Rough and Tumble Engineering | Page 5

and
on looking at the glass, see two or three inches of water. Should you

start a fire without investigating any further, you will have done the
damage, while if you try the gauge cocks first you will discover that
some one has tampered with the engine. The boy did the mischief
through no malicious motives, but we regret to say that there are people
in this world who are mean enough to do this very thing, and not stop at
what the boy did unconsciously, but after shutting the water in the
gauge for the purpose of deceiving you, they then go to the blow-off
cock and let enough water out to insure a dry crown sheet. While I
detest a human being guilty of such a dastardly trick, I have no
sympathy to waste on an engineer who can be caught in this way. So, if
by this time you have made up your mind never to build a fire until you
know where the water is, you will never be fooled and will never have
to explain an accident by saying, "I thought I had plenty of water." You
may be fooled in another way. You are aware that when a boiler is fired
up or in other words has a steam pressure on, the air is excluded, so
when the boiler cools down, the steam condenses and becomes water
again, hence the space which was occupied by steam now when cold
becomes a vacuum.
Now should your boiler be in perfect shape, we mean perfectly tight,
your throttle equally as tight, your pump or injector in perfect condition
and you were to' leave your engine with the hose in the tank, and the
supply globe to your pump open, you will find on returning to your
engine in the morning that the boiler will be nearly if not quite full of
water. I have heard engineers say that someone had been tampering
with their engines and storm around about it, while the facts were that
the supply being open the water simply flowed in from atmospheric
pressure, in order to fill the space made vacant by the condensed steam.
You will find further on that all check valves are arranged to prevent
any flowing out from the boiler, but nothing to prevent water flowing
in. Such an occurrence will do no harm but the knowing how it was
done may prevent your giving yourself away. A good authority on
steam boilers, says: "All explosions come either from poor material,
poor workmanship, too high pressure, or a too low gauge of water."
Now to protect yourself from the first two causes, buy your engine
from some factory having a reputation for doing good work and for
using good material. The last two causes depend very much on yourself,
if you are running your own engine. If not, then see that you have an

engineer who knows when his safety valve is in good shape and who
knows when he has plenty of water, or knows enough to pull his fire,
when for some reason, the water should become low. If poor material
and poor workmanship were unknown and carelessness in engineers
were unknown, such a thing as a boiler explosion would also be
unknown.
You no doubt have made up your mind by this time that I have no use
for a careless engineer, and let me add right here, that if you are
inclined to be careless, forgetful,(they both mean about the same thing,)
you are a mighty poor risk for an insurance company, but on the other
hand if you are careful and attentive to business, you are as safe a risk
as any one, and your success and the durability and life of your engine
depends entirely upon you, and it is not worth your while to try to shift
the responsibility of an accident to your engine upon some one else.
If you should go away from your engine and leave it with the water boy,
or anyone who might be handy, or leave it alone, as is often done, and
something goes wrong with the engine, you are at fault. You had no
business to leave it, but you say you had to go to the separator and help
fix something there. At the separator is not your place. It is not our
intention to tell you how to run both ends of an outfit. We could not tell
you if we wanted to. If the men at the separator can't handle it, get
some one or get your boss to get some one who can. Your place is at
the engine. If your engine is running nicely, there is all the more reason
why you should stay by it, as that is the