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Title: The Stoker's Catechism
Author: W. J. Connor
Release Date: January 27, 2008 [EBook #24441]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE STOKER'S CATECHISM
THE

STOKER'S CATECHISM
BY

W. J. CONNOR.
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London:

E. & F. N. SPON, Limited, 57 HAYMARKET

New York:
SPON & CHAMBERLAIN, 123 LIBERTY STREET
1906

Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Variant spellings
have been retained.
PREFACE.
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; and the transfer takes place almost in silence, and the new man has to find out all the
ways and means at his own risk, sometimes at his employer's expense.
My object is to instruct that man in his business without his knowing it, or hurting his very
sensitive opinion on stoking and other matters; for I am well aware that it is only the least
experienced who are the hardest to convince, or instructagainst their will. I have therefore
ventured to devise this simple method of question and answer, which I have named "The
Stoker's Catechism," which I hope may instruct and interest him.
I will not encumber this preface with my personal qualifications for this little workthe answers to
the questions might suffice.
W. J. C.
THE STOKER'S CATECHISM.
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1. Question.How would you proceed to get steam up in a boiler?
Answer.Having filled the boiler with water to the usual height, that is to say, about four inches
over the crown of the fire-tube, I throw in several shovelfuls of coal or coke towards the bridge,
left and right, keeping the centre clear; then I place the firewood in the centre, throw some coals on
it, light up, and shut the door. Then I open the side-gauge cocks to allow the heated air to escape,
and keep them open till all the air has cleared out and steam taken the place of it; by this time the
fire will require more fuel, and when the steam is high enough I connect her by opening the stop-
valve a little at a time till it is wide open and ready for work.
2. Question.Supposing there are boilers working on each side of the one you
got steam up in, how would you act?
Answer.I would light the fire by putting in a few shovelfuls of live coal from one of them instead
of using firewood; that is all the difference I would make.
3. Question.What is the cause of the rapid motion of the water in the gauge-
glass at times? Is that motion general throughout the boiler?
Answer.No; air enters the boiler with the feed-water, and the gauge-glass tube being in the
vicinity of the incoming water, some of the air enters the glass and flies up rapidly through the
top cock and into the boiler again; in fact there is very little motion of the water in the boiler at
any time while working. I have proved this to be so, and in this manner: the boiler cleaners
having finished the cleaning, hurriedly scrambled out of the boiler and left several tools they had
been using on the crown of the fire-box, namely, a bass hand brush, a tin can, and a tin candlestick,
and a small iron pail; the manhole cover was put on and boiler filled and put to work before the
things were thought of, and then it was too late and they had to remain there until the next
cleaning time, which was thirteen weeks; and when the boiler was at last blown out and the
manhole cover removed, the things were on the crown of the fire-box exactly as they were left
three months previously. In order to satisfy myself of this, to me, extraordinary discovery, I
placed several articles on the crown of the fire-box, things that could not stop up the blow-off pipe
if they were swept off, and got up steam as usual, and after three months' hard steaming I blew out
the water and steam, took off the manhole cover, and there were the things as I had left them
thirteen weeks previously; of course they were all coated with fine mud, but no signs of having
moved a hair's breadth.
4. Question.But water in an open caldron with a fire under it, as in the
steam boiler, will madly sweep the sides and bottom with terrific ebullition.
How would you account for the great agitation in the open caldron while the
steam boiler had hardly any, although both vessels had fierce fires under them?
Answer.In the matter of the open caldron the action of the water has no resistance but that of
the atmosphere, whereas in the steam boiler the movement of the water is resisted from the moment
it is heated, for then a vapour rises above it, and, as the heat increases, the resistance to the
movement of the water is proportionally increased, and as the heat of the steam increases the
pressure on the water increases proportionally all through, the steam being above the water. Any
old stoker knows that when getting steam up in a boiler the lower parts are often only warm when
there may be eight or ten lb. on the square inch in the upper portions; when the water begins to boil
the steam rises in the form of minute globular particles, and remains above the water until there is
an outlet for it by opening the stop-valve or through the safety-valve; and as the pressure is the
same throughout every part, nook and corner, and angle, there can be no dominating force to cause
any agitation within the boiler.
5. Question.What is superheated steam, and why is it used?
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
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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. In proportion to the pressure of steam so is the heat of
it; the higher the pressure the hotter the steam.
6. Question.If your water gauge-glass broke while the boiler was working,
how would you proceed to rectify the mishap?
Answer.By immediately shutting off both cocks, the water-cock first, then I would open the
blow-out cock (at the bottom of the gauge-glass) and keep it open to the finish, and
commence unscrewing the nuts, clearing them of any bits of india-rubber that adhered to them, also
the sockets. Get one of the half dozen glasses already cut, and my string of rubber rings, enter
two rings on the bottom end of the glass, slip the nut over them, slip two rings on the top part of
the glass after having slipped the nut on, and enter the rings in the sockets, then screw up both top
and bottom nuts by hand alternately, and when screwed up evenly, open the steam cock a shade
to warm the glass, and when it is hot enough, open it more and commence closing the blow-out
cock, by tapping it lightly by hand, then open the steam cock a little more and open the water cock
a little also, and shut off the blow-out cock, and presently the water enters the glass, and both top
and bottom cocks may now be opened to their full extent, and the job is done.
7. Question.How would you cut a water gauge-glass to the proper length?
Answer.I usually cut a piece of iron wire the length the glass should be, in this way: I measure
the length from under the top nut to the top of the bottom nut, and cut my iron wire to
that measurement; then I cut several glasses in my spare time, instead of doing it when the
glass breaks. I mark a circle where I wish to cut the glass, and with a three-corner file I run it
round this circle to a depth of the 16th of an inch, and break it off on the edge of the vice, bench,
or other solid woodwork; of course this iron-wire gauge will perhaps only answer for this
particular boiler, but in some stoke-hold the boilers are all alike with regard to the gauge-glasses.
8. Question.What is the cause of a vacuum in a boiler? And how does it affect
her injuriously?
Answer.The vacuum is mostly caused by letting cold water into a hot boiler, the hotter the boiler
the stronger the vacuum; when the water is hotter than the boiler, there will be little vacuum; a
strong vacuum in the boiler will cause the air outside to press on the boiler in proportionthe
stronger the vacuum inside, the greater the pressure outside. In this circumstance the pressure
is misplaced for the boiler was constructed to bear an internal pressure and not an external
pressure. And in getting steam up the pressure on the boiler has to be reversed, and this tends to
loosen the plates and rivets