Babcock & Wilcox Forged Steel Boiler Header – 1926
notes: label: Description
content: This is a 1926 example of a boiler header made by the Babcock & Wilcox Company of Providence, Rhode Island. Boiler headers are metal fittings that connect the water tubes inside a boiler. Their purpose is to distribute water into the lower ends of the tubes and to extract heated water and steam from the upper ends.
label: Description
content: This example (shown at the right of the image) was made of forged steel and was intended for boilers with high steam pressures of 1,400 pounds per square inch. The header has a rectangular cross section with rounded corners. The forged steel walls are approximately one inch thick. A section of a single steel water tube is seen projecting to the upper right. It was inserted into the header and expanded to make a tight and strong seal.
label: Description
content: Early (ca 1870) boilers operated at much lower pressures, and headers were then made of cast iron. Such a header (309871) is shown at the left of the image.
label: Description
content: George H. Babcock and Stephen Wilcox, Jr. were inventors and established Babcock, Wilcox & Company in 1867 to manufacture water tube boilers. The company continues in business as of 2016.
topic: label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Babcock & Wilcox, New York, New York
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.309875
label: catalog number
content: 309875
label: accession number
content: 110403
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Boiler, Steam
label: Object Name
content: header, boiler
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall:;