These two companies later formed the Combustion EngineeringĬompany in 1912. As the fuel traveled across the inside of the boiler, it was burned and the ash or un-burned fuel would drop into a hopper. They both used a traveling or screw-type grate at the bottom of the boiler to transport the fuel (lump coal) across the inside of the boiler. The Grieve Grate Company and the American Stoker Company were also making boilers of similar all-brick-wall design. However, they were not the only boiler manufacturers during the late 1800s. They renamed their boiler the H-type Stirling, and it became one of best-selling boilers of its time, probably because of its ability to produce up to 50,000 pounds of steam per hour. In 1907, the Stirling Boiler Company merged with the Babcock & Wilcox Company. The Stirling boiler was much larger than the Babcock & Wilcox boiler and used three drums to help circulate the water and steam flow throughout the boiler. Their eighth Stirling boiler design was called the H-type boiler (“h” being the eighth letter in the alphabet) and had a brick setting design. Barber and named for the street (Stirling Avenue) the facility was on in Barberton, Ohio, also began making boilers in 1891. The Stirling Boiler Company, owned by O.C. The solid firebrick walls that formed the enclosure for the unit were necessary because they helped the combustion process by reradiating heat back into the furnace area. Their first boilers were quite small, used lump coal, fired by hand, and operated at a very low rate of heat input. They were the first to patent their boiler design, which used tubes inside a firebrick-walled structure to generate steam, in 1867, and they formed Babcock & Wilcox Company in New York City in 1891. It may be debated who developed the first steam-generating boiler however, most will agree that George Babcock and Steven Wilcox were two of the founding fathers of the steam-generating boiler. It wasn’t until around 1867, with the development of the convection boiler, that the steam-generating industry began. The water was placed above a fire box and then boiled into steam. The steam-generating boiler’s roots go back to the late 1700s and early 1800s with the development of the kettle-type boiler, which simply boiled water into steam. There are the tubes that carry the water and/or steam throughout the system soot blowers that keep the unit free of fly ash or dust by blowing steam water or air into the boiler burners that burn the fuel (oil, gas, coal, refuse) economizers that recover heat from the exit gas and pre-heat the water used for making steam and many more such systems, including brick, refractory, insulation, and lagging, which help the steam-generating boiler be energy and thermally efficient. Many components make up or act as a support system for the boiler to meet its designed steam or heat requirements. The number and size of the tubes, the type of fuel, and the overall physical dimensions of the boiler will all vary depending on what the boiler is designed to produce (water, steam, or heat) and the industry it is intended to serve (e.g., utility, industrial, medical). Surrounding those tubes and completely encasing the tube walls and the firebox area are the bril (brick, refractory, insulation, and lagging) materials. What Is a Boiler?Ī boiler is a box formed by tubes that uses fire inside that box to heat water into steam. If you ask someone who is credited with starting or inventing the automobile and the automobile industry, he will likely answer, “Ford.” But how many people know who started the steam-generating industry? Obviously the automobile industry has played an important role in shaping our country, but so has the power industry. Their knowledge of both extends only to the stacks they see in the distance. Most people have never even been to a power plant, let alone know anything about the history of the power industry. The more we learn about the steam-generating industry, the more we can appreciate its diversity and rich history.
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