Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

What year did Empire start?

Note: All information has been taken from Don Stinson's Book on the Metal Ware Corporation and its related companies.

It's a complicated answer, but the earliest engines were from 1918. 

What eventually became known as the Empire Line of Steam Toys produced by Metal Ware Corporation is an amalgamation of three companies: The D.C. Hughes & Company (aka The Elektro Mfg. Co.); Harvey Electric Co. (aka the Hughes Company) and Metal Ware Corporation.

The D.C. Hughes & Company of Chicago Illinois (later renamed "The Elektro Mfg. Co.") began manufacturing electrical toys about 1918.  They only made two steam models for production: a Cast Iron Base (Black), and, then to reduce manufacturing costs. they later switched to a pressed steal base (initially Black but some later models were Red). I have never seen a Red one. They also produced a prototype, the Toy Elektro Twin Cylinder, and there are only two known examples: mine and one owned by Dick Cutler.

Metal Ware was founded in 1920 in Two Rivers, Wisconsin to produce kitchen utensils (which they still produce today).

Harvey Electric Co. (also known as the Hughes Company) was founded in Chicago, Illinois around 1920.  They initially produced the Empire/Empco line of Steam Toys.

In the early 1920's, Metal Ware, looking to expand, acquired the Empire/Empco Electric toy line from Harvey Electric Co. Harvey at some prior point bought the rights to the D.C. Hughes Elektro Toy line, but the records have been lost.

So, that's why you see lots of different logos on Empire Steam Engines (e.g. Empire; EMPCO; Elektro; Harvey; DC Hughes; and Raven Toy Works), and, to complicate matters further, they l also licensed the line to others including Bing; Chicago Apparatus Co.; Central Scientific Co. and Great Northern Mfg. Co.).

From 1941-1945, the Metal Ware produced no Steam Toys shifting its production to support the war effort.

By the late 1950's, Metal Ware was down to producing only the No. 43 Steam Engine and the No. 56 Windmill Accessory.

Toy Production completely ceased in 1967.