Mill engine identity of

[chester]

[steam4ian]

G'day Chester

It look to me like the eccentric rod to the bottom of the link is missing although the cheeks of the yoke are still on the link. The"spare" eccentric and half a strap are a bit of a clue.

IMHO the engine is worth restoring, that cross head and slide bar is a treat; also wear marks on the slide bar and the link look like it has run.

Note the table mounting, little stubby legs, I have seem wood cut adverts in old magazines to portable engines for "home"use. It could be very educational to establish the provenance of the engine.

Regards and good luck
Ian

[alanstepney]

I would certainly agree that restoring it is worthwhile.

In doing so, I would suggest you make as few changes as possible, preferably none, in case it turns out to be historically significant.

At the same time I would see if you can get any further clues about its origin or history.

I am sure that members here will soon mention if they come across anything that resembles it or gives any clues to its identity.

[circlip]

Just been skimming some ME's that I've been given and on page 688 of issue June 1st 79, is a picture of a mystery engine which
has a boss on top of the cylinder like the one in these photo's, suggestion is it's for a lubricator? Perhaps someone with a later
edition can look in the Post bag section to see if it was identified.The missing link rod must have had one heck of a crank in it.

[steam4ian]

G'day Cir Ian

I think you are right regarding the lubricator.

We have a small, but old, 1892 engine in our operating collection at SASMEE. It is a vertical launch engine about 2" by 21/2" stroke, it is reversible and was used to power a small boat on the River Murray.

The cylinder lubricator is a funnel shaped device on the cylinder head with an isolation cock. To lube the cylinder you shut off steam (important) and drip steam oil into the cup, you turn the engine over until you get to TDC and then open the cock, the oil is sucked in on the down stroke.

Some of the models in our display have a similar lubricator except that is in in the steam chest

My guess is that the mystery engine had a similar simple lubrication device.

Regards
Ian

[alanstepney]

I have just had a quick look at some photos, extracted from the Engineerium auction.

There are three engines there that have some of the characteristics of this model.
Unfortunately I dont have copies of all the engines that were there, so if anyone does have a copy of the auction catalogue, has copies of the photos taken off-line, or has the recently piblished book of the auction, could that have a look and see what is similar to this one.

Later today I will post pictures of the ones I think share common features with this, so everyone else can express an opinion.

[chester]

Hello, thank you all for your comments i have had a play with the camera and managed to photo one of the screws against the thread gauge and it come's up at .132inches and .6mm tpi.

[chester]

[alanstepney]

5BA is 0.126 dia, whilst 4 BA is 0.142 dia.
5BA is 0.59mm pitch, 4BA is 0.65mm pitch.

Around that size is 6-40 ASME, which is 0.138" and 0.635mm
M3.5, which is 0.138" & 0.6mm

As bolts etc are often not exact to the listed dimensions, there is still a choice.

If it is BA, then it must date from after 1904.
(It might possibly be Thury, upon which BA was based, and in that case, could be any age since around the 1850's)

If it is metric, then it must have originated abroad.
Any time prior to WW2, it is extremely unlikely that any UK model would have used metric.
Even then, you would need to ask "which metric" as there were several different ones used in different European countries.

I will post some photos of engines with similar characteristics this week.

[alanstepney]

Two engines from the Brighton Engineerium, that have some features of this one.


A model of a horizontal mill engine, built from Lucas Davies parts by David Kirkaldy (1820-1897). Height 8.5?(216mm) Width 19?(483mm)




A late 19th century small full size horizontal steam engine built in St Austell, circa 1910.


The cylinder is 1.75? bore x 4? stroke Height 11.5?(293mm) Width 25?(635mm)

[chester]

Hello everybody i started to strip the cylinder and the piston measures 1.373inches and a groove .050 deep and .100 wide, the piston rod is .234inches or 6mm with a 1/4x20 whit thread which is very flat topped which i tried to show in the photo.In the other photo the end plate the arrow shows a hole tapped 3ba and the other end plate is the same.The two bosses on the steam chest are tapped 1/4 whit but i cannot find anything in my collection of bolts or taps to match the boss on the cylinder who's core diameter is about.175 or 4.5mm.

[chester]

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[chester]

[jgb7573]

Those 3BA holes in the end plates are probably for cylinder drain cocks, or pressure relief valves.
I suspect the 'lubricator' point in the middle top of the cyulinder is for an old-fashioned tallow cup. As has been described above, it is a cup to hold the lubricant with a tap which is opened to allow the lubricant to flow into the cylinder. Tallow cups were very common on steam cylinders, especially those which were not constantly in use (as you had to turn the steam off to lubricate). The heat from the cylinder melted the tallow.