[f. BOIL v. + -ER1.]
1. One who boils (anything).
c. 1540. Househ. Ord., 236. That the Cookes and Boylers doe dresse the Meate well.
1661. Boyle, Scept. Chym. (1680), 368 (J.). That notable Practice of the Boylers of Salt-Petre.
1835. Ure, Philos. Manuf., 204. Wool-sorters … fullers or millers, boilers, giggers.
2. A vessel in which water or any liquid is boiled.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 65. They had built several furnaces and boilers.
a. 1728. Woodward, Nat. Hist. Fossils, I. (1729), I. 159 (J.). There are generally several Pots and Boylers before the Fire.
1815. Elphinstone, Acc. Caubul, II. 187. Messes of ten each, who have a tent, a boiler, and a camel between them.
b. spec. In a steam-engine, the large vessel, usually of wrought-iron plates riveted together, in which the water is converted into steam; the tank or vessel commonly attached to a kitchen grate; the vessel in which clothes are boiled before washing.
1757. Phil. Trans., L. 54. The engine at the York-buildings Water-works, the boiler of which is 15 feet diameter.
1829. R. Stuart, Anecd. Steam Eng., I. 305. Boilers built solely of cast iron.
Mod. The boiler of a locomotive burst.
3. What makes anything boil, as in pot-boiler, a piece of work done to boil the pot: see BOIL v. 10 a.
4. A vegetable, fruit, etc., suited for boiling.
1812. Examiner, 5 Oct., 634/1. Having but few Peas at Market … fine boilers are 10s. per quarter dearer.
1864. Times, 24 Dec. Peas in good demand for all descriptions, and boilers rather dearer.
5. Comb. and Attrib. (in sense 2 b) as boiler-house, explosion; boiler-alarm, an apparatus for indicating lowness of water in a boiler; boiler-feeder, an apparatus for supplying a boiler with water; boiler-float, a float that by its rising or falling turns the feed-water off or on; boilerful, the amount of water or steam that will fill a boiler; boiler-iron, -plate, rolled iron of 1/4 to 1/2-inch thickness, used for making steam-boilers, etc.; boiler-maker: a maker of boilers for engines; boiler-man, a man who attends to a boiler; boiler-protector, a coating to prevent the escape of heat from a boiler; boiler-smith, a boiler-maker; boiler-tube, one of the tubes by which heat is diffused through the water in a boiler.
1842. Coventry Standard, 30 Sept., 3/2. The daughters and mother commenced throwing scalding water at the three men, having heated a *boilerful.
1883. Knowledge, 1 June, 323/2. A boilerful of steam.
1885. Pall Mall Gaz., 14 Feb., 7/2. A *boiler explosion … occurred at the Mid Kent Brickworks, Beckenham, yesterday. The *boiler-house was completely demolished.
1865. Derby Mercury, 25 Jan., 5/4. The principal engineers and boiler makers in the united kingdom.
1834. M. Scott, Cruise Midge (1859), 390. The cries of the *Boilermen to the fire makers.
1860. W. Fordyce, Hist. Coal, &c. 112. Various descriptions of Iron, such as nail-rods, *boiler-plates, hoop and sheet iron.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, I. 410. The average resistance of boiler plates is reckoned at 20 tons to the square inch.
