The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company

Too Long; Didn't Read

The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company makes the following report of its inspections in January, 1871: During the month, there were 522 visits of inspection made, and 1,030 boilers examined—853 externally and 363 internally, while 106 have been tested by hydraulic pressure. Number of defects in all discovered, 431, of which 163 were regarded as dangerous. These defects were as follows: Furnaces out of shape, 24—3 dangerous; fractures, 47—25 dangerous; burned plates, 29—14 dangerous; blistered plates, 54—10 dangerous; cases of sediment and deposit, 97—18 dangerous; cases of incrustation and scale, 70—24 dangerous. To show how little attention is paid to the internal condition of boilers by incompetent engineers, we copy the following from a letter of one of our inspectors: "In one tubular boiler I found sediment in the back end, eight inches deep, and extending forward more than four feet. It seemed to be an accumulation of fine scale cemented together, so that it was necessary to break it up with a hammer and chisel before it could be removed. The engineer said he had cleaned the boilers only three days before, and objected to my making another examination. This is one of the many cases we find, where the proprietor trusts everything about his boilers to his engineer, supposing him to be reliable."