W. J. Connor

“ Answer.—The self-acting stokers have to be kept working by the live stoker, and are smoke consumers so long as the coals let down on the travelling furnace is exactly proportionate to the requirements of it, but if the supply should exceed what is necessary, the grate becomes choked with coals and has to be cleared of some of them, and in doing this with coals partly burnt, smoke is inevitable; and if the supply is insufficient, the grate becomes bare of fuel, and cold air finds its way through the bars and checks the steam. ”

“ The fire drill takes place on another day, and commences in this manner: the ship's bell is rapidly rung by the quartermaster; the unusual rapidity of the ringing attracts the attention of all the passengers who commence to crowd the upper deck; the stokers drop down a dozen hose-pipes on the deck and run them out straight, and screw them to nozzles leading down to the engine room. The engineers pop the pumps on and up comes the water; every hose is now stiffened and the branches are all directed over the ship's side, where they make a grand display. ”

“ Answer.—There are several terms common to hydraulics and steam; the steam boiler might be called an accumulator of power; there is a slide-valve in hydraulics as in the steam engine, to admit the power and to allow the exhaust to escape; there are stop-valves and intermediate valves in hydraulics, as in steam pipes, also air-vessels in each: there are suction and delivery pipes and valves in each, and relieve valves also in each; there is a cylinder in each in which the power is concentrated; there are reversing levers in a hydraulic crane, as in a steam crane. ”

“ Answer.—If a boiler is placed at a long distance from the engine or whatever the steam may be used for, there is much or little condensation according to the distance and the weather, so that there would always be water mixing with the steam, and that is most objectionable where a steam engine is concerned, and by super-heating the steam it comes to the engine as hot and dry as if the boiler were close by; but whatever the heat of the steam may be, the pressure cannot be increased after the steam has left the boiler. ”

“ Answer.—No; the coals which are used in the trial are generally the best Welsh, not shovelled up indiscriminately, but carefully hand-picked, weighed and wheeled into the stoke-hold; the engine during the trial is lavishly supplied with oils and tallow, with great regularity. After the trial, and the horse-power is indicated, the boiler resumes her ordinary work; the stoker is ever after expected to create sufficient steam with very inferior coals to develop the same amount of power in the engine as was done in the trial. I think that is very unfair to the stoker. ”

“ There is no trade or calling that a working man is more handicapped in than that of a Steam Boiler Stoker; there are no books on stoking; the man leaving his situation is not anxious to communicate with the man who is taking his place anything that might help or instruct him; and the new man will be shy of asking for information for fear of being thought incapable for the post he is seeking ”

“ When the slap is delivered, the slapper darts back to his place in the rank with all possible speed, and the slapped one darts after the other like greased lightning, and touches the wrong man perhaps, and pulls the bandage off, only to have to put on again, while the passengers roar with delight ”

“ Some stokers take credit to themselves for making the boiler "Hum"; when coals are thrown into the fire indiscriminately—small and large—the air finds the least resistance through the small coals, which soon burst into holes, while the lumps remain solid; then the air rushes into the holes and the humming commences; or, if the firebars are not equally separated, the air enters the widest space and the boiler hums; or it may be that the bars next the side of the fireplace are out of line and lets the air rush up against the side and the boiler hums. ”

“ I sprinkle the small coals with water from a hose-pipe, and burn one fire down low, but bright; I shut the damper nearly close and commence firing towards the bridge and sides, until the grate is full nearly to the crown of the fireplace, allowing the gas to remain in the furnace and flues for twenty minutes, then I open the damper a couple of inches; by this time there are numerous jets of flame flickering all over the coals, and now I open the damper to the full extent and I soon have a rousing steam-making fire. ”

“ In bad weather, if it rained, hailed, or snowed, both driver and stoker had to keep a look-out by holding their hands up before their eyes and looking between their fingers; when it rained, and one side of each man was wet through, they would change places till the other side got wet through also. These were the good old times. Drivers and firemen in the present time may thank their stars that the way was well paved for them before they started. So there is hardly any similarity between a stationary boiler stoker and a locomotive stoker, except keeping the steam up perhaps ”

“ Answer.—Yes; familiarity in doing things frequently during work, tends to a careless off-hand style of self-importance that has often caused trouble and mishap. A crane driver employed at the Midland Railway Extension at St. Pancras, came to work one winter's morning and the steam being already up, turned it on to warm the steam chest and cylinder, preparatory to commencing work for the day, forgetting that it had been freezing hard all night, and split the steam chest to pieces. ”

“ I then fill the boiler up with cold water several times, and allow cold water to play into the boiler from the manhole by means of the hose pipe, and the blow-off cock being open there is always a cool atmosphere for the men to work in; they can remain longer in the boiler, do twice the amount of work, and in less time than in a scorching atmosphere. When the cleaning is done and the boiler rinsed out, I shut the blow-off cock and fill her with clean water to the usual height; take off the canvas on the spindle, replace the wheel, and the boiler is ready for lighting up the fire. ”

“ I was told by an old stoker that there was sharp competition between the chief engineers as to who could do the voyage at the least expense of coals, and that information explained the action of our chief engineer who would often perambulate the deck till midnight, watching the windsails that they should remain with their backs to the wind in order to prevent a breath of cool air reaching the fires, that would cause them to burn a few more pounds of coals, while some of the stokers were often hauled up in the ash-bucket fainting from the stifling heat of the foul-smelling stoke-hold. ”

