NP, TD 9/2/1863

From the New Orleans True Delta
 
September 2, 1863
 
Incrustation in Boilers
   There has been brought forward, of late years, a great variety of "incrustation powders," some of which act on the well known principle of enveloping the disengaged particles of solid matter in glutinone coating, whereby they are prevented from adhering to the iron or to each other. Where potatoes, leather, shavings, etc, are used for this purpose, they are likely to cause priming, the remedy being as bad as the disease. Highly astringent substances prevent incrustation, and gum catechu -- cutch or terra japonica -- has been extensively employed, and with good results, in locomotive boilers. One of these anti incrustation powders has Aleppo galls for its base; this, too, has done well. Oak or mahogany sawdust prevents scale, but, as is well known, iron is rapidly destroyed when acted upon by the acids in oak. The use of caustic soda has been recommended, but this remedy does not appear to have been adopted to any extent -- its cost, and the necessity for special provisions in applying it being in the way of its use. For marine boilers, surface condensation is already providing a supply of the purest water, and it is not improbable that surface condensers, notwithstanding their cost , will yet be extensively adopted for condensing land engines. With boilers of ordinary construction, the tendency to incrustation increases with the pressure of the steam, but in water-tube boilers, with a circulation of water maintained forcibly by means of a circulating pump, the worst waters are being employed with the formation of very little scale. A perfect remedy is still a great desideratum.

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