# Can Anyone Identify This Steam Engine?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-steam-engine/103031>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 11, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-steam-engine/103031 "2002-04-11T14:19:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-steam-engine/103031/1 "2002-04-11T14:19:45Z")

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This was posted on another message board I occasionally post to and no one there had any idea, so I figured that the folks here might have some idea. You can see a picture of it [here](http://bbs.homeshopmachinist.net//Forum1/HTML/000593.html). Anyone know?

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**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-steam-engine/103031/2 "2002-04-11T15:20:13Z")

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Just an educated guess: Could it be a watchmakers lathe driven by a small vertical stream engine? This one is similar, and was used to drive a variety of such tools ([link](http://www.campbelltools.com/model4.html))

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**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-identify-this-steam-engine/103031/3 "2002-04-11T15:33:17Z")

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BTW ‘Hitchcock’ could identify one of several iron and casting companies at the turn of the century. Unfortunately the W.F. initials don’t seem to identify a particular one.