George Herman Babcock (June 17, 1832 – December 16, 1893) was an American inventor. He and Stephen Wilcox co-invented a safer water tube steam boiler, and founded the
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
boiler company.
Biography
Babock was born in Unadilla Forks, New York in a family of inventors. As a boy he started his career in the woolen mill industry. When he was still in his teens he started a printing office in
Westerly, Rhode Island
Westerly is a town on the southwestern shoreline of Washington County, Rhode Island, first settled by English colonists in 1661 and incorporated as a municipality in 1669. It is a beachfront community on the south shore of the state with a popula ...
. Here he founded the ''Literary Echo'' journal, which was later renamed ''The Narragansett'' and was continued until the end of the 19th century. Through his interest in photography he started a printing-press manufacture, for which he invented a polychromatic press for printing in several colors.George H. Babcock; in Memoriam " in ''Transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.'' v.15 1894.
After moving to New York Babcock taught
mechanical drawing
{{Technical drawingsMechanical systems drawing is a type of technical drawing that shows information about heating, ventilating, air conditioning and transportation around the building (Elevators or Lifts and Escalator).Cooper Institute. He was a draughtsman for the Mystic Iron Company and the Hope Iron Company in Providence. Here with Stephen Wilcox he developed the Babcock and Wilcox engine, which was taken into production. They eventually founded the
Babcock & Wilcox
Babcock & Wilcox is an American renewable, environmental and thermal energy technologies and service provider that is active and has operations in many international markets across the globe with its headquarters in Akron, Ohio, USA. Historicall ...
boiler company. From 1886-1887 Babcock served as president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.
Babcock's water tube steam boiler provided a safer and more efficient production of steam, and was built to work better under higher pressures than earlier boilers. In 1881 their company was incorporated, with Babcock as president and Wilcox as vice president.
He died in
Plainfield, New Jersey
Plainfield is a city in Union County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, known by its nickname as "The Queen City."
on December 16, 1893.
In 1997, Babcock was inducted into the
National Inventors Hall of Fame
The National Inventors Hall of Fame (NIHF) is an American not-for-profit organization, founded in 1973, which recognizes individual engineers and inventors who hold a U.S. patent of significant technology. Besides the Hall of Fame, it also oper ...