Frisbie Engine

While I was looking through one of those Shire Albums #137, titled Toy Steam Engines, printed in England I noticed a rather simple little engine, that had a unique "patented" valve mechanism. The cylinder is stationary and it has a wobble valve plate actuated by a lever connected to the connecting rod. They were built in Connecticut around 1871. The name Frisbie comes from the inventor. He had invented a number of different toys and things.

It intrigued me enough that I made patterns, and castings and built one. The steam pressure gets up to the cylinder through drilled passages in the support bracket.

Here is a picture of my replica. I have never actually fired it, but I have run it on compressed air and it runs beautifully. Other pictures that I have since seen show an alcohol lamp type burner under the boiler.

After completing the model I found that they also made a walking beam version. The above image was scanned from a full page picture in a book about toys. I have not got around to building one of these yet.
Birk