was in the boiler while I was trying to knock the manhole cover in. On inquiry it transpired that the man whose duty it was to blow out this boiler the previous day asked his mate to do it, and the mate forgot all about it (it being Saturday night), and these omissions nearly caused a catastrophe. This occurred in Pimlico, S.W.

29. Question.—What advantage to the employer is the self-acting stoker for steam boilers?

Answer.—He can use the very cheapest and smallest coals; the cold air is never permitted to enter the boiler; there is no cleaning out fires with the door wide open; the steam is more uniform in pressure; the boiler will last longer, and little or no smoke. There is a drawback to these advantages: there must be a live stoker to keep the automatic stoker up to its work; he has to keep the coals supplied to the "Jacob's Ladder"; he has to regulate the supply of coals to the boxes over each boiler, and regulate the supply of coals dropping down into the fireplace, regulate the speed of the travelling furnace by means of the ratchet, clean out the ash-hole of clinkers every two hours and wheel them out of the stoke-hold, regulate the water-supply to the boilers, and keep the steam at the proper pressure, and rectify any and every derangement and mishap that occurs to the self acting stoker.

30. Question.—But are not these "self-acting stokers" smoke consumers as well?

Answer.—The self-acting stokers have to be kept working by the live stoker, and are smoke consumers so long as the coals let down on the travelling furnace is exactly proportionate to the requirements of it, but if the supply should exceed what is necessary, the grate becomes choked with coals and has to be cleared of some of them, and in doing this with coals partly burnt, smoke is inevitable; and if the supply is insufficient, the grate becomes bare of fuel, and cold air finds its way through the bars and checks the steam. To remedy this, the coal is let down and carried onward by the moving grate before they can be ignited, and soon begin to smoke, so that in these two extremes, too much or too little coals will cause smoke; but if this type of furnace is in charge of a competent stoker, there is little chance of the bars being choked with coals, or starved for want of them.

31. Question.—Is it not possible to consume the smoke of a boiler furnace independent of patents and mechanical contrivances that can only be worked by an experienced stoker?

Answer.—I have proved it possible where several boilers were connected and working, and using small and smoky coals. In an establishment in West London the system in vogue was in this manner: all the bridges were built hollow, and an iron flap covered the bottom of the bridge, and a long iron rod from the flap was carried to the front of the boiler, and an inch steam pipe with cock attached entered the fireplace above the door, and was joined to a two-inch perforated pipe that was fixed from left to right over and above the dead-plate. When the fires required replenishing, the flap was opened, then the door and steam cock, and six shovelfuls of coals were hastily thrown in evenly over the fire, and the door was then shut. The result of this performance was a mixture of steam and smoke observable at the chimney top, the steam was kept on while any smoke was visible; then the next boiler was served in like manner, and was a continual round of work to the exclusion of other things. This method prevailed for many years before I came on the scene, and noticing that a great quantity of steam was wasted for the purpose of hiding the smoke, and the six shovelfuls of coals hardly compensated for the steam spread over them, I induced the man who built the bridges, after inspection, to build them solid, and then I commenced a new method of firing, in this manner: I sprinkle the small coals with water from a hose-pipe, and burn one fire down low, but bright; I shut the damper nearly close and commence firing towards the bridge and sides, until the grate is full nearly to the crown of the fireplace, allowing the gas to remain in the furnace and flues for twenty minutes, then I open the damper a couple of inches; by this time there are numerous jets of flame flickering all over the coals, and now I open the damper to the full extent and I soon have a rousing steam-making fire. I serve the next low fire in like manner, and so on. But it is necessary always while burning one fire down for the purpose of banking it up, to have all the other fires in good condition and capable of keeping up the steam independently of the one to be banked up; if the others should burn down too low before one of them is banked, smoke will follow the neglect. I remained several years in this employ; my method was very successful, with proper care and watchfulness, and was adopted in a similar establishment in South London. The former establishment was the West Middlesex Water Works, and the latter the Southwark and Vauxhall Water Works. One ton of Welsh coals was allowed every twenty-four hours to get the seven fires up after cleaning. Here is another method for consuming the smoke, but is a very wasteful one; four or five shovelfuls of small smoky coals are thrown on or near the dead-plate, where they remain until they become sufficiently heated to ignite, and are then pushed on to the bars by the rake, and a similar quantity again thrown on the dead-plate, and when ignited pushed on to the bars as before, and so it is continued. It is expected that the smoke while passing over the bright fire towards the bridge will be ignited, but only a very small portion of it becomes flame, and the smoke tends to deaden the bright fire to a great extent. The door has to be opened so frequently in this method, and in pushing the coals from the dead-plate to the bars a large amount of live fuel drops down into the ash-pit, and if this should be thrown into the furnace again, the fire is deadened immediately. There is no economy in this method, which I tried years ago but never continued since.

32. Question.—Is there any difference, and if so, what is it, in locomotive and stationary boiler stoking?

Answer.—There is a wide difference between the methods, not only of firing but of the general work of the firemen and the stoker. (I cannot see why one should be called stoker and the other fireman, for they both have to keep the fire going and the steam up). The loco. fireman had to be at the engine shed forty-five minutes, and the driver thirty minutes, before the time of the train starting; the fireman gets the stores necessary for the journey, such as oil, tallow, cotton waste, yellow grease, and perhaps fog signals, gets his lamps from the lamp room already trimmed—these are the head lamp, side lamp, water gauge lamp, tail lamp and hand lamp; he places the head lamp on the right hand side of the buffer plank, the side lamp on the left side of the tender, the gauge lamp close to the glass, the tail lamp behind the tender; he has to take his engine to be coaled (it used to be coke in my early days on the L. & N. W. R.), and fills his tender with water, and brings his engine over a pit, fills the axle-boxes of engine and tender; by this time the driver shows up, and goes under the engine and thoroughly examines every part of the gear; then he oils her, and both men sign on for the particular train that the engine's number is in line with, and run down the incline to Euston, where they hook on to their train and wait. If it should turn out to be a particularly heavy train, the driver will request the pilot-engine driver to hook on and go perhaps as far as Tring or Wolverton with the