German Steam Toy Traction Engine
date: label: date made
content: early 20th century
notes: label: Description (Brief)
content: This toy steam traction engine was manufactured by an unknown German maker during the early 20th century. The traction engine consists of a black firebox below a boiler painted orange. The steam powers a horizontal slide valve engine attached to a flywheel that is chained to the tractor’s rear wheel.
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. This traction engine achieves motion by the same method.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany
label: place made
content: Germany
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.328932
label: catalog number
content: 328932
label: accession number
content: 278175
objectType: label: Object Name
content: toy, steam engine and boiler
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall - from catalog card: 11 1/2 in x 8 1/4 in; 29.21 cm x 20.955 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 11 3/4 in x 4 3/8 in x 8 1/8 in; 29.845 cm x 11.1125 cm x 20.6375 cm