Montville, CT
Over the last year and a half or so, I've been watching the construction of a new antiques mall located in Montville, CT, right next to the Nature's Art attraction, home of the T-Rex which has been featured prominently in this blog. Now the mall is complete and is decorated outside with a couple of antique engines, including this Frick Eclipse Steam Engine. The Frick Co was founded in 1873 by George Frick who developed a small steam engine suitable for use on a farm. For their time, the engine pictured here was considered to be "portable" in that it could be pulled by horses to any location which needed power. The Frick Co also produced steam tractors. Soon the company found out that their steam engines were ideally suited to drive ammonia compressors, which were needed by the refrigeration industry. They eventually became a company known for their refrigeration units. Today the company survives as a part of the larger Johnson Controls Co, still making large refrigeration units. I'm pretty sure their modern compressors don't rely on steam power.
Thats a pretty cool Loco engine there. Did you know in the town i live in, in the UK was build the worlds first ever steam powered loco by a chap called Richard Trevithick. you can read more on the following link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.alangeorge.co.uk/PenydarrenLocomotive.htm
Ed, that's a cool steam engine. Thanks for posting your photos and the history.
ReplyDeleteInteresting one about the steam portable engines!
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