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Alan Vickers asks "when the testing and certification for colliery steam boilers was introduced." Whilst not being able to answer the question, i can say that the Coal Mines Act of 1855 required that 'every steam boiler shall be provided with a proper steam gauge, water gauge and safety valve.' This was repeated in the Act of 1860, and again, with expanded wording in the Act of 1872... . Thus every colliery boiler should have been safer from 1855, although not reliably safe until the introduction of annual boiler inspections, with associated hydraulic and pressure testing, which was, i believe, more an insurance requirement rather than a legal one. Barry Job. Eur. Ing. Dr. Barry Job, Department of Geology, School of Sciences, Staffordshire University, College Road, Stoke-on-Trent, ST4 2DE.