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26 MARINE REVIEW AND MARINE RECORD. [June 4, REVISION OF BOILER LAWS OF UNITED STATES STEAMBOAT INSPECTION SERVICE." By COL. E. D MEIER. A revision of these laws has been urged by the committee on "Uniform Boiler Specification" of the American Boiler Manu- facturers' Association. After careful investigation and discussion of the whole subject by this committee, they met the board of supervising inspectors of steam vessels by invitation on Jan. 28, 1903, and presented the matter fully to the board, Thereupon Mr. Robert S. Rodie, supervising inspector of the second district, offered the following resolution: "Whereas, a committee of the American Boiler Manufac- turers' Association has laid before this board a comprehensive plan for an entire revision of the present boiler law of this in- spection service, as per copy of letter to Senator Frye attached hereto, which is to be undertaken by an expert commission rep- resenting all interests involved. "Be it resolved that the board recognizes the force and fair- ness of this proposal, and trusts that such action may be taken, and pledges its hearty assistance and co-operation." This resolution was unanimously passed. The committee then called in a bodv on the secretary of the treasury and on the chairmen of the proper committees in the senate and house, find- ing everywhere favorable consideration. The shortness of the session and the fact that the time was so fully occupied with the Panama canal and the Cuban reciprocity bills prevented any ac- tion at this time, although the senate bill (S. 7243), presented by Senator Frye, was twice read and referred to the committee on commerce, who reported it without amendment. The necessity and wisdom of the course proposed being thus generally acknowl- edged, the committee will bring up the matter in the next session of congress, where it is hoped speedy and favorable action will be obtained. There are so many interests involved in this meas- ure that a short history of the work and discussions which led up to it seems pertinent. The importance of the control intrusted to. the steamboat inspection service also demands a short state- ment of what has been accomplished, in order to better explain the necessity of revision. LEADERS IN THIS MOVEMENT. There is sound reason why the American Boiler Manufac- turers' Association should lead in this matter. This association was founded in 1889 for the express purpose of improving the boiler business of the United States by establishing the highest standards for workmanship and material, The first work of the association was the adoption of standard materials, which have since become known to the trade by the initials of the association, "A. B. M. A." The next step was the.appointment of a commit- tee on uniform boiler inspection laws, and successive committees did yeoman service in various state, in 1890, '9I, '92, '95 and 96. In each case, after most strenuous work generally with the intel- ligent assistance of various societies of steam engineers, the re- sult was failure. The reasons were always the saine. The legisla- tors concluded that any inspection law would work hardship to the manufacturers and purchasers of the many portable boilers which are used for farm machinery, for oil wells, etc. It was the usual experience which every reform and improvement meets, those needing the inspection most opposed it most violently. The writer found at that time that from 1886 to 1896, inclusive, there were reported only 157 explosions of boilers in cities and towns against 1,985 in the country districts, although the total steam power in the former, where large manufacturing establish- ments are located, greatly exceeds that of farms, saw mills, etc. But this continued experience forced upon the association the recognition of the fact that the public conscience was not edu- cated up to the ncessity for intelligent inspection and control, and an educational campaign was decided on as the only recourse. The committee on materials and tests had been acting in this line from the beginning, and was able to report increasing success, inasmuch as engineers all over the United States and in many foreign countries fully accepted the A, B. M. A. standards. _ At the Philadelphia convention of 1897 the writer suggested the appointment of a committee to draw up uniform specifications for American boilers, based on the experience of the member- ship as laid down in reports and topical discussions extending over a period of eight years. This committee held several meet- ings during that and the following year, and on Oct. 3, 1808, pre- sented its final report to the convention assembled at St. Louis. After a very full and active discussion, resulting in some minor amendments, this report was unanimously adopted by the conven- tion on Oct. 4. -. Meanwhile there had been frequent complaints as to the em- barrassments created in marine boiler work by the antiquated laws and arbitrary rulings of the steamboat inspection service. As far back as 1892, Senator Frye introduced a bill which was intended to correct these evils. Unfortunately, the technical work on this bill was done in private and without any consultation with or any discussion by the great interests it effected, 7. e., plate manufacturers, boiler builders and ship owners. While the work as a whole reflected great credit on the engineers who selected the rules, there were many practical difficulties and present ne- cessities which it did not reach at all. At a meeting of the ma- * From the