For now sending the first of 5 photos of a very odd engine that came out of an old "manor house" in England, that was shortly going to be either restored, or demolished (I can't recall which, exactly). It was made to turn a shaft over a fire to cook meat (= a barbecue rotisserie).
"Spitjack engines" had already been in wide use far before the age of steam, and most were powered by either spring-driven clockwork mechanisms, or by gravity, via counter-weights (among other variations, including some powered only by the smoke from the cooking fire, somehow!).
This probably dates squarely from the 1890s, the pinnacle of the economic height of Brittania. Steam was king, and just like today, everyone wanted the latest high-tech gadgets, especially the Lord of the Manor. That apparently even extended to kitchen equipment - but this thing was probably fiddly, inefficient, and highly impratical, at best. I am guessing that whatever small number were made saw little use (or sales), and most disappeared into the scrap drives of first WW1, then WW2.
Stay tuned for additional photos, etc.
Part 2:
The big square hole in the tank was where the engine was mounted up on an iron shaft; also mounted under the tank on the same shaft was a tray that burned wood or coal to heat the tank (presumably aided by the heat of the cook fire below). Manor house fireplaces were huge. The shaft and tray were probably included with the purchase of the engine. The blowoff valve consists of a simple gravity plug. More photos & notes later.
I welcome any comments on this - someone out there may know that it is in fact something else; maybe it's from a textile mill, maybe its a sump pump! Whatever, I will be just as interested!
Part 3 tomorrow evening.
A very interesting historical piece Greg.
Thanks for sharing it here.
Unfortunately, I can’t add anything on the history of this innovation.
Have you run it on Air or Steam?
Never heard of these before, that is so cool...
What a fine item to have in your collection, thanks for sharing with us Greg !
Very amazing.
Is there maker marks?
Looks interesting, whatever it is....
I like Iit as well , never heard of it before now...but makes plenty of sense.
I'm with the rest, very interesting, and haven't seen before
Part 3
Thanks for the comments and compliments - Here posting another photo, and I have two more also.
The previous owner said that he had run the engine on air, but it still needs some adjustments which I have not gotten around to yet. I hope to maybe even get it going on steam in the Spring, after I sort out a testing bed, and for that I will need to work oudoors with it, no safe place to try inside the house (no fireplace!).
I have only seen one other example, and it was also being sold out of England. The other one had the same basic tank, but most of the engine itself was a much more modern replacement. So far I have been unable to find any photos at all of any types of steam spitjack engines, although there are some brief mentions of them in accounts of spitjacks in general. In contrast, there are heaping piles of illustrations and accounts of the earlier mechanical spitjack engines.
Will follow up with the remaining photos.
4th photo here
I still wonder how that little gravity plug gets the job done, looking forward to giving it a try!
Last photo - note the concave base, the fire burned on a tray below to heat the tank in operation.
Forgot to add that it weighs about 16 pounds.
And so far, I have seen no markings.