Identifier: locomotiveengine09hill (find matches)
Title: Locomotive engineering : a practical journal of railway motive power and rolling stock
Year: 1892 (1890s)
Authors: Hill, John A. (John Alexander), 1858-1916 Sinclair, Angus, 1841-1919
Subjects: Railroads Locomotives
Publisher: New York : A. Sinclair, J.A. Hill (etc.)
Contributing Library: Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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was increased by fill-ing it when hot with water. If the characteristic of hot boiler platewas to fly to pieces when suddenlybrought in contact with cold water, therewould be some reason for the belief thatopening the feed would be dangerouswhen the plates were accidentally over-heated; but this tendency has never beenmanifested. If a piece of red hot boilerplate is plunged into cold water the acthas an annealing tendency. We never iron and proceed to figure on how manypounds of red hot iron it would take toconvert one pound of water into steam at100 pounds pressure. This increase ofknowledge would dissipate the rush ofsteam theory. There is nothing in the popular beliefthat pumping cold water into an over-heated boiler increases the danger of ex-plosion. That is a mere theory unsup-ported by facts, but it has led to many aboiler being badly burned that would havesustained little damage had the feed beenpromptly applied. The mistaken fear ofthe disastrous effects of cold water on hot
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EXPRESS TRAIN, N. Y. ELEVATED RO.\D. RUNNINC; THIRTY-FIVE MILES PER HOUR. certain to cause a boiler explosion. Thatis a mistake. Red iiot cast iron is likelyto break if cold water is poured upon it.but wrought iron and steel do not act inthat way. About twenty years ago, a committeeappointed by the Franklin Institute madea very thorough series of experimentswith steam boilers, and one line of testswas to ascertain the effect of pumping coldwater into the boilers after the sheets wereoverheated. A variety of trials of thischaracter were made, and neither ex-plosion nor rupture of the sheets re-sulted. The seams and staybolts leaked so that heard of a plate cracking when treated inthat way, and there is no reason forbelieving that the material would actdifferently when composing furnacesheets. Some people who know better than tobelieve that cold water would make boilerplate fly to pieces, are under the impres-sion that a rush of steam might be formedfrom the water striking the red hot p

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