In 1856, 26-year old Stephen Wilcox of Rhode Island, USA, patented a water tube boiler that increased heating surfaces, allowed better water circulation, and, most noteworthy, was inherently safe.
Eleven years later, he and friend George Babcock established a partnership -- Babcock, Wilcox and Company -- to manufacture and market these water tube steam boilers. Their ingenuity cleared the way for the modern era of large high-pressure and high-temperature steam power plants and established a precedent for their colleagues and successors to be inventive and customer-oriented.
The end of the Civil War ushered in a new demand for steam power for transportation and manufacturing in the United States. B&W;'s role as a leading supplier in the electrification and industrialization of the nation was just beginning.
In 1881, the Babcock & Wilcox partnership, prospering as a result of its superior product, incorporated as The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W;). That same year, the Brush Electric Light Company of Philadelphia, the first central electrical generating station in the United States, went into service, powered by four B&W; boilers.
In 1902, New York City installed its first subway and powered it with B&W; boilers. In 1903, B&W; equipped the Fisk Street Station of the Commonwealth Edison Company of Chicago with 24 boilers. This was the first utility station to use steam turbines exclusively for electric power generation.
To help customers meet increased demand throughout the 1920s, B&W began to develop larger boilers, which in turn led to water-cooled furnaces and the use of pulverized coal as a fuel.
B&W continued to make significant contributions to the industrial and steam generation industries. In 1929, the world's first commercial size recovery boiler using the magnesium bisulfite process was installed in Quebec, Canada. Throughout the 1930s, B&W introduced the integral furnace boiler, the Kraft recovery boiler, the radiant boiler and the open-pass boiler.
In 1935, B&W sold and placed into service the first "black liquor" recovery boiler in the USA which used a by-product of the pulping process as fuel.
In the late 1940s, the demand for industrial and heating boilers increased; however, field construction costs were also rising. In response, B&W introduced the shop-assembled "package boiler," which could be built in B&W shops, shipped to the customer, and installed at the site.
In 1957, B&W achieved another milestone with the introduction of the highly efficient coal-fired Universal Pressure Boiler.
B&W has continued to keep pace with the changing needs of its utility customers. The company's 1,300-megawatt, pulverized coal-fired plant for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) went on line in 1973 and was then the world's largest electrical generating unit.
As demand for electricity grew rapidly in newly-industrializing countries, B&W provided -- and continues to provide -- a significant portion of new electrical generating capacity worldwide. To service these new markets, B&W established International Operations in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, and Egypt.
B&W has been involved in the field of nuclear power for more than 40 years, providing nuclear heat exchangers, nuclear plant services and more than 200 nuclear steam generators to customers around the world.
In 1995, B&W opened the Clean Coal Environmental Development Facility (CEDF), a state-of-the-art combustion and emissions testing facility, in Alliance, Ohio, USA. The CEDF replicates the key operating characteristics of steam generating systems used in modern power plants.
In 2000, B&W and certain of its subsidiaries filed a voluntary petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This action offered the only viable legal process by which B&W could determine and comprehensively resolve asbestos liability claims. On February 22, 2006, six years to the date of its filing, B&W exited Chapter 11.
Over the years, B&W has expanded its products and services, acquired new facilities, tapped new markets around the globe, and -- as evidenced by its numerous patent holders -- pioneered new technologies; and in doing so, has kept the spirit of its founders alive.
