Anyone seen one of these? "toy boiler / engine"

[JKWidener]

Picked this up today. Has anyone seen anything like this before?

[Ed Radtke]

Hey J K,where do you shop to get these deals every day?:D

[Junkologist]

Ed,
I was thinking the same thing!!

[JKWidener]

On Ebay......

[Kevin Kusel]

Nice find
KK

[OTTO-Sawyer]

I've seen a couple similar to that, but looking at the plumbing, I'm guessing yours is a little bigger than the ones I saw.

What are the rough dimensions on it.....

[JKWidener]

Rough demensions are 22 inches long by 24 inches tall. Boiler is about 8 inches wide.

[PTSideshow]

It is in the style of a Cretor's Vertical oscillator. Like the #6 and as many version's as different machine shops made them over the years. Cretors was known for buying them from anybody that they could get a good price on, their style of Peanut roasting engine.

Like most things at that time in history everybody and their brother was making the peanut/popcorn roasters to sell. Advance, Air-Popt, Bartholomew, Burch, Cretors, Dunbar, Emerson Brothers, Excel, Holcomb & Hoke, Kingery, Long, Long-Eakin, Manley, Olsen, Star, and Stutsman Are some of the better known makers of the equipment.

I would be comfortable saying that you have is a working set up from a dental drill, sewing machine or laundry equipment. Some of the other popcorn makers, used clock work wind up motors.
Since at one time these engines were the fractional Horsepower motors of the day.

Almost every machine shop, in every city was making small steam engines for their customers. If you look in any old city directory you will find it overflowing with the claims for the best little work horse or some such.

There was a foundry that was making the casting and shipping them all over. That's way so many of these engines look a like, yet just a little bit off.

Because they were made by different shops and people. I will look in some of the books and see if I can find something close.
If you haven't ever been to the popcorn museum in Marion Ind they have a great display. And some very well done restored equipment. http://www.wyandotpopcornmus.com/antiques.htm

They are from the popcorn side of things since this is in the popcorn corn belt and a large snack food companies are and where based there.

[JKWidener]

Thanks a Bunch, this gives me some more to research on. The boiler looks to be factory made with the crimped on top and at the bottom is the band to hold it down, and it is riveted on. The threads on the top are soldered in. The guage dates it to the late 1800's or early 1900's, if its the original guage.

[PTSideshow]

Upon further looking over the photo's.

I think that it is a reassembled grouping, With as you said the feed into the engine and the connection to the boiler. Nickle plating was the norm around that time for BLING !
it looks to be shortened so the engine feed could be attached, to make a compact display.

Since most of the engines were separate from the boilers, by some distance or a more convenient location to add water,check water,operate the whistle and fuel the fire and other operations.

If it was on a peanut roaster popcorn wagon or counter unit. The boiler would have been close to the operator position and the engine out front were the customers could see the "flying iron triple nickle plated and polished!"

On most factory built toys the valves, gauges, and water glass
are scale down, some what mostly for cost and then the little hands using them.

The other thing is that galvanizing in the late 1850's to 90's was a light behind in the US. It was mostly used for steel elements. And up into the 1870's it was still being cold hand dipped.

The platform also has the look of a display piece. It has been repaired numerous times for leaks, bottom of the water column, water fill stopper, and the steam outlet may have been moved to its current position.

The factory would not have had who ever soldered it around long with all the excess (money) they left on the boiler material was money even more so then.

Plus it doesn't go with the rolled and soldered seams at the back and the top and bottom.

You didn't say much on the burner, but I would think from the look out it that it burns a liquid fuel of the naphtha,alcohol, benzine or white gas type. As it has no stack or chimney for the products of combustion. The cold dipped galvanizing of sheet metal would have been used at that time for the protection and extend life of the heating unit.

On the second picture the large diameter hole in the could be were the fuel delivery pipe went thru. The boiler hold down ring with the two bolts. Suggests that it was on some time of cart that would move.

The exhaust pipe coming out of the engine also has the look of home made as bending galvanized pipe is not the norm. The last thing in the photo's you provided is the fact that it looks like the mounting bolts come up with the bolt heads on the bottom and the nuts on top, very sloppy looking for a toy maker. Unless it is a section of all thread rod, then that is a give away as that would be extra work for the factory.

With everything I see it is more full size working engine and boiler then a toy. And could be a marriage of a engine from one thing to a boiler they had from something else.

[JKWidener]

There is a hole in the top of the boiler right in the middle and its about one inch wide. This hole goes all the way down to the "burner area" could this have been the chimney? In the attached photo, you can partially see the hole I'm talking of, behind the fill knob.

[JKWidener]

Also, there is a brass cup on a tee right where the supply pipe goes into the engine, would this cup have been used for steam oil? The lid unscrews. And the hold down bolts for the boiler are either copper or brass and are not of the all thread design. The base was made later in life for show purposes. Here is a photo of the cup im talking about.

[PTSideshow]

Yes the hole would have been for the chimney.
The all rod that I was talking about is the two with the square nuts on either side of the engine base in the one photo and not the boiler hold downs.And yes it is an oil cup or they can be used as a grease cup with both filled almost to the brims when you screw it down it pushes the grease out into the shaft. But in you case it is an oil cup









In using the oil cups they always had either cotton packing,wicking or felt either disks or coiled in them to let the oil drip into the part being lubricated. It would make the oil last longer.
With the grease cups we would give each one a turn once a shift. generally at the start of the shift.

glen

[PTSideshow]

Here are two more types
The oil one is bent at the attachment point.

The adjustment of the oil amount,is the knurled ring that controls the height that the valve shaft lifts up. When the top toggle is in the straight up and down position. When it is at 90' it is off.

The grease cup has a plunger that the handle turns and pushes the grease down the pipe.

glen

[Jasper Odell]

Can't see clearly from the pics, but does it have a drive pulley that could belt up to another object?

If no drive pulley, what did the engine do?

I have E. H. Sargent & Company, Chicago Scientific Laboratory Apparatus catalog from 1922. The various 'etchings' of scientific apparatus pieces sure do look exactly like the individual components of your engine & boiler.

I can not find the exact engine you have, BUT I have seen similar constructed (size, types) in other Lab Apparatus and School Supply catalogs of the 1907-1927 vintage.

Thus, I venture to say it could be an early school laboratory (physics, engineering, steam power-plant operations demonstrator) used to demonstrate principles to students.

I have seen about 5 of these early scientific/student demonstrators and your has all the characteristics.
The various experimental apparatus that these type steam engines powered was amazing. Pulleys, weights, stop watches, and riggings to show basic 'work' concepts; springs , rulers, and tension measuring devices; dynamos and motors to show electrical theory, etc, etc.

My guess is pure speculation based on the actual construction of your component pieces. The problem in getting a manufactures ID, is that the 'supplier' who actually built these small demos was often some obscure small machine shop that contract supplied to the lab/school distributor.