Posted 1 year ago
hotairfan
(388 items)
This is a 1/4 scale model of a Caloric hot air pumping engine by the Bremen Co. of Bremen Ohio.
They were usually set up in the basement of the house or apartment to pump water from the well to the storage tank located on the roof. From there, the water is gravity fed to each apartment or to the bath and kitchen of a residential dwelling. The full sized Caloric Pumps were four times the size of this model which is about 18 " tall.
It is Stirling engine (or hot air engine) and is interesting to watch it pump the water out of the nozzle back to the reservoir, mainly because of the walking beam action of this model. They did make another style that had the flywheel in the center and two rods connected to it and this ran the pump. I, of course prefer the walking beam action.
The paint scheme is really not to my liking, but.... this is how the full-sized engines were painted. They don't offer this model engine kit anymore and they have become quite rare and desirable.