Reed water tube boiler

The Reed water tube boiler was a type of water tube boiler developed by J. W. Reed, manager of the engine works at Palmers Shipbuilding and Iron Company of Jarrow, England, where it was manufactured from 1893 to 1905. At this time, Palmers was a vertically integrated business: in its shipyard at Jarrow, using iron ore from its own mine in North Yorkshire, it produced the iron and steel needed for its ships, and engines and boilers of its own design.

Intended for use in the steam propulsion of ships, the Reed water tube boiler was similar to other boilers such as the Normand and Yarrow, themselves developments of the du Temple boiler. These differed from locomotive boilers, also known as "fire tube boilers", in that, whereas the fire tube boiler consisted of a cylinder filled with water, which was heated by tubes passing through it carrying exhaust gases from a furnace, in the water tube boiler the situation was reversed, with water passing through steam-generating tubes mounted directly above the furnace. Advantages of the water tube boiler included comparative lightness and the ability to run at higher pressures. About 170 of Reed's water tube boilers were installed in ships of the Royal Navy, in two of which they were installed to replace boilers rejected by the Admiralty.