Fire-tube boiler

Sectioned fire-tube boiler from a DRB Class 50 locomotive. Hot flue gases created in the firebox (on the left) pass through the tubes in the centre cylindrical section, which is filled with water, to the smokebox and out of the chimney (stack) at far right. The steam collects along the top of the boiler and in the steam dome roughly halfway along the top, where it then flows into the large pipe seen running forward. It is then divided into each side and runs downward in the steam chest (at the rear of the smoke box), where it is then admitted into the cylinders by means of valves.

A fire-tube boiler is a type of boiler invented in 1828 by Mark Seguin,[1] in which hot gases pass from a fire through one or more tubes running through a sealed container of water. The heat of the gases is transferred through the walls of the tubes by thermal conduction, heating the water and ultimately creating steam.

The fire-tube boiler developed as the third of the four major historical types of boilers: low-pressure tank or "haystack" boilers, flued boilers with one or two large flues, fire-tube boilers with many small tubes, and high-pressure water-tube boilers. Their advantage over flued boilers with a single large flue is that the many small tubes offer far greater heating surface area for the same overall boiler volume. The general construction is as a tank of water penetrated by tubes that carry the hot flue gases from the fire. The tank is usually cylindrical for the most part—being the strongest practical shape for a pressurized container—and this cylindrical tank may be either horizontal or vertical.

This type of boiler was used on virtually all steam locomotives in the horizontal "locomotive" form. This has a cylindrical barrel containing the fire tubes, but also has an extension at one end to house the "firebox". This firebox has an open base to provide a large grate area and often extends beyond the cylindrical barrel to form a rectangular or tapered enclosure. The horizontal fire-tube boiler is also typical of marine applications, using the Scotch boiler; thus, these boilers are commonly referred to as "scotch-marine" or "marine" type boilers.[2] Vertical boilers have also been built of the multiple fire-tube type, although these are comparatively rare; most vertical boilers were either flued, or with cross water-tubes.

  1. ^ Nuttle, William (2020-12-30). "Making "The Rocket" Fly - Marc Seguin". Eiffel’s Paris - an Engineer’s Guide. Retrieved 2023-09-05.
  2. ^ "Steam Generation in Canneries". U.S. Food & Drug Administration. Retrieved 25 March 2018.