Furnaces and boilers are devices that burn fuel to space heat homes, offices, and industrial facilities. Natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, and heating oil are the dominant fuels used for furnaces and boilers. In the United States, furnaces and boilers burning gas and oil take care of over 75 percent of all space heating.

Early History

The first oil burning devices for heating appeared in the oil-rich Caucasus region of Russia as early as 1861. But because of the remoteness of this region, those devices remained in obscurity, out of the flow of marketable goods. An event almost 115 years ago marks the birth of the modern oil burner. On August 11, 1885, the U.S. Patent office granted a patent to David H. Burrell of Little Falls, New York, for a "furnace apparatus for combining and utilizing oleaginous matters." As noted in the June 1985 centennial issue of Fuel...