Locomotive Fireboxes
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LOCOMOTIVEFIREBOXES. Paper read before the Institution by Mr. SMITH MANNERING, Member, Brighton, December 9th, 1916. DISCUSSION. Mr. W. A. Lelean: \Ye haxe all listened with the greatest interest to this very practical paper. It will be a most useful contribution to our proceedings. The paper contains such a number of matters for discussion that I am anxious not to take up any of the time of the meeting at the outset and at once, therefore, invite any remarks or criticisms. Mr. R. P. C. Sanderson: Gentlemen,-I would like first to have heard from the English railway men before saying anything myself, because the paper deals largely with cop- per boxes, but in the sixth paragraph of Mr. Mannering’s very interesting paper on firebox construction and main- tenance, he refers to fusible plugs and apparently is desirous of learning other people’s experience. Perhaps I may be able to give some information of interest from my past experience in railway service in the United States. Years ago it was almost universal practice to use fusible plugs in all locomotive crown sheets. Several cases of burned and dropped crown sheets occurred with plain evidence of “ no water,” where the fusible plug was found still intact (un- melted) in the sheet. In the course of the following in- vestigations it was ascertained that :- The new plugs melted at the right temperature and quickly. The old plugs were reasonably clean, the records showing that they had been periodically removed, cleaned and replaced. The melting point of the metal in the old plugs was very high (as I recall it a little above a dull red heat in some cases). Other plugs removed showed varying melting points ranging from normal upwards. Examinations for the muses of this last, made by our Downloaded from jil.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 IAOCOMOTIVE FIREBOXES-MASSEHI~O. 37 chemist, at first showed no sufficient reason for the varying melting point, but on closer analysis it was found, if I remember correctly, that the zinc in the alloy was oxydized and that the oxide or mixture containing the oxide had a higher melting point than the alloy. The lesson learned from this, confirmed by the experience of others, was that fusible plugs to be effective can only remain in service a certain length of time, or until this-let us say-change of nature in the zinc ingredient of the alloy begins, after which the plug is no longer reliable for its intended purpose and should be removed. The old alloy should then be melted or drilled out and replaced with fresh alloy. I would like, amongst ourselves, to say further, that at thAt time I held the position of Division Master Mechanic of a railroad, and, in trying to discipline the men for neglect of duty in allowing the crown sheets to be bare, I was met first by the committees with the response that, because the fusible plug had not melted the crown sheet could not have been bare, and, in other cases, because the fusible plug did melt and the crown sheet did not come down, that the water was still there; they used it both ways. The use of fusible plugs was gradually discontinued, partly for the above reason, coupled with the difficulty involved in the constant replacement and supervision, but partly also because of the danger connected with their use. In locomotives with large boilers having grates above the frames-I am speaking now of boilers with grates of any- where from 50 to 80 square feet-therefore having shallow fireboxes and large grate areas, the fusible plug when it does “go” does not put the fire out, but the steam (not water-the high pressure water flashes instantly into steam) produces a plenum in the firebox and blows the fire out 01 the fire door into the faces of the men who are working to extinguish it. If, to prevent this, they put on the blower, this serves to foan the fire that they are making every effort to extinguish. It was my privilege to conduct a long series of tests with various forms of fusible plugs and low water alarms. Attempts were made to utilise a cupshaped plug so that when the water level dropped below the rim of the cup, the water contained in the cup would rapidly evaporate, baring the fusible metal in the bottom of the cup. It was hoped that this would blow before the water was lost off the crown sheet, and the rim of the cup would hold back what water there was, thus giving time to extinguish the fire. Other tests were made with fusible devices arranged so that when Downloaded from jil.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 38 JOURNAL OF THE INST. OF LOCO. ENGINEERS. the cup emptied itself, melting the fuse, an alarm whistle or jet of steam in the cab manifested itself before the crown sheet was actually bared. As a result of about a year's continuous work, every device of the kind proved unreliable under necessary conditions of hard service and all were abandoned. As in American practice it is almost universal custom to slope the crown sheets back from three to six inches, ac- cording to length, fusible plugs in the back would be of no service whatever. The arched crown sheet with radial stays is safer than the flat crown sheet when the water is allowed to get too low. A flat crown sheet is bared all together, and becomes overheated over a considerable area simultaneously, and " lets go " altogether with more or less explosive violence even when sloped backward. In the case of an arched crown sheet, also sloped, the crown of the arch at the front becomes overheated, " letting go " before too large an area of the sheet is overheated, so that the damage is localised, with results of a less dangerous character. Some mechanical men made a practice of distributing amongst the button head crown bolts a number of bolts with small hammered heads, the intention being that these would let go on being overheated, before the bolts with the larger heads, thus giving warning and relieving the pressure with- out explosive violence. It was then found easier to straighten up the crown sheet in place by the use of heat and clamps. So far as the endurance or life of fireboxes is concerned, I do not know anything of the life of copper fireboxes, because during my whole railway experience, from 1882 up to 1910,I never saw nor knew of one being used in the United States. The life of steel fireboxes varies very mn- siderably, largely depending on the character of the water used, but always affected also by the original design and the care in maintenance. In very bad artesian deep well water districts, I have known fireboxes to require renewal in six to eight months. In good water districts, with proper care, I have known fireboxes that were in service over twenty years with' original flue sheets. Certain engines recur to my mind that retained their original fireboxes in a bad water territory, in good working condition, although patched, for about sixteen years ; while many of the other engines of the same lot, built of the same materials at the same time and precisely of the same design, Downloaded from jil.sagepub.com at NANYANG TECH UNIV LIBRARY on June 5, 2016 LOCOMOTIVE FIREBOXES-MANNEBING. 39 had to have their fireboxes renewed in less than half the time. The cause of this difference lay solely with the washing. Some very remarkable results were once obtained by using an intermediate sheet between the firebox plates and the boiler shell-plates, thus dividing the side water spaces so that there was rapid up-rush of water and steam next the firebox plates and down-rush next to the outside. The firebox plates nemained remarkably free of deposit although particularly hard to wash and the fireboxes lasted unusually well. The experiment was never repeated because of the excessive staybolt breakage caused by the presence of the intermediate sheet. Many of the bolts were found broken in three pieces. So far as the influence of superheating on firebox endurance is concerned, it means in the last analysis that with the superheat one can do just so much per cent. more work per pound of steam; that is, per pound of water evaporated; consequently there is just that mich less sedi- ment and scale in the boiler to shorten its life. This should be far more noticeable in bad water districts than in good water territories. I can most heartily endorse what the author says con- cerning the favourable effect of pkcing the feed inlet to the boiler on the top and near the front. As far back as 1905 I began using Nathan double top check valves, which had been much used before that time by others. The results were so noticeably good that the practice was continued up to the end of my railroad service in 1910. We have as far as possible avoided all forms of internal feed pipes in American practice. Such pipes will get choked up, and this means more cost for maintenance. Also the cardinal principle of American locomotive design is " get- at-ableness." Nothing should be inside that can be placed outside. Staybolts and boiler stays in general in American loco- motive practive are very commonly made of high grade iron-steel is seldom used.