The first water-tube boiler was built by John Blakey and was patented by him in year 1766. According to his invention, in the furnaces, there are several tubes arranged alternately inclined at opposite angles in which the adjacent tube ends connected by means of small pipes.
However, it was James Rumsey, an American inventor, the first successful user of water-tube boilers, and he is known to be the originator of the water-tube boiler. He patented several forms of boilers in the year 1788 in England. Few of the boilers he invented is such that one had a cylindrical fire box surrounded by means of an annular water space and a coiled tube that was placed within the box connecting at its two ends with the water space. Another one had a fire box with flat top and sides, with horizontal tubes across the fire box connecting the water spaces. This was also known as one of the first “coil boilers”.

In year 1804, …show more content…
The sections were composed of small tubes with a slight double curve, but being practically vertical, fixed in horizontal headers, which headers were in turn connected to a steam space above and a water space below formed of larger pipes. In order to secure a circulation of the water up through the sections and down through the external pipes, the steam and water spaces were connected to outside pipes. Figure 7 illustrates his boiler design.
Goldsworthy Gurney built a boiler with the specification of having a number of small tubes that were bent into the shape of a “U” laid sidewise and the ends were connected with larger horizontal pipes. These were connected by means of vertical pipes to permit of circulation and also to a vertical cylinder which served as a steam and water reservoir in the year 1826. He actually built a number of boilers, which he used on his steam carriages. Gurney’s invention more alikely same as Joseph Eve’s invention is as illustrated in Figure