German Toy Steam Engine: Museum Object and Cultural History

The object in the museum catalogue

This toy steam engine was made by an unknown German company during the early 20th century. The toy consists of a horizontal boiler with chimney on a simulated brickwork firebox. The horizontal slide valve engine powers a flywheel with a centrifugal flyball governor. The boiler and engine are mounted on a cast iron plate.

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.

Materials, dates and provenance

• date made: early 20th century
• Object Name: toy, steam engine and boiler
• Physical Description: tinplate (overall material)
• Physical Description: iron (castings material)
• Physical Description: nickel plated (fittings material)
• Measurements: overall: 9 1/2 in x 15 in x 13 in; 24.13 cm x 38.1 cm x 33.02 cm
• Measurements: smokestack: 11 1/2 in x 1 1/8 in; 29.21 cm x 2.8575 cm
• place made: Germany
• ID Number: MC.322908
• catalog number: 322908
• accession number: 220719
• Credit Line: Gift of Mr. August Mencken
• Data Source: National Museum of American History

Sources and reuse

Catalogue descriptions and facts adapted from National Museum of American History through the Smithsonian's official Open Access dataset. This record explicitly marks its metadata CC0 1.0; formatting and selection have been changed.