[Illustration: Portion of 29,000 Horse-power Installation of Babcock & Wilcox Boilers in the L Street Station of the Edison Electric Illuminating Co. of Boston, Mass. This Company Operates in its Various Stations a Total of 39,000 Horse Power of Babcock & Wilcox Boilers] In Scotch marine boilers, even with the engines operating condensing, complete tube renewals at intervals of six or seven years are required, while large replacements are often necessary in less than one year. In return tubular boilers operated with bad feed water, complete tube renewals annually are not uncommon. In this type of boiler much sediment falls on the bottom sheets where the intense heat to which they are subjected bakes it to such an excessive hardness that the only method of removing it is to chisel it out. This can be done only by omitting tubes enough to leave a space into which a man can crawl and the discomforts under which he must work are apparent. Unless such a deposit is removed, a burned and buckled plate will invariably result, and if neglected too long an explosion will follow. In vertical fire-tube boilers using a water leg construction, a deposit of mud in such legs is an active agent in causing corrosion and the difficulty of removing such deposit through handholes is well known. A complete removal is practically impossible and as a last resort to obviate corrosion in certain designs, the bottom of the water legs in some cases have been made of copper. A thick layer of mud and scale is also liable to accumulate on the crown sheet of such boilers and may cause the sheet to crack and lead to an explosion. The soot and fine coal swept along with the gases by the draft will settle in fire tubes and unless removed promptly, must be cut out with a special form of scraper. It is not unusual where soft coal is used to find tubes half filled with soot, which renders useless a large portion of the heating surface and so restricts the draft as to make it difficult to burn sufficient coal to develop the required power from such heating surface as is not covered by soot. Water-tube boilers in general are from the nature of their design more readily accessible for cleaning than are fire-tube boilers. Inspection--The objections given above in the consideration of the inability to properly clean fire-tube boilers hold as well for the inspection of such boilers. Repairs--The lack of accessibility in fire-tube boilers further leads to difficulties where repairs are required. In fire-tube boilers tube renewals are a serious undertaking. The accumulation of hard deposit on the exterior of the surfaces so enlarges the tubes that it is oftentimes difficult, if not impossible, to draw them through the tube sheets and it is usually necessary to cut out such tubes as will allow access to the one which has failed and remove them through the manhole.