Educational Model of a Walking Beam Steam Engine – ca 1853
date: label: date made
content: ca 1853
notes: label: Description
content: This is a demonstration model of a walking beam steam engine. A key feature of the model is its ability to demonstrate the complex mechanism controlling the valves which fed pressurized steam to the engine. That mechanism is quite similar to the design contained in United States Patent Number 9,582 awarded on February 15, 1853 to Horatio Allen and D.G. Wells. The patent is titled “Adjustable Cut-Off Gearing for Poppet-Valve Engines.”
label: Description
content: To allow the students to visualize operation of the engine model, a hand crank turns the crankshaft which in turn causes all the parts of the engine to move as if it were operating. The students were then able to see the details of the timing and control of the valve mechanisms.
label: Description
content: Mr. Allen was an engineer of significant accomplishment working on locomotives, steamships, bridges and tunnels. He became President of the New York Novelty Iron Works in 1842, and his early patent design for valve gear was used in the engine built by that company for the steamship Adriatic. Novelty Iron Works continued to make engines for many steamships through the Civil War years.
label: Description
content: The model is constructed of metal and wood frames and mounted on a large wood base. All of the key elements of the Allen and Wells valve gear patent are illustrated by the model. A full description of the workings of the valves and diagrams showing the complete design of the patent can be found in the patent document online at the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, www.uspto.gov.
topic: label: Subject
content: Model
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
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1984.0018.01
label: accession number
content: 1984.0018
label: catalog number
content: 1984.0018
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Engine, Steam
label: Object Name
content: engine model, steam
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 34 1/4 in x 32 1/2 in x 13 7/8 in; 86.995 cm x 82.55 cm x 35.2425 cm