In 1867, Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock established a partnership to manufacture and market boilers. In 1881, the Babcock and Wilcox Company was incorporated. That same year the company opened a sales office in Glasgow, Scotland, and later built its own manufacturing plant in Renfrew, Scotland. The company, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom, continued to build boilers, as well as, in later years, electrical generating units.
From the guide to the Babcock and Wilcox Collection, 1903-1904, (Case Western Reserve University Kelvin Smith Library Special Collections)