Journal of the American Society of Naval Engineers. rine engineers and boiler builders of New York city and neigh- borhood the statement was made that it seemed to be formulated and its provisions copied after rules of the board of trade of Great Britain. On examination it was found that its specifica- tions for material were less precise and exacting than those of the A. B. M. A. No chemical tests were prescribed for the materials and good local practice was entirely ignored. This bill was fully discussed by the A. B. M. A., with representatives from the Atlantic seaboard shipping interests and from the United States inspection service at a meeting in Buffalo, and its defeat was urged by these three bodies. In this discussion it developed that the bill paid no regard to the well-established boiler practice of western rivers and lakes and that some of the rules proposed would tie up, until they could be repealed, a large proportion of the interior and coastwise shipping of the country. In. the discussion all expressed the most heartfelt regret that these matters of detail should make it necessary to oppose and defeat a measure, the inception and spirit of which they warm- ly applauded, and entertained the hope that at some future time the very bodies then opposing it might obtain the benefit of the wise counsel and strong influence of Senator Frye in introducing and passing a comprehensive bill, embodying the experience and knowledge of all concerned. Several meetings of individual members of the A. B. M, A. with the board of supervising in- spectors at Washington did indeed result in occasional modifica- tions of rules which worked hardship. But the conviction grew that a complete revision of the law had become a necessity. On Aug. 13, I9g01, at the thirteenth annual convention, Mr. Rees of Pittsburg brought in a protést against several onerous 'rules, and.on motion the whole matter was referred to the com- mittee on uniform boiler specifications, which was increased to nine members by adding several men specially versed in marine boiler building. This committee met in New York Noy, 12, 1901, and with the board of supervising inspectors in Washington Jan. 21, 1902. In this meeting the limit of the power of the board to meet the requirements of modern practice was. clearly de- fined, and while some corrections of previous rulings were grant- ed, it became clear that the committee could only hope for suc- cess by urging the entire revision of the law itself'® A full can- vass of the membership during 1902 showed a very general ap- preciation of the necessity of this movement and willingness to co-operate in it. After the necessary preparatory work had been done, at a meetinig held Dec. 18, 1902, in New York, the action before indicated was taken. THE INSPECTION SERVICE. Steamboat inspection service dates its beginning from the act of 1852, which simply prescribed that all makers of tron boiler plate must stamp each plate with their names, place of manufac- ture and a letter to indicate whether charcoal or puddled iron was used in making the plate. There being no penalty the repu- tation of the maker was the only safeguard to the purchaser. In 1872 another law was passed, according to which the stamp must give the name of the maker, place of manufacture and the tensile strength, and a penalty of $2,000 and two years' imprisonment was provided to guard against fraudulent stamping. In 1877 Jas. A. Dumont was appointed supervising inspector-general and took further action under the law. First, he placed testing ma- chines in the ten districts, and on Nov. 22, 1877, directed inspec- tors to subject all plates of boiler iron to actual test before the boilers are begun, and carefully ascertain. the homogeneousness and toughness of material "where plates are stamped over 50,000 Ibs. tensile strength." By request, in January, 1878, the principal boiler-plate manufacturers of the United States met and advised with the board of supervising inspectors on matters pertaining to testing, etc., and the conclusions were embodied in the rules. Nat- urally a marked improvement in the materials and workmanship resulted from this closer inspection, and in 1882 Mr, Chas. Hus- ton, the veteran plate maker (in whose mill the first boiler plate ever made in the United States was rolled in 1810), wrote to the secretary of the treasury that "the present rules and regulations are probably the best that are to be found in any nation." That Mr. Huston had good reasons for this opinion is shown by the statistics of the service. From 1858 to 1860 there are recorded 721 deaths by accident on 1,687 steamers. This was at the rate of one life lost per an- num for 2.34 steamers, or for 138,7co passengers. In the decade from 1868 to 1878 we have 365 deaths on 3,645 vessels, being one life per annum for every ten steamers and for 821,600 passen- gers. In the next decade, ending with 1888, we have 213 deaths on 5,344 vessels, or one life for every twenty-five steamers and for 2,347,400 passengers. This shows that by intelligent inspec- tion travel on steamboats was six times safer in the second and seventeen times safer in the third decade than it had been in the first. In the year 1901, 13,551 boilers on 9,253 vessels were in- spected by the service, and they reported 150 passengers lost out of a total of 306,353,522, making one passenger lost for every 61.7 steamers, or one out of every 2,042,357. But as we are concerned with boilers only in this discussion, we find that there was only one passenger killed out of 13,925,160 by steam escaping through