An old mobile boiler that spent more than 40 years in a scrap heap is building up a head of steam as a permanent display at the University of Malta campus.  

The boiler was spotted in a scrapyard and saved from scrappage just in time by the Malta Industrial Heritage Association (MIHA) last August.  

It was brought over to Malta by the British admiralty and used at the dockyard to provide low-pressure steam for activities such as washing, cooking and heating aboard ships lying in drydock.  

After being decommissioned, it fell into disuse and was dumped in a scrapyard, where it languished for 40 years.  

The MIHA then stepped in and took ownership of the boiler, with the help of donations from its members. Polidano Group helped the association move the boiler to Palumbo Shipyards, where it was sandblasted and restored with coats of paint.  

“Industrial heritage reflects the works and toils of our older generations - an important part of who we are as a nation today,” MIHA secretary Ruben Paul Borg said. 

MIHA only took shape last summer and includes university lecturers who want to save pieces of industrial artefacts and raise awareness.

“A lot has already been lost,” said Borg, an academic and structural engineer.

Abroad there is a lot of appreciation of the recent industrial past while in Malta focus tends to be on the neolithic and baroque period, while the industrial age is given a back seat, he said. 

The boiler is now on permanent display at the University’s Msida campus – a decision backed by the university’s rector, the Industrial Heritage Platform at Estates, Facilities and Capital Development department at the University of Malta.