Kitchen Boiler Explosions: Why they Occur, and How to Prevent Their Occurrence . . .
London: Charles Griffin and Company, 1895. First edition. 8vo, original pebbled maroon cloth over flexible heavy card-stock wrappers, gilt lettering, vii, [1], 51, [1], 32 pages. Color frontispiece, illus. Inserted folding table. Some slight rubbing to the corners of the cloth, wrappers a trifle bowed, with some light soiling; a fine copy. Item #19003
“The subject being one which concerns the general public as well as its scientific and technical members, the remarks on the diagrams and illustrations have been simplified as much as possible, and I think that they will make clear to the intelligent householder that there is no mystery about the explosion of a domestic heating boiler, that the theory which creates and unknown and highly explosive gas for this purpose is absurd, and that it is equally erroneous to believe that these boilers burst disastrously by the sudden generation of steam consequent upon cold water being introduced when they are red hot.” Munro, chief engineer to the Scottish Boiler and Engine Inspection Company, here turns his attention to the safety of kitchen boilers in the wake of a five-day period in January, 1894 when “daily newspapers recorded upwards of 40 Kitchen or Heating Boiler Explosion.” Munro’s experiments demonstrate the efficacy of safety valves (he dismisses the objections “urged by the ‘red-hot plate’ theorists”) and makes suggestions to their proper installation and use.
Price: $300.00