. The Locomotive. st being opened, or else had not been opened at have seen no statement respecting the condition of the stop valve whenit was found, and we do not even know that it was found. 196 THE LOCOMOTIVE [July, Nature ok the boiler failed by the blowing out of the bottom head of the lower drum,the fracture running for the most part through the rivet holes of the drum,as will be seen in Fig. 4, though in places the rivets were sheared braces in the lower drum did not break, but pulled away from the tubesheet, or upper head of the lower drum, by fracturin
. The Locomotive. st being opened, or else had not been opened at have seen no statement respecting the condition of the stop valve whenit was found, and we do not even know that it was found. 196 THE LOCOMOTIVE [July, Nature ok the boiler failed by the blowing out of the bottom head of the lower drum,the fracture running for the most part through the rivet holes of the drum,as will be seen in Fig. 4, though in places the rivets were sheared braces in the lower drum did not break, but pulled away from the tubesheet, or upper head of the lower drum, by fracturing the rivets there. Oneof our correspondents says that the metal of the lower drum appeared tohave changed in physical condition along the line of fracture, so as to bevery brittle and hard there. He adds that the piate looks as though it mighthave been rolled from the upper end of an ingot, and suggests that thehardness might be attributable to excessive vibration, if any cause of suchvibration could be Fig. 4.— The Boiler, after the Explosion. (Note the line of fracture, on the right.) The lower head, after becoming detached from the drum, remained ator near its original position, and, save for a few indentations, was notdamaged materially. The rest of the boiler, impelled upward, very muchafter the fashion of a rocket, by the reaction of the steam as it escapedfrom the lower ends of the tubes, passed through the roof of the building,at the Curtis street end, and soared high into the air. emitting steam as itascended. It was seen, in its course, by quite a number of persons, and manyestimated the height to which it rose, the estimates ranging from 200 feet tosomething like 500 feet. As we shall see subsequently, these guesses wereall too small, the actual height attained being nearer 1,600 feet. All theobservers are agreed that at the highest point of its trajectory, the boiler ap-peared to emit a considerable volume of vapor (or smoke), resembling,for an instant
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Keywords: ., bookauthorhartfordsteamboilerin, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1860
