plate to afford a means of union to other plates. Examples occur in the back end-plates of Lancashire and Cornish boilers, the front and back plates of marine boilers, the fire-boxes of locomotive boilers, the crowns of vertical boilers, the ends of conical cross-tubes, and the Adamson seams of furnace flues. This practice has superseded the older system of effecting union by means of rings forming two sides of a rectangular section (angle iron rings). These were a fruitful source of grooving and explosions in steam boilers, because their sharp angular form lacked elasticity; hence the reason for the substitution of a flange turned with a large radius, which afforded the elasticity necessary to counteract the effects of changes in temperature. In girder work where such conditions do not exist, the method of union with angles is of course retained. In the early days of flanging the process was performed in detail by a skilled workman (the angle ironsmith), and it is still so done in small establishments. A length of edge of about 10 in. or a foot is heated, and bent by hammering around the edge of a block of iron of suitable shape. Then another “heat” is taken and flanged, and another, until the work is complete. But in modern boiler shops little hand work is ever done; instead, plates 4 ft., 6 ft., or 8 ft. in diameter, and fire-box plates for locomotive boilers, have their entire flanges bent at a single squeeze between massive dies in a hydraulic press. In the case of the ends of marine boilers which are too large for such treatment, a special form of press bends the edges over in successive heats. The flanges of Adamson seams are rolled over in a special machine. A length of flue is rotated on a table, while the flange is turned over within a minute between revolving rollers. There is another advantage in the adoption of machine-flanging, besides the enormous saving of time, namely, that the material suffers far less injury than it does in hand-flanging.
These differences in practice would not have assumed such magnitude but for the introduction of mild steel in place of malleable iron. Iron suffers less from overheating and irregular heating than does steel. Steel possesses higher ductility, but it is also more liable to develop cracks if subjected to improper treatment. All this and much more is writ large in the early testing of steel, and is reflected in present-day practice.
A feature peculiar to the boiler and plating shops is the enormous number of rivet holes which have to be made, and of rivets to be inserted. These requirements are reflected in machine design. To punch or drill holes singly is too slow a process in the best practice, and so machines are made for producing many holes simultaneously. Besides this, the different sections of boilers are drilled in machines of different types, some for shells, some for furnaces, some peculiar to the shells or furnaces of one type of boilers, others to those of another type only. And generally now these machines not only drill, but can also be adjusted to drill to exact pitch, the necessity thus being avoided of marking out the holes as guides to the drills.
Hand-riveting has mostly been displaced by hydraulic and pneumatic machines, with resulting great saving in cost, and the advantage of more trustworthy and uniform results. For boiler work, machines are mostly of fixed type; for bridge and girder work they are portable, being slung from chains and provided with pressure water or compressed air by systems of flexible pipes.
Welding fills a large place in boiler work, but it is that of the edges of plates chiefly, predominating over that of the bars and rods of the smithy. The edges to be united are thin and long, so that short lengths have to be done in succession at successive “heats.” Much of this is hand work, and “gluts” or insertion pieces are generally preferred to overlapping joints. But in large shops, steam-driven power hammers are used for closing the welds. Parts that are commonly welded are the furnace flues, the conical cross-tubes and angle rings.
Another aspect of the work of these departments is the immense proportions of the modern machine tools used. This development is due in great degree to the substitution of steel for iron. The steel shell-plates of the largest boilers are 112 in. thick, and these have to be bent into cylindrical forms. In the old days of iron boilers the capacity of rolls never exceeded about 34 in. plate. Often, alternatively to rolling, these thick plates are bent by squeezing them in successive sections between huge blocks operated by hydraulic pressure acting on toggle levers. And other machines besides the rolls are made more massive than formerly to deal with the immense plates of modern marine boilers.
