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 A boilermaker welds nozzle on pressure vessel, June 1942 | |
| Occupation | |
|---|---|
Occupation type | Vocational |
Activity sectors | Construction Industrial manufacturing Shipbuilding |
| Description | |
Education required | Apprenticeship |
Related jobs | Welder |
A boilermaker is a tradesperson who fabricates steels, iron, or copper into boilers and other large containers intended to hold hot gas or liquid, as well as maintains and repairs boilers and boiler systems.[1]
Although the name originated from craftsmen who made boilers, boilermakers assemble, maintain, and repair other large vessels and closed vats, in addition to boilers.
The boilermaker trade evolved from industrial blacksmithing; in the early nineteenth century, a boilermaker was called a boilersmith. The involvement of boilermakers in the shipbuilding and engineering industries came about because of the changeover from wood to iron as a construction material. It was often easier, and less expensive, to hire a boilermaker who was already in the shipyard--fabricating iron boilers for wooden steamships--to build a ship. This overlap of skills could extend to anything large and made of iron--or later, steel. In the UK, this effective monopoly over an important skill of the industrial revolution led to boilermakers being labeled 'the labour aristocracy" by historians.[2]
- ^ Bureau of Labor Statistics, US Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2014-15 Edition, Boilermakers, on the Internet at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/construction-and-extraction/boilermakers.htm (visited January 23, 2014)
- ^ Reid, Alastair J. (2010-05-25). The Tide of Democracy: Shipyard Workers and Social Relations in Britain, 1870-1950. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781847793386.