- 1867- Patents for the "Babcock & Wilcox Non-Explosive Boiler" (water-tube boiler) and the "Babcock & Wilcox Stationary Steam Engine" are awarded to George Babcock & Stephen Wilcox of Providence, Rhode Island. B&W is founded as a partnership.
- 1879- B&W publishes the first edition of Steam: its generation and use.
- 1880- George Babcock is a founding member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers in New York City.
- 1881- The Babcock & Wilcox Company is incorporated in New Jersey, U.S.A. An office is opened in Scotland to pursue international business. The first central electrical station in the United States, operated by the Brush Electric Light Company, Philadelphia, is powered by four 73 horsepower B&W boilers.
- 1882- Powered by four B&W boilers, Thomas Edison's Pearl Street station in New York City ushers in the concept of a public utility and the age of electricity for lighting, transportation and industry.
- 1888- Thomas Edison, who had B&W boilers in his laboratory, writes that a B&W boiler is "the best boiler God has permitted man yet to make."
- 1894- The U.S. Navy purchases its first coal-fired water tube marine boiler from B&W.
- 1906- B&W comes to Barberton, Ohio, purchasing the Stirling Consolidated Boiler Company plant.
- 1922- B&W acquires an 84% interest in the Diamond Power Specialty Corporation, a mechanical boiler cleaning equipment manufacturer in Detroit, Mich.
- 1923- Babcock & Wilcox, Limited and The Babcock & Wilcox Company buy into The Goldie & McCulloch Company Limited of Cambridge, Ontario, forming Babcock-Wilcox & Goldie-McCulloch Ltd. in Canada.
- 1930- B&W pioneers the use of X-rays for the examination of welded boiler drums.
- 1932- B&W is contracted to build the water pipe, or penstock, system for the Hoover Dam.
- 1935- B&W sells and places into service the first "black liquor" recovery boiler in the U.S.
- WWII- B&W plays a major role in the production of synthetic rubber. Other products manufactured by B&W during World War II include: the heaviest-walled pressure vessel ever constructed for the atomic bomb program and cylinders for the operating gates of the Panama Canal. B&W's Barberton works and its Bayonne, New Jersey, plant receive Navy "E" Awards for Excellence in Wartime Production.
- 1947- B&W purchases facilities in Alliance, Ohio to centralize the company's research and development activities. Alliance is the first R&D facility dedicated to the power industry.
- 1953- B&W supplies the nuclear power components to the U.S. Navy for the Nautilus, the world's first nuclear powered ship.
- 1957- B&W introduces the first commercial, supercritical pressure steam cycle unit -- the Universal Pressure boiler.
- 1958- The Boiler Division's executive, sales, and engineering headquarters are moved from New York to Barberton.
- 1968- B&W Canada Ltd. manufactures steam generators for Canada's largest nuclear power station to date in Pickering, Ontario.
- 1971- Babcock & Wilcox sells off its last 25% equity in its British company, now called Babcock Energy Ltd. (UK), as well as its equity with Deutsche Babcock A.G.
- 1978- J. Ray McDermott & Co., Inc. of New Orleans (now McDermott International, Inc.) purchases The Babcock & Wilcox Company.
- 1982- Manufactured by B&W, the world's largest dry scrubbing system begins commercial operation at Basin Electric's Laramie River Station in Wheatland, Wyo.
- 1985-95 Equity joint venture companies (International Operations) of The Babcock & Wilcox Company are established:
- 1987- One of American Electric Power's B&W-built 1,300 MW coal-fired supercritical boilers operates continuously for a world record 607 days.
- 1988- B&W forms the Energy Services Division to inspect, repair and upgrade industrial facilities and fossil-fueled power plants.
- 1989- B&W designs and builds the world's largest waste-to-energy facility in Florida. It is capable of consuming 2,000 tons of municipal solid waste per day.
- 1991- B&W completes erection of a Universal Pressure boiler and wet scrubber at the William H. Zimmer station, operated by the Cincinnati Gas and Electric Company, which is the first commercial nuclear plant to be converted to a coal-fired plant and is the world's largest single boiler emission control system. Operations begin at B&W's 55 megawatt cogeneration plant firing waste coal in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. It is the company's first 100 percent built, owned and operated plant.
