where anything louder than the scratching of a goose-quill was considered a nuisance. I first began by putting a piece of paper against the mouth of the overflow pipe while the injector was working, and the noise ceased, but soon after that the paper was sucked up into the injector. I then applied a leathern disc, which answered well, and proved just the right thing; sometimes the water blurted out, but not often, and the leathern disc was permanently established; but the injector would not work with water above 100 degrees of heat; so I would start with cold water and gradually turn on the hot water and shut off the cold, and she never noticed the change, but the noise was stopped.

26. Question.—How would you quiet a noisy pump—one of those stuck up in a corner of the stoke-hold that can be heard, but not often seen?

Answer.—I had one of them once—a very good little "Manchester Donkey Pump," but as noisy as they make 'em—and it became a question whether she should be discarded for an injector; she was bolted to a wall in the basement of a block of offices and could be heard throughout the building, and my employer told me that he would willingly give a 5l. note to anyone who would stop the noise. The donkey was vertical; I took off both valve covers and drilled a ⅜-inch hole in each projection from the cover that gave the valve its lift, and drove a wooden peg into each hole from the under side, and rasped them down to give the required lift, and put the covers on again and started the donkey, and after some more raspings of the plugs I started her again, and this time was successful; she worked like india-rubber, no noise whatever, and I gained more than was offered to quiet her—a cheque of 21l. This happened in Draper's Gardens, Throgmorton Avenue, E.C.

27. Question.—When several boilers are working in a row, and one of the middle ones has to be cleaned, what would you do to keep it cool enough to enable the men to do the cleaning, and also to protect them while in the boiler?

Answer.—Having blown her right out I would take off the wheel of the stop-valve spindle, tie a piece of canvas on the top of the spindle and lock the wheel up, so that no one should open the stop-valve while the men were in the boiler. Many dreadful things have happened through some thoughtless or meddlesome idiot opening the stop-valve while men were working in the boiler. I also cover the blow-off cocks of the boilers in steam, as there is usually a pipe into which the steam and water is carried off running parallel with the cocks, and take charge of the spanner used in opening them, in case an absent-minded stoker might attempt to blow some of the muddy water out of his boiler when the men were in the empty one, and scald them to death, the steam rushing up through the blow-off. I then fill the boiler up with cold water several times, and allow cold water to play into the boiler from the manhole by means of the hose pipe, and the blow-off cock being open there is always a cool atmosphere for the men to work in; they can remain longer in the boiler, do twice the amount of work, and in less time than in a scorching atmosphere. When the cleaning is done and the boiler rinsed out, I shut the blow-off cock and fill her with clean water to the usual height; take off the canvas on the spindle, replace the wheel, and the boiler is ready for lighting up the fire.

28. Question.—Does familiarity with one's work as stoker sometimes lead to carelessness and then to mishaps? And, if so, give an instance?

Answer.—Yes; familiarity in doing things frequently during work, tends to a careless off-hand style of self-importance that has often caused trouble and mishap. A crane driver employed at the Midland Railway Extension at St. Pancras, came to work one winter's morning and the steam being already up, turned it on to warm the steam chest and cylinder, preparatory to commencing work for the day, forgetting that it had been freezing hard all night, and split the steam chest to pieces. His plea of defence was that steam had remained in the chest and condensed, and become ice, then expanding, burst the steam chest; this plea served all right, but the following summer he was less successful. He came to me during the dinner hour and said, "Jack, I can't get any water into my boiler, will you come over and look at her?" I did go over, and on looking at the water gauge saw it was empty, opened the cocks, but dry steam came forth, opened the fire door and found a bright fire of coke; while the engine was pegging away to get water into the boiler. I said, "Bill, stop your engine and draw your fire at once, and my name's Walker." I went back quicker than I came; and an hour later he came over to me looking very down, and said, "Jack, I've done it." I knew what he meant and went over with him to look at the boiler. It was as complete wreck, and I told him to fly off and get any money that was owing him before he got locked up; he did go, and I never saw him since. This man was an engine fitter before he took to engine driving—poor fellow, I was very sorry for him. Another instance. A stoker had to fill a boiler and get up steam in her one Sunday morning, there was a big tank over the stoke-hold from which water was taken to fill cold boilers, a two-inch pipe with stop-cock led to the top of each boiler from the bottom of the tank. But the tank was empty on this occasion; a donkey pump close by was used to keep the tank filled, but this boiler was the one from which the donkey took her steam, and was now empty, but the stoker solved the puzzle: a boiler with steam was in use about fifty yards away, and having a steam-pipe connection to the empty one he opened the cock and commenced letting the steam into her, but it was condensing as fast as it went in; and being one of the extra clever ones, he lighted a fire in the grate so as to stop the condensing, and did stop it, and let in sufficient steam to work the donkey-pump and partly filled the tank, and was proceeding to open the two-inch cold water pipe when one of the workmen passing by saw some cotton waste smoking strongly on top of the boiler, which induced him to open the furnace door, and he saw that the boiler was red-hot and collapsed; he rushed up to the stoker who had his hand already on the stop-cock to let water into her when he was forcibly pulled away from it, much against his will, but when he saw the damage he had caused he sheered off and we saw no more of him. This case occurred at the London Hydro-Carbon Oil Works, Southall, W. One more: On a Sunday morning a stoker came in to break the joint of a manhole, empty the boiler and fill her up again with water. After taking the dogs off and securing the cover from falling into the boiler, the stoker gave the cover a tap with the end of the spanner to loosen the joint, but the cover showed no signs of slackening, and the end of a crowbar was requisitioned but without result; and in this case, as in a former one, my opinion was solicited as well as help. I used the crowbar end harder every blow; when at last the cover seemed to spring downwards and upwards, I dropped the bar instantly, thinking the devil had a hold of the cover. After a moment's thought I went down into the stoke-hold and opened one of the gauge cocks and steam rushed out; there were no pressure gauges in this establishment; every one of the twenty boilers had eight weights suspended from the lever of the safety-valve, each weight representing five lb. pressure. I took off the weights one by one, and when five of them had been removed steam began to blow off, showing that fifteen lb. pressure