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

Jim...nice video.  Everything is shipshape!

So, after reading this thread I had to get mine
out for a run.  It does have a number, 10522, embossed
on the red base under the heat transfer pipe.  One
other note.  Mine has only slotted-head screws while
the one in the video has phillips-head screws.  Is it
possible to date these engines?

Happy runner,
Wayne

A precise date, no not really, but within a range of dates yes. The most important things to look for are the logo as cast into the underside of the base, spacers between the base and frame, certain "features" with the way the railings terminate, which may or may not be date related, but could be. Other features that might enter into the mix include threaded hole in the inner chimney boss and vent slot in the rear end of the fuel well, along with some variations in the wick holder spud.

It will take a greater sampling to be at all definitive of some of these features, as to whether or not they are truly pattern change thru time or simply variations in individual production batches or workers style?

I did a semi-serious study of this stuff several years back, and forget now most of the details and determinations, but somewhere I have most of it written down, so with any luck it is not truly lost ... yet.

BTW, I believe your stamped number is the second highest that I have record of, with 14,045 being the highest in my collection and 274 being the lowest. I'll have to reference my previous research to see if there are records of higher or lower numbers seen elsewhere, such as on evilbay. I seem to recall having seen one somewhere in the 20k range, but my recall isn't what it used to be.

The serially numbered Solar #1 engines originally came with a same numbered book by Andy Ross, titled "Stirling Cycle Engines", but thru the years it seems that most of the books have gotten separated from their engines, so finding the matching pair is sort of a bonus! You can still buy the book from PM Research, and it is worth having in my opinion, but it was only the early years from Solar Engines of Phoenix Az that the matching numbered engines and books came from.

I would suggest that your engine in the 10k number range most likely came from the very late 1970's, almost certainly before 1980 or 1981.