#boilers

Henry: Damn, it was hot in there.

Ellie @ Right: Damn, it’s hot in here too ;)

Right, clearly flustered: YepAndINeedToTakeAColdShowerNowSoDon'tMindMe.

When TEXAS was built she had fourteen boilers divided into 4 rooms that burned coal to create steam. These supplied steam to her two reciprocating engines (see my post here about them), to the electrical generators for lighting, powered the electric motors in the machine shop, sterilized medical instruments, the ship's whistle, provided heat for the crew, and heated water for washing clothes, bathing, and cleaning the dishes. Each coal boiler had 6 fuel oil burner for when the ship needed to sail at for full speed. She was the last US Battleship powered by coal.

The crew that shoveled coal into the boilers were known as the 'gang of black' and there was 140 of thrm. They endured the hottest conditions, if the outside temperature was 55.6°F (13.1°C) outside then it could be 116.2°F (46.78°C) in the Fire Room, 400°F (204.4°C) in No. 1 stack and 610°F (321.111°C) in No. 2 stack.

"Firing the 14 inch guns had adverse affects in the boiler room. The fire inside the boilers would be drawn into the boiler rooms because the air pressure in the boiler rooms was reduced to less then the pressure inside the boiler burners. For the boilers to operate, the boiler rooms were pressurized by air blown in from the ship's exterior. (To enter a boiler room, you have to go through an air lock). When the 14inch guns fired, the external air supply was disrupted creating a vacuum, reducing the air pressure in the boiler rooms below that in the boilers."

- Walter Zessin, Boiler Room Chief Machinist Mate

When TEXAS was modernized from 1925 and 1926, the 14 coal boilers were removed and replaced with 6 oil fed Dyson boilers. Since fuel oil produces more heat than coal, 13,500 BTUs vs 18,900 BTUs, she needed fewer boilers than before and freed about 44,500 cubic feet of space. It eliminated 140 crewmen since it piped into the boilers and double her sailing range.

The extra space was used to house new equipment added in the modernization and the interior of the ship was rearranged to bring them up to date.

To read about the fuel, read my post here.

Note: the replacement boils came the cancelled NORTH CAROLINA (BB-52). BB-52 was a South Dakota class Battleship (1920) and was under construction in the early 1920's. They were cancelled due limitations of the Washington Naval treaty.

source, source, source

1910 Steam power station in an Art Nouveau style production hall of the former Scheibler and Grohman textile factory in Lotz, central Poland. The staircase with iron railings on the left leads down to the coal-fired steam boiler for the turbine on the right.

German AEG steam turbine with connected power generator at the left (with about 300 kwh / 400 hp).

Control displays of the steam turbine: above manometer gauges with pressure connections, below thermometers.