I saw one sell on eBay recently, it is really a steam turbine, Interesting they made the boiler out of tin brake fluid can! It was considered the lowest priced American made steam engine....I wonder if you can still get brake fluid in a tin bottle?
The chimney is not fully seated square in this photo, but it is in good condition.
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I saw this one also on e-bay recently, I have seen others but don't have one myself. But surely it is a classic in toy steam history, I did not know that the boiler was made from an otherwise ordinary product, very clever and resourceful! Reminds me of some toy cannons made after WW2 from re-purposed surplus grenade parts (well, sort of!).
I seen one in person about a week ago at Charlie’s, they are quite small!
Yes, I have one. I bought it because I liked the lithography. I have not fired mine yet. Mine is missing the burner. It seems to have been available in the 1920s to 1940s. There are several videos of the engine on YouTube. Here's one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OlYiGbM8Ic
I have one also, but it is actually a sort of steam turbine with a faux piston and is about as minimalistic as they come. It does exhibit nice lithography however.
Are these very common? I wonder how many survived?
I have only seen the one, stumbled across it on eBay. Someone else may know if they where produced in significant numbers?
Interesting there is NO safety valve, it is just a small tube Soldered into cap, this is vented to atmosphere and becomes a "steam jet" to run the turbine.
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I can imagine that a lot of them must have rusted out and ended up being tossed.
No whizzer here but i have elcheapo New Zealand copy ( cough cough )
It is called “Turbo Jet “ but the name is about as honest as a Politician.
Cheers
Dennis
An example of both the Whizzer and the Turbo-Jet here; the Wizzer is without the electrical element which in this cheap machine could be more of a hazard than a help.
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I have never seen a Turbo-jet, thanks for posting the photo.
It occurs to me that it would be very easy to make a homemade whizzer, Amazon has 16 oz tins, but I suspect the whizzer used an 8 or 12 oz. Also from the Amazon reviews the tin plate was very thin, so if you find an old brake fluid tin in good condition, it may be a better starting point.
Vestil BTL-MT-16 Tin-Plated Steel Round Metal Bottle with Screw On Cap, 16 oz Capacity, Silver
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Here is an old wrapper from a "Zero" candy bar. If you sent in ten wrappers, and fifteen cents, you would receive "a real steam engine that runs".
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Never seen that ad before, that is so cool...
Thanks for sharing!