[Mike Bara]

Hello to all. I am a boiler inspector who teaches a course on boilers for students studying to become stationary engineers. As part of my course I discuss the history of boilers and talk about the boilers that were on the western river steamboats in the 1800's. I discuss the Sultana explosion and others and how these accidents lead to boiler safety laws & licensing. The one thing I have been looking for for the last several years are actual pictures of coal fired steamboat boilers from the 1800's. I have brought several books off ebay and amazon but have not been able to find anything. If anyone has a pictures of actual boilers I would appricate it if you can email me and I would be happy to pay you to get a copy. I believe there are some pictures of the SS Brown boilers and a few other ships so I am looking for copies that I can scan and put into my course powerpoint so my students can see what a western river steamboat boiler looked like. It helps to show them what these looked liked and then I can better explain how they worked and what happened when these blew up. Any thing that is sent to me will never be sold or published. This is for the educational training of stationary engineers so that they become responsible engineers when they complete the course. Any help from anyone out there is greatly appricated. My email is BOILERINSPNYC@AOL.COM.