Object Details
- Description (Brief)
- This toy steam engine is a Weeden model number 20, manufactured from around 1894 until 1940. The boiler is stamped with “Big Giant,” which is the version that was included as a prize to subscribers of Youth’s Companion magazine. The brass base of the engine is a fuel reservoir with protruding wick, and was made to burn either petroleum oil (kerosene) or alcohol. The brass boiler comes with a sight glass, and powers a vertical slide valve engine attached to a flywheel.
- The Weeden Manufacturing Company was founded in New Bedford, Massachusetts by William M. Weeden in the early 1880s, originally producing a variety of tinplate household items. In 1884 it introduced the Weeden No. 1 Steam engine as “a new and great premium for boys” who were subscribers to the Youth’s Companion magazine. Weeden made over a hundred different models of toy steam engines until the company ceased operations in 1952.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Credit Line
- Bequest of the Estate of Greville I. Bathe
- ca 1900
- ID Number
- MC.328947
- catalog number
- 328947
- accession number
- 278175
- Object Name
- toy, steam engine and boiler
- Physical Description
- brass (overall material)
- tin (base material)
- Measurements
- overall - from catalog card: 10 1/2 in x 4 3/8 in; 26.67 cm x 11.1125 cm
- flywheel - from catalog card: 2 7/8 in; x 7.3025 cm
- overall: 10 3/4 in x 5 in x 4 1/4 in; 27.305 cm x 12.7 cm x 10.795 cm
- Related Publication
- Maass, Eleanor A.. Greville Bathe's "Theatre of Machines": The Evolution of a Scholar and His Collection
- See more items in
- Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- Family & Social Life
- Engineering, Building, and Architecture
- Engineering Steam Toys and Models
- National Museum of American History
- Record ID
- nmah_847045
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746a6-8f68-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
