The theories as to the causes of explosion have been numerous. In the early days of the steam engine, when the steam was used only as a condensing medium and the pressure in the boiler was frequently allowed to get below atmospheric pressure, many boilers were destroyed by the excess of the external atmospheric pressure becoming too great, causing them to be collapsed or crumpled up; and this led to the use of the atmospheric valve still found on old boilers. Even so lately as last year, 1865, a boiler in the neighbourhood of Bury, Lancashire, has suffered in this way by collapse from external pressure; its appearance after the accident is shown in [Fig. 1], which is copied from a photograph. The early explosions were so palpably due to the weakness of the boilers, which compared with those of the present day were most ill constructed, that no one thought of any other cause than the insufficient strength of the vessel to bear the expansive force of the steam contained in it. When the advantages of high-pressure steam became recognized, and the boilers were improved so as to bear the increased strain, the tremendous havoc caused by an explosion led many to think that something more must be required than the expansive force of the steam to produce such an effect; and they appear to have attributed to steam under certain conditions a detonating force, or a sudden access of expansive power that overcame all resistance. To support this somewhat natural supposition, it was asserted that the steam became partially decomposed into its constituent gases, forming an explosive mixture within the boiler. That this belief is still sometimes entertained is seen from the verdict of a jury even in the present year, 1866, in the case of the explosion of a plain cylindrical boiler at Leicester, shown in [Fig. 2], the real cause of which appears to have been that the shell of the boiler was weakened by the manhole. It seems hardly necessary to point out the fallacy of imagining decomposition and recomposition of the steam to take place in succession in the same vessel without the introduction of any new element for causing a change of chemical combination; but it is necessary to refer to this supposition, as the idea is shown to be not yet extinct.
Again it has been asserted that the steam when remaining quite still in the boiler becomes heated much beyond the temperature due to the pressure; and that therefore when it is stirred or mixed or brought more in contact with the water by the opening of a valve or other cause, the water evaporates so rapidly as to produce an excessive pressure by accumulation of steam. In support of this view the frequency of explosions upon the starting of the engine after a short stand is adduced; but it is very doubtful whether by this means a sufficient extra pressure could be produced to cause an explosion, unless the boiler had been previously working up to within a very small margin of its strength. Explosions are seldom caused by a sudden increase of pressure, but rather by the pressure gradually mounting to the bursting point, when of course the effect is sudden enough. Nor is it necessary in many cases to look for much increase of pressure as the cause of explosion; for it is far more often the case that the strength of the boiler has gradually degenerated by wear or corrosion, until unable to bear even the ordinary working pressure. It is so very easy, when examining the scene of an explosion, for the first cause of rupture to be confounded with the causes of the subsequent mischief, that in many cases erroneous conclusions have been arrived at in this way.
The most important points to find out in connection with any explosion are the condition of the boiler and all belonging to it immediately before the explosion, together with the locality of the first rent, the direction of the line of rupture, and the nature of the fracture; as everything occurring after the instant of the first rent is an effect and not a cause of explosion. As soon as the first rent has taken place, the balance of strain in the fabric is disturbed, and therefore the internal pressure has greatly increased power in continuing the rupture; and also the pressure being then removed from the surface of the water, which is already heated to the temperature of the steam, the whole body of the water gives out its heat in the form of steam at a considerable pressure, and thus supplies the volume of steam for carrying on the work of destruction. When thus quickly generated, the steam perhaps carries part of the water with it in the same way that it does in ordinary priming; and it has been thought by some that the impact of the water is thus added to that of the steam, to aid in the shock given to all surrounding obstacles.
It is seldom that one out of a bed of boilers explodes without more or less injury to the others on either side of it; but sometimes two boilers in one bed, or three, or even five, have exploded simultaneously.
The causes of boiler explosions may be considered under the two general heads of—
Firstly, faults in the fabric of the boiler itself as originally constructed, such as bad shape, want of stays, bad material, defective workmanship, or injudicious setting:—and
Secondly, mischief arising during working, either from wear and tear, or from overheating through shortness of water or accumulation of scurf; or from corrosion, in its several forms of general thinning, pitting, furrowing, or channelling of the plates; or from flaws or fractures in the material, or injury by the effect of repeated strain; or from undue pressure through want of adequate arrangements for escape of surplus steam.
