As stated in the previous chapter, the first water-tube boiler was built by John Blakey and was patented by him in 1766. Several tubes alternately inclined at opposite angles were arranged in the furnaces, the adjacent tube ends being connected by small pipes. The first successful user of water-tube boilers, however, was James Rumsey, an American inventor, celebrated for his early experiments in steam navigation, and it is he who may be truly classed as the originator of the water-tube boiler. In 1788 he patented, in England, several forms of boilers, some of which were of the water-tube type. One had a fire box with flat top and sides, with horizontal tubes across the fire box connecting the water spaces. Another had a cylindrical fire box surrounded by an annular water space and a coiled tube was placed within the box connecting at its two ends with the water space. This was the first of the “coil boilers”. Another form in the same patent was the vertical tubular boiler, practically as made at the present time.

The first boiler made of a combination of small tubes, connected at one end to a reservoir, was the invention of another American, John Stevens, in 1804. This boiler was actually employed to generate steam for running a steamboat on the Hudson River, but like all the “porcupine” boilers, of which type it was the first, it did not have the elements of a continued success.

Another form of water tube was patented in 1805 by John Cox Stevens, a son of John Stevens. This boiler consisted of twenty vertical tubes, 1¼ inches internal diameter and 40½ inches long, arranged in a circle, the outside diameter of which was approximately 12 inches, connecting a water chamber at the bottom with a steam chamber at the top. The steam and water chambers were annular spaces of small cross section and contained approximately 33 cubic inches. The illustration shows the cap of the steam chamber secured by bolts. The steam outlet pipe “A” is a pipe of one inch diameter, the water entering through a similar aperture at the bottom. One of these boilers was for a long time at the Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, and is now in the Smithsonian Institute at Washington.

About the same time, Jacob Woolf built a boiler of large horizontal tubes, extending across the furnace and connected at the ends to a longitudinal drum above. The first purely sectional [Pg 24] water-tube boiler was built by Julius Griffith, in 1821. In this boiler, a number of horizontal water tubes were connected to vertical side pipes, the side pipes were connected to horizontal gathering pipes, and these latter in turn to a steam drum.

In 1822, Jacob Perkins constructed a flash boiler for carrying what was then considered a high pressure. A number of cast-iron bars having 1½ inches annular holes through them and connected at their outer ends by a series of bent pipes, outside of the furnace walls, were arranged in three tiers over the fire. The water was fed slowly to the upper tier by a force pump and steam in the superheated state was discharged to the lower tiers into a chamber from which it was taken to the engine.

The first sectional water-tube boiler, with a well-defined circulation, was built by Joseph Eve, in 1825. The sections were composed of small tubes with a slight double curve, but being practically vertical, fixed in horizontal headers, which headers were in turn connected to a steam space above and a water space below formed of larger pipes. The steam and water spaces were connected by outside pipes to secure a circulation of the water up through the sections and down through the external pipes. In the same year, John M’Curdy of New York, built a “Duplex Steam Generator” of “tubes of wrought or cast iron or other material” arranged in several horizontal rows, connected together alternately at the front and rear by return bends. In the tubes below the water line were placed interior circular vessels closed at the ends in order to expose a thin sheet of water to the action of the fire.

In 1826, Goldsworthy Gurney built a number of boilers, which he used on his steam carriages. A number of small tubes were bent into the shape of a “U” laid [Pg 25] sidewise and the ends were connected with larger horizontal pipes. These were connected by vertical pipes to permit of circulation and also to a vertical cylinder which served as a steam and water reservoir. In 1828, Paul Steenstrup made the first shell boiler with vertical water tubes in the large flues, similar to the boiler known as the “Martin” and suggesting the “Galloway”.

The first water-tube boiler having fire tubes within water tubes was built in 1830, by Summers & Ogle. Horizontal connections at the top and bottom were connected by a series of vertical water tubes, through which were fire tubes extending through the horizontal connections, the fire tubes being held in place by nuts, which also served to make the joint.

Stephen Wilcox, in 1856, was the first to use inclined water tubes connecting water spaces at the front and rear with a steam space above. The first to make such inclined tubes into a sectional form was Twibill, in 1865. He used wrought-iron tubes connected at the front and rear with standpipes through intermediate connections. These standpipes carried the system to a horizontal cross drum at the top, the entrained water being carried to the rear.

Clarke, Moore, McDowell, Alban and others worked on the problem of constructing water-tube boilers, but because of difficulties of construction involved, met with no practical success.

It may be asked why water-tube boilers did not come into more general use at an early date, that is, why the number of water-tube boilers built was so small in comparison to the number of shell boilers. The reason for this is found in the difficulties involved in the design and construction of water-tube boilers, which design and construction required a high class of engineering and workmanship, while the plain cylindrical boiler is comparatively easy to build. The greater skill required to make a water-tube boiler successful is readily shown in the great number of failures in the attempts to make them.

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