. Railway mechanical engineer . IT can be said, in a general way, that the fire-boxes of theboilers of locomotives are made of steel in the United States, whereas almost everywhere else they are made ofcopper, particularly in Europe. It cannot be given as areason for the greater use of copper that this metal is a betterconductor of heat. The trials made by the PennsylvaniaRailroad, at Altoona, with locomotives equipped with steelfire-boxes showed that the heating surface gave forth as muchheat in the case of these fire-boxes as with the fire-boxes of theboilers made of copper, and it is, moreo
. Railway mechanical engineer . IT can be said, in a general way, that the fire-boxes of theboilers of locomotives are made of steel in the United States, whereas almost everywhere else they are made ofcopper, particularly in Europe. It cannot be given as areason for the greater use of copper that this metal is a betterconductor of heat. The trials made by the PennsylvaniaRailroad, at Altoona, with locomotives equipped with steelfire-boxes showed that the heating surface gave forth as muchheat in the case of these fire-boxes as with the fire-boxes of theboilers made of copper, and it is, moreover, a well knownfact that the power of the boilers was not diminished whencopper tubes were replaced by steel. As far as the ease ofmaking repairs is concerned, this is about the same with thesteel as with the copper fire-boxes, and it can even be saidthat, since the practical use of autogenous welding, repairingis easier with the steel than with the copper fire-boxes. In Europe extensive trials at replacing copper fire-boxes. o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o Fig. 1—Trick Feeds Used on Locomotives of the Paris-Orieans with steel have failed because the steel fire-boxes suddenlycracked either in the middle of the plates or else fissures ap-peared radiating from the rivet holes, and these accidentsappeared to be the result of the rapid cooling of the were, therefore, led to conclude that, in order to main-tain the steel fire-boxes in good condition, it was necessary toavoid submitting them to any rapid change in temperatures,and the reason the Americans were able to continue to usesteel fire-boxes was because of the special precautions whichthey must have taken to avoid these rapid changes and whichwe in Europe knew nothing about. During a trip for studyto the United States, we were able to examine these precau-tions closely, and we found that they could be summed up intwo definite rules: 1. The boiler should never be washed except with hotwater and it should also never be filled e
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectrailroadengineering
