Boiler explosions - a DAILY event!

[Tim Mathis]

Maybe tough inspections aren't such a horrible thing.

Found this interesting report from 1909-1910, looks like there was a boiler explosion or close call almost every day (many times several in a day!!! ) in this country back around 1910. Threshing outfits, traction engines, railroad locomotives, sawmills (lots!), boats, factories, mills, heating plants, cotton gins - you name it. What really surprised me was how many railroad locomotives exploded. Tremendous amount of damage, loss of lives and injuries.

Interesting reading if you're killing a little time:
http://archive.org/stream/locomotive28hart/locomotive28hart_djvu.txt

 

[K.O'Connell]

I scrolled down the report and the first thing I read was this disturbing story:

A Terrible Explosion in Iowa.

The following clipping from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch of January 4 is
forwarded to us by Mr. Victor Hugo. Manager of our St. Louis department,
with a request that we submit, for his guidance, some ruling as to the size of
safety-valve that a duck should have, in order that it may be acceptable to us
as a risk, provided inspection shows it to be in good condition in other respects,
and free from all discoverable defects.

Duck Eats Yeast, Explodes, and Puts Man's Eye Out.

Rhadamanthus Was Prize-Winner's Name, Before He Blew to Pieces.

Des Moines, Iowa, January 4. — The strangest accident recorded in local
history occurred when Rhadamanthus, a duck, which had taken prizes at the
recent Iowa poultry show, exploded into several hundred pieces, one of which
struck Silas Perkins in the eye, destroying the sight.

The cause of Rhadamanthus' untimely explosion was a pan of yeast. This,
standing upon Perkins' back porch, tempted the duck, which gobbled it all up.

Upon returning from church, Perkins discovered his prize duck in a logy
condition. Taletale marks around the pan of yeast gave him a clew to the
trouble.

He was about to pick up the bird when it exploded with a loud report and
Perkins ran into the house, holding both hands over one eye. A surgeon was
called, and it was found that the eyeball had been penetrated by a fragment
of flying duck. He gave no hope that the sight could be saved.

[We don't believe the yeast had a thing to do with the explosion. The
accident was plainly due to the presence, somewhere in the duck, of a concealed
quack. — Editor The Locomotive.]

 

[Mark L. Jordan]

Equally troubling is the modern day practice among beachgoers to throw Alka-Seltzer tablets to flying seagulls, with the same result. Apparently birds cannot burp, so any gas generated in their belly can be catastrophic.

Activists have proposed using a "plop valve" that would fizz and provide relief-it-is.

 

[Tim Mathis]

If they can't burp it could develop into supersonic flight!

Did you read about the boiler inspector that was standing between two boilers, inspecting one boiler when the other one exploded? He managed to crawl through an ashdoor and down some sort of shute with steam all around him to get out. He was blinded and scalded but recovering. The two firemen were killed.

 

[LCJudge]

Hey folks,
The expansion of gas will cause strange things to happen. Luckily, we humans have an outlet for it.

 

[Oilpulled]

There are lots of failures shown and many are on water tubes.
1910 n19 has some discussion of riveted joint failure and fatigue of interest but no definite conclusions. I saw 3 failures listed at Frick's facilities in the first few pages. I read less than 1/10 of the list.

 

[uglyblue66]

My grandfather used to tell me about the sawmill he hung around some as a kid. 1 day a boiler exploded and killed several men. They cleaned up everything ,brought in another engine,and were back sawing that afternoon. He remembers well the off bearer toteing a board and a arm falling out of a tree and hitting him in the head.

 

[Tim Mathis]

Just found this - it's a scan of the original magazine and has the PICTURES, charts and other neat stuff to go with the articles!

https://archive.org/details/locomotive28hart