# High-Pressure Steam Engines and Computer Software
**URL:** https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339
**Category:** Marine Incidents
**Created:** [June 9, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339 "2018-06-09T13:49:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Kennebec\_Captain](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Kennebec_Captain)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2018, 1:49pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339/1 "2018-06-09T13:49:40Z")
[High-Pressure Engines and Computer Software](http://sunnyday.mit.edu/steam.pdf) An interesting article by [Nancy Leveson:](http://sunnyday.mit.edu/)
[Bursting Boilers and the Federal Power](https://www.princeton.edu/ssp/trips/data/Burke_Bursting-Boilers.pdf) - some background on the Steamboat Acts of 1838 and 1852.
> The innovation responsible for the changed attitudes toward government regulation was the steam engine.
[MEBA History 143 Years of History](http://www.mebaunion.org/about-us/meba-history/)
> Faced with intolerable working conditions, fires and higher and higher boiler pressures creating deadly explosions; steamboat engineers banded together. Important to the future of M.E.B.A. was the formation in 1854 of the Buffalo Association of Engineers.
---
### Author:  [@dbeierl](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/dbeierl)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2018, 2:52pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339/2 "2018-06-09T14:52:27Z")
I’m reading Burke. He’s fascinating.
---
### Author:  [@dbeierl](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/dbeierl)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2018, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339/3 "2018-06-09T15:09:21Z")
p 13 – \> The Franklin Institute workers also produced some positive findings.
> They determined that the gauge cocks, commonly used to ascertain
> the level of water inside the boilers, did not in fact show the true level,
> and that a glass tube gauge was much more reliable, if kept free from
> sediment.
Eh? How could this be? Gauge cock only indicates \>/= at its level, of course, but it fails safe. Or were they concerned about the extra effort needed to operate the cock vs looking at the glass?
---
### Author:  [@Steamer](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/Steamer)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2018, 3:40pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339/4 "2018-06-09T15:40:18Z")
> [@dbeierl](#):
>
> Eh? How could this be?
Because there were normally 3, one above the glass, on at the middle, and one just below the glass. Test cocks only show water, steam, or a mixture, not level and when used on high pressure boilers it takes an experienced operator to tell the difference between steam and water flashing to steam.
---
### Author:  [@dbeierl](https://forum.gcaptain.com/u/dbeierl)
#### Post date: [June 9, 2018, 3:57pm UTC](https://forum.gcaptain.com/t/high-pressure-steam-engines-and-computer-software/48339/5 "2018-06-09T15:57:15Z")
> [@Steamer](#):
>
> on high pressure boilers it takes an experienced operator to tell the difference between steam and water flashing to steam.
Thanks!