Trouble From Using Oil In Boilers

The f act thattheuseof oil as an antiincrastator in steam boilers should be occasionally attended by bagged furnace crowns, if nothing worse, continúes to be a source of wonderment to a good tnany people who ought to know something of the possibilitiesof the oil treatment. It has been pretty well demonstrated that a very small globnle of oil, on becoming attached to the inner side of a boiler sheet, will sometimes collect a mass of dirt partióles contained in the water, the whole mixture ultimately baking on and fonning an excellent nonconductor. This being the case, the overheating and buiging of thö sheet at that particular place are quite in the regular order of things. The only specially noteworthy thing about the matter is that a very thin film of oil and a very small arlmisture of dirt are sufficient to do a great deal of harm, and that the scale forrned by them may be so inconspicuous as toreadily escape detecti on; henee the seeming mystery which sometimes is supposed to attend the coming down of a crown sheet. ■