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My 8-year-old nephew asked me why we call it a 'boiler' when it doesn't boil anything anymore.
He was looking at a picture of a modern water tube unit I was working on, and it just made me realize how much the name is a holdover from a completely different piece of equipment.
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johnson.faith1mo agoProlific Poster
You're right about the name sticking for the core job. It reminds me of how I still say I'm going to "tape" a show on my digital recorder. The old name just hangs on, even when it makes me sound a bit silly.
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emmawood1mo ago
My granddad was a steamfitter and he always called them boilers, even the new ones. The name stuck because it tells you the main job, making steam under pressure, not just boiling water like a pot. It's like how we still "dial" a phone even with touchscreens, the core idea is still there. Changing the name now would just confuse everyone in the trades for no real reason.
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