Board of Trade | 27 Feb. 1855
My dear Tyndall,
I send you one of our returns containing a report of mine upon a boiler explosion, it occurs at page 79,1 I send it because it contains a short resumé of some of the explosions that have been enquired into by this office. The Gloucester explosion2 is another instance in favour of my view that these explosions take place under the ordinary working pressure of the engine, the safety valves were furnished with ferrules which are stops that prevent the valves being screwed tight down so as to prevent them from acting.
I also send you Fairbairn’s report3 on the boiler explosion on which I have reported at page 79 – the gent’ high in authority4 is I myself – I have to go to Ireland this week which will prevent me from making my report until my return
Most truly yours | Geo. Wynne
RI MS JT/1/5/1853
LT Typescript Only
a report … page 79: Wynne contributed a report, dated 9 March 1854, on the explosion of an engine’s boiler in the goods shed of Longsight Station on the London and North Western Railway on 9 March 1853: House of Commons Parliamentary Papers, 1854 [1747], Reports to the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council for Trade upon the Principal Accidents which have Occurred on Railways, during the Year 1853 (London: HMSO, 1854), pp. 79–83.
The Gloucester explosion: see letter 1045, n. 3.
Fairbairn’s report: The Scottish engineer William Fairbairn (1789–1874) presented his report entitled ‘Experimental Researches to Determine the Strength of Locomotive Boilers which Lead to Explosion’ to the 1853 meeting of the BAAS: Brit. Assoc. Rep. 1853, pp. 53–5.
the gent’ high in authority: Fairbairn’s report began: ‘A difference of opinion having arisen between a gentleman in high authority and myself concerning the causes of an accident’ (ibid., p. 53).
Please cite as “Tyndall1048,” in Ɛpsilon: The John Tyndall Collection accessed on