faults in construction or repair.
B	Faults which should be detected by periodical examination.
C	Faults which should be prevented by careful attendants.
D	Causes extraneous or uncertain.
E	number of Explosions.
K	number of persons Killed.
I	number of persons injured.
Cornish, Lancashire, or other Boilers with internal flues.
		E	K	I
A	Weak Tubes	26	17	41
	Weak combustion chambers	5	8	7
	Weak ends	3	10	10
	Weak dome	1	0	0
	Weak manhole	1	1	1
	Bad repair	3	5	2	E	K	I
					39	41	61
B	External Corrosion	18	42	101
	Internal Corrosion	6	4	5
					24	46	106
C	Shortness of Water	14	11	23
	Scale of mud	3	1	0
	Undue Pressure	4	14	4
					21	26	27	E	K	I
								84	113	194
Plain Cylindrical, or other Boilers without internal flues.
		E	K	I
A	Weak flat ends	8	9	12
	Weak manhole	1	0	2
	Frequent repair producing seam rip in boilers with plates arranged lengthways	15	18	28
	Do. with plates arranged in rings	8	11	25
					32	38	67
B	External Corrosion	11	5	19
	Internal Corrosion	5	5	6
					16	10	25
C	Shortness of Water	2	1	0
	Scale	1	1	0
	Undue pressure	3	4	3
					6	6	3
								54	54	95
Carried forwards								138	167	289