Part 2 (1/2)

But don't conclude that you can do the same amount of work each day in the week on the same amount of fuel, even should it be of the same kind.

You will that with all your care and skill, your engine will differ very materially both as to the amount of fuel and water that it will require, though the conditions may apparently be the same.

This may be as good a time as any to say to you, remember that a blast of cold air against the tubes is a bad thing, so be careful about your firedoor; open it as little as, possible; when you want to throw in fuel, don't open the door, and then go a rod away after a shovel of coal; and I will say here that I have seen this thing done by men who flattered themselves that they were about at the top in the matter of running an engine. That kind of treatment will ruin the best boiler in existence. I don't mean that once or twice will do it, but to keep it up will do it. Get your shovel of coal and when you are ready to throw it in, open the door quickly and close it at once. Make it one of your habits to do this, and you will never think of doing it in any other way. If it becomes necessary to stop your engine with a hot fire and a high pressure of steam, don't throw your door open, but drop your damper and open the smoke box door.

If, however, you only expect to stop a minute or two, drop your damper, and start your injector if you have one. If you have none, get one.

An independent boiler feeder is a very nice thing, if constructed on the proper principles. You can't have your boiler too well equipped in this particular.

PART FOUR. _

A boiler should be kept clean, outside and inside. Outside for your own credit, and inside for the credit of the manufacturers. A dirty boiler requires hard firing, takes lots of fuel, and is unsatisfactory in every way.

The best way to keep it clean is not to let it get dirty. The place to begin work, is with your ”water boy,” pursuade him to be very careful of the water he brings you, if you can't succeed in this, ask him to resign.

I have seen a water-hauler back into a stream, and then dip the water from the lowerside of tank, the muddy water always goes down stream and the wheels stir up the mud; and your bright water hauler dips it into the tank. While if he had dipped it from the upper side he would have gotten clear water. However, the days of dipping water are past, but a water boy that will do as I have stated is just as liable to throw his hose into the muddy water or lower side of tank as on the upper side, where it is clear. See that he keeps his tank clean. We have seen tanks with one-half inch of mud in the bottom. We know that there are times when you are compelled to use muddy water, but as soon as it is possible to get clear water make him wash out his tank, and don't let him haul it around till the boiler gets it all.

Allow me just here to tell you how to construct a good tank for a traction engine. You can make the dimensions to suit yourself, but across the front end and about two feet back fit a part.i.tion or second head; in the center of this head and about an inch from the bottom bore a two inch hole. Place a screen over this hole on the side next the rear, and on the other side, or side next front end, put a valve. You can construct the valve in this way: Take a piece of thick leather, about four inches long, and two and a half inches wide; fit a block of wood (a large bung answers the purpose nicely) on one end, tr.i.m.m.i.n.g the leather around one side of the wood, then nail the long part of the valve just above the hole, so that the valve will fit nicely over the hole in part.i.tion. When properly constructed, this valve will allow the water to flow into the front end of tank, but will prevent its running back. So, when you are on the road with part of a tank of water, and start down hill, this front part fills full of water, and when you start up hill, it can not get back, and your pumps will work as well as if you had a full tank of water, without this arrangement you cannot get your pumps to work well in going up a steep hill with anything less than a full tank. Now, this may be considered a little out of the engineer's duty, but it will save lots of annoyance if he has his tank supplied with this little appliance, which is simple but does the business.

A boiler should be washed out and not blown out, I believe I am safe in saying that more than half the engineers of thres.h.i.+ng engines today depend on the ”blowing out” process to clean their boilers. I don't intend to tell you to do anything without giving my reasons. We will take a hot boiler, for instance; say, 50 pounds steam. We will, of course, take out the fire. It is not supposed that anyone will attempt to blow out the water with any fire in the firebox. We will, after removing the fire, open the blow-off valve, which will be found at the bottom or lowest water point. The water is forced out very rapidly with this pressure, and the last thing that comes out is the steam. This steam keeps the entire boiler hot till everything is blown out, and the result is that all the dirt, sediment and lime is baked solid on the tubes and side of firebox. But you say you know enough to not blow off at 50 pounds pressure. Well, we will say 5 pounds, then. You will admit that the boiler is not cold by any means, even at only 5 pounds, and if you know enough not to blow off at 50 pounds, you certainly know that at 5 pounds pressure the damage is not entirely avoided. As long as the iron is hot, the dirt will dry out quickly, and by the time the boiler is cold enough to force cold water through it safely, the mud is dry and adheres closely to the iron. Some of the foreign matter will be blown out, but you will find it a difficult matter to wash out what sticks to the hot iron.

I am aware that some engineers claim that the boiler should be blown out at about 5 pounds or I0 pounds pressure, but I believe in taking the common sense view. They will advise you to blow out at a low pressure, and then, as soon as the boiler is cool enough, to wash it thoroughly.

Now, if you must wait till the boiler is cool before was.h.i.+ng, why not let it cool with the water in it? Then, when you let the water out, your work is easy, and the moment you begin to force water through it, you will see the dirty water flowing out at the man or hand hole. The dirt is soft and washes very easily; but, if it had dried on the inside of boiler while you were waiting for it to cool, you would find it very difficult to wash off. .

You say I said to force the water through the boiler, and to do this you must use a force pump. No engineer ought to attempt to run an engine without a force pump. It is one of the necessities. You say, can't you wash out a boiler without a force pump? Oh, yes! You can do it just like some people do business. But I started out to tell you how to keep your boiler clean, and the way to do it is to wash it out, and the way to wash it out is with a good force pump. There are a number of good pumps made, especially for thres.h.i.+ng engines. They are fitted to the tank for lifting water for filling, and are fitted with a discharge hose and nozzle.

