Carette Steam Engines And Their Accessories

Saturday, March 24, 2018
Sunny with Cloudy Periods
3 C  37.4 F

Carette Steam Engines 

and Their Accessories

Noel

Barrett

Please click here to visit these fine American auctioneers

One of the more interesting toys of the Early 20th century were the steam engines.  These machines were miniature reproductions of life-size steam engines miniatured for children to play with. However, these machines had to be supervised by parents as they were very hot when operated, and  ran on alcohol as a fuel.

Georges Carette was one of the best known manufacturers of these toys. Not only were there small steam engines, but there were accessories to have the engine run them.

The toy steam engine consisted of a fuel source, which heated up air to run a piston, that would turn a flywheel. Attached to the flywheel was a metal cord that ran up to a driving pulley wheel, which also had working driving pulleys. The last-mentioned pulleys would then attach to toy accessories that also had drive pulleys that ran theses accessories.

 Drive pulleys that you see below, could attach to small men characters that did assorted "jobs" that you will see later on. These pulleys could be single or in multiples as the sketches below illustrate.

Below are working models of assorted machine shop machines. 
These are without people. 

Below are working shop machines with people.

Each toy had a driving pulley wheel that would attach to the 

driving pulley wheel of the steam engine.

Below, the scan page illustrates many people operating different machines.

Each machine has its' own driving pulley wheel in front.

The page below illustrates even more complex and sophisticated machines.

 Here's an actual toy machine from the Pook & Pook / Noel Barrett auction.

There are 2 workers hammering a piece of iron. The driving pulley can be seen in front, 

attached beside the anvil.

One is chopping a block of wood, while the left person is a locksmith filing something. 

The models could be anywhere from 3"-5" tall (7.6 cm - 12.6 cm)

Below are 4 machinists working at the same time. You can clearly see the 4driving pulleys that are attached to the driving pulleys of the actual machines that the workers are at.

 The larger driving pulley to the extreme left and the largest is the master driving pulley,. That pulley would be attached to the steam engine.

Finally, a pair of riders on horses. You can see the large red driving pulley

at the left in the photo.

I'm sure that many of the steam engines found at auction might still be operable and could attach to the people working models that you saw above. Of course, you'd have to be very careful operating these machines, and you should be taking these machines outdoors for safety purposes. 
Once the driving pulleys of the steam engine and small toys were attached, you could see a miniature group of tradesmen plying their trades.

There are still today manufacturers of miniature steam engines. If you type in miniature steam engines or toy steam engines, you will come across the brand names of  the manufacturers - Wilesco, Mamod, and Jensen. 

Even today, these miniature models are still popular!

Thanks for visiting,
and as always
Have a great part 
of the day or evening.

Stacey Bindman
toysearcher@gmail.com