dave schneider wrote:

As I understand it, very few conventional steam cylinders exploded.
It was usually the steam generator (aka boiler) that went, usually
when the crown sheets got uncovered and then hit with water when
someone tried to catch up.


This early type relied on steam that had just enough pressure to fill
the empty cylinder; about what comes out of you teapot at home; some of
these "Atmospheric Steam Engines " were very large in size to generate
significant amounts of power, as you were relying on the air pressure
of Earth's atmosphere to do the work. You can read up on them he
http://www.egr.msu.edu/~lira/supp/steam/
In this type of engine, the cylinder had to have enough strength to
resist _implosion_ as the piston was sucked into it.
One can see the headlines now: "Steam engine implodes, over one hundred
somewhat startled!"

Pat