THE BOILER MAN.

One thing that distinguishes Henry Gifford's New York City Boiler Tour is the fact that there are no boiler tours quite like it in New York City, not to mention anywhere else in the United States or, possibly, the world. Another is the singular passion for boilers that is exhibited by Henry Gifford, of Gifford Fuel Saving, Inc. Gifford came to boilers late in life, when he was twenty and had already worked as a bicycle mechanic, a window-gate welder, and a landlord. As a landlord, Gifford had calculated that the biggest variable in terms of expenses was the boiler. He observed that in the boiler arena there seemed to be what he called a "knowledge vacuum,"and he set out to fill it. "I miss having buildings,"Henry, who is now forty-two, said the other day, as his tour was about to kick off. "But I would have gotten tired of it by now, and I would have missed all the fun I've had with boilers.”

Not surprisingly, some of the forty-one people who signed up for this inaugural boiler tour did so as much to be with Henry as to see the boilers. Tim Baker, the managing editor of a mechanical-engineering magazine, flew in from Cleveland. "I mean, you can just sense the love that this guy has for boilers,"Baker said.

The three-day tour started early on a cold Thursday on the ground floor of a multifamily apartment building on East Fifth Street. Over coffee and bagels, Henry introduced people. "You know when you want to see what kind of an airflow you've got in a room, so you measure it with a blower door? Well, this guy makes them,"he said, pointing to Gary Nelson, who had flown in from Minnesota, and who was scanning the room with an infrared camera, searching for heat leakage. There was the usual run of boiler enthusiasts: architects, alternative-energy marketers, officials from the Building Performance Institute, and a landlord named Ralph, who looked like an old sailor.

Henry began with a lecture, accompanied by slides. In his view, the two most prominent New York City heat-related phenomena--open windows in overheated apartments, and clanking radiators--are prime examples of boiler ignorance and waste. To no one's surprise, Henry's talk went long.

When he was done, the tour group set out to look at some boilers. There was a quick stop at a building on Avenue C, to watch a boiler-related film, "Carmelita Tropicana: Your Kunst is Your Waffen,"starring Carmelita Tropicana, a superintendent/performance artist. That was followed by a lunch break at Katz's Delicatessen, on ...