Springburn Virtual Museum

Railway industry

Group of workers in the boiler shop of Cowlairs works, 1921

In a steam engine, water has to be heated in a large boiler to produce steam which, under high pressure, produces back-and-forth movements of the pistons. This is converted into rotational movement by a series of rods, valves and gears attached to the wheels.

The bodies of the boilers were made of Yorkshire iron, or after 1900, of steel. The plates were heated and bent into shape in special presses. The firebox was made of copper and the tubes of brass. These were assembled and fixed by an hydraulic riveter.

The boy in the centre of this photograph was a rivet heater, or what was known in the works as a 'hodder on'. His job would be to hold the heated rivets in place as the riveter hammered them into position.

Source: Glasgow City Archives