This toy steam engine is a Weeden model number 20, manufactured by the Weeden Manufacturing Company of New Bedford, Massachusetts from around 1894 until 1940. The brass base of the engine is a fuel reservoir with protruding wick, and was made to burn either petroleum oil (kerosene) or alcohol. The brass boiler comes with a sight glass, and powers a vertical slide valve engine attached to a flywheel. This is the same model as object number MC*328947, except it lacks the “Big Giant” stamp on its boiler since it was not one of the engines included as a prize for subscribing to the Youth’s Companion magazine.
The Weeden Manufacturing Company was founded in New Bedford, Massachusetts by William M. Weeden in the early 1880s, originally producing a variety of tinplate household items. In 1884 it introduced the Weeden No. 1 Steam engine as “a new and great premium for boys” who were subscribers to the Youth’s Companion magazine. Weeden made over a hundred different models of toy steam engines until the company ceased operations in 1952.
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