A Catechism of the Steam Engine · Chapter 15Boiler Explosions
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306. Q.--What is the chief cause of boiler explosions?
A.--The chief cause of boiler explosions is, undoubtedly, too great a pressure of steam, or an insufficient strength of boiler; but many explosions have also arisen from the flues having been suffered to become red hot. If the safety valve of a boiler be accidentally jammed, or if the plates or stays be much worn by corrosion, while a high pressure of steam is nevertheless maintained, the boiler necessarily bursts; and if, from an insufficiency of water in the boiler, or from any other cause, the flues become highly heated, they may be forced down by the pressure of the steam, and a partial explosion may be the result. The worst explosion is where the shell of the boiler bursts; but the collapse of a furnace or flue is also very disastrous generally to the persons in the engine room; and sometimes the shell bursts and the flues collapse at the same time; for if the flues get red hot, and water be thrown upon them either by the feed pump or otherwise, the generation of steam may be too rapid for the safety valve to permit its escape with sufficient facility, and the shell of the boiler may, in consequence, be rent asunder. Sometimes the iron of the flues becomes highly heated in consequence of the improper configuration of the parts, which, by retaining the steam in contact with the metal, prevents the access of the water: the bottoms of large flues, upon which the flame beats down, are very liable to injury from this cause; and the iron of flues thus acted upon may be so softened that the flues will collapse upward with the pressure of the steam. The flues of boilers may also become red hot in some parts from the attachment of scale, which, from its imperfect conducting power, will cause the iron to be unduly heated; and if the scale be accidentally detached, a partial explosion may occur in consequence.
307. Q.--Does the contact of water with heated metal occasion an instantaneous generation of steam?
A.--It is found that a sudden disengagement of steam does not immediately follow the contact of water with the hot metal, for water thrown upon red hot iron is not immediately converted into steam, but assumes the spheroidal form and rolls about in globules over the surface. These globules, however high the temperature of the metal may be on which they are placed, never rise above the temperature of 205°, and give off but very little steam; but if the temperature of the metal be lowered, the water ceases to retain the spheroidal form, and comes into intimate contact with the metal, whereby a rapid disengagement of steam takes place. If water be poured into a very hot copper flask, the flask may be corked up, as there will be scarce any steam produced so long as the high temperature is maintained; but so soon as the temperature is suffered to fall below 350° or 400°, the spheroidal condition being no longer maintainable, steam is generated with rapidity, and the cork will be projected from the mouth of the flask with great force.
308. Q.--What precautions can be taken to prevent boiler explosions?
A.--One useful precaution against the explosion of boilers from too great an internal pressure, consists in the application of a steam gauge to each boiler, which will make the existence of any undue pressure in any of the boilers immediately visible; and every boiler should have a safety valve of its own, the passage leading to which should have no connection with the passage leading to any of the stop valves used to cut off the connection between the boilers; so that the action of the safety valve may be made independent of the action of the stop valve. In some cases stop valves have jammed, or have been carried from their seats into the mouth of the pipe communicating between them, and the action of the safety valves should be rendered independent of all such accidents. Safety valves, themselves, sometimes stick fast from corrosion, from the spindles becoming bent, from a distortion of the boiler top with a high pressure, in consequence of which the spindles become jammed in the guides, and from various other causes which it would be tedious to enumerate; but the inaction of the safety valves is at once indicated by the steam gauge, and when discovered, the blow through valves of the engine and blow off cocks of the boiler should at once be opened, and the fires raked out. A cone in the ball of the waste steam pipe to send back the water carried upward by the steam, should never be inserted; as in some cases this cone has become loose, and closed up the mouth of the waste steam pipe, whereby the safety valves being rendered inoperative, the boiler was in danger of bursting.
309. Q.--May not danger arise from excessive priming?
A.--If the water be carried out of the boiler so rapidly by priming that the level of the water cannot be maintained, and the flues or furnaces are in danger of becoming red hot, the best plan is to open every furnace door and throw in a few buckets full of water upon the fire, taking care to stand sufficiently to the one side to avoid being scalded by the rush of steam from the furnace. There is no time to begin drawing the fires in such an emergency, and by this treatment the fires, though not altogether extinguished, will be rendered incapable of doing harm. If the flues be already red hot, on no account must cold water be suffered to enter the boiler, but the heat should be maintained in the furnaces, and the blow off cocks be opened, or the mud hole doors loosened, so as to let all the water escape; but at the same time the pressure must be kept quite low in the boiler, so that there will be no danger of the hot flues collapsing with the pressure of the steam.
310. Q.--Are plugs of fusible metal useful in preventing explosions?
A.--Plugs of fusible metal were at one time in much repute as a precaution against explosion, the metal being so compounded that it melted with the heat of high pressure steam; but the device, though ingenious, has not been found of any utility in practice. The basis of fusible metal is mercury, and it is found that the compound is not homogeneous, and that the mercury is forced by the pressure of the steam out of the interstices of the metal combined with it, leaving a porous metal which is not easily fusible, and which is, therefore, unable to perform its intended function. In locomotives, however, and also in some other boilers, a lead rivet is inserted with advantage in the crown of the fire box, which is melted out if the water becomes too low, and thus gives notice of the danger.
311. Q.--May not explosion occur in marine boilers from the accumulation of salt on the flues?
A.--Yes, in marine boilers this is a constant source of danger, which is only to be met by attention on the part of the engineer. If the water in the boiler be suffered to become too salt, an incrustation of salt will take place on the furnaces, which may cause them to become red hot, and they may then be collapsed even by their own weight aided by a moderate pressure of steam. The expedients which should be adopted for preventing such an accumulation of salt from taking place within the boiler as will be injurious to it, properly fall under the head of the management of steam boilers, and will be explained in a subsequent chapter.