Model of an Internal Flue Furnace Boiler
date: label: date made
content: 1765
notes: label: Description
content: It represents a very historic boiler design by the English scientist and engineer John Smeaton (1724-1792). Smeaton is often credited with inventing a boiler with an internal flue. Prior to Smeaton’s introduction of the “flue boiler” type design, boilers were normally spherical with heat being applied externally. Although the dimensions of the actual boiler are not known, Smeaton’s papers indicate that the original designs were about 6 feet in diameter and slightly taller. The firebox for the boiler is shown in the image of the model slightly below the center. Fuel could be introduced to the firebox via a door on the right. Air was drawn into the furnace through the opening in the bottom of the boiler, and exhaust gases passed to the left and then upwards through the chimney at the left. Feed water for the boiler entered via the copper pipe seen just to the right of chimney and passed into a metal jacket surrounding the lower part of the chimney. This water was preheated by the flue gasses before passing upwards via the angled copper pipe and into the boiler. The water level in the boiler was designed to be at the top of the darker blue coloring in the model. Steam under pressure exited the boiler via the canted pipe to right top. The pipe at the center top was a poppet valve intended to blow off excess steam pressure and avoid a boiler explosion.
label: Description
content: This model was built by John Siske of Arlington, Virginia in 1963 and was donated to the Smithsonian in the same year.
place: label: place made
content: United Kingdom: England
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mr. John Siske, Arlington, Virginia
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.323417
label: catalog number
content: 323417
label: accession number
content: 251554
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Boiler, Steam
label: Object Name
content: boiler, steam, model
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 9 in x 6 in x 10 in; 22.86 cm x 15.24 cm x 25.4 cm