Bailey Fireplace Steam Jack
date: label: date made
content: 1793
notes: label: Description
content: The "Bailey's Patent" meat-cooking steam jack, from about 1795, is an ingenious spit-turning device for a wood-fired hearth. It uses a simple impulse-type steam turbine, using heat from a domestic firepit. This may well be the earliest known non-industrial surviving example of steam-power technology.
label: Description
content: The cast-iron jack was placed near a hot cooking fire, causing water in the spherical boiler to boil into steam, which issued through a jet or nozzle. This stream of steam turned the notched turbine wheel or "runner," which is geared to the spit shaft, thus turning the meat.
label: Description
content: This novel device, with its limited supply of water, probably saw little actual service, since it would have been more troublesome to maintain than assigning a boy or girl to watch the meat in the fireplace and turn it occasionally. Perhaps Mr. Bailey, the British inventor, was a bachelor.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
topic: label: Subject
content: Engineering
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Dr. John P. Remensnyder, Doris R. Ballantyne, Boston, MA
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1981.0989.01
label: accession number
content: 1981.0989
label: catalog number
content: 1981.0989.01
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Steam Jack
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: cast iron (part material)
label: Physical Description
content: brass (part material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 14 1/2 in x 15 3/4 in x 10 1/2 in; 36.83 cm x 40.005 cm x 26.67 cm