Ashton Valve Company

The Lock up pop safety valve put the company on the map, so to say. Attached is information about the valve.

More info about the safety valves.

Interesting info. Thanks for sharing Rick!

In 1892 the company entered the gage market by purchasing the Boston Steam Gauge company. They even brought BSG's production supervisor along too. Attached is a copy of the letter sent to the Ashton customers notifying them of the acquisition. It wasn't long before the company's gages had the same reputation that the safety valves did.

Some of the gages the company produced.

The company also produced steam whistles for locomotives, steamboats, factories, and other applications.

More whistle information.

Most of the items produced by the company could be repaired. Repair parts were available for purchase and the company even offered a gage repair service. Other companies did this too and it's not too unusual to see "repaired by Ashton Valve" on the dial face. Companies would even repair other company's gages.

Boiler explosions are rarely caused by a faulty safety valve. Boilers are statically tested to pressures 25% above normal operating pressure.

Boiler explosions are typically caused by low water conditions which cause the crown sheet to fail.

Rick, you have attached a lot of good images to this thread. But you did not set them to DISPLAY within your posts. When you add attachments, be sure to click the button where it says “Include all images into post (large size).” That will place the image directly into the post. I did this for you in the post above this one.

@Rick A posted:

The importance of a reliable safety valve.

Baloney!!!!   Safety valves can not, and do not, prevent boiler explosions. Such is NOT the purpose of the safety valve. The safety valve/valves is/are designed to be an audible warning device to alert the operating crew that they have exceeded the designed maximum working pressure of their steam locomotive's boiler. Does anyone REALLY think that one, two, three, or even four 3" or 4" safety valves could prevent a boiler explosion on a C&O H-8, for example????

From the sounds of it, they can prevent a boiler explosion if what you say is true.  So the audible warning goes off, the crew reacts, the boiler doesn't explode.  The valve doesn't go off, no one does anything, boiler explodes.  What am I missing?  I'm asking in hopes of learning something.

I'm attaching a page from an old Ashton catalog that I think may help in this discussion. I was always under the impression that the whole point of a pop safety valve was to relieve the boiler of excess steam, thereby preventing a possible explosion. I'm not an engineer so I will leave it up to others to come up with a definitive answer.

Rick, you have attached a lot of good images to this thread. But you did not set them to DISPLAY within your posts. When you add attachments, be sure to click the button where it says “Include all images into post (large size).” That will place the image directly into the post. I did this for you in the post above this one.

Thanks Rich

@Rick A posted:

I'm attaching a page from an old Ashton catalog that I think may help in this discussion. I was always under the impression that the whole point of a pop safety valve was to relieve the boiler of excess steam, thereby preventing a possible explosion. I'm not an engineer so I will leave it up to others to come up with a definitive answer.

Just my opinion but, that is simply advertising/marketing baloney. There is no way that a safety valve can prevent a catastrophic boiler explosion (generally caused by low water and an exposed crown sheet) through such a small orifice when compared to the massive size of the boiler.

@Rick A posted:

Another interesting article about safety valves.

https://www.nationwideboiler.c...hat-why-and-how.html

I can see what you're saying Hot Water (great  name ,by the way, especially for this topic). Maybe safety valves cannot prevent all boiler explosions, but it seems to be a general understanding they can often prevent many of them by immediately relieving the pressure that could lead to an explosion.

Not really the main job of a safety valve. The design, number, and setting of a safety valve, or group of safety valves, is to limit the boiler pressure (and thus horsepower) into the machinery, i.e. the running gear.  

Just a heads up piece of advice. ALL household boilers and WATER HEATERS have safety valves so they DO NOT EXPLODE! Fact! I was in the heating business for 30 years and that was the first thing they taught us back in the OLD days!

@CurtisH posted:

Just a heads up piece of advice. ALL household boilers and WATER HEATERS have safety valves so they DO NOT EXPLODE! Fact! I was in the heating business for 30 years and that was the first thing they taught us back in the OLD days!

Which, of course, has NOTHING to do with a steam locomotive!  

Hot Water

Principle is the same but it is true the BIGGEST cause of STEAM LOCOMOTIVE boiler explosions are LOW WATER. They will also explode if pressure gets too high which is the purpose of the safety Valve. Just a fact I was stating. Did not mean to cause confusion but it seems people were thinking the ONLY reason a steam locomotive can explode is low water and that is not true! Hence the comparison to a boiler in a house, factory or anywhere and a water heater.

Curtis

@CurtisH posted:

Hot Water

Principle is the same but it is true the BIGGEST cause of STEAM LOCOMOTIVE boiler explosions are LOW WATER. They will also explode if pressure gets too high which is the purpose of the safety Valve. Just a fact I was stating. Did not mean to cause confusion but it seems people were thinking the ONLY reason a steam locomotive can explode is low water and that is not true! Hence the comparison to a boiler in a house, factory or anywhere and a water heater.

Curtis

OK, but then why do "boilers" explode, even when equipped with safety valves?