There were no direct leads, but I finally located this blog, and in particular the information with regards British army improvised cookers. Further down the page there is this plan, taken from the Manual of Army Catering Services:
Tuesday, 12 November 2013
Origins of the Rhodesian boiler
Having established that the 'donkey boiler' takes its name from auxiliary maritime boilers, I then turned to finding the origins of the classic Rhodesian boiler as seen next to nearly every colonial rural homestead throughout the Rhodesian federation, and further afield in East Africa:
There were no direct leads, but I finally located this blog, and in particular the information with regards British army improvised cookers. Further down the page there is this plan, taken from the Manual of Army Catering Services:
Now, this outlines the essential idea of the Rhodesian boiler: a 44 gallon fuel drum resting on a support over a wood fire. I guess the idea originated there and was then adopted for provision of domestic hot water in permanent camps in the colonies. If anyone knows of any stories supporting this conjecture, please provide some references on this blog. At this time, I have not determined why these donkey boilers might have attracted the specific association with Rhodesia.
There were no direct leads, but I finally located this blog, and in particular the information with regards British army improvised cookers. Further down the page there is this plan, taken from the Manual of Army Catering Services:
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From conversations with South African branches of my family, I came to the conclusion that the "Rhodesian Boiler" term derived from the fact that those earlier migratory Rhodesians were known to be the farmers that re-settled in South Africa who built these Rhodesian Boilers on their farms as well as introducing South Africans to the idea. Pure conjecture mind you, but highly probable I would say.
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