This toy steam traction engine was manufactured by an unknown German maker during the early 20th century. The traction engine consists of a silver firebox below a boiler painted green. The steam powers a horizontal slide valve engine attached to a flywheel that is chained to the tractor’s rear wheel.
Live steam toys enjoyed a period of popularity from the 1880s until the 1930s. The miniature steam engines were marketed as both toys and instructive devices that mimicked full-scale steam-powered machines and allowed every boy and girl to be their own engineer. In toy steam engines, a heating source is introduced into the firebox below the boiler (early toys used lit wicks fueled by denatured alcohol, later toys used electricity) which heated the water to produce the steam pressure that ran the engine.This traction engine achieves motion by a similar method of steam power.
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