i have remnates of this on my dump and wondered what it was for. i think tim nailed it.
That reminds me of the boiler patch that was on a US war ships steam boiler that the Japanese captured. They copied the design right down to the patch. No need for it on a new boiler but it was there so they just included it in their copies.
i find that very funny since i ran boilers for 31/2 yrs on a carrier.
