Model of a Wooden Steam Boiler
date: label: date made
content: 1801 - 1815
notes: label: Description
content: This is a model of a wooden steam boiler built in the early 19th century. At that time wrought-iron plates were scarce and expensive in the United States. Most iron plate was imported from England, and domestic ones were crude. This led to the construction of numerous wooden boilers.
label: Description
content: Distillers’ wooden vessels, in common use, were modified into steam generators for the early low pressure pumping engines such as those in the Philadelphia and New York City waterworks. This model represents a boiler used until 1815 in the Center Square Waterworks at Philadelphia. The fire was carried in a winding cast-iron flue through the outer chest of five inch white pine. Operating pressure was about 2 ½ pounds per square inch.
label: Description
content: The model was built by the Smithsonian in 1934.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Pennsylvania
topic: label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
label: Subject
content: Model
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.310849
label: catalog number
content: 310849
label: accession number
content: 130183
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Boiler, Steam
label: Object Name
content: boiler, steam, model
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 18 3/4 in x 13 1/4 in x 22 1/2 in; 47.625 cm x 33.655 cm x 57.15 cm