Steam:
Its Generation and Use

EVOLUTION OF THE BABCOCK & WILCOX WAT ER-TUBE BOILER. We learn quite as much from the record of failures as through the results of success. When a thing has been once fairly tried and found to be impracticable, or imperfect, the knowlege of that trial forms a beacon light to warn those who come after not to run upon the same rock. Still it is an almost every day occurrence that a de- vice or construction which has been tried and found wanting if not worthless, is again brought up as a great improvement upon other things which have proven by their survival to have been the “ fittest,” This is particularly the case when a person or firm, have, by long and expensive experience, succeeded in supplying a felt want, and developed a business which promises to pay them in the end for their trouble and outlay ; immediately a class of persons, who desire to reap where they have not sown, rush into the market with some- thing similar, and, generally, with some idea which the suc- cessful party had tried and discarded, claim- ing it as an “improve- ment, ’ ’ seek to entice customers, who in the end find they have spent their money for that which satisfieth not. And not infre- quently steam users, having been inadver- tently induced to experiment on the ill-diges- ted plans of some unfledged inventor, unjustly condemn the whole class, and resolve hence- forth to stick to the things their fathers approved. The success of the Babcock & Wilcox boiler is due to twenty-three years constant adherence to one line of research, experimenting and practi- cal working. In that time they have tried many plans which have not proven to be practicable, and were in fact in whole or in part, failures. During these twenty-three years they have seen more than thirty water-tube, or sectional boilers put upon the market, by other parties, some of w hich attained to some distinction and sale, but all of which have completely disappeared, leaving scarce a trace behind, save in the memories of their victims. The following list — not com- plete-will serve to bring the names of some to memories which can recall twenty years or less : Dimpfel, Howard, Griffith & Wundrum, Dins- more, Miller “Fire-box,” Miller “American,” Miller “Internal Tube,” Miller “Inclined Tube,” Phleger, Weigand, the Lady Verner, the Allen, the Kelly, the Anderson, the Rogers & Black, the Eclipse or Kilgore; the Moore, the Baker & Smith, the Renshaw, the Shackleton, the “Duplex,” the Pond & Bradford, the Whitting- ham, the Bee, the Hazleton or “Common Sense,” the Reynolds, the Suplee or Luder, the Babbitt, the Reed, the Smith, the Standard, &c. It is with the object of protecting our custom- ers and friends from disappointment and loss through purchasing such discarded ideas, that we publish the following illustrations of experi- ments made by us in the development of our present boiler, the value and success of which is evidenced by the fact that the largest and most discriminate buyers continue to purchase them after years of practical experience with their workings. All the constructions herein shown, and very many others, are covered by patents belonging to the Babcock & Wilcox Company. No. i.—The origi- nal Babcock & Wilcox boiler, patented in 1867. The main idea was safety ; to it all other elements were sacrificed wherever they conflicted. The boiler consisted of a nest of horizontal tubes serving as steam and water reservoir, placed above and connected at each end by bolted joints, to a nest of inclined heating tubes filled with water. Internal tubes were placed in these latter to assist circulation. The tubes were placed in vertical rows above each other, each vertical row and its connecting encl forming a single casting. Hand holes were placed at the end of each tube for cleaning. No, 2.—The internal circulation tubes were found to hinder, rather than help, circulation and were left out. Nos. i and 2 were found to be faulty in both material and design, cast metal proving itself unfit for heating surfaces placed directly over the fire, cracking as soon as they became coated with scale. 3- Wrought-iron tubes were substituted for the cast-iron heating tubes, the ends being brightened and laid in the mould, the headers cast on.