Considerable interest having beeu expressed in the matter of the bursting of a flat boiler tread, parts of" which were shown at the January meeting of the Franklin Institute, and the limited supply of water having'delayed the oppormnlty of testing the riveted iron drum with flat east iron heads, as was intended at that meeting, all of the procurable parts of the burs~ boiler head are here produced, that the members may examine them.
The conditions under which the boiler head burst, have been differently stated by different parties who were present, at the accident; a~d both immedhtely before and thereafter, and the statements made by the same witness of the aeeident at different times appears to vary. This is not an unusual oeeurenee in regard to boiler explosions, and that it should be so will, upon a moment's consideration, appear a most probable state of affMrs.
The par V in charge of a burst boiler, should ordinarily know most abou~ its condition before the accident, such persons are most apt to be killed, in whieh event their testimony is hopelessly beyond reach, or, if not killed and they are hurt, they are so shocked and astonished that their mental faculties are tbr the time im paired. But assuming that they are neither killed nor hurt. they are the parties upon whom naturally respouslbility tbr the disaster should at, first sight appear to rest and are put on the defensive to make the best showing they can for themselves, and as a rule they do the best they know how to do in that direetion.
The explanations offered by boiler attendants, such under circumstances, often broadly suggest and sometimes demonstrate, both their incompetency or their ignorance.
So that after all, in investigating the causes of such disasters, the most reliable parts of the testimony ar~ the pieces of the wreck whieh after being examined carefully in many eases, prove much of the oral testimony to be entirely inconsistent with demonstrated t~aet.
That the heads of the vessel we now propose to test may be compared with the burst boiler, which had heads made from the same