Help id engine?

[flyingtractors1]

Hi all. I acquired this steam engine sometime ago and was told that it was salvaged from an old mine in Colorado. It has no markings that I can find but is two cylinder (one larger than the other) and may be missing some linkage parts. Can't find anything like on the net. I'd appreciate any help. Ralph

 

[gbritnell]

It sure looks like a homemade engine combination. They are 2 completely different engines with 2 completely different valve gears but with a common crankshaft. I can't even imagine what the motivation behind this would have been. It's kind of neat looking having never seen anything like it but as far as I.D.ing you're on your own there.
gbritnell

 

[flyingtractors1]

Yea, the two cylinders look completely different, but the crank discs and con rods are identical. The center lever appears to reverse and forward both cylinders, but it still appears to be two engines ganged together. Thanks for your thoughts. I'll keep trying to id, and when / if I get it running will post a video. Ralph

 

[krv3000]

Hi well this is just my tack on the set up the older engine is the one with the lest bolts on the valve chest cover plat looking at the pics i wood say that engine has bin put on as a replasment

 

[flyingtractors1]

That makes sense and would account for the other mechanisms being identical and for what appears to be some missing linkage. Thanks for your observation. Ralph

 

[ShopShoe]

Just curious. Was it used with steam or compressed air? I have visited several old mines where compressed air was used before or at the same time as electricity. Although the pressures I have been told were used would scare the heck out of me with the flared tubing connections.

I agree with krv3000 that it looks like someone jury-rigged a replacement.

--ShopShoe

 

[flyingtractors1]

Thanks ShopShoe. I will take your thoughts to heart. I really don't know how it was used, but it seems that the tubing was also rigged along with some of the linkage. Maybe I can make two engines out of it - or ruin it totally. Playing with it some may reveal something. Ralph

 

[AlanHaisley]

It looks like it is some kind of self-starter where one cylinder/piston assembly got damaged and was replaced. Perhaps it was mounted on a shaft wall and used to raise and lower a couple of buckets. If the reversing lever has something like a center off position it could have been controlled by means of a couple of lines at the bottom of the shaft and used to run something (lunch?) up and down from below.

The pulley and the crank mounts don't appear substantial enough to lift anything like a miner's weight but it could have been handy to have available down below for something.

Or it could be an air powered closeline motor :big:

 

[cfellows]

It's a perpetual motion machine! The smaller side is a steam engine and the larger side is a compressor. You start it by hand, then the compressor forces air into the steam engine causing the engine to keep turning, which in turn makes the compressor turn. The compressor side is bigger so it puts out a larger volume of air than the steam engine side to overcome frictional and heat losses.

Hope you don't mind a little humor...

chuck

 

[miner49r]

Sorry Ralph. Can't help you with indetification of your engine.

But Chuck! I almost lost all respect for you when I read the first sentence of your reply. ;D
Alan

 

[flyingtractors1]

Yea guys; it's anybody's guess, and we might as well have a little fun about it. I'm not sure how to approach it - except with a grin, but I hope to get it running. Maybe that big cylinder can generate enough spare pressure to run some of my other engines. Ya think, Chuck? Then we can call it a perpetual plus machine. That's a new concept; we may just be on to something here. Ralph

 

[joe d]

Well.... I have no idea what make it is either, but I think you
should really get to work on getting it running...

just to see if it still will produce those greenbacks like the
one laying on the base woohoo1

You're RICH! Just don't tell the US Treasury, they don't have much
sense of humour....

Joe

 

[Kaleb]

Actually, two cylinders of unequal size means you could convert it into a compound engine.

 

[flyingtractors1]

Well Kaleb, I'm not sure what it was when I found it nor what it will become, but right now it's a confounded engine and a compound question. Rof} Ralph