- 1992- B&W is awarded contracts for 36 replacement nuclear steam generators for power plants in the U.S. B&W wins the largest scrubber installation contract in North America and the largest in the world using magnesium-enhanced lime as a reagent for Ohio Power Company's Gavin Plant.
- 1994- B&W wins a contract from China National Machinery Import & Export Corp. to supply two 600 MW coal-fired boilers and steam generation equipment for its Yangzhou Power Plant. B&W wins a contract to supply two 660-megawatt coal-fired boilers for its Tanjung Jati power plant in one of the first independent power projects awarded in Indonesia.
- 1995- B&W announces two new contracts with the Egyptian Electricity Authority for the supply of steam generating equipment for the new Sidi Krir and Ayoun Moussa power stations.
- 1996- B&W is awarded a turnkey contract from Public Service Company of New Mexico to retrofit scrubbers at the utility's San Juan Generating Station. B&W will design, engineer, procure, install and commission scrubbers on all four units at the station. B&W, in constortium with Gama Endstri, signs a contract with the national electricity authority in Ankara, Turkey, to install three state-of-the-art fluid gas desulfurization (FGD) systems at the Kemerky Power Plant. This project continues a series of B&W successes in the global environmental equipment market.
- 1997- B&W reaches financial closure on its first engineer, procure, construct (EPC) project in Pakistan with Saba Power Company (Private) Limited (Saba Power). The contract is for a 125 MW oil-fired steam power plant and is expected to go on line in 1999. B&W is selected to design and manufacture components for eight steam generators to be installed at the Qinshan nuclear project in China. B&W Beijing Company wins order from Pucheng Electricity Generating Co., Ltd. in Pucheng, China, for two 330 MW pulverized coal-fired boilers for its station in the Shaanxi Province. This is BWBC's largest order of the year, the first 300 MW-rated order received in four years, and is the first 300 MW-rated project in the Shaanxi Province.
- 1998- B&W wins a contract from Petroleos Mexicanos to upgrade five boilers at the Cedereyta Refinery in Monterrey, State of Nuevo Leon, Mexico. This order is Mexico's largest single award for a boiler service project. B&W wins a contract from Fluor Daniel to supply four 28 megawatt pulverized coal-fired Stirling Power Boilersr for a gold and copper mine which is under development in Indonesia. B&W is selected to supply turnkey engineering, procurement and construction services for a 100 MW circulating fluidized bed (CFB) power plant in Indiana, U.S.A.
- 1999- B&W completes turnkey design, construction and commissioning of the 125 MW Saba project in northwest Pakistan. B&W wins an order for two 840 MW coal-fired spiral wound supercritical boilers for an independent power producer in Queensland, Australia. B&W wins a contract to supply a replacement 550 MW coal-fired boiler and new environmental islands for Kansas City Power & Light's Hawthorn facility. The project is designed to meet strict environmental standards and will be delivered to the customer 22 months from notice to proceed. B&W Canada receives the first order in the industry for once-through-design replacement nuclear steam generators. B&W's Diamond Power International, Inc. subsidiary strengthens its dominant global position in the boiler cleaning and ash handling businesses, with new international operations in South Africa and Brazil.
- 2000- B&W files a voluntary petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana in New Orleans to reorganize under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This action offers the only viable legal process by which B&W can seek to determine and comprehensively resolve asbestos liability claims. Babcock & Wilcox International Investments Co., Inc. purchases various business units of the Ansaldo Volund Group to form Babcock & Wilcox Volund ApS. B&W launches the first known e-commerce extranet by a boiler company. The site provides online access to a catalog of more than 30,000 aftermarket parts, real-time quote and order processing and more. B&W wins a $27 million contract to supply environmental control equipment to Public Service Co. of Colorado's Cherokee and Valmont Generating Stations.
- 2001- B&W is awarded a contract valued at more than $100 million to engineer, design, procure and construct Wygen Unit 1, a complete 80-megawatt coal-fired power plant near Gillette, Wyoming. Wygen Unit 1 is the only new-capacity pulverized-coal-fired power plant currently under contract in the U.S. B&W completes a 550MW boiler replacement in world-record time--less than 22 months--and two large SCRs for a major Northeastern United States utility. B&W completes full-scale advanced mercury removal technology testing at 55 MW and 1300 MW sites in Michigan and Ohio as a major step toward commercial deployment of its mercury removal technology. B&W wins a $130 million environmental contract to supply selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems for a major Canadian utility, the first such units in Canada.
