High-speed filming has been used to investigate the process of nucleate boiling of emulsions with a low boiling disperse phase on a platinum wire 0.10 mm in diameter. Investigations have been conducted on an emulsion with which a disperse phase and a dispersion medium participate in boiling, and on an emulsion with which only a disperse phase boils. Vaporization at the boiling of an n-pentane/water and an n-pentane/glycerine emulsion at the surface of a wire has been studied. The boiling of disperse phase droplets in a thermal boundary layer by the mechanisms of heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation has been shown. A model of avalanche-like boiling of superheated disperse phase droplets in a thermal boundary layer has been checked. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.