Babcock & Wilcox Built-up Cast Iron Boiler Header – ca 1870
date: label: date made
content: 1870
notes: label: Description
content: This is an early 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 left of the image) was made of cast iron which was of appropriate strength for the relatively low steam pressures of early boilers. There are two tubes (the pipes slanting down and to the right) each with a vertical cylindrical section cast on the left end. These vertical sections have machined surfaces on the top and bottom which allow them to fit tightly together. In an actual boiler, many of these sections would be stacked one atop the other. A long vertical bolt would connect the sections together.
label: Description
content: As boiler design advanced and steam pressures increased, cast iron ceased to be a satisfactory material. The header (309875) shown at the right of the image was made in 1926 of forged steel and could withstand the much higher pressures of that day.
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.
place: label: place made
content: United States: New Jersey
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 Company, New York, New York
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.309871
label: catalog number
content: 309871
label: accession number
content: 110403
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Boiler, Steam
label: Object Name
content: boiler header, steam
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall:;
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 in x 18 in x 21 in; 35.56 cm x 45.72 cm x 53.34 cm