You will find at the bottom of boiler one or two hand hole plates-if your boiler has a water bottom-if not, they will be found at the bottom of sides of firebox. Take out these hand hole plates. You will also find another plate near the top, on firebox end of boiler; take this out, then open up smoke box door and you will find another hand hole plate or plug near lower row of tubes; take this out, and you are ready for your water works, and you want to use them vigorously; don't throw in a few buckets of water, but continue to direct the nozzle to every part of the boiler, and don't stop as long as there is any muddy water flowing at the bottom hand holes. This is the way to clean your boiler, and don't think that you can be a success as an engineer without this process, and once a week is none too often. If you want satisfactory results from your engine, you must keep a clean boiler, and to keep it clean requires care and labor. If you neglect it you can expect trouble. If you blow out your boiler hot, or if the mud and slush bakes on the tubes, there is soon a scale formed on the tubes, which decreases the boiler's evaporating capacity. You, therefore, in order to make sufficient amount of steam, must increase the amount of fuel, which of itself is a source of expense, to say nothing of extra labor and the danger of causing the tubes to leak from the increased heat you must produce in the firebox in order to make steam sufficient to do the work.

You must not expect economy of fuel, and keep a dirty boiler, and don't condemn a boiler because of hard firing until you know it is clean, and don't say it is clean when it can be shown to be half full of mud.

SCALE

Advertis.e.m.e.nts say that certain compounds will prevent scale on boilers, and I think they tell the truth, as far as they go; but they don't say what the result may be on iron. I will not advise the use of any of these preparations, for several reasons. In the first place, certain chemicals will successfully remove the scale formed by water charged with bicarbonate of lime, and have no effect on water charged with sulphate of lime. Some kinds of bark-summac, logwood, etc.,-are sufficient to remove the scale from water charged with magnesia or carbonate of lime, but they are injurious to the iron owing to the tannic acid with which they are charged. Vinegar, rotten apples, slop, etc., owing to their containing acetic acid, will remove scale, but this is even more injurious to the iron than the barks. Alkalies of any kind, such as soda, will be found good in water containing sulphate of lime, by converting it into a carbonate and thereby forming a soft scale, which is easily washed out; but these have their objections, for, when used to excess, they cause foaming.

Petroleum is not a bad thing in water where sulphate of lime prevails; but you should use only the refined, as crude oil sometimes helps to form a very injurious scale. Carbonate of soda and corn-starch have been recommended as a scale preventative, and I am inclined to think they are as good as anything, but as we are out in the country most of the time I can tell you of a simple little thing that will answer the same purpose, and can usually be had with little trouble. Every Monday morning just dump a hatful of potatoes into your boiler, and Sat.u.r.day night wash the boiler out, as I have already suggested, and when the fall's run is over there will not be much scale in the boiler.

CLEAN FLUES.

We have been urging you to keep your boiler clean. Now, to get the best results from your fuel, it will also be necessary to keep your flues clean; as soot and ashes are non-conductors of heat, you will find it very difficult to get up steam with a coating of soot in your tubes.

Most factories furnish with each engine a flue cleaner and rod. This cleaner should be made to fit the tubes snug, and should be forced through each separate tube every morning before building a fire. Some engineers never touch their flues with a cleaner, but when they choke the exhaust sufficiently to create such a draught as to clean the flues, they are working the engine at a great disadvantage, besides being much more liable to pull the fire out at the top of smokestack. If it were not necessary to create draught by reducing your exhaust nozzle, your engine would run much nicer and be much more powerful if your nozzle was not reduced at all. However, you must reduce it sufficiently to give draught, but don't impair the power by making the engine clean its own flues. I think ninety per cent of the fires started by. traction engines can be traced to the engineer having his engine choked at the exhaust nozzle. This is dangerous for the reason that the excessive draught created throws fire out at the stack. It cuts the power of the engine by creating back pressure. We will ill.u.s.trate this: Suppose you close the exhaust entirely, and the engine would not turn itself. If this is true, you can readily understand that partly closing it will weaken it to a certain extent. So, remember that the nozzle has something to do with the power of the engine, and you can see why the fellow that makes his engine clean its own flues is not the brightest engineer in the world.

While it is not my intention to encourage the foolish habit of pulling engines, to see which is the best puller, should you get into this kind of a test, you will show the other fellow a trick by dropping the exhaust nozzle off entirely, and no one need know it. Your engine will not appear to be making any effort, either, in making the pull. Many a test has been won more through the shrewdness of the operator than the superiority of the engine.

The knowing of this little trick may also help you out of a bad hole some time when you want a little extra power. And this brings us to the point to which I want you to pay special attention. The majority of engineers, when they want a little extra power, give the safety valve a twist.

Now, I have already told you to carry a good head of steam, anywhere from 100 to 120 pounds of steam is good pressure and is plenty, and if you have your valve set to blow off at 115, let it be there; and don't screw it down every time you want more power, for if you do you will soon have it up to I25, and should you want more steam at some other time you will find yourself s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g it down again, and what was really intended for a safety valve loses all its virtue as a safety, as far as you and those around you are concerned. If you know you have a good boiler you are safe in setting it at I25 pounds, provided you are determined to not set it up to any higher pressure. But my advice to you is that if your engine won't do the work required of it at 115 pounds, you had best do what you can with it until you can get a larger one.

A safety valve is exactly what its name implies, and there should be a heavy penalty for anyone taking that power away from it.

If you refuse to set your safety down at any time, it does not imply that you are afraid of your boiler, but rather you understand your business and realize your responsibility.

I stated before what you should do with the safety valve in starting a new engine. You should also attend to this part of it every few days.