Model of a J.W. Thompson "Buckeye" Steam Engine – ca 1875
date: label: date made
content: ca 1875
notes: label: Description
content: This is a model of the widely used and very successful "Buckeye" engine developed by J. W. Thompson and Nathan Hunt about 1875. It was one of the first of the high-speed, variable cut-off ("auto-matic") engines. The model has cut away sections to show the inner details of the steam cylinder and valve mechanism. The valve is a hollow-piston slide valve, taking steam at the center and passing it through the hollow center of the valve to ports through the walls of the valve. A sleeve like cut-off valve operates within the main valve to close the ports. The main valve is operated by a fixed eccentric on the crankshaft and the cut-off valve by a shifting eccentric, the position of which is varied by a centrifugal governor of the Thompson and Hunt type. In the image this governor is seen within the flywheel on the right. It is based on Thompson’s Patent Number 162,715 of April 27, 1875. The fixed eccentric drives the valve via the upper pushrod, and the variable, or shifting, eccentric operates the lower pushrod to control the cut off valve.
place: label: place made
content: United States: Ohio
topic: label: Subject
content: Steam Engines
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
label: See more items in
content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
label: Exhibition
content: Power Machinery
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Frank A. Taylor. Catalog of the Mechanical Collections of the Division of Engineering United States National Museum, Bulletin 173
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of Mr. N. C. Hunt, Salem, Ohio
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.309645
label: catalog number
content: 309645
label: accession number
content: 106,567
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Engine, Steam
label: Object Name
content: engine, steam, buckeye, thompson, ca. 1875
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 20 in x 8 in; x 50.8 cm x 20.32 cm