“ I commence work by cleaning the small tubes of four furnaces, then clean out the four furnaces, rake out the ashes from the pit and fill them and the clinkers into iron buckets, which the sailors haul up and empty over the ship's side. And while I am engaged in this work my two mates are doing my firing for me—which is in this way: one man fires every other fire of the sixteen fires, then goes round again and fires those he missed the first round, then his mate takes the shovel from his hands and fires every other fire, then fires those he missed the first round ”

“ The boat drill and fire drill create some wonder for the passengers, as they always happen unexpectedly; the former begins in this way: a large gong is rapidly hit with a mallet by the quartermaster, and all those stokers and sailors, who belong to the seventeen boats hanging from the davits, immediately make their way towards them and commence to clear the falls, and the word is given to lower all boats, while the men hold their oars ready to push off, and the boats are run down nearly to the water's edge ”

“ But it is necessary always while burning one fire down for the purpose of banking it up, to have all the other fires in good condition and capable of keeping up the steam independently of the one to be banked up; if the others should burn down too low before one of them is banked, smoke will follow the neglect. ”

“ The chief point is to have a good set of firebars and well placed; if they are too long they will hump in the middle or they will bulge sideways; if they are too close together they become red-hot because there is not room enough for the air to pass between them to keep them moderately cool, and if they are too short they will drop down into the ash-pit.
11. Question.—Why is it more difficult to keep steam-tight the manhole cover of a [16] portable boiler than the manhole cover of a stationary boiler? ”

“ If the stoker would only drop a shovelful of coals dexterously into each hole the humming would stop immediately, or level the fire with the rake or long poker, or open the fire door if the rake is too heavy, and the noise will cease. ”

“ The suction pipe, steam pipe and delivery pipe are about one inch diameter, and the overflow pipe half an inch diameter, and the water tank three feet below the level of the injector, the space within the barrel might be twelve square inches; the water and steam cocks are supposed to be always open, and this is how the injector is started working. The water-wheel is turned partly round, and a figured disc behind it indicates the quantity of water let into the barrel, while the steam is let in by turning a wheel attached to a quick-screw spindle ”

“ It is expected that the smoke while passing over the bright fire towards the bridge will be ignited, but only a very small portion of it becomes flame, and the smoke tends to deaden the bright fire to a great extent. The door has to be opened so frequently in this method, and in pushing the coals from the dead-plate to the bars a large amount of live fuel drops down into the ash-pit, and if this should be thrown into the furnace again, the fire is deadened immediately. ”

“ This led Watt to add a large wheel on the shaft of the sun wheel, called the fly wheel, which equalised the rate of motion to uniformity. Watt invented the crank for his engine, but one of his men gave the tip to an engineer at Bristol, who forthwith took out a patent for it and forestalled Watt, who had to invent another means—the sun and planet. But when the term of the patent expired, Watt resumed the crank method instead of the sun and planet, which was noisy, the wear and tear very great, and also expensive. ”

“ One more specimen of the many games that delight the passengers: about twenty men stand close together and in line, their faces to the ship's head, the front man has a bandage on his eyes, any one in the rank is at liberty to step out and go up to him and slap his cheek, and dart off to his place in the rank before the blindfold touches him ”

“ The spindle of the plunger is connected to the piston of the steam engine by a hole and stuffing box in the cylinder cover, and a connecting [51] crosshead secures the spindle of the plunger and the extra piston, so that would bring the crank of the engine, the connecting rod, piston, extra piston, and plunger all in a straight line, and a direct stroke. About 6 inches of the plunger is occupied by the packing at the outer end ”

“ Our engines receive a thorough overhaul, boilers are cleaned, cabins and stairways painted, and all bright metal cleaned and repolished; our coals are delivered on board by a swarm of men, women and youths, of both sexes, carrying them in small wicker baskets on their heads, and stepping on a scale or counter on their way to the ship, the process occupying about three days for about 800 tons of Welsh coal. ”

“ Pancras, was a light steam crane for hoisting earth from the deep excavations, there were in use small wooden skips, and the pressure of steam was forty-five lb.; but after a time there arrived large iron skips that the crane could not lift, even when empty; there were about twenty men depending on the crane for their work and the navvy-ganger was anxious for "something to be done," and the crane man hinted about weighting the safety-valve, and no sooner said than almost done ”

“ Such a mishap could not happen to a boiler with the blow-off pipe at the bottom, for when the stoker blows out his boiler he must shut the cock before he can fill her, and when filled there is no chance of the water escaping out again. ”

“ 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 ”

“ The material for the bridge and the flue ports are firebricks and fireclay; these are rather expensive, but I learnt a wrinkle in the building up of bridge and flues. Through the frequent removals of these for boiler inspection and the hitting of the end of the long poker, several bricks were broken every three months, and I came to the decision to try stock bricks faced with fireclay as mortar ”

“ Answer.—It is often done by old stokers as well as new ones, and is more of a silly habit than of [24] trying the pressure of the steam, especially as there is nowadays a pressure gauge for every boiler in a stoke-hold. By lifting the safety-valve while steam is in the boiler and dropping it down again is a dangerous practice ”