Ernst Plank Toy Steam Engine
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This toy steam engine was built by the Ernst Plank Company of Nuremburg, Germany, during the late 19th or early 20th century. The toy consists of a black firebox below a horizontal boiler that powers a horizontal slide valve engine that is connected to two flywheels.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Ernst Plank founded his company in Nuremburg, Germany in 1866. The company was well known for manufacturing a variety of metal toys like steam locomotives, stationary steam engines, early photography equipment, and magic lanterns until its dissolution in 1935.
label: Description (Brief)
content: Live steam toys enjoyed a period of popularity from the 1880s until the 1930s. The miniature steam engines were marketed as both toys and instructive devices that mimicked full-scale steam-powered machines and allowed every boy and girl to be their own engineer. In toy steam engines, a heating source is introduced into the firebox below the boiler (early toys used lit wicks fueled by denatured alcohol, later toys used electricity) which heated the water to produce the steam pressure that ran the engine. A variety of accessories could be powered by the engine; attachments included windmills, pumps, grinders, and electric lights.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Bavaria, Nuremberg
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Mechanical and Civil Engineering
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content: Family & Social Life
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content: Engineering, Building, and Architecture
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content: Engineering Steam Toys and Models
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: Maass, Eleanor A.. Greville Bathe's "Theatre of Machines": The Evolution of a Scholar and His Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Bequest of the Estate of Greville I. Bathe
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MC.329005
label: catalog number
content: 329005
label: accession number
content: 278175
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toy, steam engine and boiler
label: Object Name
content: steam engine and boiler, toy
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: flywheels: 2 3/4 in; x 6.985 cm
label: Measurements
content: boiler: 3 in; x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in; 25.4 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 10 in x 9 in x 4 5/8 in; 25.4 cm x 22.86 cm x 11.7475 cm