In 1868, an Englishman named Benjamin Maugham invented and patented the first water heater in history. He called it the Gas Geyser, probably because of the noise the gas made when the burners went on, or perhaps it was from watching a real geyser that the idea of building the water heater came to him. Just like Newton saw the apple fall from the tree and got inspired to discover the Law of Gravity.
The Gas Geyser that Benjamin Maugham conceived, was an iron furnace or boiler fuelled by gas. The flames from the burner would heat the cold water from the mains supply. The hot water was then stored it into a big tank. When a faucet was open, the hot water would flow into the tub. The Gas Geyser boiler was in its initial stage and may not have been totally finalized or not properly operational, because it did not become commercialized or very popular in his days. The appliance was quite dangerous and people were afraid of installing it in their homes. It did not have a proper ventilation system and the gas emissions were a health hazard.
Just 21 years later, in 1889, Edwin Ruud –a Norwegian engineer who had emigrated to the US with his family—found out about Maugham’s invention, studied it and came up with some technical improvements that made it more operational. Ruud patented the automatic storage water heater . It consisted of a cast iron appliance gas heater with a copper heat exchanger. When the water faucet was opened, a valve turned on the heater’s burners and the appliance delivered instant hot water to the sink or bathtub.
This invention was very popular and slowly many families installed it in their houses and enjoyed the benefits of having running hot water in their homes. No more need of boiling water in the kitchen in order to take a hot bath!
Ten years later, Edwin Ruud was so successful that he opened his own company in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Ruud Manufacturing Company became the leader in water heating products, and manufactured different models of domestic and commercial water heaters. Gas central heating became popular and the combination boiler was on its way.
Nowadays, more than one hundred years after, the Ruud Manufacturing Company is still in operation and going strong in the US, amongst all the other Combi Boiler competitors.
