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HOLLOW STAY BOLTS. Editor MartNe Review:--In the re- port on flexible staybolts, read at the Master Mechanics' convention at Atlan- tic City, there were a few references to hollow staybolts which merit attention. This report covered a single type of bolt, evidence had been sought on that type alone, and any reference to other types on which evidence had not been obtained was certainly irrevelant, unfair and un- called for, This report was not written, and' I think not read, by the good men whose names are joined to it, and as any er- roneous or malicious statement is against the public interest, permit me in justice to the makers of the hollow staybolts and the railroads of this country, to call at- tention to some of the statements of the writer of the report, a recent graduate of Cornell, and compare them with the cold facts of actual experience, and the record of actual service. He says, "As the use of the tell-tale hole is a disputed practice, its action not being accepted as positive, and as it adds to the expense of application and maintenance, it is not to be recom- mended." I agree with the writer only in that statement, and let me say that while waiting for a train at Sunbury, Pa., I went into the shops there and was | shown about a dozen bolts which had been taken out of an engine a few.days before, they were broken and steam had failed to indicate failure, because the tell-tale holes were filled in part, with dirt, so hard that it felt like metal when I tried the holes. I have seen many oth- er cases like this in different' parts of the country, but I have never seen a hollow staybolt. which was closed by dirt or sediment. He speaks of the claims made for hol- low staybolt, viz: Better combustion, and absolute indication of failure of the stay, and casts them aside with the re- mark that these claims are "not proven." Our young friend certainly shows unex- _ pected hardihood, and simply trusts his "not proven" against both prima facie facts in science and the cold stern facts of actual service, not service of a few years, but the service of from ten to twenty-five years, it would seem that his "not. proven" will be jolted. Quite recently the firebox of a switch engine, on the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern Ry. was removed. It was built at Schenectady, in 1892. Mr. Fred Lip- pert, a fellow student of Cornell with the writer of the report, examined the hol- low bolts with which it was stayed, and "found the holes in all the bolts free from sediment, scale or dirt"--14 years' proof that the hollow bolts were abso- lutely reliable detectives, This engine carried 150 lbs. pressure. Every student of combustion -- knows TAE Marine. REVIEW that it is desirable to admit air in well distributed quantities among the gases. When we do this the gas is burned, when we do not do so the gas becomes black smoke and the heat is lost. Before the hollow staybolts became a fait accompli, about eighteen years ago, there had been installations of hollow material for the purpose of bettering combustion. I have -seen within a year some of the old engines that received those installations to bétter combustion, they have been in service since, on-- The Southern railway, engine 1884, built in 1881 with hollow staybolts 'on each side of the fire box. » The Boston & Maine Ry. Two engines in 1883 and one in 1888 with hollow stay- bolts on each .side of the firebox. The Pittsburg, Shawmut & Northern Ry. Four engines built in 1890, stayed with Falls hollow staybolt iron= and in service since, The Long Island Ry. Ten engines stayed, over 10 years ago with hollow staybolt' iron, in service since, without change until 1905, when a new firebox was installed, The Texas & Pacific Ry. has been saving money in bettered combustion by air through hollow staybolts' for over ten years. The International & Great | Northern Ry. has been saving money in bettered combustion by air through hollow stay- bolts since 1892. _ The Canadian Pacific Ry. and other railways, east, west, north and south, and in foreign countries, have had ex- periences which refute the "not proven" of the writer of the report. And now, as all other bolts are solid and he does not approve of the tell-tale hole (nor. do I) where, except in the hol- low staybolt, can he get a bolt of any description that. will "absolutely indicate failure,' and what bolt, save the hollow staybolt, can be wtilized to better com= bustion. The man wlio tears down a useful ar- ticle should have something better to take its place, if not he is an énemy to progress. The writer of that ee has found nothing better to take the place of the hollow staybolt. A studious reading of his own report will show that as an al- ternative deduction, and his evidence otherwise, proves his conclusions incon- sistent and erroneous. I saw in the testing room of one of the large railways in the south, samples of -broken solid staybolts, which had been coated with impurities from the _water, preventing the conduction of the heat from the bolt to the water. The ends of the bolts when coated had com- menced to burn, and the burning had continued along the line of the fibres un- til the steam pressure between the inner 19 ard outer sheets pressed the inner sheet out over the bolt heads. The bolts for about half théir' length were reduced in diameter, the threads were gone, and the diameter was smallest just inside the inner sheet; a part of the coating had dropped off the other half of the bolt, al- lowing the water to get to it, and that half of the bolt with its threads was un- injured, Those were dangerous condi- tions which the writer of that report would promote, and which could not have occurred if the hollow staybolt had been in use, owing to the _ passage of air through them, The outlay by railways for weekly or monthly tests with a hammer to discover by sound the broken staybolts is large-- and: an uncertain costly way by which to discover breakages. Tell-tale holes add more to the cost of examindtion. The drilling of tell-tale holes in the ends'is a disputed good, in my opinion a substan- tial evil, whereas there is a. warning at either end of every hollow staybolt in the firebox 'to report breakages when breakages occur, without. the touch of a hammer or the cost of a cent, and with- out risk of a' law suit, such as related as | follows: . "We had an explosion." "What," 1 said,: "was the matee?" "Oh, the witnesses swore the examina- tion was imperfect." "What examination?" _ "An examination of the staybolts." "Was the explosion caused by a De staybolt ?" "Nes "And what was the result of the suit?" "Oh: there was a-verdict against us for $10,000." "And what was the brand of iron in the staybolt?" : "It was the ---------- iron." "What an awful price, I said, to pay for = on 'In contrast to that experience. I was in conversation, at fhe convention, with a superintendent of motive power, hav- ing 350 to 400 locomotives, a constant user of hollow staybolts for over ten years, He' said -he had .no anxieties about breaking staybolts, for when they break they make the breakage known. No examinations are necessary, for the holes are always open, and exultantly he | said he was able to keep 97 per cent of his engines in service. His savings in respect to examinations alone amount to $25.00 to $35.00 a day. That man had no fear of having $10,--- ooo to pay for damages by reason of ex- plosions. He had no grief to trouble his thoughts about a widow and_ fatherless children with their bread winner sacri- ficed to "imperfect examinations." He did not depend on fallible man, he de-- pended on the hole through the center of © the bolt. Joun LIVINGSTONE.