The Locomotive by Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection and Insurance Company 1890

RickA

wow. Check out this 1890 report on boiler safety. Scary.

https://archive.org/details/locomotive11hart/page/n5?q=the+locomotive+1890

Steamhead

We've had some of their stuff in the site's Heating Museum for a while:

https://heatinghelp.com/heating-museum/explosion-reports-from-the-early-1930s/

STEVEusaPA

I found this page somewhat interesting: A note basically saying this isn't all the explosions because some newspapers don't find them "newsy" enough.
And a reference to a recent quote from the still living Mark Twain.

RickA

The newspapers might not have had enough room to print them all. An old trade journal, "the Safety Valve" dedicated most of a whole page every month to boiler explosions.

Here's another book on steam explosions.

https://books.google.com/books?id=IrNXAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=steam+boiler+explosions&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjmsOPKlMXlAhUjn-AKHVOZBQ4Q6AEwAXoECAEQAg#v=onepage&q=steam boiler explosions&f=false

retiredguy

This has nothing to do with the topic of an old Hartford book but I have seen 1 H B Smith 450 and 1 H B Smith 350 series series steam boiler melt the sections, 1 Pacific National steam fire tube boiler melt the first pass tubes and stay bolts and the boiler itself sag about 2 feet, 1 coal fired high pressure steam boiler melt almost all the tubes in the boiler and the stay bolts and tube sheets, plus a few boiler explosions and in a few cases I was in the boiler room or nearby when these events happened. Thankfully none of these events were my fault. I was always thankful that I must have had a guardian angel sitting on my shoulder when these events happened.

RickA

Never mind who's fault these events were; thankfully you weren't hurt.

RickA

A couple of articles that might have involved Hartford Insurance.

retiredguy

When you get involved with high pressure steam boilers you realize just how dangerous these devices can be. Most explosions are caused by human error or not doing the job you should have done. I have been in a few boiler rooms when the boiler exploded. It is an "eye opener". Lucky for me none of them were pressure vessel failures just fuel explosions which the Hartford Insurance inspector I knew referred to as a furnace explosion.
Try this, "google" Dana steam boiler explosion for pictures of a CB boiler that exploded due to human error, or just "google" steam boiler explosions for other instances. It is hard to imagine the amount of power that is released when one of these events happen.

Steamhead

Found the quote I was looking for. From John Mills, 1890:

"There are two great and unmitigated evils, that cling like a pestilence around the neck of individuals and society- intemperance and boiler explosions- both reckless and needless squanderers of human life and happiness- the first largely responsible for the second".

Substitute "stupidity" for "intemperance" and the same quote is still true today.

You can see his book here:

https://books.google.com/books?id=uGNGAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=intemperance+and+boiler+explosions&source=bl&ots=oNUO4Zmf0C&sig=z_1TkVp_H05uH8yX6oc68lKGawg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiSu9PBzIrPAhWBQiYKHQyPAYQQ6AEIHjAA#v=onepage&q=intemperance and boiler explosions&f=false