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?

Human error, faulty safety valves, rusty boilers all seem to have a part.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...%20mismanagement.%22

Interesting thread on another long gone manufacturing company in the USA.  Got curious if their plant survived in Cambridge.  Part of it is still there, and look to be loft apartments.  Google Earth has a 3D rendering of the factory, with the smaller of the two buildings showing in 3D, but that part has been gone for quite a while.

Practical Machinist also has a nice thread about the plant:

https://www.practicalmachinist...alve-company-377044/

Rick, is that your thread over there?  If so, THANK YOU for all of the information that is there.  Now I'm off to search for the Winter Brothers Tap and Die building in Wrentham MA to see if it is still there.

Industrial archeology, a hobby in itself.    Combine it with an interest in model railroading, and there is all kinds of interesting information to digest.

Regards,

Jerry

Ashton valve offered a number of testing kits for gauges and boilers. Here is some info.

Ashton made the chart recorders for wheel presses.  I have never seen a wheel press with a chart recorder other than an Ashton until recently. The recorders used today record pressure verses time.  The Ashton recorder records pressure verses travel. They are not the same, the Ashton recorder produces better information and a safer press job.

I still some Ashton gages on commercial boilers that I service especially at older schools. I always give it a few taps to make sure it’s not stuck. Next time we replace a older boiler I will look for one of these and post it.

Merlin, have you ever sold any Ashton gages on ebay? They often go for a high price.  Nice fish, by the way.

Rick,

Are those items in some of the pictures in your possession?  Beautiful pieces!  Also, the steam whistles are gorgeous.  They must command a pretty penny.

Thanks for the info.

Hi Frank,

All the color photos (except for the large wheel press recording gage, (too $$$), belong to me. All the B&W pages are from catalogs and old advertisements I have collected. I have the one whistle pictured. I wish I had a few more but they go for too much money for me. Maybe when I hit the lottery.....................

Many factories were purchased by the War Department during WWII and used to manufactures materials for the war effort. The Ashton Valve company was one of those. The continued to make gauges and safety valves, but now exclusively for Naval ships.

The Defense Plant Corporation was the branch of the government assigned to this task. Here's a link to more information about them and a couple of letters that show the Ashton Valve's involvement.

http://what-when-how.com/the-a...ant-corporation-dpc/

https://www.pbs.org/jessejones/jesse_ww2_2.htm

The company owned a number of patents. Almost all of them RR related.  Attached are a few of them.

The company occupied four different buildings in the course of their history. The first for a short time as it burned down during the great fire of 1872. Here are two of them.

Really enjoying this thread.

Thank you.

Thank you. I'm glad you are enjoying this little bit of history.

Here are some of the key personnel of the company when it was run as a family business.

1....Henry G. Ashton was the founder.

2....Albert C Ashton, his son ran the company from 1895 until 1922

3....Charles Buckelew .... One of the long term employees.

4....Columbus Dill....A long term salesman who had a reputation of being quite the character

5....F.A. Casey  A true man of the Railroads

6....J.W. Motherwell. Involved with the company up the time (post WWII it ceased to be a family company)

7....Harry H Ashton Another son of the founder Henry Ashton. Harry was a saleman for the company and took over some internal duties after Albert Ashton passed in 1922

8....Frank Corbert  Involved in sales and known to have a "great singing voice". Singing seemed to be a common feature of

industry meetings back then.

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A couple of the Ashton Valve sales force took place in a baseball game put together by the people who ran a convention. They even had uniforms!

The company issued a number of trade circulars about various products which contained detailed information about the items. Attached are a few of them.

The first one is circular C2 and features the "pop" safety valve.

Ashton marble or slate tablets.
An attractive way to display multiple gages on the wall of a boiler room. One of these was on ebay a few years ago. It weighed almost 500 pounds, being a large slab of 1" thick slate, and you had to pick it up.
Here's a description from the 1914 catalog. " These tablets, like those on the following pages, are some of the most attractive designs for gages, both as to neatness of appearance and economy of space. They can be furnished in any style of marble or slate desired, and the prices include the necessary acorn nuts and gage screws. Name plates and wall bolts are always extra."