United States or Saudi Arabia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
They were unprovided with valves, gauge-cocks, or any other safety, all of which are now so well understood that nothing but carelessness can cause a blow-up.
Davis pulled a couple of ropes there was a jingling of small bells far below, the boat's speed slackened, and the pent steam began to whistle and the gauge-cocks to scream: "By the mark twain!" "Quar ter her er less twain!" "Eight and a half!" "Eight feet!" "Seven-ana-half!" Another jingling of little bells and the wheels ceased turning altogether.
Fully protected by their nettings from the mosquitoes, which had troubled them to some extent in the evening, all hands slept like tired boys. When the steam from the gauge-cocks hissed as the engineer examined into the condition of the water in the boiler, the sound waked the captain, and he jumped from his bed.
The steam began to whistle through the gauge-cocks. The cries of the leadsmen went on and it is a weird sound, always, in the night. Every pilot in the lot was watching now, with fixed eyes, and talking under his breath. Nobody was calm and easy but Mr. Bixby. Out of the murmur of half-audible talk, one caught a coherent sentence now and then such as 'There; she's over the first reef all right!
One of the greatest causes of danger is that of letting there be too little water in the boiler, and thus allowing it to get red-hot, when, if you let in water, such a volume of steam is generated that no valve will let it escape fast enough. Force or feed pumps are also required to keep the water in the boiler at a proper height, which is ascertained by the gauge-cocks.
Davis pulled a couple of ropes there was a jingling of small bells far below, the boat's speed slackened, and the pent steam began to whistle and the gauge-cocks to scream: "By the mark twain!" "Quar ter her er less twain!" "Eight and a half!" "Eight feet!" "Seven-ana-half!" Another jingling of little bells and the wheels ceased turning altogether.
The steam began to whistle through the gauge-cocks. The cries of the leadsmen went on and it is a weird sound, always, in the night. Every pilot in the lot was watching now, with fixed eyes, and talking under his breath. Nobody was calm and easy but Mr. Bixby. Out of the murmur of half-audible talk, one caught a coherent sentence now and then such as 'There; she's over the first reef all right!
The public always had an idea that racing was dangerous; whereas the opposite was the case that is, after the laws were passed which restricted each boat to just so many pounds of steam to the square inch. No engineer was ever sleepy or careless when his heart was in a race. He was constantly on the alert, trying gauge-cocks and watching things.
The children and the slaves were not much more at ease after finding out that this monster was a creature of human contrivance than they were the night before when they thought it the Lord of heaven and earth. They started, in fright, every time the gauge-cocks sent out an angry hiss, and they quaked from head to foot when the mud-valves thundered.
The public always had an idea that racing was dangerous; whereas the opposite was the case that is, after the laws were passed which restricted each boat to just so many pounds of steam to the square inch. No engineer was ever sleepy or careless when his heart was in a race. He was constantly on the alert, trying gauge-cocks and watching things.
Word Of The Day