gly on top of the boiler, which induced him to open the
furnace door, and he saw that the boiler was red-hot and collapsed; he
rushed up to the stoker who had his hand already on the stop-cock to let
water into her when he was forcibly pulled away from it, much against
his will, but when he saw the damage he had caused he sheered off and we
saw no more of him. This case occurred at the London Hydro-Carbon Oil
Works, Southall, W. One more: On a Sunday morning a stoker came in to
break the joint of a manhole, empty the boiler and fill her up again
with water. After taking the dogs off and securing the cover from
falling into the boiler, the stoker gave the cover a tap with the end of
the spanner to loosen the joint, but the cover showed no signs of
slackening, and the end of a crowbar was requisitioned but without
result; and in this case, as in a former one, my opinion was solicited
as well as help. I used the crowbar end harder every blow; when at last
the cover seemed to spring downwards and upwards, I dropped the bar
instantly, thinking the devil had a hold of the cover. After a moment's
thought I went down into the stoke-hold and opened one of the gauge
cocks and steam rushed out; there were no pressure gauges in this
establishment; every one of the twenty boilers had eight weights
suspended from the lever of the safety-valve, each weight representing
five lb. pressure. I took off the weights one by one, and when five of
them had been removed steam began to blow off, showing that fifteen lb.
pressure was in the boiler while I was trying to knock the manhole cover
in. On inquiry it transpired that the man whose duty it was to blow out
this boiler the previous day asked his mate to do it, and the mate
forgot all about it (it being Saturday night), and these omissions
nearly caused a catastrophe. This occurred in Pimlico, S.W.

29. _Question._--What advantage to the employer is the self-acting
stoker for steam boilers?

_Answer._--He can use the very cheapest and smallest coals; the cold air
is never permitted to enter the boiler; there is no cleaning out fires
with the door wide open; the steam is more uniform in pressure; the
boiler will last longer, and little or no smoke. There is a drawback to
these advantages: there must be a live stoker to keep the automatic
stoker up to its work; he has to keep the coals supplied to the "Jacob's
Ladder"; he has to regulate the supply of coals to the boxes over each
boiler, an