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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 in fact assemble, maintain, and repair other large vessels and closed vats.
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.