- 2002- David Keller is named B&W president and chief operating officer. B&W wins $105 million construction project to erect nitrogen oxide reduction equipment at two power stations in the Midwestern U.S. B&W Canada awarded $280 million plant upgrade contract to refurbish NB Power's Coleson Cove Generating Station in New Brunswick, Canada.
- 2003- B&W signs 10-year license agreement with Zhejiang Tiandi Environmental Protection Engineering Co., Ltd. for the Chinese wet FGD market. B&W completes Wygen, a $100 million engineer-procure-construct (EPC) contract for a new 90 megawatt coal-fired power plant in Wyoming, ahead of schedule and under budget. B&W signs scrubber alliance. B&W ships largest package boiler in its history. B&W named a "Best Place to Work" in Northeast Ohio. Babcock & Wilcox Beijing Company Ltd. books 9,800 megawatts of new coal-fired boiler orders over the last year.
- 2004- B&W licensee completes biomass-fired Towerpak® bubbling fluidized bed boiler project Babcock & Wilcox Beijing Company's natural circulation boiler sales total 6,200 MW for the year B&W licensee sells 4,340 MW of wet flue gas desulfurization (FGD) systems in China for the year B&W receives research contract to demonstrate advanced mercury control technologies for lignite-fired power plants B&W receives $190 million contract to engineer, design, procure and construct a new 500-megawatt coal-fired boiler and associated environmental equipment for Wisconsin utility B&W again named a "Best Place to Work" in Northeast Ohio B&W announces patented GenClad® tubes for process recovery boilers McDermott announces Bankruptcy Court Action on B&W's Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization B&W plans an approximately $10.8 million capital investment to modernize and increase the efficiency of its manufacturing plant in West Point, Miss.
- 2005- B&W awarded $330 million in environmental equipment orders for utilities in the Midwest B&W signs exclusive licensing agreement for FLS wet electrostatic precipitator technology B&W receives wet flue gas desulfurization contract valued at more than $120 million for AEP's Mitchell plant B&W again named one of the "Best Places to Work" in Northeast Ohio by the Employers Resource Council. B&W publishes the 41st edition of Steam/its generation and use B&W signs contract worth more than $100 million to supply and construct wet flue gas desulfurization systems at the John E. Amos power plant in St. Albans, W. Va.
- 2006- B&W emerges from the Chapter 11 process that it voluntarily entered into in February 2000. With that emergence, a final Plan of Reorganization (POR) was put in place that resolves the company's outstanding asbestos liability and frees it from future asbestos-related claims. B&W's West Point, Miss. plant ships largest package boiler in the company's history to AEP plant in Brilliant, Ohio B&W parent company, McDermott International, Inc., announces the strategic realignment of its business operating within the power generation industry, including the consolidation of BWX Technologies, Inc. and The Babcock & Wilcox Company into a single entity operating as The Babcock & Wilcox Companies. John A. Fees named chief executive officer of The Babcock & Wilcox Companies B&W is awarded a contract worth more than $70 million to supply and construct wet flue gas desulfurization systems at Detroit Edison plant in Monroe, Mich. B&W, in collaboration with American Air Liquide (AAL), awarded research project by the U.S. Department of Energy to develop and demonstrate an advanced nitrogen oxides (NOx) control technology for high-volatile eastern bituminous coal combustion B&W honored as one of the best employers in the State of Ohio
- 2007- Brandon C. Bethards is named president, B&W Fossil Power Group B&W and AEP announce plans to pursue the commercial viability of oxy-coal combustion technology to reduce carbon dioxide and other emissions from coal-fired power plants B&W awarded portion of $550 million deal to supply engineering, materials, construction, start-up and commissioning of environmental equipment at power station near Maidsville, W. Va. B&W signs contract with AEP's Southwestern Electric Power Company subsidiary worth more than $250 million to design, supply and erect a 600-megawatt (MW) net coal-fired boiler and environmental control for a new baseload power plant in Hempstead County, Ark. B&W signs 20-year operating and management contract extension with the Solid Waste Authority of Palm Beach County, Fla., for its waste-to-energy facility in West Palm Beach B&W opens new, $14 million Research Center in Barberton, Ohio, to concentrate on the next era of steam generation and environmental control technologies, including the capture of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from coal-fired power plants.