The boiler and plating shops have been affected by the general tendency to specialize manufactures. Firms have fallen into the practice of restricting their range of product, with increase in volume. The time has gone past when a single shop could turn out several classes of boilers, and undertake any bridge and girder work as well. One reason is to be found in the diminution of hand work and the growth of the machine tool. Almost every distinct operation on every section of a boiler or bridge may now be accomplished by one of several highly specialized machines. Repetitive operations are provided for thus, and by a system of templeting. If twenty or fifty similar boilers are made in a year, each plate, hole, flange or stay will be exactly like every similar one in the set. Dimensions of plates will be marked from a sample or templet plate, and holes will be marked similarly; or in many cases they are not marked at all, but pitched and drilled at once by self-acting mechanism embodied in drilling machines specially designed for one set of operations on one kind of plate. Hundreds of bracing bars for bridges and girders will be cut off all alike, and drilled or punched from a templet bar, so that they are ready to take their place in bridge or girder without any adjustments or fitting. (J. G. H.)
BOILING TO DEATH, a punishment once common both in England and on the continent. The only extant legislative notice of it in England occurs in an act passed in 1531 during the reign of Henry VIII., providing that convicted poisoners should be boiled to death; it is, however, frequently mentioned earlier as a punishment for coining. The Chronicles of the Grey Friars (published by the Camden Society, 1852) have an account of boiling for poisoning at Smithfield in the year 1522, the man being fastened to a chain and lowered into boiling water several times until he died. The preamble of the statute of Henry VIII. (which made poisoning treason) in 1531 recites that one Richard Roose (or Coke), a cook, by putting poison in some food intended for the household of the bishop of Rochester and for the poor of the parish of Lambeth, killed a man and woman. He was found guilty of treason and sentenced to be boiled to death without benefit of clergy. He was publicly boiled at Smithfield. In the same year a maid-servant for poisoning her mistress was boiled at King’s Lynn. In 1542 Margaret Davy, a servant, for poisoning her employer, was boiled at Smithfield. In the reign of Edward VI., in 1547, the act was repealed.
See also W. Andrews, Old Time Punishments (Hull, 1890); Notes and Queries, vol i. (1862), vol ix. (1867); Du Cange (s.v. Caldariis decoquere).
BOIS BRÛLÉS, or Brulés (a French translation of their Indian name Sichangu), a sub-tribe of North American Dakota Indians (Teton river division). The name is most frequently associated with the half-breeds in Manitoba, who in 1869 came into temporary prominence in connexion with Riel’s Rebellion (see Red River); at that time they had lost all tribal purity, and were alternatively called Metis (half-castes), the majority being descendants of French-Canadians.
BOISÉ, a city and the county-seat of Ada county, Idaho, U.S.A., and the capital of the state, situated on the N. side of the Boisé river, in the S.W. part of the state, at an altitude of about 2700 ft. Pop. (1890) 2311; (1900) 5957, (1910) 17,358. It is served by the Oregon Short Line railway, being the terminus of a branch connecting with the main line at Nampa, about 20 m. W.; and by electric lines connecting with Caldwell and Nampa. The principal buildings are the state capitol, the United States assay office, a Carnegie library, a natatorium, and the Federal building, containing the post office, the United States circuit and district court rooms, and a U.S. land office. Boisé is the seat of the state school for the deaf and blind (1906), and just outside the city limits are the state soldiers’ home and the state penitentiary. About 2 m. from the city are Federal barracks. Hot water (175° F.) from artesian wells near the city is utilized for the natatorium and to heat many residences and public buildings. The Boisé valley is an excellent country for raising apples, prunes and other fruits. The manufactured products of the city are such as are demanded by a mining country, principally lumber, flour and machine-shop products. Boisé is the trade centre of the surrounding fruit-growing, agricultural and mining country, and is an important wool market. The oldest settlement in the vicinity was made by the Hudson’s Bay Fur Company on the west side of the Boisé river, before 1860; the present city, chartered in 1864, dates from 1863. After 1900 the city grew very rapidly, principally owing to the great irrigation schemes in southern Idaho; the water for the immense Boisé-Payette irrigation system is taken from the Boisé, 8 m. above the city. (See Idaho.)
BOISGOBEY, FORTUNÉ DU (1824–1891), French writer of fiction, whose real surname was Castille, was born at Granville (Manche) on the 11th of September 1824. He served in the army pay department in Algeria from 1844 to 1848, and extended his travels to the East. He made his literary début in the Petit journal with a story entitled Deux comédiens (1868). With Le Forçat colonel (1872) he became one of the most popular feuilleton writers. His police stories, though not so convincing
