(163.)

To secure the boiler from accidents arising from the steam contained in it acquiring an undue pressure, a safety-valve is used, similar in principle to those adopted in the early engines. This valve is represented in fig. 71. at N. It is a conical valve, kept down by a weight sliding on a rod upon it. When the pressure of the steam overcomes the force of this weight, it raises the valve and escapes, being carried off through the tube. [Pg279]

With a view to the economy of heat, this waste steam tube is sometimes conducted into the feeding cistern, where the steam carried off by it is condensed, and heats the feeding water.

The magnitude of the safety-valve should be such that, when open, steam should be capable of passing through it as rapidly as it is generated in the boiler. The superficial magnitude, therefore, of such valves must be proportional to the evaporating power of the boiler. In low pressure boilers the steam is generally limited to five or six pounds' pressure per square inch, and consequently the load over the safety-valve in pounds would be found by multiplying the superficial magnitude of its smallest part by these numbers. In boilers in which the steam is maintained at a higher pressure, it would be inconvenient to place upon the safety-valve the necessary weight. In such cases a lever is used, the shorter arm of which presses down the valve, and the longer arm is held down by a weight capable of adjustment, so that the pressure on the valve may be regulated at discretion. Two safety-valves should be provided on all boilers, one of which should be locked up, so that the persons in care of the engine should have no power to increase the load upon it. In such case, however, it is necessary that a handle connected with the valve should project outside the box containing it, so that it may always be possible for the engineer to ascertain that the valve is not locked in its seat, a circumstance which is liable to happen.

Sometimes also two safety-valves are provided, one loaded a little heavier than the other. The escape of steam from the lighter valve in this case gives notice to the engine-man of the growing increase of pressure, and warns him to check the production of steam. The lever by which the safety-valve is held down is sometimes acted on by a spiral spring, capable of being so adjusted as to produce any required pressure on the valve. This arrangement is adopted in locomotive engines, where steam of very high pressure is used; and in such cases also there are always provided two such valves, one of which cannot be increased in its pressure.

The pipe by which the boiler is fed with water will [Pg280] necessarily act as a safety-valve, for when the pressure of the steam increases in an undue degree, it will press the water in the boiler up through the feed-pipe, so as to discharge it into the feed-cistern, a circumstance which would immediately give notice of the internal state of the boiler. The steam-gauge, already described ( fig. 79.), would also act as a safety-valve; for if the pressure of steam in the boiler should be so augmented as to blow the mercury out of the steam-gauge, the steam would then issue through the gauge, and the pressure of the boiler be reduced, provided that the magnitude of the tube forming the steam-gauge were sufficient for this purpose.